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rjmhereunderprotest · 1 month ago

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I Miss My PC Games

Years ago, I had a desktop like pretty much everyone else. Had all my stuff on it. All my games. All my work. Everything important to me at that time. Then, out of the blue, the whole rig just died on me. The disk drive gave out. I lost everything prior to my back ups. It was devastating. Since then I've been using a succession of laptops, one after the other, as my desk where the desktop used to be has become cluttered with stuff. I've kept saying I'll get a new one, I never have. And something always seems to go wrong with my laptops sooner or later to boot. This one I'm currently writing on is honestly reaching the end of its lifecycle. I'm considering getting a new one.

But I suspect, the next laptop won't be anywhere near powerful enough to work with any of my games. The ones I've had sitting in storage, waiting for installation. I've repurchased them digitally from Steam of course, but the laptop can't play them. Hell, about all I can play on this thing is Doom, which isn't very impressive. Doom plays on everything. Meanwhile all the other games I want to play with, the old favorites, the franchises I love? Sitting in a corner or stuck in the cloud.

Every year I get especially nostalgic around this time. I remember things I missed and haven't seen in a while. So, because I'm feeling extra sad because of... everything, I wanted to try and cheer myself up some, remembering fond memories of the games I used to play. And hope, one day, to play again.

First a brief disclaimer, I'm excluding a few games based on the fact I can still play them with minimum difficulty. It's also based on how comfortable I am playing them on the consoles they're available on. As well as the quality of the remaster or console release. There's some exceptions to this, but not many. So let's start.

RTS games were always a big thing for me. Playing the general in a massive war never failed to excite my young mind. Empire Earth appealed to my inherent history nerd, more so than most as it didn't tie itself down to to a singular era or form of combat. From the Stone Age to the far future, you could command all sorts of armies to absolute victory.

With four campaigns in total, Greek, English, German and Russia, each with their own distinct settings, it was an amazing slice of history to play around in. I remember spending hours upon hours battling from Medieval England to the Napoleonic Wars under the English banner. Where else could I go from knights to muskets in the span of a few minutes?

A lot of my time though was spent on the German and Russian campaigns, although I didn't particularly like the final missions of the German campaign because it involved an alt-history scenario where the Nazis. As I'll explain, I don't like helping the Nazis. I prefer to kill them. The WW1 levels though were pretty good. Fighting through Verdun, brutal, but very rewarding.

The Russian campaign, that was something else entirely. A completely original story set in the future where brutal Russian dictator seizes power and attempts to conquer the whole world. Only he can't live forever to see it through, so he downloads his mind into a robot successor, who becomes even more brutal in its insane quest for power. The only hope in the end is for a heroic pair of warriors to travel back in time and stop the dictator before he ever comes to power. It was a really fun campaign... although I imagine a reemergent Russian Empire is not exactly as fun to talk about these days.

There was an expansion that added new campaigns, including an American one spanning most of the Pacific War. As well as another future campaign with a new epoch to expand into, the space age. Now that was a hard campaign, I much preferred the Pacific War, as a I'm always invested in the World Wars historically. I'm sure someone big into Roman history would've enjoyed the Roman campaign way more than I did, although I like it fine.

What was great about Empire Earth was how much it revered history as much as I did and used history to tell its own stories. It's unfortunate we don't get more RTS games that are willing to span the length of history. Nor as many that will take on less well known or used eras in history. There really should be more WW1 Real time Strategy games honestly, far too few in my mind. Sadly, the game is still only on PC. I mean, the RTS genre works best on it. But really, with advances in tech that's making consoles basically just PCs in their own right, it should be a lot easier to adapt them to consoles more often. If only to make it easier for everyone play them.

This one might be more familiar to you as a result of some recent developments. Age of Mythology was always right up my alley. As a student of history, I was also always drawn to the myths born of history. An RTS that explores Greek, Egyptian and Norse myths? Sign me up! You don't know the true joy that can come from raising an army of Hydras that only get stronger the more heads they grow. Or watching an alligator with a sun beam laser burn through enemy fortresses. Or summoning Nidhogg the dragon to basically annihilate your enemies from on high. Simply the best.

I played through the whole campaign at least twice, because I was that obsessed with it at the time. It was the only way I could use more of the crazy awesome units available to you in this game. Scorpions, Valkyries, Krakens, Anubis Soldiers, there's a friggin turtle that you can use to transport troops! And let's not forget the god powers, summoning meteors from the sky is never not fun!

It was also just really nice to see Egyptian mythology represented for once. I do love me Ancient Egypt and it's pantheon of Gods. Sadly, they're not as used as the Norse or Greeks for things. Which is really a shame, they got some killer stuff that is worth adapting. In AoM, we actually help assemble Osiris so he can come back to life and help stop the apocalypse! I feel there's a bit of a concern among people though, that they'll get it wrong and offend someone. Which I can sorta understand. But not using Egyptian Myth to create media is almost as bad as getting it wrong.

I suppose I should just be happy they aren't going to have Kratos kill all my favorite Egyptian Gods. At least I can be grateful for that much.

You might be asking, why not just play the Retold remaster? I would, but it's just not the same. Something feels lost in the dialogue and delivery of the updated campaign. I don't know if its me or I'm just misremembering it, but I felt Arkantos had a much better commanding presence with his original voice actor. Now he just sounds off. Don't get me started on Gargarensis. He just sounds all kinds of wrong, his evil poetry doesn't read the same. Also, the achievements are a problem too. So ridiculously overly difficult. I'd be forced to play the game forever just to get most of them. Not really worth it in my mind sadly.

Overall, I'd rather play the original on PC, not as many issues there. But at least I still have the original disc if I ever want to go back.

Let's switch this up, Crimson Skies is an arcade-style flight combat game. One that, in my mind, is one of the few alt-history settings I'm still actually interested in post-TNO and what it did. More on that, but not too much, later. Right now, it's the Fortune Hunters' time!

You play Nathan Zachary, ace fighter pilot and ex-playboy who leads a band of merry sky pirates, the Fortune Hunters, in an alternate 1930s America that has split apart following the stock market crash of 1929. In this Balkanized United States, conflict is ever present and railroads and highways are no longer safe for travel and trade. Which means zeppelins have become the new means of import and export and that's opened the path back up for the cutthroats of the world to start a new golden age of piracy!

I love planes, and Crimson Skies offers so many to choose from. All of them wildly imaginative in design, from reverse construction with the propeller in the back, to planes with rear turrets in their tails, bi-wing design or whatever crazy stuff you can think of.

If nothing else, Crimson Skies drew me in with its cast of colorful characters, pulpy action-packed storyline, and damn good dogfighting action. Seriously, so of the most fun I've had flying the unfriendly digital skies was in this game alone. I've pretty much measured every flight sim and air combat game by its metric. If it's not nearly as fun as Crimson Skies, it isn't worth my time.

The game did get a sequel, on consoles no less, which is backwards compatible, even better. High Road to Revenge is indeed a great game... however, it's downsized. The cast of Fortune Hunters is cut down to three, which includes Nathan, so it's more like two. It's not nearly as long, there aren't many returning characters or factions, and frankly it's just more simplified in its roster of planes and upgrades. It's a good game, but its not the original, which is nowhere to be found on any console, remastered or otherwise. It's not even on steam. If you can get a physical copy, good for you. Probably might cost you a bit though. But the truth is, if I ever want to play Crimson Skies' original entry ever again, I'll need to get a new PC.

I don't even understand why there hasn't been a new entry in the franchise. Microsoft just lets it lay there on the shelf, practically abandoned. I wanted to see what this world's WW2 would've ended up looking like. Can you imagine how a United States with such divided ideologies would end up like? Trust me, something like THAT would be worth exploring.

From a past that never was, to a far future in space where none can hear you scream and if it bleeds we can kill it. Aliens vs Predator 2 is the pinnacle of either franchise in shooter form. There have been many games since featuring both the xenomorphs and predators, but none have ever reached these heights since.

Playing as a Marine is perfectly fine for those just looking for a solid FPS experience, but it's really only the tip of the iceberg. Being able to play as the Alien, facehugger to warrior brings an entirely new dynamic to the game as you become primarily focused on stealth more than anything. Similar to the Predator, but you have more weaponry and other abilities that switch things up considerably.

Each campaign had its own feel to it, following branching paths of the same storyline. Everything you could ever want out of these franchises is here. From the Marines' assault rifles, to the Xenomorph being able to skewer enemies with its tail, to the Predator's plasma cannon and thermal vision. And each of them feel powerful in their own right.

While I can always pick of the eventual sequel to this that came out on consoles, it's still not the same. Something about this entry just feels the best of all of them as it wasn't too reliant on nostalgia and fanservice as others. It was just focused on telling a story in this world, helped along by the Aliens vs Predator comics that were so prevalent around this time. Don't take this as me complaining about how Disney owns both IPs now, its not. I just recognize that, at the time, games based on big IPs weren't as concerned about recreating moments you're familiar with. They were concerned with getting the feeling down.

I really don't want this to sound like I'm complaining, so I'm making that clear. AvP2 just wasn't worried about reminding you why you liked these two franchises because their place in pop culture was more recent and known to the target demographic. Regardless, maybe we're starting to see a resurgence. The success of "Prey" and "Alien: Romulus" proves there is still life in these franchises, and maybe they'll actually meet up again in the future. Although if they do, one would hope they follow this game's lead. Send in the Marines! Come on, it's been decades since an Alien movie has featured the Marines! Disney, you have James Cameron on payroll now! Ask him to make the next AvP movie with the Colonial Marines once he's done with Avatar! Come on, give people an excuse to release a new AvP game or at least remaster the old ones.

Freedom Force is a comic book lover's dream, a top down RPG in the vein of Diablo but starring Superheroes, in a Silver Age 1960s ripped straight out of the panels. If you love classic comics of the era, whether DC or Marvel, Freedom Force checks every friggin box.

There are so many awesome characters in this, it's hard to pick a favorite. Minuteman, the leader of the team. A clear stand-in for Captain America, save for the fact he's not actually a frozen WW2 Soldier, but an aging scientist who worked on the Manhattan project, revitalized into a younger version of himself with twice the strength and patriotic bravado because an alien chemical landed on him. Yeah, it's basically that sort of game throughout. The Any is basically Spider-Man, but he got Ant powers, again, because of alien chemicals. Man-Bot, former playboy, got in an accident, hit by the chemicals, forced to live in a metal suit forever. You get the picture.

You work your way through chapter after chapter fighting a variety of bad guys and enemies in various scenarios that you could've found in any of the comics of the 1960s. There's even some cutscenes done in the style of those old comic books. Your powers even make the same sort of sound effect onomatopoeia that is so connected to the medium. It is very clear the creators loved old comic books. Oh by the way, Ken Levine of BioShock fame worked on this, just to let you know.

There was an expansion, this one featuring time travel, where the heroes go back in time to stop Nazis from re-writing history. It introduced some new heroes, including my two favorites, Green Genie and Tombstone. The former, a fun loving Muslim-girl whose powers have granted her reality warping powers and green skin. The latter, a wrongfully accused man who was executed in the electric chair just as the alien energies struck the power lines. Turning him into a badass skeletal specter who punishes the guilty. He might be a little out of place in the Silver Age, but damn it if he isn't cool.

I don't play a lot of games like Freedom Force, the Diablo-Style mechanics can be overwhelming. But it had a number of features that made it easier to handle, such as pausing the action to plan out attacks. This made the gameplay a lot more accessible but no less fun, as picking the right team of heroes and upgrading them effectively to face any foe was pretty much half the fun. It's been forever since I've played the game, but I still remember the joy I got watching Minuteman clock a goon in the face straight up before shouting "FOR FREEDOM" at the top of his lungs.

If only they had made a sequel, they would've expanded out to future comic book eras and added even more heroes and villains based on those periods. Sadly, while it is on steam, it's not on consoles and probably never will be because it's not exactly the most well-known superhero game out there. I don't believe in this "superheroes are played out" nonsense people claim is going around. That's simplifying cultural shifts in my mind. There's always going to be a place for superheroes, in films and games.

I just wanna watch Green Genie change some dude into a flower vase while Tombstone shoots a goon with his dual blaster guns. Is it weird I ship them? It's probably weird I ship them together.

Alright, time for another alt-history and RTS game, this one a bit more interesting in my mind, as its about the Soviet Union, recognizing its about to die and can't sustain itself, makes the Cold War go hot, invading West Berlin before the rest of Germany and Europe. Finally taking the war to the shores of America on the very day in our timeline when the Berlin Wall was supposed to come down.

My version of the game is played exclusively from the American perspective, leading company of US Army Soldiers as they tried to turn back the red tide as it sweeps through Washington State. The ultimate goal being to take back Seattle before America and Russia inevitably turn this conflict into a nuclear one.

There was an expansion I never played because I rarely care about playing the obvious bad guys. Soviet Assault gave the game more missions from the Russian point of view and greater towards the larger conflict. You don't actually change the outcome of the campaign, this doesn't add a new ending, as the Soviet missions play out parallel to the American ones. But they got a long way to showing a different side to the events unfolding in the story.

For me, World in Conflict was a seminal game and a core memory, important to crafting my ideas concerning how to tell a war story. It had some of the most exciting missions and gameplay in an RTS, focusing purely on commanding units rather than base building. It kept the action fluid and constant. And it made you very careful about which units you ordered into the fight and how you used them.

The real fun part was when the game let you go all out with artillery and air strikes. That was the big draw honestly. If you accumulated enough combat points and did well enough in objectives, you'd gain access to powerful strike capabilities that could turn the tide of battle. Napalming Soviets on the highway or targeting occupied buildings with surgical airstrikes is supremely satisfying. And with how often enemies will get in close, you will be shouting "Broken Arrow" more often than not.

I'm pretty sure every current edition of the game is packaged with Soviet Assault, completing the overall experience. All I know is, without a proper PC rig, I cannot run the game anymore. So I'm locked out of one of my favorite RTS games with one of the best campaigns I've played in a long time.

They say every time you mention this game, someone, somewhere reinstalls it. I can believe that, it's just it's never been an option for me for a good while. Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines is just one of those RPGs that manages to succeed despite itself. Not because of anything it fails at, but because its development was screwed and it was released in such a sorry state. Fixing it proved to be more than a little difficult, but fans pulled through and have been consistently adding onto the game for years since, long after the license has expired.

For me, this was the one time in my life I actually wanted to play as a vampire. When it comes to supernatural creatures, vampires are always last on my fantasy list. Bloodlines somehow managed to make it something worth playing, by abandoning some clichés, enhancing stronger tropes, playing around with the mythology and actually making the Vampires interesting as a species and culture. I tend to better respect something that can defy my usually and admittedly steadfast and stubborn edicts. If you can somehow get me to like something I'd otherwise hate, you have my respect forever. That's Bloodlines, it made being a vampire fascinating.

Not because Vampires were all powerful or anything, but because they were all so deeply fucked up. The game blatantly admits that vampire society is basically full of scheming, conniving backstabbers. That they're all absolutely terrified of their own disease that gives them so much power and are constantly fearful of being extinguished. Their entire society revolves less around controlling the world, and more around just surviving by any means necessary. It's a sad existence, but they don't really have a choice. It's this or damnation. And even then, they're all still worried about a possible coming apocalypse that will spell unspeakable doom. And you, as a fledgling vampire, get caught up in the middle of all this, as a pawn of various factions and individuals, all out for each other's blood. At the end of the day, your job is the same as everyone's, survive.

It's a unique take on vampires, basically admitting that you're a blood-sucking parasite and you're probably on borrowed time. Best you can hope for is to try and make it to the next sunset alive. And seeing how all these different vampires deal with the reality of their existence, none of them really good, but not exactly evil, humanized them somewhat in my mind.

And yes, fine, Jeanette Voerman is super hot and I love her and all that. I really love her and her sister's storyline. Her school girl outfit and pony tails did things to me, whatever. I'm not going to lie about what I am, but I would prefer not to be mistaken for a stupid gooner gamer. I played this game several times over for a lot more reasons than just Jeanette you know.

I also really liked playing the Malkavian for the funny dialogue.

Obviously, since it has no console release, I can't play it anymore. And it looks like the long gestating sequel is going to be an entirely different animal that is slowly losing my interest as more about it is revealed. I don't even know if Damsel is still showing up or if I can customize my character at all anymore. And that's if it even comes out. Next chance I get to play this game, I'm going to do my first playthrough with something other than a Malkavian for once. My original playthrough was with Brujah, which was fine, and I prefer being a Malkavian overall. But I think I need to try something new for next go around.

And maybe fix the dialogue fonts too, they never appeared how they were supposed to.

I don't know why we keep trying to colonize Mars when it's just gonna cause problems. All the video games say it will. Red Faction was one of them. Sold on the very exciting concept of being able to destroy the environment around you to create shortcuts or take out enemies, Red Faction was a kickass shooter about rebelling against corporate tyranny on Mars.

Created by the dudes who would later go on to make the Saints Row series, Red Faction might have otherwise been an average shooter was its environment destruction mechanic not its focal point. Being a miner on Mars gave you access to a lot of explosives, honestly the Ultor corporation should've seen this coming. So as a result, within the very first level of the game, you're already blowing up walls or busting through floors to push forward. Before long you'll be doing the same to take out towers, bunkers or maybe just get past a locked door.

Don't get me wrong though, it is a fun game. I've taken a lot from it honestly and the idea of fighting corporate tyranny never gets old. I just recognize that there isn't much else that separates it from other games of the era. Although it took some seriously crazy swerves. Fighting an evil psychic-enhanced mad scientist and all his creepy mutant creations was not what I was expecting to take up a good portion of the second act. Let me tell you.

It's been so long, but a lot of the game still remains fresh in my mind, even if its less gameplay and more specifics. Really though, none of the other Red Faction games did it for me in the same way. The Rebels became exceedingly unlikable come "Red Faction Guerilla" and the actual Red Faction 2 is not at all connected with this one. Strangely, I could play this game again without the PC, it's on the Playstation 2, which I have. I just haven't gone out of my way is all. I suppose its because it's never been more core console. I am an Xbox gamer. I know, a lot of you probably want to call me scum right now. I get it. But I still love the system, nothing you say is gonna change that, no matter how crappy the company can act. It's not like they're the only ones being dicks in the gaming market today.

Just to be clear, this is the whole series, which are too many to really name as of now. Getting into all of them would take too long. Let's just say, C&C had a huge impact on me and it has not left me since I first played around in their worlds.

From fighting the Brotherhood of Nod and it's seemingly ageless charismatic leader Kane, to thwarting psychic megalomaniac Yuri in Red Alert 2's expansion pack, I am intimately familiar with the series' ins and outs. As well as its highs and... lows. Real big lows.

Let's not mix words here, EA fucked this series. It fucked it so hard. They wanted to turn it into an E-Sports game to rake in Starcraft money and it failed so hard. They ruined the Tiberium universe with the fourth entry. Cancelled the Generals sequel outright. And Red Alert 3, while perfectly fine, is pretty much just so ridiculous that you can't take any of it seriously. Granted Red Alert 2 already made that half of the universe less serious to begin with, the Soviet campaign had you turn the Eiffel Tower into a Tesla coil. But there was still a semblance of taking the material seriously beneath the B-Movie charm.

I still have a love for the various entries though. Red Alert 2, Generals, Renegade, (Who would've thought you could make an FPS out of an RTS?) each hold a place in my heart one way or another. I just wish I could try to experience the games again from the start. Don't get to though, no console release, not even for the remasters. I still have my box set for the original four games, the Renegade CD, Generals and its expansion (Although I'm not as fond of said expansion because its campaign's story is ridiculous... even if currently plausible thanks to certain recent events) and of course there's Yuri's Revenge, which really cranked up the silliness before Red Alert 3 came around. All the same, good series in its heyday. Wish EA hadn't basically destroyed it like it does most games and studios it touches. Let's keep hoping BioWare doesn't join Westwood in defunct studios owned by Electronic Arts. Mass Effect 4, you are our best hope now.

"Cause No One Lives Forevvvvveeeerrrr! But evil never diiiiieeeesssss!"

Cate Archer is not only one of the most awesome/hottest fictional spies out there, she is also one of the least well known. Its unfortunate that her series faded into the background, but I suppose that's the consequence of the shooter boom post Half-Life and Halo.

However, that doesn't diminish what this game accomplished, creating a wholly original spy thriller that somehow was able to keep the camp without sacrificing the seriousness of real-world espionage. Sure, Cate uses a robot poodle to blow enemies up, but she's also a consummate professional dealing with 1960s sexism in a field dominated by men. I'm sure today grifters would be complaining this thing was "Woke" or whatever. Or maybe they wouldn't care because Cate shows off her boobs while wearing a tight spandex spy suit. Who can say?

All I know is I had a blast whether sneaking or fighting in both entries. And I enjoyed how much it paid homage to the classic spy movies of the era without ever feeling crass or cynical about them. It played itself straight at all times, even when the dangerous menace that threatens is using a weaponized chemical agent that makes you burp a lot before you explode violently, killing yourself and everyone.

Yes, that is real. The sequel makes you fight mimes while escaping on a tiny bicycle. Also ninjas.

You laugh, sure, but it's still fucking cool. Don't expect a video game now, let alone a shooter, to ever be allowed to have some fun anymore. I'm more than positive someone out there would claim this type of silly pulpy humor would be cringe or whatever. Maybe Cate's eventual reboot will be some hyper-realistic spy simulator that takes itself extra seriously and removes anything funny from its story. All in favor of increasing the edge super high because its the only way you'll take Cate seriously. Women aren't allowed to be funny anymore, look what happened to She-Hulk. She cracks a few jokes and dances a little, suddenly everyone wants her head on a pike. They even predicted it would happen! How you think Cate Archer having a little fun with her killer robot poodle or weapons disguised as accessories is gonna be treated? Not well, I can tell you that!

Maybe I'm overexaggerating some. Point is, No One Lives Forever was a franchise gone too soon. I wish someone would try to bring it back in some form. Maybe Nightdive has it on its Radar. I suppose we'll have to wait and see. Until then, I won't be playing it. Just waiting for a chance to.

Time to get into a theme here, starting with this one. Company of Heroes was a top down RTS game that followed various branches of the US Military as it worked to retake France from Nazi Occupation. From D-Day to the Falaise Pocket, it recounts the struggles and triumphs of the first step to liberating Western Europe.

This holds a special place in my mind because... I never finished it. I got to the last level, the last mission... didn't finish. And because my computer crapped out, I probably will never get to finish.

Company of Heroes has had other entries, but this is the one that I care about the most, as over time I feel it has run into the trap so many of these RTS games do now. The sequel that took place on the Eastern front with the Russians drew criticism for seemingly demonizing the Russians you were playing as for their, historically accurate, brutality against their enemies. The third game decided it was going to frame its single player campaign on the German side of things... while trying to pay tribute to the indigenous population they committed war crimes against.

Ok... what? You want me to play as the guys who did war crimes? I already don't like playing as Germans in WW2, it always leaves a sour taste in my mouth. But... I gotta tell ya, RTS games let you play as Nazis a lot more often than should be normal. Disturbing, I was instantly turned off of the third game, needless to say. If the only real narrative campaign option I have is the fucking Germans, you've instantly lost me. You could've let us be the British, but nah, just play as the fucking War Criminals I guess. Sure there's another campaign where you play as the Allies taking Italy, but that's an entirely different sort of single player experience that is much more free flow. I'm talking about the narrative campaign that I usually pick these up for.

Company of Heroes, the first one at least, knew better than to try and make us play as the fucking Nazis. Its cover system for your squads was engaging, the units themselves diverse and interesting, and the tactics involved in how to use them effectively were fun to figure out. I did bust through the various levels after all, I had a ton of fun getting through the game. I just... never got the chance to finish it is all. Sucks, I know, and I just want the chance to properly finish something I started. I don't like leaving things unfinished.

Alright, we're down to the real good stuff now. The games that cemented my status as a gamer. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was one of my first full-fledged shooter titles. Given its release timing, I likely played Halo on Xbox first, but that hardly changes things. All I know is that this game spoke to my history nerd so hard. I needed to experience it, I was not disappointed.

I think Allied Assault was special to me because it proved how cinematic games could be. Yes, the D-Day mission is straight out of Saving Private Ryan, but a lot of it was like that. The music, the action beats, the in-game animation, it all just expressed this incredible aura. Like I was starring in my own adventure. That I was a part of history.

That's what worked so well for me, that it completely pulled me into this period in time. Infiltrating submarine bases, moving up Omaha Beach, pushing my way through sniper alley, stealing that tank and using it against the Germans, all to an epic score I can still hear in my head.

The game of course had two expansions, extra missions covering other aspects of the war in Europe. Spearhead and Breakthrough were both excellent additions in their own right. The challenge was at times frustrating, but ultimately rewarding. And while Medal of Honor couldn't survive the transition to modern shooters like CoD did... I'm kinda happy it didn't. I don't think I would've liked Medal of Honor sacrificing its heroic optimistic outlook and production values to become what Call of Duty is now. A dreary, hyper monetized, cash cow that can feel exceedingly soulless in the face of how many studios are slaved to making its multiplayer maps. We can only hope Raven will one day be free of those mines.

I suppose there is merit in better showcasing the horrors of war, but CoD has just completely slipped in to a very right-leaning outlook on a lot of things, torture especially, although that is by no means unique to it alone. Medal of Honor always felt like it was more balanced. That war is hell, but there is still inherent true heroism to be found within the horror. Perhaps it hasn't all aged perfectly, and its own brand of patriotism can be tiring, even misguided. But I appreciate the series for shedding a light on the sacrifices made to defeat the greatest evil this world has ever known. I wish more people today were as willing to take a stand against similar ideologies, especially since similar ones to the Axis powers have become so prevalent today.

I just miss when games like Medal of Honor tried to share history with you, as much as anything else. And help place back in another time, to help us understand what it was like. And I really wanna hear that music again, okay? That shit was fucking kickass!

Call of Duty wasn't always the shooter juggernaut. It wasn't always the biggest franchise in existence, released annually like Madden to keep the multiplayer shooter scene satiated. It wasn't always stale and desperate and edgy and bereft of anything original. I hear Raven actually managed to make the new Black Ops at least a little less formulaic at least, good for them, hope they can get to do their own damn games again soon.

Back when CoD was just starting out, it had one mission, to illuminate the lives of those who fought in WW2. Not just Americans, but British and Soviet soldiers too. Trying to show everyone that wars are not won by singular individuals, but by scores of people risking everything for the homelands and the people beside them.

And it worked. We got to experience being an Airborne Paratrooper, an SAS Operative and a Russian Conscript. Each of the fighting on their respective fronts to bring final victory in the most devastating war known to man. It was a fun and engaging game that never got stale because you were always shifting perspectives, you were never static or in one place. There was always something different waiting around the next corner. It felt like a breath of fresh air in a sea of steadily increasing WWII titles that even by then were getting a bit much.

As CoD went on, it adopted more and more of its less savory aspects. Focusing more on multiplayer, single player getting downplayed, formulas being overdone, things just not working out the way they were supposed to. CoD got further and further away from its origins, now it practically own the FPS scene to the point it has become stifiling.

I barely play CoD games anymore. The only time I purchase them is when they go back to WW2, hoping to capture the same magic again, never really managing. I can technically still play the first CoD. It's on my Xbox 360, released under the arcade titles. However, you can't get that anymore with the 360 store closed down, so the rest of you are out of luck on that front. But I can't play the expansion, United Offensive, which I guess is why it's still here. I'm locked out of the full experience for the first Call of Duty. And that's sad, it really is. Maybe one day, that won't be the case though, we can hope.

Of all the games I've talked about, this one, right here, is the most important in my mind. Return to Castle Wolfenstein is the single most important game in my life, alongside Halo and Medal of Honor, as I played each in very quick succession of each other. But RTCW has always held a huge place in my heart because it spoke to me on so many levels that have become synonymous with how I view gaming even now.

Sure, there are stealth sections that can be a pain. Sure some enemies can be cheap as hell. Sure the challenge can be overbearing to the point of madness. But I replayed this campaign from start to finish on my PC more times than I can count. That's how damn good it was.

From the second I woke up in the castle dungeon and knocked out that guard, I was hooked. I made it my mission to try and sneak around, not get caught for as long as possible. Generally so I could over hear the Nazis in the next room going on about stuff. When it was time to go Rambo, I did so. Kicking in doors, blasting off a stolen MP-40, raining lead down from on high before finding a plate of delicious food to eat to heal me up.

This was, in my mind, the pinnacle of gaming. It was like Indiana Jones meets Captain America, it was everything I ever wanted. The supernatural elements, the crazy mad science, the kick ass weapons, that scene at the rocket plane airbase, when the elite Nazi paratroopers drop in, that was fucking cool from start to finish. Everything about this game made me smile, I loved it that much.

I was a fan of the Wolfenstein franchise from then on... until Bethesda and Machine Games broke my heart with that insult of a reboot. The New Order, in short order, killed the series for me. It's alt-history storyline was a complete clusterfuck, it's characters pissed me, its weapons weren't all that fun to use, and they literally stuck a middle finger up at the previous games in the series. First by dismissing any supernatural elements from the story outright, then by releasing that godawful Old Blood stand alone that was nothing more than them redoing RTCW's story, but worse.

I hate what they did to the series. I hated what it did to me more. I became so bitter and angry. By this time, my desktop computer had already given up the ghost, so I couldn't go back and play it again to wash the stink out. I had to get the game's original Xbox release just to be able to play it again! I needed to play it again just to remind me what had been lost.

So yeah, this is the one game on this list I really can still play in full, but I miss playing it still. As much as I love that the Xbox version is there and even has some improvements on the PC version, it's still not the same, it doesn't feel the same. And that's why it's just a substitute. Yeah, I can play it, and enjoy it on console. But I do still feel I'm missing some only the PC version had, sadly.

Well there it is, a small stroll down memory lane. Hopefully this brought some memories back for yourselves as well. I know this probably isn't my most insightful post. But maybe it gave you all a better idea about me.

We'll see what the future brings. Maybe I'll get a computer that can run these games again. We can only hope. Until then, I'll keep waiting to return to my old stomping grounds.

#video games #return to castle wolfenstein #medal of honor #call of duty #no one lives forever #red faction #world in conflict #command and conquer #crimson skies #age of mythology #empire earth #company of heroes #aliens vs predator 2 #vampires the masquerade bloodlines #Jeanette voerman #Freedom Force #nostalgia #I expect to get in trouble for my thoughts on the new Wolfenstein games. Never fails to attract angry people to me.

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cinemacentral666 · 1 year ago

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The Painted Bird (2019)

Movie #1,078 • TWO FOR TUESDAY

The Painted Bird begins like this…

…and then proceeds to torture that child in pretty much every way you could imagine (psychologically, physically, and everything in between) for the better part of three hours. It is the ALL GAS NO BREAKS of films about the atrocities mankind unloads on one another. The main and perhaps only complaint I've seen levied against this boils down to just that: this is human suffering porn and human suffering porn sucks. I actually saw that phrase ("human suffering porn") used and it struck me (there's no shortage of shitty takes on this btw). That writer clearly had to make a distinction between this wonderfully shot black-and-white epic and something like Saw VI. To say, "I get that this Art, and I see how it checks off the boxes which makes something Art, but my mind can't parse any contrast between Jigsaw and Udo Kier." You can't really have it both ways, though.

Where torture porn exists purely in service of delivering those salacious goods, this strives to use those elements in service of delivering a message. Like any good war movie, this is stridently anti-war. And like the best war movies, it isn't political in the slightest. The Czech writer-director, Václav Marhoul, went as far as to use the Interslavic language (an auxiliary dialect used to facilitate communication between speakers of various Slavic languages) in order to obscure the actual location of these various Eastern Europe settings. One whiny critic actually wrote that "none of the film takes place in Germany [and] very little of the evil done to the kid has anything to do with Germans or Nazis." Like we needed to cut to a shot of Hitler pouting to understand why these people were living this way.

This movie is based on a 1965 book with a complex and fascinating backstory (its author is Jerzy Kosiński, who also penned Being There). It's pure fiction but what we know about the hell that was WWII suggests that all the gruesome elements aren't altogether fantastical. The parallels/similarities to the all-time classic Come and See (1985), at least on the surface, are instant and unmistakable even if they're not much more than "war seen through the eyes of a young boy." (Interestingly enough, Alexsey Kravchenko — who portrayed the boy in Come and See — plays a Russian military officer here, and one of the few "good guys" in The Painted Bird.) I don't think this is quite on par with Klimov's generational effort, but I'd still say it's a must-watch. As it turns out, this is simply a premium delivery system for the anti-war system.

For me, a grizzled vet of fucked-up horror, the worst moments weren't the violent and sicko outbursts, like when Udo Kier gouges a man's eyes out with a spoon. It was seeing the young boy striving to stay connected to some semblance of humanity in the wake of such things, like when he futilely delivers said eyeballs back to the man crying in the woods.

It was a fascinating choice to cast name actors, from all over the world, in small but important supporting roles in these various vignettes (the film is separated into seven specific chapters that could easily be viewed as shorts in their own right). Stellan Skarsgård doesn't utter a single line of dialogue and Barry Pepper, just one or two. There's the aforementioned Kier, and Harvey Keitel plays a priest. The late Julian Sands is a pedophile who gets eaten alive by rats. Like using the Impact font on the movie poster and inter-titles, this decision left me scratching my head, though not in a bad way.

But in the end this is child actor Petr Kotlár's movie. To subject someone as young as that to what we ultimately find onscreen isn't without a degree of moral ambiguity. That two stand-ins get a special shout-out in the credits alleviates some of this grief/guilt, but it's still worth mentioning. While I believe this is a much more valid complaint than simply stating you (an adult) were personally offended by the content, I choose to see this through a lens of bravery. He's really great in this without every speaking a word. I hope it doesn't/didn't fuck his life up.

I don't think this movie is begging you to look away. I think it's trying to make you look harder at what and why this could happen. Yes, all those Nazis we don't actually see, among many other things. It doesn't spell it out and never offers a concrete answer. The chief film critic of Variety walked out of this and in his "review" he willfully offers up a list of all the other films he's walked out of, among them:

I couldn’t get past the opening credits sequence of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” (which had already managed to cutesify my favorite song, “Brandy” by Looking Glass), as Baby Groot dances to ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky” while the ensemble fights a space alien in the background. I’d enjoyed the original, but the Guardians had clearly gotten too cool to care, so why should I?

Everyone's hell is vastly different in the end. My 2¢? Let's try to relate, even when that seems so painful that it's impossible. For example, I would have walked out of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 also.

SCORE: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#two for tuesday #war #2019 #9 #🇨🇿#václav marhoul director #petr kotlár #nina šunevič #stellan skarsgård #udo kier #harvey keitel #jitka čvančarová #julian sands #ala sakalova #aleksei kravchenko #barry pepper

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vihola · 2 years ago

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your vyshyvanka post sent me down a rabbit hole

I googled what vyshyvankas are, looked at the pictures, and go oh! I thought some Romanian traditional clothes had something like that

So I open the french wiki (my default one) and read that it's traditional Ukrainian, Belarus, and Russian embroidery. And I'm like huh statement that it's common among these countries does not really track with the implications of your post.

There is not much info on the french wiki so I go to the English one and read that it is Ukrainian and Belarusian.

And I'm like ok-key I need more info. I go German and Spanish wiki cause it's the languages that I read. German has names in all three languages. Spanish claims it is strictly Ukrainian.

I'm like ok gotta go deeper. I break out my trusty google translate and open up Ukrainian, Belarussian, and Russian wiki.

And all hell breaks loose.

All three wikis try to claim it as their own. If on previous wikis info were more or less in line here views and history presented are vastly different and openly contradict each other. The Ukrainian page is partially protected.

My hands are shaking. I start reading the page in every language that's available.

The politicisation of Vyshyvanka is fascianting.

(with what I understood from the Russian wiki they regard it as a general Slavic thing so you can probably get it with no repercussions)

Ahaha, what a journey! Ok, bear with me, I'll try to give you the basics

Traditional embroidered clothes are common for Eastern European cultures, but not every embroidered shirt is a vyshyvanka. It's a Ukrainian and Belarusian thing (Not Russian though — the closest thing they have to a vyshyvanka is a kosovorotka, which has very different style, historical roots, and cultural role)

Ukrainian vyshyvanka and Belarusian vyshyvanka are also separate traditions with distinctive symbolism, patterns, and designs. Ukrainian tradition has a variety of regional patterns with centuries of historical and cultural development behind them. Here's a simplification that doesn’t even include my favorite patterns, but you get the idea:

It was kind of a passport before passports existed. Just by looking at someone else's vyshyvanka one could tell where they're from, what's their occupation and social status, whether they're married, etc. It was and continues to be a symbol of belongingness and national resistance

Vyshyvanka is so closely tied to Ukrainian identity that people in occupied territories (now liberated) had to hide their vyshyvankas to minimize the risk of getting murdered. So yeah, it's definitely a ticket to a torture chamber if Russians get me. But it's nothing new — Ukrainians were killed for a vyshyvanka before, history repeats itself over and over

#I would also recommend double-checking anything russia claims as their own #they have a history of appropriating Eastern European cultures because colonialism

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feralaot · 4 years ago

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In a modern AU, what languages would the characters be able to speak fluently?

personally there’s a lot of languages I’ve tried to learn but it never works

AOT characters + languages they speak

no warnings

modern

eren: he only knows german and (partial) english but his accent isn’t very noticeable. he tried to learn romanian to impress historia (though, truly, she didn’t care) but he thought it was too weird and gave up

armin: german, english, french, and spanish. and he speaks them all perfectly. he picks up languages really easily, partially because he travels abroad often. he defaults to german especially when he’s upset so if eren and armin are mad at each other they’ll have full blown arguments in ridiculously fast german. his german accent is slightly noticeable but not thick

mikasa: fluent in english and mandarin chinese, but she’s also trying to learn german and has been taking classes for a few years because she wants to understand what the hell eren and armin are arguing about. she’s only semi-fluent and has to ask eren to slowly repeat himself a lot when practicing with him

jean and connie: german and english for both but jean sounds very austrian in particular. connie also speaks fluent spanish (I hc him as part latino)

sasha: english, portuguese, and some spanish, but she has a very typical midwestern american accent and nobody knows where it came from. connie says it’s probably the western movies

historia: romanian, english, french, and partial german. (I hc her as romanian/french) she learned english during middle school so she could study abroad once she was older. her accent in english passes very well for northeastern american

ymir: she doesn’t even care that nobody speaks it anymore but she knows latin as well as castilian spanish, italian, and portuguese. (I hc her as hispanic with a very mixed family)

levi: fluent in german and french. he’s also trying to learn english and is semi-fluent but doesn’t start conversations in english very often because he doesn’t want to embarrass himself

erwin: german and (very partial) english but he sounds VERY german. he can’t pronounce squirrel and instead refers to them as “tree rats” in english

hange: fluent in german and polish but is also determined to learn english, and they can hold a good conversation in it so far. they also have to translate for levi and erwin because neither of them can understand english super well. it’s a huge ego boost for hange honestly

reiner: german is his first language and although he is fluent in english he often forgets words and stutters a lot or has to ask bertholdt what the english word for something is. he also tried to learn ukrainian to show off (since annie picked it up quickly) but failed horribly

bertholdt: basically the opposite to reiner. while yes german is his first language and he is also fluent in english, he often forgets german words and has to ask reiner what the german word for something is. also I don’t know if this counts but he knows asl

annie: german, russian, and ukrainian. she tried learning english and can hold a conversation pretty well but it’s not her language of choice. her accent is noticeably southern russian

porco: fluent in english and despite being surrounded by german speakers he can’t really hold a conversation in it and has to be reminded of certain words often. his accent is strangely eastern american and pieck jokes that it’s because of all the movies he watches

pieck: okay hear me I hc that her first language is polish and she learned german around elementary school when she moved. she was very surprised to learn hange also speaks polish so sometimes they have conversations in polish to gossip about their friend groups. she also knows asl

zeke: german and partial english, same as eren. his accent is a lot more noticeable than his brother’s however. although if someone asks him a question in german he says “I don’t speak german” in english despite having a very distinct bavarian german accent

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langernameohnebedeutung · 4 years ago

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What's the best and worst feature of all the languages you speak?

Let me illustrate:

Okay...in all ‘seriousness’:

The best thing about Swedish: Sin/sitt/sina vs. hans/hennes. If you have a sentence like: “He paints his house”, you don’t know whether he’s painting his own house or that of some other guy. But Swedish actually makes that distinction: If it is his own house, you would use sitt, if it’s someone else’s you use the regular possessive pronoun hans. Solves this whole “whose body part is this?” conundrum in writing. For a language almost as unsexy as my own, I appreciate this contribution to porn writing and think we should all adapt it.

The worst thing about Swedish: The prepositions for naming time periods are so counter-intuitive if you speak German and English (where they are pretty similar)

For example, both German and English say in four weeks/in vier Wochen - so you would expect Swedish to say: i fyra veckor. But instead, it’s “om* fyra veckor”. In fact, saying “i fyra veckor” means “for four weeks.” (Except if you want to say it didn’t happen - then it’s (Jag har inte pratat) på fyra veckor. - I haven’t spoken for four weeks)

*”Om”, on the other hand, sounds a lot like the German “um”, where “um vier Wochen” could mean: “(it takes) about four weeks.”

Then you have för/für/for - similar words that usually have the same meaning in similar contexts - except when you say the time in Swedish. As I said, you say “i” for "for”. If you want to say for four weeks/für vier Wochen - it’s the same in English in German, but in Swedish:”för fyra veckor sedan” means “four weeks ago”. I have already accepted that I will always fuck this up.

Best thing about English: I think having only one grammatical gender makes things a lot easier - that’s a lot of time saved when learning this language compared to the other ones on this list. Especially paired with hardly any conjugation (although Swedish beats English in that regard with even less conjugation)

Worst thing about English: Okay this is coming from a place of love for this language but why the hell are you so averse to using “one” to express “people in general”? German and Swedish do it with “man”. But in English, it sounds actually strange and unusual to say: “On Tuesdays, one goes to the supermarket” or “In the capital, one takes the train to work” - instead, it’s “you go to the supermarket” and “you take the train” - which “you” might not. It feels very awkward for me when I write some theoretical scenario and always have to accuse the reader of all these horrible things - or I write something fictional and I make a sweeping general statement about human nature and instead I’m making it personal by involving “you”. - or I just write around it and explain that I mean people in general each time. But that takes extra-words. It’s ridiculous.

okay let’s get to the languages who prefer death by grammar

Best thing about German: Not to toot our own horn here, but I do sometimes miss having modal particles in other languages. (To be fair, they exist in other languages too. Wikipedia lists Dutch, Danish, German, Hungarian, Russian, Telugu, Nepali, Indonesian, Chinese and Japanese as examples of languages that use them but I’m sure there are more and also I personally would argue that it it can be a bit hard to define when what serves as a modal particle and how many a language needs to be considered “using” them)

I’d argue that “pretty” is one in English: If you say a sentence like: “This chair is pretty expensive”, “pretty” no longer expresses beauty but instead loses its meaning in favour of changing the tone of the sentence. And German has a whole lot of those.

So if I try to translate a piece of dialogue and someone says something: “Der Schrank ist ja aber so halt noch nicht ganz fertig” - that would literally translate to: “The new cupboard is yes but like that stop yet not completely finished” but the tone is something along the lines of: “I'm not saying this because I’m mad that the new cupboard isn’t finished yet but after all, it’s clearly NOT finished and that is all I’m saying.”

One example from Wikipedia is: “Er liest ja sehr gerne.” (literally: He reads yes very much) = “(as you know) he likes to read."

And in turn, if I get a sentence from spoken conversation and I’m asked to translate it from German or I want to subtitle a scene from a video it can be a bit difficult because you have to abandon the actual text in order to translate it. And if you explain your choice, it becomes even more difficult because modal particles are used in spoken language and are not very exact and if you translate them, you have to make a choice - and it will never be literally what those words mean. (If you asked a German, what “halt” means in a sentence like “Ist halt so” - I think it would be very hard to explain and you would get a lot of different responses) But if you’d just translate the words, it all becomes meaningless and random - but if you leave them out, the sentence loses its connotation and tone and the dialogue might stop making sense.

Worst thing about German: I could name the fact that we call “nipples” “breast warts” but since Swedish does that as well (call-out!) I’m going to say ... the whole gender dilemma. And before I get anyone’s feathers ruffled, no, I’m not saying “political correctness has gone mad we should just stooop!” - I’m just saying that at some point we have to accept that our language...is just very bad at this. At it’s probably the point where we have to add little glottal stops into our words to signify whether we mean “Kundinnen” (female customers) or “Kund*innen” (”customers of all genders”) - which in turn we don’t want to confuse with “KundInnen” (Male and female customers). (And that is not to list all the written versions that exist)

Best thing about French: Listen, French gets a lot of shit on this website for the fact that you pronounce about three sounds in every word. But since we’re among the grammar fuckers now: if you have a native language where the ending of each word is hammered in like the last nail into a coffin, you learn to appreciate a language where you don’t. Especially when your teacher goes around and asks you to conjugate random words: As long as you know the general group that a verb comes from and how those endings generally go, you will be fine by just producing a vowel sound that vaguely aligns with that. (And even if you don’t -- you’ll get very far). I always appreciated that in school.

Worst thing about French: I mean, maybe it’s unfair considering French is a Romance language and not a Germanic one but...get a proper Saxon Genitive will ya? An expression that consts of 1 word in Swedish or German becomes 2 in English - fair enough, you’re just not connecting your compound nouns in the end and get a bit prickly if people get too creative with words - but then it’s 3 in French (4 if the second noun is female and you write “de la”). That’s three extra-words! Plus, the word-order is so counter-intuitive. Switch ‘em around, drop the "de” is all I’m saying. (The Académie Française has sent out a hitman as I wrote this)

Now, obviously I don’t speak Latin but I didn’t do my Latinum to avoid insulting it so:

Best thing: Depending on your outfit choices, people think you’re smart - or trying to curse them. Both are fun.

Worst thing: Listen, the only words I learnt are about war, murder, executions, and slaves - and the only people I could talk to if I spoke it would be...monks and nuns. Who probably won’t appreciate this kind of talk.

#languages #nonfandom #livingthewritelife-things #I mean I'm only fluent in German and English #the others are in the B-realm

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watching-pictures-move · 3 years ago

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Movie Review | They Fought for Their Motherland (Bondarchuk, 1975)

For a few minutes there, They Fought for Their Motherland had me fooled that it would be a conventional war movie. Consider the first battle scene, marked by close-ups of its Russian heroes as they face an oncoming advance of German tanks and infantry. The cutting pattern appears deceptively normal, as do the shot choices. But it isn't long before the mask is lifted, and we're hit with a shot of a windmill on fire that looks like something out of a nightmare. At this point, it should sink in that this is directed by Sergey Bondarchuk, whose War and Peace was characterized by a similar stylistic abandon that lent a dreamy, almost psychedelic flavour to its epic battle scenes. (This is Sergeant York's brain on drugs.) I imagine hallucinogens were a big no-no in the Soviet Union, but perhaps viewers in other circumstances might find them appropriate accompaniment to the proceedings. I watched this sober as I do most things, because the PSAs worked too well on me.

This story of a Russian platoon defending against the advancing German offensive is apparently based on a novel (which I have not read), but plays like a near plotless progression of battle scenes, punctuated by Bondarchuk's off-kilter stylistic flourishes and scenes of camaraderie during what little downtime they have. The most immediate contrast this has with War and Peace and Waterloo is the size of the production and the aspect ratio. While I wouldn't call this a small-scale production, it doesn't have the mind boggling grandeur of the other two, particularly War and Peace, which felt like it had the full resources of the Soviet state at its disposal. In contrast, this feels more intimate, helped by the heavier reliance on close-ups, and as a result almost evokes the heroes' wartime experience as an abstracted feeling. The full frame aspect ratio, rather than the scope compositions of the earlier movies, lends itself well to this, but the movie also finds ways to use the height of the ratio to play with the scale, emphasizing the heroes' smallness with the amount of sky in the frame, or showing flames and smoke rising to a terrifying height. Like those earlier movies, this uses the landscape as an evolving compositional element, like a shot where a series of explosions rapidly approaches the camera brings to mind a similar image in Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk. And there's a certain horrible poetry captured in moments like one where a German tank razes a burning farmhouse, or a shot of the Russian army retreating that looks like an image straight from hell, pitch black with the ground on fire.

Where the movie suffers is with its characters. War and Peace benefited from the source material, but also captured a sense of three distinct characters being caught in a historical moment, providing us with a clear vantage point to the proceedings. The heroes here are seen more as a collective rather than individuals, which makes sense for the movie's propagandistic aims but makes for less successful drama. As someone not super well versed in Soviet cinema, I will concede that I didn't share the same appreciation for its stars that the original audience may have, but despite Bondarchuk and his War and Peace co-star Vyacheslav Tikhonov playing roles, the only character I found had much personality was the one played by Vasiliy Shukshin, who when not killing Germans to defend his homeland spends his downtime trying to get with, uh, big boned women. I didn't find the scenes of camaraderie between the soldiers uninvolving (and the humour was bawdier than I expected), but despite playing one of the characters, I never got the sense Bondarchuk identified with them very much (certainly less so than the protagonists of those earlier movies). And because the final stretch is mostly this stuff and not so much warfare, I thought it didn't end on the best note, but still found this quite worthwhile for its thrilling and disarmingly weird battle scenes.

#film #movie review #they fought for their motherland #they fought for their country #sergey bondarchuk

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mellow-elbow · 4 years ago

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Ah hell nah eggman gangster until sonic starts spitting facts in spanish

His go-to angry languages are Russian, German, and Spanish because of their distinct pronunciations :)

#Spanish is also used alongside French when he’s being cocky lmao #his fave languages are Greek and Latin :) they come pretty naturally to him

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heraldofzaun · 4 years ago

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tell me about the zaun food i want to eat the smog snacks

Worldbuilding Prompt

Zaun’s food comes in a few distinct varieties.

There’s the traditional cuisine, back from before the city-state and surrounding areas were polluted to the point that growing food anywhere near the city proper (without artificial aid in the form of greenhouses and other practices) is about as likely as making a snowman in hell. This traditional cuisine is mostly food that we’d consider to be Slavic (Russian, Ukranian, Polish, etc.) as well as German (see Zaun’s name for that reasoning) - presumably with a small emphasis on seafood as well, due to Zaun’s coastal location. This is still present, but due to the fact that the vast bulk of anything Zaun grows or raises has to come from its outlying territories - if not, it’s just imported from other nations - it’s... a bit expensive, to say the least. And that’s before Zaun’s rampart uncontrolled capitalism gets its hands on the prices!

Tea (usually imported, if not grown in Zaun’s hothouses in the industrial district - this is also where some of their other crops come from, although in very small amounts) is a big thing, surprisingly enough. One might expect Piltover to have the market cornered on tea-drinking and for Zaunites to prefer coffee or caffeine pills as a sort of “mirror” (and they certainly won’t turn down either), but there’s actually a very strong tea culture in Zaun. It’s mostly black teas, and they’re strong. Tea is traditionally brewed in a samovar, although more and more Zaunites are switching to kettles for ease of use.

Then there’s more “modern” foodstuffs: prepackaged goods, junk food, probably something that’s pretty similar to what we’d call fast food (but without the drive-through culture), things in that vein. Cheap, fast, and “good”... if you’re used to it. It’s probably best not to ask what’s in what you’re eating, especially if you’re squeamish at the idea of lab-grown meats. I have to assume that there’s a market for canned goods as well - soups, fruits, beans, anything that’ll keep well in Zaun’s atmosphere... at least until you break out the can opener. Frozen and dried goods, too. Anything to give them a longer shelf life and to keep costs down... on the production front. Fresh fruit or vegetables are a prized rarity, and meat from an actual animal’s probably about as likely as a smogless day if you’re not downright rich.

There’s also a thriving multicultural food scene, as well, from folks that moved to Zaun for one reason or another. (Surprisingly enough, people do move to Zaun for reasons other than it being their ‘last resort’! Although that’s certainly a component too... see folks who left Ionia due to the Noxian invasion.) While alterations have to be made due Zaun’s unique situation in regards to raw ingredients, most folks have adapted pretty well. If you look hard enough, you can find just about anything in Zaun... and food’s no exception to that.

TL;DR: Preserved (dried, canned, frozen, salted, etc.) foods are king in Zaun due to the city’s lack of arable land for crops. There is fresh food (fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy products, grains, etc.), but most of it is imported, from the far reaches of Zaun’s territory, or grown in hothouses in small quantities - as a result, it’s incredibly expensive. Cuisine-wise, just about everything’s on the table due to Zaun being very accepting on the immigration front (so long as they earn their keep... less said on that, the better) - but their traditional foods map nicely to Slavic and German cuisines. There’s a strong tea culture.

#novascuro #worldbuilding | a smog shrouded city #//all this is telling me is that i need to reread the food science sections of gulp by mary roach #//some of this is lovingly cribbed from sheriff caitlyn so thank you very much for that #//i think zaun deserves lab grown meat at least in its infancy? considering what they've done to the areas around them...#//and the fact that meat in general is a massive drain on resources... if they want meat in any way it's going to have to be through science #//whether that's increasing yield from actual animals (do not ask about zaunite farming practices) or artificial meat is up in the air #//also like uh... just because they have an industrial sector for hothouses doesn't mean that that's enough to feed a city of...#//probably around a few million. i don't know how runeterran population distribution would work but...#//i think they can't have over a billion people honestly? just looking at the level of sophistication in the vast majority of the world.#//anyways zaun is probably not self-sufficient in food at all even WITH all the artificial stuff. ok this is enough.

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misc-headcanons · 4 years ago

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Bioshock's fucking awesome, holy shit

I just finished the first one and the entire aesthetic of Rapture's great. I really love the Fallout series and how it'll juxtapose happy cheery ubercapitalist/ultranationalist shit with a devastated hellscape, and Rapture manages to do that while also being very distinct from Fallout's style as well.

And even knowing the twist involving "would you kindly", that didn't ruin the game's story for me at all! I was still curious about what the hell was up with Jack's ghostly visions and his family, and who exactly Atlas was. And the audio diary of Dr. Suchong making that kid break a puppy's FUCKING NECK surprised me in the worst way 🥲

Idk if it was me but Tenebaum's VA sounded like she had more of a Russian accent then German, but that may just be me lol. Also thank god Suchong recorded his private audio diaries in almost-fluent English and not, oh I dunno, fucking Chinese lmao. Like it seems as if they were for his ears only, so it's so convenient they didn't have him speaking in a language Jack couldn't understand 😅

The Little Sisters and Big Daddies are great in terms of character design and lore, and I loved watching them interact and be creepy as fuck together. I heard that Bioshock 2 goes a lot more into the Big Daddies, so I'm excited to play that one next!

Tbh I prefer Andrew Ryan as an antagonist over Fontaine, and the boss fight was probably the least awesome part of the game for me. Fontaine's alright, but Ryan's just such a hardcore Free Market motherfucker and egotistical asshole that you're chasing through most of the game. Also his VA is great, I need to look him up and see if he's in anything else because he was phenomenal.

I also get why Bioshock's gameplay mechanics are praised so much. Trying out different plasmids and tech/combat slots was a lot of fun without being too complex, and it was nice to customize what power sets fit me best. I want to replay it again sometime on a higher difficulty just to increase the challenge and try out a few different ones too.

#misc plays #bioshock #bioshock 1

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americangodstalk · 4 years ago

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Notes about S2E2: The Beguiling Man

# During his interrogation, Shadow has electrodes put on him, as well as a serum injected (maybe a truth serum?). We get to see the first appearance of Mr. Town, from the novel - and just like in the book the scene takes place in a train, except here it is still active and moving, and filled with shining... stuff.

# Many have tried to read in Shadow’s peculiar interrogation device a symbolism, from the Christ on the cross to the Vitruvian man.

# Czernobog mentions all the old European traditions related to the death of someone : ringing a bell, opening the windows, covering mirrors and sprinkling salt. While Wednesday is confident that a “newborn star” will rise, Czernobog thinks that Zorya Vechernyaya is definitively dead due to the lack of faith and belief in the Slavic gods. He also uses the “Nine Hells” to curse - I honestly don’t know if it is a Slavic or Russian concept.

# The Jinn is more precisely referred to as an Ifrit.

# As usual, Mr. Wednesday is also called Votan and Grimnir, two of the alternative names of Odin. More precisely, Votan/Wotan (Odin’s name in Old German) is used by Czernobog and Grimnir (the “hidden one”, “the masked one”) by Mama-Ji.

# Mama-Ji mentions she needs to swap her “week-end shift” with Arjun. Arjun, or Arjuna, is the mythical hero of the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

# While the serum is what I assume to be a truth serum (which is something around which numerous myths and legends were centered, and that fed popular culture, media and is part of the “classic tropes” or shadowy organizations), the electrodes are visibly to give Shadow electrochocs if he refuses to answer. Mr. Town is visibly aware of the Old Gods and the New Gods, and refer to them as deities (contrary to his book version who believed the gods were simply aliens). Mr. Town refers to Odin as “Cargo” also known as “All-Father, Grimm, Wednesday”.

# Shadow’s mother refers to the Statue of Liberty as Libertas, the Roman goddess - which is a foreshadowing of her later mention. Many fans like to reinterpret the words of Shadow’s mother about “spreading her messages” as her being a priestress or even the goddess Libertas herself. But I think that’s a bit too far-fetched.

# Mr. Town (who refers to the New Gods as the “gods of progress”) explains that Mr. World sent him to kidnap Shadow because Mr. World wants to know why a simple guy like him, a random mortal man, would be chosen and treasured by Wednesday.

# Mr. World explains that he allowed the Old Gods to gather together merely because as a result it was much easier to “chop all of their heads at once” like an hydra - the monster from the Greek mythology which could be defeated only if all of its heads were permanently destroyed.

# The walls of the train are so weird... what are they?

# Mad Sweeney says he knows a “devil” in New-Orleans. Everyone theorized (and were right) that he meant the Baron Samedi.

# As I mentionned in another post, all the “jumbo screens of Time Square” seen in TB’s quest for Media hint of her future transformation: advertisements, news channel, pop-art colorful ads and “animesque” like slogans for “Kawaii Media”. There are also advertisements for Xie Com and references to the future appearance of Argus. Technical Boy clearly expresses his arrogance and self-centeredness: he calls Media “retro”, says that art is “irrelevant”, he claims that he is “mankind’s greatest achievement”, “the compass rose” and “fucking binary”. At the opposite, Media claims that “Art is the most valuable means of insight into the direction of our collective purpose.” She explains that she isn’t hiding but merely learning and observing, adapting and learning to survive. She also presents her own tactics and methods when dealing with humans as such: “The appetite for distraction is infinite. I can choke them with trivia, drown them with passive pleasure and devastate their spirituality with baby talk.” And that “there is no distinction between education and entertainment”.

# We are presented with “The Hoard” of Mad Sweeney, which he calls “like the Backstage, but smaller” and that apparently only Sweeney can control. It is visibly where he keeps all the gold coins he keeps pulling out of his hands - and visibly a reference to the famous “treasures under the hill” of the leprechauns and fairies, which is equaled with the “burial treasures” of ancient kings and the “secret palaces” of the Tuatha dé Danaan. The hoard apparently is made mostly of the colors green and gold - there are flashes of gold, and the sound of coins dropping. During their travel through it, at one point Sweeney and Laura appear both naked, and in another shot Laura looks alive again.

# Mr. Town lists that the New Gods offered humanity “penicillin, streaming porn and aircraft carriers that circle the globe”. He openly explains he works for those New Gods, and he strangely keeps insisting that Shadow is “unworthy” of the gods attention and time.

# In the rest of the train, outside of the other “spooks”, we find jeeps and missiles and other military equipment. The other spooks visibly have electricity-generating weapons. In the credits, four men are merely referred to as “Mr. Town’s agent”, but two are identified as Wood and Stone from the novel: Eric Daniel plays “Mr. Wood” and Chris Mark plays “Mr. Stone”. It is unknown if this Mr. Wood is intended to be the same as the Mr. Wood from the first season, though it seems impossible - season 1 Mr. Wood being a monstrous abomination, entirely tree-like, and season 2 Mr. Wood being a mere human easily killed.

# The coin the “mystery character”( that is of course Wednesday) holds in his hand during Shadow’s childhood first appears as a gold coin with a buffalo printed on it - before turning into a regular quarter.

# Many have tried to find what kind of flowers were the blue ones in the field Laura rests in. Some ask if they are a form of blue lotus, or waterlillies - due to a field of waterlillies (referred to as the “lake of flowers”) is one of the steps to access the Egyptian afterlife. Others have suggested they were myosotis (aka “forget me not”), flowers used a lot when it comes to memorating the deads - mostly soldiers fallen at war or victims of a genocide.

# “Betty” is revealed to actually be the “modern” form of Odin’s steed, Sleipnir the eight-legged horse.

# A final thing some have spotted: the container Shadow stands onto when plugged to the “interrogation machine” is actually from the Vulcan factory. Many had theorized that the “Deus mortuorum” bullets used by the snipers in the previous episode had been crafted by Vulcan - and it seems that indeed Vulcan was the main weapon provider for the New Gods (or at least for the Spooks).

#american gods #television series #season 2 #the beguiling man #notes #analysis #new gods #old gods #spooks #mr. town #shadow moon #mad sweeney #vulcan #new media #technical boy #the jinn

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wardoftheedgeloaves · 5 years ago

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Flashcards are dead, long live flashcards

It’s early yet but I think I’m pretty confident in saying that Anki is seriously overrated and that absent compelling reasons to do otherwise the run-of-the-mill language learner should just use physical flashcards with a set of marked boxes to do spaced repetition.

The thing about physical flashcards is that--for whatever reason--they’re not boring. You can go through 200 of them without wanting to distract yourself. But getting through 200 cards in Anki in a single swoop is torture--you find yourself wanting to check Reddit within ten cards--, and the mental retention rate is significantly lower. Plus actually making the physical card serves as a good method of getting it into your head in a way that typing it out doesn’t.

Something else I’ve noticed is that secondary information about a word, such as its gender or conjugational class, should rarely be written out when possible. If you write die Frist/en, you won’t remember the article. But if you write

then you remember that the word was red, and if it was red it must be a feminine noun so it must take die.

If I were to get my Russian vocab back up to speed, I wouldn’t use color for gender, which is nearly always obvious from the nom. sg. except for words with final soft yer, of which there are relatively few. But one thing I did neglect was remembering stress shifts on nouns. For whatever reason the different stress patterning was neglected in my intro Russian courses. There are ten of them (verbs also vary by stress pattern, with three patterns in the present/perfective future and three in the past), and now that I look them up I don’t know why we weren’t taught them, since the system is not that difficult but if you aren’t told it will seem like black magic:

- the two simplest classes (called A and B on Wiktionary) have stem and ending stress, respectively, though B includes some masculines (which usually have a null ending for the nom. sg.), so you’d need the nom. sg. and pl.

- C and D have flipped stress: stem in the singular and ending in the plural for C, and vice versa for D. Could use the nom. sg. and pl.

- E and F are like B and C except that they also have stress on the stem in the nom. pl (so you additionally need the gen. sg.)

- there are variants of B and F, only occurring with feminines ending in soft yer, which additionally have stem stress in the instrumental singular.

- there are also variant classes of D and F with stem stress in the acc. sg., also only occuring with feminines (they’re the only gender where there’s a morphologically distinct acc. sg.)

There’s little reason to use color to mark gender in Russian--it’s impossible to confuse дерево for a masculine or лёд for a feminine. Rather, you want to use color, which the human mind remembers very easily, to mark arbitrary word- and inflection-classes, which it remembers poorly: gender in German, stress-patterns in Russian, tone in Mandarin or Cantonese. This seems obvious once you state it, but it’s not, or at least it wasn’t to me; it only occured to me because Pleco, the best Chinese dictionary app, uses color to mark tone (so that first-tone 三 is shown in red and third-tone 九 in blue; second tone is green, fourth purple, neutral grey).

For German, I use blue to mark masculines, red for feminines and green for neuters. Verbs are grey, but separable prefixes are pink. Adjectives are purple, prepositions orange, and the leftovers (usually various adverbials) black. So far it works quite well.

I wish I’d figured this out before I’d gone to China. ...hell, I wish I’d figured it out on day one of undergrad!

(Addendum: Obviously, what’s needed here is to run an experiment. Pick a language of which the average undergraduate doesn’t even have passive knowledge, which is to say anything that’s neither Romance nor Germanic--Russian, Japanese, Mandarin or Finnish will do just fine. Set one group up to do Anki with extraneous info written out. Set up another to do Anki but with colorization encouraged. Set another up to do monochrome physical flashcards, writing out extraneous info. Set another up with flashcards and colored markers. I’d be willing to bet money that group 1 will do abysmally, group 2 OK, group 3 fairly well and group 4 quite well. The real question is the ordering of groups 2 and 3.)

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iamthinkinglegos · 5 years ago

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It’s ya boy: Kilroy.

Photo credit: Luis Rubio from Alexandria, VA, USA - Kilroy was here, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3558598

As you can see, Kilroy has visited the World War II memorial in Washington D.C. This iconic drawing answers many questions about itself. Who made this? Kilroy did. Why did he make this? To leave a record of where he was. Where has this fella been? More like, where hasn’t he been? Have you seen the places this graffiti shows up?

But there remain two questions that are not answered by the typical depiction of Kilroy: where did he come from, and where did he go and what was his rhetorical function? Well, I may be the only one asking that latter one, but I digress.

Kilroy: Origins

Kilroy, as we understand him today, came about during the second world war. His exact origins are unknown, but he has an intellectual lineage that can be traced back to 1938 or 1941, depending on which origin story you like more.

The first of his intellectual progenitors is known as Mr. Chad, or just Chad. Chad is a figure whose origins are as shrouded as Kilroy’s. Just like Kilroy, he is a bald (or mostly bald) man peeking over a wall with an abnormally long nose.

Mr. Chad with a version of his catchphrase and a single hair. [source]

There are two prevalent theories on how Chad came into being. The first of them involves a British cartoonist named George Edward Chatterton. Supposedly, Chatterton drew the original back in 1938, and his nickname “Chat” went on to become the name of the drawing “Chad”. [source]

Another story claims that Chad was spawned around the year of 1941 by a lecturer in a school in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire. While illustrating the affect of a capacitor in a circuit, the phrase “wot, no electrons” was added to a portion of the drawing that resembled a face.

[source]

There are other variations on that story, featuring electricians and/or military engineers adding “wot, no ___?” to illustrations like the one above. Unfortunately, none of these stories (at least in my mind) really explains why Chad became used widely amongst the military, especially when one considers that shortages and rationing (the things Chad typically complained about) would have affected civilians approximately as much as it did the military.

Regardless of where it came from, this simple design would go on to become Kilroy’s body. The accompanying phrase, however, is even more difficult to pin down. This is due mostly to the fact that “___ was here” is an extremely generic phrase to find graffitied. . . well anywhere really. Fortunately, there is a probable origin of the phrase! In December of 1946, the New York Times attempted to get to the bottom of the phrase’s origin. After holding an event to determine who came up with Kilroy, they landed on James J. Kilroy, a welding inspector who worked in the Bethlehem Steel shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts. Welding inspectors used a small chalk mark to approve a piece of work. But, that was easily erased by welders so they might be paid twice for their work. Purportedly, Mr. Kilroy decided to mark his inspections with the phrase “Kilroy was here” with a material that was more difficult to erase. This lead to the phrase being discovered in sealed spaces on ships, the kind of spaces that no one had been before. That lead to a competition among US airmen to reach obscure and otherwise out-of-the-way locations before Kilroy could. [source]

Another theory involves a Sergeant Francis J. Kilroy Jr. In this story, Sgt. Francis wrote “Kilroy will be here next week” on a barracks builtin board, to inform his fellows of his imminent return after a run in with the flu. This prompted the phrase to be picked up and spread by other US airmen. [source]

The common nature of the phrase “Kilroy was here” combined with the easily recreated drawing known as “Mr. Chad” and gave birth to a graffiti phenomenon that lasted for decades.

Now before I move on I want to give an honorable mention to Australia’s “Foo was here”. Foo was a graffiti character in much the same vein as Chad and Kilroy. He was also a head that tended to peek over walls, though his nose was of a much more reasonable size. Foo was accompanied by the phrase “Foo was here”. Unlike Kilroy and Chad, Foo dates all the way back to the first world war, and was a creation that followed the First Australian Imperial Force. Foo evolved over the years and by the time WWII came around he was depicted as a gremlin or a devil often within (or having escaped from) a cage. It is also worth noting that unlike the previous stories, there is nothing that can directly tie Foo to Kilroy or Chad. [source]

Kilroy: Functions

Kilroy had many functions over the years. He let military servicemen know where their comrades had been before. Hiding his visage in the most obscure of locations must have been a humorous pastime for some people. But the function of Kilroy that I wish to discuss is his use as a panopticon.

First things first though. What the hell is a panopticon? Without getting too far into it, the concept of a panopticon is this: an object, person, or event that instills in its viewer a sense of being watched, typically in such a way that they mediate or otherwise alter their own actions. A simple example would be a teacher when their students are taking a test. The mere presence of a teacher may be enough to prevent people from attempting to cheat. The implication of authority is also important to panopticons, if you know your best friend is watching you, you likely wouldn’t alter your behavior too much, if at all; if you know a police officer is watching you, you may be less inclined to smoke weed, go over the speed limit, or even jaywalk. If you wish to go a bit more in depth on panopticons you may do so here.

Allow me to start this part by saying that not every Kilroy is a panopticon. Even the ones that are, aren’t to every viewer. Simply put, the groups that spread Kilroy’s image need never worry that the he is watching them. To a certain extent, anyone who draws Kilroy is Kilroy. And since the people who drew him are English speaking (mostly US) military servicemen, and the citizenry they serve, anyone outside of those groups observing Kilroy may see the watchful eyes of the US staring at them.

To share an example of dubious authenticity, picture yourself in the year of 1945. Germany has surrendered and you and the Allied leaders, Churchill and Truman, are going to decide the fate of Germany (after the Krauts started and lost their second world war). As you may have already guessed, you are Stalin: the leader of the Russian people and a ruthless dictator. You have arrived in Potsdam, and are ready to discuss terms with your allies. Upon arriving, you are given a brief tour of the facilities from which you will negotiate. Your guide finally arrives at the grand VIP bathroom, an opulent room befitting one of your status. The guide encourages you to go in without him, for even he is not allowed inside. You take a moment to relieve yourself; the journey here was a long one. You return to the guide and complete the tour. Hours pass. You have completed the first round of talks with your allies, and all the water you drank to sooth your parched throat has come back to haunt you. You return to the bathroom you visited previously in the day, and use the exact same toilet you used last time. As the tight squeeze on your bladder lifts, you notice something that wasn’t there before. A small man with a large nose is peeking at you from over a wall, with the English phrase “Kilroy was here” written next to him. Your knowledge of the English language is limited, but you know enough to say with certainty that an English speaking individual named Kilroy had been in your VIP bathroom. Fury clouds your mind as you somehow manage to keep everything in the toilet bowl. If Kilroy had been here, where only you and the two other VIPs were allowed, where else could this man have been? What else could he have seen? As you leave the bathroom, you use the time spent washing your hands to calm your mind. Perhaps this was someone your aides know about. You return to the conference room, where the translator for the English speakers still resides. Your presence brings your aides to full attention, and you ask them (in Russian) “Who is Kilroy?”. [source, take it with a grain of salt] [also, here is a source that says Stalin had a decent grasp on the English language]

That dramatization of events that may or may not have happened illustrates Kilroy’s use as a panopticon. Once Stalin got context on who Kilroy was, he may have concluded that his actions at Potsdam had more spectators than he anticipated. Which may have then lead him to acting differently than he would have otherwise. Even if it didn’t happen, the fact that it is a story that was told speaks to how others could see his use as a panopticon.

Another story that is even less likely to be true is one involving Hitler. Allegedly German soldiers had found the phrase “Kilroy was here” written on captured US equipment. Hitler, in his infinite paranoia, decided that it could be the name of an American spy. [”source”]

Whether or not either of these stories are true they illustrate how Kilroy is capable of operating as a panopticon.

In conclusion:

We came into this asking hard questions, that kind that couldn’t be answered just by looking at the average depiction of Kilroy. We learned that this iconic piece of American history (probably) came from distinctive British Graffiti, and an American welding inspector. We then briefly considered Foo, before promptly forgetting about him. We finished with Kilroy being more than just a humorous piece of graffiti, and instead saw him act as the eyes of authority: a panopticon. This simple drawing went on to become more than the sum of his parts, and has been immortalized not just on the WWII memorial in Washington D.C., but also in the hearts and souls of all those who carry on his legacy.

#kilroy was here #kilroy #wwii #second world war #til #today i learned

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master-sass-blast · 5 years ago

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Whole list for Alexandra pls!!!

My literal favorite character ever oml

What is their favourite food: Nikolai’s recipe for borscht.

Do they have a fear of an animal? If so, what animal: Nope.

What do they wear to bed: Either a shirt and pair of boxers of Nikolai’s, or nothing.

Do they like cuddling: Only with Nikolai. She’ll do it with her kids or grandkids, but she only really likes it with Nick.

Do they have a secret handshake with anyone: No.

What do they look like: Again, I basically adopted her bc Marvel did her dirty, so she’s about 6′1″, muscle-y as hell, long black hair, dark brown eyes, pale skin, oval shaped face with strong cheekbones, nose, and jawline, two full sleeves of tattoos.

Do they like chocolate: Sure.

What are their good and bad traits: She’s extremely determined and ambitious, highly intelligent, and very patient, but she’s also more aggressive, a little too sarcastic at times, and ruthless.

Do they have any artistic talent: Yes! She’s where the kids get their artsy stuff from. She draws, paints, and sings --but only in private.

What is their favourite room to be in, in the house they live in: Either the bedroom she shares with Nikolai or... wherever Nikolai is at any given moment.

Do they believe in luck: Yes, actually. She believes in hard work and doing things for yourself, but she also believes that some things that happen are outside of what someone can do for themselves (case in point, her having met Nikolai at all).

Can they do magic: No.

Do they believe in dragons: Eh, she’s ambivalent.

What is a pet peeve of theirs: Lazy people.

What was the last thing they cried about: She doesn’t cry often, and if she does, it’s usually over someone else’s pain.

What is their sexuality: Whatever she feels like in a given moment.

Do they have a best friend? If so, who, and what makes them their best friend: Nikolai and the Reader’s uncle. She has a harder time making friends, given her past, so her circle of people is very small.

Have they ever been in a romantic relationship: Yes.

What does their relationship with their family look like? Are they close? Distant? Ect: Alex’s family is the family she has through Nikolai, so she’s pretty close with all of them.

Do they have a pet: She has the animals she helped raise on her and Nick’s farm.

Do they have a familiar: No.

Are they a supernatural being: No.

How do they usually wear their hair: Long, either down or tied back in a braid.

Can they play an instrument? If so, what instrument and what can they play: She sings.

What type a high schooler are/were they: Alex... was held by the KGB during her “high school” years as an asset and assassin, so she didn’t get to do any of that.

Have they ever been in a physical fight before? If so, with who? Who won: Many. So many. Too many to count. She makes a point to win all of them.

What is their favourite holiday: She’s not big on holidays, though Halloween does find a special place in her heart when she’s older because of how much her grandchildren enjoy it.

If they could have one wish, what would they wish for: To get the bratva out of her life.

Do they wants kids? If they already have kids, do they want more: She has three with Nikolai, and she’s happy with that number.

Do they have a job: She helps on the farm, she does do some education curriculum translation, and she works for the bratva as muscle/an assassin.

Do they know how to drive: Yes.

Do they get stressed out easily: No.

Did they ever dye their hair before? If so, to what colour? Did they like it: No.

Have they ever broken the law: Oh yeah.

Do they own a plant: Through living on a farm, yes.

Have they ever rode a horse before: Yes.

What is their favorite gif: Pass.

Do they get along with others easily: Alex can be very charming and amiable, but that’s mostly a learned front from Nikolai. If she’s being herself... not really, no.

Do they have any tattoos: Yes! She has two full sleeves of tattoos and is looking to get more.

If I wanted to draw them, what would be distinct physical features that I would have to know to draw them correctly: Strong cheekbones, strong jawline, strong nose, intense eyes... she’s very striking to look at.

What is their favourite breed of dog: Pitbulls.

Do they live with anyone? If so, who: She lives with Nikolai, and her family as they come to visit.

Where is their dream vacation: Somewhere quiet and sunny.

Do they know more than one language: Yes. Alex speaks Russian, English, German, Polish, and Spanish fluently.

Are they a quick learner: Extremely.

Have they ever won a contest before? If so, what for? What did they win: No.

If the world were to end in 24 hours, where would they be and who would they be with: She’d be with her family, primarily Nikolai.

What does their room look like: Already answered.

If they could have an extinct animal for a pet, what would they have: Pass.

If they got called out by someone, what would they do: Unless it’s Nikolai, someone she respects, or one of her kids, that person is going to be straight up ignored.

Have they ever shot a gun before: Yes. There’s not a type of gun she hasn’t shot.

Have they ever been axe throwing: Yes.

What is something that they want but can’t have: A past where she wasn’t a government asset.

Do they know how to fish: No. It’s not for her.

What is something they always wanted to do but too scared: Go to therapy for her past, but she knows/believes it’s not the most viable option.

Do they own their own baby pictures: No.

What makes them standout among others: Her physical stature. She’s very tall and very muscular.

Do they like to show off: A little, depending on the situation.

What is their favourite song: She’s a fan of rock and metal music.

What would be their dream vehicle: Pass.

What is their favourite book: Doesn’t have one.

Who, in their opinion, makes the best food: Nikolai.

Are they approachable: If she’s doing her “friendly front,” yes. If she isn’t... not really, no.

Did they ever change their appearance: She gets tattoos over time, but that’s about it.

What makes them smile: Her family --especially Nikolai.

Do they like glowsticks: Sure.

What is something that is simple, but always makes them smile: Listening to Nikolai talk.

Are they a day or night person: She’s a “any time is time to be used” person.

Are they allergic to anything: No.

What do you, the creator of this OC, like most about them: Again, I adopted Alex, but I like how competent and bold she is. And also her muscles. Step on me pls ldskfjsljflskjfldks.

Who is their ride or die: Nikolai and the Reader’s uncle.

Do they currently have a significant other? If not, are they going to get one later one: Nikolai.

What attracts them to another person: Genuine behavior, intelligence, willingness to question authority, and gentleness.

Who is one person that can always make them laugh: Nikolai.

Have they ever partied too hard and their friends had to take them home: No. She basically can’t get drunk.

Who would be their cuddle buddy: Nikolai.

Who would cheer them up after a long day: Spending time with Nikolai or her family.

If they had a nightmare, who would they run to: Nikolai.

What object to the care for the most: Any of her guns or knives.

Do they like other people’s children: Depends on the kids.

How would they react if someone broke into their home: Kill the intruder.

Does anyone make them have butterflies in their stomach: Nikolai.

What is something that they are good at: Murder she’s a surprisingly good artist!

What is their neutral expression: Either perfectly, purposefully neutral, or a smirk.

Do they like to cook: She manages, but she prefers it when Nick cooks.

What is something they can’t leave home without: At least five knives, all hidden in various places on her person.

Who is someone that they rely on: Nikolai.

Do they liked to be tickled: Only by Nikolai.

Have they ever been a sword fight before: Yes.

What is a joke that they would find funny: “They say there’s a person capable of murder in every friend group. I suspected it was Dave, so I killed him before he could do any harm.”

Do they have a place that can go and turn off their brain: Anywhere Nikolai is.

What was their childhood like: Tragic. She was taken from her family at the age of four, when her mutation presented, to be an asset for the Russian government, and was kept as an asset until her early twenties.

What are they like as an adult: Quiet.

Do they take criticism well: Only if it comes from a select group of people.

Have they ever jumped out of a plane: Yes.

Who do they like to make jokes with: Her family.

Have you ever drawn them before? If you are comfortable with it, would you post a picture: I have... but that’s for a Special Secret Project, so I’m not gonna post it just yet lol.

#sass answers #chc stuff #alexandra rasputin

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martin9395 · 6 years ago

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Greatest Online Language Courses

There are actually numerous training courses accessible, all providing a special method to knowing a brand new foreign language. While a lot of all of them ask for a little month-to-month cost, there are actually a lot of others that are actually entirely free of charge. The most effective online language courses been available in various types, whether you desire on the web university foreign language programs, or even only to discover at your personal rate making use of internet foreign language systems as opposed to getting foreign language discovering program.

While utilizing the greatest foreign language finding out software application is actually a fantastic technique to discover a brand new foreign language, there is actually likewise yet another technique which is actually likewise extremely reliable: making use of the most ideal online language courses.

Online Language Learning Programs

Just how perform these foreign language training courses contrast to foreign language discovering software application? There are actually a number of factors that online language courses supply, that foreign language finding out software program carries out certainly not.

As a substitute to the finest foreign language discovering program, you may select to find out online, along with internet foreign language knowing plans. There are actually likewise lots of training courses that are actually complimentary. academia-school

As there are actually lots of various online language courses accessible, selecting the correct one is actually up to you. And also many of the paid out training courses supply a free of cost test.

Frequently opportunities, you can easily take exams, as well as review your outcomes along with various other individuals making use of that training program. As well as possibly the most extensive variation is actually that online programs are actually upgraded even more usually.

There are actually whole lots of training courses that possess user-uploaded information. Possessing these additional parts of training, whether they are actually whole sessions, or even only quizzes, or maybe involved obstacles, assists expand the knowledge of foreign language discovering. Hell, you can easily also produce your very own course as well as post it FRENCH.

Online College Language Courses

Usually, the sessions and also tasks are going to coincide, as is going to the research. Obviously, you will definitely need to finish every thing in the very same timetable as the conventional training class; this is actually where these forms of training courses contrast coming from non-college similar on the web plans. As it is actually an university training program, you will certainly obtain the very same credit ratings as if you took a bodily course German.

There are actually lots of conveniences of taking an on the internet university foreign language program over a class. Normally, on-line programs are actually more affordable.

Numerous universities today give internet courses. These could be really useful for folks along with strict routines, folks that stay far coming from the institution, or even for individuals that choose to know in an atmosphere out of sizable courses. Whichever your demand, on-line university foreign language programs are going to be actually primarily the like a conventional lesson, other than you take the training class in your very own residence, or even anywhere else you can easily carry a notebook computer.

Discovering a Language Online

Finding out a foreign language online may be actually a wonderful alternate to foreign language knowing software application. Why delay, along with the ideal online language courses, you may obtain begun discovering a brand new foreign language today!

Exactly How to Learn English Through an Online Language Course

There are actually numerous internet programs offered that may lead you in addressing what can easily occasionally be actually a complicated ability to get.

It is actually a wonderful benefit to become capable to utilize the English foreign language successfully as well as there is actually zero far better location to begin discovering than the world wide web. Lots of folks do not possess the moment in their occupied lifestyles to journey to a class where they may join an English session. The substantial development of the web has actually made a possibility for those that perform certainly not possess the moment or even amount of money to journey, to find out English online rather than in a class NORWEGIAN.

To receive the best coming from an on-line English foreign language training program it is vital to adhere to the rules and also invest the initiative to become properly readied. It is actually needed to accomplish some research in between treatments to obtain the max benefits. There is actually commonly a book featured along with the training program and also this is going to need to have to become pertained to continually.

English utilization has actually been actually developing significantly in the course of recent many years and also it is actually right now considered as the top international foreign language, utilized through thousands around the planet. It is actually a superb worldwide interaction resource, specifically along with the latest Internet boom, allowing individuals to get in touch with one another whatever customized or even idea. This post offers guidance pertaining to on-line English training courses for those wanting to boost their English foreign language capabilities.

If you may certainly not pay for a personal instructor or even the price of authorizing up regionally for a training program, the Internet delivers numerous budget friendly options by means of on-line English guideline programs. Several of the trainees that happen with each other in an official environment to discover English online are actually at various amounts in their English foreign language capacity.

The only thing that is actually required is actually a pc or even laptop pc along with a web cam. For a reasonably little amount you may be hooked up to an instructor along with whom you can easily confer straight by means of the Internet PORTUGUESE.

Exactly how performs one discover a suited online English training program?

Take your opportunity to analysis what training courses are actually offered. Take a look at what each web site provides as well as create some contrasts in between all of them. They will certainly differ in rate and also material, therefore there certainly will definitely be actually choices readily available that fit your budget plan and also criteria TURKISH.

Searching for an Online Language Course?

One more point you may do other than locating e-courses online, is actually locating electronic books and also video clips yet equally as a cautioning a great deal of these Japanese Courses carry out supply these traits, and also normally they are actually the ones along with charges. Directly I can easily find out to perform one thing quicker as well as simpler, when I can easily view it creatively. This is actually where the online videos can be found in helpful for finding out to compose points including various phrases and also the Japanese alphabet Russian.

Finding out a brand new and also various foreign language has actually constantly been actually a truly preferred subject matter one of individuals, it seems to be like at one aspect or even an additional in an individual's lifestyle they are actually curious in communicating a foreign language various other their very own. If you were actually fortunate after that the college you went to delivered some type of a foreign language training program. One foreign language I possess constantly truly yearned for to attempt was actually Japanese.

Discovering Spanish Like Crazy Online Language Course

On-line foreign language trainings can easily provide end results to individuals of all skill-set degrees and also previous knowledge. Whether you yearn for to examine Spanish for private targets, partnerships, job adapted objectives, or even to just find a brand-new lifestyle, Learning Spanish Like Crazy will definitely assist you to know as well as talk the Spanish foreign language.

Of training program it assists that it was actually cultivated through an individual that certainly not merely is actually very thoughtful concerning the Spanish lifestyle however a male that additionally communicates Spanish as well as comprehends exactly how to instruct this preferred foreign language to numerous trainees. One of the essential elements of Learning Spanish Like Crazy is actually that it integrates true lifestyle instances as well as circumstances in Latin American Spanish, which will certainly typically prep and also aid you to really feel certain seeing particular locations as well as communicating the foreign language.

Developed through Colombian indigenous Patrick Jackson, Learning Spanish Like Crazy delivers distinct discovering strategies for individuals that have actually never ever researched the foreign language. It has actually ended up being a main option for therefore several as a result of to its own capability to show folks to correctly talk day-to-day Latin American Spanish. Along with fundamental however strongly reliable etymological training methods, trainees are actually capable to happen out knowing exactly how to communicate Spanish within merely a quick married couple of full weeks.

Along with therefore a lot of various knowing foreign language training courses presently offered on the web, it at opportunities can easily end up being fairly tough locating the necessary one. Often deciding on the correct kind of foreign language training program relies on the person. The Learning Spanish Like Crazy internet program has actually assisted manies thousand of individuals that are actually only beginning out in this Latin foreign language SERBIAN.

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