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jaybug-jabbers · 1 year ago

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Pokemon Infinite Fusion: A Review

Hey, folks. As you may recall, I've played a couple pokemon fan games by now that use pokemon fusions as their central premise. So when I heard of a new fusion game that boasted a whopping 176,400 possible fusion combinations, I obviously had to try it out. I've written a little review of my experiences below. (Contains mild spoilers about game mechanics and features, but I do not spoil any major plot points)

Introduction

Previous fan games, such as Pokemon Fusion Generation and Fusion Generation 2, have been very enjoyable forays into the world of pokemon fusion, and the number of fusions available from those games already felt incredible. It provided for so much entertainment and experimentation. And yet, the world of pokemon fusions has been expanded even further. Pokemon Infinite Fusion, while not quite infinite, is named very appropriately, since the number of possible combinations may as well be infinite. The game takes place in Kanto/Johto and contains all the original pokemon from those reigons, as well as an expanded Dex roster that also offers selections from gens 3 - 7. This means the total number of base pokemon ends up at 420. And the wild part? Is that you have complete freedom to fuse any two pokemon from this list. If you do the math, that means there are 176,400 possible total fusions. You may be wondering how on earth someone made a game where this is even possible.

The biggest catch here is that not every single fusion has hand-crafted sprites. Instead, it often draws from a sprite pool that has been generated by the popular Pokemon Fusion Generator website. You might remember back in the day when this website first rose to popularity and sort of kicked off the original pokefusion trend among fans. The site works by mashing the sprites together in a way that roughly makes sense. Here is an example:

As such, the sprites often look a bit awkward, but they give a general idea of a fusion. Many pokemon fusions rely on this database of sprites, since as you may imagine, hand-crafting 176,400 combinations is no small feat.

HOWEVER. There still are over 50,000 hand-crafted sprites in the game for fusions. The number is simply staggering, and this was accomplished because many, many different sprite artists contributed to the project. What's more, new hand-made sprites are still being made all the time by the community, and you can even make your own and easily add them into the game yourself. For example, if you wanted to make your own Caterpie/Gyarados combo to replace the auto-generated one above, you can! This game is truly a labor of love on a massive scale, and it's inspiring to see.

In my opinion, the system that Infinite Fusion has works well. When it comes to in-game trainers, they almost always have only pokemon with custom-made sprites, so it doesn't feel too jarring to play. Meanwhile, the auto-generated sprites allow for the total flexibility and freedom of combining literally any two pokes. Also, while some auto-generated sprites are extremely awkward, many of them are actually quite passable and some could even be confused as custom sprites. So don't let the fact that not every single sprite is custom-made put you off, because I promise this game is still such a joy.

The Fusions

The main draw of this game, of course, are the fusions. So let's address them for a bit. How exactly do they work in this game? The basic premise of the game is very simple, but effective: the Silph Co has invented a new product called DNA Splicers. These can be bought at any Pokemart. They are a single-use item that will allow you to fuse any two base pokemon together. (Lorewise, the DNA Splicers are based off the item in Pokemon Black/White 2 that is used to fuse Kyurem with Reshiram or Zekrom) And that's it! When you select the two pokemon, you have a choice of 2 different fusions. Just as with the original Pokemon Fusion website, you can combine a pokemon by choosing one species for the 'head' and colors and one species for the 'body.' This influences how the fusion looks, of course, and also impacts exactly how the stats are combined in the resulting pokemon, too. Later on there's also a nice product in the Marts that is a 'DNA Inverser' that lets you immediately create the inverse fusion, as well. It's quick and easy, no muss, no fuss. You also can unfuse pokemon at any time.

In this game, you will encounter trainers with pokemon fusions all the time, as well. Because the DNA Splicers are a hot new fad, pretty much everyone in Kanto wants to try them out. This means that fighting trainers in this game is guaranteed to be endlessly entertaining, because you are seeing new fusions literally all the time, throughout the entire game. The Gym Leaders and E4 (and your rival) boast some of the most exciting combinations, as they should. Also, you will see fused pokemon in the wild, too, in addition to the normal base species. This means that even just exploring or grinding is continually entertaining.

The fusions function in game pretty much as you would expect. Their movesets are a combination of the two base pokemon. Their stats are a combination of the two individuals. When you first fuse them, you get to choose which of the Abilities you'd like to have for the resulting fusion. The Types are generally combined so that the first typing of the Head pokemon is mixed with the second typing of the Body pokemon. As for evolutions, those exist independently. So, for example, if you have a Charmander/Caterpie fusion, it will evolve into a Charmander/Metapod fusion at level 7, and then a Charmander/Butterfree fusion at level 10, and a Charmeleon/Butterfree at level 16, etc.

A pretty reasonable question you might have is "how the heck does the game even handle this many fusions"? I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea how they fit this many pokemon slots into the game (including a Pokedex that has all of them!!) Obviously it would be impossible with a ROM hack, but of course this is a fan game and thus does not operate under the same constraints. (That said, the number of pokemon it handles is still incredibly impressive) I do know the game total filesize is understandably quite large if you choose to download the 'standard' version of the game, because it has a butt-ton of sprites. Fortunately, you can opt for the 'light' version of the game if you'd rather not download all those sprites at once, and the game can connect and download sprites as needed. This is the version I use and it works great.

As for the fusions themselves, I love the vast majority of the sprites. They run the gamit from pretty straightforward fusions to intensely creative and clever designs. Some look very cursed in a good way, and above all, they're sure to be entertaining, if nothing more.

I will make one brief note of warning: there are many artists contributing to this game, so naturally the sprites will vary. Occasionally there is a sprite I find that I would personally consider to be . . . not matching the tone of Pokemon (Parasect/Ursaring for example has bloody stumps for its forearms, with dripping blood, which to me just feels a little too gory and out of place for Pokemon) or something that's bordering on inappropriate. The slightly 'inappropriate' ones are sprite fusions made for particular pokemon species that are known to be sexualized by fans (namely, Lopunny and Gardevoir). I have not encountered anything overtly inappropriate, mind you-- but some are clearly sexualized, and that understandably can make some people uncomfortable, myself included. Fortunately that's quite easy to avoid, as you merely need to avoid fusing pokemon of those particular species.

Other Features

So, the devs of this fan game are very frank about the fact this game does not focus much on plot. It is, in their words, essentially "Pokemon Red, but with fusions." That said, there is a basic plot to this game that is slightly altered from the usual Red plot. Team Rocket is up to no good, but their schemes now are strongly linked to the exciting new fusion technology. I won't spoil the storyline, but I do want to say the climax of the story is very satisfying and especially rewarding to hardcore pokemon fans.

Additionally, Infinite Fusion offers a lot of delightful QoL upgrades and bonus content. It boasts a ton of sidequests, mostly streamlined by offering a Hotel in towns where the sidequest NPCs are gathered (and a way of easily tracking your quests and rewards). The game also allows you to rematch trainers as much as you'd like, and trainers' pokemon grow stronger and will even evolve when you rematch them enough times. This is very convenient if you'd like to do some grinding. There are a lot of modern pokemon moves added to the game, Fairy typing, and plenty of other modern upgrades. The game also offers an integrated Randomizer mode, a speed-up button, a WonderTrade simulator to give you all kinds of random fusions, battle facilities and other goodies to maximize its replayability and its streamer/YouTuber-friendlyness.

Some of my favorite features include Pokeradar for finding rare pokemon and Hidden abilities, which includes a very handy display of all possible pokemon encounters in a given area once you've discovered them all. Another useful addition are in-game items that replace the need for HM moves, but are integrated in a very reasonable way. Basically, you start off needing to use HM moves, but eventually can earn special items that replace the need for HM moves. Usually you end up earning these items around the time you'd like to replace the HM move with a more useful moveset, so it works out very well.

I think my most favorite thing, though, are just all the NPCs with changed dialogue and fun jokes and nods that the game contains. You can tell a lot of love went into the game by fans who truly do love Pokemon. Some of these references include nods to Pokegod rumors, details from manga or anime, other pokemon games and other video games, and so forth.

There are a lot of little details, including an updated Safari Zone and even a Team Rocket black market, where you can purchase pokemon and unique items! As such, I want to emphasize that there's plenty to explore and see, despite the plot being largely the same. And with a full Kanto game + Johto & Sevii islands postgame, there is plenty of content.

My Run

Pokemon is a game largely defined by choice. While "catch them all" may be the catchphrase they introduced in the US, that has never truly captured the spirit of pokemon. Pokemon is more about the ones you choose. Pokemon Infinite Fusion expands that power of choice to the nth degree, so much so that you can very easily suffer from decision paralysis. In a game that gives you 176,400 pokemon to choose from, how can you possibly decide?

I handled this question by narrowing things down a little. I often do all-bug challenge runs of pokemon games, so I decided my run would be limited to bug types only. But even with that narrowing things down, the number of options were still quite dizzying. I definitely did a lot more team shuffling and changing than I normally do. I know I spent hours just fusing things to see what they'd look like. (There's a very handy website to speed this process up, allowing you to preview fusions.) It was overwhelming at times. But ultimately, I did settle on a final team.

Surprisingly, this team often didn't consist of my absolute top picks of fusions. For example, the Yanmega/Kabutops I have looks awesome, but I think I like the sprite of Butterfree/Kabutops a little bit more. However, my choices were constrained by things other than mere aesthetics. I did want a team with decent synergy and coverage, too. I think that's an interesting thing to think about. In life, you may not even need to be the Very Best to still be an excellent pokemon-- or to be chosen.

Sasspora - Parasect/Ninjask - Bug/Flying - Infiltrator - Silver Powder

Moveset: Screech/Aerial Ace/X-Scissor/Spore

Notes: Sass unfortunately suffers from never learning a really good Flying STAB in his learnset. Aerial Ace was the best I could do for him. Still, Spore abuse and his fantastic speed take him very far.

Zippy Zap - Beedrill/Jolteon - Bug/Electric - Volt Absorb - Amulet Coin

Moveset: Quick Attack/Dig/Thunderbolt/Thunder

Notes: This fusion emphasizes Beedrill's weaker stats when compared to the inverse fusion. Despite that fact, Zip Zap continued to be invaluable on my team all the way through to the very end, hitting above his weight. He offered vital Electric coverage and was a check to fellow Electric types.

Pomegranite - Butterfree/Rapidash - Bug/Fire - Compound Eyes - TwistedSpoon

Moveset: Tailwind/Flare Blitz/Fire Blast/Psychic

Notes: Compound Eyes + Fire Blast is pretty cool lol

Peekaboo - Yanmega/Kabutops - Bug/Water - Swift Swim - Rocky Helmet

Moveset: Night Slash/Air Slash/Surf/Aqua Jet

Notes: I knew I had to fuse the Horseshoe Crab/trilobite-inspired Kabutops with a bug type; he was just too cool to pass up. Night Slash was very useful coverage on Ghosts, which may not come up often but when it did, it saved us big time.

Purple Rain - Ledian/Flygon - Bug/Dragon - Levitate - Soft Sand

Moveset: Fly/Bug Buzz/Rock Slide/Earthquake

Notes: When I was playing around with fusions, and I un-fused my Ledyba, it suddenly turned into a shiny. My guess is the game re-rolls things when you un-fuse pokemon so each time you un-fuse a pokemon, there's the chance they become shiny. It was pretty cool, but the best part was the shiny in this game was purple. A million times better than the actual shiny. So I had to use it.

Flygon was the perfect chance for that. We all know Flygon should have been Bug/Dragon, as it's based on an Antlion, both the larva and adult. Finally, Flygon could fulfill its true destiny. EQ and Rock Slide may not have been STAB but they both were essential to the team. The wide range of resistances was very nice, too.

Leonardo - Articuno/Armaldo - Ice/Bug - Battle Armor - Leftovers

Moveset: Brine/Freeze-Dry/Rock Blast/X-Scissor

Notes: My final 6th slot was kind of an uncertain one for a while, until I decided Bug/Fairy would be fun. For a long time I went with a Armaldo/Clefable fusion. I found it underwhelming and decided to change; an Ice type could still act as my designated dragon-killer. There wasn't any sprite done for Articuno/Armaldo at the time I was playing, so I did my best to make my own and added it into the game.

Conclusion

Play this game! Seriously, it is so good and you'll have so much fun. The replayability is practically infinite, and if you're especially passionate about pokemon fusions, you can submit your own sprite edits to be included in the sprite packs that everyone can download! The game has appeal for everyone, from super casual players, to streamers, to challenge runners and everyone in between.

Happy fusing!

#pokemon #pokemon fan games #pokemon reviews #long post #mycontent

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m1ckeyb3rry · 2 months ago

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LMAOO it’s so funny how both Rin and sae have the same number of letters in their name the censoring can work both ways

AHAHAH you fr just get possessed and channel the energy instead of kaneshiro or kiyora it’s aiku now maybe that’s why you have crazy rizz too

IM CRYING the way the TikTok is so specific and fits perfectly how did you just have that on hand (ig it’s a sign pursuit truly meant to be)

SHOELIVER STOP why did i imagine a shoe and a liver HSHSSHSH BUT YES THATS THE ULTIMATE NAME

Wait spewpa fits so well another pokemon pairing W…I’ve also never watched either series I just know people memeing about it LMAOO BUT YEAH from what I’ve seen it’s just everyone’s kids THE WEDDING SCENE IS CRAZY no because the brides side is STACKED (Barou’s soul descends from the sky to shed some tears /j) omg Charles DOES give the bug kid energy guys…

I LOVE MIKAGES MUSTACHE LMFAOO the houndoom arcanine fusion is so funny it’s giving digimon (I think) you should just add a red noodle in the bg….one big squiggle….modern contemporary art we’ll know that it represents her red gyarados as well as the red string of fate tying them all together (insert the akshually nerd meme here)

THE DIAGRAMS the way that it’s all in cursive too has me sending because reading “fuckass butler coded” in cursive the vibes have me crying I love it though it’s so iconic (I’m ngl though my eyes moved too fast and I read that as butter at first so I was like huh….? Now imagine Karasu in one of those ridiculous Halloween outfits and he’s just a stick of butter with a hole for his face and his arms out on the side) ninja wannabe otoya is so real but the way that he makes Karasu carry all his shit is giving when a girl tells her man to carry her purse and bags LMFAOAOA long coat Karasu >>>> ok imagine his coattails are actually kinda shaped like wings though omg the bird motif goes hard I know some people don’t like long coats generally but I think it looks soooo good on him!! Wait ok I’m imagining he wears some like button up under the coat imagine him with rolled up sleeves and the gloves…..karasu the man you are….ok but i fr love the diagrams if you ever make more do show…

Side stories guys side stories…imagine you sandwich them between arcs like how they do beach episodes and fillers guys can someone actually pitch this to an animation studio (not eight bit) the mc slander is CRAZY LMAOO I love that dynamic to the reader and co group

Otoya acts cool but he’s so be fangirling over that like you know that one face he makes where he’s like happy/content and his eyes kinda turn into rectangles/lines and he’s throwing a like surfer hand thing (WOW this is why I don’t write) or like when anime’s add the like shoujo pink bright sparkly flower fx yeah that’s what I’m imagining but CRYING I THINK SO?? Prince being like wow Karasu you’re pretty strong! I immediately started playing the Justin Bieber that should be me audio in my mind congrats you’re now forever associated with him

LMAOO considering that even kaneshiro gave Barou some crack moments (maid Barou) id agree Barou and crack work so well im so excited to read about the goofy shenanigans im prepared to fr laugh my ass off

WAIT THE BUILD ME A PKMN TEAM IS GENIUS I gotta go brush up on my dex knowledge know and get prepared pursuit really opening up all these opportunities and ideas

That’s fr me anytime I use a non auto saving software like I’ll move my cursor an inch to the left and press save (Karasu over Isagi any day straight facts)

Wait no because I NEVER see Reo hate I actually usually only see Reo defenders/glazers and they like fully blame Nagi for EVERYTHING and I’m like are we gonna ignore the toothbrush scene /hj (I thought it was funny for comedic effect but people also take it way too seriously but also the dependency goes crazy) and fr!! Actually I think the sub idea is pretty good the copy ability reminds me of a character from Kuroko’s basketball who’s really good but not number one because of the limitations the copy has (he’s able to copy 100% but only for a limited time because stamina energy typical sports stuff) but I agree Nagi being a miracle is kinda his brand….

IM CRYING THE NAGI TIKTOK your fyp is actually insane ok but glad it didn’t delete the entire thing wait im gonna do a wc of this to see how long our responses usually are this one’s 797 words counting “are” as the end sooooo

LMAOOO Barou’s one insecurity is his tiny ass nose /j lowk I kinda like how ironic it is like you’ve got big angry ripped man with a cute little nose

- Karasu anon

LMAOO NO LITERALLY like it could really be either one but i feel like i tend to talk abt them very differently so even through the censor it’s kind of obvious?? like rin i at least acknowledge that he’s pretty and i’d like him more if he weren’t popular but sae…my opp fr /j /j sae fans don’t hate me

no because that’s literally how it feels like people will ask me for writing tips and i’ll just be like i wish i could help but my process is just be chronically online -> get inspo from a random tik tok audio -> get possessed by the character i’m writing for -> end up with a fully formed fic a few hours/days/weeks later LMAOAOAO it just happens

THE TIK TOK HAD ME CRYINGGG i saw it and was immediately like omg pursuit reoy/n…pursuit references are everywhere it’s a sign from the universe that it needs to happen fr!!

shoeliver best duo and HAHA no because that lowkey fits…i know in hindi it’s a common thing for mom’s to threat to throw a shoe at their kids when they’re mad (it sounds better in hindi i fear) which lowkey is giving barou??? and liver -> lover and aiku is a lover of many women fr

CHARLES THE BUG KID OF ALL TIME the wedding would be so crazy imagine nagiy/n’s son looking at kiyora like “twin 😟 where have you been ⁉️” honestly that mixture of personalities in one room is just crazy work…why not throw in grandpa chris prince sponsoring the wedding while we’re at it /hj HAHAAH grandpa lavinho as the dj…grandpa noel noa the officiant…grandpa snuffy the only one who doesn’t get drunk and helps clean up…😭😭😭

the funniest thing is mikage doesn’t even have a mustache like that in canon?? like he has slight stubble but he was giving too many aiku vibes so i decided to drip him out and give him the full villain stache FBXJSJSH omg gyarados as nagi and reader’s red thread you’re cooking here…nah because we were talking abt how chaotic the nagiy/n daughter + charles wedding would be imagine the tullireo and nagiy/n weddings absolutely INSANE work 😨

okay because hear me out maybe when he’s just training karasu takes the coat off and rolls the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows and undoes the top couple of buttons of his shirt 🤤 i have a very specific vision of him post-training with reader sitting on a log or smth and he’s slightly sweaty (enough that his hair is just a bit messy but not enough that he’s gross yk) and he has the gloves on and his fletchling is sitting on his right forearm and he’s scratching it for doing a good job KFHCISJS KARASUUU we mustn’t fold…nah because why are both of reader’s brother figured such baddies bro forget being y/n and getting w nagi i need aegislash to isekai me in there so i can get with her brothers ‼️ /hj

nah because get pursuit to pokémon studios fr the plot goes so crazy i’d single-handedly revive the anime with it (jk or am i??) and yes i think that’s the plan!! like toss in the side stories in between interconnected arcs and relate them to the previous arc (so not after every arc but for example after the arcs where reader and co meet up and where they meet manshine trio there can be a mini side story of nagi getting his growlithe or smth)

PLEASEEE THE SHOUJO FLOWERS meanwhile otoya’s wearing his all black emo coded fit the duality >>> literally chris prince sees karasu’s talonflame and as the fire type elite four member he’s like “wow that’s a great pokémon you take great care of it” and karasu’s like “heh thanks man 😅” maybe this is what inspires otoya to sign up for the chris prince scam egg gift program that gets him his ninetales HFJSDKSJ

barou is so fun because you can see him in a more serious role like pursuit but he also works well in a crack situation!! he’s such a versatile character we love him for that…like for example shidou and aiku i would mostly only write in those lighter situations whereas almost anything i do with nagi ends up leaning towards more serious just because I’M serious abt him (jkjk) barou can do it all that’s why we must stan

RIGHT I THINK IT COULD BE REALLY FUN AS AN OPTION i’ll def see if i can think of anything else but this is def a strong contender!!

THAT’S WHAT I’M SAYINGGG all i see are reo and chigiri fans slamming on nagi where are the mysterious nagi fans that hate on reo or don’t acknowledge chigiri??? maybe it’s a twitter thing but all i’m seeing are nagi haters nowadays 😒 tbh i think that’s another reason i forgot i liked chigiri HDKSDK his stans are crazyyyy either they overly feminize him, gas him up toooo much at the expense of every other character (yes he consistently slays but at the end of the day when things are said and done i don’t think he can compete with a fully motivated/unlocked nagi SORRY), or both 😭 REMIND ME WHO GOT REPLACED IN THE U20 MATCH 🤔🤔🤔🤔 all jokes ofc i do love chigiri and yes he’s currently carrying manshine but i thought we all agreed that this is just a character development arc for nagi…anyways…

PLS THE TIK TOK WAS SO GOOD sometimes you just have to laugh 😭 and speaking of tik toks i found another barou edit hehe the intro is wild i lowkey lost it at the spongebob JFDJSKA also i’m sorry i don’t have any other friends into bllk so you get all of my silly videos HAHAAH

LMAOO no i agree it’s very cute it fits his off field personality!! his isn’t as tiny as karasu’s in the trailer either omg karasu’s is so tiny…not in a bad way though i kind of love it i think it’s adorable…anyways i think i’m the only person who’s not wigging out over the trailer literally everywhere i go it’s just people being insane over it like y’all PLEASE relax i think we will be okay!!

#answered asks #pokémon au

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crystalelemental · 1 year ago

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Alright, I beat the first boss...thing. Pretty sure that fight is scripted. The game is generally fun, though I feel like...let me organize this a bit.

When I heard about the game, it was of course referenced as sort of the Pokemon But Not style. You collect your little beasties, level them up, teach them new moves, and do your whole whatever. The approach, however, was described as being more tactical. I am early, that could still be the case. But.

I am not a huge fan of AP systems broadly. I’m just not a huge fan of the concept of “save up the AP by doing nothing for a bit then fire off the big attacks.” The “doing nothing” being a basic attack is at least something, but I feel like this decision just drags out encounters. My Sirenade has an AoE attack that can pretty reliably clear opponents, but I can’t use it until a turn has passed because of the AP system. Which is never great when you’re coming in feeling jaded about it after only half an hour playing.

That said, it does simplify opening turns as buff turns. 1AP buff actions perfectly set you up for the 3AP big attacks, which at least a nice even flow. I imagine it grows more complex as you go, but it’s not too bad.

Where it gets a bit irritating is the recording process. This was another aspect that sold me: yeah, if you’re recording, you can’t knock out the thing you’re catching by accident like in Pokemon! Which is nice. You know, except for the part where the only reliable means of achieving a guaranteed recording thus far has been knocking them to 0HP, and that I imagine harder enemy encounters will absolutely not have a 100% capture rate at 0HP. And at 0HP, they will run from you. Which, frankly, seems worse? This is pre-emptive though, I haven’t directly run into this. I thought I did with the fire dog, but it turned out to have a slight bit of HP left.

Type matchups are interesting. I was able to identify one, in that Wind is strong against Fire. Apparently, the result is that it lowers the offenses of the Fire type because it blows away the flames, in addition to the damage boost? I had heard about the more complex interactive effects of type matchup, but so far this is the only one I know. I’ve found Beast, Fire, Poison, Plastic, and Wind types, and so far only have one. In part I think it’s because I’m hesitant to swap things around too much. I don’t have a great reason for this, it shares EXP with your whole party, and damage is high enough that it’s honestly a good idea to switch around. I’m just like this.

You have an extra human party member that controls a second beast at the same time, and I imagine there will be a big focus on combination attacks in the near future. There’s also fusion. Which is a neat angle, and seems hilariously overpowered at present. I’ll have to mess with that one going forward.

Another thing I haven’t done yet is adjust stats. Your human characters have stats that influence the effectiveness of your beast forms, and you can train your human character’s stats to augment the beast’s. Which is a pretty neat idea. I’m interested in where that goes.

The last big difference I can think of is limited healing items. They only let you have five HP restoring items, and one revive at a time. You can only have five of each type of status healing item. But at the same time, you can only swap your party around while resting, which means you can’t just trade out a weakened party for one at full strength. I kinda like the adjustments, I just wish it didn’t auto-send new recorded beasts to your storage and at least offered to swap them with something in the party first.

As for story and tone, it’s...fine. I don’t have any particularly strong feelings about anything going on. The only thing I don’t really like so far is the tendency for a lot of descriptions to be a little...I don’t know the word I want to use here. They’ll often talk about things as seeming friend except for [circumstance], which is basically all the time. Or how they’re cute until they decide to [inane action] at something, which is anything and everything. Like just the repetitive use of certain phrases of tone that seem a bit...weird to me? I’ll be honest, my gut wants to call it banter, but I’m not sure if that’s the right word. Maybe the vibe will come to me later.

I’ll keep playing, but we have some friends coming in for the long weekend so progress may be slow. I’ll update when things happen.

Oh, and I picked the sheep. The candy devil’s not bad, but it’s not as cute as the sheep.

...actually I lied one more thing. The monster designs are so far solidly fine. I hate none of them, but I love none of them. Nothing has solidly won me over yet on that front.

#cassette beasts

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novelistash · 3 years ago

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My hotel in Mossdeep has a PokeBall storage system in the lobby. I don't recognize the brand of the storage system, let alone the make. The only reason I check is to make sure I'm not supporting Devon co in any way. I'm getting "handling fees" for recalling a pokemon from halfway around the world. It's an inconvenience now, but this technology was thought impossible only twenty years ago.

Thoughts about the impending technological singularity puts me on auto, and before I know why, I've selected six Pokemon. I've selected my old Kalos team. They're the reason I can afford this hotel, the trip to Hoenn, and my excursion into Alola. They made me a Duke of the Battle Chateau for nearly three years of my life. That money won't last be forever, I know, but it's at least giving me the freedom to search for something better. I wish there was some way to honor them. Maybe I could give them away to a youngster. But then so many youngsters wouldn't be able to keep them tame.

I deselect my team, but my finger liners over Roi-my Tyrantrum. He was an outrageous force of death and mayhem to me and nothing more. He won fights and trained nonstop and that's all I needed from him.

I knew Roi wasn't the best. I knew a Tyrantrum in my party took the spot of a Hydreigon or Salamence, but I never had the heart to swap him out. For a long time, I told myself that I was tired of training up dragons from the ground up, but the truth was simpler. I LIKED Roi. He was a poor offensive main, and he's a terrible training partner for a Belldum, but I like him, so I'm going to take him out.

The other withdraw is Connie, the Swanna. She was a transport Pokemon, a means to travel the world and nothing else. I never learned her temperament in battle and I didn't care to. She could fly and swim and that was enough. I'll need her support to get around, but it makes me sick to think about going back to that lifestyle.

My shoulders tense. My jaw tightens. My eyes burn from sleepless memories. I withdraw them. One quick ball and one pokeball to attach to my trainer's belt. I feel around for the notches and laugh at myself. I'm not wearing a training belt. They fit in my pocket, but it feels wrong.

I've got three Pokemon on me. Why? What do I hope to accomplish with them?

I'm here to research Metagross, but then what? What's my end goal here?

Life is a non-stop battle against ennui. Does it really matter how I stave off the essential dead? I have a mystery to solve and that's all that matters.

...

The Belldum is in a premier ball. It's white and plain, except for the Fenomenal Labs logo on the top. Each time I put this monster into a box, Fenomenal Labs gets an update of its data. The same for every trip to a pokemon center. I owe them that much, don't I?

There's no one around the hotel's backside that opens up nicely to a nearby cliffside park. It's a good place to begin its training. I keep thinking Fusion is a good name for a Belldum, but I'm just trying to undo my previous mistakes. Nothing will change how I mismanaged my Pokemon. Nothing will erase the day that Spiral killed my Fision.

Roi comes out first and he's ready to battle. His back is lowered, his jaw is agape, and his white fins rattle with power. He's just like I trained him to be, ready to kill.

It's been five years, closer to six. He takes in his surroundings rapidly. His posture relaxes a smidge before he sees a stranger in me. My hair is shorter and I've fully committed to a beard, to say nothing about the downgrade in my clothing. I dressed like such a dandy in Kalos. It seemed so important to me at the time.

Roi is waiting for me-the enemy-to toss out a pokemon, until he realizes that I'm his trainer. The eight foot tall monster inches forward and he smells me on the wind. A brief tilt of his head and then he's on me, sniffing and licking, getting the feel for me.

I'm too choked up to talk to him, so my hands greet him instead. I forgot how affectionate he was. It brings back memories of playing football and bathing him after a victory. It wasn't all battle and training and even though it's been a generation for me, our time apart was a blink for him. He still loves me, because he always did.

Deep grumbling in his chest inquires about the time lost, but I can only hug him and cry. I missed my champion. He was my smooth rock king and I was his Duke.

Before I know why, I'm on his back. We follow the coastline up, away from the labs and towards the vacated regions surrounding MDSC, Mossdeep Space Center. The gate keeps us on this side of the coast.

A flock of Wingulls roost on the opposite side. They take no interest in us. Pellipers return with gullets full of chow and the babes stick half their bodies inside to get their meal. Posturing Wingulls spit each other with jets of water and all the motion kicks up the foul stench of fowl.

Roi snarls and I rub his neck by the crest. He's anxious for a fight. He'd have no trouble taking down the strongest in the flock, but there's no point to it. Roi was once called the strongest Tyrantrum in Kalos, which might as well have been the world, but that meant even less then. He was a mid tier Pokemon, a curio that Champions abandoned. He was a sign of my weakness and one of the main reasons I never challenged Champion Spiral.

I dismount and tell the rock-dragon, "not today. We're going to train a newbie, okay?"

He hears a question and nods, but I don't know if any words enter his gray matter. He's ready to obey. If this Belldum comes out fighting, Roi can take it. I trust my Pokemon.

I enlarge the premier ball and the Wingull scatter. They recognize that sound and know it means trouble. Babes are scooped into the maws of Pellipers and they abandon their nests. Maybe it would've been better to relocate first.

I throw out the white ball, watch it spin, and out comes an egg.

An egg.

Just the sight of it tenses up my entire body. My lumbar, thighs, and triceps scream about phantom pains remembered from months of biking. Back and forth I hatched eggs, dropped them off to the breeders, picked up another egg and repeated. My search for perfect Pokemon was endless. In the end, I only had the endurance to train three up to the level it takes to be a champion. That egg reminded me why I never bred Pokemon in Unova, Kalos, or Alola. I'd burned myself out...completely.

But this isn't Sinnoh. I only need to hatch this one egg. I can relax.

Dr. Statum didn't mention he was giving me an egg, but I shouldn't be surprised. The best way to monitor the Pokemon's change, is to watch it from the beginning. This little collection of metal will have its entire life to grow.

I could hatch the egg quickly. With Roi's help, he could be a Belldum in a few hours. But then that would be the waste of a good opportunity. I have datasets for hundreds of Belldum. I can find the Belldum with the greatest growth and contact their trainers. I can do everything right. I can give it perfect training... But then how can training be perfect if I don't have a goal to achieve. What exactly am I training him for?

...

Back at the hotel, I find computers to go through the information in the datastick. I find something surprising, the Belldum with the highest molecular shifting per cubic centimeter, is the one I looked at before-the Belldum that was trained to be cool for a coordinator. Its rates returned to something closer to normal after evolving, but as a Belldum, this Belldum was well above the others.

What happened to this Belldum?

I search around for famous Metagross and find mine, Steven's and a few other notorious Metagross known for battling. I waste hours looking into Metagross mega evolutions. The price for a stone costs more than my annual salary as a Duke of Kalos. I might be able to make up the difference by selling my old Pokemon, but that could be my retirement.

Looking into coordinators yields better results. There was only ever one Belldum in the Sinnoh competitive coordinator scene. There's an old interview online where they joke about the metal genius entering cute contests, but that's about it. That's more than enough for me, because it gives me the trainer's name: Ester Flowne.

Ester's a psychic entertainer, based out of Slateport. Slateport was important for some reason. It's home to the oceanic museum so it won't be a total waste of time to go there, but I'm sure it's something else.

Rosette. Spirals friend Rosette. She ended up settling her there. With any luck, she and Spiral have become distant friends. If I don't have to run into Spiral again, all the better. Some things are better left on the past.

@spiralshells @trainerspiral

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sazorak · 4 years ago

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Every Game I Played in 2020, Ranked

2020. Boy, what a garbo year huh? Didn't actually play that many games this year all-in-all. Happens! My backlog is getting pretty big, but I just find it hard to focus on games when I could be working on something. Or put off working on something, as it may happen to be at times.

My arbitrary decision from years ago to only attach a numbered ranking to same-year releases is getting increasingly silly, especially given my propensity to wait on playing games until I’m in the right mood, but whatever. That order matters than the dumb numerical numbering anyway.

2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019

Later Alligator – 2019 – Steam – ★★

The style of this game is very cute, and the jokes are funny enough. But… ok, look, I’m not one to be precious about what is or isn’t a game. But this really isn’t a game. It’s a series of disconnected, unrelated challenges clipped from Atari Free Mini Game Collection 100, wrapped in a very non-interactive adventure-game. It’s cute, it’s kind of sweet, but it’s dull. Dull dull dull. There’s a pointless, mandatory sliding block puzzle early on that infuriated me by its mere existence. Them giving the ability to skip it because “wow you’re bad at this huh”, which, while accurate, also just sold the whole point meaningless of the “““interactive experience”””.

Also: when a huge part of your game is WOW WE ANIMATED EVERYONE REALLY GOOD, text boxes that reveal word-by-word, far away from the animations that occur when said characters talk? Kind of stinks!

8. Carrion – 2020 – Steam – ★★

What Carrion does well— the whole “You’re controlling The Thing and just rippin’ people apart!” shtick— is really neat. They made that bootleg The Thing animate real-ass good.

The actual game as a whole though? Kind of garbage. Imagine a Metroidvania with zero actual exploration, where every opportunity you have to venture off the path instead results in immediate railroading with constant, utterly inexplicable one-way pipes. It’s not that it’s linear, it’s that it actively slaps you when you attempt to explore. It’s very frustrating! Add the fact that the tentacle-monster-shtick makes challenging to actually, y’know, move around and control all your bits… the only reason I finished the game was due to foreknowledge of its extreme brevity.

I think if the game were more open and less obsessed with constantly handing out upgrades, as well as having less of a focus on pure combat, I think I’d have enjoyed it more.

SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays – 2019 – Steam – ★★

It is well documented at this point that I am both an active Gundam fan, and as well as an on-again-off-again tactical RPG aficionado. A SD Gundam game appearing on Steam with a good English translation and localization is… exciting, to say the least. That said, I have never had much context for this game series beyond the basic facts that the combat tended to be pretty well animated CG, and that it’s vaguely similar to Super Robot Wars. Turns out… it’s really different from SRW? I dunno how the rest of the series fairs, but Cross Rays is weird as hell.

For one, there’s zero tutorialization at all. None. Almost all of what I’m going to explain here is me figuring stuff out by trial and error, or by reading junk online. Gundam is insanely popular, you’d think they’d be interested in explaining how it all works, but… nope. Even Super Robot Wars has multi-level introductory bits for new folks to show them the rope these days.

So: Cross Rays is a tactical RPG where you can playthrough the storyline of various Gundam AUs. You can play through them in any order. These playthroughs are fairly literal translations of the stories. You take control of the lead mecha from those series, fight enemy mobile suits that show up in SRW-like tactical RPG combat, until all reinforcements cease. Pretty straight forward. There are occasionally mission variants like “prevent enemies from reaching X” or “prevent enemies from destroying Y”, but even those can be just reduced to “kill everything very quickly please.”

But here’s the thing: while there is a story progression, the characters in the story itself actually have no character progression. These characters and mecha are actually considered guests, despite it being ostensibly their story. Instead, you are able to field “permanent” mecha and pilots of your own choosing, which do have progressions. There is no plot justification for this or anything like it. The game does not recognize that it’s weird that during Iron-Blooded Orphans intro where nobody knows what a Gundam even is, you can have 25 Gundams show up at once and just fire lasers at everything. That’s because this game is actually about repeatedly grinding the same set of missions over and over.

Pilots are recruited by completing certain in-mission requirements. Mecha are acquired by either by getting enough kills with the progression-less “guest” mecha, combining mecha you already have gashopon-style, completing certain quests, or by leveling up mecha and then “evolving them”. This is the actual core of the game.

SD Gundam G Generation Cross Rays is basically Disgaea, it turns out? You’re grinding story missions at various difficulty levels in order to complete missions, try to recruit specific pilots, equip them with stats and levels to make them stronger, and then hitting mecha together in a sort of quasi-SMT fusion system until you get all the powerful mobile suits you desire.

The combat itself is kind of… bland? There’s a lot of systems, but they mostly seem in service of making an already easy game easier, or burning through tedium. There are four different difficulty modes, because there’s not actually that many different missions you can play through. The expectation is you’ll just work your way through every story beat while ramping the difficulty up over time to where the “guest” mecha would not be able to handle on their own. In fact, letting the story mecha act out the story beats is actually bad after a point, unless you’re still trying to get those lead mobile suits, or if you’re trying to complete some mission requirement in order to recruit Named Wing Grunt Pilot #246.

There is something to the notion of “I want to get N and N and N and N on a team, piloting weird but powerful mobile suits, and just solo every Gundam AU in a row,” but the whole premise seems kind of against purpose. Why bother recreating story beats at all, then? It’s not like the game even acknowledges any of that going on.

If the point is that I’m supposed to be, like in other grind-heavy tactical RPGs, breaking the systems to my own end in order to proceed… why not make the missions you play challenges focused towards that? The story progression literally only exists to facilitate the mission-based unlock conditions, which makes all the energy put into making them JUST LIKE THE ANIME really damn pointless.

I like tactical RPGs, I like breaking RPG systems so as to beat hard challenges (I beat all the insanely hard extra bosses in FFXII for crying out loud), I looooove Gundam. I should like this. But I don’t really have the “god, I NEED TO FILL THIS LIST” gene that some folks have… except as an excuse to continue to engage in gameplay I enjoy. The gameplay here seems in service of the collection, rather than the way around.

7. Pokemon Sword: The Isle of Armor – 2020 – ★★★

Pokemon’s first foray into actually doing DLC is… a mixed bag. As a positive, they’ve improved the Wild Area concept I liked from the main game, and even brought back buddy Pokemon walking behind you. That’s neat. On the other hand: the actual progression in it is completable in like an hour, it doesn’t scale with you, so you’re bound to be over leveled for it, and all the raid stuff, while still conceptually neat, is just as flawed as in the base game. And so, you’re just left with even more new Pokemon to RNG grind on to continue to catch-them-all. Nah, I’m good.

Astral Chain – 2019 – Switch – ★★★

Platinum knows how to make good character action games. They’ve made a bunch of them. Bayonetta, Nier: Automata, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. They also know how to make some kind of mediocre character action games. Transformers: Devastation, Wonderful 101, their various shovelware character action games like Korra. Astral Chain falls somewhere in the middle, I guess?

Astral Chain has all the production of their good games. It has some stylish, cool action. It has a neat core mechanical idea, in that it’s essentially a two-character action game where you control both characters at once. It has a lot of the old mechanics from some of their best games brought in; witch-time last second dodging from Bayonetta, Nier’s shooting-and-slashing combination, the Zandatsu mechanic from Metal Gear Rising, even Wonderful 101’s multi-unit shenanigans. The setting is different, and there’s some neat world flavor all in all.

But, of all games I’ve played over the past few years, Astral Chain made me more vividly angry than any other. It’s not that it’s too hard— far from it, really, I found its combat incredibly mashy. No, the problem is that it has so many shitty mechanics slathered on that it become a chore to get to the “good bits”.

Why would you put forced stealth sequences in your character action game, especially when your movement controls are not suited for it?

Why the HELL would you put platforming sections in your character action game, constantly, especially when your stupid ghost buddy can accidentally yank you off the edge, your auto-combos can just throw you off the edge, or literally anything can knock you off the edge and make you lose life?

Why would you put so many constant excuses into the world to force me use the digital sensor in the game, that also makes it miserable to walk around while using it?

WHO THE LIVING FUCK THINKS THESE SHITTY BOX BALANCING MINI-GAMES ARE FUN???

These games are supposed to encourage me to perfect everything, right? Why keep putting fucking fights you need to complete in order to get an S rank behind backtracking, or Legions I don’t have yet? That isn’t adding replayability, that’s just wasting my time. There are even in-level missions that have fail conditions that you never even know about. Surprise!!! A lot of them involve chasing after guys and catching them with your chain, which is really obnoxious to do!!!! SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The story is just Bad Evangelion, straight up. Every story beat from Evangelion is here, executed worse. They also make your character have a twin just so they can have a character who can talk and feel emotions, because your boring-ass protagonist is stuck being an emotionless audience cipher. Cool!!!

Tetris Effect – 2018 – Origin – ★★★

It’s drugs Tetris. I personally don’t use, or have synesthesia for that matter. I imagine this game is better if you do. It’s an enjoyable enough experience but it feels incredibly slight for what I was expecting from it, or even compared to something like Lumines, which has tons of replayability by way of its difficulty. Tetris just isn’t that hard, unless you’re forcing yourself to do weird shit to get points. I WILL NEVER LEARN HOW TO T-SPIN. Never.

Castlevania Anniversary Collection – 2019 – Steam – ★★★

Kind of an unremarkable Castlevania collection. Neat that it has an official translation of Kid Dracula in there, but also… look, I prefer Metroidvania Castlevanias, OK?

6. Spelunky 2 – 2020 – Steam – ★★★

I’m not entirely sure why this doesn’t click for me where Spelunky 1 did. More annoying intro levels? Too many fiddly requirements for different ending-progression? Gameplay additions that just make things more annoying? Spelunky 1 was hard, but there was a kind straight-forwardness to it, even with its weird secrets, that made it much easier to grok and continue banging your head against. I’m just not having as much fun with this. Difficulty should be challenging, not a hassle.

5. Stellaris: Federations – 2020 – Steam – ★★★

This is the year that Stellaris just broke for me.

Federations itself is a good DLC; it adds some really interesting mechanics tied to various types of multi-national unions (the titular federations, as well as the Space UN), as well as the addition of unique “origins” that allow you to further specialize your gameplay. The origins in particular are a great addition that allows more specialization and roleplay.

I’m just tired of the sheer amount of busywork Stellaris forces you to do. Every DLC adds more junk you need to keep an eye on, and the fact that the AI doesn’t even bother with it (compensating with copious economy boosts in order to keep up) makes the whole thing frustrating. It’s like playing fetch with yourself; you just get tired of chasing after your own ball after a point.

I have to wonder if they’re pivoting towards a notional Stellaris 2 at this point? Might not be a bad idea for them, though it is weird with all they talked up adding more origins when Federations came out.

4. GranBlue Fantasy Versus – 2020 – Steam – ★★★★

This is probably the fighting game I got most into over the past few years. There’s just this nice, almost Street Fighter-esque ease of execution to the controls, and that Arc Systems Works 3D-as-2D style continues to just do work. I don’t give a single shit about GranBlue Fantasy (frankly, I think I’d enjoy this game more if it wasn’t attached to a property) but the characters are fun enough to play and look at.

The big problem here is two things: no crossplay, and no rollback netcode. In the span of a month, this game became a total ghost town on PC, and it doesn’t sound like PS4 faired that much better.

Ring Fit Adventure – 2019 – Switch – ★★★★

I’ve fallen on-and-off this game all year. At its heart: it works, it’s a fun exercise game. I don’t think it really feels like a “game” (in the sense that I’m not really coming to it for riveting gameplay or anything) as much as just a guided exercise experience, but… that’s fine? The in-game story is kind of flat, but funny in the fact of it existing at all. Buff Nicol Bolas and all.

XCOM 2: War of the Chosen – 2017 – Steam – ★★★★

XCOM2: War of the Chosen is a great answer to what XCOM2 struggled with. As I discussed back in 2016 (Jesus Christ), XCOM2 tried to push against player’s worst instincts by incentivizing them to keep being aggressive through a whole bunch of timers— which, kind of just weren’t fun given how much accidentally walking into an ambush could “ruin” dozens of hours of play. War of the Chosen dials that back in some intelligent ways, by instead making the encounter designs themselves, as well as much more grab-and-bail mission types, encourage players to push ahead instead. Smart!

The addition of the Chosen makes the game feel more alive, and they really do make missions harder— particularly early on. But they’ve somehow accidentally fell into the hole, where XCOM just… isn’t that hard? Early on it’s challenging, particularly with the resource restrictions and all. But they keep giving you more and more options (that aren’t especially meaningful choices) that make your team more and more powerful, without increasing the strength of the enemy as time goes on. By the five-hour mark, you basically know if you’re going to steam roll the game or not.

The amount of additional character and variety in the gameplay is great, I just wish it had a more challenging difficulty curve. Maybe make the meta-layer of when enemies show up more targeted to where players are at. If a player is doing well, ramp up the difficulty, if they’re struggling, pull it back a bit. I should always feel like I’m just barely keeping ahead with XCOM, not like I’m bored. And by the end of War of the Chosen, I was kind of getting bored, really. Oh well.

3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons – 2020 – Switch – ★★★★

This is probably the video game that I spent the most time with hours-wise this year. I’m not entirely sure why? It’s a nice evolution of New Leaf, in that the crafting, environment shaping, and general quality-of-life improvements made are quite nice. There’s clearly been some thought on how people play these games, and ways to make the experience less frustrating.

… and yet, they kept so much tedium in the game. Like yes, the schedule stretching is the point, I get it. As someone who for some reason decided not to play with the clock, I only just recently finished the fish, fossils, and insects for the museum. But there’s just so many weird, little things that just make it hard to keep coming back to it. It’s like… to what end? When I’ve unlocked everything, and basically seen the entirety of the item list at this point, and the holiday events all being the game meaningless collectathons…. Why? I’m not going to try completing the collection; the museum stuff is about my limit, really (and even the paintings I can probably pass on).

I guess even an idealized, digital representation of a quasi-domestic life has the spiritual emptiness of consumerism-for-consumerism sake. Thanks???

Hypnospace Outlaw – 2019 – Steam – ★★★★

I grew up on the internet of the early 00s. I had an AngelFire website, mostly consisting of shitty sprite webcomics and hosted Gundam pics. I remember when Google wasn’t really a thing and you would heavily rely on website compilation sites like the Anime Web Turnpike in order to find anything of value online. It was weird, it was wild. It was exciting!

The internet seemed so different back then. There was a ton of garbage online, but also, like… there was a sense of optimism to it. Folks were shitty, there was plenty of bad stuff online, but it felt so disconnected from the fabric of the physicality of real-life that it was at the same time a perfect escape.

I was young when I first got “online”, something like 12. I remember having this notion that the internet was going to be this great equalizer, that it had infinite potential to change how people behave and interact. Boy, huh.

Hypnospace Outlaw is essentially a splendid alternate universe GeoCities recreation, where you’re a volunteer moderator of a grouping of websites on HypnOS, an internet-analog you access while you are sleep. At the surface level, it’s mostly about poking around the weird alternate-historical version of the internet they created, full of kids feuding, bizarre historical divergences, and plenty of amazing bespoke weirdness. All of this is great; there’s an incredible amount of content that’s just great to poke at, listen to, and explore.

Below the surface, there’s also a rolling plotline about the ethics of this industry-owned platform, those who run it, and the way corporations handle new technology, new platforms, and emerging digital societies. There’s a late game turn that’s pretty damn affecting. And as someone who has moderator his share of internet forums in his time, trying to balance ‘do it for the community’ and what your ostensible ‘bosses’ require of you, it was kind of a weird throwback in more ways than one.

Minecraft – 2011 – PC – ★★★★★

Turns out, Minecraft is really as good still who knew??? Started playing a bunch more of it this year due to Giant Bomb deciding to do so, and yeah: still good!

2. Hades – 2020 – Steam – ★★★★★

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again— Supergiant makes damn good games. I’d been holding off on checking out Hades until its full release due to my tendency to burn out on games easily, and I’m glad I waited. Hades is a fantastic rogue-lite experience. The way it makes narrative progression part of the reiterative, randomized rogue-lite structure is just perfect.

It’s got all the usual Supergiant bullet points. Great characters, voice acting, narration, and music. In terms of gameplay, it’s probably their least ambitious game— playing something like a cousin to their original game, Bastion— but it’s also been polished to a mirror sheen. It just feels really damn good to play, over and over and over.

That being said, the second (final?) ending feels kind of…. Tacked on? It’s fine as a goal to go for while continuing to do the game’s relationship mechanics for additional story bits, but it ends up feeling kind of unfulfilling compared to the payoff of the first one.

1. Crusader Kings III – 2020 – Steam – ★★★★★

I never could get into Crusader Kings II. Despite my interest, the sheer mechanical heft and unintuitive interface made the game a wall that I just couldn’t get over. I’m sure if I’d dedicated myself I probably could have learned it, but… ehhhhhh.

Crusader Kings III, on the other hand, has a good tutorial, a cleaned-up UI, and a very helpful highlight and tooltip system that make it much easier to understand how to actually play the game through resources inside the game itself. And, as it turns out: I rather love this game.

I mean, conceptually it’s an easy sell, isn’t it? Historical politics is something I enjoy broadly. I liked Stellaris but wish it had more narrative, roleplaying elements. They outright say that “winning” isn’t really the point of the game. Instead, it’s more about emergent storytelling and playing with the different systems and seeing what you can do with it.

My current game has had me taking the Haesteinn dynasty from its Viking origins into England, forming a London-seated Northern Sea Empire that encompasses all of Britannia, Iceland, Holland, Norway, and Denmark. I am currently working on hegemonizing Norse religious control over enough Asatru holy sites to finally reform the religion, such that more unified feudalization can occur. To that end, my current ruler’s predecessor invaded West Francia and conquered the whole of its territory, substantially reducing the foothold of Catholicism in mainland Europe… which seems to have kicked the hornet’s nest, given the Crusade I’m going to need to contend with next time I boot up the game.

Of course, a complicating matter is that my current ruler— the Emperor of the North Sea, King of Ireland and the Danelaw, liege of the King of Denmark, was elected from the extended Haesteinn family via Thing, the Scandinavian council of his erstwhile vassals. Where the previous emperor, the one who manufactured the invasion of Francia, was quite religious and beloved for his adherence to the old ways, I discovered as I took over as his successor that he really, really is into just boning down across Europe. We’re talking constantly attempting to seduce neighboring Queens and Princesses. His vassals are not thrilled with this. They also don’t care for his propensity for torturing people to death, constantly.

I had no real say in this; attempting to stay on top of a dynasty is kind of like riding a bucking-bronco, so many things are only tenuously under your control that some weird shit can happen. This is especially true when you use the systems that make it easier to maintain the coherency of your domain. The Norse religion encouraging concubinage results in you having a lot of kids, which means there’s a lot of domain partition going on (someday, primogeniture, someday). Naturally, using Thing election reduces that, but also makes you sometimes end up having to play Emperor Stabbo-Fucko because they thought he was the best candidate at the time. Hell, I thought he was the best candidate at the time until I discovered just how many people he’d be laying with on the low. But you just have to roll with it.

The way the game forces you to play ball with character traits is great. Doing things that match with the character’s traits makes them lose stress. Doing things against their character increases stress. Too much stress can force you to make the character take up vices (which can make them suffer health or opinion maluses, as well as altering their aptitudes), or even die outright. And sometimes those vices and attitudes can be boons, given they open up opportunities for different character interactions.

Emperor Stab-and-Fuck-Kingdom is perhaps the most relaxed person alive, it turns out, because his sadism makes him really enjoy sacrificing infidels, which makes the gods happy. It also freaks the fuck out of all of his vassals, so they’re a good supplicant mix of both appreciative of my religious sentiments and also utterly terrified of my skull piles. Some especially brave vassals occasionally try to assassinate me, but my lovers keep jumping in front of the knife and saving my life mid-coitus. Iiiiiit happens! :D

The game can be incredibly fun to just watch, as it becomes emergently weird. Georgia right now is incredibly Jewish in game. I’m not sure how that happened; I guess someone made a random Jewish guy into a vassal, who somehow moved up enough in the world to make it a movement? The Byzantine princes elected a Coptic as Emperor, which over the course of the decade resulted in very accelerated balkanization as Byzantium just lost its shit. The Middle East and notional HRE haven’t really unified in a meaningful way, so I’m curious how things are going to go if/when the Mongols unify and roll-on in.

It’s one of those “Just one more thing” games that can completely devour time. I have more than a few times checked the clock mid-game to see that it’s 4AM and that I’ve totally ruined my sleep schedule in the process of play. Oooooops.

I highly recommend checking it out if you’re curious; the introductory, pre-release video series Paradox put out showing off the game does a pretty good job of showing the core gameplay loop and also how weird it can get.

#GAME OF THE YEAR #GOTY #nonfiction #thinkpiece #2020 #Crusader Kings 3 #Hades #SD Gundam #Animal Crossing

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blockchain-council001 · 3 years ago

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What does an Illuvium game entail? How do you play and earn money in this game?

Illuvium is a self-contained, decentralised organisation. Illuvium DAO is the name of the platform, which is developing a fantasy role-playing game on the Ethereum network. In January of last year, a decentralised, NFT expert collecting and auto battler game based on the Ethereum network was released.

What is Illuvium?

Illuvium enveloped players in a 3D open world where they may explore and capture deity-like beasts. The Illuvials that players collect are represented on NFTs, which have real-world value, on Ethereum's blockchain training. Players competed for ether using the Illuvials they'd obtained.

A couple of brief facts:

Illuvium is an upcoming blockchain-based role-playing game that will be launched on the Ethereum network.

Players traverse a three-dimensional open world in search of Illuvials, which they can capture and use to battle other players.

The game has a play-to-earn model, in which Illuvials are stored as NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain and players earn ether by defeating other players in combat.

Illuvium is the industry's first large-scale blockchain-based video game.

What does Illuvium mean?

Illuvium is known for being the first AAA blockchain-based video game in the world. Furthermore, due to their scalability challenges, this game will most certainly defeat CryptoKitties and Axie Infinity, both of which run on top of blockchain networks. Because of Illuvium's success, these blockchain-based play-to-earn features could become more widely used in the game industry.

Existing online games with significant player bases, such as Fortnite, Call of Duty: Warzone, Apex Legends, and others, rely heavily on the sale of skins and other in-game items. This game, on the other hand, may transform all of these in-game objects into NFTs, which have real worth.

What's the best way to play Illuvium?

Settings

A spaceship lands on an extraterrestrial world with a variety of sceneries, harsh weather, unusual temperatures, and strange species. In addition, players take on the role of a Hunter, who must travel the globe, capture monsters, and uncover strange obelisks that allow them to travel faster and see more of the world.

Gameplay

Like any other role-playing game, players must build their own character. It's time to get out there and explore the world. Illuvium is an open-world game powered by Unreal Engine 4. This technology differs from prior blockchain-based games in that it allows for detailed locations and settings. Once caught, illuvial and other in-game things will appear as NFTs developers in the player's wallet.

In addition, stronger Illuvial can have affinities to two elements at once, allowing for more combinations. Illuvial can even stack the same affinity twice, boosting their power within that inclination. A frost Illuvial can be created by stacking two fire inclinations.

Illuvials are stored in shards in the game, but in crypto wallets in the NFT developer version. Shards are similar to Pokemon Poke Balls. The potency of Illuvial, like the strength of shards, varies. More potent Illuvial necessitates stronger shards. Illuvial acquire strength, increase their abilities, and level up as a result of combat.

Fusion

A crucial component of the game is combining Illuvial to make them more powerful. Collect three fully levelled Illuvials to create a single, more powerful Illuvial. Illuvials with more potency are more effective in combat and are valued more ILV, the native token. Those looking to profit from Illuvium should focus on finding matching Illuvials, training them to the highest degree possible, fusing them, and then selling them for higher rates.

Arenas

Players that have captured Illuvials and desire to fight can enter the Ranked Arena's matchmaking queue. Individual players can also challenge bouts in the Leviathan Arena, where viewers can bet on the winner.

Also, keep in mind that Illuvium is an auto-battler. This means that before the match, both players must select their Illuvials, weapons, and armour. Players cannot choose their attacks or affect the outcome once the battle has begun, unlike other similar-styled games like Pokemon.

Armour and armaments

The player's character, along with their chosen Illuvials, must fight in battles, making weapon and armour selection important beyond appearances. Weapons and armour are presented in the game by NFTs specialists, just as Illuvials, and the player's decision might influence the outcome of fight.

IlluviDex

The Illuvium DAO manages Illuvium's online marketplace, the IlluviDex. This marketplace allows Illuvium players to buy, sell, and trade their in-game NFTs, such as Illuvials, weapons, armour, skins, and more. In addition, like any other blockchain training, Illuvium NFTs can be listed and traded on various exchanges.

Conclusion

Illuvium: Zero is currently in a semi-private, off-chain beta phase. The game is expected to be released in 2022. These release schedules are subject to change, therefore anyone interested in staying up to date should subscribe to Illuvium's Discord and register for an account on the game's website.

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shrapnelstars · 3 years ago

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My party in SMT5 so far. I'm having a lot of fun with this game.

I really love how balanced it feels. There are a few of inhibitors in place to keep you from steamrolling the game, but at the same time, you never feel under-powered, or like the inhibitors are keeping you from having fun. The game also somehow avoids that godawful feeling that some RPG's can get, where you feel like your strength at Lv. 1 and Lv. 71 are identical. I think it's because higher ranked monsters get more complex skills, so you get to strategize a lot more effectively as you level.

Basilisk is currently key to this team. He has AoE poison, an attack that is stronger against poisoned enemies, AoE Physical damage, and he sometimes auto-counters when hit, on top of being tanky and having good evasion. King Frost and Baphomet are here for elemental coverage for this particular map (Fire/Dark, Ice/Light).

I've been completely absorbed in the fusion screens for my past 2 play sessions. You are highly discouraged from trying to 100% complete the compendium as you go, but I'm going to start on it once I'm at a high enough level. You can't make a living compendium, anyway. There's no "PC Box" equivalent, just your party space (which can be expanded over time), and you can only have one of a specific monster with you at a time. Still, it's fun just going through and making at least one of each race of demon so you can see what new ones get added to the fusion chart.

I want all the Silent Hill looking monsters, but I know that it'll only hurt me to have a themed party in the long run because they tend to share weaknesses, which is absolutely FATAL in this game, unlike in Pokemon. Monotype will having you looking at the game over screen for the rest of the game, and you will never make progress.

#stuff #happy

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autoplaysdigimon · 2 years ago

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wHat

(here is her child)

#pokemon #pokemon infinite fusion #auto plays pokemon fusion #clarence :)

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eviipaiadin · 7 years ago

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12. Your in game inside jokes/memes/catchphrases and where they came from.

There’s a reason I tag our campaign as ‘Dungeons & Shitposting’. But here’s a list of all the dumb in-jokes I’ve had over my years of playing and running games. (Under a read more because it’s a lot)

D&D 4e or ‘OTK the Campaign’

“Bards are just better warlords!”

“I’m working with this really cool archfey. She’s kinda underground, you’ve probably never heard of her.”

Raviel Thade, Door-to-Door Raven Queen Salesperson

“...You never said that your Vicious Mockery was dealing non-lethal damage to the cow...”

“I’m a paladin, right? That means these villagers respect me, right?”

“...And there goes the halfling, hoping to hitchhike to meet some competent adventurers...”

Homestuck 4e or ‘I Am The Only Person In This Damn Campaign That Doesn’t Know No Houseglueds’

“Evii, do you have a +1 in any stat at all?”

“His name is literally ‘Villain’. I ain’t trusting him.”

Pokemon Religion vs Fusion Science

“Why are you guys laughing so hard? All I did was push him down some stairs.”

Legends or ‘The Origins of Captain Creig Cornswaggle, the Courageous Commander of The Cruel Craven and Co-Owner of The Crow’s Call’

Literally anything about Captain Creig Cornswaggle, the Courageous Commander of The Cruel Craven and Co-Owner of The Crow’s Call

“Diplomancy: Friendship Really is Magic.”

“...And then I stuck her with my shadow sword!” | “Is that what kids are calling it nowadays?”

“Ew, I can’t believe you’re into dead people.” | “For the last time, I’m a necroMANCER not a necroPHILIAC!”

Gregory the goblin head

“No, we are not selling the avatar of god into slave labour.” | “BUT THINK OF THE PROFITS THAT COULD BE USED FOR ORPHANAGES, GERARD! YOU LOVE THAT WEIRD GOODY-TWO-SHOES SHIT, RIGHT?!”

“If you’re gonna threaten us to kill something for you and you’re that tough, do it your damn self.”

“Voice is a privilege reserved for the GM and the GM alone. You players peasants must use text.”

“I can’t fucking believe the fate of the world once again rests in the hands of the two (2) short ones.”

“No, you cannot build a mountain of corpses to escape. I’M RAILROADING YOU SO I CAN REINTRODUCE A PLAYER CHARACTER. STOP BEING DIFFICULT.”

“I surrender, suckers.”

“My pirate gear is the HEIGHT of fashion. Keep your stinkin’ tux to yourself.”

Fate or ‘Evii Makes a Weird Character for Extended Pun Purposes’

Peter ‘Pan’ Handel

“He’s 50% man, 50% goat, 50% alligator.”

“You still sound Russian. Gimme some more vodka, maybe that’ll fix it.”

(It was a single very short session so not much memes there, unfortunately.)

World of Darkness or ‘Deadbeat Dirty Drug Cop and Rich Kid with a Penchant for Speed Ruin Everything at Record Speed’

“I slap him with the mummy hand.”

“How many levels do I need to put into [stat] before I can dual-wield shotguns?”

“How many sanity points does it cost for me to make a one-liner here?”

“We might not have a silver bullet. But maybe there’s enough silver in the five hundred (500) bullets we pumped into him to do the trick.”

“I can’t believe our most powerful ally is a devil hooker.”

Pokemon Tabletop Adventures 1 or ‘Lie Detector is Overpowered’

“Your character is [age between 20-55]? None of these tokens work for that.”

“I attempt to read the sign.” | “It says [whatever’s on the sign].” | “HEY GUYS, THE SIGN SAYS [whatever’s on the sign]!”

“My ahegao is a built-in lie detector.” | “YOUR WHAT?!” | “You know, the dumb single standing up hair.” | “THAT’S NOT WHAT AHEGAO MEANS, EVII!!”

“I believe in my Shuppet. So that means it does an extra... 8d6 damage.” | “Fuck off.”

Pokemon Tabletop Adventures 2 or ‘Who Let Me Be In Charge?!’

Bipen begins.

“Oh no, not Bidoofs!”

“...So you killed her Charmander.” | “OOPS!”

D&D 5e 1 or ‘The Wheatley Featherstep Saga’

Another character that exists for Evii to make bad puns

“Kaiser is the best and the strongest and can beat Baphomet with two (2) arms tied behind her back.”

Decibel the definitely-a-drow

Owly the owl

“So you can’t actually roll low enough to be hit by the aftermath explosions from these things...”

Decibel dying and immediately being reincarnated by a giant magic thing

Wheatley banishing Baphomet and all the demons back to the Abyss by accident, saving Kaiser and also kicking off the Wedding Crashers Arc

Wheatley’s Double Death Room

Wheatley, Lawful Good Monk, befriends local Chaotic Evil vrock

Wheatley adopts a fire snake after being complicit in murdering her family (oops!)

Halfling Lucky can’t save you if you roll a billion 1s in a row

Sultan of Many Titles vs Chiyoko of Many Titles+1

“You know, if you had actually had the Deck of Many Things on your person, you would’ve auto-won the encounter.”

“Why can’t I beat an 11 on Insight checks?!”

D&D 5e 2 or ‘Dungeons & Shitposting’

“Salith has the strongest drow fists in existence.”

“She has a tentacle rod and we are ending the conversation there.”

“Bitch!”

[Arceusawful Russian accent] “What do you call dark elf who cannot swim?”

Kana the NPC slayer

“For the Sea Mothah!” [fish slap]

“I fucking hate spiders.” | “I fucking love spiders!” (These two (2) characters are now dating.)

The Nature Society has made lumberjacking illegal.

Everything about Nappa/Cabbage, really

“’Allo! My name is, ‘ow you say, Ree Asho!”

The Cavalry

I am kana man 410,757,864,530 DEAD KOBOLDS

“Hey Frank”

Speedrunning the campaign

“Look you guys, the beholder isn’t even at full power!”

Potion of Good Performance (not actually a sex thing!)

A traditional derro and kuo-toa burial

“The tree did it!”

The Messenger’s Guild

The Cyrus is Framed and No One has Fun for at Least Five (5) Sessions Arc

The Return of Bipen (”I’m a Dragon~!”)

The Return of Captain Creig Cornswaggle, the Courageous Commander of The Cruel Craven and Co-Owner of The Crow’s Call

The Tomb of Pharaoh Phasulias, Home of Pharaoh Phasulias

Demon lycanthropy is extra bad lycanthropy

Torchguard Commander Rickert is tired, grumpy, but kinda hot (at least to Navi)

“You’re Linda!!” (can’t remember if that was the right name)

The We Kinda Got Invited to a Wedding But Only a Few of Us are Still Playing the Characters that Knew the NPCs Getting Married so the Impact is Greatly Lessened as a Result Arc

Yoil Kreth and the Mechanized Execution Combative Heavy Axe (MECHA for short)

Oh Boy More Travelling NPCs We Really Don’t Care About

My awful impressions of Cyrus and Bipen when their players aren’t around

Fluffy is a Good BoyTM

Themberchaud the Fat Cat Dragon

Thesmachaud is buff, scary, but kinda hot (at least to Kana)

“Oh god we killed Buppido!”

“Your demon sense senses a billion (1,000,000,000) demons.”

D&D 5e 3 or ‘Evil Squad’

>hags

The Conch Horn Plan

Mr. Skeletal the First to Mr. Skeletal the Third

Magnifying glass

Portable ram

KOTA WE’RE ALL DUMBASSES JUST TELL US THE FUCKING ANSWER

“GIVE ME BACK KUBAZAN!” | “HE’S MINE, YOU GAVE HIM UP!”

“Okay, I am not gonna put my hand back in that hole.”

“OUR GODDESS WAS A 2WHO?!” (Related: “IS THAT A 2WHO?!”)

Thanks, druid friend, for your important contributions

“Leviathan!” | “It’s Laevaetaen!” | “Laeviathan!”

D&D 5e Mini or ‘I Miss You, Hug-Hug’

“Fuck you, I’m muting my mic for the rest of this session.”

Hug-Hug being the cutest lil gobbo ever

The Ten Billion (10,000,000,000) Hour Sacrifice Debate Room

D&D 5e 4 or ‘I Hate Time Travel’

:rasande_confused:

Soul micromanaging everyone’s characters

:salazar_dark:

“Keep the fisting to a minimum, my monkish friend.”

Barin, Champion of Booze

[insert ff14 realm reborn cutscene instead of narration here]

“Wait, our group is the one (1) that best understands this plot?!”

D&D 5e 5 or ‘Spooky Shadowfell Scures’

John ‘Thicccc’ Taric

“I have a very sharp shovel.”

[goggles that make you have night vision]

“Form of...!”

i’m missing some smaller one-shots and stuff but i can’t think of any major memes to come from them

#Evii plz #dovahheim #noted that this is very heavily biased in favour of my characters #cuz i'm egotistical like that

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screechingobservationvoid-blog · 5 years ago

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top 5 digital technology trends

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, has just gotten a ton of buzz lately, however, it keeps on being a pattern to watch since its impacts on how we live, work and play are just in the beginning periods. Also, different parts of AI have created, including Machine Learning, which we will go into beneath. Simulated intelligence alludes to PCs frameworks worked to emulate human intelligence and perform errands, for example, acknowledgment of pictures, discourse or examples, and basic leadership. Simulated intelligence can carry out these responsibilities quicker and more precisely than people.

Man-made intelligence has been around since 1956 is as of now broadly utilized. Truth be told, five out of six Americans use AI benefits in some structure, each day, including route applications, gushing administrations, cell phone individual collaborators, ride-sharing applications, home individual colleagues, and shrewd home gadgets. Notwithstanding customer use, AI is utilized to calendar trains, evaluate business hazard, foresee upkeep, and improve vitality productivity, among numerous other cash sparing assignments.

Machine Learning

Machine Learning is a subset of AI. With Machine Learning, PCs are customized to figure out how to accomplish something they are not modified to do: They actually learn by finding examples and bits of knowledge from information. As a rule, we have two kinds of learning, directed and solo.

While Machine Learning is a subset of AI, we likewise include subsets inside the area of Machine Learning, including neural systems, regular language handling (NLP), and profound learning. Every one of these subsets offers an open door for gaining practical experience in a vocation the field that will just develop.

Machine Learning is quickly being sent in a wide range of enterprises, making a colossal demand for gifted professionals. The Machine learning business sector is relied upon to develop to $8.81 billion by 2022. Machine Learning applications are utilized for information investigation, information mining, and example acknowledgment. On the purchaser end, Machine Learning forces web query items, continuous promotions, and system interruption recognition, to give some examples of the numerous errands it can do.

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) drenches the client in a domain while Augment Reality (AR) improves its condition. Despite the fact that VR has basically been utilized for gaming up to this point, it has likewise been utilized for preparing, similarly as with VirtualShip, a reproduction software used to prepare U.S. Naval force, Army and Coast Guard ship chiefs. The mainstream Pokemon Go is a case of AR.

Both have tremendous potential in preparing, amusement, instruction, showcasing, and even recovery after damage. Either could be utilized to prepare specialists to do the medical procedure, offer gallery-goers a more profound encounter, improve amusement leaves, or even upgrade promoting, similarly as with this Pepsi Max transport cover.

As indicated by an article at Monster.com, the demand for occupation candidates with VR information is up 37 percent, however, the potential representatives are hard to come by. That demand will just increment. There are significant players in the VR advertising, similar to Google, Samsung, and Oculus, however a lot of new businesses are shaping and they will contract—or attempting to, in light of the lack. Beginning in VR doesn't require a great deal of particular information. Fundamental programming abilities and a groundbreaking outlook can land work, albeit different bosses will search for optics as a range of abilities and equipment designs too.

Cyber Security

Cybersecurity probably won't appear rising technology, given that it has been around for some time, however it is developing similarly as different advances seem to be. That is to some extent since dangers are always new. The pernicious programmers who are attempting to unlawfully get to information won't surrender at any point in the near future, and they will keep on discovering approaches to traverse even the hardest security measures. It's likewise to a limited extent on the grounds that new technology is being adjusted to upgrade security. Three of those progressions are equipment verification, cloud technology, and profound learning, as indicated by one master. Another includes information misfortune counteractive action and social investigation to the rundown. For whatever length of time that we have programmers, we will have cybersecurity as a rising technology since it will always advance to protect against those programmers.

Internet of Things

Despite the fact that it seems like a game you'd play on your cell phone, the Internet of Things (IoT) is what's to come. Many "things" are presently being worked with WiFi network, which means they can be associated with the Internet—and to one another. Henceforth, the Internet of Things, or IoT. IoT empowers gadgets, home apparatuses, autos and considerably more to be associated with and trade information over the Internet. And we're just first and foremost phases of IoT: The quantity of IoT gadgets arrived at 8.4 billion out of 2017 is and expected to arrive at 30 billion gadgets by 2020.

As purchasers, we're as of now utilizing and profiting by IoT. We can bolt our entryways remotely on the off chance that we neglect to when we leave for work and preheat our stoves on our route home from work, all while following our wellness on our Fitbits and hailing a ride with Lyft. In any case, organizations additionally have a lot to pick up now and sooner rather than later. The IoT can empower better security, proficiency, and basic leadership for organizations as information is gathered and dissected. It can empower prescient upkeep, accelerate therapeutic consideration, improve client support, and offer advantages we haven't envisioned at this point. Notwithstanding, regardless of this aid in the advancement and selection of IoT, specialists state insufficient IT professionals are landing prepared for IoT positions. An article at ITProToday.com says we'll require 200,000 more IT laborers that aren't yet in the pipeline, and that a study of specialists found 25.7 percent accept insufficient ability levels to be the business' greatest impediment to development.

Conclusion:

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#TRENDS #MOBILEAPPS #TECHNOLOGY

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crystalized-dreams · 7 years ago

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In general, I went in expecting nothing so I expected to either be pleasantly surprised or okay with whatever was shown–maybe some things would excite me, but I wouldn’t end up upset or frustrated or disappointed. AND YET SOMEHOW THAT HAPPENED ANYWAY…

Before I get to that though, you can check out the Nintendo Direct by clicking here. I’ll also talk about some of the other things first before I get to why I’m frustrated.

So, for one, we got some new Pokemon news… And I’ll admit, I just… don’t care. At most, I’m excited for new customization and Pikachu Valley which looks really pretty: I’m just really hoping for better hairstyles especially. And it’d be nice to see other Pokemon costumes like a Mega Audino lolita-princess dress, but Mega Audino never gets any love so I don’t know why I’m hoping.

But… I want to know if the story is actually a new tale or if it’s just added areas. That’s all I want to know and that’s the one thing that is constantly being stepped around. I don’t care about new Pokemon forms. I’m tired of new Pokemon. Pokemon fusion is dumb and I didn’t like it in B/W2 either. I just want to know if the story is different because I don’t think I want to play Sun/Moon again otherwise.

Next up is Lady Layton/Layton’s Mystery Journey which will be coming out for the 3DS early October. Even though I bought the Mobile version and all the DLC, I’m much more excited for the 3DS version and the Flora costume: I still wish it came out worldwide here like it did in Japan Considering it’s supposed to be the same content and the mobile version is voice acted too, I don’t really understand the delay.

Then I was very surprised by the Mario Party announcement… I’m curious if it’s just the minigames or has an actual normal Mario Party mode too with favorite courses. I’d really like that, though, I think I would’ve preferred to see this on the Switch then the 3DS.

After that, was the Snipperclips DLC announcement which looked fun, some stuff on Dragon Quest Builders coming to Switch which I still want to try, and Project Octopath Traveler which looks interesting, but I’m still not sure if I’d personally play it.

We then came down to Super Mario Odyssey stuff which I’m just so excited for. #gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

The worlds look amazing. I can’t wait to collect souvenirs: And between the playing with a dog and jumping into paintings (I have so much love for Super Mario 64), it just looks so good and I can’t wait.

I also really like this pouch and kind of want it, even if I’d prefer a different color:

Now onto why I’m so frustrated… And the answer is, well, this:

A trailer for Girls Mode 4 (The Style Savvy series here) which was also showed during Europe’s Nintendo Direct as New Style Boutique 3, but absent from the US one.

It comes out November 2nd in Japan and November 24th in Europe. And maybe eventually in the US? For reference, the last game came out in April 2015 for Japan, November 2015 for Europe + Australia, and August 2016 for the US–nearly a year after Europe’s release despite it being a literal port using European terms, brand names, and spelling along with other edits they made (such as appearance changes to the characters).

And so that’s what I’m expecting here. Maybe we’ll see it in 2018, who knows, but I’m so angry about it because I LOVE that series and for some reason, we’re not also getting it in November? We are already ignored for the DLC by quite a bit. Why does Nintendo of America hate this game so much? I really want to know. I’d love to be receiving it November too, even if it’s just a port, but if we’re not, at least bother localizing it this time. Or explain why we’re once again stuck waiting.

Personally, I would’ve rather seen it on the Switch than on the 3DS again (and it’s only been two years since the last one in Japan… And I’m guessing because we got 3 so late is part of why we have to wait longer, but I genuinely don’t care and just find this upsetting), but it still looks really nice. There’s a new vocalized theme song, your choices have a lot more influence on the game’s stories, and the cutscenes look more varied too.

But we’re stuck waiting. Again. For who knows why. And it just… it really sucks. I’m not going to get a European version just to play it, but I just… need to impatiently wait for now I suppose.

On the latest Nintendo Direct… In general, I went in expecting nothing so I expected to either be pleasantly surprised or okay with whatever was shown--maybe some things would excite me, but I wouldn't end up upset or frustrated or disappointed.

#3DS #Lady Layton #Nintendo #Nintendo Direct #Nintendo Switch #Pokemon #Pokemon Ultra Moon #Style Savvy 4 #Super Mario Odyssey

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stunninglyecstatic-blog · 8 years ago

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Summoners War Promo Code 2017

Throughout the acquire of a thousand mobile or portable mmorpgs it needs quite a lot to divide a particular one out of the rest. Not simply are now the fights altogether 3d, but now and then monsters get specialized trimmed displays when executing important hits. The combos might actually get essentially nuts, with healers, issues car dealers, and tanks you will find power team kinds with assorted quantities of degree. |Yet, they've reduced the place between these 100 percent free members, and people who shell out a little bit or perhaps a considerable amount. Somewhere around 30 of the people crystals could well be collected on a daily basis, that is definitely 1/3 of a magical summon, nevertheless they may also be used for specialized properties, further vitality, or more arena fights. There's a whole lot of things to recover and grind from runes to waking up products. I give Summoners War Free Hack: sky arena a broad 4/5. Really the only discrepancy is where the container styles. Summoners war not summoner conflicts not to be wrongly diagnosed aided by the credit-based card lev cheat summoner conflicts, sky arena components significantly outstanding graphical design and producing advantage, and firm major technicians to search plus the staple component library technicians a web-established arena combat - all at the same time leftover 100 percent free-to-execute, in just-lev cheat transactions. Up to now, you will see several elemental styles accessible Rather out of the normal arrange of receiving countless |A fireplace-enter is focused on multi-aim for stunting hits, whilst the normal water-a good is focused on as being a therapeutic aquarium, and waking up (or specialized growing) perhaps produces a improved form of the said beast that happens to be pros in numerous functions. This is dependent upon the monster’s understanding and statistics, and if you want to experience a formidable squad, you’ll need to use power-up and develop your monsters, or use the not long ago-launched beast combination attribute. factor to consider, like which rune combos are perfect and when it is worthwhile to buy maxing the beast in any way. At the same time, it doesn’t harm that now and then, you get energetic camera system circulation whenever your component functions a crucial success. Together with the reliable detail about advantage exp is that you do not are required to trouble about exceeding your efforts constraint. I’d even be glad to shell out precise some money upon it to further improve my practical knowledge, on the flip side within the freemium condition, the game has been addicting and adequately reliable to satisfy. Contrary to other beast-compiling mobile or portable codes, any beast in Summoners War Free Hack features different understanding and qualities that let it carry out a variety of handle functions, much like a aquarium task, an support task, an anxiety attack task, and fusion functions with additional customization growing within game’s rune approach. Atmosphere destination headquarters - make your centre area in the ground-up. Does Summoners War Free Hack stand out? Summoners War Free Hack is actually a library rpg. |As with, where the player was without a doubt actively playing not less than a number of hours. Actually, irrespective of the player as being a summoner, treasured little summoning arises dangling near without pretty big transactions of crystals as they are not easy to get through the course of lev cheat execute and never have to shell out bucks. The google android variety was released on will likely 15 2014. And in addition for those who are not, the game is absolutely free to check, and you've got you triumph in. There is no bad terminology outside "dammit" devoid of explicit love-making information, a good number of the female numbers are shown in-lev cheat and in addition on launching monitors wearing skimpy outfits that hardly cover up their bosoms. At the same time, members might need figure, expand, and grow their acquire awesome headquarters. On the other hand theoretically it depends upon handle, the around-nonstop preventing is only a option to an finish off. Only once individuals There ought to be help to extra money, nonetheless the emotion that player has got to spend some some money (besides acquiring a considerable amount amusing that they need to shell out) will upset them. Scouring the web the feedback in which is “fun” will we will uncover why members are monetizing and simply what might get them used dangling near extended expression: we recognized members want good deal more online community components in Summoners War Free Hack. |Players’ important subjects present they will understand the game doesn't seem easy to triumph in without paying some money. A business approach, non-public chat between these friends, in addition to a higher quality promising from guilds to bring up a small number of. Singular aim for, aoe or chained ressurection and repair buffs and safeguard or debuffs and dots, a few options resolve from. 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gamestudio · 8 years ago

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Kenny Nunez Reading Response 3

Reading Warren Spencer's perspective coincides with similar feelings I have. The enjoyment and popularity of "Do What You Want" games is something I like despite never taking full advantage of such features, I rarely attack random people in "Grand Theft Auto" or do any of the added mini games such as golf and racing, but giving the option to do so is something that must be commended. While ive never had a game tug at my heart strings ( perhaps im a heartless bastard ) I hear stories and through the power of "YouTube", can see other people take an emotional reaction to games from "Telltale's Walking Dead" to "Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception" and see how an emotional impact/bond can be had when the character or story is crafted well. Although people say an emotional impact is something amazing, its quite a vague statement, I mean, how many times can we recount getting completely enraged by something, rage is an emotion last time I checked, loopholes.

Dr Ray Muzkya's foundation of "make it as best as possible" is something alot of people should listen to more. Nowadays we can probably name plenty of games or companies that either released games unfinished and planned to patch it later ( Final Fantasy 15, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5, The WarZ which was re-branded to Infestation Survival Stories ), focused on graphics rather than gameplay ( inFamous Second Son, Assassins Creed Unity ), or just lost sight of what there franchise was suppose to be ( Resident Evil 6, Dead Rising 4, Saints Row 4 ). Other factors beyond the control of the developers making the best that they can is localization, many games are altered when brought over to other territories, essentially censoring the game from what it originally was and its different per territory such as: America usually sees censorship of sexual content in Japanese games usually citing "it wouldnt fit the rating" or "well its too weird/sexual/perverted", it was in there to begin with so why remove it, examples being ( Fire Emblem Fates, Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE, Bravely Second, Star Ocean 5 ), although sometimes it can be weird cases, such as "Dragon Ball Fusions" censoring swords with sticks or "Tales of Berseria" censoring a scene with violence towards a child, only to leave the character's journal depicting the uncensored scene. Japan sees censorship in games when it comes to violence or flat out nudity, examples being ( Resident Evil 7,Nioh, Grand Theft Auto 5, The Witcher 3 ). Any number of factors could get in your way of making something to the fullest you want.

Dan Daglow's idea of "remember to do what you love and not focus on fame and glory" is something people still have an issue understanding. To put it bluntly, no one can just get fame for doing nothing or by half assing it unless receiving infamy and scorn is ok with you. Quick example being an indie studio by the name of "Digital Homicide" who tried every dirty tactic in the book to make a quick buck and defended their creations as if they were the next biggest innovator. It also speaks to how people feel they can come into a large medium such as video games and think they can speak whatever lies or venomous drivel to people and think they deserve fame for it as if they are doing what no one ever tried, trying to sell you metaphorical snake oil and persuade others they are the ones being harmed if someone comes to disprove them, case and point, Anita Sarkeesian. An example of a dev team going through great lengths for their creation is SEGA for the "Yakuza" franchises, having a dev team that wanted to go out of their way to make a game that took many efforts to persuade the higher ups of SEGA such as: its gonna be an adult game ( SEGA focuses on children ), its gonna be about the crime underworld ( SEGA wants a wide appeal ), its heavy in its Japanese influences ( SEGA wants a world wide market ), they needed to constantly ask for more money do to development struggles ( They were quoted saying the higher ups were legitimately furious and were never madder since ).

Alan R Moon discussing how people should expose themselves to as many games as possible to see many influences/perspectives is very good advice. I generally focused on established games/companies or what friends recommended and highlighted by the media, it wasnt until high school where i went into " just play anything that looks good, review scores be damnded " mode, and found alot of franchises that pulled me and were way more fun and entertaining than what the general media consensus would describe. The "Hyperdimension Neptunia" franchises was berated for being a boring, cutesy, sexual, obscure JRPG franchise that was meant to parody the video game industry, when I played it I found it to be fun ( it can get repetitive though, very well written humorous parody of the video game industry, even getting little details down such as having character's reflect appearances and at times attitudes of the real life equivalence they were meant to represent while also joking about them. Some quick examples being, a character representing the SEGA Genesis/Megadrive being an absolute bitch towards the Nintendo character to represent how hard SEGA went into bashing Nintendo in the 90s, or villains representing different aspects of gaming such as: cheating/cheaters, piracy, corrupt journalist who do mean well, greedy business suits, dead/forgotten consoles, etc. Another franchise I found that the media would boil you alive for playing is the "Senran Kagura" franchises, a franchise built upon a single quote by the director "what would boobs jiggling in 3D look like?" and that led to the first game on 3DS, being an action brawler series that loves to focus on sex appeal but is still fun to play ( wouldn't consider it the best but better than most ), and with surprisingly good writing. To sum it up, exposing yourself to many franchises is always great, even the worst of games can teach you "ok, DONT do that", and some games could even be hidden gems that receives undeserved hate based on first appearances.

Bill Roper's advice is the usual "you need to practice in order to get good" but, the added part of messing with the game's rules makes that advice more interesting. Many games nowadays either support the idea of people modifying their games or having a level builder in the game itself, such as "inFamous 2" and "inFamous Festival of Blood", the latter being the mission editor I dabbled in and had fun with making simple levels and spending hours making more "complex" ( complex in making it, not so much in how they play out ) even having a creepy fanboy/fangirl who refused to leave me alone on Playstation Network. On the side of messing with rule sets, theres more famous examples such as "Nuzlocke" for the Pokemon franchises or never speed running games, one that lies in more infamy would be " Level 1 Critical" for "Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix", "Birth By Sleep Final Mix", and "Dream Drop Distance", a built in feature allowing you to never gain experience throughout the game and is exclusive to the hardest difficulty setting provides a pretty insane challenge that also highlights how good the gameplay is otherwise it would be impossible ( dont ever do this, its not worth it ). Messing around with how a game is meant to be played can not only make things more fun but also show you a different side to the game and revealing features/exploits you might not have ever known about or just provide a new challenge to how you would normally do things letting you see everything inside and out.

#KN #RR3 #submission

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sachinbahal · 8 years ago

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Today (January 5th), was the first official day of CES 2017 but there were announcements made before today. You can read more about them: CES Unveiled 2017, CES 2017 Day Zero (Press Day).

SanDisk

The first announcement that SanDisk made at CES 2017 was a new high-performance USB flash drive called the SanDisk Extreme Pro USB 3.1 Solid State Flash Drive which is capable of read speeds up to 420MB/s and write speeds up to 380MB/s.

With those fast speeds, you can transfer a full-length 4K video in less than 15 seconds. The new flash drive connects to computers using the standard USB-A connection and it will come in one storage capacity, 256GB. It will be available later this month for $179.99 USD.

The other announcement that SanDisk made was the SanDisk Ultra MicroSDXC UHS-I card with the SD Association’s SD 5.1 specifications. In addition to fast transfer speeds of up to 95MB/s, the new microSD can help ensure that is can open and run apps smoothly while also providing fast access to media such as photos and videos that are also stored on the card.

The new SanDisk Ultra microSD card with A1 with retail for $199 USD and ship later this month.

Source: SanDisk, (2)

Xiaomi

Xiaomi has a new version of their Mi TV with the Mi TV 4. It is only 4.9mm thin and has a frameless metal body. The Mi TV 4 consists of two parts the 4K display and the Mi TV Bar which has a motherboard and has a sound system that supports Dolby Atmos sound.

The Mi TV 4 will available later this year in China and should be under $2000 USD. There will also be three screen sizes, 49-inches, 55-inches and 65-inches.

Source: Xiaomi (via PR Newswire)

Razer

Razer has been known to show off some wild computer concepts at CES and this year is no different. Razer has unveiled Project Valerie at CES 2017, which is the world’s first concept design to incorporate a portable multi-monitor gaming setup.

The gaming laptop has three built-in monitors that are 17.3-inches each and are 4K IGZO displays with NVIDIA G-SYNC, to help create the smoothest possible framerates and expansive 180-degree NVIDIA Surround View gaming. Gamers can expect 100% Adobe RGB colour accuracy.

Each of the displays slide out from the side of the main display and easily adjusts into place, so it’s quick and easy to set up. The whole laptop is made from a unibody CNC aluminum chassis and is only 1.5-inches thick and weighs less than 12 pounds.

Project Valerie is also equipped with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, so it meets the requirements of the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

“Multi-monitor desktop set-ups are becoming more necessary for professionals, creators, and gamers,” says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. “For the first time, we’ve engineered a solution that users can take with them. Project Valerie promises all of the functionality of three screens and none of the hassle.”

As of right now, Project Valerie is just a concept and there’s no word on whether or not we’ll see this in an upcoming Razer laptop (but chances are we will). Razer has a habit of showing off these concepts and then eventually incorporating them into their machines.

Razer also announced Project Ariana which is meant to go alongside your existing setup of Razer products. The project uses the company’s Chroma platform to cover your whole room in your favourite games.

The project is meant to provide some ambience for your gaming experience. The project uses a projector with a 155-degree fisheye lens to help wrap your game around you.

In addition, Razer is opening up their Chroma platform to 3rd parties and has announced 9 new partners including Lenovo, NZXT, Antec, Lian Li, Wicked Lasers and Nanoleaf.

Razer is also looking into creating more immersive lighting experiences with a partnership with Philips Lighting.

Source: Razer

NVIDIA

NVIDIA had a few announcements, the first being a new version of their Android TV set top box, the Shield TV. The new model is 40% smaller than the original while the Pro model is the same size as the previous Shield TV but both still have the same Tegra X1 processor inside and 3GB of RAM and running Android 7.0.

Both have standard HDMI with 4K and HDR support, gigabit ethernet, two standard USB 3.0 ports and a microSD card slot.

There is also a newly redesigned controller that has a low polygon look and feel. It also was designed with hands-free voice control in mind. Google is bringing the Assistant to Android TV, so that means you’ll be able to use “Ok Google” to talk to your Shield TV. As of this writing, the Google Assistant for Android TV isn’t ready just yet, it will come later on in a software update later this month.

Both models of the new Shield TV will come with a remote which will work hands-free as well. The new Shield TV models are available for pre-order now and will ship in Canada, the US and select European regions later this month for $199 USD for the 16GB model and $299 USD for the 500GB Pro model.

The standard 16GB model will come with a controller and remote while the 5ooGB Pro will come with a controller, and a remote with headphone jack.

In addition to the new Shield TV, Nvidia also announced the Shield Spot which is a separate Wi-Fi controller that can talk to connected home stuff such as Nest Thermostat and has microphones so you can talk to the Google Assistant throughout your home. The Shield Spot will sell for $49.99 USD.

Nvidia will also being bringing their GeForce Now game streaming service to standard PCs running Windows and Macs as well. Nvidia is also partnering with Ubisoft to bring some of their titles to the service.

GeForce Now will also have a new pricing structure of $25 USD for 20 hours of play where as before you would have to pay $7.99 per month to access a whole catalog of older games and then pay separately for newer titles. The new system and expansion to more Windows machines and Macs will happen sometime in March.

Source: Nvidia

Ford & Amazon’s Alexa

Yes, you read that correctly, Ford is partnering with Amazon to bring Alexa to the car. For example, you can open smart garage doors, control the lights in your home, and so forth. General search functionality and navigation queries are also supported via Alexa.

You could ask Alexa to add milk or batteries to your shopping list without ever picking up a pen, all the driver has to do to access Alexa in their car is to press the voice button on the steering wheel.

For Ford plug-in electric vehicle owners, you’ll be able to remotely start/stop the engine, lock/unlock the doors, check fuel levels and more while using your Echo at home.

Ford Focus Electric, Fusion Energi and C-MAX Energi owners will be first to access the new home-to-car capability using MyFord® Mobile technology. Ford is working on adding Alexa home-to-car integration to their other vehicles in the near future.

Source: Ford

Mighty Cast

Montreal-based wearable company, Mighty Cast has announced a second gen version of their modular smart band, the Nex Evolution. The new bands adds a number of new features include “When/Do” platform that is accessible via their Nex app, so a user can set different actions to control their other smart home devices or even just control music playback on their phone.

The Nex Evolution doesn’t have a traditional screen but instead it has things called Mods that have the ability to light up a different colour or indicate a certain notification. The colours of the Mods can be combined to form certain messages via Mighty Cast’s “When/Do” platform.

The new band also has a 3-axis accelerometer and can track things like steps, calories and distance. The battery should last about 3 days and the band is IPX7 water-resistant.

The company is also working with Niantic Labs on a Ingress Mod Band that has patterns that are specific to the game. Ingress players will be able to receive special in-game transmissions and unique perks while using the band.

For those unfamiliar with Ingress, it is similar to Pokemon Go (but has been around for much longer) and relies on players going into the real-world and finding specific locations to earn points.

The Nex Evolution will retail for $79 USD while the Ingress Mod Band’s pricing has yet to be announced but both will be released in February.

Source: Reuters

Nissan & Cortana

Alexa isn’t the only thing being put into cars, Microsoft is partnering with Nissan to bring their voice assistant, Cortana into select Nissan vehicles. Cortana will be built into the car’s software without requiring a mobile device to use it.

Cortana can be used to ask contextual questions like whether she should use the car’s auto-park system or what the traffic is like or even make notes. Cortana can talk to a driver using natural language.

Nissan hasn’t said which of their vehicles will be getting Cortana or even when, as of right now, it seems more as a proof of concept.

Source: Nissan

Huawei

Even though the Huawei Mate 9 was announced back in November for Asia, the Middle East and Europe, Huawei now has details on the Mate 9’s US availability.

The phone will be available on January 6th. The Mate 9 has a 5.9-inch 1080p IPS LCD display with a 4000mAh battery that should last about 2 days on a single charge and can charge fast with Huawei’s SuperCharge technology and you’ll get a full day’s charge within 20 minutes. Inside, you’ll also find Huawei’s Kirin 960 processor with the ARM Cortex-A73/A53 Octa-core CPU and Mali G71 GPU and 4GB of RAM and 64 of internal storage.

For the camera, you’ll find evidence of Huawei’s partnership with Leica which is made up of a 12-megapixel RGB sensor and a 20-megapixel monochrome sensor.

The Mate 9 will be running Android 7.0 Nougat with Huawei’s EMUI 5.0 on top, the US version of the Mate 9 will also have Amazon Alexa integration via a pre-installed app. You’ll be able to ask questions, set alarms, manage to-do and shopping lists, check traffic, play music and control your smart home.

The Mate 9 is already available to purchase now from Amazon, Best Buy, Newegg and B&H for $599 USD and comes in Space Gray and Moonlight Silver.

Source: Huawei (via PR Newswire)

CES 2017 Day One: Everything you need to know Today (January 5th), was the first official day of CES 2017 but there were announcements made before today.

#Amazon Alexa #Amazon Echo #CES #CES 2017 #Cortana #Ford #Ford & Alexa #Huawei #Mighty Cast #Nissan #Nvidia #Razer #Razer Chroma #SanDisk

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