#bullshit levels of difficulty after a few levels

[bigprettygothgf]

anyway i beat the elden ring dlc a few days ago (started lvl 100 and eventually capped at 150 and 18 scadutree blessing by the end) and my final verdict is that its fucking incredible, i cant say its a 10/10 bc theres still some frankly inexcusable bullshit (5+ reused dragon fights including a new all time worst, final boss phase 2 performance impact, npc gank fight*) but literally everything else is fucking stellar. the map is one of the best designed world maps ive ever seen in a game and going through the individual segments really recaptured the feeling of opening up lordran for the first time in ds1. as for that thing everyones talking about - im sorry to use the SI words but to be blunt all the complaints about the dlc's difficulty have entirely been a skill issue lol. yes its hard but fromsoft dlcs are always hard and given how difficult elden ring already was what else were people expecting? the expansion literally gives you its own self contained leveling mechanic. use it.

yet more camera issues aside most of the new bosses are amazing - special shoutout to messmer, the dancing lion, bayle once i switched to a longer range weapon, metyr, and maybe midra. negative shoutouts to the golden hippo and commander gayass for their ds2 hitboxes but they are comically weak to fire and i was using the new anvil weapon on them so they died in like 10 hits lol. rellana was also fucking annoying but i have a feeling ill figure her out when i get to rl1. of course the elephant in the room is the final boss and my thoughts on him are uh. well i dont know. i love the first phase but dear god they really went overboard with the onscreen effects in phase 2 and i dont think he would even be half as difficult if you could actually see wtf hes doing. the hair does not help. lorewise no one would actually be confused why hes there if they actually did the npc quests but its a fromsoft game so admittedly i cant really blame people for missing those. but still. my final thoughts are that his design decisions are highly questionable but after beating him i got that good sense of accomplishment instead of "thank fuckign christ thats over" so thats a good sign. i dont feel like going into more plot stuff rn but i think it did a mostly (but not entirely) satisfactory job answering questions i had about the base games (very messy) story. prepare to see some really bad takes about miquella lol

anyway yeah its fantastic. literally the size of an entire souls game on its own. well worth the purchase. play it

*yes i know the game really wants you to summon for it but i simply refuse to use summons and there is 0 excuse for how those npcs behave together in a 3v1. fucking eat me from behind leda.

[nia-academia]

How to Choose a Stream?

With boards ending, a lot of you guys are wondering what stream you should choose, and a few people have hmu in my dms asking for advice, so i figured I'd make a post about how I suggest choosing a stream. Fair warning, I am a PCMB student so my advice will be a little science-stream focused because, obviously, I don't know what problems other streams might face, so additions are welcome from other people who have more to add <3

First off, this is one of the most important decisions of your life. This decision determines what the next two years of your life will look like, and it plays a strong role in determining your career for the rest of your life. So don't make this choice lightly.

Make an informed decision. I cannot stress upon this enough- do. your. own. research. Don't trust people who say there is no job opportunity in abc stream or that xyz stream will make your 'life set', all of it is bullshit. Half the time the people giving you these advices finished their schooling 20-30 years ago, respectfully- they have no idea what they're talking about. So sure, listen to everyone's inputs but check everything for yourself.

Websites are your best friend. And no, not "Top 7 High Salary Careers' type websites, I mean college websites. The best way to choose your stream is to explore various careers. For this, start with exploring the type of courses and degrees available, then head to the college's websites and check out the curriculum, the eligibility and the entrance exam requirements. Of course you don't have to choose a degree from now itself, in fact even if you have chosen something 9 times out of 10 you will change your mind by the time 12th ends, but knowing what options there are other than NEET, JEE, CUET and stuff will help you understand if you're more inclined towards science, commerce or humanities.

Subjects change after 10th, for example- what you think physics is and what 11th-12th physics is are two completely different things, so if you are more inclined towards a particular stream, go through the books. Either borrow from your seniors or go through the free NCERT pdfs (ncerts are the easiest versions of science subjects, at least, so your actual material will be 1-2 levels higher in difficulty, keep that in mind). Going through the material is not that efficient because everything seems easy at first glance but it still gives a general idea about the type of stuff you will learn so whatever piques your interest most should be a good choice to consider. I would suggest going through the books of all the streams if you have time, that way you can check which is the best fit for you. (Also go through multiple chapters, not just the first few ones)

Work on attraction rather than elimination. Dismissing a stream just because you don't like one subject in it is not a good way to go about it. Choose the stream which has a majority of subjects you do like, rather than choosing one which has the least number of subjects you don't like. Overall the purpose of a stream in 11th-12th is to get you into your desired course in college, so your biggest indication of stream will be the degrees you like, not the subjects you don't like.

Remember to prioritize yourself and your choices, trust yourself. People might have all sorts of opinions about what stream you should take and what career you should pursue. Of course some people have your best interests in mind, but ultimately it is you who has to go through with it. Being pushed into making certain choices is really harmful because there is absolutely no motivation to keep going once it gets hard (and it will). So it is best to choose your own poison so that when times get hard you know that this is something you actually really want and that way you will genuinely feel like working for it, rather than being forced to work hard for something you aren't even sure you want to do.

Don't stress too much. I know I said this is a super important decision, and it is, but it is not life ending. You can only do so much and there is no guarantee whether what you choose today will work out for you two years down the line. And that's okay. Remember that there is always an option to change plans, no matter how far along you are. So don't bind yourself to the choice you make today, you always have more options. Try your best to choose what feels right for you, and if situations change later in life, so can your plans.

If you don't know what exactly you want to do with your life, stop blaming yourself for it. I promise 90% of us had no idea what we were doing when we were your age either, even if we thought we knew what we wanted, we didn't. It's okay to not know what you want to do for the rest of your life when you're 15 or 16. Trust your gut and try your best to be informed about the stream you're choosing. As you go along, you will find your calling when the time is right. It's never too late, you'll be fine

lots of love to everyone starting on this really tedious path, the next two years will teach you a lot about yourselves and I hope you all make the best of it, all the best <3

[narwhalandchill]

anyway. actually somewhat invested in hsr endgame again thanks to feixiao Personally for being so strong And fun so. convoluted gamer ramble time uwu

bc i in fact went and Actually cleared the current apocalyptic shadow with her after procrastinating on the 4th stage bc shit just didnt look worth the wonky strategizing and several retries itd likely take me for a clear at all with all the multi target bullshit happening w both kafkas summon thing and the other one (forgor the name rip) when i had none of the recent weakness ignoring/implanting 5* carries that could shrug it off no problem. so i had just done the 3rd difficulty when the mode refreshed and p much left it there to wait for 2.5

BUT shes here so!!! wahoo. apocalyptic shadow hater era temporarily retired lets see what my girl can do 😤😤

first tries were before today so obviously no robin yet but i got a very good very nice very easy feixiao moment first side clear anyway looking like this

like. very much a nice scrumptious comfy clear we love to see it and a score perfectly capable of carrying a weaker 2nd half clear as long as i got that clear

......buuut as you can see. from the score. on the 2nd scuffed team that id like to call the certified "omg so sorry for not pulling firefly" cope gang. Yeah about that. Clear. i needed. just a successful clear so feixiao side could carry me to the 3* . Wasnt happening actually 💀

bc like. i wasnt even killing the boss before it merked someone (usually himeko or gallagher) and by that point it just fell thru 😭😭 always got thru its 1st phase fine enough but the 2nd just wasnt working out despite several retries where it just played out the exact same every time . so i let it be for a few days kinda thinking i just wouldnt bother w the third star bc at least i got most of the jades there

buuuut. Robin today so i wanted to go try the same 1st half clear with her too (it was a massacre. feixiao can literally get a total of 4 ults during robins ult if u break kafka before the uptime ends bc broken boss = free max flying aureus stacks 💀💀💀 when she can store 12 total) so i was kinda like. fuck it lets TRY to clear that 2nd side too at least try to stay alive and see what i can do bc. the team still felt like i had the right idea going and super break is supposed to be the hsr hyperbloom for content like this anyway . Surely i can figure it out

like firstly i finally put my gallagher on the 2p fire break planars over just usual keel id been using since it was becoming clear that the team as a whole just needed more super break dmg. and same for himeko (i actually had forgor her on sigonia for PF so that was embarrassing) with a break rope + fire orb with crit and speed

.....buuut it still wasnt working out :/// oh well

and like im p much assuming its literally just a gear issue of not actually having enough of a break hybrid build going on for himeko for the clear to work out smoothly at this point (bc himeko break 100% should suffice for this stage. i think mines too slow mostly) so i. went back to the drawing board aka stealing ideas from the one (1) even slightly worthwhile user-generated content category on hoyolab aka lineup assistant and a particular team just. Jumped out at me from there as having potential and well. only had to kick out himeko for none other than the recently e6'd dashing xianzhou swordplay apprentice from the express who beloved by all and i.

Holy shit

im so sorry for my feeble ignorance miss march i wasnt aware of your insane break meta game 😭😭😭😭🙏🙏💕💕💕

Like. on some level yes i Knew her kit had a more break oriented side to it . And that she did some crazy weakness dmg with her fully stacked enhanced basic. but holy fucking shit her and making gallagher shifu just. Slay

like the team lineup on hoyolab i stole for this idea had an E6 gallagher. and a fully farmed 4p iron cavalry for march w insane total BE AND crit. like just v strong investment going on. Whereas i literally just slapped the break rope and fire (yes) orb id attempted on himeko on march and STILL watched her and my feeble e2 gallagher w just 2p 2p BE absolutely obliterate the 2nd half on first try like 😭😭😭😭 thank you march best girl with the cutest design truly the savior of ALL firefly skippers......

[coldgoldlazarus]

I guess that's the other reason I decided to stop, with Arknights. The whole Games As Service endless grind was bad enough, the "you can't ever fall off/take a break because you'll never be able to catch back up" was worse, but it also just didn't help any that the handling of the difficulty curve was also going in a direction I didn't care for.

I liked the moderately challenging stages, where there was enough of a strategic requirement that you couldn't just plunk down any ol' operator anywhere and win guaranteed, but there was still the freedom to try to figure out your own strategies using your personal roster, and with some trial and error of a few failed attempts, find a way to best utilize nearly any combination to beat it. (And usually with juuust enough breathing room to recover if you made a fumble midstage.) Those All Three Star guides were great for a reason after all.

But it really felt like, after a while, the difficulty reached a point where it really stopped being fun, and was oriented solely to like, the sweaty crowd. CC was the worst about this, and thankfully at least optional, but I could still feel some of that design philosophy in a lot of Chapter 6 and certain events, too.

There was no longer that same sort of freedom, now it's like, your options are either: (have and) bring an extremely specific combination of lesser characters/archetypes; or just (have and) bring or borrow Surtr or Holungday. And no matter which option gets chosen, the timings are so tight and the required strategy so precise that even the slightest fumble or mistiming could completely tank an attempt, leading in to upwards of fifty tries before finally lucking into a win, and by that point feeling so frustrated that it smothers any hint of satisfaction in the crib. Basically, no longer able to meaningfully choose your team, and all but required to either cheese or use a guide or both on the strategy front. Plus, for the events, a time limit to work with.

And yeah I know that sort of extremely technical execution-based gameplay is fun for some people, but for me it really isn't. That stuff was just a waste of time, energy, and cognitive power that left me too spent to be able to focus on the story cutscene rewards afterward.

And like, borrowing a Silverash or Eyja was a thing from pretty early on, but I still feel like there was a point where those aforementioned Three Star guides having to break up the theme with the addition of an OP six star went from like, an infrequent thing for mainly challenge mode stages, to happening with every single event boss on the normal mode stages, along with a few non-boss ones as well.

Yes, you control the buttons you press, you don't have to level or use the OP ops, but it shouldn't feel like the game is punishing you for making that choice. Or for just not having (and leveling) a specific operator or archetype in the first place. Or for being a late joiner, or being an early joiner like me but taking a few hiatuses from the game. At that point, is it really a choice?

I loved the game for being enjoyably challenging, when it was actually being a challenge. I hated CC for being just actual bullshit, and I could feel the bullshit spreading elsewhere as things went on. The fun came of figuring out what could be done with what I had, rather than from having to find a guide on what needed to be done and execute its instructions perfectly. Along with having to hope a friend would have an E2 Level 90 Ifrit for me to borrow.

Basically, I loved Arknights, but I don't think it loved me, because I feel like the devs always meant it to be a diffent kind of game than the one I was first enjoying. And that's a real shame, honestly.

[arcplaysgames]

DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY, TIME TO BEAT SOME ASS

Magatsu Inaba is by far the best dungeon. The best ambient music for sure, and also just annoying in interesting ways. Adachi has a lot more control over the place than previous folks did, which leads up nicely to the revelation about him that we all saw coming.

There's a point where he's like "let's play a game! get thru this level without getting in any fights!" and it was so fucking irritating, i got booted out of his world twice trying, and like... that's a fun trick, to have the mechanics of a place be more hostile so you dislike Adachi even more. Also, the level where you have to follow the spiral all the way to the middle, passing or fighting about 8 shadows? goddamn fucking bullshit. I hate Adachi, he's amazing.

WHEN I TELL YOU I LAUGHED OUT LOUD

OH GOD I FIGURED IT OUT he's like dime store Handsome Jack. he doesn't nearly have the swagger, but because that swag is not so Off The Chart Bonkers like Handsome Jack, he seems like less of a poser than Jack? So it actually works really well. Adachi is just enough of a total bitch that he can still back it up. He's a delightful villain!

Like literally if you removed the tacked-on stupid sexism (WHICH WEIRDLY? THEY DO? IT DOESN'T COME UP AGAIN REALLY AFTER HIS INITIAL REVEAL) he's a top five villain. Huge fan of this odious little bastardman.

B R U H

Adachi, I love you, you're such a shit

Which, I am cackling, but narratively, he works phenomenally well for his position in opposition to the seekers of truth. Oh yeah sure he's the killer, but also he is going to drop some hard fucking realities on your plate while he's at it. Yeah, many cops are bullies who go into the force to get access to power. Yeah, the public will be angry at the revelation that Namatame isn't the killer. People want specific truths to become reality, and that is what has fueled the Midnight Channel all this time.

HE'S GREAT. TEN OUTTA TEN. Well, nine. The weird "bitches and whores" thing was so odd, glad they left it behind now.

As far as dumbass Assimilation Plots go, this one is better than most.

Okay so I seriously way overleveled for this game's difficulty, but even so I love the Adachi fight. After seeing everyone's Shadows as these huge weird unleashed id-creatures, going into combat against just a guy, that was really way more effective and menacing. Also his idle animations are great. Adachi will stare at whoever is up next and every few seconds he just has a hysterical laughing fit behind his hand. It's AMAZING, he's so creepy and cracked.

Also as I expected, this bitch got a Persona. Which makes sense! He has faced his inner self and his reward is a Persona, which seems to be the Magatsu Izanagi that was hinted at in his maxed-out SLink I glimpsed in the other ending.

So not only does he have Reverie's power, not old is he a Wild Card, he also has the same persona but Disaster-flavored.

Sadly he's really not a difficult fight. I would have killed to have an Adachi with multiple persona, but that would necessitate questions about him and the Velvet Room, blah blah.

ANYWAY HE'S GREAT.

pats Adachi on the head as condescendingly as i possibly can

OH BUT LEST YOU WORRY THAT YOU'D GET THROUGH A PERSONA GAME WITHOUT A BIG NIGHTMARE EYEBALL BOSS, WE AIN'T DONE YET

[game-boy-pocket]

Well I woke up and after a little bit of rest, I finally managed to beat that final boss. It only took a few more tries, and I learned that you can damage him using a few of the Emerald Powers, but you can only get in maybe two hits, three if you're very lucky.

I still maintain this boss is a bullshit difficulty spike. And for some reason, I frequently had problems where my rings would just fall through the floor, or even stranger, instead of being able to pick them up, they would just bounce off of me.

The boss wasn't even particularly interesting or different either, there was no creative spin unless you count an animation that happens between phases and even that would be a stretch.

I also learned the hard way that ending isn't different if you have all the Emeralds, meaning I beat him, endured some very long credits, made sure to get the last emerald I needed, and then challenged the final level and final boss again, with no difference.

It did unlock a new mode in the game. Seems to be an homage to playing as Knuckles in Sonic 3, where the game is a fair bit harder, the routes are a little different, and the bosses have new tricks. So it looks like I have more game left, but I think i'm gonna hold off until another month to finish up.

I bought the Switch version, and it playd fine, except when I had speed shoes. Then the framerate tanked. Also a few textures were pretty blurry. But I don't care. I maybe should have gotten it on Steam, but I wanted a physical release.

This sounds like a lot of negative but make no mistake, this is a really fun Sonic game. Some people are saying it's not as good as Mania, and maybe they're right, but I dunno, I like this a lot more than Mania just by virtue of it being a fully original game instead of a series of throwback levels and remakes of levels... there's musical throwbacks to be sure. But nothing too obnoxious... I just wish this wasn't another case of Jun Sunuoe trying too hard to sound like Sega Genesis and only ever getting the drums right.

This is the first Sonic game in a long time to actually feel like a game with a focus on platforming. And that's what I've wanted out of 2D Sonic for a long time. Mania had that too but with more emphasis on speed than platforming, at least that's how I feel.

It made me very happy to see Fang in this game. He doesn't have as many appearances as he did in Sonic Triple Trouble, but his appearances feel a lot more impactful this time. I really hope he sticks around, maybe even brings Bark and Bean with him.

I like the design of Trip. Spoiler alert, but you do eventually get to see without the mask. I won't spoil the species but I was very happy to be pretty close to guessing. I don't think they developed her enough. I feel like these games kind of suffer from Sega refusing to do voice acting, because I really don't understand what Trip is even doing in the story. I probably wouldn't have understood Knuckle's whole deal either in Sonic 3 if supplemental material didn't clear it up, but it's not the 90's anymore, we shouldn't need supplemental material for the story to be cohesive. I'm not asking this game to be obnoxious like Sonic Heroes, just a few voice lines in the beginning, ending, and the one or two key story moments later on. Even text boxes would have been better than like... two seconds of pantomime.

Anyway... I hate sounding negative, I do love this game, it's just easier to vocalize what I wish was better about it than what I already love about it, and I feel like it's more important to spotlight the things that will be a problem than the things that will just be fine and provide a lot of fun.

Mario is out in a few more days... so i'm gonna cool off on this game or a while, and catch up on my Halloween watching.

[whosthatdccharacter]

Heyo! We've done six of these so far and it's been fun running this little game for yall. I hope its entertaining for you!

Now that we've got some under our belts I wanted to open up for feedback on a few different points. Im going to go over how ive done stuff so far, so if you have any thoughts on aspects of it you can chime in.

Putting the rest under the cut since it's kind of long.

1. Timing

So far I've tried to post new ones at sort of random times in the day so it doesn't give any one a consistent advantage. Im US Eastern and posts might go up anytime between 8am and 2am. I might even use the queue to schedule round the clock.

Another timing thing is that when someone guesses right, I give at least a few hours more before posting the reveal. It's just to give people a little more time to play, even if someone gets the answer right away. That's not to say you cant play after the reveal posts go up, but if youre anything like me, as soon as the ability to see the answer is available im clicking that link lol.

And since the reveal post tags the winner, I wait at least a few more hours for the next silhouette post so the prev winner doesnt have the advantage of being notified of the next one.

So a question here is should I wait longer or shorter on any of these areas? Do you like that its only one unrevealed at a time?

2. Difficulty level

This has been the hardest because it's a learning curve to find what's easy, what's hard, and why. There are SO many characters and runs, so it's hard to know if something I thought was memorable was even a blip on other people's radars. So ive tried to do a mix of difficulties.

Easier ones mean more people have the satisfaction of guessing and maybe getting it right, but if it's too easy then it might feel like these are puzzles for babies.

Harder ones mean a challenge and a lot of satisfaction if you figure it out or know that it's some niche thing. But if it's too hard then nobody gets it and it can feel kind of bullshit.

So what im wondering here is, do you feel like these have been too easy or too hard? Do you like it being a mix?

3. Character and image selection

If I put up a straightforward silhouette of Etrigan, everyone's going to get it and there's no challenge. On the flip side if i did a silhoutte or jason blood standing in a contextless room its like that could be literally any random man, so itd lead to random guesses. So ive been trying to find the sweet spot of the silhouette being somewhat familiar but not completely unique, and the rest of the image with some stuff going on. I think that's been going well but it does mean it relies on me and my ability to make a good little puzzle of it. So i hope I've been doing an alright job in that area.

Choosing from particular runs is interesting. I usually think of a character first then go find something they were in. Im finding the stories with other characters and team ups are good options to provide that extra context. But then the tricky part is that i have to be at least somewhat aware of whats popular and whats not. I dont want to use a panel from a run nobody read (unless its really good), and I also dont want to do one so infamous that everyone knows it like the back of their hand. So as with choosing particular images, I hope my choice of titles I'm sourcing these from has been fair.

4. How to guess

I went with tags so it encourages people to reblog and hopefully spread awareness of the blog. I think its also the easiest way people are inclined to interact per post. We couldve done asks but sometimes those get dropped by tumblr, and all the reveal posts would be answers to asks instead of standalone posts.

I like the idea that even for old ones people can still play and have fun with guessing on their own. Not sure if theres a clever way to encourage that.

And i hope the leaderboard is fun. Just a small incentive to participate. Its like saying nice job, thank you for playing.

5. Hints

As mentioned previously, if over a day goes by and nobodys got it ill post a hint. I've only done one hint so far and i was really not sure how subtle or overt i should be. Idk if anyone has thoughts about it?

--

So that's it. That's the process behind things and kind of where my mind is on it. I want it to be fun and chill, so if you ever have feedback about something you can always send an ask. It can be about the topics here or really at anytime about anything.

Thanks for playing everyone! Keep it up!

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Ok time to go through some more small things quickly because I'm getting behind.

Will You Snail?

More fun and interesting than I expected. I wasn't really sure what I was getting into beyond it being cheap and having tons of positive reviews, but it turned out to be a precision platformer where you play as a snail (and can wear another smaller snail as a hat), and it's about the fear of AI literally taking over the world and whether reality is really real. Also the AI is an asshole and spontaneously spawns bullshit spikes and lasers and stuff exactly where it thinks you're about to go so you have to contend with that in addition to just making it through each room.

I had a good enough time to finish the story and get somewhere north of 50% completion, but I don't really see myself doing the optional stuff like beating everything on the highest difficulty. The auto-difficulty kept me somewhere in the 2-3 range out of 4 95% of the time with very rare spikes to 4, and with me getting worse at stuff like this over time as my reactions get slightly slower, my vision gets worse, and my brain just gets generally weird, I don't really see a point in pushing myself harder just to frustrate myself.

Lara Croft GO

It only took me forever to get around to this one, which I probably would've forgotten about if someone didn't gift me a copy a few days ago. Basically you, uh, raid tombs. Big surprise, I know, but this time it's a turn-based puzzle game. I liked the puzzles enough and different mechanics they introduced enough to finish it because some of them were reasonably clever/satisfying, but I'm not sure if I'll bother with the extra ones after the credits roll. Toward the end after I got the hang of it I tended to finish levels without having to retry more than a couple times, but just knowing I'd have to start over entirely for every mistake or misclick makes it less enjoyable.

I'm pretty sure it's my second favorite Tomb Raider game now, and one of only two I've ever finished. The other was the 2013 reboot, which I thought was great. I tried the sequel to that and didn't really like all the changes they made to the formula because they all made it less fun for me, and I always thought the pre-reboot ones were just bad. To be fair I heard the later ones did get better and I never tried any of those, but the PS1 era games were anti-fun for me.

I'LL KILL HER

More of a digital comic book than anything, like a visual novel with an extreme emphasis on the visual part and no decision making. The art style was enough to get my interest to try it, and that's probably the main thing it has going for it. The story is...fine? Not super deep or original and feels like it maybe has some translation or non-native English issues sometimes, but it all fits together well enough in the end I guess. All of the content warnings for this one for stuff like abuse and domestic violence and suicide.

Cris Tales

Somehow this is the only one of these that I gave up on before finishing it. A lot of stuff in it is absolutely gorgeous (go watch the animated intro, seriously), and I was getting into the setting and some of the themes it was hinting at, and the time shifting mechanics are pretty neat both for exploration and combat, but I just don't really enjoy playing the game very much.

Society has advanced beyond the need for random encounters, but Cris Tales has not. Good thing it has irritatingly long load times for each one, at least on the Switch, and it has to do it again going back from the battle screen to the main overworld. And I really am not into how the combat encounters are balanced. Even basic trash enemies a few hours into the game can do absurd amounts of damage, like 40+ when your characters barely have over 100 hp. You can reduce that with timed button presses like Paper Mario/Mario RPG games, but the animations while pretty are really bad at conveying the actual correct timing for stuff.

Basically I like most things about the game except for actually playing it. Well, it's fine in towns I guess, but there's too much other stuff I'm not into for that to make up for it. Oh, and the voice acting isn't terrible or anything, but it's definitely worse than most things I've played this year with voice acting and didn't really do it for me. Also it has the most basic and obvious bug that I'm mildly surprised I've never seen in anything else: it counts the entire time the game is suspended while the Switch is asleep toward your play time. I apparently spent 60 hours on the game, when really it was about 3.

[pqrachel]

So I was gonna wait until the new year to choose my game of the year, but not only did the steam review come out, but I realized that last year I chose a game that I got for Christmas 2021 so even if I somehow get a really cool game experience before the end of the year, I can just put that for my 2024 GOTY if its good.

But in that vein, I've added Monster Roadtrip & Neon White to games I'm considering for this year's GOTY. So my nominees are Monster Roadtrip, Neon White, Lil Gator Game, Celeste Strawberry Jam Mod Pack, Goodbye Volcano High, Our Life DLCs, and Marvel Snap.

---

So Monster Roadtrip, which I've been playing a lot throughout the year. Unlike most of the other games on the list it's really easy to come back to after not playing for a while. The End of the Road update which came out this year was phenomenal and that's the main reason I'm considering it for GOTY. But I really enjoy the Monster Prom series as a whole and it's just so fun and amazing.

Neon White, I got last year during the Steam Winter sale and I spent an amazing few months playing it and getting good at it and enjoying the crap out of the optimization and speedrunning. It makes it so easy to play and so easy to want to keep improving. It soundtrack is amazing and the community is great too. But it's just super hard to get back into. I tried it again this week and despite getting a couple of level records beaten so many of the levels just weren't fun to try and jump right back into at the level I was playing them when I quit. IDK it's definitely amazing but it's not obvious that it should or shouldn't be my GOTY.

Lil Gator Game is like super amazing and nearly perfect for what it is but its just so small, which isn't in itself a problem. But a bigger amazing game is gonna be better. I never went back to try and play it casually again and I think I got all I wanted out of speedrunning it. Like my only problem with it is that I wished it was a bit longer.

Celeste Strawberry Jam is a mod pack created not by the devs of Celeste but by the wonderful modding community of the game. It has levels that range in difficulty of super beginner friendly to fucking impossible, like jeez dude that's crazy. I played through so many levels and it was super enjoyable. It was enough for me to play and consistently enjoy myself for months.

My next nominee is Goodbye Volcano High. I've only played it through once but it was amazing. It's a game about music, found family, and the apocalypse. I got so engrossed in this game after I played it, and I just love it so much. It excelled at being a visual novel but it wasn't very game-y, the rhythm game elements weren't great, and the other game elements struggled too. It was buggy at the time I played it but it didn't detract too much from the story and meaning behind the game. It was just beautiful when it came together.

The Our Life DLCs really surprised me. I went it just expecting them to be worse than the Cove storyline because how could they live up to the amazing story that was the original Our Life Cove story. But they were amazing. I talked about them a lot as I played them but ultimately I just really love the stories GBPatch has put out and that's the reason Our Life 2 is my most anticipated game, even over Silksong and Hades 2. Again it's a visual novel so it's hard to put it as GOTY but I just have to at least consider it because of how good it was.

And my last nominee is Marvel Snap. It technically released last year but the PC launch was in August and I've been playing it so much since then, like it's already my second most played game on steam. It's a microtransaction heavy, season pass-having, daily quest bullshit monetization system game, but it's technically free-to-play. After a while I stopped paying money for stuff and started playing it free and I'm still really enjoying it. Getting the last key cards for some of the meta decks has been super fun. I've been playing Loki and Hela and Destroy and Zoo, and it's just great. The new weekly cache system is rewarding as well and I've nearly got a complete card list because of it. Just a fun time sink.

---

And my Game of the Year is Neon White, but like it's close. This was a cool year for gaming and even if I didn't play any of the mainstream choices for game of the year, it was still a super enjoyable year for gaming overall.

[dr-ladybird]

Re that post on “there’s no wrong way to play Elden Ring”: idk, I’ve seen a few wrong ways.

refusing to level your vigor, refusing to look up how the game mechanics work, insisting you don’t need any more HP when someone mentions it, then yelling about how the game sucks and is too hard? Doing it wrong.

“I never needed a ranged weapon, magic, weapon skills or consumables in the original Dark Souls so I don’t need them now?” Not necessarily wrong, but you’re ignoring a lot of fun and powerful options. If you insist on playing the entire game with nothing but a claymore, and then complain about the “bullshit difficulty” of something that’d be easy with a fire-damage claymore and a bunch of throwables and pots, and then take offense if I suggest throwing knives, I’ll roll my eyes. The same applies to only levelling up one weapon - not a bad idea if you use a flexible weapon with no huge elemental resistance problems, and there’s nothing wrong with loving the Berserk sword THAT MUCH, but you’re making things more monotonous and skipping chances to take advantage of enemy weaknesses. Don’t stick to one single weapon unless you’re OK with that.

“Ranged weapons, magic, shields, and levelling up dexterity aren’t for real men” - you’re missing out on most of the game, and also doing gender horrifically wrong. Gonna morally judge you if you do THAT.

“Summoning spirits is cheating” - the fuck bro, it’s a video game not an exam, and the spirits are awesome. “this boss is too hard and I hate how hard it is but I refuse to summon spirits because that would be cheating” - I hope you don’t carry that self-sabotaging attitude over to life in general?

“I used my mimic and the most overpowered weapon I could get for everything and the game sucks because it’s too easy” - hey guys, did you know that if you set your video game to easy mode and get bored, you can turn the difficulty back up again?

On the other hand. Looking up how to get as overpowered as possible, euthanising Greyoll, and running around Moonveiling everything and hitting it with Rock Sling and summoning every spectral knight in sight? If you’re bad at the game, that’s a brilliant idea! Just turn up the difficulty if it gets boringly easy, and ease off on the Rock Sling if you get sick of it. That one’s valid as fuck. Can always swap to Aurelia and a cheap Moonveil knockoff made of the starting katana, after you’ve gotten gud.

[undeadorion-archive]

More adventures in health related bullshit.

CPAP machines are not medical equipment. They're torture devices. Or kinky devices for people who are into a very specific sort of breath play.

I'm sure they're helpful for people with severe sleep apnea. But it's severe overkill when you have a case so mild it barely even registers on the test. Threshold is 5. I got a 5.8.

When I went to go scope out the machines, my concern was the noise and the fact that I'd have a mask of some sort strapped to my face. Shockingly, neither of those were an issue.

The issue was in the BREATHING. And I was going to get one of those fancy ones that's meant to adapt and reduce the pressure when you breathe out. It technically did, but you still had to breathe out against the air blowing into your face holes. Which is not a natural way to breathe at all, especially when you're trying to SLEEP. There's holes on the front of the mask that are meant to help you exhale but either they were clogged or not big enough because hoo boy. Thankfully there was difficulty getting a good seal around my nose. Which meant I could breathe out a little easier, but it was also blowing air straight into my eyes. Not great.

So we tried a different mask that would fit better under my nose. And it sealed properly. He may as well have strapped a plastic bag over my head for how easily I could breathe. In or out. Because my exhale wasn't getting fully out of my mask, that stale air was just being pushed back into my lungs. It only took a few breaths before I started feeling super light headed and sick with a headache close behind.

The terrifying thing is everything I looked up after the fact said that's just your body adapting. No. That's my body suffocating on CO2, fuck nuts.

So of course, panic hit hard on top of it, and I was holding onto the chair with a death grip trying to not scream, cry, or tear the mask off.

I'd been trying to hold back the whole time I was there. It wasn't his fault I'd been so mistreated by the sleep clinic. It wasn't his fault I was forced to try this. Up until he turned it on, I was prepared to take it home for the trial period, even. Because he was nice and accommodating, and unlike the sleep clinic actually asked me about things like what position I sleep in. But once he took the second mask off all if that stuff I'd been holding in just came pouring out. All of my issues. All of my reservations. All of my concerns.

I did not leave with a machine.

I'm meeting with my doctor in a month about it. There is a high chance I will cry in that appointment. That's the level of panic that mask put me in.

[ghosttownwherenoonegoes]

Every star fall brought you to tears again // Taylor x Rhys // happy birthday, baby!!❤️

@sparks363 HAPPY BIRTHDAYYYYYYYYYYYYY ~ YOU GORGEOUS GORGEOUS WOMAN!!!😍😍😍😍😍😍😍You're so soft, gentle, patient and tender and deeply loving. I adore you so very much.🫂🫂🫂🫂❤️❤️❤️❤️Thank you for being you. I hope you enjoy!🫂❤️

Summary: your birth control causes weight gain, which doesn't feel good to you. Rhys sees you, he hears you even in your silence, and while your head is spinning in the clouds, he makes sure your feet stay firmly on the ground. He's got you.

TW; talks of gaining weight, birth control, THIS IS NOT AN X READER UNLESS YOU ARE MY TAYLOR, being upset with your weight and body image, Rhys is a sweetheart.

Rhys saw everything, analysed much, but said little.

He was a fae of action, a being who acted first and spoke later, he trusted his inner compass and never strayed from what he believed to be right and true... even and especially when it didn't make sense to anyone else.

He saw how the side effect of your birth control didn't bother you initially but before long, it began to haunt you. He saw the way you frowned at yourself in the mirror, the way previously confident glances turned into refusing to look at yourself in the mirror and when you did, it was with frowns or even with the tell-tale signs of the want to cry. Rhys saw you slowly hide from yourself as the weight gain from your birth control became something you had difficulty tolerating, but when you began to berate yourself with your own thoughts some time after going onto the birth control, he knew that he had to step in.

You were stood in the muddle of your bedroom, your fingers plucking at your favourite Metallica shirt. You had done your makeup in a way you loved, in a way which complemented you and made you feel beautiful, but the way your shirt felt like it was clinging to you was making you feel unsettled within your own body. You pulled at the material, fisted it as you tugged it away from your body, but when your gorgeous face contorted in disgust, Rhys almost literally came through the door like he had been waiting for his cue; all the world the stage and all the beings the cast.

Rhys was tuned into your thoughts as he made a beeline for you, his dark hair not moving with the breeze created by his wide stride, his dark eyes fixed on you. He had no room in his life for bullshit, he had no time for it, either, but he knew that your concerns and unhappiness were based on level, founded ground, and he wanted more than anything to make you feel beautiful, to remind you of the fact that his love for you was so strong that it literally crossed the ethereal boundary between you; fae and human kind were not supposed to mix, and yet... you both did.

"Oh, my love," Rhys shook his head as he circled you, "you tear yourself to shreds over something you can't control."

You shrugged and kept tugging at your clothes before you gave up on trying to feel comfortable in your own skin, in your own home, turning away with a heavy sigh which told unspoken truths of how you really felt.

Rhys' heart seized in his chest. Fuck. He had known that you felt bad, but the thoughts he was sensing along with the look on your face and the way your fingers were trying to poke your body apart... no.

"Come here, beloved," His strong arm wound around your waist and Rhys pulled you flush against him, his grip firm but not so firm that you couldn't move away from him if you wanted to; he was sure in his hold but he would never make you feel like you couldn't move. You were at total liberty with and around Rhys. "Let me see you." He rested the sharp angle of his chin on your shoulder, his lips pressed kisses to the small sliver of your neck which wasn't hidden by your shirt, and his hands smoothed across the expanse of your waist, tender reverence practically poured out of him.

"I have seen much in my time, but few creatures are as beautiful as you are. You are something else, Taylor." His voice was soft, his tone left no room for argument as he delivered his kind words. "So kind for one so full of pain and anger. You astound me." Thin lips curved up into a sinful smirk as Rhys continued to lavish kisses across the side of your face, the column of your neck, and one hand moved to dip into the collar of your shirt so that he could pull the material aside and access more of you.

Fae were not religious beings, but they were devout, and Rhys knew exactly how to worship you at your altar. He wouldn't leave you for anything or anyone and no matter what, he was there for you. You cradled his heart in your hands every day, your fingers smoothing away the aches and pains of a life lived too long, and you treated it and him with such gentleness that he would be hard pressed to love you harder than you loved him.

You were his everything and he had no problem with reminding you of such, especially on a day like today.

[macgyvertape]

D2 season of the Plunder Thoughts

gameplay stuff above cut story stuff below in a liveblog format (what a mess this post is when tumblr ate my bullet points)

DIM has been painfully slow and it’s a problem with the Bungie API system, DiM is so integral to quality of life in the game, the app can’t compare. Tower has been unusably slow like the last few season but even worse

 I appreciate the UI buff changes, color coding it via class and with different shapes.

 Story progression requiring 50 champ kills and giving bonus for master ketchcrash is so bullshit since master ketchcrash isn’t matchmade and requires a high powerlevel grind. Glad they made it autocomplete after a day

The ketchcrash activity is fun, it's great that it's randomized to reduce the monotony of the grind. I think it’s neat the level of companion AI there is.

 However expeditions are frustrating with the ruffian mechanic which only progresses when you sit around and throw the treasure away. So they basically never show up with blueberries.

 Destroy shield generators is also a pain. Fighting other guardians for the scorch cannon then some asshole steals it right from your kill. Same thing with deposit treasure for scallywag, where you fight other guardians for it. A lot of people complained about this with scythe kills last season

Nice to see old areas repurposed for pirate hideouts

.Anti-barrier sniper is really bad this season, between the flinch changes and snipers being outclassed by other weapons the damage power isn’t there like lastime

The real flaw this season is the reward structure. So few red border drops, limits on the ability to buy focused weapons when you have challenges that require leveling them.

The challenge of “level 3 seasonal shaped weapons to lvl 10” exemplifies this when I had 0 seasonal weapons crafted by then

 Even worse that challenge gives repute when I need more repute to buy something that increased the drop rate.

I wish bungie wouldn’t lock GMs behind the power grind. They’re the content I want to do but irl keeps me busy so I never get to power level until after GMs start

Glad I don’t care about event title because I don’t have the time to grind for it. I made an attempt at getting challenges done but the weapon kills and 35 haunted sectors were too much of a time sink. So no point paying for the event pass even if I was interested. 

50 super kills in Mayhem was a lot easier this season with no classy restoration in PVP. Despite only using Thundercrash titan, I got that challenge done before “defeat guardians with arc damage”

Really enjoying whatever this Telesto thing is. Favorite fusion rifle and in top 3 favorite exotic guns. Edit: hmm it actually ended up being disappointing that they reverted all the changes

Very glad Devil Lair is the double loot GM. That way I can masterwork all my high stat exotics on hunter and titan

Masterworked Hunter Trip Grenade Gauntlets: wow those are a lot of fun with the new solar rework.

I played my Hunter and Titan characters a lot more this season, and I’m finally as comfortable doing endgame PVE with them as I am with my Warlock. Warlock is still my favorite class just how healing rift and grenade focus compliment my playstyle but learning to like all classes and be good is something I worked on since WQ launch and I think its paid off

Arc super on Warlock feels weak in that Chaos Reach can’t kill a champ in master content without Geomags, and ticklefingers is only really good for add control of which the rest of Arc Warlock kit provides a lot of other options.

Gathering Storm arc super for Hunter is great, finally makes Arc Hunter good in higher difficulty and its really good against both a crowd of adds and bosses. I think I used arc staff like once but it wasn’t as fun.

I didn’t think much changed for arc titan but I finally got the hang of the movement charged melees.

I love Brigand’s Law what a great sidearm. No Reprieve (stasis shotty) was the weapon I crafted first and lvled to 20. I don’t really like it as a precision shotgun but it will be great for Shank-Taniks boss fight next season.

Finally got my 3rd pattern for Seasonal weapons with 3 weeks left. Yeah the red border system this season was awfulI

 wound up not playing any iron banner this season. No seasonal challenges required it and if I’m not super interested in the game mode this season and skulking wolf trait isn’t good in PvE

.Just like seasonal event titles, the new IB structure incentives grinding a lot in 2 weeks. Its a fast track to burnout for me so I don’t go for it, but I dislike the shift towards short time to earn FOMO titles

 Did the raid almost every week on all 3 characters and no Touch of Malice, raid exotics being random RNG with no bad luck protection system is just such a waste of players time

This season I finally did a reset with Banshee, I’m glad they adjusted it.

Without even trying for it I got Thrillmonger medal, and thereby completed Dredgen. No FUCK no to ever trying to Gild it though

Glad there’s skill based matchmaking but crucible still sucks ass when I play with my friends in other timezones. Damage glitching with cheats or bad connections, gives me 0 reason to do pvp except for seasonal challenges and its so prevalent in Trials and Glory Playlist

The challenges I skipped were 100 Guardian stasis kills, and 2nd reset for Crucible and Gambit. If I’m not having fun then I won’t force myself to play

Did Master Rhulk through the streamer’s checkpoint system, it wasn’t that bad. Glad to get the sparrow.

Gameplay wise the community event was great to have during the last week, bonus rewards for doing a lot of playlist activities to finish seasonal challenges. I turned in most of my planetary materials to Rahool to buy golfballs, and I have most good stat exotics masterworked.

I’m SO GLAD they changed Scallywag to 8/9 triumphs, I’m tired of doing expeditions and I don't want to have to sit in the activity growing to hate Destiny to get it

I tried to do Master Caiatl with some clanmates on the last day and holy shit I think its the most difficult PvE in the game. Between survivability from lots of adds, match game with lots of shields, deaths from architects and being thrown off the map, and that you have so little time to kill bell keepers before Caiatl gets there. Its a lot to deal with and after close to an hour with no progress we gave up.Master WQ campaign mission was a cakewalk comparatively

First week:

I hope someone got a gif of the ketch flying overhead, that was my favorite part of Beyond Light, how present Eramis Shipstealer’s ketch is. Shame it wouldn’t let me replay the mission on other characters b/c of a bug. 

The following cutscene: cries in how bad my guardian looks on my graphics card. 

This pirate theme is a lot of fun, a lighter in tone breather from the horror of last season. If the music wasn’t a clue the fact that basically every NPC has a punny pirate name would do it 

Also the music that played during the cutscene sounded like the start of “the families” but different. Interesting because “the families” was from black armory soundtrack

Other weeks:

This is really peak Eliksni fucker season

While I’m enjoying Drifter’s antics I wish we got him being a bit more morally gray and sketchy like he was in Season of Outlaw/Joker’s Wild

Pirate Hideouts: The Blademasters - i do appreciate some immune Cabal chasing me with swords

In universe they keep calling what we’re doing “unsavory business” but aside from like working with Spider (leader of an organized crime ring) what morally dubious actions are we committing than our normal “privateering actions” where we basically have a comission of war from the Last City. Worst thing I guess we're doing is blowing up the ether and thereby starving others but that isn't like brought up as a plot point.

Spider and Misraaks have BIG ex energy. Feels like classic ex-significant other back in the life of the single dad causing drama with his child because the dad has a past he REGRETS

Misraaks threatening Spider(Rakis) is hot DILF shit.

Eramis is short! Wonder if she remembers me specifically as that guardian from Europa

Making people walk the plank into the void of space, marooning on small asteroids where who knows what you'd die from first. great melding of pirate+space.  Misraaks’ dark past wasn’t shocking, nothing that hadn’t been heavily hinted at 

The people in Victorian times ate mummies thinking it would be curative. Wonder what powers people would get from eating parts of Nezarac (edit: lmao what an easy I made before the cutscene even leaked)

Eramis vs Mithrax sword fight was great! Love that Eramis was there defending Eido. So curious about how things might have gone if Mithrax didn’t attack first

Feels nice to be the good guy again” WHEN DID YOU CHANGE DRIFTER?! you were pragmatic not moralistic, why are you not asking for any pay?! 

I wish there would be more pay off in the last week of the story instead of waiting for the last week of the season after a holiday event where you have to hope you have free time. The season just felt really anticlimactic, and I guess I wish Eramis’ message of “I can’t change I will never get over the pain of the whirlwind” wasn’t just in a radio message. Despite her threat to Eido I don’t  think she would follow through. Mithrax, yeah she’d totally hurt him. 

All of Drifter’s “funny” voicelines during the Halloween event, its like Drifter are you still the same character as the guy who killed and ate his fireteam to get off the ice planet and had people die for real in your gambit arena?

The community event of improving the eliksni quarter is cute, I don’t know if they went for the intentional parallels that Spider who is the face of organized crime in universe is “leading” the cleanup, when irl organized crime groups help the community because it gets them good pr

Love the end of season cutscene. Idk how to phrase this without uncharitable reading replies, but its good bungie made it explicitly clear it was a romantic relationship with an onscreen kiss. Like if you read the lore it’s been obvious for a while but in light of the 2021 IGN expose, and considering you have to go looking for the Immolant weblore, and when the writer was confirming it on twitter Osiris had already been replaced. Just glad Bungie doubled down about it being a gay romantic relationship and I hope everyone mad about it uninstalls. 

Overall its hard for me to say how much I would have enjoyed this season if I didn’t enjoy seeing characters who haven’t got a lot of screentime, especially since it was mostly Mcguffin chasing, with the twists of; Lucent Hive are after the relics too and Nazerac parts could wake up Osiris not really being built up before they’re revealed

[knybits]

A Murder of One

Chapter

23

Summary:

Honeymoon(?)

Previous Chapter | Origin | Next Chapter

Hiratsuka is known to be superstitious. 

Don’t yell at night or the snakes come out. 

8 is a good number, but 4 and 9 are bad. 

If she layers the right side of her kimono over her left, it means she’s dead, resulting in a bad omen. 

The first dream after the New Years will come true. 

She can’t talk when eating her ehou-maki. 

When Ray came into her life, she had a whole slew of Western superstition to look out for. 

It was an innocent remark, the usual “Step on a crack, break your mother’s back,” that Ray chuckled about when they walked through the Tokyo city life at night. 

But Hiratsuka held that close to her heart, as well as everything else that Ray commented on. Upon noticing this, Ray decided to keep his mouth shut; but, the last thing he mentioned was the most important thing that Hiratsuka remembered. 

“Akiko, what are you looking at?” 

Moonlit eyes trace back to her mother, who crouches at her small level. Akiko looks back at the single crow, preening its wings before giving and lone croak before fluttering off. She likes how the light bounces off the black feathers, catching sunlight and offering colors deeper than ink. 

But Hiratsuka is reminded of Ray’s superstition, and it’s awful how terrifying this one is. 

“Listen to me, alright?” Hiratsuka grasps the chubby hands of her precious daughter, leaning their foreheads together. “Never, and I mean never, look at single crows. Do you know why?” 

A single shake of her head. 

“Crows are almost always in groups, called a murder. And a murder of one means death. Do you understand?” 

A single shake of her head. 

But what a funny lie. 

Akiko remembers the words of her mother every time she sees a single crow, and while she never understood it at the tender age of 6, she learned by experience what the fatal curse meant. 

---

Most days, Miruna spends her time resting in a tree. She knows that most pillars and swordsmen have treats for their crows, and they get the luxury of scratches in hard to reach places, but her own master isn’t all too nice. 

So sometimes, out of boredom, she’ll fly off and survey the neighboring town. People don’t give you any attention when you aren’t in their sight. 

Miruna is used to that. 

And she actually quite likes the quiet days. 

Other crows get the luxury of changing swordsmen from time to time, and if you’re a lucky crow you get the lavish lifestyle of being assigned to a pillar and not having the need to change swordsmen. 

Unfortunately, despite all the bloodshed that Miruna experiences, she never gets to change masters. 

Absolute bullshit, she’ll caw to some nearby teammates. Muichirou’s crow will caww about her friendly master, and no one knows who Kyoujurou’s crow was reassigned to. 

From above, Miruna watches over her stupid and cowardly master, on the back of a kakushi with the hard working Tanjirou on the back of another kakushi right next to her. She knows where the two are going, and she knows that meeting Muichirou will be inevitable. 

Kanroji’s crow becomes visible as well, and Miruna rolls her eyes. 

The lovely and sweet smelling Kanroji does not deserve such a bitch of a crow. 

At any rate, Akiko is passed off onto another kakushi, and she tries to adjust the 15 blindfolds over her eyes out of irritation. A kakushi notices and slaps her hands away, to which Akiko starts to complain. 

It isn’t until Tanjirou’s calloused hands grasp a few of Akiko’s fingers does she calm down. The kakushi nod to each other, glad to have helped Tanjirou prevent a furious storm, and run next to each other so that the two can (with great difficulty) hold hands for the rest of the journey to the swordsmith village. 

You see,Tanjirou (obviously) needs a new sword. Akiko, however, needs a vacation. 

And while the swordsmith village isn’t her ideal getaway location (she would much prefer Okinawa. Maybe even Hokkaido, considering the season) she can’t really complain. The swordsmith village isn’t all that far from the Butterfly estate, so in the event of an emergency massacre, Akiko is just a crow away. 

Without anything but their sense of touch to help them, Akiko and Tanjirou patiently wait for their arrival to the swordsmith village. It takes a whole day, and Miruna is in desperate need of rest and a meal, but they finally make it. 

Akiko and Tanjirou are welcomed with open arms, though Tanjirou’s swordsmith is mysteriously gone. Akiko doesn’t mind this, as it just means that she has more time to spend with Tanjirou in this village. She doesn’t want to bother with Haganezuka’s rage either, recalling the rather… disturbing letter Haganezuka sent to Tanjirou. 

“Our hot spring is very good for healing the body… so just relax here,” the chief of the village, Tecchin Tecchikawahara says, sending the young couple on their way. 

“Actually, you go on ahead,” Akiko says to Tanjirou. He tilts his head in confusion, and Akiko quickly explains that she’s just a bit tired from the journey, despite not moving at all. “And besides, you can just take this time to be with Nezuko in the hot springs. If I feel better, I’ll come meet up with you.” 

The small swordsmith gestures along the path for Tanjirou to follow, and Akiko heads back into the inn in search for their room. Her mission to get some rest is cut short when a familiar swordsmith catches her eye, and she calls out for their name. 

The same swordsmith that made her tools is also at the inn, but he quickly looks upset upon seeing Akiko. She can only assume that it’s because he’s on his own staycation, and the sight of Akiko means she needs new tools. Which she doesn’t, thankfully. 

“I have to thank you properly, since last time I just cried,” Akiko laughs weakly, but the swordsmith shrugs her off. 

“Not the first time I received that reaction, and it won’t be the last,” he chuckles. 

“I have to ask, though… You never told me that my tools were nichirin.” 

Painfully awkward silence envelopes the two before her swordsmith says, “...I thought it was implied.” 

“What? No.” 

“I’m a swordsmith for the demon slayers. I make weapons with material that kills demons. And honestly, I don’t think I’ve seen any other ore other than nichirin ore in this village.” 

“My tools aren’t weapons!” 

“Did they change color?” 

Akiko snaps shut, and the swordsmith nods to himself in satisfaction. “Well, congratulations, I guess. I wasn’t surprised when your tools didn’t change color the first time you touched them. They aren’t the traditional katana, but they are your weapons. How you wield them is up to you, and if they changed colors then it must mean you’ve reached a certain level of skill similar to other traditional demon slayers. That isn’t a bad thing, y’know?” Her swordsmith pats her on the shoulder as he passes her by, muttering a quick farewell before he turns around the corner. 

She stands there in the hallway for a second, mulling over her swordsmith’s words. True, she used her tools against a demon before they changed colors. She used concentration breathing for combat, though not well, and her sight has improved past known bounds. Demon slayers must be impressive if that’s what it takes for their swords to turn, displaying the mark of a true swordsman. 

A quick motion flickers out of the far corner of her eye, and Akiko turns fast enough to see a flustered Genya attempt to hide behind the corner. A smile spreads across her face and she runs up to him, the poor demon slayer too intimidated to even run away. 

“Genya! How nice! You’re here too?” 

A single nod, and Akiko laughs, smacking him on the arm multiple times. Though it’s not like he actually feels her hits, more like softs taps against his big arms. She sees a new tooth beginning to peek out from his mouth, and she yanks him down by the mouth to inspect further. Genya almost bites her fingers off at the shock. 

Akiko feels better once knowing Genya is here, and with newfound energy, she makes her way to the hot springs. Tanjirou looks troubled upon her arrival, but he lights up when he sees her. Nezuko paddles around, humming happily to herself. 

“You made it!” Tanjirou offers her a hand as she lowers herself into the water, scalding hot like she likes it. Akiko taps the side of her head to Tanjirou’s, a smile on her face when she asks what Tanjirou was troubled by earlier. 

So he recounts his two encounters. How Mitsuri was upset about being ignored by Genya, and how Genya angrily shoved Tanjirou’s head under the water. The absurdity of the encounters doesn’t surprise Akiko one bit, considering how the two are wildcards. But she does explain to Tanjirou that Genya is nervous around women, and tends to stay silent out of nerves. 

“Well I invited Kanroji to have dinner with us,” Tanjirou says, and a small pinch in Akiko’s chest causes her to shift in the water. 

“Oh. That’s nice,” Akiko smiles, “The more the merrier.” 

Let’s make something clear. Akiko has nothing against Kanroji. In fact, Kanroji is one of the few people that can get Akiko to say more than one word answers. But Akiko was hoping to keep their little vacation between the two of them. Relaxing in the hot springs together, meals together, sleeping in the futon together. Akiko supposes there isn’t much she can do about the situation though, the inn isn’t that big and they’re bound to bump into the two people they both know on this little trip. 

Akiko is still working on her second plate of mushrooms after Kanroji finishes her 7th meal. 

“Impressive!” 

“Really? But I didn’t eat that much tonight.” 

“That’s true, Kanroji you usually eat a little more to maintain your muscle density.” Akiko comments, and Kanroji nods her head. 

The three continue their small talk, discussing Genya’s relationship issues with his brother, Sanemi, and even go so far as making him some riceballs since he doesn’t eat. Akiko keeps her mouth shut as they make the riceballs, since she can’t exactly reveal why he doesn’t eat.

Or, well… He does eat… Yeah…

Akiko bids everyone an early good night, know that Genya isn’t even in the inn. She saw his shadow against the sliding doors for a brief moment during their dinner, and it left as quickly as it came. He’s probably off on a hunt right now. 

Akiko falls asleep alone, and she wakes up alone. The distant touch of Tanjirou is gone, and the sun isn’t even that high in the sky. The imprint of his body is still next to Akiko, but his spot is cold. Nezuko whines from her box, also missing her brother. 

There’s a pit in Akiko’s stomach that doesn’t go away for the rest of the day. She aimlessly wanders around the town, spending time watching the swordsmiths. Their repetitive movements calm her mind, and the hot springs calm her body. At night, she would eat with Kanroji, but Tanjirou still hasn’t returned. 

It isn’t until Tokitou walks in that Akiko sees the faint sign of Tanjirou on his hand. A slight bruise that will heal overnight, but it’s the only sign of Tanjirou she’s seen all day. 

“Where’s Tanjirou?” Akiko implores the Mist Hashira. His eyes are as distant as always, mind adrift. 

“Who?” 

“Tanjirou. Demon slayer. Has a scar on his forehead?”

Muichirou hums to himself, and Akiko hopes that he’s at least deep in thought trying to recall her fiance. But he shrugs his shoulders, presumably having forgotten his encounter with Tanjirou earlier in the day, and Akiko huffs angrily to herself.

So much for a lovely vacation for the love birds. 

get into ittt

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette (2004): Action Doom

Ladies, Gentlemen, and Others. Welcome to the Golden League. Where I’ll finally be taking a look at ten WADs that earned Cacoward in 2004. And the first one on the list is something that might be considered a combination of Doom and Bullet Hell platformers ala Contra or Metal Slug.

G1: Action Doom

Main author(s): Stephen Browning (Scuba Steve)

Release date: July 3rd, 2004 (original version)

Version played: Original version

Required port compatibility: ZDoom

Levels: 4.5 (the last one differentiates due to the chosen difficulty level)

Action Doom is something that, at first glance, feels like the opposite of Daedalus that I reviewed week ago. No bullshit item hunting. No plot that derails itself at the end. No time wasting. No punishment for not knowing where to go. And no stealth enemies just to mention a few things. Just pure, unaltered action with barely any stops. And honestly, after the last WAD, I’m gonna need something like this for some catharsis.

Action Doom has an interesting background. It all started in 2001, with a project called Metal Slug Doom. It was supposed to be a small mod that turned hitscanning attacks into projectiles. Around a year later, Scuba Steve and his brother, Mike, came out with the idea that would later become the WAD that I’m reviewing. Although the development properly started in September 2003.

This WAD had a massive advertisement from October 2003 to its release. From silly ads being parodies of the 90s ads for games (with one of these being a pastiche of the Daikatana ad (you know which one)), to contests where you could win a T-shirt with a WAD’s logo on it, and/or a box that had a disc with a WAD and an actual manual for this thing.

I suggest you take a look at the Doomwiki page dedicated to Action Doom for more information if you are interested.

The story: The year is 2174. Our favorite Corpo: UAC, does its typical shtick to ruin everyone’s lives. This time on some island in the Gulf of Mexico. While being funded by the USA Government itself!

It’s not enough for these brainlets that they are tampering with whatever alien shit that crashed on Earth. Nooo! They need their Hell teleporters while also shoving alien DNA up to demons themselves!

And then there is no contact with UAC Site 4 Labs for around a week.

Surprised Pikachu face

The Gov, realizing that they fucked up, send out one of the elite soldiers of I.M.P.S.E (take a look at the stuff related to this word with a full bottle of brain bleach as a warning) to clean up the mess that happened there.

Action Doom looks rather good. It might not look as good as some of the WADs from the 2004 roster that I played but on its own, it does a really good job. I feel like I was playing an FPS version of Contra, with diversive environments, explosions everywhere, and hundreds of enemies attacking you from every corner.

The soundtrack was enjoyable to listen to. I notice one of the tracks being used in the past, either by Cinemassacre or Screwattack, I can’t remember which one was it. As for my favorite track, I guess I will go with the one that appears in the Hell section of the third map.

The sound effects were also good. There is nothing wrong or annoying about them.

So Action Doom is pretty good when it comes to its visuals. But is it as good when it comes to playing it?

Yes. It feels good playing this WAD.

Action Doom is very easy to understand despite most of it having big maps. Just go forward and mow down the cannon fodder with the occasional mini-boss or two on your way.

What’s interesting about this WAD is that its main part, Mission Imp.ossible, has branching paths, particularly in MAP02. I’m going to talk now about the first branching path since this is the one I have the most knowledge of. For instance:

After crossing the bridge, you can go further into the forest, right into the UAC facility, where you have to go through labs, ending up surrounded by cryo-sleeping Imps and fighting Zombies while riding down the elevator.

Or, you can go through the vent, where you end up jumping from car to car, being chased on a road by enemies.

There is also the third path. By climbing down the rocks, you can take a boat, where you must avoid rocks and kill the enemies that are catching your tail.

Besides that, there are also destructible crates. I recommend breaking them up ‘cause they might have a weapon that will help you later.

Per each map (asides from the ending), there is also a note that you can read. They basically describe what you might already know from the text file.

In MAP03, you can even play two arcade games. One is a rather simple car game, where you have to get to the end of a track in the fastest time. The second (which for some reason is marked as a secret) is a homage to the Atari game called Venture.

Action Doom has two endings depending on if you finished it on Contra difficulty level or not. But honestly, you won’t miss much since I checked on YouTube and you basically get another boss to send to outer space.

Oh, wait. I almost forgot. There are piles of money spread around the WAD to collect (alongside other items that can increase your highscore).

The WAD can be rather challenging. Like the games it was inspired by, in Action Doom, you die to one hit, forcing you to be more careful with the environment and remembering what enemies are coming out next and from where. Thankfully, most of the cannon fodder either also dies from one hit, or at least they are modified enough to be somewhat easier to kill.

Speaking of enemies and the new stuff related to them:

The Hitscanners now shoot projectiles to make this WAD fair. Zombiemen look different (and apparently they are called Ninjas now), and Chaingunners are now much tankier to make them more like a mid-tier enemy.

The alien blood wasn’t a good idea to insert into Imps, since now they act like Kamikaze drones, charging at you to explode with... acid I guess? Also, their heads can attack now on their own like something from The Thing.

Asides from the old blood, there are also Turrets, both in a mechanical and alien variation.

And Tanks, that might as well be mini-bosses, due to how much health they have.

As for the bosses, we have the first-level boss that might as well be ripped straight out of the Contra game.

Gigantic Slug that hides in a box and spits its corrosive sludge at you. When you kill it, it bursts into smaller slugs.

We have Giant Squid that shoots its ink at you and you need to shoot its tentacles to defeat it.

And finally, the final boss of this WAD, Mother of All Imps. Just focus on the turrets during the first phase to make slaughtering the Imps easier, then blow her arms off when she hijacks the helicopter.

As for your weapons, you have a Knife that I think is almost as powerful as the vanilla Fist on Berserk.

The pistol is now much more reliable since it has a bottomless magazine. Perfect for saving ammo for more powerful weapons.

Spread Cannon is basically an S power-up straight out of Contra, shooting a volley of projectiles.

The rifle shoots in a series of three.

Rocket Launcher doesn’t have blast damage anymore but it’s rather powerful for a single target. Unfortunately for me, I couldn’t find it on my regular playthroughs. Maybe it’s reserved for the easier difficulties.

Flamethrower doesn’t really need much explanation if you played other WADs with this kind of weapon: Big damage on a rather short range.

You can even find a beta BFG called BFG 7500. It’s more likely a joke weapon since trying to fire from it will overload it and blow you out.

As for the bugs, when I took the dossier up, somehow I couldn’t switch back to any of my weapons. I guess it happened because the animation of pulling up the Pistol was still going on when I took the dossier.

Also, while avoiding rocks while driving a boat, I could only see the ones that were right in front of me. I feel like this bug depends on what version of (G)ZDoom you are playing since I saw review footage of this WAD from 2015, and it looked fine.

As for the stuff mentioned in a text file, you can’t take another at the notes after grabbing them the first time (I managed to show them again by accident, by just depleting ammo to one of my guns) and the final boss’ projectiles might sometimes not disappear after hitting something.

In conclusion, Action Doom is a very good total conversion. A proof that Contra’s soul can greatly cooperate with the Doom Engine. Worth checking out to blow out your steam.

But if you somehow feel scared away due to how somewhat archaic this WAD feels, don’t worry. At the very beginning of November of 2022, Scuba Steve released a remaster under the subtitle Rampage Edition (<== mark it with link). When the time will come, I will check that version of the WAD too.

Also, check out the review from IcarusLIVES if you want more:

The Golden League is off to a good start, people. Tune in next time, as we will be taking a look at another map created by the great Russell Pearson.

Bye!

[kieuecaprie]

KieueCaprie's 2022 Games Complete List #6 (26-30)

#26: Frogun (PC)

Started 🚩: 3/8/22 Finished 🏁: 6/8/22

When I initially played this game, it was at launch. Ever since then, there has been changes to how certain mechanics work such as turning in mid-air, checkpointing, and rival races. I've had no such luxury and me, being the masochist that I am, pushed through the game's batshit insane difficulty spikes and finished it.

It's a cute game, I love the whole aesthetic and I really think it's a fun game but the difficulty towards lategame really put me off even when I stopped chasing after the end of level rewards and just focused on completing the levels.

It probably plays a lot better now but now that I'm done, I can't really check but I'd still recommend it anyway.

#27: Cult of the Lamb (PC)

Started 🚩: 11/8/22 Finished 🏁: 14/8/22

I really liked this game, even though I played at launch where it was riddled with bugs (such as the tier 3 lockout, which got fixed, the game sometimes soft-locking for no good reason, to name a few) but I still managed to push through and complete the game. I adored setting up my little cult village and running the cult as benevolently as I could, even when the game kept pushing me to sacrifice someone.

No joke, I had a questline where someone wanted me to prank another person and then later on they were like, "You know what would be funny? If you killed them! Ha ha ha, can you imagne the look on their face when you stab them just like the impostor from Among Us ha ha ha"

Needless to say, I refused the quest but that's okay because I got the faith back almost immediately.

#28: Fashion Police Squad (PC)

Started 🚩: 15/8/22 Finished 🏁: 15/8/22

Another FPS game that actually has a pretty neat weapon switching mechanic where you have to change weapons to suit your needs at the time, you can't use the needle and thread on someone wearing drab grey clothes and you can't apply color to someone wearing oversized suits!

There were times when the game felt off in difficulty and the grappling felt good at first but then kind of felt off when they updated it. I dunno if they've made any additional changes since then.

However, without spoiling much, I love how over-the-top this game gets and it's definitely worth a look if it sounds like your thing.

#29: Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo (PC)

Started 🚩: 19/8/22 Finished 🏁: 19/8/22

I initially didn't want to include it in my list because I just wanted to try and play Putt Putt on my Steam Deck, but I included it anyway because I went to the effort of finishing it and this list IS of games I've completed in 2022 so...

It's Putt Putt. It's a good Humongous Entertainment game. What's more to say about this?

Also, check out how badly my Steam Deck struggles to maintain those frames ohhhh nooooooo.

#30: Splatoon 3 (Switch)

Started 🚩: 9/9/22 Finished 🏁: 9/9/22

Yep. When this game first came out, I rushed through the story before the internet could spoil me on the deets, and I do not regret doing so. I loved the characters, Deep Cut are an amazing trio and I would die for Little Buddy.

On the multiplayer side of things, though, I feel like Splatoon 3 is two steps forward and three steps back in that regard. We finally have a lobby system and the training room is no longer locked to Sheldon's shop, which is good! But I'm not a fan of the FOMO system and I'm not really a fan of the drip feed that we've been put on. Maybe the Season 2 update will change my mind once I get my hands on it but I don't like having to wait a whole season just to get a major balance patch, especially on Tenta Missiles, which shouldn't have come back to begin with and I will leave it at that because I'm not about to go off on a tirade about how bullshit and broken it is.