#and the fact that it runs well on old hardware is amazing

[ayghe]

I think I will try installing linux on my old laptop, I wanna see if I can bring it back to life

[blazehedgehog]

Is it possible to make a game like Sonic 3 today within the deadlines it had back then? Pixel art, physics and all.

Why wouldn't it be?

It was the third game in the series. They already had a very strong idea of what they were trying to do with the character, they already had proven technology under them that they could easily extend and upgrade. They had been doing this on Sonic for three years already, and some of the people had been working for Sega even longer than that.

These were talented, experienced people. Professionals. Having the prior knowledge to be able to say, "if we do X, then we get Y" allowed them to work quickly and efficiently.

So I would compare it to, say, what I did with OverBite. OverBite was a game I made for a Clickteam Fusion Game Jam in 2016. We had from like, September 30th or even the 29th up to October 31st to make an entire game. It came out to something like 33 days.

So I made this game where you play as Dracula. I wrote all the code, designed all the mechanics, made all of the sprites, and built all of the levels. Alone. By myself. A single person. The only other person to help me with anything was my old friend Malcolm Brown, who handed me some music.

I had JUST bought Clickteam Fusion 2.5 on Steam, which means it had 0 hours of usage registered. I used it to make OverBite, which means I could track exactly how many hours I spent working on the game, and though I don't remember the exact total, I remember after doing the math it ended up shaking out to between 9 to 11 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 33 days. It was more than 300 hours total.

Again. For one person. I'm not saying it's the greatest game ever made. The level design in particular was extremely last second -- literally, I was down to the last day, only really had finished the gameplay engine, so I cobbled together four levels in a few hours and put it up seconds before the deadline at midnight. But the point is that I had worked in Clickteam Fusion for a decade and a half and could execute on my needs very well. I knew the software and the process like the back of my hand.

Now imagine having two people like that. Or five. Or ten. "300 hours of work in one month" suddenly turns into 3000 hours in one month. Using tech they already have, and proven gameplay concepts they have a lot of familiarity with.

It still wasn't easy, mind you. But the concepts that made it work back then not only still work today, they probably work even better because you aren't fighting to squeeze things down into such limited hardware. Like, the entire reason a game jam can even exist as a concept at all is because at a certain level of development, things are just easier now.

A game jam in 1994 is an impossible concept to think of because the tools had to be so super specialized to an incredibly narrow kind of work environment. You had to be a genius computer scientist to get something like Sonic the Hedgehog to function, never mind how much money it would cost to get something like a development kit.

Today, literally anyone can pick up a copy of Godot or Unreal 5, watch a few Youtube tutorials, and make a game from their bedroom with consumer tools. And those tools are faster, easier, and more intuitive to work with than anything that came before. It cannot be understated what a huge concept that is, and how that used to be totally impossible 15-20 years ago.

(And before some British dude rolls up like "yeah well you could always do that with the amiga" -- that's true, but it's also still different, and the fact that you can just give Microsoft $20 to unlock "Developer Mode" on an Xbox and start pushing Unity and Unreal games you develop on your PC to a console is still mindblowing in context.)

And it trickles down, too. If you know the conversion process, you can use these nice amazing modern tools to make proper retro games that run on real retro hardware.

All of this is to say that just because it's easier doesn't mean it should be done. OverBite absolutely slaughtered me. 11 hours of game development a day, 7 days a week, for almost five solid weeks was deeply unhealthy, physically and mentally. I haven't come close to finishing any game project, ever, since OverBite. It fried me.

And on Sonic Team's side, Sonic 3 was so massively stressful for them that they quit making Sonic games for almost half a decade. Crunch time development like that hurts in many ways, both visible and (mostly) invisible.

But yes, it could still absolutely be done.

[foone]

I was only about to scroll past this so many times, so:

Doom doesn't draw fucking triangles. GPUs draw triangles because it makes sense to build a GPU to do one specific thing! That way they can do it in parallel and very quickly. So GPUs specialize, they only do triangles. Need to draw a square? Use two triangles. A hexagon is like 4 triangles. A circle? Well, pick some number, draw that many triangles. They can draw millions per second, so the fact that it's less efficient to draw a square as two triangles doesn't matter.

Doom... Is not remotely like that! It's from 1993! Triangle-shoving GPUs? That's a late-90s thing.

Doom is a 2d renderer. It has no hardware acceleration, and it's drawing individual pixels in software.

It uses some BSP/raytracing math to figure out where the walls are, and draws them A SINGLE PIXEL AT A TIME individually. Like, one wall at a time. It uses some careful math to minimize overdraw, because it is expensive to waste time covering up what it already drew. The floors and ceilings are arbitrary polygons... Which it draws horizontally, no triangles involved.

(Image from Fabien Sanglard's website. They wrote the Doom Programming Black Book)

See? It's all individual pixels. This required a LOT of very smart programming just to get this shit to run at 35 frames per second on computers at the time. This is amazing for the time, sure, but it's a mess. You could only make Doom in 1993 because you had one of the greatest programmers of all time working on it. That's great for Doom, but these days you can make 3d games without a genius on your team: BECAUSE WE HAVE GPUs.

This actually makes Doom hard to run on modern hardware. It wants to use the CPU to draw individual pixels, and modern GPUs want triangles. It doesn't know triangles. Sure you could use our new faster CPUs to just do it the old way, but that means your GPU is idle. Your GPU is supposed to make this faster, right?

So a LOT of work has been done by clever people in the 28 years Doom has been open source, and they've figured out how to write a whole new triangle based renderer on top of the old doom code. It uses triangles, of course!

(fun fact: the floors and ceilings are the hard part. The walls and sprites? Easy. Two triangles each, apply the right texture, and you're done. Floors? Those are arbitrary polygons. Not even convex polygons, either. So there's a whole thing with triangluating the floors in a way that makes it into proper triangles that isn't too slow to do at level load)

But that's the modern source ports only. Gzdoom and descendants.

The old doom, even some of the slightly modernized dooms like chocolate doom? They have no triangles, just CPU-calculated individual pixels.

Anyway, my point is, if you want to "run Doom on some kindergarteners", you only need big grid paper and some crayons. Tell them where to draw the walls, then the floors and ceilings, and you're done. No triangles needed. It's all paint by number.

Anyway: I know this because I'm actually planning to do it. Not with kindergarteners, mind you (I have none on hand), but Doom could be run "on a" human with paper and pencil, and I'm working towards doing that. It'll take a long while per frame (so I'm only going to do one), but I'll have to do a bunch of math on paper and then color in some grid paper with a large pile of colored pencils. But what I won't have to do is DRAW ANY TRIANGLES.

Kindergarteners will be so proud of themselves for being able to draw a triangle. My GPU can draw tens of thousands of those in a second. You are not special.

[sallysgrancanwrite]

Chapter One

Chloe was a beautiful woman. In fact it was amazing she wasn't married already. She had long auburn colored hair, that she often wore up, because of work. Her eyes were a deep blue and twinkled when she smiled or laughed, which was almost always. She was average in height, maybe 5'5 and was small.

She worked at Gramma B's Cafe on the West side of Maple Falls, South Carolina. It was a small town and everyone knew everyone. Sometimes that could really be a pain in the ass, but most of the time the people here were wonderful and Chloe wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

There was Sam Jefferies that ran the local garage. If you fall on hard times, he's your guy, he will always work with you. There is Martha and Stan Smithfield who run the grocery store as well as the convenience store. They're a wonderful couple. They are an older couple that never had children but have always put money into the town's youth programs. The B&B is run by two sisters, Hannah and Georgia Aldermen. Sweet ladies who never had the desire to marry.

It was a town that waved when you drove by, said hi when you walked by. The ladies talked gossip in the beauty shop run by Luanne, or as everyone called her LuLu. As for the older retired men there was the front of the old Hardware Store run by Curtis McGovern. The old men would sit for hours talking about the old days, politics and how this Country is going to hell in a handbasket. Life was pretty slow in Maple Falls. Nothing moved at a fast pace. It was quiet until Football season anyway. Everyone rooted for their Hawks.

Chloe wasn't really into football. She would rather curl up with a book or watch an old movie. She dreamed of finding someone like Clark Gable or Humphrey Bogart. Her parents wondered if she would ever get married. John and Betty Harman only had Chloe. It had been a tough pregnancy and a hard labor, a premature birth. Betty was never able to have children again. Needless to say Chloe got almost everything she wanted. There were limits, her parents were still strict and weren't afraid to say no.

Chloe loved her job at the Cafe. She got to talk to the town's people and see how they all were. They all loved her. She was a bright spot in everyone's morning, and her smiling face and happy disposition made getting the day started a lot easier. She rarely had a bad day, or wasn't smiling.

As much as she loved her job she didn't enjoy always being set up on blind dates. She could say no, but the older folks meant well and she didn't want to hurt them. Bob and Edith Coleburn were one such couple. They insisted that their son, Tom, was a perfect match. After being asked over and over she agreed to have dinner with him. It was awful.

"So Chloe, you're a waitress? How well is that as far as income and paying the bills?" Chloe was stunned. Why would he want to know that? It's personal information.

"Yes Tom, I’m a waitress. As far as my income, I do just fine paying my bills."

"Oh please, don't take the question wrong. I guess my parents didn't tell you, I'm an accountant and I have a bad habit of talking taxes with people. I apologize.” He ordered them white wine and a plate of lobster and crab. It was a good thing I like seafood because I was not consulted, thought Chloe. Then he proceeded to talk about…yep, taxes and money the rest of the night and drank himself silly.

Chloe drove them to her place. He managed to walk to the porch. "How about we go in and have a nightcap?" That's all he needed was another drink. Chloe walked him in, sat him down and called his parents to come and get him.

"Oh Chloe, we are so sorry about how he has behaved. Won't you give him another chance?" Bob and Edith both looked at her so sweetly that for a minute Chloe almost gave in. But no, she couldn't go through another date with Tom.

"Edith, Bob, I love you both but Tom and I are just too different. We didn't click. I'm sorry."

Edith quickly gave her a hug. "Don't worry about hurting anyone's feelings darling. You have to do what makes you happy. That's all we want or have ever wanted. When your parents passed away in the car crash, and we took you in, we made a promise that your life would be a happy one. Eventually you will find Mr. Right."

Tom was already grown and in the Marines when Chloe's parents died in that horrible car accident. A drunk driver crossed the line and right into her parent's vehicle. The only relief, if there was any, was that they died instantly and didn't suffer. Chloe was in High School by then but Edith and Bob took her in and helped through her last few years of school. She didn't have any other family so they became family. Tom was a nice guy, but he definitely was not her type. Accounting and numbers were not her thing. She was known to make a complete mess of her checkbook. So no, numbers aren't her thing.

[lxngbottom]

Mistakes That Last Forever. | N.L.

in which neville stumbles across... an “old friend”.

warnings: mentions of cheating, angst, pregnancy, slight trauma mentions (lmk if i missed any!)

i got inspired for this by an outsider imagine that i read like a really longgggg time ago... so enjoy this ig (AND YES THERE WILL BE A PART 2 TO THIS)

(PART 2)

—

neville’s whole life had been filled with regrets. they seeped into his skin, torturing his clouded mind on day to day basis. the trauma from the second war had left a mark on him, and even though he was now in the infamous herbology professor at hogwarts, he still didn’t feel as if he was living the life he had always wanted to. he didn’t feel successful, he didn’t feel... good about himself. and the main source of that?

you.

his biggest regret was losing you. hurting you. leaving you in such a needing time.

it had all started after the war. you two had been inseparable since 2nd year, as you were the one who had helped him down from the chandelier when he was tragically hung up by those pesky pixies. and ever since then, he was enamored with you. he was consumed by the mere thought of you. and, your feelings didn’t differ too much.

so, you two became official in your 4th year. you two were each other’s firsts for practically everything that could be a first. and, you wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. you were so in love with him, it tore you from the inside out.

but unfortunately, the war arrived. and, it took a huge toll on your relationship. it affected each bit of what you guys had built together. after the war had ended, you guys tried so hard to make it work. but, neville... it seemed as if he just... gave up.

you would never forget the day you came home from work to your shared apartment, and heard strange noises coming from your bedroom. you went up, deep down, already knowing what the noises were. and of course, when you opened the door, your worst nightmare had became a reality. and even worse?

you were pregnant.

neville knew this too, but, he felt as if he had spent so long being “stuck” in a relationship with you, he never got the chance to meet new people. and because of that, for the sake of your child, you left. because, he had left you first, and he had done something unforgivable. something that would leave you scarred, and something that would take hold of you for years.

but, now things were different for you. you were more than content with where your life was at right now. you had an amazing job as the journalist for the daily prophet, and you were damn good at it too. it was a collective agreement that you were definitely a step up from rita skeeter.

neville couldn’t disagree more, though. not that he didn’t think you were good at your job, he always thought that you were an amazing writer. but, he had to force himself to cancel his personal subscription to the daily prophet, as the simple mention of your name on the front page, or sometimes, maybe even your picture, broke his heart to see. some from guilt, but mostly, from just missing you.

just five years later, here you were. walking through a muggle hardware store, looking at all of the houseplants that surrounded the small garden.

“mummy, look!”

you whipped your head around, and smiled when you saw your small son, chubby just like neville used to be when he was young. you had always tried to disregard the fact that he looked exactly like his father, but it was difficult to. you loved your son, with everything you had in your body, but, he was a constant reminder of all the pain that had been caused.

“very nice, nev!” you giggled, watching as your son played with a single pink flower bouquet. he grinned at you, and suddenly plucked the fresh flower off of it’s stem. you gasped, and wanted your hand at him, “neville longbottom! we don’t do that! do you want to get in trouble?!”

his face contorted into a guilty one as he made those ridiculously adorable puppy dog eyes at you, “i’m sorry, mum... i-i-i didn’t know. i was trying to pick it for you...”

you couldn’t help but to feel a little guilty as he sadly dropped the broken off flower on the floor, watching as it blew away from the huge fan that hung above the both of you.

“it’s okay, dear. but, try not to pick them from the actual stems, okay? just... look on the floor. you’ll see a bunch of free flowers everywhere.” you teased, sending him a small smile. he looked up at you, and those sad puppy dog eyes quickly sparkled with excitement as he ran away, looking around the garden for those small, long forgotten flowers.

you chuckled quietly to yourself as you watched your son, seeing how his eyes glowed from all of the plants.

yeah. he was definitely neville’s son.

you turned your body back around, attempting to continue your shopping. but, your body then collided with another, causing you to come to a complete halt.

“oh, merlin! i’m so—“ you were just about to spurt out multiple apologies, until, you looked at the figure.

there he was. tall, muscular, and a intent gaze fixated on his face as he stared at you.

“n—neville?”

he was so shocked. he couldn’t even let out a single mutter. you were right there. right in front of him. after not seeing you for so long, but thinking about you always, you were finally right here.

“y/n...” he breathed out finally, trying to not show how incredibly nervous he was.

this was the first time you two had seen each other since the day you packed all of your things, and left him standing alone at the door step that once belonged to the both of you. he could never seem to part with the apartment, the whole environment still leaving trails of you. so, of course, he still resided there during his off times.

“um—wow... shit—i’m sorry. you know... for bumping into you...” he laughed nervously, stepping away from you. you gave him a nervous chuckle as well, trying to hide the redness that was now blending within your skin.

“oh—it’s alright. i should’ve—you know... been watching where i was going...”

neville opened his mouth to respond, as he wanted to ask you so many things. but, he was interrupted by a small child running up to you, tears streaming down his face as he clutched onto your leg.

“mum...” he sniffled out, and you looked down with a concerned look on your face, “t-t-the lady yelled at me...i-i-i accidentally b-broke one of the f-f-flowers...”

neville knew those eyes. he knew that familiar stutter. he knew those tears. it was like practically looking into a mirror.

that was his son.

you looked over at neville nervously, seeing realization flashing in his green orbs. but, you bent down to neville jr, who was an absolute mess. he never took kindly to people getting onto him, especially if they were yelling.

“oh... it’s alright, nev. we have a whole garden at home that we can grow flowers in...” you reassured him, wiping his small tears. he nestled into your touch, “why don’t you go and pick out some seeds? any kind you like... i’ll get them for you.”

there was a shy smile on his face as you said that, and he looked over at the strange man that stood baffled beside you.

“okay...” he sniffled, wiping his nose, “but... who’s that?” he asked, pointing to neville.

you had never told your son about his father, and you had hoped that he never would. but, you knew the day would come. you just didn’t think that day would be today.

“an old friend, darling. now, do as i say and go find some flowers, alright?”

your son nodded, reluctantly leaving you with the tall man that he had no idea the identity of. you stood up fully awkwardly, and looked over at neville who’s face was now angry.

he watched as the boy ran off, “he doesn’t know who i am?” he asked through gritted teeth, his eyes narrowing at you.

you looked back at him, “nev—“

“no... how could you not tell him? that’s my son, y/n. you—you told me you were putting the baby in adoption... how could you lie to me? and him? why would you do that?”

you knew you owed the man an explanation, but all at the same time, he had brought this upon himself. and yeah, maybe it was fucked up that you had lied to him, but, you genuinely did believe at the time you were getting rid of the baby.

“neville... not here. please...”

“no, y/n. you owe me a goddamn explanation. i mean... this is my fucking child we’re talking about. look at him! he looks just like me!”

you looked over at the chubby boy, watching him closely as he skimmed through seeds, staring at the images on the front.

“don’t you think i know that, neville?” you whispered, “listen... we can talk about this. but, not here. and, not while he’s around...”

“no! i want to talk to him! i deserve it—goddamn it, y/n! how could you fucking do this to me?!”

“and how could you cheat on me?! after everything we went through together! you fucking left me in the dust!”

he could see the pain in your eyes. there was obviously still a lot of hurt, so much rage pent up from the whole scenario. of course you had never fully gotten over it. it was still something you thought about on a daily basis, as you had believed at one point that you would be married to neville by now.

“y/n...” neville started, stepping closer to you, “i—i never meant to hurt you...”

you stared into his eyes for a moment, trying to find some sort of other answer other than that stupid apology you had heard so many times before.

“it doesn’t matter, longbottom. i have to go. we can talk about this whole thing another time. goodbye.”

[zachsgamejournal]

PLAYING: Breath of Fire IV

I'm not sure my son is as invested in this game as he was III. He may have point, but he also may need a break...

So, a dragon flooded the dam then said hello at the coast as a mysterious musician hinted at Ryu's dragon lineage.

Afterwards, the group arrives at a town filled with traps. I can't remember 100% why. I think the intent was to keep "monsters" away so that travelers would feel safe to come by. It's kind of silly how the whole town is filled with traps and every villager is obsessed with the efficacy of their own traps.

We need to leave by a pass that is guarded by a soldier. We need the mayor's permission to pass. The mayor has guarded their front door with a cage a la Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. So you have to willing drop into a pit-trap to get into the mayor's basement. But he's not there. It's assumed he's in the nearby woods.

In the woods is an interesting minigame. There's a particular monster the Mayor has been trying to trap. When you see it, you have to track its footprints. But there's a time limit and traps everywhere.

Success means finding the mayor who proudly injures a creature with a trap. A giant boss monster appears to take revenge, which our heroes have to kill. We're then allowed to use the pass (like the guard could have stopped us).

Gonna break plot summarizing to acknowledge how this game doesn't seem as concerned about moral ambiguity and duality. It seems far more focused on war, war-minded nations, and how war hurts the populace.

After the pass we get to Synesta. I have no idea what we're doing here or what to look for. It's said that this town had previously been contaminated by the Hex, but it's been cleared...on the surface. Turns out the nuns of the local orphanage need help catching a rather escapee young boy. After a less-than-fun mini game, you catch the boy and go talk to the nuns.

The nuns remember Nina's sister, Elina, having stopped by on a special mission. But they don't know what happened next. The young boy says he knows, but won't tell until you finish a game of hide-n-seek.

No thank you.

But I have no choice.

After finding all but the escapee kid, it's said he may be hiding out in the city's underbelly, which is still infested with monsters from the Hex. Still, some random dude that Ryu could one-hit kill prevents us from going downstairs. But he's thirsty.

I'm not sure how much the player has an effect on this, but there's a lady with water for sale. She doesn't sell it to you. Just says she's selling it. Then she walks over to the basement guard and the guy gets distracted by water. Less than exciting.

Down in the basement, we find the boy. He admits that Elina was confronted by a Local "merchant" and Imperial officials. So we need to speak to this "merchant": Marlock. But Marlock's front door is guarded by a muscle guy--whose ass we kick. Marlock is intrigued by our violence and agrees to see us.

Marlock, with his French accent, says he didn't do anything bad to Elina (sure). He expects you to do a deed to get his help. He wants you to track down a theif and leave Nina behind...to help out around the house.

I got confused about where the thief was, cause we found his empty hide out. Turns out you have to stop at one the questions marks on the way. The thief makes a run for it. Now at his hideout, we use a mini-game to catch him. He reveals that he was in-debt to Marlock and the stuff he stole was first stolen from him. Cray thinks this is BS and we go back empty handed to confront Marlock.

All the while, Marlock is slowly trying to get Nina to put her hands on him, cause he's a fucking creeper.

Marlock is not excited by our "failure" and says the stuff was his, whether or not he obtained it by fair means. He offers another job, go help out on a sandflier wharf. Once again, we leave Nina to be objectified and sexually harassed by Marlock.

At the wharf, we're tasked with a mini-game of using cray to push barrels and vases into the correct places. Afterward, we have to load a sandflier with a mildly entertaining mini-game. You use a crane to load boxes. It's not very user friendly, but ah-well.

Just as we're about to throw our hands up about the BS, Nina apepars, followed by Marlock. I fear what they implied happen. Anyway, Marlock offers us the "best cabin" to get to...the next place. Which is where he took Elina. This "best Cabin" is a crate. Makes sense, but Cray isn't having it.

We arrive at a large tower the transports things via magic across the sea. After wandering around, fighting monsters (my son doesn't enjoy the fighting: BORING), we get to the top. BUT the imperial soldier that Nina and Ryu confronted at the beginning of the game stops us. He's not gonna let us leave.

After a boss battle, we jump through the portal. The imperial solider can't believe that he's seen a dragon.

This was good, cause I kept thinking about how in BoF3, everyone is obsessed with the fact that Ryu is a dragon. While other dragons are important to the plot in BoF4, it seems no one really cares that Ryu is a dragon.

FLASHBACK

Or...Flash over...no sure.

Fou Lu is recovering from his injuries. Bunyan is helping him (good ole Bunyan). Once healed, Bunyan asks, sadly, if another war is coming. He was a soldier and didn't like the war. Fou Lu heads down the mountain but is confronted by clown-nose, leading imperial troopes. (I can't remember clown-nose's name, but he's the guy that attacked Fou Lu at the beginning.)

Fout Lu fights off the boss, then turns into a dragon to flee. Clown-nose sends another boss, and Fou Lu is injured in his escape.

Back to Ryu and Friends, they've made it to the Imperial side and go to the next town. This town has a large gun, a la Junon (FF7). it's what they used to shoot the Hex at towns across the see. It requires water to cool down, so they needed an aqueduct. I wandered about, talking to everyone, trying to figure out what to do. Apparently I just needed to leave, cause the next area appeared on the map.

it's the aqueduct. It's short, but requires some camera shifting to figure out. It's kind of interesting, because the game warps you to special battle rooms instead of having monsters appear on the screen, it allows the designers to make more interesting dungeons that don't necessarily have to accommodate the appearance of monsters. But also, the towns are waaaaaay too claustrophobic, making it hard to move around and find things.

The aqueduct takes us to the place the team dreamed about. They're sure they'll find Elina hear. We're caught by an official and he tells use Elina WAS there, but is there no longer. I'm sure this is a play on words given what I know about Elina's fate.

So that's it for now.

The world map is interesting. You don't roam freely like in BoF3, but it also takes less work to get to new locals. I'm a little torn, but it's fine. It also allows the world map to just be a map, offering more realistic looking landscapes...in a sense.

I'm enjoying the graphics. Clearly the team better understood the PS1 hardware. It's still fairly block, but the textures are great and look amazing even for a 20+ year old game!

[repentantsky]

Top Games I’m Looking Forward To in 2021 (Part 2)

2021 is here! We can finally say good fucking riddance to 2020, and with that thought in mind, it’s time for part 2 of my list of games I’m looking forward to in well...this year. Gawd that feels good to say. Let’s get into it. Unlike the last list which was only 8 entries long, this one might be super long, and could end up as a two part-er on it’s own. For this list, or possible lists, anything that could come out in 2021 is eligible, not just games with release dates. Just like the last list though, these entries are more ranked based upon how much I want to talk about them, more than how much I want to play them, so some games that I like more, are bound to show up before games I’m less excited about. So, with that said, let’s feel the hype, as we look forward to the biggest, and also possibly underrated releases of 2021. 

Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart

I don’t know if I’ve made it clear here on Tumblr, but I am a massive Ratchet and Clank fan. I have been since the PS2 era, when the original’s demo first released. I remember I used to play that demo over and over waiting for the game to release. These days, Ratchet and Clank has become a major part of my gaming preferences, and Rift Apart looks to be one of the most interesting titles throughout all the series’ run. The idea of of traveling from one time to another, from place to place, and doing so in a way that only current gen hardware can make possible, is an exciting idea. Don’t know about about the rest of you who may stumble upon this list, but I’ve watched the demo for Rift Apart over and over, time and time again. I can only hope that the game will find a release date soon, and stick the landing as Ratchet and Clank have always done to this point. No shooter even comes close to as hype for me. 

Gran Turismo 7. 

I am not a massive racing fan, but there’s nothing quite like a good race in Gran Turismo, something that was sorely lacking on the PS4, as Sport was a weak entry in the long running franchise. Thankfully, Polyphony has seen the errors of their ways, and Gran Turismo 7, which is by far the best looking racer I’ve ever seen, is going back to the formula that made the series so great in the first place. The trailer that showed the game really did a number on fans nostalgia, but also reminded me personally, of just how relaxing and fun a Gran Turismo game is. Whenever this game comes out, be it this year or later, I will absolutely enjoy, every second I spend racing in it. 

Shin Megami Tensei III/V. 

It might seems weird to include two games into one entry, but I feel like if I don’t, I’ll rant and rave until these games release. I am a huge SMT fan, and have been for years, so to see not only a remaster of my possibly my favorite mainline game coming to Switch, as well as us finally getting a new entry after what will easily be 5 years is a dark, cursed, blessing in disguise. The SMT games are dark, and difficult affairs, but that’s exactly what makes them so memorable and interesting. Being able to experience an old classic on a modern system, and seeing the new dark turns that the series is bound is take has me more excited than pretty much anything else coming out this year. Almost. 

Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin.

Surprising even myself, I found that I really loved Monster Hunter Stories on the 3DS back when it released. It’s Pokemon, if Pokemon ever tried to be difficult, with abilities similar to it like flying, made more fun than Pokemon ever tried. Monster Hunter Stories is basically everything that Pokemon could be if it’s management would stop thinking like a Double A developer. Monster Hunter Stories 2, looks like it will be moving forward with that idea in mind, telling possibly a better story than the first. I know a lot of people are looking more forward to Rise, but I’ll be honest, I really think Monster Hunter is suited more for RPG’s these days, than the action combat that it originated from, but that could just be my dumb JRPG riddled brain talking. Whatever it is, Stories 2 is currently my most hyped Switch game of 2021, and I don’t even know what might be able to knock it off that perch, if anything. 

Neo: The World Ends With You. 

Maybe you’ve heard this before, maybe you haven’t, but The World Ends With You is the best game on the DS, plain and simple. Alas the Switch version didn’t quite reach that level if only because the controls were a bit too normal, but despite that, getting a sequel to this game, along with an anime release to boot, is just about the most hype thing that 2021 is doing right now. Neo The World Ends With You is also keeping that fabulous style that on it’s own should have made the original famous. The amazing music of the trailer, along with that even better looking combat, just screams potential. Indeed, very few title will be able to compete with the likes of this game, and most likely, it’s amazing cast to boot. 

Resident Evil Village. 

Like just about every entry on this list, there’s a history for me, and the game in question’s previous entries. That said, Resident Evil has always been a little spotty for me. I enjoy the recent remakes, I loved Resident Evil VII: Biohazard, but I’m not that big a fan of most of the other entries. However, when it comes to horror, the thing I’m looking for most is scares and to that end, Resident Evil Village, looks like it will bring the fire like no other. Warewolves, check, Witches, check, a setting that is naturally unsettling, check, and who knows what else is in store. No matter what is, we are looking at a horror franchise that when it really wants to go in for the scares, goes in hard, and does an amazing job at it. 

Cris Tales 

The reason this one ended up on my Part 2, despite supposedly having a release date, is because it’s supposed, it’s really hard to nail down when it’s coming out, but coming it is, and it to me, appears to be the a contender for personal indie game of 2020. If these two recent lists haven’t made it obvious before now, I am a massive RPG fan, and any game that claims it’s taking influence from old school RPG’s, and adding in their own twists, is high on my radar. Cris Tales is unique in that it has the player looking at the game through the past, present, and future all at once, and will at times have you traveling to all three times to prevent a future event, from causing harm. The idea is engaging, and the demo from last year (That’s still so fun to say, buh-bye 2020) is proof positive that we are looking at an amazing game. 

Kena: Bridge of Spirits. 

While I could probably go on, I feel like this will probably be the last game made for this list, but what a note to end on. Yet another indie game that could potentially be a Game of the Year for me, and likely many others, Kena looks to be an attempt at making some PS2 action games with a more nature themed vibe in the modern era. I really feel like with it’s amazing visuals, fantastic premise, and overall design, Kena could become the Jak and Daxter of PS5, and in fact I hope that it does. Kena: Bridge of Spirts is stunning, and absolutely should be on everyone’s radar this year. 

And that’s it, did I miss anything else? Let me know in the notes below, be sure to follow for most lists like this, and enjoy the start of 2021. It’s about time. 

[gaminggambler956]

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[blazehedgehog]

Is it me or are fangames and indie games looking more and more professional?

I think you can probably trace a line directly from Unity and Unreal Engine moving from paid to free a few years ago. The kids who grew up tinkering with game creation tools are now becoming young adults with a lot of experience under their belts.

We’re also reaching a point where, like... so a big problem with things like Unity, or Game Maker, or Clickteam Fusion is overhead, right. You get better performance when you write a specialized engine that focuses on the needs of one game. This is why something like Devil May Cry 5 can run at 60fps on the PS4 and look amazing, whereas Yooka-Laylee on the PS4 only hits 30fps, has input lag, and only really looks okay.

DMC5 is running on something custom-made just for Capcom, and Yooka-Laylee is running in Unity. It’s the “jack of all trades, master of none” problem I’ve mentioned recently on this blog. Unity specializes in nothing, it has to do everything, so it’s also a little bit bad at everything, too. That’s the curse of casting such a wide net.

But something you learn is that eventually you reach a point where that doesn’t matter. Hardware catches up enough so that even greedy code with lots of overhead still runs well even if it’s not super optimized.

This happened with the original PC port of Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath. The original Stranger’s Wrath came out as an Xbox exclusive in 2005, and the game never made it to any other platform because it sold poorly and Oddworld Inhabitants (the developer) shut down.

In 2011 or so, it was rescued by a new developer called “Just Add Water” (JAW) who made a PC port. They ported the entire game directly from the Xbox with little consideration on hardware differences between a modern PC and a 9 year old game console. They considered this quick-and-dirty port “good enough”, because on their test machine (not outrageously powerful, but higher end) they could run the game at 800x600 at 30-40fps.  But... if you stop and think about it, that’s ridiculous -- the game was six years old at this point, target hardware was a decade old or more, and if you ran a vintage PC game from that era on that modern machine, it would absolutely be a locked 60fps with all the settings maxed out. The fact they were boasting about 40fps at a low resolution for the PC port of a six year old Xbox game was super weird.

I remember this because I had a mid-to-low range PC at the time, and for me, that first release of the Stranger’s Wrath PC port was a complete disaster. When you consider the specs of the 2001-era Xbox and the type of visuals Stranger’s Wrath was pushing, even my aging PC still should’ve been able to handle the game no problem. Instead, the framerate was a slideshow at best.

But the “standard” of hardware had raised enough that when JAW made their sloppy, cheapy port, it ran “fine” on their target system. They didn’t bother to optimize things any further than that because it just didn’t matter. There was no need to tinker with something that already ran “fine.” My system was behind the curve, so the game wasn’t going to run well on my hardware, no matter how much it didn’t make sense considering the game’s true age. 

(Note: About four or five years after the first release, JAW returned to the Stranger’s Wrath PC port and effectively re-wrote the entire rendering engine from scratch, so it’s much more optimized nowadays. It just took them half of a console generation to finally fix it.)

Circling back around to game engines being overstuffed “jacks of all trades,” we’re reaching that point with these game creation tools. Compared to what they SHOULD be, it doesn’t matter how bloated and slow they are, because hardware is reaching a point where it can just power through all that bloat and still deliver a nice experience. Whereas there was a time you’d have to do things “the hard way” to achieve nice looking results, now there’s so much breathing room with hardware that you can fill it up with whatever clumsy spaghetti code you want and that might still turn out okay.

If you dream it, you can make it, even if you don’t necessarily know how to make it well.

[go-redgirl]

John Kerry’s Service Record Were John Kerry's Vietnam War service medals earned under 'fishy' circumstances? David Mikkelson

Claim:

  John Kerry’s Vietnam War service medals (a Bronze Star, a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts) were earned under “fishy” circumstances. This was written by a retired admiral and Annapolis graduate. The item offers no direct testimony about Kerry, but it does provide informed background useful in assessing what Kerry seems to have claimed for himself. It confirms information I have received from other sources. Our media should be demanding that Senator Kerry open his service records in the same way they demanded that of President Bush regarding his NG service. I was in the Delta shortly after he [Kerry] left. I know that area well. I know the operations he was involved in well. I know the tactics and the doctrine used. I know the equipment. Although I was attached to CTF-116 (PBRs) I spent a fair amount of time with CTF-115 (swift boats), Kerry’s command. Here are my problems and suspicions:

(1) Kerry was in-country less than four months and collected, a Bronze Star, a Silver Star and three purple hearts. I never heard of anybody with any outfit I worked with (including SEAL One, the Sea Wolves, Riverines and the River Patrol Force) collecting that much hardware so fast, and for such pedestrian actions. The Swifts did a commendable job. But that duty wasn’t the worst you could draw. They operated only along the coast and in the major rivers (Bassac and Mekong). The rough stuff in the hot areas was mainly handled by the smaller, faster PBRs.

(2) Three Purple Hearts, but no limp. All injuries so minor that no time lost from duty. Amazing luck. Or he was putting himself in for medals every time he bumped his head on the wheel house hatch? Combat on the boats was almost always at close range. You didn’t have minor wounds. At least not often. Not three times in a row. Then he used the three purple hearts to request a trip home eight months before the end of his tour. Fishy.

(3) The details of the event for which he was given the Silver Star make no sense at all. Supposedly, a B-40 was fired at the boat and missed. Charlie jumps up with the launcher in his hand, the bow gunner knocks him down with the twin .50, Kerry beaches the boat, jumps off, shoots Charlie, and retreives the launcher. If true, he did everything wrong. (a) Standard procedure when you took rocket fire was to put your stern to the action and go balls to the wall. A B-40 has the ballistic integrity of a frisbie after about 25 yards, so you put 50 yards or so between you and the beach and begin raking it with your .50’s. (b) Did you ever see anybody get knocked down with a .50 caliber round and get up? The guy was dead or dying. The rocket launcher was empty. There was no reason to go after him (except if you knew he was no danger to you just flopping around in the dust during his last few seconds on earth, and you wanted some derring do in your after-action report). And we didn’t shoot wounded people. We had rules against that, too. (c) Kerry got off the boat. This was a major breach of standing procedures. Nobody on a boat crew ever got off a boat in a hot area. EVER! The reason was simple. If you had somebody on the beach your boat was defenseless. It coudn’t run and it couldn’t return fire. It was stupid and it put his crew in danger. He should have been relieved and reprimanded. I never heard of any boat crewman ever leaving a boat during or after a firefight. Something is fishy. Here we have a JFK wannabe (the guy Halsey wanted to court martial for carelessly losing his boat and getting a couple people killed by running across the bow of a Jap destroyer) who is hardly in Vietnam long enough to get good tan, collects medals faster than Audie Murphy in a job where lots of medals weren’t common, gets sent home eight months early, requests separation from active duty a few months after that so he can run for Congress, finds out war heros don’t sell well in Massachusetts in 1970 so reinvents himself as Jane Fonda, throws his ribbons in the dirt with the cameras running to jump start his political career, gets Stillborn Pell to invite him to address Congress and Bobby Kennedy’s speechwriter to do the heavy lifting, winds up in the Senate himself a few years later, votes against every major defense bill, says the CIA is irrelevant after the Wall came down, votes against the Gulf War, a big mistake since that turned out well, decides not to make the same mistake twice so votes for invading Iraq, but oops, that didn’t turn out so well so he now says he really didn’t mean for Bush to go to war when he voted to allow him to go to war. I’m real glad you or I never had this guy covering our flanks in Vietnam. I sure don’t want him as Commander in Chief. I hope that somebody from CTF-115 shows up with some facts challenging Kerry’s Vietnam record. I know in my gut it’s wildy inflated. And fishy. rigins:   In Vietnam, Lieutenant John Kerry served aboard 50-foot aluminum boats known as PCFs (from “patrol craft fast”) or “Swift boats” (supposedly an acronym for “Shallow Water Inshore Fast Tactical Craft”). Despite the implications contained in the piece quoted above (“that duty wasn’t the worst you could draw”), Swift boat duty was plenty dangerous: . . . two weeks after [Kerry] arrived in Vietnam, the swift boat mission changed — and Kerry went from having one of the safest assignments in the escalating conflict to one of the most dangerous. Under the newly launched Operation SEALORD, swift boats were charged with patrolling the narrow waterways of the Mekong Delta to draw fire and smoke out the enemy. Cruising inlets and coves and canals, swift boats were especially vulnerable targets. Originally designed to ferry oil workers to ocean rigs, swift boats offered flimsy protection. Because bullets could easily penetrate the hull, sailors hung flak jackets over the sides. The boat’s loud engine invited ambushes. Speed was its saving grace — but that wasn’t always an option in narrow, heavily mined canals. The swift boat crew typically consisted of a college-educated skipper, such as Kerry, and five blue-collar sailors averaging 19 years old. The most vulnerable sailor sat in the “tub” — a squat nest that rose above the pilot house — and operated a pair of .50-caliber machine guns. Another gunner was in the rear. Kerry’s mission was to wait until hidden Viet Cong guerrillas started shooting, then order his men to return fire. If John Kerry was not at all unusual that a Swift boat crew member might be wounded more than once in a relatively short period of time, or that injuries meriting the award of a Purple Heart might not be serious enough to require time off from duty. According to a Boston Globe overview of John Kerry’s Vietnam experience: Under [Navy Admiral Elmo] Zumwalt’s command, swift boats would aggressively engage the enemy. Zumwalt, who died in 2000, calculated in his autobiography that these men under his command had a 75 percent chance of being killed or wounded during a typical year.

“There were an awful lot of Purple Hearts — from shrapnel, some of those might have been M-40 grenades,” said George Elliott, Kerry’s commanding officer. “The Purple Hearts were coming down in boxes. Kerry, he had three Purple Hearts. None of them took him off duty. Not to belittle it, that was more the rule than the exception.” And according to Douglas Brinkley’s history of John Kerry and the Vietnam War: As generally understood, the Purple Heart is given to any U.S. citizen wounded in wartime service to the nation. Giving out Purple Hearts increased as the United States started sending Swifts up rivers. Sailors — no longer safe on aircraft carriers or battleships in the Gulf of Tonkin — were starting to bleed, a lot. John Kerry was wounded in his first significant combat action, when he volunteered for a special mission on 2 December 1968: “It was a half-assed action that hardly qualfied as combat, but it was my first, and that made it very exciting,” [Kerry said]. “Three of us, two enlisted men and myself, had stayed up all night in a Boston Whaler [a foam-filled-fiberglass boat] patrolling the shore off a Viet Cong-infested peninsula north of Cam Ranh . . . 

Most of the night had been spent being scared shitless by fisherman whom we would suddenly creep up on in the darkness. Once, one of the sailors was so startled by two men who surprised us as we came around a corner ten yards from the shore that he actually pulled the trigger on his machine gun. Fortunately for the two men, he had forgotten to switch off the safety . . .” As it turned out, the two men really were just a pair of innocent fisherman who didn’t know where one zone began and the other ended. Their papers were perfectly in order, if their night’s fishing over. 

The fear was that they were VC. Allowing them to continue might have compromised the mission. For the next four hours Kerry’s Boston Whaler, using paddles, brought boatloads of fisherman they found in sampans, all operating in a curfew zone, back to the Swift. It was tiring work. “We deposited them with the Swift boat that remained out in the deep water to give us cover,” Kerry continued. 

“Then, very early in the morning, around 2:00 or 3:00, while it was still dark, we proceeded up the tiny inlet between the island and the peninsula to the point designated as our objective. 

The jungle closed in on us on both sides. It was scary as hell. You could hear yourself breathing. We were almost touching the shore. Suddenly, through the magnified moonlight of the infrared ‘starlight scope,’ I watched, mesmerized, as a group of sampans glided in toward the shore. We had been briefed that this was a favorite crossing area for VC trafficking contraband.” With its motor turned off, Kerry paddled the Boston Whaler out of the inlet into the beginning of the bay. Simultaneously the Vietnamese pulled their sampans up onto the beach and began to unload something; he couldn’t tell what, so he decided to illuminate the proceedings with a flare.

 The entire sky seemed to explode into daylight. The men from the sampans bolted erect, stiff with shock for only an instant before they sprang for cover like a herd of panicked gazelles Kerry had once seen on TV’s Wild Kingdom. “We opened fire,” he went on. 

“The light from the flares started to fade, the air was full of explosions. My M-16 jammed, and as I bent down in the boat to grab another gun, a stinging piece of heat socked into my arm and just seemed to burn like hell. By this time one of the sailors had started the engine and we ran by the beach, strafing it. Then it was quiet. “We stayed quiet and low because we did not want to illuminate ourselves at that point,” Kerry explained. “In the dead of night, without any knowledge of what kind of force was there, we were not all about to go crawling on the beach to get our asses shot off. We were unprotected; we didn’t have ammunition, we didn’t have cover, we just weren’t prepared for that . . . So we first shot the sampans so that they were destroyed and whatever was in them was destroyed.” Then their cover boat warned of a possible VC ambush in the small channel they had to exit through, and Kerry and company departed the area. The “stinging piece of heat” Kerry felt in his arm had been caused by a piece of shrapnel, a wound for which he was awarded a Purple Heart. The injury was not serious — Brinkley notes that Kerry went on a regular Swift boat patrol the next day with a bandage on his arm, and the Boston Globe quoted William Schachte, who oversaw the mission and went on to become a rear admiral, as recalling that “It was not a very serious wound at all.” Kerry earned his second Purple Heart while returning from a PCF mission up the Bo De River on 20 February 1969: One of the mission’s support helicopters had been hit by small-arms fire during the trip up the Bo De and the rest had returned with it to their base to refuel and get the damage inspected. While there the pilots found that they wouldn’t be able to return to the Swifts for several more hours. “We therefore had a choice: 

to wait for what was not a confirmed return by the helos [and] give any snipers more time to set up an ambush for our exit or we could take a chance and exit immediately without any cover,” Kerry recorded in his notebook. “We chose the latter.”

Just as they moved out onto the Cua Lon, at a junction known for unfriendliness in the past, kaboom! PCF-94 had taken a rocket-propelled grenade round off the port side, fired at them from the far left bank. Kerry felt a piece of hot shrapnel bore into his left leg. With blood running down the deck, the Swift managed to make an otherwise uneventful exit into the Gulf of Thailand, where they rendezvoused with a Coast Guard cutter. The injury Kerry suffered in that action earned his his second Purple Heart. Brinkley noted that, as in the previous case, “Kerry’s wound was not serious enough to require time off from duty.” Kerry earned his Silver Star on 28 February 1969, when he beached his craft and jumped off it with an M-16 rifle in hand to chase and shoot a guerrilla who was running into position to launch a B-40 rocket at Kerry’s boat. Contrary to the account quoted above, Kerry did not shoot a “Charlie” who had “fired at the boat and missed,” whose “rocket launcher was empty,” and who was “already dead or dying” after being “knocked down with a .50 caliber round.” Kerry’s boat had been hit by a rocket fired by someone else — the guerrilla in question was still armed with a live B-40 and had only been clipped in the leg; when the guerrilla got up to run, Kerry assumed he was getting into position to launch a rocket and shot him: On Feb. 28, 1969, Kerry’s boat received word that a swift boat was being ambushed. As Kerry raced to the scene, his boat became another target, as a Viet Cong B-40 rocket blast shattered a window. Kerry could have ordered his crew to hit the enemy and run. But the skipper had a more aggressive reaction in mind. Beach the boat, Kerry ordered, and the craft’s bow was quickly rammed upon the shoreline. Out of the bush appeared a teenager in a loin cloth, clutching a grenade launcher. An enemy was just feet away, holding a weapon with enough firepower to blow up the boat. Kerry’s forward gunner, [Tommy] Belodeau, shot and clipped the Viet Cong in the leg. Then Belodeau’s gun jammed, according to other crewmates (Belodeau died in 1997). [Michael] Medeiros tried to fire at the Viet Cong, but he couldn’t get a shot off. In an interview, Kerry added a chilling detail. “This guy could have dispatched us in a second, but for . . . I’ll never be able to explain, we were literally face to face, he with his B-40 rocket and us in our boat, and he didn’t pull the trigger. I would not be here today talking to you if he had,” Kerry recalled. “And Tommy clipped him, and he started going [down.] I thought it was over.” Instead, the guerrilla got up and started running. “We’ve got to get him, make sure he doesn’t get behind the hut, and then we’re in trouble,” Kerry recalled. So Kerry shot and killed the guerrilla. “I don’t have a second’s question about that, nor does anybody who was with me,” he said. “He was running away with a live B-40, and, I thought, poised to turn around and fire it.” Asked whether that meant Kerry shot the guerrilla in the back, Kerry said, “No, absolutely not. He was hurt, other guys were shooting from back, side, back. There is no, there is not a scintilla of question in any person’s mind who was there [that] this guy was dangerous, he was a combatant, he had an armed weapon.” Another member of the crew confirmed Kerry’s account for the Boston Globe and expressed no doubt that Kerry’s action had saved both the boat and its crew: The crewman with the best view of the action was Frederic Short, the man in the tub operating the twin guns. Short had not talked to Kerry for 34 years, until after he was recently contacted by a Globe reporter. Kerry said he had “totally forgotten” Short was on board that day. Short had joined Kerry’s crew just two weeks earlier, as a last-minute replacement, and he was as green as the Arkansas grass of his home. He said he didn’t realize that he should have carried an M-16 rifle, figuring the tub’s machine guns would be enough. But as Kerry stood face to face with the guerrilla carrying the rocket, Short realized his predicament. With the boat beached and the bow tilted up, a guard rail prevented him from taking aim at the enemy. For a terrifying moment, the guerrilla looked straight at Short with the rocket. Short believes the guerrilla didn’t fire because he was too close and needed to be a suitable distance to hit the boat squarely and avoid ricochet debris. Short tried to protect his skipper. “I laid in fire with the twin .50s, and he got behind a hootch,” recalled Short. “I laid 50 rounds in there, and Mr. Kerry went in. Rounds were coming everywhere. We were getting fire from both sides of the river. It was a canal. We were receiving fire from the opposite bank, also, and there was no way I could bring my guns to bear on that.” Short said there is “no doubt” that Kerry saved the boat and crew. “That was a him-or-us thing, that was a loaded weapon with a shape charge on it . . . It could pierce a tank. I wouldn’t have been here talking to you. I probably prayed more up that creek than a Southern Baptist church does in a month.” Charles Gibson, who served on Kerry’s boat that day because he was on a one-week indoctrination course, said Kerry’s action was dangerous but necessary. “Every day you wake up and say, ‘How the hell did we get out of that alive?'” Gibson said. “Kerry was a good leader. He knew what he was doing.” Although Kerry’s superiors were somewhat concerned about the issue of his leaving his boat unattended, they nonetheless found his actions courageous and worthy of commendation: When Kerry returned to his base, his commanding officer, George Elliott, raised an issue with Kerry: the fine line between whether the action merited a medal or a court-martial. “When [Kerry] came back from the well-publicized action where he beached his boat in middle of ambush and chased a VC around a hootch and ended his life, when [Kerry] came back and I heard his debrief, I said, ‘John, I don’t know whether you should be court-martialed or given a medal, court-martialed for leaving your ship, your post,'” Elliott recalled in an interview. “But I ended up writing it up for a Silver Star, which is well deserved, and I have no regrets or second thoughts at all about that,” Elliott said. A Silver Star, which the Navy said is its fifth-highest medal, commends distinctive gallantry in action. Asked why he had raised the issue of a court-martial, Elliott said he did so “half tongue-in-cheek, because there was never any question I wanted him to realize I didn’t want him to leave his boat unattended. That was in context of big-ship Navy — my background. A C.O. [commanding officer] never leaves his ship in battle or anything else. I realize this, first of all, it was pretty courageous to turn into an ambush even though you usually find no more than two or three people there. On the other hand, on an operation some time later, down on the very tip of the peninsula, we had lost one boat and several men in a big operation, and they were hit by a lot more than two or three people.” Elliott stressed that he never questioned Kerry’s decision to kill the Viet Cong, and he appeared in Boston at Kerry’s side during the 1996 Senate race to back up that aspect of Kerry’s action. “I don’t think they were exactly ready to court-martial him,” said Wade Sanders, who commanded a swift boat that sometimes accompanied Kerry’s vessel, and who later became deputy assistant secretary of the Navy. “I can only say from the certainty borne of experience that there must have been some rumbling about, ‘What are we going to do with this guy, he turned his boat,’ and I can hear the words, ‘He endangered his crew.’ But from our position, the tactic to take is whatever action is best designed to eliminate the enemy threat, which is what he did.” Indeed, the Silver Star citation makes clear that Kerry’s performance on that day was both extraordinary and risky. “With utter disregard for his own safety and the enemy rockets,” the citation says, Kerry “again ordered a charge on the enemy, beached his boat only 10 feet from the Viet Cong rocket position and personally led a landing party ashore in pursuit of the enemy . . . The extraordinary daring and personal courage of Lt. Kerry in attacking a numerically superior force in the face of intense fire were responsible for the highly successful mission.” Kerry was injured yet again on 13 March 1969, in an action for which he was awarded both a Bronze Star and his third Purple Heart. According to Kerry’s Bronze Star citation (signed by Admiral Zumwalt himself): Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry was serving as an Officer-in-Charge of Inshore Patrol Craft 94, one of five boats conducting a Sealords operation in the Bay Hap River. While exiting the river, a mine detonated under another Inshore Patrol Craft and almost simultaneously, another mine detonated wounding Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry in the right arm. In addition, all units began receiving small arms and automatic weapons fire from the river banks. When Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry discovered he had a man overboard, he returned upriver to assist. 

The man in the water was receiving sniper fire from both banks. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry directed his gunners to provide suppressing fire, while from an exposed position on the bow, his arm bleeding and in pain and with disregard for his personal safety, he pulled the man aboard. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry then directed his boat to return to and assist the other damaged boat to safety. Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry’s calmness, professionalism and great personal courage under fire were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service. According to the Boston Globe, this was the only one of Kerry’s three Purple Heart injuries that caused him to miss any days of service: Kerry had been wounded three times and received three Purple Hearts. Asked about the severity of the wounds, Kerry said that one of them cost him about two days of service, and that the other two did not interrupt his duty. “Walking wounded,” as Kerry put it. 

A shrapnel wound in his left arm gave Kerry pain for years. Kerry declined a request from the Globe to sign a waiver authorizing the release of military documents that are covered under the Privacy Act and that might shed more light on the extent of the treatment Kerry needed as a result of the wounds. Back in 1969, Navy regulations specified that any soldier wounded in combat three times be automatically reassigned away from a combat zone to an assignment of his choosing (unless the thrice-wounded soldier specifically requested to stay). 

Four days after Kerry took his third hit of shrapnel, Commodore Charles F. Horne, an administrative official and commander of the coastal squadron in which Kerry served, forwarded a request on Kerry’s behalf to the Navy Bureau of Personnel asking that Kerry be reassigned to “duty as a personal aide in Boston, New York, or Washington, D.C.” 

Soon afterwards Kerry was transferred to Cam Ranh Bay to await further orders, and within a month he had been reassigned as a personal aide and flag lieutenant to Rear Admiral Walter F. Schlech, Jr. with the Military Sea Transportation Service based in Brooklyn, New York. Kerry served with Admiral Schlech until the end of 1969, when he requested an early discharge from the Navy in order to run for a Massachusetts congressional seat. Admiral Schlech approved the request, and on 3 January 1970 Kerry received an honorable discharge, six months early.

______________________________________

OPINION:  John Kerry is not a honest human-being.  He wanted to be recognized so desperately that he went to the extremed with his alleged lies.

Some people will just do anything to get ahead instead of earning their way through life.

Let the truth be told!

[duxgamecom]

Duxgame

In the late 80s, when the concept of video games started booming, not many could've predicted what will gaming be like in 2020. There was a time when so many different hardware and equipment were required to run one game properly. On top, people were spending a fortune on TVs, games, and a proper setup to play a game that won't last thirty minutes. Comparing that to today, things have changed so much.

RELATED: 10 PlayStation 2 Games That Still Look Amazing In 2020

Many people are now spending hundreds of hours on video games, right from their mobile phones while lying in bed. People can even play what was once console games, right from the comfort of their internet browser. Duxgame.com also provides the good stuff.

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10 Pac-Man

PAC-MAN first arrived in the market in the 1980s. The game is a Maze arcade title that was once one of the best games in the world. It was later released on home consoles and many other systems as well. But finally, the title can be played right from the browser in one of its most creative forms ever. Players can try out World's Biggest PAC-MAN here and enjoy an endless array of custom levels, all free to play and enjoy. The best part, the game works 100% flawlessly right from the browser.

9 Doom

The original Doom from 1993 will always be a cult-classic and for an excellent reason. The game took the first-person shooter genre into another dimension and gave players the freedom to explore hell. The over-the-top nature of violence in this title was very much appreciated. In fact, this was probably one of the biggest titles in the 90s with so much blood and gore. This is also the reason why the newer Doom games follow the same path. Original Doom is playable in the browser here.

8 Wolfenstein 3D

Wolfenstein has to be the granddaddy of every first-person shooter that came after. This is the title that made FPS games bearable when the world was full of 2D platformers and RPGs. While this might certainly look dated visually, it can still be enjoyed quite a bit. To anyone who wants to experience the evolution of games, this is the perfect title to play. The game can also be played right from the browser here, so not much reason to say no to this.

7 Sid Meier’s Civilization 1 & 2

Released in 1991 and 1996 respectively, Sid Meier's Civilization 1 and 2 are probably not the games for everyone. However, they are the best few games to play for strategy and turn-based tactics fans. Civilization games are quite honestly the pillars on which the genre of strategy games stands today.

RELATED: 10 90s RPGs With Lengthy Main Stories (& How Long They Take To Beat)

So there shouldn't be a shadow of the doubt as to why one should play this, especially since they can be played right from the browser here, without even installing.

6 Diablo

Many RPG fans might remember purchasing Diablo games on discs, only to install them slowly on a computer with 8MB ram. Comparing that to now, Diablo does need to be installed at all. It can directly be loaded from online servers here. Diablo series is easily one of the best RPGs to play, and even with their age, they are so full of details. Blizzard's hack and slash RPG has it all, from a single player to a fully functional multiplayer. Now that is commendable for the time.

5 Counter-Strike 1.6

If Wolfenstein was the granddaddy of FPS titles, Counter-Strike is the first-person shooter multiplayer game's granny. This is one of the best shooters in the market that are still played to this day. Obviously, being such an old title, there must be a way of playing this without any hassle.

RELATED: 10 90s Shooters With Lengthy Campaigns (& How Long They Take To Beat)

Well, luckily there is, and that is called the cs-online club. The game can be directly launched from here and only needs to be loaded once, even on a low-end computer.

4 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Now, obviously, most retro 2d games from the Nintendo Entertainment System are easily available to play via emulators. But why download a whole different software to play these games when they easily boot online. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and many games like this can be played directly from the browser here. This is a must for retro fans, as they will no longer have to mess with downloading emulators, ROMs, bios, and whatnot.

3 Fallout

Another classic RPG that once required people to install a full disc onto the computer to play is now playable online in just a few taps. The Fallout comes from 1997 and has always been a PC exclusive. This is why not a lot of gamers have played the older titles. This is also because they are not easily available to everyone. However, things couldn't have been better because now the original Fallout can be played right from the browser.

2 Super Mario Bros.

This game has to be on the top of the list because of its sheer significance. Super Mario Bros. was released in 1985, and since then, many brothers and sisters to the game have released. However, the original remains one of the best console games of its time and one of the most famous. Luckily the game is easily available to play online and should cheer up everyone who decides to play this.

1 Stadia

While Stadia isn't just one game, it is an amalgamation of plenty of heavy-duty titles. It has games such as Destiny 2, PUBG, and Borderlands 3, which are directly playable right from the servers. The best part is, people who aren't so much into high-end gaming and purchasing expensive hardware, will find this way of playing games super easy. Since modern titles and technologies are still growing, it is not fair to assume the experience will be flawless. However, slowly and steadily it's shaping up.

NEXT: 10 Notable Games Famous Movie Directors Worked On

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                                                                               About The Author                                                                                    

                                                                                       Ashish Walia                                        (81 Articles Published)                                            

Ashish Walia is a writer, animator, designer, and, most importantly, a gamer. He's a part of Valnet, Inc, writing for TheGamer.com and GameRant.com. He's a Bachelor of Arts and is very keen on doing anything and everything that piques his interest. One of those interests just happens to be drawing oddball comics on his Instagram @toonacious. Rumor has it, he thinks about video games more than he breaths.

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Enthusiast Gaming is a media and technology business developing the largest neighborhood of authentic gamers. Travel into a virtual world with a VR headset , where all of your senses will be treated to a barrage of stimulus from different sources. With the Oculus Rift + Touch Virtual Reality Program , you'd have to prepare your self for extra intense gameplays, much more immersive action, and a completely new and exhilarating gaming present experience as the package currently comes with six VR games that will maintain your heart pumping via your chest. The Oculus Touch controllers are ingeniously developed for optimum and unparalleled interaction with the many components in the virtual planet. You will want to meet particular technique specifications on your laptop, though. This also makes a perfect gift for nerds in your life.

It really is difficult to evaluate 15mm rulesets due to the fact they're typically so various, so rather than try I will merely say this Patrol Angis stands on its own laurels as an exemplar of contemporary wargaming. It is rapid to play, it has sophisticated systems, and it is not overburdened by rules. It has a working points technique. It benefits drastically from the great fluff of the Ion Age and the miniatures that go with it but could easily be applied for any 15mm games you want to play. Regardless of its billing as a one-platoon skirmish game I can not see any reason why it wouldn't hold up nicely with 10+ units on the board.

You have played thousands of distinct board games, yes that is ideal not hundreds, but thousands. You are a member of various gaming groups, and you have come to realise that distinctive groups have distinctive personalities and exclusive dynamics. You realize what style of games you love and precise mechanics that you do and do not like in a game. You do not actively preach or inform individuals about board games, but when asked you are an ambassador for the genre and with your vast knowledge you can usually add thoughtful discussion and predictions with regards to games you are yet to play. Your collection is the perfect variety of games that you like. It is not simple for a new game to make it into your collection, and you have a defined a rigorous trial of fire that any game should meet to make it effectively into your collection.

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[maximelebled]

My quick review of the ASUS XG27UQ monitor (4K, HDR, 120Hz)

I originally wanted to tweet this series of bullet points out but it was getting way too long, so here goes! I got this to replace a PG278Q, which was starting to develop odd white stains, and never had good color reproduction in the first place (TN film drawbacks, very low gamma resulting in excessively bright shadows, under-saturated shadows, etc.)

The hardware aesthetic is alright! The bezels may feel a bit large to some people, but I don’t mind them at all. If you’re a fan of the no-bezel look, you’ll probably hate it. There is a glowing logo on the back that you can customize (Static Cyan is my recommendation), but it isn’t bright enough to be used as bias lighting, which would’ve been nice.

The built-in stand is decent; it comes with a tacky and distracting light projection feature at the bottom. It felt quite stable, though I don’t care about it because it got instantly replaced by an Ergotron LX arm. (I have two now, I really recommend them in spite of their price.) 

The coating is a little grainy and this is noticeable on pure colors! You can kinda see the texture come through, a bit more than I’d like. Not a huge deal though.

The rest of the review will be under the cut.

The default color preset (”racing mode”), which the monitor is calibrated against, is very vivid and saturated. It looks great! But it’s inherently inaccurate, which bothers me, so I don’t like it. It looks like as if sRGB got stretched into the expanded gamut of the monitor.

sRGB “emulation” looks very similar to my Dell U2717D, whose sRGB mode is factory-calibrated. However, the XG27UQ’s sRGB mode has lower gamma (brighter shadows), so while the colors are accurate, the gamma is not. It feels 1.8-ish. Unless you were in a bright room, it would be inappropriate for work that needs to have accurate shadows. This mode also locks other controls, so it’s not the most useful, but the brightness is set well on it, so it is usable!

The “User Mode” settings use the calibrated racing mode as a starting point, which is a big relief. So it’s possible to tweak the color temperature and the saturation from there! I checked pure white against my Dell monitor and my smartphone (S9+) and tried to reach a reasonable 3-way compromise between them, knowing that the Dell is most likely the most accurate, and that Samsung also allegedly calibrates their high-end smartphones well. My configuration ended up being R:90/G:95/B:100 + SAT:42. This matches the saturation of the U2717D sRGB mode fairly closely. You also get to choose between 1.8, 2.2, and 2.5 gamma too, which is not too granular, but great to have. It kinda feels like my ideal match is between 2.2 and 2.5, but 2.2 is fine.

The color gamma according to lagom.nl looked fine, but I had to open the picture in Paint, otherwise it was DPI-scaled in the browser, and that messed with the way it works!! (That website is an amazing resource for quick monitor checks.)

Colors are however somewhat inaccurate in this mode. It’s easy to see by comparing the tweaked User Mode vs. sRGB emulation. There are some rather sizeable hue shifts in certain cases. I believe part of this is caused by the saturation tweak not operating properly.

Here’s a photo of what the Photoshop color picker looks like when Saturation is set to 0 on the monitor, vs. what a proper grayscale conversion should be. It’s definitely not using the right coefficients. 

So in practice, when using the Racing & User modes, compared to the U2717D sRGB, here’s a few examples of what I see:

Reds are colder (towards the purple side) & oversaturated

Bright yellow (255,215,90) is undersaturated

Bright green (120,200,130) is undersaturated

Dark green (0,105,60) is fine

Magenta (220,13,128) is oversaturated

Dark reds & brown (150,20,20 to 90,15,10) is oversaturated

Cyan (0,180,240) is fine 

Pink (230,115,170) is fine

Some shades of bright saturated blue (58,48,220) have the biggest shifts.

The TF2 skin tone becomes slightly desaturated and a bit colder

It’s not inaccurate to the point of being distracting, and you always have the  sRGB mode (with flawed gamma?) to check things with, but it’s definitely not ideal, and some of these shifts go far enough that I wouldn’t recommend this monitor for color work that needs to be very accurate.

I’ve went back and forth, User vs sRGB, several times, on my most recent work (True Sight 2019 sequences). I’ve found the differences were acceptable for the most part; they bothered me the most during the Chronosphere sequence, in which the hazy sunset atmosphere turned a bit into to a rose gold tint, which wasn’t unpleasant at all — and looked quite pretty! — but it wasn’t what I did.

I’m coming from the point of view of a “prosumer” who cares about color accuracy, but who ultimately recognizes that this quest is impossible in the face of so many devices out there being inaccurate or misconfigured one way or the other. In the end, my position is more pragmatic, and I feel that you gotta be able to see how your stuff’s gonna look on the devices where it’ll actually be watched. So while I’ve done color grading on a decent-enough sRGB-calibrated monitor, I’ve always checked it against the inaccurate PG278Q, and I’ve done a little bit of compromising to keep my color work looking alright even once gamma shifted. And so, now, I’ll also be getting to see what my colors look like on a monitor that doesn’t quite restrain itself to sRGB gamut properly.

Well, at least, all of that stuff is out of the box, but...

TFTCentral (one of the most trustworthy monitor review websites, in my opinion) has found suspiciously similar shifts. But after calbration, their unit passed with flying colors (pun intended), so if you really care about this sort of stuff and happen to have a colorimeter... you should give it a try!

I hope one day we’ll be able to load and apply an ICC/ICM profile computer-wide, instead of only being able to load a simple gamma curve on the GPU with third-party tools like DisplayCAL. Even if it had to squeeze the gamut a bit...

Also, there are dynamic dimming / auto contrast ratio features which could potentially be useful in limited scenarios if you don’t care about color accuracy and want to maximize brightness. I believe they are forced on for HDR. But you will probably not care at all.

IPS glow is not very present on my unit; less than on my U2717D. However, when it starts to show up (more than a 30°-ish angle away), it shows up more. UPDATED: after some more time with the monitor, I wanna say that, in fact, IPS glow isit's slightly stronger, and shows up sooner (as in, from broader angles). It requires me to sit a greater distance from the monitor in order to not have it show up and impede dark scenes. It is worse than on my U2717D.

Backlight bleed, on the other hand, is there, and a little bit noticeable. On my unit, there’s a little bit of blue-ish bleed on the lower left corner, and some dark-grey-orange bleed for a good third of the upper-left. However, in practice, and to my eyes, it doesn’t bother me, even when I look for it. It ain’t perfect, but I’ve definitely seen worse, especially from ASUS. The photo above was taken at 100% brightness, and I’ve tried to make it just a tad brighter than what my eyes see, so hopefully it’s a decent sample.

Dead pixels: on my unit, I have 5 stuck dead green subpixels overall. There are 4 in a diamond pattern somewhat down and right to the center of the screen, and another one, a bit to the right of that spot. All of them kinda “shimmer” a little bit, in the sense that they become stronger or weaker based on my angle of view. They’re a bummer but I haven’t found them to be a hindrance. Took me a few days to even notice them for the first time, after all.

HDR is just about meaningless and uses some global dimming techniques, as well as stuff that feels like... you know that Intel HD driver feature that brightens the content on the screen, while lowering the panel backlight power in tandem, to save power, but it kinda flattens (and sometimes clips) highlights? It kinda looks like that sometimes. Without local dimming, HDR is just about meaningless.

Unfortunately, the really nice HDR support in computer monitors is still looking like it’s going to be at the very least a year out, and even longer for sub-1000 price ranges. (I was holding out for the PG27UQX at first, but it still has no word on availability, a whole year after being announced, and will probably cost over two grand, so no thanks.)

G-Sync (variable refresh rate) support is... not there yet?! The latest driver does not recognize the monitor as being compatible with the feature. And it turns out that the product page says that G-Sync support is currently being applied for. Huh. I thought they had special chips in those monitors solely for the feature, but it’s possible this one does it another way? (The same way that Freesync monitors do it?)

DSC (Display Stream Compression) enables 4K 120Hz to work through a single DisplayPort cable, without chroma subsampling. And it’s working for me, which came as a surprise, as I was under the impression this feature required a 2000-series Turing GPUs. (I have a 1080 Ti.) I was wrong about this, it’s 144 Hz that requires DSC. And I don’t have it on this Pascal card. But I don’t really care since I prefer to run this monitor at 120 Hz, as it’s a multiple of the 60 Hz monitor next to it.

Windows DPI scaling support is okay now. Apps that are DPI-aware, and the vast majority of them are now, scale back and forth between 150% and 100% really well as they get dragged between the monitors! The only program I’ve had issues with is good old Winamp, which acted as if it was 100% on the XG27UQ... and shrinked down on another monitor. So I asked it to override DPI scaling behaviour (”scaling performed by: application”), which keeps the player skin at 100% on every monitor, but any call to system fonts and UI (Bento skin’s playlist + Settings panel) are still at 150%. So I had to set the playlist font size to 7 for it to look OK on the non-scaled monitor!

A few apps misbehave in interesting ways; TeamSpeak, for example, seen above, scales everything back from 150% to 100%, and there is no blurriness, but the “larger layout” (spacing, etc.) sticks.

Games look great with 4K in 27 inches. Well, I’ve only really tried Dota 2 so far, but man does it get sharp, especially with the game’s FXAA disabled. It was already a toss-up at 1440p, but at 4K I would argue you might as well keep it disabled. However, going from 2560x1440 to 3840x2160 requires some serious horsepower. It may look like a +50% upgrade in pixels, but it’s actually a +125% increase! (3.68 to 8.29 million pixels.) For a 1080 Ti, maxed-out Dota 2 at 1440p 120hz is really trivial, but once you go to 4K, not anymore...  you could always lower resolution scale though! (Not an elegant solution if you like to use sharpening filters though, looking at you RDR2.)

Overall, the XG27UQ is a good monitor, and I’m satisfied with my purchase, although slightly disappointed by the strong IPS glow and the few dead subpixels. 7/10

[matthewschueller]

The 16 Best Things to Do in Portland Oregon - From a Local

Why Visit Portland Oregon? Advice From a Local.

Portland Oregon is a quirky, eclectic mix of crazy personalities and stunning natural beauty. Every time we fly back into Portland, we’re stunned by the view of Mount Hood overlooking the emerald green forests surrounding the city. There’s no place like it, and it continues to surprise us. The city is filled to the brim with evergreens, top-tier restaurants, green spaces, bike lanes, and unique neighborhoods. Just an hour from the coast or the mountains, the options for hiking and outdoor activities are limitless.

Besides the fact that Portland is basically a city within a giant forest, it has an interesting way about structuring its neighborhoods. Throughout the sprawl of the city, there are tons of neighborhood centers, each with its own unique personality and feel. What we love most about Portland is its irreducible attitude about not giving-a-shit about what anyone thinks about it. Portland is super weird, and it’s proud of that fact. From Voodoo Doughnuts, Powell’s City of Books (the world’s largest bookstore), to Darcelle’s (our personal favorite), anything here is accepted and loved as is!

Above that, Portland is an incredibly gay friendly city. Many have asked where the gay district Is in Portland, but really, we think the whole city is kind of gay. It’s awesome, and we feel totally 100% free and comfortable no matter what part of the city we’re in. Skip down to the 16th list-item below to see a bit more about the LGBTQ+ community in Portland.

It’s no surprise that Portland has become a popular destination for people from all over, and we’ve had many friends and family members ask, “What should we do in Portland? What should we see in Portland? Where should we eat in Portland!?" Well, we are here to answer all of that HERE!

Here are The 16 Best Things to Do in Portland Oregon

1. Get Lost in Powell’s City of Books

Powell’s City of Books is an iconic destination in Portland. The bookstore is 4 stories tall and takes up an entire city block. It holds more books for sale than any other bookstore on earth. It’s enormous, and you can actually get lost in there (I have)! On the top level, there’s an isolated room full of first edition and signed books, including original print copies from series like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. It’s amazing.

2. Eat as Many Donuts in Portland as Possible

We’ve all heard of Voodoo Doughnuts, and while this is a staple of Portland’s quirky eccentric attitude, these aren’t the best donuts in the city. Don’t get me wrong, we love Voodoo, but there are a couple Portland donut shops that have risen up above the rest over the last decade.

Pip’s Doughnuts

For something a little more classic, head to Pip’s Original Doughnuts and Chai. Known for having some of the most delectable chai in the greater Portland area, Pip’s offers donut holes topped with classic and seasonal custards and cremes. Whether you come in the winter for a rich Banana Custard and Salted Nutella doughnut or a little closer to spring to enjoy their Meyer Lemon Pear Butter doughnut, you will always be able to pair them with a perfect chai or matcha.

Blue Star Donuts

Blue Star crafts its donut creations out of a brioche base from scratch and pair that with fresh fruits, herbs and spices, even liqueurs. Whether your in the mood for something fresh like their Meyer Lemon and Key Lime curd creation, something rich like the Chocolate Almond Ganache, or a classic Old Fashioned (of which there are three varieties), Blue Star has a myriad of flavors that stem from the surrounding area to tantalize your tastebuds.

3. Shop on Nob Hill’s 23rd Avenue

Perched on the North West side of downtown, 23rd Avenue holds some of the best cafes and restaurants of the city. Stroll down 23rd Ave. and grab a coffee at Barista, browse unique gifts at Paper Source, check out the view on Restoration Hardware’s rooftop or find your favorite crystals at the small pop-in shops along the way. 23rd Ave is a beautiful neighborhood full of ornate victorian homes. Walking around the area is a treat, and this is a prime area for good shopping. One of our favorite places to grab a pick-me-up is Tea Chai Te. We love sitting out on their outdoor balcony overlooking 23rd Ave.

4. Have a Scoop at Salt & Straw

Their first storefront opened on 23rd Ave. and now Salt & Straw is pretty well known throughout the West Coast. With intense and crazy flavors, Salt & Straw typically boasts a line out the door and around the corner. Try their famous Sea Salt and Caramel Ribbon, Honey Lavender, Pear & Blue Cheese, or seasonal varieties like Bone Marrow & Smoked Cherries or vegan Coconut Milk with Cashew Brittle & Pandan! Everyone is welcome and encouraged to try as many flavor samples as they’d like while standing in line. Try them all!

5. Enjoy the View at Pittock Mansion

Pittock Mansion is a famously beautiful mansion overlooking downtown Portland from Forest Park. You can catch one of the best views of Mt. Hood from there, and in the Spring, the rhododendrons around the mansion are kind of magical. It’s one of the must-see places to anyone visiting! Pittock Mansion is best to visit on sunny days in the Spring, but is perfect for photography all year around.

6. Sip Lots and Lots of Coffee

This one is without saying. Portland has great coffee. Obviously, you have to try Stumptown. Their coldbrew is unbelievable—like nectar-of-the-gods-good. It’s chocked full of caffeine, so sip slowly! Check out their iconic location in the Portland Ace Hotel downtown. The lobby of the Ace Hotel is an iconic photo spot and an even better place for people watching. Other favorite coffee shops include Ristretto Roasters, Never Coffee, Heart Coffee, Barista and Good Coffee; just to name a few.

7. Find Some Peace at the Japanese Gardens

In the hills over downtown, the Japanese Gardens holds acres of rhododendron, blossoming trees and small ponds surrounded by bamboo. It’s a peaceful place to spend the day just far enough away from downtown. With views of Mount Hood, the famous Japanese Gardens attracts tourists from all around the world.

8. Stroll Down Mississippi Ave.

Mississippi Ave. is lined with some of the best restaurants and bars of the city. It’s really active any night during any part of the year, and is always bound to bring a good time. It also has a ton of cute trendy shops and cafes. Hanging out there is one of our favorite things to do on any given weekend! The food cart pod on Mississippi Ave. has cheap and tasty options including Matt’s BBQ and Little Conejo Food Cart. Our favorite spot to grab a bite on Mississippi is ¿Por Qué No?. This hugely popular taquería serves some of the best tacos and guacamole we’ve ever had. Food isn’t the only thing that has us coming back to this neighborhood, the bars are the best. Our favorites include Prost! for beer, Interurban for cocktails, and Psychic Bar for one of the most interesting witchy atmosphere’s we’ve experienced!

9. Eat at the Food Trucks

Portland’s street food culture also has made a name for itself. In the summer, you’ll see everyone out biking down to the food carts to grab Koi Fusion, Chicken and Guns, or Nong's Khao Man Gai. There are so many food trucks in Portland, we could do a whole blog just on which ones to try… and there are a lot we can recommend. Our advice, try as many as possible during your visit. The food culture here is just as good in the streets as it is in the sheets... or restaurants, oops.

10. Explore the Alberta Arts District

Few spots are more classically Portland than Alberta Avenue. The arts district is filled to the brim with Portland grunge. Graffiti stained walls, independent and bustling coffee shops, food carts and enough weed to get the entire state high. You can find yourself wanting to stick around Alberta Ave. for a while. Head to this neighborhood to admire the graffiti art, go bar hopping, or try any one of the incredible restaurants. We recommend Pok Pok, Pine State Biscuits, Proud Mary’s and Bamboo Sushi to start!

11. Hike in the Colombia River Gorge and See Multnomah Falls

The Columbia River Gorge is home to some of Oregon’s most iconic natural wonders. Located just a 30 minutes drive from downtown, Multnomah Falls is the most popular natural tourist attractions in the state. The historic falls plummet from the foothills leading up to Mount Hood and is perfectly framed by the iconic stone bridge located just in front. It’s a very short walk from the parking lot to the falls, but for those looking for a hike, there is plenty of trail beyond the falls. The Colombia River Gorge is full of adventurous trails that will lead you up paths to find countless waterfalls and epic views of the gorge.

Here are a few of our favorite hikes and views:

Hike in Oneonta Gorge —

Oneonta Gorge is itself a scenic canyon located in the Columbia River Gorge. The U.S. Forest Service has designated it as a botanical area because of the unique aquatic and woodland plants that grow there. There are four major waterfalls on the Oneonta Creek as it runs through the gorge. Middle Oneonta Falls can be seen clearly from a footpath and is very often mistaken for the upper or lower falls. The lower gorge has been preserved as a natural habitat, so there is no boardwalk or footpath through it as such. Thus, Lower Oneonta Falls can only be seen by walking upstream from the creek's outlet. Getting to the lower falls can require wading through water that, in some places, can be chest-deep, depending on the season and the relative amount of snow-melt. Bring your waders if you want to see the iconic lower falls!

Hike to Latourell Falls —

Latourell Falls is one of the easiest waterfalls to access while still having breathtaking height and power. Access from Portland takes you first to the Bridal Veil exit off of I-84E and then a quick double-back toward the city along the Historic Columbia River Highway. Park your car at the small lot and walk about 0.5 miles down the trail until you reach the falls. There is a 2.4 mile hiking loop if you want to enjoy the scenery around the area even more, see the falls from above and hit a second viewpoint at the Upper Latourell Falls.

Hike to Angel’s Rest —

One of the closest hike’s to the Portland metro area with rewarding views of the Columbia River Gorge. This is a moderately paced hike with clear paths, good elevation gain and is an easy day trip from the city. Due to its proximity this can be a slightly busy trail but is very peaceful at the early morning hours. If you want to secure your parking spot and have a climb with little disturbances definitely arrive before 9am.

Take Pictures at Vista House —

Vista House was built in 1917 on one of the most beautiful scenic points along the Historic Columbia River Highway. Prior to the construction of I-84, this building was intended as a place of respite and relaxation for those traveling along the highway. There is still an espresso bar with snacks during hours of operation, but the main reason to stop here are the breathtaking views in all directions.

12. Take a Day Trip to Cannon Beach — Haystack Rock

On one side of Portland you have the mountains, but on the other side is the beach! An hour and a half West from downtown Portland is Cannon Beach. Perhaps just as a popular as the falls, every traveler must plan a day to check out the Oregon Coast. You’ll find impressively wide beaches with powerful waves, along with striking cliffs and rock structures jutting from the water, like the famous Haystack Rock in Cannon Beach. Spend the day walking down the beach, sitting in the sun, and exploring the tide pools around the rocks. Pelican Brewing Co. at the edge of the beach is our favorite spot to hang out, grab a couple beers and watch the sun set over the historic Haystack Rock. We try to make it out to Cannon Beach at least a few times a year, we love it!

13. Drink All the Beers

Arguably, one of the best parts about visiting Portland is the sheer number and variety of breweries throughout the city. Honestly, you can make an entire trip centered around trying the beers here. We are regulars at 10 Barrel Brewing Co.’s rooftop bar in the Pearl District. We also love enjoying a local tap at Departures Lounge on the rooftop of The Nines Luxury Hotel downtown. Departures also has amazing sushi if you’re looking for a bite to eat! You’ll find us enjoying a local IPA but if hops aren’t your flavor try the local blondes, ale or stout! We have them all! Other great breweries to checkout are Deschutes Portland Brewery, Migration Brewing, Breakside Brewery, Rogue Brewery, Occidental Brewing, Baerlic Brewing, Ecliptic Brewing and many more!

14. Go Wine Tasting in the Willamette Valley

For every brewery in Portland there’s another winery outside the city waiting to help get your drink on. The Willamette Valley outside of Portland is known for its world class Pinot Noir. And really, the wineries are not far from Portland’s City Center. If you’d prefer to stay in the city, there are plenty of tasting rooms like Boedecker Cellars and Cerulean Wine. Our favorite wineries to visit just outside the city are Hawks View Winery, Domaine Drouhin, Brooks Vineyards, and Stoller Family Estate. Wander down to Willamette Valley Vineyards just an hour south of Portland for some of the best Pinot Noir the West has to offer. All of the above wineries have shipping available for those who’d like to bring some bottles home without the hassle of getting them through the airport.

15. Bar Hop around Portland and Drink the Night Away!

As a warmup, we’ve mentioned all the breweries and wineries to try around Portland. We’ve also mentioned some of our favorite bars along Mississippi Ave and the Alberta Arts District. Here are a few of our all-time favorite bars and shows around the city.

Scandal’s

This is our favorite gay bar to hang at. It’s a pretty relaxed bar, no fluff. It’s comfortable, not intimidating, and an easy place to grab a drink and relax. I love this place because of how welcoming it is, and the drinks are honestly super cheap!

Blow Pony

This is a hugely popular queer event held once a month in Portland. It is a riot, and things get crazy. For those up for a party, it’s worth coming to Portland just for this! Wear as little as you’d like!

Darcelle’s XV

Darcelle has a history with the city. As the oldest practicing drag queen, Darcelle and her girls throw a comedy show four nights a week that will leave you on the floor. We went here for our bachelor party and had one of the best nights of our lives. They are so sweet, take no shit, and will give you a show you’ll never forget. 

16. Celebrate Pride in Portland

We love walking down Harvey Milk Street downtown, popping into Scandal’s for a bit and having a drink with friends. Portland is a big city, but still feels kind of small. The community here is super personal and extremely friendly. I remember my first time at Portland Pride and how I essentially just felt an overwhelming sensation of belonging. It’s tight knit, and people really look out for each other. The gay bars are scattered throughout the city, so it isn’t dominated to just one section of town. The free-spirited, anything-goes mentality is something I’ve only also seen in places like The Castro or the West Village. There are two gay beaches, one at Sauvie Island and another at Rooster Rock, in the Columbia River Gorge. There are also a ton of community and sports groups like the Portland Frontrunners, who I run with every Tuesday and Saturday.

More to Explore

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Spring-Cleaning for the Office

In spite of the fact that we most likely totally persevered through some variant of spring-cleaning during our youth, entrepreneurs and offices directors may neglect the significance of this yearly custom in the working environment. At the very least, it could be similarly as significant (or more) for your business as it was for Mom.

The idea of spring-cleaning goes back to an old Persian new-year custom known as "shaking the house," to get ready for the coming year. In the nineteenth century, Americans rehearsed this custom to ensure that the house was cleaned altogether in any event once per year, since the helpful development of the vacuum cleaner was as yet around a hundred years consequently. The motivation behind cleaning related to spring was that it was warm enough to open up the windows and entryways so the subsequent residue could be diverted on the breeze.

Most workplaces have some sort of customary cleaning administrations, yet those ordinarily include a surface degree of administration that may incorporate vacuuming, junk evacuation, and the tidying of normal region surfaces. What isn't done consistently, nonetheless, can amount to a wreck that leaves your office looking not exactly first class.

At any rate once every year, office rugs should be profound cleaned or shampooed. Hard floor surfaces ought to be completely cleaned of spots and scrapes and, if proper for the floor surface, potentially even stripped and resurfaced. Elastic inlet base should be wet cleaned with a fitting item and edges need cleaning and checking for security and wellbeing. In the event that some other floor issues exist (free covering, absent or broke tiles, and so on), right now is an ideal opportunity to make those fixes. Winter can be ruthless on your office floors, and spring is an ideal opportunity to give them the consideration they merit.

Singular work areas, workplaces, and workstations will in general gather mess throughout the year as occupied representatives endeavor to stay aware of their remaining burden.residential cleaning As much as your representatives may protest, request that every individual put aside several hours to sort out their workspace so it very well may be altogether cleaned. After a fierce cold and influenza season, the utilization of an antibacterial cleaning item may improve everybody's wellbeing and prosperity. (Try not to disregard office telephone beneficiaries and keypads, as these are likewise large germ authorities!) If representatives eat at their work areas, ensure they tend to morsels and coverings that can aggregate in and under PC consoles and on the floor around rubbish containers.

What about that office kitchen? On the off chance that they had a challenge for dirtiest office kitchen, numerous organizations would be in the running for that title. Spring is an ideal opportunity to do a discount cleanse of food things in the fridge and left-behind holders that mess up office kitchen cupboards. Moving the ice chest to clean behind and underneath is essential, and an exhaustive purging of inside fridge racks and drawers might be long late.

At that point we have the universally adored assembling spot, the gathering room. Tables, seats, cupboards, and other gathering room furniture ought to be altogether tidied, cleaned, and sterilized, alongside telephones and other hardware. The equivalent goes for other regular space, for example, record rooms, duplicate focuses, and the feared (and frequently forbidden) worker and gear rooms. Any window covers or curtains need cleaning as per the maker's directions.

Fortunately, in contrast to the Mom days, there are proficient cleaning organizations that can deal with every one of these undertakings for you... also, presumably suggest some additional administrations that will spare you time, cash, and bother over the coming year. Numerous organizations offer spring-cleaning bundle specials, as well. Consider treating your office space to a new beginning this spring and you might be amazed at the expansion in worker profitability and great wellbeing!

Jill Smith is an essayist with a huge swath of topic aptitude. Alongside distributing articles for huge and independent companies, she explores, composes and distributes provides details regarding different public strategy issues.

[natashasbanner]

Welcome to Storybrooke

What if Bruce and Natasha lived in the Enchanted Forest before the Queen's curse and were brought to the Land Without Magic?

Bruce/Nat OUAT AU that no one asked for.

A/N: So I did a thing. This is kind of based on a Tumblr prompt and something I've wanted to play with for a long time. Someone asked if I'd ever write a Brucenat fairytale AU and this that, with a twist from one of my favorite shows. 

This will have three parts and you don't need any knowledge of Once Upon a Time to enjoy. 

Also on AO3 X

Bruce started his day like he did any other. His alarm clock sounded at four in the afternoon, but he was mostly awake by then. He got up, took a shower and made himself some breakfast before heading into town. He still had a while before he had to be at work, but he liked to enjoy a little bit of daylight before spending his entire night at Storybrooke’s hospital. 

The quiet town didn’t have a busy emergency room during the day and at night it was a ghost town, but Bruce didn’t mind the quiet. When he finished medical school, he always imagined his days would be spent elbow deep in trauma after trauma in the big city. As it turned out the occasional bumps and bruises that he dealt with suited him well enough, better for his nerves. 

Bruce’s apartment was only a few blocks from Main Street and it was a beautifully sunny day. He grabbed his bag from where he left it by the door every morning when he returned from the hospital and headed for Main Street. 

His first stop was always Granny’s. Her granddaughter was out front, like she always was, updating the sign and sent him a smile as he passed. He ordered two coffees and pastry for later before moving on down the sidewalk, toward the boarded up library. 

Only today was different. The library was still closed off and boarded up, but the clock on the tower that overlooked the street was actually working. For as long as Bruce remembered, the clock remained pointed to 8:15. He paused on the corner and watched the new anomaly with wonder. 

If Storybrooke was anything, it was consistent. The days ran together, each one nearly identical to the last. It was exhausting sometimes, the monotony of it, but most of the time he didn’t even notice. The clock working suddenly was cause for a moment of pause. He watched for a few more minutes, before moving on.

His next stop was the bookstore tucked between the hardware store and a small deli. Because the library was closed, Bruce spent a fair amount of time searching the shelves for something new to read from the old titles. He could spend hours among the books, but they weren’t the only reason he frequented the store as often as he did. 

Bruce pushed open the door and a bell sounded above his head. The owner and sole employee of the small store, Natasha, peeked her head around the shelves. She narrowed her eyes when she realized it was him and set down the books she’d been shelving. 

“You’re late,” she said accusingly as she walked toward him. 

He held out the second coffee in his hand as a peace offering. “I was distracted.” 

“What could possibly be so interesting in this town?” She frowned and wrinkled her nose in distaste. 

“The clock over the library’s working,” he said, taking a seat at one of the chairs by the front window of the store. 

Natasha followed his lead and sat opposite him, craning her neck to try and get a look for herself. She sank into the chair with an unamused shrug. 

“It hasn’t worked as long as I’ve lived here,” she said, taking a sip of her coffee. 

“And even before that,” he added. 

She smiled softly and tilted her head to the side. “What’s it say about us that the most interesting thing that’s happened to us is the stupid clock getting fixed?” 

“I think it’s a sign,” Bruce said, watching over the rim of his steaming cup. 

She raised her eyebrow at him. “A sign of what?” 

“Change.” 

She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “This place will never change.” 

Bruce sighed, but didn’t say anything. He was well aware of her resentment of this place. She wanted to travel, see the world, but she was confined to this tiny town in the middle of nowhere. But that was life sometimes, her husband got a good job on a fishing boat and they’d packed up and moved to Storybrooke. He felt for her, he really did. 

“Nat?” He said softly, reaching out to pat her knee. 

She looked up reluctantly, but made eye contact. 

“Have you heard from him?” 

Natasha blew out a long breath and shook her head. “Not for a few weeks, but they’re scheduled back soon.” 

“That’s good,” Bruce said, struggling to keep his tone even. 

“Yeah,” she said and looked back out the window. 

Bruce sat back in his chair and watched her. Bruce didn’t find out that Natasha was married until he’d known her for almost a year. He couldn’t deny that he was attracted to her, she was beautiful inside and out and one of the funniest people he’d ever met. But he’d never come between her and her husband, despite the fact the he spent months at a time out in the Atlantic. He was happy with their friendship, no matter what. 

“Tell me about your book,” she said suddenly, meeting his eyes once again. 

Bruce chuckled and pulled it out of his bag. 

“You were right. It was amazing.” 

“Maybe you should listen to me more often,” she teased. “I’m kind of an expert.” 

“Lesson learned,” he conceded. “What do you recommend for this week?” 

“Follow me, Doc.” 

X

As much as Natasha hated to admit it, Bruce had been right. Storybrooke was changing. She could feel it in the air when she opened the store in the mornings, when she walked to Granny’s for coffee and breakfast. Every time she walked past that damned clock above the library. 

The town was going insane. A coma patient just walked out of the hospital, the sheriff died and was replaced by the woman the mayor seemed to want to run out of town more than anything. Her shop was the busiest it has ever been and a letter arrived from Alex saying he’d be home in two weeks’ time. 

When Bruce finally came back into her shop again, Natasha was relieved. She hated the feeling of living the same day over and over in a town she resented keeping her prisoner. But she’d give anything for a boring day with all the chaos going on around them.

“Where have you been?” she demanded, rounding on him before he was fully in the store. 

He held out the usual coffee he bought for her along with a pastry bag from Granny’s. 

“I brought a peace offering,” he said. “If that helps?” 

Natasha accepted the coffee and eyed the bag suspiciously. 

“I haven’t seen you in a month.” 

“The hospital’s been busy,” he defended. “A man in a coma just walked out.” 

“I’ve been busy here and lonely without my favorite customer.” 

“I’m sorry.” 

She took the pastry bag and peeked inside before looking back at him. 

“You’re forgiven.” 

They made their way over to their usual chairs and sat together quietly for a few minutes before Natasha decided to break the silence. 

“Alex is coming home,” she said softly. 

Bruce smiled and hesitated a moment before he spoke. 

“That’s awesome. Did he say when?” 

Natasha tilted her head to the side with a smile. “Two weeks.”

He tried to hide it, but reading Bruce was something she excelled at. She always knew that Bruce liked her and she couldn’t deny the stirring of feelings she felt for him, only growing as time went on. But she had Alex and he was finally coming home. Being drawn to Bruce romantically was not an option. 

“I’m happy for you, Nat,” he said and it was sincere. 

Natasha ducked her head. “Thank you, Bruce.” 

They lapsed into silence again, but this time Bruce was the one to break it. 

“What are you doing tomorrow night?” 

“Nothing,” she answered, shaking her head. 

Bruce smiled. “Come to the Miner’s Day festival with me.” 

“Alright, I’ve never been.”

“I think you’ll enjoy it.” 

X

The next evening, Bruce showed up after she’d closed the store for the night. Natasha thought he looked adorable in his winter coat and scarf. He had two cups from Granny’s in his gloved hands. 

“You’re spoiling me,” she teased, taking one of the cups. 

“It’s a perfect night for hot cocoa.” 

“Lead the way, Doc.” she said and nodded down Main Street. 

He offered her his arm and she slipped hers around his elbow. 

“I did not know you’d never been to a Miner’s Day festival.” 

“Alex and I were supposed to go last year, but he didn’t come back. I didn’t feel like going by myself.” 

“You’re in for a treat,” he promised and Natasha couldn’t help but smile. 

“Yeah?”

Bruce bumped his hip against hers and she laid her head against his shoulder. 

“Why haven’t we ever hung out outside the store?” she asked. 

He shrugged. “I never realized.” 

“We should get out more often,” she said and he chuckled. 

“I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.” 

Natasha lifted her head and smiled up at him. “We’ll figure it out. That’s what friends are for, right?” 

He bumped his shoulder against hers. “Absolutely.” 

She laid her head back on his shoulder with a smile. 

X 

Of course the first Miner’s Day festival Natasha got to experience some idiot knocks out the power. Bruce was convinced the town had lost its collective minds.This was only the latest in a string of strange events to happen in the town lately. 

The candles were a nice save, but Natasha didn’t want to hang around for long after the power went out. 

They walked back to her store together, arm in arm, a candle held between them. 

“Is it just me or did this place start getting interesting overnight?” she asked. 

“That’s putting it nicely,” he scoffed. 

She shrugged, her head on his shoulder. “You were right, things are changing.” 

“Is that a bad thing?” 

They stopped in front of her store, the door to the apartment above on the side of the building. She was staring at him, her gaze intense like she could see everything about him in just a look. 

“I don’t think so,” she said and leaned up to kiss his cheek. “Goodnight, Bruce.” 

“‘Night.” 

He waited on the sidewalk until he saw a light turn on on the second level. This was dangerous territory they were crossing into, but Bruce was certain he couldn’t go back if he tried. 

X

“The town’s been quiet.” Bruce commented as he sipped his coffee at Granny’s

Natasha sat across from him, her head resting in her hand as she looked at him. She raised an eyebrow at him. 

“I never thought I’d see the day where I looked forward to a dull evening.” 

Bruce chuckled and brought his hand up to rest over his heart. 

“I’ll try to be more entertaining next time.” 

“You know what I meant,” she said and nudged his shin with her toe. “All the excitement has made me appreciate the quiet days. As much as I hate to admit it.” 

Bruce smiled softly and bumped his knee against hers under the table. “I knew you’d come around, eventually.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Don’t sound so smug.” 

“You like it here,” he teased. 

“Like is a strong word,” she said. “But it’s alright, for now.” 

“I’ll take it,” he conceded. 

Natasha smiled and they lapsed into silence. Their food was brought out to their table and they ate in comfortable silence. 

A few minutes into their meal the bell over the door jingled. Bruce didn’t think anything of it, people came and went the entire time they were there. His back was to the door and he didn’t even bother turning around. He only paused when he realized Natasha dropped her fork. 

He looked up and saw that she was staring at whoever just walked in, her mouth open slightly. 

“Are you okay?” he asked. 

She blinked a few times, ignoring his question. 

“Alex?” she said and stood from the booth. 

Bruce turned around and watched her walk over to the man standing in the middle of the diner. He recognized him vaguely from the picture Natasha kept behind the counter of the store. He was tall and handsome with a rugged edge. Bruce watched as Alex and Natasha held onto each other awkwardly for a moment. 

He turned his back to them when they pulled back to look at each other. He could hear their quiet conversation.

“You weren’t supposed to back for two days,” Natasha accused. 

“I know. We got back early.” 

“You could have told me.” 

“I wanted to surprise you.” 

“Consider me surprised.” 

Bruce could hear the smile in Natasha’s voice and his heart sank into his stomach. He stood from the booth suddenly and tossed enough money to cover their meals on the table. He ducked his head and hurried past the couple, ignoring Natasha calling his name. 

The air outside was freezing and after a block of walking he realized he left his coat in the booth he all but ran from. It was stupid and a little immature to just up and leave the second Nat’s husband returned, but he couldn’t help it. He wasn’t sure when his quiet longing had turned into full blown feelings, but Bruce was certain he loved Natasha Romanoff. 

But she was married and seeing her with Alex hurt more than he cared to admit. Maybe the distance would do him some good. 

X

“What the hell was that, Banner?” Natasha demanded as she stormed into the emergency room. 

Bruce looked up from his book and glanced at the clock on the counter. It was after two in the morning and he stood from his chair, immediately concerned. 

“Nat? What are you doing here?” He rounded the counter and crossed the room to her. “Is everything okay?” 

He reached out for her, but she waved his hand away. 

“I don’t know, you tell me. Why did you run out like that?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest. 

Bruce sighed and looked down at his feet. 

“I thought you and Alex would want some time to catch up. Alone.” 

“So you left without a word in the middle of dinner. That’s what you’re sticking with?” 

He nodded, but still didn’t look at her. Natasha sighed and reached out to touch his arm. 

“Bruce,” she said. “Please look at me.” 

Reluctantly, he lifted his head. 

“I know, okay.” 

“Know what?” 

She sighed and took a step closer. “I feel it too.” 

Bruce shook his head and backed up. “No, you don’t have to do this. Natasha, your husband just came home.” 

“Maybe I don’t care,” she said with a shrug. 

“You don’t mean that.” 

“Don’t tell me how I feel,” she snapped. 

Bruce deflated and remained quiet while she paced in front of him. 

“You were right, Bruce. I don’t know what it is, but something in this town is changing. I have these dreams and they feel so real and they’re always the same. You and I, together and happy. I know it sounds crazy, but I can’t help but feel drawn to you.” 

“I know what you mean,” he said. 

There were memories in his head that felt so vivid, so real. But they were impossible, a completely separate life he lived, one he lived with Natasha. They were happy and it wasn’t complicated and Bruce would give everything for them to be true. They weren’t though, and there was nothing he could do to change that. 

“But it’s not real.” 

She took the last step to close the distance between them and reached out to touch his cheek. 

“It could be,” she said softly. 

Bruce leaned in to her touch and let himself hope for a moment, just a moment before reaching up and grabbing her fingers. 

“You’re married, Nat.” 

“I don’t have to be.” 

Bruce chuckled and gave her fingers a soft squeeze. 

“We both know the second that happened you’d be on the next bus out of town.” 

“Come with me,” she said. 

“My whole life’s here.” 

“Then let’s start over. You and me, we could go anywhere.” 

Bruce ducked his head. “Natasha, go home. Get some sleep.” 

“It won’t change anything,” she said defiantly, pulling her hand from his grasp. 

Bruce looked up and saw the silent tears running down her face. 

He swallowed and smiled sadly. “I know.” 

She lingered in front of him for a few more seconds before turning on her heel and hurrying out of the hospital. 

Bruce watched her go and his heart broke more with every step. 

X

Bruce spent the next few days sulking alone in his apartment. He saw Natasha in passing a few times, but she ignored him. Alex was with her a few times and it hurt, but Bruce knew it was for the best. They wanted different things. He was content with his life in Storybrooke, but she wanted more, so much more than he could ever give her. She resented Alex, as much as she tried to hide it, and Bruce couldn’t live with himself if he ever did the same. 

On the third day he decided to get some fresh air. He avoided Main Street and headed for the docks. With a coffee from home, he found an empty bench and settled in to watch the water. 

His coffee was nearly finished when he heard footsteps approaching. He looked up to find Natasha standing beside him, hands in her coat pockets. She didn’t look angry anymore, just tired. 

“Can I sit down?”

“Of course.” Bruce moved over to give her room on the bench. 

She sat and looked out at the water, but didn’t say anything. Eventually, Bruce was the one to break the silence. 

“How have you been?” 

She sighed. “I’ve been better.” 

“I’m sorry.” 

“Alex and I are getting divorced.” 

Bruce wasn’t sure what to say to that and her expression gave nothing away. 

“It wasn’t you, if that’s what you’re thinking,” she added a few moments later. “We decided it was for the best. We weren’t happy anymore.” 

“I really am sorry, Nat.” He reached over and patted her knee. 

“I’m leaving, Bruce.” 

Bruce blew out a breath and looked out at the water. He figured as much, but it still felt like someone punched him in the gut. 

“Where will you go?” He asked. 

“New York,” she said with certainty. 

“When?” 

“By the end of the month.” 

He looked over at her again. “I’ll miss you, Nat.” 

“You can always come visit,” she said and looked back at him with a raised eyebrow. 

Bruce smiled at that. “You’ll get sick of me.”

Natasha looked at him seriously. “Never.” 

They lapsed back into silence, both staring out at the water. It was cold, but the sun was high in the sky, reflecting off the waves. 

“Do you think we’d ever have a chance?” she asked after a few minutes. 

“Maybe,” Bruce answered. “One day.” 

Natasha sighed and stood. “I need to start packing.” 

Bruce stood as well and in an instant Natasha was in his arms, holding him tightly against her. He hugged her close and rested his cheek against her head. 

“I wish things could have worked out differently,” she whispered against his chest. 

He leaned back and kissed her forehead. 

“Me too.” 

X

The mayor’s kid was brought into the hospital a few nights later and the entire place descended into chaos. The mayor and the sheriff were at each other’s throats and it was giving Bruce a massive headache. 

The sun had just come up when he was finally able to step outside for a much needed breather. His phone rang and he immediately recognized Natasha’s number and picked up.

“I heard you had an exciting night, Doc,” she said, teasing. 

“More like aggravating,” he corrected with a soft chuckle. “I’ve never seen two people fight as much as those two, I swear.” 

Natasha laughed. “How much longer do you have?” 

“Two hours,” he said with a sigh. 

“Meet me at Granny’s when you’re done, I’ll buy you breakfast,” she said. “If you’re up for it.” 

“I’d love that.” He smiled to himself. 

“I should go back inside.” 

She started to say something but her sentence was cut short but static on the line. A strange light pulsed away from the hospital and spread through the town. The air was pushed from his lungs and he gasped for breath. Suddenly the world felt more vibrant that it ever had. 

Memories rushed into his mind, the life he thought had been a dream was real. And the more he remembered, the more he felt like weeping. 

And then he remembered he’d been talking on the phone. It was still pressed to his ear but the line was dead silent. 

“Natalia?”