#and so ive been playing fire emblem for hours and hours

[orcelito]

Oh. I think I'm depressed.

[kraviolis]

someone liked one of my TOH headcanon posts from earlier this year and it reminded me about the specific headcanons i have for exactly what types of games the hexsquad plays and how they play them.

luz is obv an RPG fantasy fan. anything with a juicy story and a character creator and complex lore she’ll love. she definitely plays series like elder scrolls and baldur’s gate and final fantasy. she also plays final fantasy 14 and has her character as the good witch luzura and she isnt good at playing it like an mmo is supposed to be played but she loves the story. when endwalker came out luz couldnt stop sobbing to the point that camila was actually worried about her. also enjoys roguelikes such as hades or binding of isaac even if she can only play for so long before getting too frustrated. she also 100% plays genshin impact and gets into arguments online with other genshin fans.

amity is a fighting game girl. she is highly competitive and practices combos with her eyes shut. she prefers the tekken series but when luz wants to play with her they play guilty gear bcus luz likes it’s art style the most. she also likes fantasy RPGs but is way more picky about which ones she plays. she likes fire emblem. she also plays ff14 with luz and is actually good at the game (she carries luz sometimes) but isnt a huge fan of MMOs. she also is the one in the friend group with the NASA ass PC rig with a custom case and the most organized wiring you’ve ever seen with the lcd screen on the liquid cooled cpu and the azura figurine inside the case. she also does custom wraps for all her consoles.

hunter likes games that are very much like, micromanagement sims. like civ5 or cities skylines or factorio (i dont know anything about it but ive been assured by my sister that hunter plays modded factorio) but he’s also a fan of like, old school FPS games like doom and half life. i can see him doing speedruns of those games. (also he 100% once got addicted to some game like fuckin. galactic pinball or something to the point where he was staying up all night and not sleeping so he could play more pinball. in order to get him to stop playing so much and actually get some sleep, gus used illusions to make hunter think he was hallucinating about pinball and scared him into not looking at a single screen or monitor for like three weeks.)

gus is a very chill gamer but he likes games that he can sink hours and hours into. instead of playing a wide variety of games he has a select few that he dedicates his time into learning every last mechanic, but there’s also some games he just plays casually. like with pokemon games he’ll put hundreds of hours into them and carefully curate his team and does like nuzlocke runs but when he plays on his and willow’s shared-custody new horizons island he’ll just walk around and catch bugs and shit and not really worry about upgrading his house and make matching fits with his favorite villager.

willow prefers cozy games, like slime rancher or stardew valley or the aforementioned shared new horizons island, but she’s also a fucking menace about them. like she goes HARD on the min-maxing and automation and shit. while gus is wandering around their island catching fish, willow’s busy rearranging her fully upgraded mansion up in the hills and harassing any villagers she doesnt like with nets and deciding what hybrids to plant in front of her bell trees (she only has bell trees for the aesthetic. gus isnt allowed to harvest them) she would also be running the most high profit slime ranch ever but the way she treats her slimes makes hunter upset whenever he sees her just fuckin throwing them off a cliff the second they arent useful to her anymore. (meanwhile hunter names each one of his slimes and always feeds them their favorite foods and cried over casey & beatrix)

vee enjoys survival/strategic horror games, like DBD, resident evil, deadspace, or even FNAF. she’s the type of person to see the goriest most violent death in a video game ever and just go “ew yucky” then carry on. masha and her are often playing DBD together while in a call and are the most annoying pair of suvivors ever. she also likes games such as original katamari and pikmin 1 and chulip. she's also the undefeated DDR champion of the friend group.

and of COURSE they all play video games together. they all have a terraria world they play on together where they all are focused on their own little projects while still working together and are slowly building up their own village/mansion/castle/fort but luz keeps rushing ahead of everyone just bcus she's so excited and she definitely somehow ends up summoning the wall of flesh accidentally

they DID have a modded minecraft world for a few months with both tech mods and magic mods but while hunter, amity, and vee all focused on their factories and computers and technology, gus, willow, and luz fucked around with all the crazy magic and accidentally found out by blowing up a factory. this is where heightened tension between the the warlocks & the scientists began. this spark eventually turned into a full fledged war that lasted two months before it ended in mutually assured destruction to the point where no one could actually load into the server without their game crashing.

bonus: camila isnt much of a gamer with one exception-- when she was in college manny introduced her to WoW and got her hooked. it was Their Game that they played together all the time. they made cosplays of their characters together. they had several dates in game. they optimized their characters to perfect compliment one another when they ran dungeons with their guild. even since manny passed camila still plays every so often and keeps in touch with their guild members. for the longest time luz has 0 idea that camila plays WoW at all and only finds out after the whole secret nerd confession.

[sollucets]

people i’d like to get to know better as tagged by @firelise (& actually @khaotunqs and @boozles also, actually. ahh!!) and answered belatedly 💜✨thank u 🥺💜

last song: it was HONEY by mamamoo solar. i love this song put it in your brain now. that said i havent been good about going to find new music much in 2024 im mostly just cycling my wrapped from last year :c feel free to recommend me things i trust in my mutuals

favorite color: im aware this is a ‘getting to know me’ tag game but come on. you guys know right. you know dont you. you know

currently watching: word of honor, half-rewatching msp to make an anniversary set soon. ive been not watching very much lately (mostly its give me 23.5 or give me death and i guess gmmtv chose death)

last movie: im a Very infrequent movie watcher. possibly the first spiderverse movie when i visited my brother in december

sweet, spicy or savoury: sweet! ✨

last thing you googled: boomerang movie because of camille’s original tagpost. it does look so fashion. before that i was looking up a toy train museum in the city. i am like this

relationship status: critical condition (no)

current obsession: word of honor, and for some reason ikesoren from fe9&10 are splitting brain real estate these days. (for some reason read: the fire emblem gacha stole my soul again. please dont follow my example. dont play mobile games. please its not too late for you)

selfie/another picture you took:

my car window after eight hours of the valentine’s day snowstorm on wednesday…. everything is all ice now

tag in @khaoray, @chickenstrangers, @khaotunq ? no pressure or worries. 💜

[sieglinde-freud]

6, 13 and 26? :)

OMGGG MAKER OF THE ASK GAME IN MY INBOX HI FAYEE <3 6 already answered soo

13. What do you like most about Fire Emblem?

i would love to lie to you all and say its the gameplay because im super smart and good at these games but if youve read like any of my posts it’s probably fairly obvious its the characters. these little guys make or break the game for me, and i think the fact that fire emblem has so many of them is what keeps me really into the series. theres just SO MANY of them, and i know thats a detractor to some people, but being able to pick out a handful of favs for each game is so fun to me. the fact that the cast changes for each game keeps it fresh i think. and while i do love the gameplay of the series, i think the characters help elevate that too. ive tried playing advanced wars and its a good game, pretty similar to fire emblem, but the same stakes just arent as present when im bossing around a bunch of guys who dont mean anything to me. i dont care. if random soldier in a tank goes down thats not really my problem, i’ll just get another one. but if someone like idk… stahl died during battle? yeah i have sully as a backup, but thats STAHL. theyre DIFFERENT even when they can do the exact same thing. liking characters gives you an incentive to keep them alive and help them grow, and the permadeath mechanic gives you an incentive to actually play well instead of relying on sacrifice strategies even if you know a replacement is coming. just good shit all around. and honestly? fire emblem casts are generally pretty likeable too, at least in my opinion. i could probably count on one hand all of the playable characters i genuinely have disdain for out of like the hundreds available. theyre all just so fun, even when theyre a bit more simple, or maybe even a little TOO complex for a game built around a support system. love em all. they are ALL my little guys :3

26. Come up with a pitch for a new FE title, no matter how silly it is!

i think ive made a post about this once but it still shakes around in my head every now and then. i have absolutely no idea for a mainline fire emblem game (well. yes i do. the idea is that i want vampires in there but thats all i got) but if i were in charge of making a silly little spin off title, i would make it a dating sim. but not just any dating sim: a roguelite dating sim. the idea is that you play as inigo/laslow and your goal is simply to go on ONE successful date. ONE. but for inigo, it’s not quite that easy. you have to go through a few different stages, first you have to get through asking someone out and having them say yes. then you have to get ready for the date. then, the date itself. and as you go through these stages, you can get a couple of boosts to help you out. for example, if you run into gerome, you can borrow his mask. this ups your “mystery” factor, but it decreases your ability to see properly, giving you the “klutz” status. you can bring along a wingman (cynthia, brady, saizo, owain probably?) but they have a set chance to steal your thunder at any time. you can get severa to ask you for advice, but if you’ve been playing bad she’ll turn you down and yell at you, decreasing your confidence. you can pick up olivia’s headband while getting ready, which would increase your confidence. just a bunch of silly bullshit that makes or breaks inigos ability to successfully pick up a date. if your date asks you questions you have 5 seconds to pick a socially acceptable answer. does your date like puns? if you picked up laurents glasses previously you might have a better time reading their expressions to tell. but if you picked up his hat, you look like a doofus and are locked into a harder difficulty automatically. average playtime to complete is 75 hours.

[cute-girls-from-vns-anime-manga]

What video games do you like to play?

Honestly Im a grab bag of a gamer!

I used to be massively into the souls games but after I played them too much I just cant seem to go back to them.

I absolutely love a good chill vibing game like Stardew Valley, Story of Seasons and Rune Factory, have frankly logged far far too many hours into Stardew as it is.

Then recently Ive been feeling the urge for some fast paced action so Ive been going through some older fps's like I just beat Blood on well done a few months back working my way through Amid Evil now, absolutely adore Ultrakill even though I am god awful at it and am not even good enough to beat the first Gabriel fight much less unlock the entire second act.

Of course if you want to count them and I most certainly do I am a visual novel addict, and if you dont think VN's are games go find a copy of Kamidori Alchemy Meister and get as addicted to that games tactical combat as I am! (Its a fire-emblem like only more high fantasy)

But the Majikoi series stands out above all the visual novels, hell Majikoi is so important and amazing to me Id put it in my top three favorite experiences Ive ever had from a piece of art!

Occasionally when the mood strikes me Ill boot up a good ole RPG obviously you have your OG classics like Chrono Trigger (Which I happen to have a SNES cart of) but newer classics that forgo the turn based combat systems as well like Ni no kuni!

As with all things however I have a pair of games that I play for comfort and never bore me or get stale, the first is Diablo 2, I began playing Diablo 2 when I was just six years old something about the game drew me in and has never let go the moment I first laid eyes on the rouge encampment an obsession was formed. During a move my dad lost his copy of Diablo 2 and I begged him to get me a new one, when my asshole abusive brother destroyed that copy I scrounged every penny I found on the street to buy it again, due to complicated circumstances ive lost or had my copy of Diablo 2 ruined I think about 6-8 times but when the Itch to play it comes from deep inside my skull I cannot refuse so Ive had to re-buy the damn thing that many times! I dont know how long Ive spent playing Diablo 2 but just a gut feeling says that it would have to be measured in YEARS.

The other Game is Terraria I bought Terraria on Steam day one, I remember watching the developers lets play back on youtube at the same time I was playing the game, Terraria does not have as much of a story in my life as Diablo 2 but since I bough it day one on steam 12 fucking years ago I actually do have my total collective play time

That's 3,204.4 hours thats more than double my next most played game on steam (Titan Quest at 1,417.8 hours CAN YA TELL I LOVE ARPG's?) that equates by the way to 133.5 days straight of just playing Terraria. No I do not have all the Achievements in Terraria I play games to have fun and escapism doing a checklist of things in a game isnt fun!

There are so many more games I adore but this is already too long!

[waywardsalt]

this has been a good year for new games for me, ironically bc i had a shit time with totk and was able to better recognize what i like. totk is a game i have not touched since beating it, while every other game i have played this year have be considerably better and just. idk good experiences

so some reflection on the games i played for the first time this year that i really liked!

i played fire emblem engage this year- i literally forgot that that happened this year, i've only been counting games since totk, and i've played some good fuckin games after totk, but i honestly had a good silly time with fe engage. the music is great, the story is a bit flat and hammy at times but was still engaging (hah) and i was pleasantly surprised by the development of the main character, and it was pretty hard even on an easy difficulty, which each map sometimes taking an hour to get through as the story progressed. plus i can't deny that the referneces to other fe games with the emblem rings was a cool selling point, i'm not too familiar with the other fe games and it was interesting to see some of the characters from them. loading into lucina's paralogue and instantly recognizing the map layout and music got to me pretty good as someone who was introduced into the series by awakening. it was great!

i played persona 5 royal after totk and. what a fucking palette cleanser it's one of the best games i have ever played and i've... somewhat liveblogged my first playthrough and snippets of my second, it's fantastic (not flawless tbf) and just a lot of fun. the music is great holy shit and it was also just a great story to experience, with some interesting messaging throughout with the confidant stuff and the things brought up by the third semester. i didn't even initally get persona 5 with the intention to play it myself, it was for my sibling, who played it once and put it down and hasn't touched it since while i picked it up on a whim and was hooked by the music and style and gameplay and... holy shit it's so good. i don't even mind okumura's palace too much.

i managed to get myself a copy of kid icarus uprising (and also got the guide book by accident, don't ask, it's helpful anyways), and... they sure did make a third person shooter on the 3ds and it sure does. Handle. in all honestly the controls are kind of a mess but the game feels really good to play when you get a handle on them, even if i keep accidentally sending pit falling to his death in the ground segments because just moving him is a bit rough. the game is also surprisingly hard, and i wouldn't just chalk it up to the controls, and the music (esp the tracks for the air segments and the way its timed to the game events... ugh) is fantastic, and what i've seen of the story and characters so far is charming! i have only gotten up to past chapter 9 out of... 30? because each chapter is fairly long and... those controls. it's great!

i also managed to get my hands on shin megami tensei iv! i first found it through the fantastic soundtrack, played the first through hours after it failing to boot a few times and getting fucking destroyed by the earliest enemies because holy shit this game will beat you into the ground if you try, and was like 'hm i wonder why they went with that specific sound for a lot of the ost' and then got to fucking tokyo and i. i do not know a lot abt smt iv's story and i'm grateful. getting to tokyo was a bit internal 'holy SHIT' moment and i am so desperate to figure out what the fuck is going on with this story and world it's really fascinating. i haven't progressed the story in a while even through i know where to go just because i'm trying to level flynn and my demons and do side quests because i am not going to underestimate any new encounter ever it's fantastic.

did i start playing clangen this year? i might have. it's good. it's fun. i've played it on voice call with my friend a few times. i'm currently hooked on starting with 1 apprentice and 1 kit like a lot of people are doing on here, building cool stories based on it. it's neat.

that's (probably) all of the new games i've played (and enjoyed) this year so far, but i found out that fallout: new vegas is ten fucking dollars on steam (20 with all of the dlc) and i might have to give that a shot after tracking down a bunch of mods to keep it from crashing, and just from what i've seen of people talking about it, it sounds like a game i really need to try either this year or sometime next year. i'm mostly still just floored that it's less than thirty dollars.

[the-grove]

It is funny on how much nostalgia can affect things.

Super smash brothers has to be one of my favorite game series. And its like for 3 reasons

1) i've always been terrible at fighting games, ive never had the finger dexterity to do what felt like to me, esoteric controls to do the cool stuff. And i never had imagine reflexes, so typical fighting games for me is putting so much effort in trying to do what feels like should be basic abilities that I can't even focus on my oppenent. In smash bros i if i want to make the fireball happen i just press B, which lets me attempt to get better reflexes and pay attention to my oppenent.

2) at my heart, i'm a nintendo fangirl. Not enough to dismiss controversies or criticisms of their games or practices. But since I was little, I always enjoyed the games and asthethics.

3) that commercia for the original game of people in the mascot costumes beating each other up to "happy together" drilled itself into my brain

But Smassh Bros is kind of at the end of the day Nintendo flexing and creating a game all about self refrence. And ive come to groan at that kind of thing, the Disney Movie Wish. Fire Emblem Engage, (and to a lesser extent Awakeing and Fates), and more that make their core conceipt a refrence to the media/franchise it is apart of, with no leg to stand on its own. Smash Bros is kind of that, but.. I like it because i spent hours as a kid playing it and it did.

And whaats funny is I don't even like smash bros the way most people like it. The biggestbcommunitys around it are competitive games, no items stuff like that. And i just independently loved those games, playing them with my siblings outside of any scene or anything like that. Perfering items and the like. Idk

Also im sorry for my phase where I called anything simillar to it a smash clone and dismissed them as cash grabs... some of them still feel that way but tbh kind of in the smae way that smash bros itself kind of is.

That being said if there are any smash bros esque games with original characters I would be interested in that.( idk if they have a genre name, platform fighters maybe?)

[koukoupepia]

path of radiance is like my favorite game ever i would love to know your feelings on it so far!!!

yippee well ive been wanting to play the tellius games for years but just didnt have the motivation to figure out dolphin and play them till now. the only other fe games ive played are awakening, echoes, and fates so i dont have much of an idea of what old fire emblem games are like so i can only compare them to the 3ds games. im partway through chapter 17 rn and i like the characters but my biggest complaints so far are that it feels really slow and the story takes a while to start picking up so the maps in the beginning are really boring. also i fucked up my supports bc i didnt look up how they worked in this game beforehand and just spoke to everybody, and locked ike out of any a-rank supports because i used up all his convos. since supports in the games ive played before have you able to support everyone available to a character. im playing on easy but im still struggling with dealing with permadeath because i dont want anyone to die so i will start a map over but because the gameplay is slow there have been a few maps that have taken me hours. anyway still having fun with it and they were so brave for making ike gay in 2006

[vr2]

i finally bought a switch last year and ive been slowly dipping my toes into game genres i never played before. ive listened to the ost for so many games but never actually played them. surprisingly, i sunk a couple of hundred hours in the new pokemon game and i really enjoyed it. it definitely felt like there was no story at all but i think the uk flavour and the gorgeous character designs sold it for me. i love the new pokemon art direction a lot and i havent played a pkmn game fully since platinum. i tentatively got splatoon thinking i wouldnt like it but it turns out shooting games are fun even if you can't aim. i use dualies only and i like the teleport things so much. its a gorgeous game as well, a very intricate and stylish world. ive recently gotten fire emblem and i binged a whole 5 hours straight yday as soon as i started it. i rmb watching the initial trailers for it and knowing i want blonde lockon stratos but im already agonising over every individual character T-t. i am not the most gamer of individuals but overall im in a good video games food coma. i cant blieve how much i am enjoying this!! im mad! why didnt i have the money for these things when i was a kid with infinite free time! i have to pace myself and i just wanna play!!!

[nicolewrites]

I beat Azure Moon. I beat Verdant Wind. I beat Crimson Flower. And, today, I beat Silver Snow.

...now what...

[orcelito]

TFW I realize I’m gonna be finishing my golden deer route Soon, which means I’ll be going into the black eagles. Soon.

Of course I plan to do the church route first but Still. I’m gonna be learning. Details.

[geminigeek]

E3 2021 (Updated!)

E3 2021 is less than a month away, and one thing I love is video game rumors, so here is a list of all the rumors and leaks I have found from the corners of the net! Nothing is confirmed, so take it as you will, but I think it's fun to dream of what could be! Starting with...

Nintendo:

- The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild sequel (big info drop, gameplay trailer, release window of spring 2022) UPDATE: Gameplay was shown, release year of 2022 is the goal, could be pushed into 2023

- Fire Emblem (an all new entry made by Intelligent Systems, or a remake of Genealogy of the Holy War) NOPE

- Donkey Kong (new game made by Mario Odyssey team) NOPE

- Splatoon 3 (new gameplay trailer) NOPE

- Bayonetta 3 (gameplay reveal, 2022 release) NOPE

- Mario Kart 9 (reveal) NOPE

- Metroid (new 2D game reveal) UPDATE: Announced as Metroid Dread, releasing on October 8th 2021!

- Super Mario Party 2 (reveal trailer) NOPE

- The Legend of Zelda (Switch ports of Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess) NOPE

- Radiant Historia (Switch port, sequel reveal) NOPE

- Ring Fit Adventure sequel (reveal) NOPE

- Earthbound reboot (reveal) NOPE

- Detective Pikachu sequel (Switch reveal) NOPE

- Pokémon Diamond/Pearl remakes (new gameplay trailer) NOPE

- Xenoblade Chronicles 3 (teaser) NOPE

- Super Mario Odyssey 2 (teaser) NOPE

- Super Smash Bros Ultimate (next fighter reveal, immediate shadow drop on eShop) UPDATE: Announced as Kazuya from the Tekken series, no release date yet

Playstation:

- E3 "season" State of Play

- Dreams + (PS5 port)

- Back 4 Blood (new gameplay trailer) UPDATE: New CGI trailer, and PvP mode shown

- Project Cars 3

- Symphogear Unite

- Stray

- Sonic Colors Ultimate (PS4 Remaster) UPDATE: This was confirmed on May 27th, Sonic Colors remaster coming to PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, with gameplay and visual upgrades, releasing September 7th, 2021!

- The Mitchells VS. The Machines

- Grand Theft Auto V (PS5 gameplay showcase)

- Sunset Overdrive Refreshed (PS4/PS5 remaster of Xbox game)

- Sunset Overdrive sequel (reveal)

- Metal Gear Solid Remake (reveal)

- Last of Us Remake (teaser trailer)

Microsoft:

- 1 to 3 hour long showcase UPDATE: This was confirmed to be taking place on June 13th, at 12:00 pm CST, approximately 90 minutes total including Bethesda content

- Acquisition of Sega?? NOPE

- Announcement of new studio formed/acquired NOPE

- HALO Infinite (new gameplay) UPDATE: New trailer shown

- Psychonauts 2 (gameplay trailer, possible reveal of a very soon release date) UPDATE: Psychonauts 2 is releasing on August 25th 2021!

- Age of Empires IV UPDATE: Releasing on October 28th 2021!

- Forza Horizon 5 UPDATE: Announced, takes place in Mexico, looks incredible

- Far Cry 6 (gameplay reveal) UPDATE: Releasing on October 7th 2021, DLC announced where you can play as the villains from Far Cry 3, 4, and 5.

- Witcher 3 ("Next-Gen"/current gen remaster) NOPE

- Hellblade 2 (gameplay reveal) NOPE

- State of Decay 3 (gameplay reveal) NOPE

- Everwild (gameplay reveal) NOPE

- Alan Wake 2 (teaser trailer) NOPE

- Elden Ring (reveal set for 6/14/2021) UPDATE: This was shown during the Summer Game Fest on 6/10/2021, with a gameplay trailer and a release date of January 21st 2022!!

- Dragon Age 4 (teaser trailer) NOPE

- Dying Light 2 (new gameplay, 2022 release year) UPDATE: This was confirmed on May 27th to be releasing on December 7th 2021!!

- Fable (gameplay teaser) NOPE

- Gears Tactics sequel NOPE

- Perfect Dark (gameplay teaser) NOPE

- Battlefield 6 UPDATE: Announced before E3

- Knights of the Old Republic remake NOPE

- Shadow of Mordor 3 NOPE

- Baldur's Gate 3 NOPE

- Netherealms next game (Marvel themed, maybe Avengers vs X-Men) NOPE

- Guardians of the Galaxy UPDATE: Announced at the Square Enix show, releasing on October 26th 2021!

- Avowed (gameplay teaser) NOPE

- Starfield (full reveal with gameplay) leads into Bethesda's showcase UPDATE: First preview shown, releasing exclusively on Xbox, November 11th 2022!

Bethesda:

- joint showcase with Microsoft (because of acquisition) UPDATE: This was confirmed to be taking place on June 13th, at 12:00 pm CST, approximately 90 minutes total including Microsoft content

- Starfield (discussion) UPDATE: Expected release on November 11th 2022!

- "OMEN" (reveal, new IP from Arkane Studios) UPDATE: Arkane announced vampire focused action title, Redfall, exclusive to Xbox.

- Deathloop (gameplay) NOPE

- Ghostwire Tokyo (gameplay) NOPE

- Wolfenstein 3 (teaser) NOPE

- Elder Scrolls 6 (full reveal) NOPE

- Prey 2 (reveal) NOPE

Square Enix:

- Final Fantasy XVI (new trailer with gameplay) NOPE

- Forspoken (new gameplay) NOPE

- Dragon Quest XII (teaser) UPDATE: This was announced on May 26th, title art shown, officially named "Dragon Quest XII: The Flames of Fate". More adult in tone, gameplay revamp, and being made in Unreal Engine 5.

- NEO: The World Ends with You (new gameplay) NOPE

- Final Fantasy VII Remake part 2 (teaser, showing Cloud in a forest apparently) NOPE

Capcom:

- Resident Evil Village DLC (teaser) UPDATE: Village DLC announcement

- Resident Evil Revelations 3 (reveal) NOPE

- Resident Evil PS1 Collection (reveal) NOPE

- Dragon's Dogma 2 (reveal) NOPE

- Monster Hunter Rise DLC (reveal) UPDATE: DLC announcement

- Monster Hunter Stories 2 UPDATE: DLC announcement

- Pragmata (teaser with gameplay) NOPE

- Ace Attorney Chronicles UPDATE: New gameplay mechanics shown

Bandai Namco:

- Elden Ring (same footage as Microsoft show) UPDATE: This was shown during the Summer Game Fest on 6/10/2021, with a gameplay trailer and a release date of January 21st 2022!!

- Tales of Arise (new gameplay) UPDATE: Gameplay announced two additional party members

- Boruto Ultimate Ninja Storm NOPE

- Digimon Survive NOPE

- Scarlet Nexus NOPE

- Guilty Gear Strive NOPE

SEGA:

- Persona 4 Golden (Switch port) NOPE

- Persona 5 Royal (Switch port) NOPE

- Sonic (tease of new game series) UPDATE: this was announced on May 27th, a brand new Sonic game made by Sonic Team releasing in 2022

Other:

- Bioshock 4 (reveal) NOPE

- Borderlands (spin-off reveal) UPDATE: spin-off title Tiny Tina's Wonderlands was announced at the Summer Game Fest! Game will be a full length fantasy-themed title similar to the DLC of Borderlands 2 "Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep"!

- Jedi Fallen Order sequel (reveal) NOPE

- Grand Theft Auto VI (reveal) NOPE

- new IP from Rockstar games NOPE

Again, nothing has been confirmed, these are just rumors. We shall see what happens, but if even a few of these are true, we could have a good E3 this year!

[planetary]

ive been so tired ive been sleeping in 1 hour intervals and now i am in my bed and can finally relax and sleep and im like um hehe what if i play FIRE EMBLEM HEROES until my brain falls out!?

[hale-13]

Strangulated

By Hale13

For the Summer of Whump Day 26 Prompt - Asphyxiation

“That’s pretty new,” Peter muttered aloud, perched on the side of a building in Midtown and staring intently at the man in a full on metal rhino costume destroying the front of a Well’s Fargo. The police that had responded to the call had drawn their weapons and were perched behind their cars, clearly just as baffled and making no attempts to stop or prevent the crime.

Words: 1754, Chapters: 1/1 (Complete), Language: English

Fandoms: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)

Rating: Gen

Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark

Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Rhino

TW: Strangulation

Read on AO3 or below the line break.

“That’s pretty new,” Peter muttered aloud, perched on the side of a building in Midtown and staring intently at the man in a full on metal rhino costume destroying the front of a Well’s Fargo. The police that had responded to the call had drawn their weapons and were perched behind their cars, clearly just as baffled and making no attempts to stop or prevent the crime.

“It is new Peter,” Karen’s voice chirped happily from his mask. “You have not faced this criminal before. Would you like me to activate instant kill?” She sounded far too hopeful for Peter’s liking and he sighed, dodging the small chunk of concrete that flew his way.

“Karen, darling, love of my life. We’ve talked about this,” he told her gently, swinging closer and dropping down behind the line of cop cars. “Instant kill is not the answer to all lives problems.”

“If you say so,” and she sounded so disappointed. Peter would have to have a conversation with Mr. Stark – he had no idea how he made his AI’s so lifelike but he really wanted to know.

“Ugh,” one of the cops said, rolling his eyes as he noticed Peter. “Scram Spider-Guy, this ain’t any of your business.”

Peter fought an eye roll of his own. “Real nice pal,” he said sarcastically, stepping forward anyway. The guys partner nudged him pointedly in the side.

“Just send in the freak. Might save us the effort.” Peter fought the urge to cringe at the sneer directed at him. He had a pretty thick skin but he wasn’t the biggest fan of being called a ‘freak’. Especially by the people he was trying to help.

“Happy to be of service,” Peter grunted with a two finger salute. “Just stay back and let the professional work.” He fired a web and took off in the direction of the rhino guy before either of the police had the chance to respond. He purposely used their car as a jumping off point just to really rub it in and smirked a little at their grunts of irritation. “Hey big guy!” He called as he landed in the pock-marked and cracked street. Rhino-guy turned around and charged with a roar. “Whoa there!” Peter called as he jumped over his head. “You haven’t even introduced yourself yet!”

“I will squash you like bug!” The man said in a thick Russian accent, scraping one of his feet against the ground like a bull and charging Peter head first again. Peter nimbly dodged again and dangled with one hand from a nearby streetlight.

“You know spiders are arachnids right? Not bugs?” Peter bantered, swinging around the pole and releasing at just the right moment to launch himself across the street the nail Rhino in the face, sending him stumbling back before he corrected himself with a roar. Peter somersaulted out of the way of another charge.

“Stay still so I can kill you,” he roared.

“Tempting,” Peter mused, webbing Rhino’s arms to his sides. “But I’ll pass.”

Rhino roared again in obvious frustration and ripped through Peter’s webs with great effort. “That’s not ideal,” Peter said as he fired more webs in an attempt to slow down Rhino to no avail. Freed once more, Rhino changed forward. This time, however, Peter took a step back into one of the holes in the asphalt and tripped; he was able to right himself quickly but not fast enough to dodge out of the way of Rhino’s hands.

“Oof,” Peter gasped, hands flying up to his throat where Rhino had wrapped his mechanized hands around Peter’s throat, holding him a couple feet above the ground and leaving Peter to flail his legs in an attempt to escape. “Not cool bro,” Peter breathed out with his limited air supply as the Rhino squeezed tighter and backed him up to slam Peter into a nearby brick wall.

“You talk too much,” Rhino grumbled, redoubling his hold on Peter and making him grunt with effort and scrambled to pull the hands from around his throat.

“Peter your pulse ox is dropping rapidly,” Karen said, displaying the number on his HUD and Peter squeezed his eyes shut as it ticked from ninety-three percent to ninety-two. “Calling Mr. Stark.”

“No don’t,” Peter wheezed out a little desperately, his throat feeling raw and swollen and his lungs beginning to burn.

“On my way kid,” Tony’s voice said through his comm as Karen connected his mentor to Peter’s HUD. “Any chance you can break out before you pass out.” Peter just let out a frustrated puff of air and, with intense effort, lifted his legs to press his feet against Rhino’s chest to begin pushing. His vision was tunneling and pulsing around the edges and Peter knew it was only his stubborn pig-headedness and sheer force of will that was keeping him conscious at this point. The pulse ox reading in the corner ticked down to eighty-seven and, with Herculean strength, Peter finally knocked the Rhino away from him and collapsed to the ground.

“‘M good,” Peter croaked tightly, letting his head rest back against the road as he recovered his breath. He didn’t have long through as his Spidey sense tingled violently and he threw himself to the side of the road to dodge out of Rhino’s path. His vision was still a little spotty and he stumbled like he was drunk but Peter was able to pull himself back to his feet and stand without assistance. “Not cool dude,” he said, his throat burning and his words coming out like he had been gargling gravel.

He needed to end this quick. He couldn’t afford to get caught again. With effort, Peter jumped back into the air, firing webs at rapid speed as he did so – attaching Rhino to the ground in a veritable cocoon. Rhino screamed in anger and struggled but Peter’s webs held this time much to his relief. “He’s all yours boys,” he said in the direction of the police, his voice thready and painful and he swallowed down a cough.

It took all the energy he had left to swing away, alighting on a nearby apartment roof and dropping first to his knees and then back to sit cross-legged. His neck hurt and he could feel the swelling starting to constrict his trachea and vocal chords. Tony landed in front of him a few seconds later, stepping out of his suit and squatting down in front of Peter with several cracks and pops of his knees.

“Try not to talk buddy,” Tony told him, lifting his mask up to his nose and pulling the neck down carefully, wincing at whatever he saw and making Peter hunch his shoulders and pull away, fixing his mask back to its usual position. “Helen’s waiting for us back in the MedBay. I’m going to carry you and your not going to bitch about it capiche?” Peter rolled his eyes knowing it would translate to the large white lenses on his mask but didn’t protest when Tony stepped back into the Iron Man armor and picked him up.

The flight back to the Tower was quick since Peter had ventured into Manhattan to patrol today and they were soon landing on the small balcony outside the MedBay doors. Peter still felt a little light-headed and dizzy and swayed a little in place when Tony lowered him back to the ground to stand on his own while the suited disassembled around him and flew off to the armory. “Steady there,” the man said gently, slinging Peter’s arm across his shoulders and helping him walk into the building.

“Hey Peter,” Helen Cho said as she approached them from the nurses station down the hall and ushered them into an open exam room. “Karen sent me your stats so let’s just see the damage yeah?” She said as Peter settled on the exam bed.

Peter smacked his hand into the spider emblem on his chest, letting the suit fall down to rest around his hips, pulling his mask off and tossing it next to him on the bed. Dr. Cho wrinkled her nose and softly palpated Peter’s neck making him grunt and grimace, manfully resisting the urge to pull away from her. “Well you’ve already got some pretty severe swelling,” she said, clipping a pulse oximeter onto his finger and frowning at the result. “And you’re still not oxygenating as well as I’d like.”

“So what’s the plan then,” Tony said, slapping a hand over Peter’s mouth when he opened it to speak and ignoring the glare Peter sent him and the spiteful lick Peter gave his hand in the hopes that Tony would remove his hand.

“Well I’m going to start supplemental oxygen first,” Dr. Cho said, unwinding an oxygen mask from the wall and pushing Peter back until he was reclined on the bed and slipped the mask over his mouth and nose. “I’ll have a nurse come in with something for you to change into and then I want to start IV steroids and pain relief to get the swelling down. With you’re healing,” she said addressing Peter, “you should only be here overnight. I just want to make sure that your airway doesn’t swell closed. You’ll also need to rest your voice since you probably have some damage to your vocal chords.”

Disappointed, Peter nodded. This was not in his plan for the day and he was really looking forward to playing Beast Slayers with Ned tonight but, if he was confined to a MedBay bed and doped up on his pain meds he doubted he would be worth much of anything. Well at least he’d probably catch up on some of his sleep.

A few hours later, floating due to his super strength meds and curled up under a pre-warmed blanket, Peter squeaked out a hoarse ‘thanks’ making Tony, sat beside him and tapping away at a tablet with his feet propped up on the end of Peter’s bed, fix him with a glare. “Aren’t you supposed to be resting your voice?” Peter just gave him a dopey smile and burrowed deeper into the blanket, adjusting the melting ice pack that was wrapped around his still tender throat.

He’d have to do some research of mechanized rhinos in the morning. He had already come up with some fun tweaks for his web fluid that might be beneficial going forward. With chemical equations dancing around in his brain, Peter fell into an deep, easy sleep.

[it-was-all-a-beautiful-dream]

Mr. I want suck your blood - Pt 4

Warning: Mentions of violence and Swearing 

Word count: 2,451 

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In stories, Soulmates were meant to be the real deal. They were forever. They were two individuals who were brought together by the universe so their lives finally made perfect sense. 

You'd never heard of Soulmates ‘Taking a break’ or ‘Splitting up,’ it wasn't something that happened. That’s not what happened in the stories. 

Thats just the thing though. Life isn't a story. Life’s a bitch.

Y/N POV

It had been 1 Hour 19 minutes and 45 seconds since Carlisle shattered your world. 1 Hour, 22 minutes and 23 seconds since you had ripped out your IV line and stormed out of the Cullen house. 1 Hour, 28 minutes and 15 seconds, since Carlisle Cullen, your SOULMATE, decided to call it quits.

Carlisle’s words were still ringing in your ears. “It’s safer this way.” or “Now you can live a normal human life.” You felt numb. 

-1 Hour, 19 minutes and 45 seconds ago- 

You looked up as you saw Carlisle standing in the wooden door frame. You smiled and placed a hand on your fast beating heart relieved to see him unscathed. Bella had swiftly exited the room. It was just the two of you now. You could tell straight away that something was wrong. Your heart started racing again. 

You sat there and listened, as Carlisle took your hand and proceeded to shatter your world. He’d decided that being together, it was too dangerous. He couldn't put you in danger again, couldn’t watch you bleed in his arms again. You both argued. It was his over protective nature, that was the cause of this.

“What about Bella and Edward? She’s still human?!” Apparently it was an invalid argument. Invalid my ass. He wouldn't budge. He thought some time apart would be for the best, even if saying it did secretly pain him. 

You were angry, so angry that you ripped out your own IV, not without gagging of course. The screaming and arguing drew the attention of the rest of the Cullen household. Bella was trying to calm you down and stop your arm from bleeding, while Edward and Esme were talking to Carlisle. 

You didn't care anymore. How dare he. How could he do this to you? You didn't ask for this life. You'd been dragged into it head first. You'd accepted him for all he was. Before all of this you WERE a normal teenager, with normal teenage problems! 

You didn't want normal anymore. You wanted Carlisle, the Volturi, wolves and blood singers. You wanted it all, but just like that, he took it away. 

You hadn't wasted any time running through the house, past Alice, Rose and Jasper and to your car. You say run, more like fast walked, your legs were still jelly from lying in bed the last couple of days. Alice had tried to stop you on the way out but Jasper told her to let you go, he could feel the pain and anger radiating of you in waves. 

The first thing you did when you got to your car was check your glove box for cigarettes. You got in and slammed the door, you could see Carlisle fighting to try and get passed Edward and Emmett but they wouldn't let him out. You looked over to see Bella running toward your car. You waited. She jumped in the passenger side and neither of you spoke a word.  You didn't have to. You started the engine and it came to life with a roar, you peeled out of the Cullen’s drive way with tears streaming down your face and a cigarette between your lips. You fucking hated Forks. 

Bella had made you pull over halfway home, scared the tears were clouding your vision. She was probably right, the road ahead did look quite blurry. You traded places and carried on towards home. She was talking to you but you weren't really listening, just watching the trees speed past in a blur, you were sure you could see other objects moving beside you through the trees just as fast, but blinked and they were gone.

-2 weeks later- 

Grand Piano by Nicki Minaj blared through the speakers on repeat, you sat staring blankly at your sketchpad, no inspiration, no drive.. nothing. It had been like this for two weeks. Bella had apparently been the same, but you just couldn't shake it. You'd shut yourself off from everyone. Only coming out of your room to get food and use the bathroom. You felt numb. 

You could tell your Mom and Charlie were starting to worry. They'd tried to talk to you, find out whats wrong. All they knew is someone broke your heart bad. You'd started having nightmares the first night you were without Carlisle. They felt like more than nightmares though, so vivid, almost like premonitions. You'd wake up still screaming in a cold sweat clutching your chest and crying. Crying for everything you lost when Carlisle let you go. You'd never been in love before and if it felt like this then you never wanted to be again. You didn't think you could love again. 

You were spaced out, the music was still playing in the background but your mind was somewhere else, another thing that had been happening since the accident. You just went places, like you were daydreaming, lost in a trance. This time was different though. It was if you were actually there, watching things unfold, only when you came to you were in your bedroom, your paints scattered everywhere, your sketchbook now covered in imagery. You gasped and flew back from your desk, the page awash with shades of vibrant red and black. You gagged. Blood….. and a symbol, it was an emblem of some sort. You shook your head and closed the book on the now dry paints. 

What the fuck. 

It happened a few more times after that. The spacing out, coming back to earth having drawn on something or once, even scratched symbols into your desk. You'd practically stopped sleeping. Too many thoughts in your head. Even Bella was getting worried, she knew what it was like to spiral and you were doing it at 100mph. She’d suggested talking to Carlisle but you shouted at her for even bringing him up. He left you and hadn't made any attempt to contact or see you. Why give him the satisfaction. 

You'd decided enough was enough. You had to start living your life again, or at least thats what you tried to tell yourself. Today you were going to see Seth. You’d become quite close friends with Seth since getting involved in the whole supernatural side of life but you'd been shutting him out for weeks, he knew what had happened with Mr I want to suck you blood, but he didn't ask questions, which you were grateful for. You thought it would do you some good to get outside and breath in the fresh air. You couldn't wallow in self pity any longer. 

It felt weird to be in normal clothes rather than ratty old pyjamas. You parked up, jumping out of your car, slinging your backpack over your shoulder. You had brought your sketchbook with you, you didn't know who to talk to about these things, so you were going to show one to Seth, just to see if he recognised anything. 

You couldn't help but breath deeply as the air floated off the salty sea and toward your face. You smiled as you watched Seth running down the beach. His boyish grin was charming and his smile grew as he got closer to you. He wrapped you in a hug and you hugged back desperate for a bit of normalcy. 

“Hey Seth,” You grinned, thankful for a bit of human, well in this case werewolf, connection. Yeah you had Bella.. and Alice had tried to stop by from time to time, but at the minute they were just a constant reminder of him…. 

“Y/N! I missed you, things have been so strange without seeing you around ya know!” You bumped his shoulder as you walked down the beach. It had been strange. You'd moved to Forks, got involved with Vamps and the supernatural and in all this time you'd never had any normal time to yourself, or with a friend. 

“I’m sorry I’ve been so distant, you know the whole…. thing…” He just nodded his head. You didn't have to explain, he was just happy you were there now.

You'd spent hours just walking and talking on the beach. While walking you had bumped into some of the others as well, Sam, Paul…. You got along with them too, but they had never agreed with your relationship. They seemed somewhat more comfortable around you now. Catching up was good, you felt a lot lighter when you walked, your heart a little less heavy, he was still in the back of your mind though, as much as you tried to think about anything else.

There was an abandoned fire pit a little further up from where you'd been talking with the others, logs surrounded the ashy mound, placed out like small earthy benches. You'd been collecting odd pieces of wood on the way, expecting to find it there. Yourself and Seth pilled the kindling high and he started a fire, he didn't really need to because of his heat, but it was still fun. As Seth continued the fire you reached around and grabbed your leather backpack, opening the zip and fishing inside for your paint covered sketchbook. He came to sit beside you as you started flicking through the pages. You tried to glance at him from the corner of your eye to read his expressions. 

“Y/N, these are pretty amazing, and… somewhat scary…” He looked at the book and then back at you. “What are they?” His finger traced the images and the symbols. 

You shook your head and flicked through the pages more rapidly. “I don't know S, I…if I tell you something you have to promise you wont tell anyone, not even Sam, not even Jake….” You gulped and looked up at him. He looked confused. You faltered a little, getting nervous you shut your book and started to shove it in your bag. “This was stupid, I should go…” You stood up trying to leave but Seth grabbed your hand. 

“I wont tell, you can trust me I promise.” You relaxed, still hesitant, you sat back down. You took the sketchbook back out and went to the first page, tracing the symbols and images, remembering how clearly you had seen them in your mind.

“I drew these. But I didn’t, at the same time.” Seth just looked even more confused now. “I think…. I think something happened to me when I was bitten S…. Something I cant explain. This symbol, I drew this, sat at my desk, one minute the sky outside was light, the next thing I knew it was dark, and the once blank page was covered in all these drawings!” You flicked through the book and sighed placing your head in your hands. He probably thought you were crazy. You sure felt crazy.

You felt his hand rest on your back as you hunched over sighing. “Y/N I’m a wolf, The Cullen’s are Vampires… crazier things have happened, i’ve just never heard of this crazy happening yet….”

You peaked at him from your hands. “Do you know what any of the symbols mean? I see them in my dreams as well, it’s like i’m watching a movie in my head, it’s like I'm there but no one can hear me or see me.. It feels so real.” You sit up, flicking through the pages, before you can turn to the next, Seth’s hand comes flying down stopping the process as he points to one of the symbols. 

“Y/N, I’ve seen that symbol before… I think it’s something to do with the cold ones.. the Volturi to be exact.” You groan. This cant be fucking happening. Not only were you dumped now you were having freaky Volturi dreams as well? You searched in your bag for your cigarettes, you held the packet out to Seth and he surprisingly took one. You grinned.

“Wow Sethy never took you for the rebel type.” He ruffled your hair and you shoved him. “Seriously though what am I going to do, this shouldn't be happening i’m human, I didn't turn, Carlisle made sure of that.” You couldn't hide the bitter tone in your voice. 

“I don’t know what it means Y/N, but I promise we will figure it out.. cant you talk to Cull…” You glared at him before he could finish his sentence. “Never mind, stupid idea, ignore me.” You laughed and you both carried on looking through the book. What the hell did this mean?

It was late now, Seth walked you to your car, his body still close to keep you warm, the sea breeze now icy cold on your skin. You sighed, part of you didn't want to leave, it was the first kind of normal you'd felt in a really long time, even before coming to Forks. Life in your old place had been really hard, You didn't fit in anywhere, you could count your friends on one hand and you had a strange relationship with your bio dad. You thought things would get easier, Forks had the smallest population and yet you managed to find yourself smack bang in the middle of all this drama, you'd thank Bella for that later. You thought it would be easier living here, maybe you were wrong. 

You turned, looking at Seth as you reached your car, you were about to tell him you'd had a nice time, ask him if he wanted to hang out again soon, but you couldn't speak. The waves sounded louder, the air around you felt thicker and you couldn't breath. You could hear Seth’s muffled voice in the background somewhere and a pair of arms shaking you but in your head you were somewhere else entirely. 

Cloaks of black floating across the white pearlescent snow, rivers of red blood flowing all around. Wicked eyes staring into yours, and then pain.

You screamed and grabbed your head, it felt like someone had jabbed it with a white hot poker. Images flashed before your eyes, Volturi, Snow, Red, Carlisle. You gagged, so much blood, so much pain. Then, nothing. 

Your mind went dark, no images now, no sound, just the sharp ache as you feel your body shut down and hit the solid ground, then the coldness surrounded you. 

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Hey guys! I’m sorry it took so long for me to post another part! Hope you enjoy reading x Please comment if you'd like to be tagged! 

PT 5 -------- HERE

@sagittarius-flowerchild

@thechangingcolourswithinthewoods

@scream-kiwi79

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@caraboo15

[gothamcityneedsme]

I saw this bouncing around my dash and decided to fill it out myself for fun :)  I decided to not double-list any games, and I tried to mix up the companies I used too so that the list would be more unique.

Long post, so I’m doing a readmore for my longwinded part lol.

(read more)

Favorite Game: Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords - I could talk about this game forever.  How it tears apart the Star Wars universe from within, how it creates a compelling story while challenging the usual themes, etc.  I could talk for ages about the characters and how their motivations slot in place, and how this game lends itself to interpretation and analysis alongside roleplay.  It’s just a wonderful game, one I deeply love and will always love.  It’s a game that isn’t afraid to have you talk to other characters for twenty or thirty minutes at a time and honestly I’m always riveted at every line.  This game deserves the cult fanbase it has, but I think there’s a lot the fanbase misses in appreciating this game.  (Note...gameplay is a little janky and a community made mod restores a lot content that was cut before shipping-the game wasn’t properly finished).

Best Story:  Fallout New Vegas - It’s the setting that makes the story here, and all the moving pieces and factions alongside the main conflict really make this game stand out.  There’s so many little pieces to find along the way in the world and the way the main quest splits based on who you want in power feels important--and you are choosing a future for this whole region.

Favorite Art Style: The Witness - This game is peacefully wonderful with its visuals.  There are wonderful nature scenes and nests of wires and panels spreading in various parts of the island that are fascinating to look at.  The environment is half of the gameplay in most areas, so it’s important to look around even though exploration is not really the gameplay.  You find puzzles in the world, even in nature, and it’s fascinating.  The colors are bright and beautiful.  There is even a map in the middle of the island inside of a lake that helps you track your progress if you notice it (it isn’t like a normal ‘map’).

Favorite Soundtrack: Shin Megami Tensei IV - I love video game soundtracks, but SMTIV is something special.  The music booms in ways that make you really understand the atmosphere of the world, and there’s a great mix of different kinds of tracks for different places.  I love the tracks for the other worlds you enter, and the themes of the different routes are done so well.  Some of the music draws from past SMT games, but the remixes done for this game really are stunning to me, and there’s so many fantastic original tracks.

Hardest Game: I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream - I love this game but I literally never touch it without a walkthrough, which is why it gets to be the hardest game on the list, despite being a point and click adventure game lol.  Also just emotionally this game is challenging too, but I definitely mean this more in terms of getting a ‘perfect run’.

Funniest Game: The Stanley Parable - Trying to make this list has taught me that I don’t really play many ‘funny games’.  I don’t know if a game where multiple endings demand that you kill yourself should count as a ‘funniest game’, but it is also a game where the narrator tells you to stare at a fern and memorize its features, so....it counts.

Game I Like that is Hated: RWBY Grimm Eclipse - I’ve been playing this game since it was in early access and have loved it the whole time.  I find the gameplay soothing and fun, and I like playing the different characters.  It’s a game I play to chill out and just enjoy some fun battle mechanics.  It’s a fun game and I’ve spent over 100 hours in it, so I hope I like it, lol.

Game I Hate that is Liked:  Nier Automata - Neither this game’s gameplay or story impress me, and the fact that you have to replay basically the same stuff from a more boring-to-play-character’s pov in order to SEE all of the plot is a huge damper on the experience.  The story, to me, someone who engages with a lot of robot-focused fiction, is far from impressive or new, and it hardly engages with genre specifics at all, let alone in a new or interesting way.  I view this game as ‘a story with robots in it’ rather than ‘a story about robots’, which, to me, is a detriment.

Underrated: Nevermind - This game is amazing and very unheard of--and when it is heard of, it has been marketed incorrectly.  Nevermind seems like a horror game, and does market itself as one a bit, but it’s much more than that.  It’s more about trauma, recovery, therapy, etc.  This is a game that is so mindful about the topics it engages in that I am impressed by it every time.  It’s heavy with symbolism and character, despite lacking conversations or other similar game mechanics.  This is a lovely game that I really wish more people knew about-`p5-all of the patients are so interesting, and the focus on recovery and mental health is impressive.

Overrated:  Fire Emblem - I sort of mean this as the series as a whole really.  I have enjoyed the entries I have played somewhat, but I overall consider the series much less impressive than I was led to believe by others.  The gameplay especially is not impressive to me in any regard, even though I sometimes do find myself enjoying it.  The stories are alright, but many of them are weighed down by the gameplay and as a writer and person who likes to analyze writing, it’s very hard to do so when it isn’t able to fully exist under the chains the gameplay forces on it.  There are ways to mix gameplay and story well, Fire Emblem has not really done that in any of the entries I’ve played.  That being said, I don’t regret playing them, and I will occasionally replay, but I consider them mediocre games at best.

Best Voice Acting: Devil Survivor 2 - I love the voice acting in this game.  I feel like all the characters are really suited to their voices, and it’s really easy for me to visualize their voices.  They really bring the game to life and make both the dramatic and the funny scenes more enjoyable.

Worst Voice Acting: Jedi Knight Jedi Academy - I love this game, I really do, but some of the voice acting is janky.  Some of it is okay too--I think Kyle Katarn’s voice actor does fine, and some of the others I like NOW but hated when I was a kid, but the male protagonist voice in this game is just awful.  Which is bad when Jennifer Hale is the female voice actress lol.  His performance is passable though unless you’re playing darksided--the darksided ending to the game lacks all punch when you’re playing the male protagonist.

Favorite Male:  Battler Ushiromiya from Umineko no Naku Koro Ni - He’s the protagonist for most of the visual novels and I adore him utterly, especially once you move past episode 2.  He’s a wonderful character who I care about deeply.  I love his drive and how he fights--he’s someone who is easy to cheer for.  He matures well throughout the series and his character development is just wonderful.

Favorite Female:  Naoto Shirogane from Persona 4 - I really like how Naoto fits so well in the game, especially for being a final recruit--oftentimes the final recruit of Persona games (post 3) have a bit of a more difficult time feeling right with the group.  Naoto works really well though, and I love her struggles and story as well.  I think the difficulties she has concerning living as a woman in her field hit very deep to a problem that has existed for a very long time.

Favorite Protagonist: Connor of Daventry from King’s Quest 8 Mask of Eternity - I’m like, one of four fans of this character in the world, lol.  KQ8 is not a very well liked game and it does have a lot of issues, both with age and with how much of a departure it is from the series prior to it.  It’s strange to take a puzzle adventure game and make it a hybrid with what basically is a shooter, and it doesn’t really work.  Add to that the fact that you spend most of your time in the game without anyone around to talk to and it leads to this really polarizing and weird experience.  For me, Conner goes through what I would consider to be the ‘Ultimate Nightmare Scenario”.  Everyone in the world is turned to stone except him (and he survived out of mere chance) and so now it’s up to him, practically alone, to save the entire world.  There is no game lonelier than this.  I adore him for his bravery in the face of it, and how he just picks up to do what must be done because someone should do it, and if no one else can, then he will.  I also really love how he apologizes to people who are encased in stone while he takes money from their houses to help him on his journey.  I really do think he went back after the game was over and gave everyone heaps of gold to pay them back with interest lol.

Favorite Village:  Oakvale from Fable - The first Fable is the only one I really like, and it was one of the games I played when I was little, so the hometown in the game always meant a lot to me.  I like how you grow up there and how your tragic backstory is there--and then how you get to return to the town years later after you’ve come into your own, and you can see it completely rebuilt.  I like to spend a lot of my time in this town, just wandering around it and playing the minigames.  Even though I have a house in every town, Oakvale is where my hero calls home.

Most Hated Character:  Merril from Dragon Age 2 - I don’t really want to lay into how I feel about Merril, but what I will say is that it was suggested to me that I totally ignore her when playing, and I did so.  I only met her for her quest, dropped her off in town, and literally never spoke to her or interacted for the rest of the game.  I had a much better experience for it, honestly.  She appeared after I made my choice in the end of the game, which felt weird since I hadn’t spoken to her in several ingame years, but other than that, the game was totally fine without her.  I sort of just wish you could kill characters in DA2 the way you can in DAO, then I’d just do that, tbh.  It doesn’t suit very many (or any) of the characters I rp in DA2 to keep her around or support her in any way.

First Game I Played: Mixed up Mother Goose Deluxe - I’m not actually sure if this is the FIRST game I’ve ever played or not, but it’s one of the first I played alone as a kid.  I really loved it--this is probably what created my love for point and click adventures, and the game was very silly and fun.

Favorite Company: Bioware - I’ve always been a sucker for Bioware games, ever since Knights of the Old Republic 1 was my favorite childhood game.  I love how they do stories and party members, and while I’m not a fan of all of their games, I really love what they’ve made and their style of storytelling and character driven plot.  Even though sometimes their stories get cliche, I think the suit video games well and most of my early gaming was within their games.

Hated Company: EA - Bioware truly only started to go to shit after the EA acquisition, so I fucking hate EA.   I know Bioware had issues before EA too, but I definitely don’t think EA has helped the situation whatsoever.

Depressing Game: The Beginner’s Guide - I relate to this game as a creator and a writer, and it affects me deeply because of the story it tells and the questions it raises.  It makes me reflect on how I think of myself as a creator, and it reminds me of friendships I used to have.

Creepy Game:  The Path - God, I love this game.  It’s just aimlessly wandering around and finding symbolic scenery and watching your current character comment on it.  Then, you go off to find your girl’s wolf, and each one is different and unique to her, and you watch it ‘kill’ her--and facing her wolf is the only way each girl can truly mature.  Whenever you get to grandmother’s house, the camera switches to first person, and your eyes keep closing, so you can only see while clicking to move.  It forces you to keep moving so that you can see, but since you are moving, you only get to see things somewhat vaguely.  It’s got a great atmosphere, and I love the symbolic storytelling.

Happy Game: Eastshade - This game is so sweet.  There’s some drama around to with many of the quests, but I like this as an rpg without combat, and I think this would be a really good kids game.  There’s a lot to see and explore, and the game was made to be really pretty so that you want to paint several aspects of it.  It’s really lovely to just wander around in this game and bike around the area, painting anything that suits your fancy.  As long as you don’t finish the main quest, you’re free to wander, and materials do respawn, so you essentially can infinitely paint once you get far enough.

Favorite Ending: Virtue’s Last Reward - I love the questions this game asks and where the ending goes.  It thematically ties together--the whole reason the game itself exists is to get the attention of a ‘higher being’--the player, essentially.  I love how it plays with that concept, and even though the final game in the series doesn’t entirely pick this idea up where this game left it, standalone this game is stunning in how it comes together.