#best flight simulator games

[jerehost]

best flight simulator games for android

best flight simulator games for android

[sometimesanalice]

Up the Ante

Summary: Rooster had heard the whispers. He knew what the stories were about- the ones that had followed him and Hangman around for years. You, however, are more than happy to find out for yourself if all the rumors were true.

Pairing: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw x Female Reader x Jake "Hangman" Seresin

Length: 9K+

Warnings: Smut. So. Much. Smut. (MINORS DNI)

(author's note: I regret nothing. Enjoy!)

Leave it to Jake Seresin to fuck up his plans.

Rooster had been in a really great mood when he’d arrived to the Hard Deck earlier that night. He’d beat most of the team there and had been on his way to go claim the pool table before the Friday night rush when he’d seen you out of the corner of his eye sitting at the bar.

He’d nearly given himself whiplash trying to get a better look at you. And then the next thing he knew, he’d found his feet taking him up to the stool right next to you. The mission to get the pool table completely forgotten.

And he still didn’t know how it was possible, but you were even prettier up close.

Even with the low dip of your creamy silky looking tank top, with all your skin taunting and teasing him, his eyes had stayed on yours the whole time as the two of you talked. That smile of yours was a bit too knowing. He could sense you were waiting, daring him to slip up.

Just for fun, just to see.

Yeah, you had his number alright. There was no question about it.

And fuck, if he wasn’t already down to let you toy with him whichever way you wanted. His cock twitching in his already slightly too snug jeans when he’d caught you checking him out after he’d ordered a fresh round of drinks from Jimmy.

The busier the bar got, the closer the two of you were pushed together as the other patrons clamored around waiting to place their orders. His forearm grazing against your exposed back from where he had it braced on your stool to keep you from getting jostled by thirsty sailors.

He’d stepped away for a moment when Natasha had called him over to back her up in a game with Reuben and Mickey. He he’d left you with a promise to be back, not wanting to come on too over bearing by not giving you any time to yourself. The groundwork was laid and he didn’t mind the wait.

He could be patient, he knew a good thing when he saw it.

And of course, when he’d looked back over his shoulder. There was Hangman with his elbow leaning on the bar, standing in the spot he’d just vacated. And looking at you like the cat who’d caught the canary with that fucking toothpick dangling from the corner of his mouth.

Rooster really shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d felt the other aviator’s gaze on him as he’d talked to you, could sense him waiting in the wings ready to make his move.

After the Uranium Mission, their tentative truce had grown into a casual camaraderie. But that didn’t mean they still didn’t enjoy riling each other up.

Jake had a tendency to steal his beer when he wasn’t looking, swapping it out with his empties behind his back. Not to mention, the way he liked to rack up a bill of Bradley’ tab.

And Bradley had no problem unplugging Penny’s jukebox approximately two minutes after watching Jake feed the machine his quarters before taking over on the piano. Playing whatever songs made the other man grimace the most.

But it had been years since they’d done this.

When the two of them had first met, their competition to be the best and one-up the other had spilled over from the skies into pretty much everything else. If one had flight simulation scores were topping the chart, then the other was figuring out how beating it. If one was benching a personal record, the other was already tacking on extra weight to their own.

So then, if one was talking to a pretty girl at the bar, the other was usually waiting for his moment to try and out charm, out talk, or out smile the other behind his back.

Or in front of his face.

Neither of them had cared to play fair back then. The bragging rights plastered across the winners face the next morning on base.

Rooster thought he’d made his intentions very clear. For all intents and purposes, he had claimed dibs. Well, as much as he could on a woman who was fully entitled and capable making her own decisions.

Now he was half way across the bar, watching as Hangman threw his cowboy hat into the ring.

“Jesus, Rooster. Stare any harder and you’re going to strain something, man,” Payback teased as he lined up his shot, before sending the freshly racked balls scattering on the pool table.

Bradley doesn’t respond, just brings the lukewarm beer to his mouth and downs the remaining few swigs. His hand tightening around the bottle as you throw your head back to laugh at something that Hangman has said, the sight of your exposed throat makes his mouth go dry.

“You know what they say, the more the merrier. I mean, it wouldn’t be the first time, right?” Fanboy says with a laugh that gets cut off with a wheezy, breathy oof.

Looking over his shoulder, Bradley sees Phoenix looking down at Fanboy shaking her head at him as she dropped a couple there-there pats on the doubled over man’s back.

“Please that rumor has been around for years,” Nat stated, “Before we got called back, those two could barely be in the same airspace, let alone in the same bedroom.”

“I don’t know, I bet there’s more to that story. I heard-” Payback starts.

This time, Bradley turns around and raises an eyebrow. The conversation quickly finds a new subject, and he goes back to glaring at the back of Hangman’s head.

He wasn’t unaware of the pointed looks and whispers that had followed him and Seresin around.

Everyone seemed to have their own opinions on the topic. They did. They didn’t. A friend of a friend had seen them leave with a girl. A buddy said they saw them fighting in the parking lot over who got to take her home.

He didn’t care about the speculation, he’d even heard some pretty interesting drunken theories along the way. Any tips to sneak a girl in the barracks for a hookup in the laundry room? How can three people even fuck in the back of a Bronco? Or his favorite, I heard y’all did the Eiffel Tower in the ATC tower.

But he wasn’t one to feed the fire. He didn’t know the other man’s reasons for not indulging the curious questions, but Hangman must have felt the same way, since neither one of them had yet to confirm or deny the story.

It was easier to just grin and shrug and leave them guessing.

From his spot stationed at the pool table he could see there was interest in your eyes at you looked at Seresin. Just as he’d seen it when you had looked at him with that same keen perceptiveness, the heat that lingered behind the teasing. And fuck, if that didn’t make him want you even more.

He liked a woman who went after what she wanted.

That pull low in his stomach had been there since he’d first seen you and had only gotten worse as he watched Jake try and get under his skin.

It would be almost comical the way the asshole turns his head just enough in his direction to shoot him a wink before settling his hand on the top of your thigh, if it didn’t make his blood thrum hot in his veins.

“Bradshaw, it’s your turn.” He hears one of them try and get his attention, but 8-Ball wasn’t what he wanted to play right now.

He had a stake in a different game going on.

If you wanted Hangman over him, he would respect that. But he sure as shit wasn’t going to fold, not when he still had a hand worth playing.

“And there’s the cock walk…” he hears Nat mutter as pushes off the pool table to make his way across the bar.

He knew how to turn heads and how to work a room. But there was only one head he wanted to turn, only one person in the room he wanted to work. He was going to his damndest to ensure it was his bed you’re in tonight.

Bradley is downright shameless in the way he struts right up to the two of you. Letting his chest brush up against you as he claims the seat next to you. He murmurs your name low and raspy as he settles into the stool, catching the way your hips shift subtly in response. That pull behind his bellybutton only intensifying.

You don’t look surprised to see him, if anything you look intrigued. That full bottom lip pinned between your teeth, your cheek ticked up like you’re fighting back a satisfied smile.

“Well if it ain’t Rooster,” Hangman drawls, those dimples deepening with every passing moment, “Fancy seeing you here.”

“Bagman,” he grunts taking the whiskey from his hand. Feeling smug when your eyes latch on to his throat, watching as he swallows it down, savoring the warm burn of the free drink before he presses the empty glass back into the other man’s hand. “Looks like you’ve scored yourself another admirer, pretty girl. How’s he measure up? You can be brutally honest, it’d be good for him to keep his ego in check.”

You tilt your head at him, “So far I’ve got no complaints.”

“Damn straight you don’t,” Jake winks.

“How generous of you,” Rooster says, ignoring the other man completely, as he sets his hand on your leg.

He has always been a sucker for a pretty troublemaker.

Your tongue dips out to lick the rim of your glass, before taking another sip of the drink that he didn’t buy for you. “Oh, I can be very generous,” you all but purr.

“I bet,” Hangman cuts in, looking on entirely too pleased with himself.

Rooster leans in closer to you, “I thought I was the one buying your drinks tonight.” He can smell the faintest hint of your perfume, and he has to hold himself back from the urge to run his nose along the column of your neck to get a better whiff of it.

“I’m an equal opportunity drink receiver,” you say with a little shrug of your shoulder.

“Mhm, sounds good for the economy,” he allows.

“I do love to support small businesses.”

“There’s nothing small about it, baby,” Bradley says sliding his palm up higher on your thigh than would be considered decent. From the corner of his eye he can see Hangman clocking the movement. That shit eating grin going from teasing to knowing as he flips that stupid toothpick in his mouth.

“Was wondering how long it was going to take you to make a move,” Jake says reaching under your stool and pulling it out further from the way you’d been half tucked underneath the bartop. “Thought you were gonna just keep staring all night.”

“Nah, just thought I’d give you a fair shot. You know, since you usually rub people the wrong way,” Rooster smirks.

“Oh, now you and I both know I’d treat her just right,” Hangman says smoothly, not missing a beat. “You think you can keep up with a pretty thing like her, old man? Wouldn’t want to keep you from your Dan Brown novel or anything.”

“I’m sure I got a thing or two I could show you, son.”

The other pilot takes your chin between his thumb and finger turning your head to look at him, that grin bigger than ever, “You up for settling something between us, darlin’?”

Rooster is close enough to hear the hitch in your breathing and definitely close enough to see the way your thighs squeeze together.

“I guess that’s one way to up the ante,” you say as you reach up to pluck that toothpick from his mouth and popping it in yours instead. Grinning slyly around it as you uncross your legs to turn back towards him, your eyebrow cheekily cocked up and questioning.

Rooster’s eyes drift over to Seresin’s mouth. That cocky smirk plastered on his face takes him back to another time, on another night similar to this, when his lips had been slick-shined and that smile just as smug and self-satisfied.

He’s not sure how many bills he tossed on top of the bar before he grabbed your hand and tugged you off the stool, towing you with him as he strode to the door. Not bothering to check and see if the other man is following them, he already knows where he’ll be.

Bradley holds the door open for you to step through under his arm and the last thing he sees before he lets the door close behind him is Nat’s shocked face and Fanboy’s fist punching the air as Jake trails after them.

You felt too hot.

Your breathing was already coming out in ragged, breathy pants.  

The ride to Rooster’s house in his bright blue Bronco had been a blur of flashing lights and warm summer air and a hand heavy on your knee. Content in the passenger’s seat, even as he sped fifteen miles over the speed limit, in the surety of knowing whose headlights were bright and beaming in the rearview mirror.

But the feeling of two hot mouths working their way up and down your neck was definitely not a blur.

They’d had you pinned up against Bradley’s front door the moment it had shut behind the three of you. Barely waiting for the snick of the lock turning before making their move.

You weren’t sure whose thigh was pressed between your legs, but the solid width of it was dizzying as you rocked against it. You feel almost too aware of every part of your body. Your skin sensitive and responsive to every graze and touch of their strong, capable hands as they coast over your body, leaving a trail of goosebumps and raised hair with every pass.

Squeezing your hips. Tangling in your hair. Gripping your ass.

Their hard bodies were so tightly crowded against yours, that you weren’t even sure at this point if your own legs were the ones keeping you up as they took what they wanted and gave what they wanted.

Your puffy, swollen lips tingling as they took turns claiming your mouth with theirs.

It’s a lot, but in the best of ways, to hear their combined moans and groans over the thundering of your pulse in your ears. Their leather and wood smoke scents mixing together in the most deliciously heady way. All their solid angles and ridges pressed against your soft curves.

You’re vibrating with anticipation- with want- as your heart flutters in your chest like a caged bird, its wings beating against the too tight confines of your ribcage.

It’s already so good and no one is even naked yet.

One of them wraps their thought provokingly large hand around your throat as pulls you in to meet their mouth, gentle yet firm. The taste of whiskey and the brush of a mustache against your upper lip giving Bradley away. While another hungry mouth glides its way along your collarbone. The graze and nip of sharp teeth has you breaking your kiss to gasp at the sensation. Only to be met with a new set of demanding lips, you can feel Jake’s smirk against your mouth the moment right before he slips you his tongue.

Your own hands are greedy to get their fill of them. Running along thick forearms and broad chests and straining zippers. You want to map out every contour of their sculpted bodies. Every new muscle you find only makes you want to discover more.

There’s a moment when you think your knees might actually give this time out when Hangman bends down to take your peaked nipple in his mouth through your thin top with a mischievous gleam in his green eyes as he looks up at you and then hollows out his cheeks. The sight and sensation of it makes you suck in a shattered breath. If it weren’t for that thigh, Rooster’s you know now, keeping you upright you very much would have been a boneless puddle on the floor.

“You still think you can handle the two of us?” Jake challenges you with a dimpled grin before pulling you back into his mouth. Your nails dig into the back of his neck to keep him there, and he has the audacity to hum around you. The vibrations of it pulsing and spreading and settling over your craving clit.

“Well?” Bradley asks teasingly when you try and fail to reply, his warm hand sliding up your stomach under your top to palm at your other breast. And whatever you were going to say evaporates at the feel of his calloused thumb scraping over your taut nipple.

His curls are a mess and that look on his face promises the best kind of trouble.

“Fuck. Fuck. B-bedroom. Now,” you stutter and stumble over your words, overcome and overwhelmed. You hear one chuckle near your ear and the other moan into your throat at the neediness in your voice.

The three of you are gracefully uncoordinated in way you work your way to Rooster’s bedroom. You let them manhandle your pliant body around the furniture and corners of his home. What should have been a fairly straight shot turned into a meandering mess as your back is met with walls and doorframes and mouth is met with seeking and searing kisses.

Their shirts and belts and shoes lost somewhere along the way. A trail of items to be found later, laid out like points on a treasure map.

Inside Bradley’s room, your distracted eyes catch on some black and white landscape prints hung on a dove gray wall and a California King pressed another. Minimal, modern, manly. You’d be more nosey if it weren’t for the way you’re caught between them, as Hangman licked up your neck and Rooster ran his tongue along the backs of your teeth.

Your skin erupts in goosebumps as the cool air of Bradley’s air conditioning wafts over your arms. Not that your low-cut top with its open back and flimsy straps offered much for warmth to begin with, which was exactly why you’d worn it in the summer heatwave.

One set of demanding hands works on the button of the fitted jeans that made your ass look great, while the other insatiable pair grabs at the hem of your top pulling it up and off of your body with silky ease. They work together in quiet tandem with such swift efficiency that leaves you almost entirely nude, with the exception of your barely-there panties, before their greedy eyes in no time at all.

“Don’t know what a desperate little thing like you is thinking by wearing white and lookin’ like an angel,” Jake drawls low and taunting against your ear, his breath warm as it sails down the column of your throat, “But since you like the color so much, I think you’d look even prettier wearing our come.”

The flickering flame in your body that had been lit before you’d even left the Hard Deck finally roars to life at his coarse and crude words. You’d almost be offended by them if they weren’t the reason heat explodes like a fireball low in your stomach. Devastating and all consuming.

The noise that tears out of you in response isn’t one you think you’ve ever made before. Your head whips towards him so fast it makes you a little unsteady on your already wobbly legs, and you feel Rooster’s fingers flex on your hips before you pull away.

There’s a wide grin plastered on Jake’s face, only a couple impeccably white and straight teeth away of being down right self-satisfied.

Smug, he’s so damn smug.

He has been ever since he saddled up to you at the bar, like he already knew how the night was going to end. And you don’t know whether you want to wipe that look off of Hangman’s pretty face or to taste those dimples on his cheeks.

You do neither.

Instead, you push Jake onto the edge of the bed, your hands going straight to his zipper to pull out his cock, then watch as that perfectly-perfect and perfectly-infuriating smile falls from his face as you sink to your knees and take him in your mouth and down to the hilt.

“Jesus Christ.”

It’s your turn to be smug now as you watch his Adam’s apple dip as he swallows hard.

Jake’s smirk is long gone, replaced with intense look as you pull off of him to lick and lave along the long vein on the side of his length, looking up at him from beneath your mascara darkened lashes, before drawing him back in your open mouth. He’s so handsome like this and it makes your stomach tighten and seize.

“So damn eager,” you hear Rooster croon over the slippery sounds of you’re making.

You feel confident and totally at home in your own skin under the appreciative eyes of the two men, with Hangman in front of you and Bradley mere steps behind you. The buzz from your tequila had worn off long ago, and the thrill you are feeling is a different kind of high.

You were already wet before you left the bar, but now you are soaked. You don’t think you’ve ever been this turned on, at least not for a very long time. You wouldn’t be surprised if Bradley could see the evidence of your arousal glistening between your thighs from the way you’re kneeling in front of Jake.

From the corner of you eye, you can see Rooster taking his time as he shucks off the rest of his clothes haphazardly before fisting himself in his big hand as he takes in the sensual scene in front of him. You can feel all the places his eyes linger and trail over, those flames in your stomach spreading over your body like a wildfire.

Grateful for the work Bradley did getting your jeans off earlier, you slip a hand into your panties to get your fingers on your aching clit. You whimper at the instant relief that you feel as you touch yourself. Keening in pleasure around Hangman’s cock, which makes him widen his legs and throw his head back to moan in response.

This wasn’t going to be some hook up cloaked in the cover of a dark room. No, you were going to be on full display for them, just as they’d be for you. And the thought of it up makes you clench against nothing.

You were something brilliant and radiant to look at and you knew it. You wanted them to look, you wanted their eyes to take their fill.

“You going to join, Rooster? Or are you back to sittin’ on that perch?” the blonde goads him, with a sharp smile. His voice strained around the edges of his words as his fists clutch at the fabric of the duvet cover beneath them. “I’m sure you can find some way to keep yourself occupied even though her mouth busy at the moment.”

You reach up with your free hand and give that chain a little tug then dragging it down his chest, your nails digging slightly into his firm pecs before scraping down his abs. He surprises you with a light thrust of his hips that has you settling that tricky hand on his tense thigh for better balance as you continue to work him.

“Just watching how our girl is touching herself,” Bradley replies as he walks over. He is such a sight with all that sunkissed skin on display. “So needy, she can’t even bother waiting her turn.”

You hollow your cheeks around Jake for good measure before releasing him from your mouth, to grasp him in your hand, treating him to a twist of your wrist, “Got tired of waiting, had to take matters into my own hands.”

You wanted them to touch you, to feel them everywhere. You wanted to be taken apart and put back together. You wanted to be thoroughly wrecked by them.

“That so, huh?” The way that Bradley’s smile ticks up makes you suck in a sharp breath, your restless fingers making sloppy circles against that sensitive part of you at the sight of it. “Tell me, how wet are you?”

He looks so good standing next you from your position on your knees and if both of your hands weren’t already busy you’d be reaching out for his heavy cock.

“Why don’t you come find out for yourself?” you dare him, arching your back a little for his benefit.

“But you look so pretty taking care of yourself,” Rooster says cupping your cheek in his hand, then turning his head to the man seated on the bed, “Hey, Seresin, don’t you remember her saying something about her generosity?”

They grin at each other before looking back down at you, and it’s all you can to not squirm under their weighty, heated gaze.

“You know, that does seem to ring a bell, Bradshaw.” A wolf trussed up like the boy-next-door.

“Why don’t you show us just how generous you can be, pretty girl,” Rooster says reaching down pulling your hand out from your panties, his hand wrapped around your forearm, and offers up your shiny fingers to the man you’re kneeling in front of.

Hangman holds your gaze as his tongue reaches out to meet them. Your already erratic heartbeat sets a new rhythm as it slips and glides in a sensual show around them before curing around them to draw them into his cocksure mouth. A deep satisfied hum emanating from his chest as he tastes you.

Bradley releases his hold on you and skims his fingers up along your arm and up the side of your neck, massaging that tapered divot at base of your skull.

Your jaw falls open as you watch Jake bob his head on your fingers like you had been doing on his cock not even five minutes earlier. He shoots you a filthy wink was you watch the debauchery up close in personal, leaning in closer, mesmerized by the sheen of spit coating your fingers. He pulls them from your mouth with one more lewd lick, and then crooks his pointer finger under your chin and turns your head towards Rooster.

“Why don’t you be a sweet little thing and show Bradshaw what he’s missing out on, darlin’,” Jake says, its less of a suggestion and more of a command. One you are happy to oblige.

You hold your tongue out for Rooster in an open invitation and he rumbles his approval.

“Now that’s a pretty picture,” Bradley murmurs, but doesn’t move any closer. He waits for your dazed eyes to meet his heated ones, before nodding his head towards Hangman, who you’re still pumping him with long, smooth strokes, “Go on then, finish what you started. I can wait.” You make a noise of dissatisfaction at being denied the taste of him. He chuckles lightly, “I promise, we’ll take real good care of you soon.”

And with that promise you wrap your lips around Jake again. He spreads his legs wider to accommodate you as you reach to cup his balls in your hand, massaging them.

You feel Rooster settle his hand heavy on the crown of your head, his fingers threading in your hair, before pressing you forward, guiding the motion of your mouth on Jake’s cock. Encouraging you to take more, more, more before pulling you back, only to urge you forward once again.

It’s easy to lose yourself and relax into the push and pull of it as you let them take over. Letting them use you how they want, preening under their crooning praise. Hangman is looking down on you with half-lidded eyes and gives you a slow, wide smile when a thick thread of saliva drips on to your sternum and down your chest.

Your attention-seeking clit throbs in time with your rapid pulse, whimpering pitifully when you can’t get any relief no matter how you shift and squirm.

Then Bradley is tugging on your strands to get you on your feet and meets you for a heady kiss. He hooks his thumbs under the band of your panties and pulls them down your legs, a little lacy heap to decorate his floor.

“Get on the bed, baby.”

Yes, yes, oh yes.

Jake shoves his jeans down the rest of the way and kicks them off. The way he climbs on the bed is all easy grace as he props himself against the headboard. You’re quick to clamber up on your hands and knees between his legs, looking over your shoulder for Rooster’s nod of approval before you lean down to take him back in your mouth.

There has been so much build up. You know that they’ve been easing you into this in their own way, but you’re so desperate for more. You’re like balloon overfilled and taut, one right touch and you might burst.

“God, you’re already so wet.” You feel Bradley’s rough squeeze on the backs of both your thighs followed by the comforting caress of his thumbs, “C’mon, show me that pretty pussy. Let me see it.”

You tilt your hips up, up, up- you want, you need- offering yourself to him until you’re treated to his tongue on you. At last. His wide long licks have you canting your hips further searching for more. The feeling of his lips and mustache against that delicate part of you makes you cry out in satisfaction.

“So greedy,” Jake teases, as his thumb runs gently along your jawline.

He is hot and heavy on your tongue. There is a light sheen of sweat coating his chest, his abs flexing and contracting with every uneven breath. That chain around his neck winking at you from the lamp in the corner of the room. He called you an angel earlier, but he’s the one who looks like sweet sin, a heavenly hedonist.

The filthy sounds of your messy mouth and Rooster’s satisfied groans filling the room as you work one pilot and the other works you. You can feel your orgasm building swiftly, those flames from before being stoked by their grasping hands and teasing lips and dirty words.

The shock of the feeling two of Bradley’s thick fingers glide and curl into you without any resistance, of having something inside of you for the first time all night, sends your body jolting forward. Your hands clutching at the sheets as you sputter and gag around Jake.

“Holy shit,” he pulls you off of him with a pop, a line of spit stretching from your mouth to his glistening cock, “Don’t want to come in your mouth.” Hangman takes your head between his big hands, cradling you carefully. “Goddamn, look at you. You feelin’ good?” It’s all you can do to rapidly nod your head yes. “You should see her, Rooster, she’s real close.”

You hear Bradley chuckle huskily behind you, “And we’ve barely even gotten started.” He targets that spot in you with merciless precision as he scrapes his mustache along your spine dropping kiss after wet kiss. “Now, come on my fingers like a good girl.”

And with his raspy voice in your ear and Jake’s tongue in your mouth, you shatter.

It’s all white noise as one of the maneuvers you gently on to your back as you come down. The feeling of the cool sheets a welcomed sensation on your heated skin. Even though you’re still reeling, you can hear the warmth in their voices as your mind clings to a few select words.

Good. Perfect. Soft. Sweet. Pretty. Generous.

You feel a body shift above you, their sturdy weight only an echo of what it could be if they weren’t holding themselves aloft. Your eyes float open to see Rooster caging you on his bed within the shelter of his sculpted arms.

Next to you Jake is propped up his side, the graze of his fingertips is featherlight as they meander up and down the length of your arm. As if he is content to simply be touching your soft skin.

“You still having fun?” Bradley asks with a knowing smile on his face. Using his thumb, he wipes at some of the saliva smeared under your bottom lip.

“The most,” you grin, turning your head to capture it between your lips.

Rooster watches you in rapt as you suck, giving his thumb the same treatment as you’d given Hangman’s cock, all wet tongue and hollowed out cheeks. The pupils of his pretty brown eyes blown wide. His cock resting heavy on your stomach.

“We’re gonna make a mess out of you,” Bradley promises as he presses his thumb down on your tongue. You look up at him with your best doe-eyes, parting your mouth to give him a better view of the way it pillows around his thumbpad. He applies a bit more pressure with a smirk before removing it from your mouth completely.

“Yes, please.”

He leans in close and your eyes flutter shut at the anticipation of the brush of his lips on yours.

And then he spits right in your waiting mouth.

“Atta girl.”

His smile grows at the whine that comes out of you. He drops a kiss to your forehead and stands back up, towering over you. It’s a visual feast of abs and broad shoulders and tan skin and mischievous eyes. “Pretty sure you almost made Jake see God,” he says looking over, giving the other man a lazy smirk.

“Fuck off,” he says without heat and laughs. Leaning over from where he’s been lounging next to you, he wraps his hand around the nape of our neck and pulls you in, licking deep into your mouth wet with his pre-come and Rooster’s spit. “How’s about you finally show Bradshaw what that pretty mouth can do, while I settle up and repay the favor.”

You don’t know what to make of the look that passes between the two men as they switch spots. It’s a challenge, it’s a dare. You’re still loose-limbed from your orgasm, but you can feel the tension starting to coil low in your stomach again at the glint in their eyes as Bradley crowds up next to you on the bed while Jake stands at the end of it.

Rooster kisses up along your body, his tongue darting out to taste the beads of sweat that are collecting in the valley of your breasts. If you listen closely you can still hear the whir of the air conditioning, but it’s not of much use when you feel like an inferno.

You sigh out when his mouth meets yours. You grasp his face between your hands to keep him close, not wanting to be denied his lips again. Your thumb stroking at the cleft of his chin. Finally. Finally. Finally. You feel like spun sugar, the wet slide of his lips against yours makes you feel like you’re about to dissolve into sweet nothingness.

There’s no hesitation in the way that Hangman situates himself between your parted legs, easing one over his shoulder and then the other. He trails butterfly kisses from your knee and up the inside of your leg. You shiver at the sensation, luxuriating in his touch.

“Condoms?” Jake asks into the crease of your thigh.

You shake your head and let go of Bradley’s face to tap at the spot on your upper arm where that flexible piece of plastic is placed under the skin. They nod their understanding, their agreement.

At least someone still had their feet on the ground, because it feels like your head is in the clouds.

“Thought you said I’d look prettier covered in come?” you try to tease but it just comes out breathy, throwing Hangman’s own words from earlier back at him. Then turning your head to look at Rooster next to you, “Thought you were going to make a mess out of me?” 

You know you’re playing with fire. However, you also know that if at any point you couldn’t handle the heat that they would haul you out of the kitchen themselves.

But why stay out of the kitchen when you can just set it on fire yourself?

“Jesus,” Jake curses and nips at your hipbone.

“Fuck’s sake, you really can’t help yourself, can you?” Bradley huffs amused but strained, his eyes raking over you.

The nope and the ‘P’ you were planning to pop gets stuck in your throat as Hangman pins your legs open to the bed, holding you down so you can’t escape his tongue as he licks a hot stripe through the center of you. Your jaw drops open wordlessly.

“Not so mouthy now, are you?” Hangman grunts and then dips his tongue into you again.

One of your hands flies into his sandy blonde hair, while the other reaches out for the sunkissed man next to you. The feeling of Rooster’s fingers lacing between your outstretched ones grounding you as the pressure starts building again.

Where Bradley had been all enthusiastic delving and relentless devouring, Jake is all honed accuracy as he flicks and circles and sucks your clit. There’s no slow build up, he’s not content to simply let you sail smoothly into your next orgasm, not with the way his fingers are working you. No, Jake is set on being the one to push you over that edge himself. And he’ll do it with a blinding white smile and a tip of his hat.

Bradley moves to kneel by your head, stroking his thick cock a few times before offering it to you. The groan that comes out of him when you lick the underside of him before taking him in your mouth is quite possibly one of the hottest sounds you’ve ever heard in your life. His large hand comes to cradle your jaw as you bob up and down on his length.

It doesn’t take long until you’re keening and moaning around him as you come alive under their eyes and touch.

“You look so pretty like this,” Rooster murmurs, his thumb alternating between gliding around your stretched lips and caressing your bulging cheek. “You’re taking my cock so well.”

You know you’re making a mess out of him, but if anything, you feel him grow even harder in your mouth as you take him further into your throat. The sounds coming from you obscene as you lick and suck and swallow around him. You’re trying to stay focused on taking care of him, but Hangman’s tongue and fingers are making it hard for you to concentrate.

Jake is relentless with the two fingers he has working inside of you. His other hand smooths up your torso, long fingers stretched wide, as if he is trying to touch as much of you as possible. And then he’s grabbing at your breasts, massaging one and then moving to the other.

It’s getting overwhelming with so many points of pleasure all vying for your undivided attention. You feel so good, too good. Your chest is tight with want it’s getting harder to take a full breath, the shallow shaky things you’ve been taking making you lightheaded.

You blindly mouth at Rooster’s cock and balls and thighs, whatever you can reach and latch onto as you let your hand take over stroking him. Just for a moment, just to catch your breath.

You whimper when Bradley pulls away from you, only to feel his big body slide down on the bed next to you, his warm hands soothing over your too tight skin.

“That mouth too much for you, Rooster?” Jake grins with shiny lips before slipping a third finger into you, curling them against your front wall, making you keen.

“I know, it’s a lot, but you’re keeping up with us like a champ,” Bradley says to you, pulling you in for a kiss. He reaches down for one of your thighs, pulling it off the other pilot’s shoulder and over his own hip, holding you open. His hand knocks Hangman’s thumb out of the way and his takes over making nonsensical patterns on your clit, making you moan at the contact. “And you should go back to making yours more useful,” he lobs back to the man between your legs. 

In your haze, you wonder how they can even share the skies if they’re this competitive in the bedroom.

“Yeah, and what’s yours doin’ up there?” Jake asks, giving it right back to him. You can hear how wet you are as his fingers slide in and out of you, as the Bradley picks up the pace of his movements against you.

“Someone’s got to tell her how good she’s doing,” you can hear the smile in Rooster’s voice as he kisses your neck. He gently runs his lips and mustache along the shell of your ear, “We know how much she like a compliment.”

“Bradley.” The admonishment is lost in your gasp as the faintest graze of his fingernail again your sensitive clit has your back arching off the mattress and your hips bucking against both sets of hands.

“You sound so wrecked, baby. I like how my name sounds in your mouth when you’re all fucked out like this.”

“And those whimpers? I swear, she making the sweetest sounds I’ve ever heard,” Hangman tacks on.

You want to give as good as you’re getting, but your hurtling towards that point again. Already teetering back and forth, almost but not quite there. Overwhelmed, oversensitive, but still needing, wanting...

“More, I need more, Jake,” you’re not quite begging but you’re close, your heel is digging into his shoulder blade, urging him closer. “Jake, I want to come.”

Your clit is aching under Rooster’s teasing touch, and you are squirming and shifting and rocking trying to get more of Jake’s fingers inside of you. You groan when Jake pulls them out of you completely, stopping your motions with a rough grip on your hips. Somewhere in the back of your mind you find yourself hoping that you’ll still be wearing his fingerprints tomorrow morning.

“Nu-uh, greedy girl, you’ll take what we give you,” Hangman says as he stands up and wipes his mouth off with the back of his hand, a streak of your wetness shining on his cheek.

And then his thick cock is pushes into you and all the air leaves your lungs.

His thrusts are measured and slow and sure. Filling you up and then leaving you empty, over and over and over again. His fingers are still digging into your hips leaving you at his mercy, to take what he gives you. Nothing more and nothing less than what he wants.

You didn’t know All-American Texan boys could pull of such a dirty look of pure debauchery, but he wore it so damn well.

There’s no holding back the noise of frustration that comes out of you when Rooster’s teeth graze over your breast, before he sucks your nipple into his hot mouth. He is hard and hot as he grinds himself against the curve of you.

It would be so, so good if didn’t felt like you were bobbing along in a wooden barrel waiting for a drop over Niagara Falls. The anticipation of that freefall thrumming in your veins, but one that never seems to get any closer as you dangle there.

“Stop teasing me,” you whine.

Jake pushes into you with that same devasting slowness and then stops, his hips pressed tightly against yours. “I’m inside you, aren’t I?” he challenges with a raise of his eyebrow.

You don’t want to agree, what you want is to come. With great effort on your part you reluctantly nod your head, hoping your cooperation will get him to speed up or go harder. You’d literally anything to stop feeling like a butterfly with its wings pinned open and preserved.

“Then I ain’t teasin’.”

Those dimples are on full display, as he pulls out leisurely, letting your feel every bit of him, and then pounds into you.

You’re thankful when he takes pity on you and the rolling of his hips picks up. Harder, faster, deeper. His chest is flushed pink, making that golden chain stand out even more. A bead of sweat works its way down his neck, between his defined pecs, and travels along the contours of his sculpted body.

“Jesus, did you talk this much last time, Seresin?” Rooster asks, pulling his mouth off of you to watch as his own fingers and Hangman’s cock work together in sync between your thighs.

“And he said I was the mouthy one,” you all but pant out.

You tug on his curls trying to get him to put his mouth back on your breast, his spit cooling on your nipple making it pebble more than you thought possible. Instead, he just smirks down at you, and applies more pressure on your clit. Those nonsensical patterns transforming into tight devastating circles.

“I need… I need-”

“Such a bossy thing,” Jake mutters, “Only thing you need to be focusing on, darlin’, is falling apart for me.” The edge in his voice and the strain of his thighs as he thrusts into you the only things giving him away that he’s just as desperate as you are. “Rooster wants to watch you come. Isn’t that right, Bradshaw?”

“Sure do,” he agrees against the pounding pulse point on your throat. You don’t need a mirror to know the delicate skin is agitated from the coarse hairs of his mustache. The heat rolling off of him in waves is a contrast to the draft of the air conditioning hitting your body just right from the way he has you spread open over his hip. “I wanna see that pretty face as you come around his cock.”

Your fingers scramble to find something, anything to hold on to. Feeling like the seams of your skin, those silken threads of the last of your resolve, fray and snap. Rooster’s eyes holding yours as you start to unravel.

The sound of skin on skin fills your ears, followed by Hangman’s ragged breathing as you flutter and clench against him. “You feel so fucking good around me,” he moans, “Such a perfect pussy.”

Lightening hot pleasure races along your spine before shooting out along your muscles and tendons and ligaments, all the things keeping your body together. And your mind whites out as you come for them.

You feel Jake’s rhythm falter and stutter as he works to get himself closer of that place of perfect devastation, as you shutter and quake from the aftershock. He fucks into you harder chasing his own climax before emptying himself inside of you.

His cock buried so deep in you as you take his come. The two of you both breathing hard.

Bradley slips his wet fingers into your mouth and you lave the taste of yourself off of his skin almost in a daze as you wait for the gravity to settle into your weightless limbs. His lips are gentle as he trails soft kisses along your hairline, his hardness pressed against you a reminder there’s still more in store for you.

You whimper when Jake pulls out of you.

“Knew you’d look good like this,” he says running his hands along the tops of your thighs and watching as his come trickles out of you onto Bradley’s duvet.

Rooster takes his fingers from your mouth and nudges his nose against your heated cheek, “You still got more in you?”

He pulls away, those brown eyes searching yours.

“Want your cock,” you whisper and lean in for a kiss. He meets you with tenderness, while you meet him with heat. Licking into him the moment he parts his lips for you.

Hangman gives your thighs one last squeeze and lets go.

“Come ‘ere,” Rooster grunts as he shifts and pulls you on top of him, lining himself up with your dripping cunt. You don’t dare look away as he slowly feeds you the generous length of him, inch by inch.

You drape yourself across him and burry your face in that spot between his neck and shoulder at the stretch of him as he fills the space between your legs. Feeling the muscles of his arms wrapped around you. His wood smoke scent filling your nose. The salt of him on your tongue as you lick at the sweat that’s collected along the line of his collarbone.

It is dizzying being this surrounded by Bradley, he’s everywhere.

“How are you still so tight? You literally just took his cock,” he rasps.

You feel a hand brush back some of the hair from your face and you turn your head into the warm touch. When you open your eyes, you see Jake crouching there by the bed next to you, his green eyes filled with affection, “You doing a good job for Rooster too?”

“Yes,” you sigh as Bradley hums his agreement. The deep, languid roll of hips as he thrusts into you, working you open for his cock, is so good that it makes fingers dig into his biceps.

“Good girl,” he says, nipping at you ear before pressing a kiss to your cheek, “Keep doing her like that, Rooster, her legs are startin’ to shake.”

And then he lands an open-handed slap to your ass that makes you clench and Rooster groan as he laughs lightly to himself, entirely too pleased.

It’s a masterpiece of teeth and tongues, moans and gasps, and dirty praise rumbled into ears. When that telltale tightness in your stomach starts, you begin rocking back against him desperately. Meeting him thrust for thrust. You’re so coiled in knots that not even the most seasoned sailor could untangle you.

You can feel your orgasm rising up to meet you. So close, so close.

And then choking down a sob as you’re pulled upright to a sitting position astride Bradley, with Hangman’s forearm banded around your waist and supported by his dewy chest.

“‘s too big,” you whimper.

“Ah, ah. There you go, you can take it,” Jake coaches into your ear as he encourages you to take more of Rooster’s cock. “You’re almost there. Just a little bit more.”

Bradley licks his lips as he watches you writhe and squirm above him until there’s no space between your bodies. His fingertips digging into your hipbones. The stretch of him making you ache in the best of ways, your eyes fluttering at the sensation of sinking impossibly further on him. Both hands braced on his chest, thumbs seeking the little patch of chest hair.

You lean your head back and are met with Jake’s mouth. His kiss filthy as his teeth graze against your full bottom lip and his tongue sweeps against yours.

There are no words for how full you feel, for how good you feel.

Bradley’s face and neck are flushed and his waves are a mess from your handiwork. And you’re struck again by just how handsome he is. You give him a roll of your hips, anticipating a thrust that doesn’t come. Your eyebrows pinch together and you try again to get him to meet you half way. Waiting, waiting, waiting for more.

“I want-”

“I know what you want,” Rooster croons as he cuts you off, sliding a hand up your pulled too taut body to palm at your breast. You whine when he rolls your nipple between his thumb and forefinger and then tugs. “C’mon, want to see you ride me. That’s it, baby, use me to get yourself off.”

The wet, sticky sounds of your own arousal and Jake’s come are amplified in the quiet room as you fuck yourself on Bradley’s cock. The sweat is collecting behind your knees and along your hairline. You let your head lull back onto Jake’s shoulder, knowing he’ll keep you upright.

You want to be good for him. You want to be good for them.

Both men have been determined to wring every ounce of pleasure from your body and then asked for even more. The burn in your thighs so good as you rock and grind on the man beneath you, but you don’t know how much more you have left to give.

“Doing still alright, darlin’?”

You turn your head enough to mouth along Jake’s jawline and hope he takes it for the yes your tongue is too tired to say.

“Think our girl’s getting worn out,” Bradley says sympathetically, but is looking up at you with pride in his eyes.

 “You’ve been doing so well for us. How about you let Rooster and I take care of you now, huh?”

“Please.” It sounds pitiful even in your own ears, but you can’t be bothered to care too much at the moment.

You whimper quietly as Jake’s warm, heavy hand settles between your shoulder blades and presses you back down.

Bradley wraps his arms around you holding you close against his sweat-slicked chest. The tears prickle in the corner of your eyes as you tuck your head back into his neck, knowing that the two men are more than capable to get you there again. That they’ll take care of you.

That you can just feel, that you can just be, that you can just take.

“Hold her open for me, Bradshaw.”

You feel Bradley’s hands slide around you, grabbing rough handfuls of your ass. You’re exposed in a different way you’ve been all night, under Jake’s sharp, keen eyes that you can’t see but feel on you all the same, as the other man pumps in and out of you.

“You should see how she’s dripping down you, Rooster. That cunt is coating you real good.”

“I don’t need to see it, when I can feel it,” he pants against your ear. You want to remind them that it’s not just only your arousal alone that’s making a sure to be shiny mess along the length of him, but it’s all you can do to clutch at Bradley’s waves as he keeps building you up.

Of all the things you were experiencing in that moment, it’s no surprise that you miss the subtle ghosting of Jake’s warm breath over that pleated part of you, but it’s the feeling of his wet tongue skimming around the rim of it that send you reeling.

“Fuck me,” Rooster moans, his arms tightening around you, “Whatever you just did, do it again. She liked it. Didn’t you, baby?” You babble out something unintelligible as you fist his hair, but your vigorous nod can’t be interpreted for anything other than your enthusiastic consent. “Could feel that you did, gotta give our girl what she likes. She deserves it after being so good for us.”

His voice huskier, rougher than you’ve ever heard it. That slight accent that only sometimes made an appearance, finally out in full force.

You let out a strangled cry when Hangman does it again, your toes curling at the new feeling. You’ve never taken two men like that before, but even the idea of it makes you lightheaded.

From there you lose yourself in the dueling sensations. At Bradley’s ruinous, deep thrusts. Of his perfect cock hitting you just right, targeting that spot that has you quaking. Of Hangman’s tricky tongue circling, circling. And his thick finger pressing.

Circling, circling, pressing.

Circling, circling, pressing.

Circling, circling, pressing. Until-

“Ah!”

You bite down on that pretty scar on Rooster’s shoulder, needing something to keep you from feeling like you were going to fly away. From feeling like you could explode into nothingness. It’s a different kind of fullness, one that steals your breath even as it gives you life.

“That’s it, nice and easy, darlin’.”

There’s nothing nice or easy about the two men working you. The push and pull of them so in tune with each other, so set on making you see stars one last time.

“I can feel you’re there. Want you to come on this cock,” Bradley grits out, as he thrusts into you, his hands spreading you wider for his benefit and Jake’s. The tendon on is throat standing out in a way that makes your mouth water. “Come on, come for us.”

When you come with a cry, body shaking and back arching with devastating pleasure. It’s an orgasm that gives as much as it and takes and takes and takes.

Rooster is swift to follow after you with a couple more powerful thrusts, as he spills himself inside of you with a low, satisfied groan. You spasm and quiver and convulse around him, milking him with every tremor that dances through your thoroughly spent body.

When you come to, the first thing you’re aware of is how perfectly warm you are pressed between two hard bodies. The next is the delicious ache between your thighs and the mess there, as you grin to yourself with your eyes closed. Luxuriating in the endorphin rush as it washes over you.

A calloused thumb strokes your cheek.

“There she is,” you hear Jake say.

Someone’s long fingers thread between your own, squeezing your hand.

“Jesus, fuck,” you hear Bradley pant next to you, “How was that even better than last time?”

“More practice?” you offer, finally opening your eyes.

Both men look a sweaty mess, their hair a riot and their cheeks still pink from the exertion. And you know you probably aren’t faring much better, but it’s the warm affection and the easy smiles on their faces that sets your heart a racing again.

It’s been a little over four years since you had first met the two of them in Pensacola during a training contingent for a recon mission.

You were about to call it a night at the Navy bar near the base, mentally cursing whoever signed off on sending you to the state in the middle of a heat wave, when a broad man in a Hawaiian shirt had slid up to you at the bar. It would have been comical on anyone with less muscles, but he also had the smile to pull it off. You didn’t quite know what to make of it at first when the clean-cut blonde, the one with a mega-watt grin and a toothpick gripped between his teeth, had set a drink in front of you with a wink.

There wasn’t any way of missing the tension radiating between them, but you weren’t about to get caught in the middle of their petty pissing contest. You knew a rivalry when you saw one. And they were pilots after all, you knew their type.

It wasn’t until you held that chilled glass up to your overheated neck, catching the way they both tracked that bead of condensation as it traveled down your throat and disappearing between your cleavage, that you thought things could get interesting.

And well, it had escalated quickly from there.

“I haven’t even been here seventy-two hours yet, and I’ve already heard about your fabled hook up twice,” you say with a giggle, leaning your forehead on Jake’s shoulder.

“Mm, I’ve heard that rumor too,” Rooster chuckles.

“Who knew the Navy had so many damn gossips,” Hangman laughs, “I swear to god, they talk more shit than the little old ladies in my grandma’s knitting circle.”

Bradley picks up your entwined hands and brings them to his mouth, kissing your fingertips with a fond look in his eyes, “So how long are you here for?”

“Well, speaking of rumors,” you say conspiratorially, “Have you heard the one about a certain Chief Warrant Officer Bernie Coleman and the opening on his new strategic team for a permanent member?” The teasing smirk growing on your face as the realization dawns on them.

You had been treating yourself to a celebratory drink at the finalized paperwork and impending transfer when Rooster had spotted you sitting there earlier when the whole night truly began.

“Huh,” Bradley says with a sly smile, “Now that sure is one interesting rumor. The person who lands that gig must be very smart. Sounds like that certain someone would be the right person to settle a bet. ”

“Mhm and probably very full of good ideas,” you can’t help but preen.

“What do you say, Rooster, best two out of three?” Jake asks, with a cheeky gleam in his eyes, “You up for a little tiebreaker, darlin?”

You look from one to the other with a grin.

“I’m all in.”

In the immortal words of the Spice Girls "spice up your life" 💃🏼 Thanks for reading!

Many thanks to @gretagerwigsmuse and @laracrofted for their help!

This was written as part of @sushiwriterhere Threesomissance 2023 event!

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You can read more of my stories here!

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[foone]

My one bit of advice I think every gamer should hear:

GO PLAY OUTER WILDS.

Seriously. It is easily one of my top 5 games of all time, and that's mainly because I'm being cagey about if it's the #1, because it probably is.

It's a game where you're a little alien who is taking their first flight into space, in their little spaceship. You go to space and find a mystery, and have to figure it out.

It's a game entirely about learning things about the world you're in: it's a tiny solar system modeled amazingly well, with varied planetary environments, archaeology, and quantum fun.

It's a game that's hard to talk about without spoiling, because it's about solving the mysteries. There used to be some other aliens here, they're long gone. What happened to them? Their whole society was built around trying to find something: what was it? Did they find it? And there's a weird disastrous event that keeps happening, why? Can you stop it? Should you stop it? Is it connected to the other weird things that keep happening? What happened to that ice planet that exploded with vines? One of the astronauts who came before you was the best pilot who ever lived, but they vanished. What happened to them? And why can you sometimes hear their harmonica over the radio when you point it at your own planet?

The game is wonderful and non-linear and the most unique approach to a Metroidvania I've seen years: it's basically "what if we did the Metroidvania idea but with no items or power ups? What if the thing that you got to unlock new areas WAS INSIDE THE PLAYER'S HEAD?"

Because you don't unlock the next area by picking up the high-jump boots, you unlock it by learning something new. Now you can do something you didn't realize you could before, but now you know you can.

And that's only one of the amazing concepts they stuffed in this game. The itemless Metroidvania, the tiny simulated solar system, the quantum mechanics... Each of these alone could be enough to carry an indie game. They stuffed them all in one game combined with a great story, and that's in a gamewith relatively little dialogue!

There's like a dozen people to talk to, but you spent a lot of time reading conversations left by the long-gone aliens. You get to know them, what they were working for, how they interacted, and what happened to them, thousands of years later. It's less the bioshock style audio-logs, and more like going over bits of ancient writing, making connections and correlations from the fragments you can find.

And don't get me wrong, this might sound like this game is going to be dry and boring: it is so very not. It is a game about mysteries in the void of space, the death of a civilization, and the potentially world-ending dangers that face a living one, and even bigger concepts. It could so easily be a cosmic horror, about the cold death of space and the universe itself, and the nihilism of realizing that even a race that could cross the gap between the stars and bend spacetime to their will... They too died out. If they couldn't make it, what hope do you have, in your little spaceship that's primarily made of WOOD?

And yet... The game is always engaging. It has a few scares, and space is never a safe place to be, but it maintains a sense of humor and wonder. Yes, the universe can be scary, but it's also amazing. And you're just a little salamander-guy who wants to see it all, and figure out all the things. Maybe you don't know something yet, but tomorrow is a new day, and you can go blasting off to another planet, find some writing in a city suspended upside down over a black hole, try to fly into the core of a water planet, dodge giant anglerfish inside the warped space of an exploded planet, and try to explore an ancient city that's slowly filling with sand. It is a game about Things Ending, and it refuses to give into despair. It is one of the most relentlessly optimistic games I have ever played.

And the experience of playing it is so unique. This isn't a game where you could watch a letsplay and only get spoiled on some plot points, it's a game where the fundamental gameplay loop is about learning things. You should try it for yourself. It's got hints and many different avenues to explore (and it even keeps track of them for you, in case you forget!), so you don't have to worry much about getting stuck for too long. You can always put aside a "puzzle" and come back later, after you've learned more. (I put puzzle in quotes because it's not exactly a puzzle game. It's more of a mystery game. You aren't solving a logic puzzle or putting the pegs into the right holes, you're asking "Why is this like this? Where does this go? What is this for?" and then figuring that out from clues)

It's like 25$ on steam, and you can get it for Playstation and Xboxes as well (sadly no Switch version. They were working on one but it seems that version has stalled, with no announced release date)

You can probably get it for like 10$ if you're patient and wait for a sale.

One final note: there's also a DLC. The DLC is fully self-contained, in that you won't miss anything playing the main game without it. It basically adds a huge side-area to the game which goes and fills in some gaps in the history, explains some things, and introduces some more variety to the Outer Wilds universe.

It's utterly amazing, too. It's basically Outer Wilds 2 in everything but name, but it's totally fine to just grab the base game and play that. You can always come back and grab the DLC later if you want more Outer Wilds.

Seriously. To sum up, Outer Wilds is one of the greatest games ever made, it won a ton of awards, and it should have won more. They should invent more gaming awards just to give to Outer Wilds. This is one of the games that is going to be talked about in future "history of gaming" classes and put on lists of the 50 most groundbreaking and influential games, alongside things like Myst and King's Quest and Zork and Mass Effect. It's just that good, that groundbreaking.

[three--rings]

Starfield Tips/Things I Wish I Knew Earlier

Starfield is honestly amazing if you like this kind of game, but it does seem to be pretty invested in letting you figure out how it works on your own by experimentation. And it's very easy to overlook features of the game.

So...

The traits that give you parents, a fan, and a house are really neat. You get some cool stuff from them. I only did the parents but damn I'm glad I did. So consider these.

You can make your spacesuit and helmet automatically disappear if you're in breathable atmosphere/in a settlement. This way you don't have to worry about taking them off and on and potentially leaving your ship without them. And you don't look like a dork in town. The option is in the inventory page for each of them.

You can boost/sprint when floating. This is important in the Certain Plot Relevant Places.

There is a part of New Atlantis called The Well with a bunch of people and shops and you get to it from an unmarked elevator behind Jemison Merchantile in the Spaceport (or the unmarked elevator in the MAST transit station.) I played 30 hours before I found this out.

Read the skills closely, including the locked ones. Multiple times I put points in the wrong thing, thinking it would let me do things, when that was actually a different skill elsewhere.

Don't avoid the UC Vanguard questline. A lot of people I think are avoiding it because it's joining the military on a side that is a little sketchy/sus, but there's a lot of reasons to do this EARLY.

There's a museum you go through that gives you the entire lore background and recent history of the world

There's a flight simulator "test" you can take as much as you want to practice the space combat.

The storyline is REALLY REALLY good. (um, warning for horror elements) There are two different quest lines it opens and one also opens access to joining the Crimson Fleet faction.

7. When you upgrade your pilot skill it unlocks using thrusters in space flight. These let you maneuver without moving forward, so you are way more agile in combat. Use RB with a controller, IDK what the keyboard thingy is. But they're actually great. You hold down the button and then move sideways or up and down. Makes moving to new targets much better.

8. Weapons have different levels. Base which just has the name and then Calibrated, Refined, and Advanced. So pay attention and pick up the higher level ones. If you get a good advanced gun early you can use it and upgrade it for EVER. There's also rarity levels, which is the colored things. But that's about bonus effects. So you might get a really shitty gun with a Legendary bonus effect and it's still trash. If you get a high level weapon with a good bonus effect TREASURE IT.

9. Certain quests give you really good items, including SHIPS. IMO the best ship to get is the one from the Freestar Rangers.

10. Once you get a house you can build in it just like in an outpost. Also you can drop things from your inventory into an outpost or a house and then in build mode move that item around onto shelves, etc.

11. There is Universal time and Planet time. So if you wait or sleep, depending on where you are that may count as more time passing than what you chose. All shops refresh their money and inventory in 48 hours UT, but on Jemison, for example, that's only 24 hours of planet time.

12. Ship building can be intense and intimidating but it's really really worth it. You can always cancel out and undo what you did, so experiment. And when in doubt, add more engines, lol. (But really you want to add cargo space ASAP and then you need more engines, and then you end up wanting whole new ships.) Different ports have different makers of parts, and the best items are in the home port for each brand.

13. Unlocking the Ship Targeting skill is a game changer for space combat. It lets you lock on and then slows down time while you pummel the enemy's ship systems. If you take our their engines, and they are alone you can then dock with them and fight them and take their ship. Space piracy FTW.

14. If you get contraband avoid cities. Go to the Wolf System to The Den to sell it. This is very lucrative. At the slight price of your personal integrity.

15. As a general rule if something is sucking, you need to find the skill for it and invest points in it. This is true for piloting, scanning, boost packs, etc. They really made the skill trees count and be necessary in this game. Also surveying planets is really good XP actually. To help you get those points.

16. Speaking of surveying, if you are trying to complete a planet you need to visit all the biomes. If you click on the planet it will tell you the percent complete of that biome before landing. If you have one lone fauna left that fucker is probably in the ocean so look for COAST.

17. When placing outposts make sure there's not a lot of annoying mountains in it, and also you really want to prioritize sites with He-3 because you need it to really do anything. (Helium, iron, aluminum are the most important to build with.) And you have a limited number of outposts without taking a high level skill to get more.

That's all I can think of for now.

[nikkeisimmer]

Oh My God...inZOI...

"Recommended System Requirements for inZOI (Life simulator from Krafton Games, South Korea)

For those wanting to experience inZOI in all its glory with high frame rates and the most detailed visuals, aim for the following recommended specifications:

CPU: A more powerful processor like the AMD Ryzen 5 3600X or the Intel Core i5-10600K will deliver a smoother performance even in the most demanding scenarios.

RAM: Doubling the minimum requirement, 32 GB of RAM will ensure that your game runs seamlessly and enables extensive multitasking.

Video Card: Upgrading to an AMD Radeon RX 6800 or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 video card will allow you to enjoy inZOI at higher resolutions and with better graphical fidelity.

Dedicated Video RAM: A hefty 10240 MB will give you the bandwidth needed for ultra-quality textures and prevent any graphical stuttering.

Pixel Shader and Vertex Shader: Remaining at version 5.0, but coupled with more robust hardware, you’ll be able to maximize the game’s visual settings.

OS: Windows 10/11 with the latest updates is again recommended for the best compatibility.

Free Disk Space: A consistent 50 GB of free space is recommended for game files, mods, and updates.

-quoted from https://inzoiresource.com/blogs/22/Minimum-and-Recommended-System-Requirements-for-inZOI

Yeah...that's my wallet finding out I'm going to have to spend at least $4,000.00 to run inZOI decently on my computer. The thing is that you can no longer play these newest games on "integrated graphics chips". You have to get a dedicated card. My wife wants to play Dragon Age 4 (The Veilguard) which is coming out on October 31, 2024. And those games are just as intense on hardware as it is with inZOI.

Minimum and RECOMMENDED requirements for Dragon Age 4 "The Veilguard"

Me, personally... I want to play Cities Skylines 2 and Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 Recommended requirements for those two games. Cities Skylines 2

As for MSFS 2024 (due to come out in 2024?)

It's over and above what is pictured in MSFS2020. Chillblast said that the "recommended specs" for FS2024 is the following:

Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 PC Recommended Requirements

OS: Windows 10

Processor: Intel i5-8400 | AMD Ryzen 5 1500X

Memory: 16 GB RAM

Graphics: NVIDIA GTX 970 | AMD Radeon RX 590

Storage: 150 GB available space

I'm calling HORSESHIT on that right now. I'm saying it's more in the realm of what inZOI and Dragon Age the Veilguard is putting out. You don't get that kind of gaming experience with the specs Chillblast espouses. Especially on the processor and graphics end of things. After all, on the FS forum board, the recommended specs being tossed about just for FS2020 is the following:

Intel i7-12700K CPU

Z690 motherboard

32GB DDR4 3600mhz RAM (upgrades for this on the site are very cheap, but like you said I’ve seen a couple instances where this RAM outperforms most others)

1TB SSD

Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti

Liquid cooled, nice case, 850 watt power supply, etc

Frankly as far as I'm concerned, I'm tempted to go all out and perhaps go so far as investing in:

i9-13900K CPU

64GB RAM DDR4

4TB SSD

NVidia RTX 4090

Z790 GAMING X AX

at least a 1000watt power supply so that I can run peripherals like scanners and other photographic requirements...on top of just my gaming shit.

...at minimum.

I'm sure there will be detractors going, "You don't need that kind of hardware to play Sims 3...or the current games"...well, the main thing in building a system is that you have to shell out for future proofing (as much as technology development allows at any given time) so that you don't have to spend as much money upgrading your computer system on an yearly basis as opposed to once every three to five years and that Sims 3 is not the only game that I play. And the new releases coming out are that graphics-intensive...

I play SWTOR currently and I'm finding that the game stutters especially when there is a lot of people on a server. I want to minimize that so I'm thinking the more RAM I have and the better the video card, I'll get a little less lag out of it and that will help when I'm taking on Imp or Pub forces whichever side I'm playing against at the time. That and maybe improved graphics to the point where it looks semi-realistic. I'm also planning to get Dragon Age 1-3 and then Dragon Age 4 as well. Plus there are a few other graphics intensive games such as Digital Combat Simulator World (DCS: World) as well that are attracting my attention. I may even get into Call of Duty (depending on the feasibility of the user controls.

Mass Effect drives me absolutely friggin' nuts when it comes to controlling my character Shepard - she's a "femShep". I have to key-bind my movement keys to keys that I'm familiar with in order to keep from going bug-frickin' mental. That also messes with the shoot key too. I'll get there someday. In the words of the ever-immortal Maverick Mitchell:

So in a nutshell, these latest games if not forcing people to upgrade to a better class of gaming PC, will find that a lot of people with restrictive budgets may just drop out of the PC market and try to find it on console (if they play console games) no matter how restrictive the console games are in comparison to the PC versions as opposed to spending $4000 on a new gaming system. A standard PS5 is $499.95 CDN as opposed to spending 10X that much trying to set up a PC to be able to play these newer games. Add a couple hundred dollars buying a hard-drive for these consoles will maybe bring that amount to around $600.00 still much cheaper than buying a whole new PC. Dragon Age the Veilguard will only be released for PS5 and PC - No plans in the works for XBOX Series X as far as I know. And for now, inZOI is PC release only (with an intent to release to console later on down the road - though who knows when that will be) Why though am I looking at a new PC on a restrictive budget? Well, it's because I want to play the games in their full graphics and be unrestricted and potentially moddable states. Does it mean I'm going to have to save a lot of money while waiting on a new PC? Yes. Do I have the patience to wait? Yes...I'm in my fifties, I've waited this long...might as well.

🤣

[thunderboltfire]

I had a need to destress at the end of the week, so I've decided to see whether or not I still can fly a dragon in Century: Age of Ashes. And because of the new season the matchmaking put me with newbies, so at least I've managed to feel good about my skills XD

Anyway, it's still a fun game! The monetisation is pretty obnoxious, but it's F2P so It could be expected. The thing I really love in this game are the dragon animations and how organic the flight simulation is. I've also managed to get a few pretty dragons two years ago, before they've introduced the battle pass. Hence, a pretty dragons tax:

When it comes to playing Marauder, my dragon of choice is Valkür Ridges, followed closely by Smoldering Sands, which was the first dragon I've hatched from an egg.

I have a very limited choice of Ironwings, their drops don't like me too much XD but I was able to get the gamer dragon Rayless Depths. Its colors clash terribly with base Windguard skin, but I like its bioluminescent markings and sleek, dark coloring.

I play as Phantom only if I must, but surprisingly I have a few Nightsnaggers too. Their design is a little pointy for my taste, but out of all I have I think I like the Manorc'h Pasturages the best. Its butterfly-like pattern on its wings is pretty compelling and matches the muted body color nicely.

I think I've only played the Stormraiser one or two times, but I happened to have a battlepass when the class was first introduced, so I've collected a few extra dragons. The Stonesnouts' design is IMO the most ostentatiously based on HTTYD (the whole game has a very evident footprint in the very concept of it and in the gear aestetics), and my fave from my nesting ground would probably be Radkron the Thunderborn.

[coravanlincolnius]

About me: Im Cora, 22 years of age (untill 26 nov) and @leogoth21 is my bestie. Im a very small Flight Simulation streamer found on: www.twitch.tv/coravanlincolnius Im autistic and transgender, My favorite hobbies are gaming obviously and reading manga (thanks Leo :P) My favorite games (/sims before half the community goes after me) are SimRail (although very burnt out from it) MicroSoft Flight Simulator, TSW5 and Farming Simulator 22. I will usually talk about anything thats directly on my mind so please expect that i might be on a string of vents or a string of positive venting. Or appreciating my best friend @leogoth21! Also sorry if i suddenly stop replying to DM's, I struggle alot with extreme varying social energy. I have my periods where i only want to be disturbed by my closest circle of people. Sorry in advance <3

So yeah thats me! The screenshot attached was taken flying from Portugal to Canada somewhere above the north atlantic probably. Also does anyone else sort their MSFS screenshots on plane/flight? Or is that just me being silly?

[horatio-fig]

Seeing as it’s Disability Pride Month and I’ve been having a pretty rough time lately I thought I would share some pictures of what my life is like to see if I can feel less ashamed. I tend to hide my disorder because I’m worried people will judge me, but I wanna try sharing for a while.

My brain doesn’t always process feelings in a safe way. The Logical part of my brain and the Emotional part of my brain don’t communicate very well and so I’m more likely to jump to the worst case scenario (and in every scenario I believe everything is my fault) and make an impulsive dangerous decision based on that.

So, I have to live with constant distractions and safe things to keep me safe and calm me down when the bad thoughts start, here’s what some of that looks like.

This is my floor time blanket. I’m safer on the floor, it’s easier for me to lie down and wrap myself in a safety burrito if I need to and it’s harder for me to get up and do something dangerous.

These are my distraction games. We discovered it helps me to get lost in a large immersive open world games (Skyrim survival mode is the most helpful, but anything Star Wars is also great)

Speaking of Star Wars, luckily something about the world of Star Wars creates a pleasant feeling in my brain, so when in need I can always hang out with my best friends.

These are what we call “safety snacks”. If I start to spiral then a sharp flavour can sometimes shock me out of it. This is anything sour, vinegary or spicy.

(It’s gonna get a little bit dark now and I’m gonna mention suicide)

This is the view I have of the city. I love living here and it helps sometimes to rest my head on the glass and remember all the things I still have to experience before I die. Sadly, the door is always locked and I’m not allowed out there unsupervised for obvious reasons.

I also have a view of the river, the bridges, and that little gap in the fence I know a person can fit through, which as you can imagine can be a bit of a problem. This is a bowl of cold water I always have on hand. In extreme situations I need to hold my head under freezing cold water for at least 30 seconds with no breaks. Suicide attempts are usually brought on by extreme adrenaline rush that triggers my fight or flight. If I simulate drowning it can trick my body into thinking we have acted on this and bring my adrenaline down.

I don’t really tell people about this because when I do the reaction is very “Oh you just get to play video games and eat snacks all day, must be nice 🙄”. And yes, under some circumstances that is nice, but a lot of the time I am doing this under very very unpleasnt circumstances. I don’t live like this all the time, this is only when it’s a must.

I’m not sharing this for sympathy or clout, I just don’t think masking and hiding this part of me is very healthy and I thought maybe during Disability Pride people would be a little more open to this sort of stuff. I’m not really allowed to leave the apartment unsupervised and I don’t get much human interaction. It feels a bit like a prison at times and I’m tired of feeling so alone in all this. (Don’t feel sorry for me! It’ll just make it worse. Just tell me I’m a stinky a lil guy and drop a game recommendation or something)

Any way thank you for listening, this was really more for myself than anything and I already feel a bit lighter 🥰 Be safe out there x

Here’s the T-shirt I made after I got diagnosed.

Coz even tho I’m ill, I’m still just a silly little guy x

[transhuman-priestess]

would you happen to have a flight sim recommendation? Ive seen you post about using them and wondered which one you thought would be best

Depends what you're looking for.

The two big players are Microsoft Flight Simulator and X-Plane.

MSFS is very pretty, it has some decent tutorials built-in, and there's a huge array of content for it, but, at least on my computer, it runs somewhat unstably. It's also very accessible, bordering on hand-holding, which can be good if you're new to flight sims but can also get very old very quickly once you know what you're doing. It's also designed for a gamepad primarily, and you can play it on Xbox. I think its a a little over-designed actually. There's a ton of aftermarket planes available, mostly thru the in-game browser. There might be freeware, i haven't really looked into it.

X-Plane is less pretty, the graphics are maybe a tiny bit more dated, you don't get the photorealistic scenery, but the flight dynamics are much, much more realistic. The difference is hard to explain succinctly but the long and short of it is that, on average, a well designed aircraft for X-Plane will feel "more real" than one in MSFS. X-Plane is also usable on Windows, Mac, and Linux. There's a lot of aftermarket content for it, but less than MSFS, although last i checked there's a larger portion of freeware. It's also a little more persnickty vis-a-vis installation and management. X-Plane also comes with a utility to help you make airplanes for it, though you have to provide the 3D modeling software (like blender) yourself.

Overally, it really boils down to what you want in your flight simulator

MSFS

Pros:

Photorealistic Scenery

Wide variety of assistance

Highly accessible tutorials

Lots of aftermarket content

Available on Windows and Xbox

Cons:

Less realistic flight dynamics

Pretty graphics means higher system requirements

Can be overbearing if you're experienced with flight sims

Designed for a gamepad first and foremost, feels somewhat awkward with the old fashioned joystick, mouse, and keyboard

X-Plane

Pros:

More realistic Flight Dynamics

Built-in plane maker utility

Runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac

Slightly more generous system requirements

Takes up waaaaaaaaaay less space (my install, which has a shitload of aftermarket content in it, takes up 30gb less than my vanilla MSFS install)

Great if you're familiar with flight sims or flying in general

Cons:

Finicky installation and content management compared to MSFS. If you're used to digging in folders and installing mods that way, you won't have any trouble with it, but if you're not experienced with that its got a bit of a learning curve (and you should learn that! it's a great skill!)

Scenery is more generic than MSFS, particularly outside of major cities

Requires a computer, not available on PS5 or Xbox (Imo this is a pro, not a con, but if you don't have a gaming computer its obviously a problem)

Less aftermarket content available

Requires a bit of manual configuration to get going right

Fewer tutorials

Now, I understand it sounds like MSFS is "better" but i really feel that X-Plane is the better choice if you're going to get seriously into this stuff. That being said, i have both, and I play both, but I play X-Plane a whole lot more. If you're brand-new at flight simming, i'd recommend getting MSFS, but don't splurge for the super-deluxe editions. If you've simmed before, i can't recommend X-Plane enough.

TL;DR: MSFS is good for beginners, X-Plane is better for anyone beyond beginner level.

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 6/13/2023

very games-centric week

listening

this opening bit samples bowie's life on mars and sounds like a piano cover of a half-remembered but still beloved childhood anime. like the kind you had a set of two VHS clamshells for but only episodes 4-6 and 10-12. it goes on the "lofi beats to data and entry to" playlist. spotify

-

reading

fallow week

-

watching

the folks at waypoint games, formerly vice's leftist games vertical, BOUGHT THE BRAND FROM VICE and are rebranding as remap. i wish them all the fuckin best and i hope they succeed but i feel like we have maybe six months of this before one of them goes literally bankrupt from a doctor's visit bc healthcare is such a fuckin nightmare in this country. im simply not excited for starfield. i am not interested in corporate nasa

anyway i enjoyed their commentary, excited for compulsion games' southern gothic action/adventure spellcaster South of Midnight

neutrally optimistic about obsidian's Avowed, bc i do love obsidian but i do not love sword and sorcery rpgs

there's airships in microsoft flight simulator so i may genuinely buy one month of gamepass to try that out

capcom's path of the goddess looks fucking gorgeous but i have never played more than half an hour of a capcom game and i expect i never will. is this topdown? is this isometric? what the fuck is the gameplay mode??? who could FUCKING say

also there's a new jersey fallout 76 expansion coming at some point. in real life i hate atlantic city and i don't really how know this will look or play differently from point lookout. i don't know if i want to play a much-reviled cash cow mmorpg just to get postapoc jersey lore. if this leads up to 5 being set in nyc im going to be real pissed off. go somewhere DIFFERENT. there are DIFFERENT PLACES on the east coast!!! blease

-

playing

viddy game can consistently turn my brain off enough that i forget im moving cross country in two weeks and can forcibly relax my body for twenty mintues at a time between packing boxes. so there's been a lot of pomodoro-ing, or my version which is: pack until i get so anxious i physically cannot pack anymore, go have a snack, go play twenty minutes of a video game, and then go pack until i am on the verge of a panic attack again. this is not healthy but all my books are packed. all of these were free on epic at some point btw which is why i own them

the first time i played Airborne Kingdom, i lost track of time and beat it in one sitting in eight hours. the second time i played Airship Kingdom, i replicated that exact experience. i have allied with all the kingdoms and have like two hundred souls on board but am not QUITE selfsufficient enough to take on the northern/artic sea DLC. stay tuned. soundtrack in this thing is great.

bounced VERY hard off Close to the Sun, a bioshock-lite i put about four hours/three levels into. a huge gilded age cruise ship where the science has Gone Wrong would normally be catnip to me, but the game did brutally kill the player character's sister in front of me in an unskippable cutscene so we're done with that game now THANK YOU. it is very slow, which i do like in a game that gives you this much stuff to look at, but there is no gamma control. this game is so fucking dark. i played it in a dark room with no lights and it was still too dark.

pinged off the typing exploration game Epistory despite its charming art, bc fast and accurate typing is something covid has taken from me.

rediscovered Carcassone (online) which is great bc i love Carcassone and own a physical copy of the board game but no one else in my life loves it. tile-building countryside-building game, seconds to learn, etc. thank you board game review even though there are no meeple in their natural habitat (the board) in this picture

-

making

it's gonna be putting things into boxes for the forseeable future (the next week) and then living out of them for a while (the next two weeks after that)

[the-least-undefinable-ordinal]

video game recs?

Most of these games are on steam and their devs will probably do a better job selling them to you, the only exception is Nethack, it's open source though.

I'll also include games that are fairly popular, just in case you hadn't heard of them or they just happened to fade into the background noise of all the popular releases at the time.

Battle Brothers: Turn based low medieval fantasy strategy game. It just feels good to play on a moment to moment basis, the writing is great, if a bit misanthropic at times.

Darkest Dungeon: Turn based dungeon crawler with a setting heavily inspired by Lovecraft's original works. It explores the mental toll a life of dungeon delving would take, it doesn't have an explicit morality system but you end up making hard choices nonetheless.

Deep Rock Galactic: Co-op (up to) 4 player FPS where you're dwarves in space working for a laughably callous mining corporation. The game is great on its own but the devs stand out by being great to their players too (I don't think I've got the space to elaborate here though).

Disco Elysium: One of the best RPGs I've ever played, great writing, you play a drunk amnesiac detective who can plausibly get a heart attack from sitting in an uncomfortable chair.

Dredge: You have a fishing boat and you eventually start finding fish that were better left at the bottom of the ocean.

Dwarf Fortress: Masterwork of a game with a steep learning curve, a colony simulator where you manage dwarves. I went to war with two neighbouring civilization because (a) I have no distinction between police and army and (b) my army has very little understanding of the concept of "non-lethal force".

Euro Truck Simulator 2: Relaxing to play while listening to some albums, I've recently enjoyed David Bowie's first album.

FTL: Faster Than Light: Sci-fi roguelike with a wonderful combat system and great music. It's a really hard game though, I've got like 130 hours in it and like 4 victories (a good run is at most 2 hours long).

Hacknet: Puzzle game where you play a hacker, I love how the devs bothered to leave interesting files to go through in the computers you hack.

Hades: Roguelike with fun writing, pretty character designs and great voice acting.

Hollow Knight: Metroidvania with a gorgeous world to explore and a sublime soundtrack. I've heard it compared in atmosphere and world building to Dark Souls, which is great because my laptop starts to overheat in protest as soon as I start typing "Dark souls torrent " in my searchbar.

Kerbal Space Program: You are in charge of a space program, I'm currently doing small suborbital flights but I'll eventually have to send a rocket to the Mun (its in-game spelling). The physics are simulated in loving detail, the game includes a watered-down introduction to aerodynamics and orbital mechanics.

Nethack: An AD&D inspired roguelike that is older than I am, its systems are delightfully complex, it has ASCII graphics but you get used to them pretty quickly. My thesis advisor used to play this when he was my age.

[virtualpeople]

Get to know you: Sims Style

tagged by @goatskickin, thank you this was strangely relaxing :D

What's your favourite sims death? It's got to be the flight simulator in TS1. You ever been so sleepy you just drift right off into space? What about physically this time?

Alpha CC or Maxis Match? i guess semi-real? I've lost track of where the realism levels are at tbh. I love me some texture and shiny eyes is all I can specifically say, generally I just download whatever takes my fancy and hope for the best lmao

(now I'm just gonna derail this slightly to do my best grouchy old fucker impression and protest bitterly at the way the word alpha has come to be used to describe realistic CC, like arggghghghghg anything can have an alpha should you wish, why is this a thing >:( , ok grouch over)

Do you cheat your sims weight? Implying I ever play this game in a normal manner enough to have sims actually change weight from what they were originally created with in the first place

Do you move objects? Imagine playing sims 2 and not being able to move objects, truly a hellscape

Favourite mod? It's not exciting, but it's the SimBlender. Couldn't live (mode) without you, lil plant* fella.

*Other models are available

First Expansion/Game Pack/Stuff Pack? Here's a vague answer for you all: The first sims game I got was the TS1 complete collection, so technically it was all the sims 1 EPs. And then when I got TS2 I got about 8 EPs/SPs in one go off ebay, can't exactly remember which ones other than it didn't include Apartment Life or Seasons, so what came first was really a good 50% of the whole game

Slightly off topic but the only sims I've ever bought new was the IKEA stuff pack when it was on clearance. Enjoy your £3 for this entire series, EA ;)

Do you pronounce live mode like aLIVE or LIVing? LIVing, it's the mode where all the little computer people live :)

Who’s your favourite sim that you’ve made? Don't make me choose it could be so many of them ;-; Ok, maybe this guy. Or maybe this guy. Or maybe…

Have you made a simself? i tried a long long time ago but with very little resemblance. I have a very strange face that's hard to reproduce in <1000 polygons apparently.

Which is your favourite EA hair color? I'm quite fond of that slightly desaturated basegame brown shade, it's nice. Shame it's not really common in any of the more popular hair colour actions

Favourite EA hair? haircaesar, that short one that came with seasons. It's so… basic. So versatile. My beloved.

Favourite life stage? Adult. Elders second. I barely play any of the others tbh

Are you a builder or are you in it for the gameplay? I'd say technically for building, although it's more building characters and the world they live in. Gameplay does come into it, but more for letting sims play out storylines and interact with their world like in a soap opera way than the usual motives way of playing, if that makes sense - I'm constantly dishing out maxmotives because I had an idea of what I wanted to happen next but the sims would've otherwise been too grumpy lol

Are you a CC creator? As long as the title of CC creator doesn't expire after a couple of years of doing absolutely nothing (but definitely not retiring either) then yes

Do you have any Simblr friends or a Sim Squad? I have been here for so many years and yet I've never said much beyond a couple of sentences to anyone, let alone having an entire squad lmao. Not deliberately, I've just got a habit of sitting here and collecting dust vibing

Do you have any sims merch? no, I don't think I've even seen any sims merch irl actually

Do you have a YouTube for sims? no.

How has your “Sims style” changed throughout your years of playing? Many eons ago, back in the distant mists of time, I used to be able to churn out sims and buildings at a rapid rate all day long. Now I… can't. Am I getting more picky? Am I paying more attention to detail? Am I just getting old? Who knows

Who’s your favourite CC creator? Over all these years?? It wouldn't be fair to pick just one even if I could, there's so many people propping up my game and making it look nice :O

How long have you had Simblr? 4293 days apparently, that's a lot of days.

How do you edit your pictures? do I look like I know what editing is? These days I don't even crop my pictures, I just dump screenshots into a presized photoshop document and shunt them around a bit until the composition looks ok. At a push I'll boost the contrast/saturation a tiny bit, particularly if I've left low blue light mode on again and the colours look a bit odd

What expansion/gamepack is your favorite? TS1 - you know I think it might be superstar. I love how silly studio town is with all those fun things like the fashion runway and the film sets. The celebrity system is amusing too, and is a convenient way of making sims of famous people a bit less weird to have around as opposed to just having them as playables (imo anyway). Shoutout to makin' magic too though, still my favourite implementation of magic in the entire sims series

TS2 - Apartment life. The ability to build functional flats and having magic back (if in a slightly disappointing way compared to TS1)? Height-shiftable things? Nice.

I tag: YOU. (totally not a copout I mean it i love reading these things)

[l-1-z-a]

Lessons in Game Design, lecture by Will Wright [Recorded November 20, 2003]

Will Wright has become one of the most successful designers of interactive entertainment in the world. He began working on what would become SimCity—The City Simulator in 1985. Using a complex technique, he found a way to bring realistic simulations to desktop PCs. Previously simulations of this sort were only available to the military, scientists and academicians. However, using an easy to use graphic interface, the world of simulations opened up to consumers.

Wright co-founded Maxis (now part of Electronic Arts) with Jeff Braun in 1987. SimCity was released in 1989, and within a few months became a hit. The game has since won 24 domestic and international awards. With Fred Haslem, Wright co-designed SimEarth—The Living Planet in 1990, a simulation of a planet based on the Gaia theory of James Lovelock. In 1991, Wright and Justin McCormick designed SimAnt—The Electronic Ant Colony, a scientifically-accurate simulation of an ant colony. SimCity 2000, and SimCopter, a helicopter flight game, are also part of Wright's recent repertoire. SimCity 3000 Unlimited, the definitive version of 1999s best-selling game SimCity 3000, continued in the tradition. The long-awaited 4th generation, SimCity 4, was released in January 2003.

Taking computer entertainment to its most personal level, Wrights ground-breaking game The Sims, puts players in charge of the lives of a neighborhood of simulated people. Released in February of 2000, this wildly popular title has become a cultural phenomenon, sold millions of copies worldwide, has received numerous Game of The Years accolades, and has become the best selling PC game of all time. The Sims has inspired several expansion packs including Livin Large, House Party, Hot Date, Vacation, Unleashed, and Superstar!

The Sims Online™ enables you to take your Sims to an online world where you get to be yourself or whoever you want to be. In this world you have your own piece of land to do with as you please. In this open-ended, online world, you choose your role, your attitude and your destiny.

In this lecture, recorded in November 2003, Wright discusses various aspects of game design, human interfaces, artificial intelligence, metrics, simulation and the future of gaming.

Catalog Number: 102703077

Lot Number: X4881.2009

[usafphantom2]

The day the Eagle underestimated Sea Harrier

The Sea Harrier was a tiny, slow and slightly armed curiosity at the time it entered service in 1978. But when confronted with the powerful F-15 Eagle, the most respected combat plane in the world, he proved that it was not a toy...

Giordani By Giordani 08/14/2021 - 10:00 in History, Military

Interview with Commander Nigel David "Sharkey" Ward, who successfully led the Sea Harrier to war in 1982.

In the modern era, air-to-air weapon systems beyond the visual range (Beyond Visual Range - BVR) reduced the likelihood of engaging enemy fighters in an eye-to-eye duel. But it is only during air combat fully within visual range that a pilot's handling skills and tactical awareness are tested to the fullest. Detailed knowledge of the maneuverability of an opposing aircraft and, in fact, the ability of the opposing pilot is essential to ensure victory, especially against a theoretically superior combat aircraft.

When aircraft of the same type and one on one are in combat, the most experienced pilot - in theory - must always win. But when two aircraft are fighting two aircraft, hunting tactics really come into play. It is not easy to explain in detail the intricacies of air combat, but, as in all forms of war, it is necessary to "know the enemy".

At the end of 1979, the Sea Harrier was the new boy in the room and fighter pilots everywhere were eager to know how capable he would be in combat. This led the USAF F-5E Attackers Squadron in Alconbury to invite my Test Unit to visit them for a mutual learning and evaluation air combat program. The result spread quickly throughout the community of hunters. In the end the score was 26 to 10 in our favor.

The head of an F-15 fighter unit stationed in Bitburg, West Germany called me and asked to come visit us with two of his superb aircraft for further combat evaluations. The result was 7 to 1 for us.

Detractors may have called this 'flash in the pan' (straw fire, in free translation - NT). But they would be wrong. In December 1981, I took my new squadron, the 801, to the Air Combat Maneuver Facility in Decimomannu, Cagliari, on the Italian island of Sardinia, to fight once again against the aggressors and the Bitburg Eagles. It was a privilege to share the skies with them once again and take advantage of their knowledge. We had flown with our Sea Harriers through France, coming from the United Kingdom, to participate in tri-national combat combat training against the best of the US and Italian Air Forces. It was an excellent training opportunity - although the Italian pilots never appeared in the air to fight (but they wore flashy flight suits).

For Squadron 801, the unique attraction of the detachment was the state-of-the-art range in which combat should be conducted. Each aircraft carried a special telemetry pod that was monitored and recorded in real time by sensor stations surrounding the combat area, which was over the sea.

The pod transmitted accurate information about the relative position of each aircraft, direction, speed, attitude, angle of attack, 'g' and height. This information was collected by powerful computers on the ground and resulted in a complete three-dimensional recording of each combat, which could be displayed on a large screen in the debriefing room - with freezing and repetition options available instantly - just like a video game. The real-time visualization of each cabin was available on demand and was very realistic. The simulated missile launch and the firing of weapons was precisely measured to establish whether a kill had been achieved, i.e. within range, acquired missiles, weapon tracking on the target, etc. Spurious allegations of 'deaths' would be summarily discounted and disputed allegations of success in combat could be judged fairly and accurately.

Critically, and during each outing interrogation, a pilot could see his tactical handling errors of the aircraft in any part of the combat and could learn from them as they were pointed out by experienced instructors. I was lucky enough to be one of them - an Air Warfare Instructor (AWI) fully qualified and trained by the elite crew of Naval Air Squadron 764 at Lossiemouth Naval Air Station in Scotland.

After getting used to the facilities, the business started for real against the F-15 and F-5E. Our small jet capable of vertical takeoff Sea Harrier more than endured against these two fighters that could fly faster and make much tighter turns. For the uninitiated, this should mean a unilateral dispute that we would always lose. But it wasn't like that.

All the pilots in my squadron approached the air combat detachment with a high level of confidence. Our previous successes against the F-5E and F-15 were not forgotten by our opponents. They treated us with a lot of respect on the ground and, most importantly, in the air. This proved to be a considerable advantage. The real-time recording of each engagement ensured that what had happened on the air was properly and correctly recognized later in the debrief.

The sequence of images were captured from the cockpit of a BAC Lightning and illustrates well what the pilots experienced. (Credits: http://www.lightning.org.uk/julaug05sotm.html)

Our pilots did very well, winning some and losing some. The icing on the cake for me came when I was programmed to fly alone against two F-15 and two F-5E on a 1v2v2 combat mission. I had the great advantage of having Desmond Hughes on the ground radar, my observer from the time of the Phantom, providing me with a continuous comment on the positions of the other four aircraft. It was a totally exciting fight that included a terrible almost frontal collision with one of the F-15.

In a brief skirmish with two F-15s, Desmond guided me to intercept them from the left side. They were in relatively close attack formation and didn't see me until I was running in their beam at 1,100 km/h. They were less than a thousand meters away, crossing from right to left at about 800 km/h, when they saw me and decided to take an evasive action. Due to the need to save fuel, they could only use post-combustion and its supersonic capacity when involved in real combat maneuvers. But instead of bursting towards me and splitting up to give me two targets to face, which was what I expected, they decided to try to overtake me and deny a missile shot.

Two tried to run triggering full post-combustion, but it was too late. When I turned left right behind them, I simulated the launch of two Sidewinders in a very short range. “Fox Two! Fox Two! Splash two F-15’s”. Why they chose to run away instead of fighting, I don't know yet. It was probably the result of our previous meetings.

Seen through the HUD of the Sea Harrier that fired it, an AIM-9L Sidewinder missile heads to the target. The British claim to have destroyed 18 Argentine devices with the expenditure of 26 missiles. Although the AIM-9L is able to hit the target from the front, all the overturns were made from behind.

During that electrifying combat outing, I knocked down a total of seven opponents, between Eagles and Tigers, without any death against me.

Back on the ground and when we analyzed each fight on the screen in the debrief, my statements were totally justified. That was too much for one of the F-15 drivers who tried to say that everything was wrong. But the pilots of the Aggressor squad - blessed be his honesty - said that he had been defeated and that he should face it as a professional, as they did themselves.

My two young first-time pilots, Charlie Cantan and Steve Thomas, made remarkable progress during the detachment, finally understanding the tactical lessons we tried to teach them verbally, but without access to this digital technology.

In a fully developed hunting combat, a fraction of a second of delay in decision making is enough to make the difference between winning and losing your life. There are many nuances in this tactical thinking process. Anticipation, experience and knowledge of the abilities, intentions and future position of your opponent can only be acquired properly in the air.

This learning process usually takes a long time. As a result, during training at our base, I was able to 'overthrow' Charlie and/or Steve a minute after the start of the fight.

Our successes have shaken the world of fighters. We built a reputation that would have a great impact on the conduct of the air war in the Falklands just a few months later.

SOURCE: Hush-Kit

EDITOR'S NOTE: "You fight as you train"

Tags: Famous AircraftcuriositiesHawker-Siddeley Aviation/British Aerospace - Harrier/Sea HarrierHISTORYMcDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle

Giordani

Giordani

Graduated in Business Administration, he is also an Aircraft Mechanic, but does not exercise the profession. Simply in love with aviation. You know in depth the history of military aviation and how much it has influenced world geopolitics. "If you do not know the Past, you will never be able to understand the Future"

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[dykedragonrider]

Finished Crymachina and I am so sad that a game that a game with that compelling of characters is attached to the most 4/10 action game I have ever played. It's like if Nier Automata was for formerly religious lesbians. Like. The gameplay is incredibly shallow and there are some important mechanics (backstabs doing more damage being the biggest example imo) that really feel like they shoulda been telegraphed better, you can just one button through the entire game, the scaling is fucked for damage and ExP, there's a lot wrong with it on a pure systemic level. The level design is also bad but in a way that I think adds to the narrative so. I will let that one go. The characters and their relationships are the real meat of this game IMO and that's mostly what I wanna focus on. The game is about lesbians, and they're both tropey and have legitimate depth? The plot takes a backseat for the most part, which is fine. It's not a particularly strong plot but it's good enough where it counts to work for its purposes. I guess first on the agenda is looking at Leben and Enoa, our protagonists? While the story mostly follows Leben, Enoa is the character the game is most *about* in actuality.

Enoa runs the Imitation Garden, AKA Eden. It's the main hub for everything, and she acts as the caretaker of both it and the E.V.E., because it's also where she lives. Having been broken down twice, the game is about her reconstruction and recovery on two levels, and I do think this is something the game's use of the Kabbalah adds to. As you unlock the levels in game, the main "nodes" you access are all named for the different sefirot of the Tree Of Life. As Enoa develops, you progress the Kabbalah. I think the fact that the game's main ending cuts off at Hod does undermine its use a little, but the sefirot of Malkuth, Yesod, and Netzach are also used in ways postgame that are clever, so I'll let it slide. Enoa is deeply caring, putting everyone above herself. She is earnest, incredibly emotional, and seeks to transcend her machinehood. She routinely invalidates herself and her experiences, given the fact she isn't an authentic human, because she has so much love for humanity.

To contrast that, is Leben. The first E.V.E. we get to see, and to some degree our player surrogate, but that's a role passed around and abandoned as needed, she just plays it the most given how she introduces us to the game. Leben is grounded, prone to flights of fancy but then often backtracking them upon realizing the full consequences of her actions. She resents humanity, and adores machines. Notably, Leben, unlike the other E.V.E., wasn't actually born out of Enoa simulating humanity. Leben was, at one point, Propator, but she's also not that person any more.

It's kinda hard to sell the dynamics in this game because well, it's their execution that carries it, but I still wanna paint the best picture I can. Leben and Enoa's relationship is very much them being lovey dovey, partially because they're fresh to it (I don't subscribe to the honeymoon phase as an idea, I think they're just figuring stuff out somewhat still), and partially because they're aware of their circumstances and are living their lives to the fullest despite that. There's a lot of care for one another in it, and their dreams are shared and centered around mutual joy for each other. It's very much a love that's still finding its feet, but the feelings they have do a lot of the heavy lifting.

For starting the other pair, we have Mikoto. A bona fide badass who values her appearance incredibly strongly. Not in a physical or vein way necessarily, she just values being cool a lot. She loves film as a medium, and likes ribbing other people, as well as sardonic jokes. Mikoto also speaks with her actions rather than her words consistently. She doesn't like being emotionally honest in words, despite the fact she also wears her heart on her sleeve. To contrast, Ami is a sweetheart. She's very cute and flowery in all she does, and is completely devoted to her family of the other three girls, but especially Mikoto who she consistently states her adoration for. She's also axe crazy as hell and is represented as an oni in her battle attire. Gap moe out the ass, basically. Ami also has to be wanted. If she can't be useful, she feels like she has no purpose. This, notably, isn't tied to her being in a wheelchair in her past life, but tied to her relationship with her family. Feels like a bare minimum thing but it still feels important to mention.

Ami and Mikoto don't ever label their relationship, but it doesn't matter because what they are is clear enough, maybe a little less to Ami given some of her anxieties, but you can know very easily. They've shared their existences in all the ways that matter, and at that point a label is set dressing. They've promised to spend eternity and a day together. They're like an old couple in how they talk and interact with the pair of Leben and Enoa, and it's super sweet.

Typing this I realize that I can't find the words to say what I want to say about this as well as I want to, because there's just a lot that I feel is done not through being able to communicate it, but the experience of it? Either way, the point is it's good. I just wish that the good relationship dynamics we have weren't attached to a middling action game that only goes on sale for 10% off and costs $60.

[hikayeplays]

Steam Next Fest October 2023

Alright let's see as many Demos as possible!

1. Ocelot Sunrise

A nice roguelite bullet hell with various levels (only one playable in the demo) and a sci fi scavengers story and a comics/borderlandesque aesthetic that makes the cutscenes very nice to look at. The background music is a bop too. Alas the controller controls are not completely implemented yet and quite clunky to use in a mixed way, however the power ups and the weapons seems really fun to play with.

7.5/10

Wishlisted

2. ASTRA: Knights of Veda

On first impact a bread and butter jrpg with all the pros and cons of the genre like huge bazongas! Regardless of which category you consider them in. The artstyle in game and in battle is expecially nice with this sort of "dress-up paper doll" look that sets it somewhat apart and the cutscene style for the evil faction and the dream realm is quite good. The controls are nice and intuitive enough although it needs a mouse to click on certain things like equipment. The voice acting is good enough? I'd say but the audio levels mixing leaves to be desired in some parts. Now the cons: it required to make an account even to play the demo and it has an obligatory post download 8 gb of additional content, there are "daily reward" and buyable cosmetics but most aggravating of all (for me) there are minutes of cutscenes every 5 minutes or so of gameplay.

5/10

Not for me

3. Estate Agent Simulator

The first bugged demo. The second prompt for the italian tutorial popped up with this half baked and definitely not italian way and had to restart the game in english

The gameplay itself is fine? For a game like this? Certainly not particularly nice nor particularly bad but the camera bobbing is atrocious, it gave me nausea after I cleaned the first house, the game was also completely silent. I'll add a +1 for the promise of a pettable dog

4/10

4. Lose CTRL

A surreal satirical you rage you lose puzzle game in which you play as Billy as he tries to climb the corporate ladder to reach a segway. The game mess with your controls and your mind in a mix between Get Over It and Brazil (1985). The split screen capabilities intrigue me although I wonder how it could work with keyboard and mouse controls. The general style is charming and distinctive but also amateurish and rough around the edges. To try, at least once.

7/10

Wishlisted

5. Leila

Leila is a chill and relaxing kinda lofi click and drag puzzle game that goes back the memory lane in a coming of age(?) Tale for a middle aged woman, the titular Leila. The puzzles shown have a nice variety between styles and difficulties, and they are certainly meant for someone looking to lubricate those neurons. The art and the background music are pretty nice and the voice acting is quite good too. If you like click and drag puzzles I feel that wishlisting this one (and always trying the demo before) maybe one of your best bets so far.

8/10

6. Tales from the Dancing Moon

An old-school-ish rpg inspired by runescape in which you run around doing errands for the townsfolk and at the same time try to unravel the mistery of your memory loss, the presence of a smartphone that you can use to take photos in game gives it a mild isekai flavour but not too strong based on what I've seen. The controls appear fluid enough and the sound design while not spectacular does it's job. The character creation menu is surprisingly in-depth for this kind of games.

6.5/10

Runescape wannabe

7. There's Always a Madman: Fight or Flight

A text based spy adventure in which you play as this super special agent and have to choose between different options both in action and dialogue. While the story itself seems nice the absence of any voice action or any background image besides some solid background color makes the experience hoverwelmingly boring as you are left to click repeatedly thru text.

3/10

I yawned

8. Rocket!

A mix between a shoot them up and a roguelite bullet hell heavily inspired by galaga and the classics. While the concept is nice and seems intriguing enough and I don't doubt it may end up garnering quite the cult following like many other niche games the controls are exceedingly hard and finicky, the spaceship appear to drift incontrollably with no apparent rhyme or reason.

4/10

9. Aureole: Wings of Hope

An incredibly fun and novelty platformer/dasher game where you follow the tale of two angels while you speed and dash and jump at full force thru obstacles in the shape of a bouncy halo. The mechanics are surprisingly simple and incredibly flexible at the same time, creating a gameplay that can be adjusted to your own needs, I appreciated particularly the ability to "freeze" while you charge a jump or a dash. Despite not being a platformer lover I absolutely adored this little demo to bits, so far the only that has left me truly wanting more.

9/10

Wishlisted