#anddd i finished the landscaping

[merrilark]

I want to build things in Sims, not work. u_u

[mephinomaly]

[TL] Keito Lecture/Chapter 4

Season: Summer

Time: A little while after changing trains

Keito: ……There seems to be no-one travelling to the countryside apart from ourselves. Shall we have lunch?

Yuzuru: Most certainly. I will get it ready right away.

This is for Hiiro-sama.

Hiiro: Thanks. It’s amazing that you’ve made bentos for 5 people. You have my respect!

Yuzuru: I appreciate that. Shiratori-sama, please, take yours.

Aira: Uwahh! Thank you very much ♪

…Huh? Mines a little different to Hiro-kun’s…?

Hiiro: I don’t think it’s only ours that’s different. Kagehira-senpai’s bento is completely burnt?

Yuzuru: Before I made them, I came to ask each of you what your favourite foods are. Do you remember?

They aren’t completely different. I tried my hardest to reflect your preferences in each bento ♪

Keito: So Kagehira’s burnt bento is intentional?

Mika: I like the half-burnt ones beginners make when they fail.

Mmmm…Yup, this is delicious! This is the perfect amount of bitterness. This is the best ♪

This is the first, ideal bento I’ve had in my life. Thanks, Yukkun~

Yuzuru: To be honest, when I first heard your request, I was quite taken aback. I’m honoured that I can please you.

How is everyone else's? I hope they are to your liking…

Keito: No complaints here, this is wonderful. You’re a competent cook, Fushimi, so of course the food is perfect too.

Yuzuru: You are too kind. I have not always been able to make these sorts of dishes. Only recently, when I joined Niki’s Kitchen was I able to do so.

Until then, I only made bentos for Bocchama. If it was flavourless, he would dislike it.

Though it had to be as nutritional value was of the highest priority so it is not something I regret.

If you take into account both nutritional intake and flavour, Bocchama prefers the latter.

But, once I joined Niki’s Kitchen, I discovered that it was unnecessary to balance them. If you repeatedly plan out your ideas, you can make recipes that are full of nutrition and are also tasty.

Thanks to Shiina-sama’s guidance, I can see Bocchama eat a meal with a smile on his face.

But that is not all. In this way, I am able to create dishes that people other than Bocchama will enjoy.

To not be conceited and focus my energy, I can also continue to devote myself.

Aira: Munch munch… I think it’s alright to be conceited because this tastes really good, right?

Or should I say, I’m the conceited one. I just uploaded to SNS with a bunch of hashtags.

…Waa, dang it. This was handmade by Fushimi-senpai but I finished eating it all without taking a picture.

Hiiro: I haven’t eaten mine yet, so you can take a picture of it.

Aira: No, that’s not very rabu. Taking a picture of my own is the most important.

For peace of mind, I’ll take a picture of Hiro-kun eating his bento. Ah, can I upload this?

Hiiro: Yes. Is me eating a bento “rabui”?

Aira: For Hiro-kun’s fans it is. Private picture are good, they’re an otaku’s favourite thing…♪

Mika: Fufu. Now I’ve finished eatin’, I’m wonderin’ if I should take a picture too.

Would ya call this “rural landscape”? Do ya think Oshi-san will like it?

…? ….Gaghh, I ain’t good at this. It’s all blurry.

Keito: If you are going to get hung up about it, why not record a video? It’s harder to blur a video, and you can record your voice as well.

Mika: Nnna, good idea. Lemme jus’ change the mode, anddd-

Oshi-san, is this workin’~? It’s me~...♪

Hiiro: Thank you for the food. Hm, I’ll take a picture too. For Tatsumi-senpai and—

……

Yuzuru: Is something wrong, Hiiro-sama?

Hiiro: No… I was just caught up in the conversation and eating lunch that I didn’t realise how beautiful the scenery is.

We’re not too far from the city, but has it really changed this much? It's completely different from my hometown. I didn’t really realise the size of Japan.

I wonder what sort of place we will be camping at. I’m really looking forward to it.

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[antpernas]

11/15/20

SO really eventful couple days so im just going to TLDR friday and saturday to talk about today jejeje

soo 11/13/20 (friday) i woke up kinda late in the day and had a grindr date over, we talked for a few hours and played some smash B) after he left i made a stupid ass twerk compilation to this remix on twitter and it took like two-three hours to edit BUT when i finished a really cute mutual of mine sent me a message :D he and i started messaging, (he lives in georgia) and long story short rly spontaneously we made plans for me to make the roadtrip from soflo to atlanta to stay and visit for a while!

11/14/20 i woke up at around 9 i believe and got ready and i started my drive up to georgia :))) the entire way i was just sending voice messages to him about random thoughts that popped into my head while i was listening to my podcasts and observing the landscape on the drive up! also sidebar theres nothing ive come to enjoy more recently than road trips, especially over highways that go through undeveloped/rural areas, seeing the humungous expanses of wilderness make me so happy !! i ended up visiting a friend at UF on the way up and also stopped at rest stops to pee like 20 times on the way up thats not an exaggeration BUT its ok cuz im hydrated B) i end up getting there around 11:30 and he comes outside and hes so cute im obsessed!! 

SO as for TODAY!  we had cuddled to sleep and woke up pretty late like 1 PM i thinkkk and we stayed around the house until like 4 ! we went to best buy to get a charger for my computer bc my dumb ass had left mine at home :/ after that we went to publix to get some groceries anddd we ate some when we got home B) after that we did some hw and listened to some music and just chilled !! then i worked out and now were getting ready for bed B) were driving to tennessee tomorrow so im super excited jeje

gn ily be safe!!

[vjdarkworld]

The Witcher 3 Review (NO SPOILERS)

Score: Recommended, for people that enjoy Storytelling

Best:

Storytelling

Adult content

Difficult Choices

Embodiment of Polish folklore

Quests

Good:

VisualsOnce you have a lot of good tools to use, gameplay is funExploration and Open World

Observations:

Lots of tools but all singular use, instead of few tools with dynamic usage.

Bad:

“Slavic jank”

Requires playing of Witcher 1&2 OR read the books

Performance

Best:

Storytelling

This not only includes how the stories unfold, but as well the characters and world they inhabit.

One word to describe it would be believability. Of course, it’s fantasy but the way standard fantasy things would be handled is done well due to the characters.

A plot is a series of character interactions, so ultimately a story is only as good as the characters it has. Truly what sells the world is how the characters interpret it, and they all have differing viewpoints. Some take the Dark Fantasy world seriously, others find it a chance for a Fun Adventure, and most attempt to drink their sorrows away. But my personal favorite interacts in the series is between Geralt and his friends.

This is where it becomes real for me, relationships. Throughout Geralt’s adventures he meets many people. He doesn’t get along with most, but there are some he actually befriends. And even though nearly all his friends are eccentric which contrast the stoic white wolf, he still has long and ongoing friendships with em. As the director of the game said, “friends are the backbone of your life” (he was talking about life not the witcher but oddly enough it connects to the witcher for me) and that is exemplified by Geralt.

All in all, the relationships between the characters make the storytelling real.

Adult content

While other games have sex in it, The Witcher series has been able to portray sex for what it is…. Sex. Bioware has the lovely dovey sex after you Romance them, but in the Witcher it’s different and more Realistic. Adults have sex for various reasons and it’s not always romantic. Most of the time it’s just for the act itself, having a single fling cus sex is Fun.

Since witchers shoot blanks they have the stereotype of being promiscuous. It’s up to the player (no pun intended) if they will let Geralt succumb to Hook Up Culture, or actually stay in a dedicated monogamous relationship.

Something like this just isn’t address in any other mainstream RPG.

Other serious topics are brought up as well related to sexual violence and racism. They are all handled well due to one simple theme present with each situation. That is the fact that you can’t be neutral, you have to pick a side.

 Difficult Choices

It’s funny cus the white wolf almost embodies the “grey area” of neutrality that generally serious RPG fans walk the line of. That the player will be understanding for all Characters and trying to figure out a solution. But most situations aren’t like this realistically. Theoretically sure you can be critical of Both Sides, but in practice you HAVE to pick a side. Or maybe you don’t pick a side and “stay neutral” which can be the worst option cus you could be letting bad stuff happen that you could of prevented. This is why when choices pop up for Geralt, it’s pretty serious. Especially cus the effects of them happen way later in the game before you realized what you did wrong.

These choices impact the fates of certain characters, among other things. Choose wisely, or you may not be happy with what you did.

 Embodiment of Polish folklore

I’m no expert in Polish culture, or of ye’ old slavic and pagan mythology, but the entire game reeks of something being different. It just doesn’t seem like your typical Tolkien fantasy. There’s a unique twist that is clearly the result of the entire game being developed in Poland, thus polish culture shining bright within it.

Some people joke that the Witcher series is Poland’s main export, but atleast for entertainment it seems quite true. It seems like a major group effort from creative minds of Poland, banding together to present their folklore to world. Major props and respect to the CD PROJEKT RED team!

 Quests

Quests are designed like episodic content. For side quests and hunter contracts, they all tell a good standalone story from start to finish of the quest. Sometimes quests interconnect too, reference each other, presenting how much the world is connected. It makes doing the quests quite addicting cus you want to see what’s going to happen next in the quest, and then when you finish it you want another good story so you start another one. It’s almost like bingewatching a tv show. Having good stories for the quests makes even the most mundane tasks more appealing too. Trying to tell a story… WHAT A CONCEPT!

 Good:

Visuals

They are pretty nice looking if you got the Specs for it. Sometimes regular real lofe animals like cats and dogs look weird but overall its good. Landscapes pretty, monsters spooky, humans all raggedy. The aesthetic sells the world quite nicely.

 Once you have a lot of good tools to use, combat is fun

When starting out the game, you have limited options for combat. But through the course of the game, gaining abilities, new gear, etc etc, gives Geralt more tools to play around with. This is when the game opens up and you can mess around a bit. The white wolf can get pretty OP too if you play your cards right. To which if you think the game is too easy, you can always play on higher difficulties.

 Observations:

Lots of tools but all singular use, instead of few tools with dynamic usage.

Due to how alchemy and signs work, signs, oils, potions and decoctions generally have only a Specific situation use. Some are more versatile, but most times you will be looking up the Bestiary to figure out what tools to use.

On one hand this kinda makes the combat seem flat, cus of the limited options you can do, BUT thematically it makes sense why. It makes sense why it’s like this for a hunter of monsters, there’s a lot of monsters and they all have different weaknesses so it makes sense as to why the design is like this.

On top of that, it’s kind of deceptive cus you CAN experiment but only when you have a LOT of the tools and you know what all their purposes are. It’s a barrier, but you can get over it.

But still, in the end the gameplay still isn’t as dynamic as other combat systems which is a shame in my opinion.

 Exploration and Open World

Points of interest are labeled on the map. You get good loot and fight monsters at these points most of the time. It doesn’t truly make the game world feel Alive necessarily, it just seems more like extra stuff to do. I appreciate the effort of given the player stuff to do if they completed quests and are bored, and you get neat goodies from going these places but it’s really just There.

 Bad:

“Slavic jank”

There’s a bit of a joke about games made in slavic related areas. They are often associated with janky games, but games with so much dedication behind them that even though they are janky it’s so unique that it’s fun. Something like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. for example. This phenomena is due to how the gamers in these territories are completely out of the typical western Triple A bubble. And generally dedicate their time to old CRPGs, which causes them to grow a fondness for more Detailed and Dense design instead of Simple and Elegant. This isn’t a bad thing, and this type of thing can be seen in The Witcher series, where it’s both Triple A BUT has that old school CRPG style to it.

All that is good in my opinion…. But I have to be honest and say that the gameplay can be too janky at times. Movement in general feels weird with its velocity and acceleration. Roach controls awkwardly and doesn’t feel like a horse, more like you’re on something sliding around. When you run into other animals or enemies on Roach you just push them away and not run them over.

Also, for some reason the controls completely change when in combat mode and you can’t control at all when combat mode happens. This causes awkwardness where you are not moving the same way as before, as in… an enemy triggers you to go into combat mode but they are too far away for you to hurt so you are stuck moving around weird. It’s just an odd system, which I prefer to have a full range of movement and attacks, not being arbitrarily pushed into combat mode.

Also, the inventory is a bit confusing to navigate especially if you are trying to find a specific item hidden in the Other tab.

The whole character upgrade screen too is not clear cus there’s clearly abilities that are better than others WHEN you actually know their potential, but unless you’re looking up guides and the wiki you won’t really know which are the good ones to actually invest in.

All these little things that kind of ruin the “game feel” make people not want to play it past a couple hours cus they think the game is “janky” anddd the game is actually kinda janky. I have to admit it, can’t lie. There’s other open world games that have better movement overall, and I wish that this game did.

 Requires playing of Witcher 1&2 OR read the books

Now you may wonder, what’s so bad about that? Well, I was being critical about this games jankiness, but really it’s not in the slightest as janky as Witcher 1. Witcher 2 isn’t as much janky, but Witcher 3 improved on a lot of Witcher 2’s problems so Witcher 3 is in fact the least janky.

Now it would be a hard sell to say “you need to go through 50+ hours of the previous installments to play this?” BUT if the other installments were as polished as this than it wouldn’t be as much of a problem… But it’s like I can’t tell someone “Oh you have to play through these janky games to play this game, don’t worry it’s worth it bro” cus that’s disrespecting their intelligence AND worst of all their time. Not everyone has time to look play through decent games to get to an Amazing game just so they can understand the story… which is sad.

Cus don’t get me wrong, I adore Witcher 1 more than most, but I can’t lie and say it’s worth “slogging” through the awkward gameplay to see the amazing story unfold down the road.

Why? Even if it’s a unique OK… there are better games to play that are more than just OK.

And to the book point, you shouldn’t need to read a book series before playing a videogame, the entertainment should be as singular as possible. The witcher videogames too have a different storyline than the books anyways, so it’s a moot point of them being in the same continuity and being “required”… even though they technically can help if you didn’t play the other games. Still not fair though, so nah, just nah.

 Performance

You need to make sure you have a midrange build atleast so you can run the game. But man do the frames drop in cities. Back on my old-midrange build I could play at around 50-60fps outside of Novigrad… but IN Novigrad I had 10-20fps due to NPCs and who knows what else. Also just some areas would lag on that build regardless if something was at low or medium. Very finnicky. I think by now with all the patches and optimization it’s probably better buuut I can’t say the game is well optimized. It’s serviceable with a good build… but ya get kinda screwed if you don’t and that’s a shame.