#awesome new visual stim just dropped

[bloodtwin]

⸻ RHYTHM PRACTICE.

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Gears 5 Video Game Review

3 STARS OUT OF FIVE

Ah Gears of War, the franchise that popularized the cover-based mechanic built to regenerate health and shoot locusts from cover to cover. It’s what generated the basis of fun with its horde mode and online competitive matches and of course, the chainsaw lancer which never cease to be satisfying everytime that goes off. Those 360 games were just a blast to play from the never-ending shooting gallery of locusts to the witty and awesome banter between Marcus Fenix and his COG friends, sure there are some douchey moments, no thanks to Dom but everyone just feels like space NFL quarterbacks with their hunky space armor and chainsaw lancers - its just awesome.

However, afterwards the GoW 360 trilogy ended and games like Judgment and Gears 4 appear, it really lost its charm and appeal, its just the same old Gears game streamlining the cover-based mechanics and just basically another shooting gallery of disappointment to say it at least. I mean, having Marcus back as this “old retired” COG alongside a squad of new kids just has been done before and sadly Epic and eventually The Coalition really didn’t entice new fans but still feed into their old Gears fanbase. Now with Gears 5, it just feels like another disappointment and I feel like they really did not improve much since Gears 3 although there is a new Escape and Horde mode which seems more playable like before the 360 games.

The game picks up right after Gears 4, you start as JD, Marcus’ son as he, Del, Marcus and Kait from the previous Gears, want to launch a rocket into outer space and activate the Hammer of Dawn so the COG can be able to combat the Swarm. It is very much a controversial and risky move as it can also affect tremendous human casualties. The game starts as JD but you mostly play as Kait Diaz as she constantly gets headaches and hallucinations from her mother’s amulet and heirloom which somehow is connected to the Swarm. She and her squad goes and ventures through a perilous journey to find the root of her problem and stop it. Much like the Gears game, there will be sacrifices and climatic movie style moments,

The gameplay didn’t really change since GoW 3, it’s the same “stop and pop” action and some new additions. Again, it’s just another Gears’ shooting gallery of never ending Swarm enemies until you have reached the next checkpoint and then rinse and repeat. It’s really the same old conventions and they seemed to downplay it to death. There seems to be only a few new weapons and as well as old and new enemies with painted weaknesses that you hit before killing them. However, it is nice to have corrupted Baird’s DeeBees in the mix of Swarms, it seems to be a nice combination of facing bastions shielding Scions and huge creatures as a new way of creating intense action rather than just jump from cover to cover. It is just a nice touch to the gameplay. 

The AI of your teammates however aren’t as smart as the developing Swarm despite having a new ability to target them, it seems countless of times, the AI will just run to the enemy without taking them down and in harder difficulties such as Experienced (Hard), it seems to be a hindrance of trying to revive them one by one as they stupidly get picked off by Swarm while you are trying to survive Wardens and Swarm drop-shotters that will blow up you instantly. Although, the first Act seems nice, when you are fighting in the settlement that you received a distress call of a Swarm invasion, you can summon Baird’s robotic reinforcements and you have the choice of picking Guardians or Sentinels which is fun, albeit only for the first Act and afterwards you mostly are facing the corrupted versions and they really don’t tell you why they are corrupted, although there are just malfunctioned. Again, it just feels like the AI, the part of the gameplay seems really outdated with the typical fixed gun sequences that seems to be aggravating due to annoying cooldowns from those sequences. Granted, it makes those moments hard with no moment to breathe but there are a lot of them and it is not due to its spiked difficulty that I’m playing. And of course, enemies like Brumak and others still the typical video game painted coloured sections where you shoot to take them down. 

One main component of the campaign is Del’s, well your trusty robotic friend, Jack as a companion in this game. Introduced by Baird, this new robot is an upgrade from Dave’s short yet untimely demise and still has the cute Wall-E charm to it. These flying robots have been in previous Gears’ games but they are part of the COG army and not playable at all. This new companion has a set of abilities whether passive, combative or defensive that will greatly benefit you against the Swarm. Ranging from Shock, Stim, Pulse and passive abilities that can camouflage, instantly revive and so on, it’s pretty much an arsenal of useful perks in your disposal. These abilities aren’t restricted to a RPG-like tier trees but will require an amount of components to unlock them which can be found during both the main and side missions in chapters. In addition to the three unlockable abilities, there is a fourth and final skill that unlocks only through main and side quests that is the ultimate perk of that specific ability (i.e Shock final unlock can freeze enemies for a period of time and such). During gameplay, you can toggle these two sets of abilities, combative and defensive which when used has a cooldown timer after you have used either of them. It really is a life saver to have these abilities, especially stim which can buff up your health and can be upgraded as an instant revive while you are down. Other useful things such as retrieving weapons/ammo from hard to reach areas or in an intense dogfight or laying shock traps/mines can really save you from those large, intimating Swarm creatures from decapitating you

Another new addition to the game is revealed in Act 2 as open world and unfortunately there is a lack of one or rather bland and boring one. They chatted a big deal of a Gears game being open world but it resulted in a couple of side quests and activities that only rewards more components, big weapons and main components for abilities/parts of them in some cases for Jack and nothing more. These quests are only there for them, nothing more, whether or not you choose to pursue them is up to you. At first, it does feel like a stripped up version of the recent God of War’s open world as these main and side missions can be identified with yellow flags by them indicating there’s something to be done as well as the banter between the squad “to go check it out.” Like God of War, you have a method of transport to reach these areas, a skiff which looks like some sort of ski sledge with a parachute in front that accelerates how fast you ride from the wind. The skiff can seat four with you controlling and driving the skiff and mostly Del who sits and navigates, although you do all of the work. The navigational seat be used in Co-op where players can only mark the map (which you yourself can do while driving). Also, you can stow two weapons (heavy weapons like RL-Salvo Rocket Launcher to the Tri-Shot Gatling Gun) on each side of the skiff that can be used in these missions, it’s like a small storage space for your guns but only can be retrieved after you dismount from the skiff. The map itself seems to be an illusion of being an open world game, but it just feels linear, in Act 2, when you reach those communications' towers in part of the main mission, you can scan for these side missions in some sort of frequency mini-game that only appears in this whole Act, sadly not afterwards. It is also attributed that the skiff can take damage and in later cases, explode and kill everyone as there are sandstorms and obsoletes you’ll need to dodge and maneuver and it feels intense much like in combat with the Swarm.   

From a graphical standpoint, the game still delivers. Forgoing the brown and gruel colours of the Gears’ trilogy on the 360, it feels very vibrant and impressive much like the previous game. Each Act really delivers distinct areas to explore in this “open-world” game and it really looks pretty as you ride your skiff throughout the snowy terrain of Act 2 to feeling like Doom or Total Recall in Act 4 with its red sandy desert. It’s too bad that they didn’t make it more open-world to fully realized its graphical potential as it is resulted in a lack of activities to do. Nevertheless, each locale looks great even though it has been done in other better games. It’s also nice that they put nice touches to the characters during these Acts whether having Kait, Del and others wear winter jackets to Act 3 where they wear goggles and less clothing for the hot red sandy desert. The dynamic lightning only looks nice in main missions as the sudden change of effects change when you enter them and it feels weird with a short cut scene to substitute a loading screen in the mix. It does not hinder the visuals at all, the game looks pretty as it is and characters and enemies’ design with the Kait and his team as well as the opposing Swarm just looks menacing as hell. 

Unfortunately for the powerhouse of a game, it falls short on its technical problems. There are always problems with Early Access games, sure and the developers are fixing the bugs/glitches and problems with aspects like the online multiplayer matches whether its Horde, Escape or versus mode but it really is aggravating that I still experience these problems two days after the release. Things like the game freezing at spots reverting back to a save checkpoint, some bad audio clicks and the worst of all, seeing the “fail to load save” pop-up and doing the whole chapter again. The “always online” component of the game is a nice trend to prevent illegal privacy but sometimes people like me have a spotty internet connection and I sometimes get disconnected at parts of the game where I finished a brutal firefight and have to do it all over again which is annoying. 

Speaking of online, I didn’t really play it, after ten hours of finishing the campaign, I'm really not inclined to pursue Horde or Escape mode as I have a spotty internet connection. As part of a pre-order, you get Sarah Connor and a T-800 Terminator to play online alongside a roster of characters from the main campaign and surprisingly, Spartans from Halo Reach. You can customize them, their banner and taunts for the online aspect and thankfully, I will never touch them. Everyday, when you log in, you can also receive a daily cache of points and other perks, maybe cosmetic items for your character. However, Horde and Versus mode feels like they finally brought back the fun part of those 360 games and implement it with better features as what was said from them. Escape mode is basically an intense firefight where you and other players have to kill waves of enemies in some sort of Swarm hive mind while green gas is approaching behind you in a race to the finish. It seems like a challenging effort but requires a set of friends to really make it in this mode. Also, you and two other players can play the main campaign as Co-op where one of the players can even control Jack and his abilities, making it gameplay interesting. 

Other than that, Gears 5 is really a disappointment. The same, derivative combat that has made popular with its cover-based, has done better in other games since then. The game also promises open world which doesn’t have up its expectations with a bland and boring yet beautiful landscape to ride in and from a few side missions. It’s just sad that the Coalition didn’t really implement new features and only maintain it for Gears’ fans and not new players, well only Jack as a Co-op option but again it still suffers from the old “stop and pop” action even in harder difficulties, it just feels last-gen to me with the AI as well. Should it be recommended, only to Gears fan who are really interested in its online multiplayer and the ten hours of the main campaign just feels repetitive and boring to say it at least. 

[butterflyinthewell]

Autism Awareness vs Autism Acceptance from an autistic person’s point of view.

* * * TW for use of ABA commands like "hands quiet!" and "look me in the eyes!" * * *

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1OXakGDOuTg

All three "characters" are played by me. The only really "put-on" thing was the dialogue and BA's condescending tone. I was able to speak more eloquently than usual because I had all the printed dialogue taped to pieces of cardboard that were propped up against the camera tripod. I was reading all the lines instead of saying them "live". I stumble and lose my train of thought a lot when I'm talking "live" instead of reading out loud. Go watch my vlogs and you'll see the difference.

The stims in the video are my real stims. I didn't need to ham those up for the camera, they all happened naturally.

---- Yes, this is really what Autism Speaks supporters sound like to me. If you support Autism Speaks and your response to this video is "I'm not like that!" rather than "Wow, Autism Speaks is bad news and I need to stop supporting them!" then you are proving you don't listen to autistic people. ----

A video transcript for people with audio or visual processing issues is under the cut, but you can also visit this link to see it if your device doesn’t let you click on “keep reading” cuts. 

Link spelled out: http://tiny.cc/AwarenessVsAcceptance (Link will redirect to a Weebly site.)

   Autistic Woman (AW): *Is sitting in a corner because it offers proprioceptive input while she contentedly stims by twiddling a red Tangle and chewing on a No Gloom 'Shroom. She is hugging her comfort object, a very old and obviously loved stuffed Wile E. Coyote plushie. Her clothing is a black tank top and black shorts.*

Blue Awareness (BA): *A woman wearing a predominantly blue button-down flannel shirt walks by. She sees AW, stops, gawks and points rudely at AW.* Hey, look, a person with autism!

   AW: *startled* Huh? Who are you?

BA: I'm Autism Awareness. Now be quiet while I make people aware of your symptoms. *points accusingly* Autism makes people oversensitive to stimuli, require a rigid routine, avoid eye contact and have a narrow range of interests. People with autism engage in pointless and awkward repetitive behaviors. They're so different!

   AW: *Tilts head like 'what?'* Um, stimming isn't pointless. *Starts to say more*

BA: *talks over AW* I'm making the world aware!

   AW: Why? *Uneasy*

BA: *Condescending tone* Because you're such a tragic figure trapped behind all those symptoms. *Puffs up, proud* I'm wearing blue to show the world that I tolerate your existence. I can't fix you, so I support a charity determined to erase you. Autism Speaks says it's time to listen, so you listen to me. Autism is an epidemic that has to be stopped!

   AW: *angry* What?! That's backwards! I'm not an epidemic, I'm not tragic and I'm not 'trapped' by anything other than your crappy idea of me. Maybe if you listen to me, you'd learn that autism isn't something to be afraid of--

BA: *Waves hands rudely and talks over AW again* Nothing you have to say is worth listening to because you have autism and your voice doesn't need to be heard if I speak for you. *Condescending voice* I know what's good for you more than you do. Here, let's fix you up so you're presentable. First off, you don't need these. *Takes AW's stim toys and Wile E. Coyote plushie.*

   AW: Hey! *Grabs at her stuff, fails to take it back, which causes low-level distress. She turns her head to the side, purses her lips and begins rocking and fluttering her fingers. There is a brief moment where she taps her forehead with her fingertips, too.*

BA: *Looks at the No Gloom 'Shroom in disgust before regarding AW again* Ah-ah! *Holds up finger* Sit still! Hands quiet!

   AW: *Freezes, shocked.*

BA: Good girl! Look me in the eyes.

   AG: *Does it for a brief second. Her distress level is rising, evident by how her stimming resumes. She wiggles her fingers with her fists clenched, keeps her head turned away, chews on her pursed lips and rocks back and forth.*

BA: Ah-ah! Hands quiet. Hands quiet! *shakes finger*

   AG: *Turns face towards BA. It takes her a few seconds to process the command and comply by clenching her fists.*

BA: We can't let anybody see how different you are!

   AW: *Blinks and lowers her hands into her lap. She looks like a statue. Her face resembles a zombie as she struggles to meet a behavioral standard that goes against her natural behavior. The only way for her to look "not autistic" is to sit still and not move or speak.*

BA: There, now you're tolerable for neurotypicals. *Walks away with AW's stuff.*

   AW: *Still motionless and sad. Her eyes look dead.*

Red Acceptance (RA): *A woman wearing a red pullover shirt with small white floral patterns dances by waving her arms around like baby Groot at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy. She is jamming to the beginning of "Africa" by Toto on her headphones. She stops when she sees AW and the music fades as she removes her headphones.*

RA: Hey, are you okay?

   AW: *Curls up.* No.

RA: What's wrong? *Genuine concern*

   AW: *On the verge of tears* An Autism Speaks supporter was here a few minutes ago. She wouldn't listen to me! She said she only tolerates me because she can't make my autism vanish. Then she took away my coping mechanisms and said it's for my own good! *Looks up* She wouldn't listen to anything I said!

RA: *Straightens and crosses her arms. Her voice drops lower in pitch.* Oh, really? *glances off to the side* Hang on a sec, I think I see her.

RA: *Rolls up her sleeves and raises a fist for a fight as she walks offscreen. Cartoon fight noises ensue.*

BA: *Flopped out on the floor, KO'ed cartoon-style with a lolled out tongue and X's for eyes.*

RA: *returns with AW's stuff and hands them to AW.* Here you go.

   AW: Thank you. *She looks relieved as she twiddles her Tangle and hugs her Wile E. plushie close.* Who are you?

RA: I'm Autism Acceptance.

   AW: *Unconsciously starts to stim, realizes she's doing it and stops herself.*

RA: *Sees AW's hesitation.* Hey, you can stim if you want. Stimming is awesome! *Stims by hand flapping and finger wiggling.*

   AW: Really? *Surprised*

RA: Yeah! I want you just the way you are right now. *smiles*

   AW: *Is a little over-stimulated and still looks unsure.*

RA: *Notices AW's hesitation, so she decides to offer a sensory solution that takes AW's autism into account rather than trying to squash it.*

RA: Hey, I've got "Africa" by Toto on repeat. *Removes her headphones.* Here, rock out and enjoy yourself. *RA gives AW her headphones and MP3 player.*

   AW: *Accepts the offered headphones.*

RA: *Smiles and turns away to let AW self-soothe with the music.*

---The chorus of "Africa" by Toto begins to play---

"It's gonna take a lot to drag me away from you

There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do

I bless the rains down in Africa

I bless the rains down in Africa (I bless the rains)

I bless the rains down in Africa (I bless the rains)

I bless the rains down in Africa

I bless the rains down in Africa (I'm gonna take some time)

Gonna take some time to do the things we never have, ooh ooh!"

   AW: *Now free to be herself again, she hugs her Wile E. plushie, holds onto her red Tangle and chews on her No Gloom 'Shroom. She is wearing the headphones. Her eyes are closed so she can focus wholly on the harmony of the music. She is stimming by tapping her fingertips together and happily rocking back and forth. The corner she is sitting in feels safe again. Everything is right in her world.*

---The music continues as the scene cross-fades to show hashtags---

#AutismAcceptance #RedInstead #ActuallyAutistic #LoudHands #BoycottAutismSpeaks

---Credits---

Music: "Africa" by Toto.

Autistic Woman, Blue Awareness and Red Acceptance: Me Script: Me