#god i miss alan wake 2 so much

[aconitum-fields]

Max Eisenhardt lives in my brain folds

[potofbees]

spoilers for alan wake 2-

one of my most recent cool findings has to be how the sound designers were literally constantly spoiling the main scratch-alan reveal from the very beginning. some1 on twitter first commented on how when profiling alan in saga's mind place u can hear the dark presence screeching when u hover over a question, but i also recently found out on my own that when u get to play as alan in return 4 - no chance u can hear fadeout whispers (from drowning monologue) every time u stop in a safe haven. the whispers can be heard in a circling motion around alan, and stop when casey gets attacked. possibly meaning that the fadeouts are also representative of scratch in some way, or just that alan's brought the dark place with him. god i love the little details like this

[the-labyrinth-of-me]

[dcdreamblog]

I am so sorry to hear of Joan Garrick's passing. It puts me in mind of a question I have been thinking of asking.

I'm glad that Mrs. Garrick got to meet and say goodbye to her daughter, known as the Boom to the public, before her death. A daughter the world, and she herself had forgotten.(As an aside, let me thank the Boom for adding some new variety to the Flash family naming conventions. I swear only the Green Lanterns give you less, where they are all simply Green Lantern, unless they reveal their real names)

As a historian, how does it make you feel to know how much as actually been ripped out of the public's minds?

The first Flash had a daughter! Sidekicks were even more common than thought, with heroes like the Red Bee, Mister Terrific and Miss America just a few additional ones having them! The Soviet Union made a counterpart to the Green Lantern! And if rumors of this guy raging are true he was connected to the emotional spectrum?! Unless I totally misunderstand his powers compared to the other GLs; which is easily possible, Alan Scott isn't even tied to the emotional spectrum!(Is he?) He's connected to some experiment to move away from that?

It's amazing how much was there and was just stripped away.

As we stare down a new year I find myself thinking on this ask like I'm starring into a whiskey glass.

(A photograph of the "Lost Children" taken upon their recovery from Orphan Island by the Justice Society) Some of these faces I'm know all my life. Wing, Dan the Dyna Mite, Boy Blue. But like you said the others it's like...it's like they just appeared, out of thin air. And yet there's this clawing at the back of my mind whenever I look at them. I know I don't know them. But...don't I? Their names are like...fire ants on the tip of my tongue. ...some heroes, when dealing with time travel will describe the disorientation of the world...pivoting around you. Like the odd moment before you wake up when you can feel the sun on your eyelids but the dream is still playing. But you never wake up. The moment goes on, and on, and on. Things you KNOW to be true projected before your eyes against the backdrop of their own contradiction. I still own my college superhero encyclopedias (I certainly paid enough for them). I know every entry in them back to front, I KNOW which of these young men and women I've seen before. But I open it up and...

(A photograph of my 5 year old textbook. The page is worn and dog earned. There's...there's a sticky note with my handwriting in the margin)

I skimmed the page. I skimmed it. I knew every ounce of information on it the instant before I read. I'd memorized it, years ago, of course I had it was in the book. The sticky note is marking a citation I needed for a paper I did on the sidekicks of the Freedom Fighters. But the Freedom Fighters didn't have any sidekicks. All three of them. None of them. I know them...I've never seen them before in my life...

I feel like I'm losing my mind...

A dozen blank spots in my old class notes are now filled with scribbles I know have always-never been there.

I go into work...the archives are full of artifacts. Serial numbered, shelved and put neatly in drawers. Like I've spent weeks, months just...glazing my eyes over them and picking up the artifact next to it. It's stupid, of course they've always been here...then why haven't I catalogued a single one? Random gaps in my filings. Artifact 1, 2, 3. Except it was actually Artifact 1, 3, 7 that I picked out in random order because Artifacts 2, 4, 5 and 6 are for sidekicks I remember not remembering.

And then it hits me.

The guilt. Oh god the guilt.

These kids were lost, for so long. Scared. Alone. Forgotten. Their stories were right here in my hands and I just glossed over them. I know they've been here the whole time. I know they've never been here before. ...I can't shake the weight that if I had just focused, looked down at the right time I would have caught it. Like something in the corner of my eye in the dark.

I swear I didn't mean to forget them. ...I swear I didn't mean it...

[koskela-knights]

Finnish names in AW 2 - Answers

I decided to put all answers together in 1 post

OG post:

I was wondering if some of these Finnish versions of names found in YY and beyond are also actual names commonly used in Finnish and/or if they have (different) meanings in Finnish. Like I remember something about Kesä have smth to do with ice cream. Or maybe it really isn’t that deep but I’m curious nonetheless Alan Wake -> Alén Veikko Zane -> Seine Watery -> Huotari (Here I also wonder, did Watery already get mentioned in Alan Wake 1? I cant remember. If not, I wonder if they chose the Finnish name first and if coincidentally, they realized they it somewhat sounds like Watery) Barbara Jagger -> Baba Jakala

---

@thechibi

Water was mentioned in AW1! Pat Maine mentions it on the radio, that's where Moose Fest is and he talks about how it's a rival to DeerFest (which is of course, better!)

@omena-perkele

oh oh I have some answers, though rather minimal and meaningless, but answers nonetheless!!! all the Finnish names used in AW2 are actual names that have actual meanings or people who have them as names. I looked at how common these names are in Finland, tried to find meanings and areas they appear in. tbh I do think that the names were chosen primarily based on the way they sound to make them similar to the character's English names lol

Aleksi Kesä: this one is easy. Aleksi is just the Finnish equivalent of Alex, Kesä is literally the word for summer! it's also an actual surname, though incredibly rare (all sources saying there's currently only 22 people alive who have it).

Veikko Alén: I love how they chose to swap Alan's first and last names to make it easier to match phonetically in Finnish. Veikko means brother, which I think is interesting considering the character of Veikko Alén is played by Thomas Seine and Thomas means twin. Alén is a much more common surname than Kesä (654 people), but I could not find what it means. it seems to be most common in south and west Finland.

Seine: another very rare surname (28 people) and another one I could not find a meaning for... I swore there was a place called "Seinen saari" (isle of Seine) in a Finnish book I once read for school but I can't find anything about it online and I'd have to get my hands on the book somehow to check.. sadly I don't remember the title.

Huotari: wait, is Watery actually translated as Huotari? I don't remember seeing it other than the well and the name of the brothers. kinda embarrassing if I've completely missed that. also I do think it Watery was at least mentioned in AW1. anyway! Huotari is a pretty common surname (3767 people) most common in the Kainuu area. I don't live there or close to it but funny thing, I worked a summer job at a graveyard in eastern Finland and there were quite a few headstones with the name Huotari. Huotari means "gift of god"

Baba Jakala: this one is interesting to me, especially the first name. Baba is so rare that the only data on it shows that there has consistently been 0 or less than 5 people named that for the last century. so basically nobody is named that. Jakala is also another rare surname (25 people) that I could not find a meaning for. I do think that this name was chosen for her purely for it sounding similar to Baba Yaga.

idk why I went down this rabbit hole, it's 5am now lol

@thotpants

The association with ice cream is probably just from your unfortunate exposure to Finnblr. Jäätelökesä (ice cream summer) is a generic marketing term (lifted from an old song) that often gets used in association with the nightmare ice cream flavors we come up with.

My best guess for Seine is that they just couldn't come up with anything even resembling Zane and used the name of the French river. Unlike a lot of other exotoponyms in Finnish it's just used as-is since it conforms to Finnish vowel harmony.

----

Thanks again people for adding your insights on the matter 👏🏽🙏🙏

Always feel free to add new comments

[taniushka12]

tagged by @autisticwriterblog!!! thank you, 🤗🤗💞💞

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

on ao3 just 79! been posting there since 2015 but im a busy bee u_u

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

177103 😌

3. What fandoms do you write for?

The most I've written for in the past decade are Haikyuu -> Wolf359 -> Tma -> Alwake

4. Top five fics by kudos

Antropofagia (147) the one and only jon/martin ive ever written where web!martin eats a guy and then ponders about his humanity w/ his boyfriend

Lipstick Stains (143) Jon/Tim/Sasha fluff ♥

The dance of the spider and the flame (126) web!martin/desolation!tim fluff (pseudo fluff? its fluffy to Me) w/ a side of meta

Ridiculous monster man (118) Jon/Tim angst 😔

Un hombro en el cual dormir (86) Tsukki/Yama fluff ♥

5. Do you respond to comments?

I try to! sometimes it takes me a Considerate amount of time but I always leave them unread until I get to do it ;o;

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

sticking to remedy (for this and the next question) id say Clouds of pink and storm, where Alice experiences the final reunion w/ Alan in aw:an but then wakes up, assuming it was merely a dream and that he's still dead ;_;

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Hypothermia where Alan gets out of the dark place and can finally sleep in peace surrounded by the people he loves ♥♥♥

8. Do you get hate on fics?

one (1) time in my first tma fic, but I just deleted it and moved on ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (joke on them bc that Is my most popular fic lmfao)

9. Do you write smut?

sometimes. I hate writing it almost as much as I like thinking abt it, which puts me on a difficult position 😔

10. Craziest crossover?

😶 do not have one..

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I hope not!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

i translated many of my hq and w359 fics from spanish to english, if that counts!

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

nope! im pretty protective of my stories... although I lowkey wanna try it sometime, making aus and stories with people is Fun ;o;

14. All time favourite ship?

ALL TIME FAVORITE is hard, but as of Right Now its alan/alice/barry and any permutation of those three ♥ i love them ;o;

15. What's a wip you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

the hannibalesque au... a martin/elias fic that was supposed to be my tma magnus opus, last time i opened it it was pushing 20k and quite literally only needed two scenes to be complete, but also thinking abt tma always puts me on such a sour mood and, while i love the ship, i couldn't care less about elias himself,,, still love the fic but god getting into the mindset to write it is hard to say the least Q_Q

16. What are your writing strengths?

id like to think characterization! and dialogue 🥰

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

larger plot...? thinking around specific scenes i wanna write sometimes gets tedious so i prefer writing snippets of stuff :/ also staying motivated on the thing 😔

18. Thoughts on dialogue in another language?

if done right it can add flavor to the story! but its a hit or miss and when it misses it can be soooooo so bad Q_Q i dont believe you Need beta reads for fics but in this case you Gotta have someone that speaks the language available, and Please dont just translate words at random

19. First fandom you wrote in?

phineas & ferb :') still got some one shots printed somewhere in my room lmao

20. Favorite fic you've written?

oof. hard to say. but I'll go with:

Desperately Safe (tma, peter/salesa) what if a charismatic yet highly paranoid man and the misanthropic heir of the lonely found refuge in each other? and they were both sailors?

Recognition Through Fear (tma, martin/annabelle) in which the resident "spider monster" lady who was formerly arachnophobic shows signs that she never Actually stopped being scared of them, and the resident "fear buffet" guy who hates her guts (yet loves spiders) tries to make her life just a little bit easier by carefully picking the spiders integrated to her skull. a small moment of kindness in an otherwise unkind world u_u

Hypothermia (alwake, alan/alice/barry) you know that one 😉

tagging: @lostinthewoodsomewhere, @wolf-three-fifty-nine, @florallychaotic and @ilkkawhat 🤗

[dykedragonrider]

Finished AW2 and am finally getting to my thoughts but to rehash what I said earlier, the game's quality scales exponentially with the time you play, it's artsy and weird in ways that are in fact, fuckin' lovely, it's got some issues, but I'm more willing to look past it because like, no one's doing it like this is and I want more weird things like this (endearing)

Getting my issues out of the way, for a game with as much exploring as you do, wow that movement speed is miserable. I get that you can't be zooming about in a horror game because that trims tension but I also didn't explore nearly as much as I wanted to because I'd ask myself "do i really wanna trot around at this speed" and the answer was usually no. The combat's also only OK, and with how much of that you do, I really wish it felt a little better? Also, the jumpscares feel bad, I don't like them, I'm here for the atmosphere and general horror narrative tropes, not the screamy faces.

To get more into the meat and taters though, the way this elevates the metafiction from the first game is really good. I especially want to praise Alan's segments of literal reality altering in the Dark Place through altering the script, there were some cool puzzles with that and I loved the way it would change the scenarios of the vignettes. I got a little stuck sometimes but I attribute that to the debuff that streaming a game gives you, because I did miss some audio cues, game makes it real easy to pick stuff back up though.

On the note of vignettes, I'm obligated to praise the spectacle for this game, because it's got some really cool moments with them that I love! We've got two musical numbers, each of which is entertaining in their own different ways, Champion Of Light was like the coolest 15 minutes in a game this year to me, but also like. Nightless Night was a really cool thing to have as a diegetic film, I didn't expect that but it was really fun to see how that interacted with the main story with its themes and, of course, characters.

Saga is like, I wasn't sold on her initially because I liked Alan and wanted more of him, but that's just the nature of sequels. The more I learned about her (norse god who is also a seer was a pull I didn't see coming given my unfamiliarity with the depth of that folklore, but it *was* cool), it was like, exponential how much I liked her? Family drama was a great way to interface with the weirdness of the Andersons, honestly, give them some depth. The dynamic she has between her and Casey was also nice, he's the straight man in their whole buddy cop thing, and I also like how she and Casey are cut from the same cloth with regards to the strangeness of how they interact with the fiction that permeates the world. I'm not familiar enough with Twin Peaks to point out some of the text to text stuff there, but I did have a cheeky laugh at that shot of them drinking coffee towards the start of the game.

Tor/Odin having more depth through Saga and the ways they advise/interact with her and Wake being very different, not just in the way between him and them in 1 and her in 2, but also them with him in 2, it's giving them a lot that I think really works for them being these figures of legend, both within folklore and the systems of the Lake, and them entering it as a "passing of the torch" in some ways towards the end was a good emotional moment, they're just a treat in this game. Sneaking Ahti in here as well, I don't have a lot deep to say about him or extra thoughts, I just like the guy. Perfect character, no notes, love him.

The real standouts character wise to me though, were Jaakko and Ilmo. I saw the ads as I could, and their banter's fantastic, these people have their own lives and a lot of interiority and so much is told through that, you find out about the cult and get some questions about them, they're up to some shit and know more than they let on, but in reality they were just doing their best to look out for a community they care about, and Jaakko's death was the moment I went from like, laughing along with them as just a good supporting cast to just. Their story fucking owns, it's a simple misunderstanding born out of bias that neither side is really interested in correcting because of unreliable narration, miscommunication/failure to communicate is usually a thing in media I'm very feast or famine on (I'm aware that "why don't they just ask x" is a mindkiller question, but in terms of meeting the story halfway it's one of my major shortcomings, because so often it feels contrived in the narrative), but in a story so based around metafiction (that is lampshaded in a compelling way I'll cover in a moment), it feels like it's a perfectly executed idea with how it's done that elevates the story significantly. These people existed alongside you, and of course the small town weirdos who made a cult and hijacked stuff to try and manage problems on their own terms get vilified, you don't know the whole story and there's no interest in it because the narrators aren't, it works!

And that segment is pretty quickly followed by the moment where the game gets self aware, which is normally a pretty touchy thing I find? However, using that as a tool for deconstruction, the fourth wall as another wall to decorate the set dressing of the narrative, as a way to examine it through the windows on that wall, each with their own decor, was clever? They knew what the player'd be thinking, and I think that landed pretty well, it didn't start feeling circlejerky, because it *also* laid the horror on so thick there, it was probably the most unnerving part of the game. I was internally hooting and hollering the entire time, even if that segment was a little annoying, just because it was *so* goddamn cool.

I'm probably missing a bit bc it's been a while so it's not all as fresh in my mind (wanted to talk about Saga's scene of controlling her narrative more bc that's peak as shit but this is already long enough+would wanna refresh myself), but the point is like, god this game's peak. Thank you Remedy for making weird little games for the freaks of the world.

[a-flappy-bat]

I’m only like 5.5 hours into Alan Wake 2 and holy hell it’s amazing. I don’t even like survival horror games but it’s gorgeous and gripping and worth every penny to experience the game.

I know people don’t want spoilers so I’m leaving my random fangirling under the break…

Ok so the graphics look amazing and Saga is super cool and pretty relatable. The mind place is the menu I was dreaming of. And Casey is giving me younger agent Trench vibes (I love him 🥹), but LOOK—Casper Darling has a book in the Dark Place! A book! Dr. Darling lives! I had to pause my play-through to screenshot this. They even threw in the black pyramid cigarettes from the FBC. It’s so old school looking. And it’s really hard to miss this Easter egg. There have to be MOAR! (The hunt for an actual Darling broadcast or video message continues!)

I will probably make an entire post about the musical level with Mr. Door and Alan. ‘The Herald of Darkness’—about lost it there too, still losing it over this. Fuck yes Old Gods of Asgard! It’s very Remedy does broadway. So much dancing. Casey. Alan. The Poets. It’s ridiculous in the best way. My squeals of joy/terror accompanied each flare gun firing. They gave Matt actual singing lines!!! And he sounds amazing! (Can I have more of that? Will that be on the Old Gods of Asgard album? Cause I’ll buy it for this track!…it’s not out until Dec 8th 😩) It’s not the ashtray maze, but damn, it’s up there with fave moments so far.

Most terrifying moment so far goes to the smoldering train car of death. Not the boss fight with Mr. I-am-still-missing-my-13-years-dead-heart in all his dark teleporting prowess. That was a great combat learning experience. Poor Saga died an ungodly amount of times till I realized where the ammo was stashed. So not the boss fight. Nope. Instead it’s the train car with the creepy bodies that Alan writes in! His idea. The bastards don’t even let you run through it. And I was going to but nooo they made it a drawn out cutscene where Alan clambers through the burnt wreckage. The whole moment is so intense, the ambient sound swells as the singed corpses seem to reach for you. He’s so shaken that it doesn’t even need a jump scare.

Yay for horror that doesn’t need gallons of blood and gore! :D

[bmaxwell]

Game of the Year 2023: The Top 10

2023 was a great year for the videogames industry. A lot of great videogames were released in 2023. It was a fucking lousy year for the industry if you had a career there. It has been deeply disappointing to see record sales and critical acclaim alongside frequent layoff announcements. It feels like the pursuit of endless profit, whatever the cost. It's not sustainable and, as someone who has loved this hobby for my entire life, seeing the people who create games treated as disposable is disgusting. So, as much as this post and this blog are about YAY GAMES, there's also an undercurrent of filth that we have to keep in mind.

Apart from that, 2023 had its usual ups and downs for me. I played non-mobile games on my phone more than ever, thanks to two things: I got a Razr Kishi adapter to clamp onto my phone, turning it into a tiny Switch. Oh, and I got a pretty decent new phone. And Honkai Star Rail hooked me. That's three things.

Speaking of HSR, the ability to access cloud saves from my phone and my desktop PC was a godsend. This is true for Game Pass as well. Frequently I'd pull out my phone in the breakroom at work and pickup whichever game I'd been playing on Xbox, and it worked surprisingly well. I played a lot of Dead Cells this way, and finished Fuga 2 and Dordogne there.

If you'd told me at the start of the year that my best experiences of the year would include Baldur's Gate, a Harry Potter title, and an ALAN WAKE game, I'd have been pretty skeptical. But here we are. Also, if you're a theater kid I feel like this year had a couple of really special moments for you.

2023 also marked a return - at least somewhat - to the hobby of boardgaming. I was neck deep in the hobby from 2008 - 2015. I recently picked up Wingspan and it became a Sunday afternoon staple for myself, my wife, and our youngest child. I've missed the tactile non-digital experience of boardgames. It's nice to be back.

10. Honkai Star Rail

Well. You win universe. A gross free to play mobile game chock full of microtransactions and gacha mechanics is one of my favorite games of the year. The Genshin Impact people made a turn based RPG, see. And it's stylish as hell, and music is great, and when you get a new character from the loot boxes you get this little dopamine hit, and...

The game's events have been really surprising and well done. There's one involving staffing and stocking a museum, one involves shipping logistics, one's themed around ghost hunting. I wish I could have the $70 version of this game that isn't compromised by trying to squeeze players for money. The problem with that, of course, is that this game would not exist without all the bullshit.

But it feels good to play, it looks incredible, and I can swap between playing on my PC and my phone pretty effortlessly. So, despite the predatory MTX bullshit, I have really enjoyed my time with Honkai Star Rail this year.

I think my second biggest issue with live service games is that I don't get a sense of closure. I can't Finish Honkai Star Rail. And I'm not going to play it forever. So I get really into it for awhile (most of the year in this case) and just kind of...stop.

9. Goodbye Volcano High

This one is reminiscent of Night in the Woods; it's a coming-of-age story about anthropomorphic dinosaurs graduating high school, with all the fears and doubts that come with that. Some folks seem to have their entire future mapped out, some are just gonna work an hourly wage job and play D&D, and your character is serious about making a career in music. More serious than her bandmates are. Also, there's a meteor coming and it looks like it might hit Earth.

This game resonated with me on a few levels. The writing is great, the characters are well written and, unlike Stray Gods, the music landed for me. It does a great job of showing us different attitudes and values clashing into one another while making each of them relatable. The hope, resentment, and willful blindness of "My friends aren't invested in this thing we're doing together as much as I am" really blindsided me. It dredged up some feelings I haven't examined in years, both for better and worse. I didn't have much in the way of expectations for this game, but Goodbye Volcano High wormed its way into my heart. Goodbye Volcano High is the game mostly likely to be the game where I look back in the future and regret putting it outside of my top 10 for the year.

Hah! Suck it, me! Top 10 babyyyyy!

8. Pikmin 4

I've never really engaged with Pikmin, but this one was a blast. It does the Honey I Shrunk the Kids thing of "tiny dudes in a normal environment so it looks all big" thing that I love. Solve lots of puzzles by throwing little plant being at them. I love that the inspiration for the series was Miyamoto watching ants carrying leaves in his yard. It still has that feeling all these years later.

It feels odd to call Pikmin a relaxing experience, as you can and will lose Pikmin. Sometimes due to the natural attrition that comes with war, sometimes when the wrong little doofuses wander into water or fire, etc. There's also a timer, which is usually a dealbreaker for me. And the story revolves around rescuing fellow space travelers who have been transforming into mute plant people on this hostile planet. In fact the whole thing sounds like a pitch for a horror game. Despite all that, there's an easy charm to Pikmin. Your little astronaut dorks keep their spirits high, and there's playful music as you explore this huge, colorful world. I found it to be a great way to unwind at the end of the day for a couple of months this year.

7. Persona 5 Tactica

Persona 5 achieved mainstream success that the games before it never reached. Atlus has been milking it for all it's worth too - Persona 5 Dancing in the Moonlight, Persona 5 Royal, Persona 5 Strikers, and an upcoming Persona 5 mobile game. Some folks are feeling understandably burned out - I didn't get into dancing or strikers, and didn't play Royal (after putting 120 hours into Persona 5) so I was geeked when they announced a Persona 5 tactics game. On paper it's a strong pitch for me.

And in execution it's every bit as good as I'd hoped. My only complaint is the chibi art style. It isn't bad, just not to my taste. Beyond that? It's got the Persona charm, the banging music, and good solid tactical gameplay with just enough of a twist to not feel dull.

The "one more" mechanic from the series is key here, allowing the members of your 3-person team extra movement and actions. This is especially important because of the game's version of the all-out attack, which forms a triangle between your 3 party members and deals heavy damage to enemies caught inside. This makes combat an experience that rewards putting thought into. The game even has some side battles that are basically puzzles, giving you one turn to finish.

The game's new characters - Toshiro and Erina - are a welcome addition to the Phantom Thieves crew as well. I came around on Toshiro in a big way and was immediately in love with Erina. The game is about fighting against oppression and finding your courage to resist. Your friends are there for you when times are tough. It's hammy and melodramatic in the way that Persona is, and I love it. I love the game's revolutionary aesthetic, even if it's largely window dressing.

The DLC has been great so far too, starring Akechi and Kasumi in gameplay I can only describe if "What if Persona and Splatoon had a tactics baby?"

6. Diablo IV

The Diablo series has been the most consistently great video game series for me. I love the first 3 games and spent a TON of time with each. Diablo IV has the worst longevity of the series, but the best campaign. Now, I have to add a bunch of qualifiers here. The "best campaign" is a pretty low bar to clear. Diablo has always been - and continues to be - find new gear/numbers go up. The cutscenes are, as usual, top notch. While the story wasn't necessarily riveting, it was nice to have an antagonist with a personality and some ideas beyond RAWR I AM VERY EVIL RAWR. In fact, I was half-expecting the game to ask if I wanted to side with Lilith near the end, and I just might have done so. And the cinematic of the human army marching into hell while Lilith and Imperius have a philosophical discussion was incredible.

As for the replay value, maybe they'll find their way much like Diablo III did. My main issue with Diablo IV is the way new content is handcuffed to new seasons, how seasonal characters are siloed off from the rest of your characters, and how the game feels like it was built around microtransactions and milking money out of the player.

The game feels good to play. Abilities feel powerful and interesting, the loot grind is fun, and exploring the variety between the classes is a joy. Diablo IV is one of the best games released this year, it's just a shame that, like a lot of modern games, Diablo IV feels compromised, it feels like a Product in a gross way. Still, every previous game in the series has had a long tail for me, so I'm not counting Diablo IV out yet.

5. Darkest Dungeon II

Darkest Dungeon is my favorite game. I have a tattoo of it on my arm. It's impossible to expect a sequel to improve on that or even meet it. Subsequent journeys into a fiction can never be special in the same way that first one is, and Darkest Dungeon II is no exception.

The game is immediately recognizable - you'll see some familiar faces lined up in a tug-of-war formation against a group of enemies. A row of skills at the bottom of the screen, a torch at the top. Artwork with thick, dark lines and plenty of shading. The moment-to-moment gameplay IS a lot like the first game, but the trappings around it are not.

Gone is the persistent campaign of the first game, replaced by a more familiar roguelike structure. You embark on runs that either end in victory or failure, unlocking new things between runs. This makes the game more approachable and forgiving, but it means the lows are less low and the highs are not quite as high. In the original title losing your veteran Crusader you've sunk hours and hours into feels like a real gut punch, but by the same token finally - FINALLY - conquering the darkest dungeon feels incredible. Those extremes are lost in the sequel, and that probably makes for an objectively better game.

It's not just the same run every time; there are 5 chapters to conquer, each themed with a personal failing: Denial, Resentment, Obsession, Ambition, and Cowardice. The game's personality is still here in full force thanks to Wayne June's narration, Stuart Chatwood's music, that incredible artwork and gallows humor that I love so much. Each of the characters is treated as an individual with their own dark backstory this time around, each crafted in loving detail and unfolding by way of cutscenes and/or interactive gameplay moments. The stress mechanism is still here but takes a bit of a backseat, while relationships between characters are brought to the forefront.

Darkest Dungeon II is just what I wanted from a sequel to my favorite game. I'm glad they didn't just make the same again but prettier, but still kept the game's bones intact.

4. Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name

Yakuza has become one of my favorite game series over the past few years. I'm down for whatever they throw at us. Bringing Kiryu back yet again? Sure. New protagonist? I'm down. A period piece starring the cast as historical figures? Fucking bring it on.

I love the series. The melodrama that hits me in my feels, the never-ending parade of lovable weirdoes and freaks in Kamurocho, the deep well of fleshed-out side games like bowling, pocket circuit racing, and karaoke - it's all here. I'm not tired of it. I thought I would be, but I'm not.

Kiryu is a lovable, stoic doofus with a strict moral code and penchant for helping out anyone who needs a hand. This time they gave him a Clark Kent disguise after faking his death, and also a bunch of James Bond Spider-Man gadgets. Let's go.

I will never get tired of my big hearted himbo beating people with bicycles and helping out folks in need. And I got misty-eyed at the ending. I was not prepared for my stoic boy to full on ugly cry. Still waters run deep.

3. Hogwarts Legacy

In the years since JK Rowling outed herself as a human shaped pile of garbage, I've distanced myself from the Harry Potter universe. And when Hogwarts Legacy released, the game was a lightning rod for controversy. I decided to see for myself, and was treated to a wonderful, smartly written game that managed to capture the magic of the world without constantly referencing the movies and books that everyone knows. It's the same trick that Jedi Fallen Order pulled a few years ago, and it works every bit as well here.

The school feels massive and detailed, and it was a joy to explore or just get lost in. The game world outside the school was unexpectedly huge as well, and the broomstick flight felt so good and natural that I rarely bothered to travel by floo. Optional side activities like growing your own plants for your potion brewing, decorating your Room of Requirement, and breeding creatures were all pleasant distractions that served to flesh out the world of Hogwarts.

The game's cast is fairly diverse, and most students felt like real people rather than caricatures of their Hogwarts houses. Most students do have their house traits, but they're not constantly front and center. The side stories and main story kept me engaged throughout my time with Hogwarts Legacy, and I was a little sad to see it end. It's a shame the IP has JK Rowling's stench on it, and that a lot of people will miss this game because of that.

2. Alan Wake II

Alan Wake and Control are both posterchildren for games with incredible world building and lousy game play. I've started both multiple times only to end up walking away in frustration. Alan Wake 2 largely fixes my complaint with those previous games by letting me explore and become immersed in the world without throwing frequent contextless fights in my way.

Alan Wake 2's combat isn't necessarily more engaging, but there's far less of it. What you're left with is the good stuff, a Twin Peaks-like horror mystery in a small town where everything and everyone feels a little bit off. Sometimes a lot off. It's a game where the characters play everything straight, but there are plenty of winks and nods in the margins. The game is full of wonderful freaks and weirdoes, many of whom had me frequently grinning like a fool. Alex Casey. Warlin Door. The Koskela brothers. Rose. Odin and Tor. Alan and Saga. Ahti. Thomas Zane. All hamming it up in a story that gets entirely up its own ass in the best way.

The Herald of Darkness scene is one of the best things I've ever seen. Ditto for the late game scene on the lakeshore. Hell, the game had me sitting and watching a short Finnish art house film at one point. It's a game full of glee and confidence from a studio with the belief in itself and its fans that allow it to swing for the fences. Not every part of it works for me, but the parts that do are so effective that the whole experience is lifted up on high. I wish Remedy's gameplay worked for me, which is never has. But this is a terrific work of art, and the good stuff far outweighs the bad.

Baldur's Gate III

My love of Baldur's Gate and the CRPG genre was something I'd left long in the past. Despite playing excellent modern entries like Divinity Original Sin, and Pillars of Eternity I hadn't been captivated by one of these in some 20 years.

It's hard to put into words what a triumph Baldur's Gate 3 is. I can't name a single thing it really does to revolutionize the genre but Larian executed on every single element of the game. Starting with the story, they make the stakes incredibly personal on top of the usual "Oh shit the world is in danger!" thing we always see. A mindflayer puts a parasite in your brain at the beginning of the game. World saving aside, getting that out of you feels pretty important.

Or not! You can decide to lean into it, and the writers did a great job of mixing viewpoints into the story. Mindflayers are horrible monsters but wait. Are they really though? Your party members will have their own opinions on the matter, as well as their own traumas and baggage and backstories. The writing and voicework for these party members are the best part of one of the best games ever made.

The game's ensemble cast might be the best of any game. By the game's end my party was my Tav, Karlach, Jaheira, and Astarion/Gale depending on the situation. There are party members I missed, and one I may or may not have killed (I regret nothing). Baldur's Gate III's story branches in so many ways, it all feels like it's a hair away from collapsing in on itself but it never does. My friends and I were exchanging stories about what we'd seen and done in the game as we played, and the variance is impressive. Baldur's Gate III is like a dude spinning plates while juggling chainsaws, and people keep tossing stuff into the mix and you think "Well no WAY can he keep all this going!" but goddammit, it all keeps going.

The way the game rolls with whatever choices you make (or dumb shit you want to try) whether in or out of combat, is truly incredible. It feels closer to having a DM than anything I've ever played. If you want to do something weird or dumb, the game does an incredible job of yes and-ing you. And it's not without consequences, the game reacts to the wide array of shit you can do within the D&D ruleset. The game sets up storylines both big and small early on, and manages to pay them off in interesting ways before it wraps up.

The combat was a sticking point for me in Divinity Original Sin 2. It's not that it was bad, but it was overwhelming. Combat could be long and difficult, and losing after an hour only to reload a save was incredibly deflating. Baldur's Gate 3 threaded this needle almost perfectly for me. Most combats were challenging but not crushing, and did not overstay their welcome.

I kept waiting for the game to drag and lose its momentum, but it never happened. I was glued to it for the entire 100+ hours it took me to roll credits. I fully plan on replaying it one day.

[dzvagabond]

I know nothing about Alan wake, other than a IRL rock band is involved (???) and also that first game is from 2010 (wow that game is… fifteen years old…) but take this ask as an opportunity to infodump about it if you’d like! /genuine

@malewifehenrycooldown I AM SO SORRY FRIEND ;A; I've been so busy with work (I just started back after being on break) but I will take this opportunity to infodump about one of my fav game franchises.

There IS an actual rock band involved! It's Poet's of the Fall's in-game band called Old Gods of Asgard (please listen to their tracks for AW 1&2 + Control highly recommend) and their members Tor and Odin are characters that you interact with in both installments!

But anyway anyway!!

So AW 1 came out in 2010 (yea can't believe it'll be 15 in May holy fuck), and you play as the titular writer himself Alan obviously. The first game has a very big Stephen King vibe, and it's honestly different than any other survival horror type game I've played.

I'm gonna put a read more here because this post might get a bit LONG.

But yea, pretty much what's the synopsis of the first game is Alan and his wife Alice go on a trip to Bright Falls Washington to help clear his head. They go to a cabin on Cauldron Lake that Alice had rented for this trip, and unbeknownst to Alan until they get there, set up a typewriter so he could write while they were out there. This makes Alan upset because all he wanted to do was go on vacation and spend some time with his wife so he storms out of the cabin. While he's outside, he hears Alice scream and come to find out she had fallen into Cauldron Lake. This prompts Alan to jump in after her and goes unconscious.

When Alan wakes (haha sry sry), he gets into a car crash and there are these shadowy type enemies, which we come to know as the Taken later on; attack Alan in the dark and he finds out that the cabin no longer exists. Alan does go on a kind of wild goose chase trying to find Alice after he believes she's gone missing. Enter Sarah Baker the town sheriff who wants to take Alan into custody (iirc) because of how skeptical she is. She later rescinds her skepticism after she gets attacked by Taken as well.

Throughout your time playing the game, you find manuscript pages of Alan's horror story that are seemingly coming to life.

Before Breaker does get attacked however, Barry Wheeler Alan's manager comes to help him and defend him against the authorities. Breaker does help albeit a bit cautiously, but an FBI agent known as Nightingale shows up and accused Alan of killing Alice (iirc). Alan avoids him, you run around killing Taken, and he then gets contacted by someone who claims to have kidnapped Alice. Come to find out the guy is just a lackey for a local therapist by the name of Dr. Emil Hartman. This location is the 2nd time you meet the seemingly insane Tor and Odin Anderson of The Old Gods of Asgard (you first meet them in the Oh Deer Diner where one of em asks you to play Lime in the Coconut on the jukebox. Gotta love them). But anyway, Hartman gets taken over by the Dark Presence and attacks Alan. He makes it out obviously, and goes to the Anderson's place with Barry where they said they would give em answers to what's been going on.

To make a long story somewhat shorter, Alan gets the answer that the Dark Presence uses art to make itself stronger and expand its domain known as "The Dark Place". They perform a rock concert where you have to fight off hoards of taken, and go find a person known as the "Lady of the Light" who ends up being a woman named Cynthia Weaver. She tells Alan that this isn't the first time this has happened in Bright Falls. In the 70s, a man by the name of Thomas Zane was manipulated by the Dark Presence as well and it took over his then lover Barbara (who you do see/hear throughout the game). Now there has been a guide helping you through the game that I forgot to mention. It takes form of a ghostly diver, and it's at this point in the story you find out it's Zane trying to help you not make the same mistake he did and rescue your wife. Weaver then takes Alan to what she calls The Well-Lit Room where you find The Clicker, a little portion of a broken light switch given to Alan by his mom as a child. This is the thing he needs to save Alice.

Pretty much the ending goes like this:

Alan fights through hell after coming to the conclusion horror stories requires sacrifice and balance.

He comes face to face with the Dark Presence who's taken the form of Barbara.

Alan writes a new ending to the story, "defeats" Barbara by using the Clicker.

Alice escapes the Dark Place and emerges from Cauldron Lake unscathed and Alan takes her place.

This is when Mr. Scratch, Alan's doppelganger who later turns "evil", takes his place and Alan begins writing Return.

It's a wild ride and the gameplay relies heavily on dodging & flashlight usage to weaken the Taken to then shoot and kill em. The first game is a little clunky, but my god is it so much fun to play :3

Sorry it's so long (there's a lot of stuff I might have left out), I just have a lot of love for this series (I have an insert & lore n shit) and I hope you might give it a shot!

Canonically, it has 2 sequels, 3-ish if you could the DLC for Control. The first is American Nightmare which is where Alan is in the Dark Place getting pretty much tortured by Mr. Scratch with a timeloop. And the second is the ACTUAL sequel Alan Wake II which is even more batshit than the first imho.

I'm gonna be streaming the entire Remedy Franchise (which is kinda all connected in a weird way because Sam Lake is batshit insane just like Kojima [affectionate]) if you're interested or again, pick up the game yourself! It's not that expensive on Steam OR there's always a way around that without spending if you catch my drift 👀

But yea!! Please tell me if you play the game, I would LOVE to talk about it with more people!!

[the-kipsabian]

Hello! I have 3 things

How's the weather? It suddnly starting raining and it's cold so it's been a fun mixture

I'm using storyboards for an edit for once. It's getting that hectic

I know bits and pieces about Alan Wake, but I watched Adam Cole play part of it, and it looks really cool.

1. we have like. knee high piles of snow and freezing wind it fucking sucks LMAO. but at least theres snow so its not just dark and damp outside

2. ohhhh my god yeah that is hectic lmao. i hope youre enjoying the process tho!! 💜

3. oh chugs played it, thats so cool i had no idea! i mean i probably should have guessed since hes into so many different games lol but i somehow missed this entirely. but yeah its really cool, i love psychological horror so much and the second game is absolutely incredible, the entire plot and the way its written tickles my brain just the right way ough

[twinhood-2dot0]

A Shallow Dive Into: Video Game Mechanics

We’re doing this again :P. I got a fun topic but realised it would take too much research, so you get this but, uh, y’know, delayed gratification and all. 

So, you know that I wanna be a game developer. I have decided to make a video game, starting next year, provided things go well. As in any art form, to make one, I’m going to need inspiration and an understanding of how it works and stuff, so, this post is mainly just for me like every other post I’ve written, but, I hope you find it interesting as well.

Undertale

Damn, this is like the third time I’m talking about Undertale. I HOLD THIS GAME VERY CLOSE TO MY HEART, OKAY? 

Undertale has a unique battle system. From the Steam page: “Killing is unnecessary: negotiate out of danger using the unique battle system.” Undertale is an RPG (Role-playing game) at its core. The battle system, however, is more of a bullet hell. Bullet hell is characterized by a barrage of projectiles that crowd the screen. What makes this game different from every other game I’ve played is the variety. Granted, the game is tiny, so it’s easier to have variety, but I’ll take the game I’m playing right now as an example, Alan Wake, god, does this game have a terrible combat system. 

At least the story makes up for it. Anyways, in Alan Wake, you are attacked by people taken by a darkness. You defeat them by shining a light on them and breaking the uh darkness shield with a flashlight or a flare or external light sources, or you can insta kill with flashbangs or flare guns (or maybe it deals a lot of damage to bulkier enemies, I don’t know, I’m so worried about running out of ammo or flashbangs that I end up never using them lmao). Anyways, I’m about 70% done and the combat system has remained exactly the same, save for additions of a hunting rifle and 2 kinds of shotguns and I never use them, see flashbangs and flare guns, granted, that’s not the devs’ fault, but how much more variety would that create? I guess easier battles and maybe ammo management but I’m already irrationally worrying about that, so… There’s also only like 4 enemy varieties, and that makes every battle almost exactly the same, save for one, which I don’t wanna spoil too much. 

Anyways, my point is, in Undertale, every single battle has its own personality. There are 8 enemies in the tutoriel area of the game, Ruins. That’s not much, but the Ruins is a relatively small area, being the tutorial area, and enemies can appear in pairs and have unique interactions with the other. For instance, there’s this enemy called Migosp, who I think has social anxiety, mood, who changes its whole personality in the company of other monsters and becomes laidback when alone. Every enemy has a personality and a unique attack, so this is pretty much the pinnacle of enemy variety.

Batman: Arkham

A lot of that was combat challenges with every single character in the game, so I think I’m pretty qualified to refute that.

So, I used to just button spam on my first playthrough, it was when trying to do the combat challenges that I realised that was not the best strategy. If you just button spam, you’re going to get hit very easily and get a lower score. There are also critical hits which do more damage and give double the points if you time your punches, and a huge amount of score if you kill knock out the enemies without getting hit or not breaking your combo. There are also insta-takedown, weapon disarm, ground takedown, which is risky as you’re vulnerable to hits, but award a lot of points and instantly take them out. So, in short, yes, you can button spam, but you’ll be missing out on a lot of fun mechanics, and the satisfaction of a perfect FreeFlow.

The other system is the Predator sections. It’s exactly what it sounds like, it’s silently (or loudly, idk, you choose, I like going loud when playing with Red Hood, that seems in character) taking out the goons in the room. This is truly how this game makes you feel like Batman. There’s a weird sadistic satisfaction in hearing the goons freaking out as their friends disappear one by one. Also, traversal is very fun, you can grapple, glide, even almost fly if you get good at gliding, dive bomb, (yes I use the Oxford comma, fight me) and there’s also the Batmobile in the last game. Also one of my favourite tiny detail in the games, the goon conversations. They’re hilarious and breathe a lot of life into the bleak empty map. Just look at this clip (dw they’re short) why you let thugs finish their conversations.

And this

Arkham Knight - Funny Militia Guard

My favourite thing is when developers go the extra mile and put in tiny details that not everyone might find, but those who do, would definitely love it. I strive to do that one day.

Pokémon

This gets pretty technical and boring, so you may skip this one if you want.

At first glance, Pokémon may seem like a children’s game with simple mechanics, but that is far from the truth. In a typical Pokémon battle, each participant sends out 1 or 2 or 3 Pokémon depending on the format, and each of them use moves to try and lower the HP (health point, numerical representation of health) of the opposing Pokémon to 0. It has a lot of different mechanics, strategies, variety and even has a competitive scene with a world championship. Pokemon releases a mainline game every few years, bringing along with it new species, abilities, moves, items, etc. I’m gonna make a glossary.

Ability - Each Pokémon has an ability that affects the battle in some way (in most cases). For instance, the ability Intimidate lowers the attack stat of the opposing Pokémon.

Types - There are 18 types in Pokémon. In short, each Pokémon has one or two types, and each type has a set of weaknesses, strengths, resistances and immunities. For instance, let’s take the classic three types of Grass, Water and Fire of the starter Pokémon you’re given at the beginning of the game. Grass type moves do double damage against Water types, Water does double to Fire, and Fire does double to Grass, so basically like Rock/Stone, Paper, Scissors (and Lizard, Spock and 13 more stuff if you use all 18 types), and these types do half damage to the types they’re weak to (Only for these types, not for every single type). Like this, every type has an interaction with every other type.

Moves - Moves are the main way to deal damage, but there are others. Moves are split into 3 categories, Physical attacks, damaging moves that use the Attack Stat, (see: Stats), Special moves that use the Special Attack stat, and status moves that don’t do direct damage, but have a passive effect. Damaging moves generally have a set base power ranging from 10 - 250, and moves of the same type as the user deal 1.5x more damage. There are more factors but I’ll ignore them for this post.

Stats - Each Pokemon has base stats, which determine how much damage is dealt or taken, or the order of moves. The stats are HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. HP determines how many health points the Pokemon has, for Attack and Special Attack see Moves, Defense and Special Defense determines how much damage it takes, and Speed determines who goes first.

Status condition - Huh, just realised that’s kinda redundant wording. Anyways, there are 5.5 non-volatile status conditions in mainline games. Freeze renders the target incapable to move until the RNG works in your favour, Burn deals 1/16th of its health each turn currently, and halves the base power of all physical moves, Paralysis makes it unable to move 25% of the time, and halves Speed, Poison does 1/8th of the health each turn, and badly poisoned means the damage increases by 1/16 each turn (this is the .5) and Sleep makes the Pokemon unable to move for 1-3 turns. There are a lot of volatile conditions that fade away upon switching out, unlike non-volatile ones.

A Pokemon needs a combination of all these traits to be good. Landorus was once the most hated Pokemon in VGC because of great stats, great ability in Intimidate, lowering both foes’ Attack stat, and great moves.

If you got till here, thanking you for sticking around, I know it wasn’t easy, and ryl!

[vialdovi]

Now that the streaming has ended here is my 2 cents

Im glad for silent hill coming back, god know i was missing it, the exciment and anxiousness is all back

But they sure will love to milk their golden cow of silent hill 2 AND IM GLAD (also it was obvious they would do this) but im fucking worried bc is really easy to fuck this game up

I dont want a re8 copy, i dont want them to forget their lynch and jacobs ladder inspiration.

James face looks fucking weird, idk if is the animation or not, like they tried make him older but younger at the same time like the steve buscemi meme, and im gonna fucking say it he looks fucking skinny ass hell, but the funny thing only his face looks skinny.

It has the movie cinematography, the same shots, i want them weirder, go fucking nuts with the camera man, no need to be so pressed over the shoulder view.

HAPPY THEY GIVE PH HIS LIL WHITE GLOVES BACK, hope they stick with his original look as much as they can, wich it seems is the case so far.

The storyboard of the movie for the sh2 has james with a black long hair, he looked funny as hell. While im not thay fan of the movie and how much it influence got in the last games (specially about the cults) i do admit the director managed to bring the atmosphere of the games in the movie.

I do hope they make james as flawed as he is in the games (he is not a romantic hero my man)

Not very fan of silent hill ascension, at least of what the trailer showed, but is something new.

Silent hill townsfall have this weird mix of alan wake and some pt dialogue, too early to talk but i do dig the beach and fucked lighthouse it has.

Silent hill f.... Ehh looked pretty but i didnt find it that much silent hill energy, it it looked like a direct prequel of the movie, but again too early to talk.

So my final thoughts is that im happy as hell to see silent hill coming back but im worried as hell and plz fix james animations/face.

Also, forever grateful for not having another pachinko game.

[layanasstories]

Reunite

Part 2

I woke up early, just like I always did on this day, the last ten years. I was already showered, had put my clothes on and was doing the final touches on my make-up when the motel phone rang. “Good morning Miss Snyder” I could hear Mrs. Walter her friendly voice “This is your wake up call. The restaurant is open from 8 am to 11 am for breakfast”. “Thank you Mrs. Walter, I am awake now” I answer her. I turned back to the bathroom after I hang up the phone, to finish what I was doing. I wanted to make sure I went to the memorial site the first thing today, before going to the Aurora. Phil had offered us, back then, to open up the Aurora earlier just for the group. And it never changed ever since. After I had my breakfast and the needed coffee I went for the walk towards the memorial. I could have taken the car, but the weather was really nice and I love the cool breeze in the morning. Besides the walk through the forest is beautiful.

I almost was at the memorial site, when it became busier by the minute with people. As I walked further I was stopped by a police officer. “Sorry ma’am you can’t go any further, the area is cordoned off and no one is allowed in” He raised his hand as if he wanted to hold me back. “What happened?” I asked the man while looking behind him to get a glimpse. “I cannot give you any information on that. Now please step back”. He wanted to push me to the opposite direction, but I slipped passed him. I saw Alan standing near a police truck. I waved at him to get his attention. “Hey Alan!” I shouted. With a quick pace I walked toward him with the police officer behind me trying to stop me. “Layana, good to see you.” I saw him wave at the police officer that it was okay I walked towards him. “Although I wished we would have met on better circumstances” He placed his hand on my shoulder. “What happened? Why is the memorial site closed off?” I asked him while he turned me around. When my face is turned towards the memorial stone, I can see a white sheet on the ground with a typical silhouette of a body underneath it. It shocked me more than I expected. “Oh my god, he is back” I let out with a gasp while I put my hand over my mouth. “Unfortunately, I think so too.” Alan’s voice sounded disappointed and angry. I looked around at the crime scene. A group of people had gathered behind the police tape. I thought I saw a familiar figure among the people, but when I looked back at the spot where I saw it, there was nothing. I guess my mind is playing tricks on me. “Alan, can I tell the others, the group I mean. We always take a moment on this day to bring flowers here. But that won’t be possible today” I twisted my face a little at the thought of how the others would react. “Yes, you can. But only that we found a body. Nothing more. You know the drill” again he placed his hand on my shoulder with a squeeze to reassure me.

The nerves got to me when I saw the Aurora. What supposed to be a happy day, will become a scary and sad one. I stopped just a few meters away from the entrance, and took my phone out of my pocket. It felt weird, I never send him any messages again after our break up. And I wasn’t even sure if he was able to read it or if the number was still in service. Every time I switched to a new phone, I did add his number and Nymos. Just out of habit, or maybe even some hope. He never send me any, what was understandable if he was locked up. But never the less, I opened up the messenger app and send just one line HE IS BACK. I closed the app again and put my phone back into my pocket. When I walked into the Aurora, I was greeted by Phil, Lilly, Hannah and Thomas. The others hadn’t arrived yet. We waited for the others with some small talk, before I dropped the bomb. It didn't take long before they arrived. When we all had greeted each other I went straight to the point “Guys, there is something I need to tell you all”. “Finally! She is over the hackerman and found someone!” Dan interrupted me. Thomas gave him a sharp look to shut up. What made Dan shrug his shoulders “What?!”. “No Dan, that’s not what I wanted to tell you all. Let me just rip off the bandage” I sighed  “They have found a body at the memorial today”. The room became eerily quiet. The shocked looks made my heart drop. “I wanted to visit the memorial this morning, and when I got there the whole area was closed off. They just had found the body and where securing the evidence. There is not much more I can tell you” I dropped my hands in defeat, not sure what to feel or think. “Can we not get involved for a change?” it was Hannah who spoke first “I am done with these riddles, puzzles or whatever you like to call them. It’s been ten years and just No. I am done with this not again!”. I saw the other also nod in agreement with Hannah. “It’s done, we have had done our part in this. And not anymore” Worried Richy looked at me. “I understand guys. Really do. I just wanted to make sure you heard it from me, and not from gossip or the news” I said when I felt my phone vibrate in my pocket. I reached for it and saw the notification

message read 10.56 am

[eskewcity]

Why don’t you like alan wake

oh my god yes let’s open this can of worms at 2 am.

so first off I played on pc which just might.. have made the controls a little bit worse for me since I don’t think it originally came out on that but goddamn was it a fucking nightmare to play. even on the most normal setting, the controls served as a hellish reminder that I am not the best at motor control but also that this game personal wants me to have the worst experience of my life. the whole thing of using your flashlight to break down enemy defenses and then shoot really doesn’t fucking work if I have to essentially focus on one enemy at a time which newsflash doesn’t fucking help when you’re being swarmed with monsters. I could not tell you the amount of times I died in this game at the same goddamn part because I would just be swarmed with enemies to the point I almost cried tears of frustration. I can’t even pinpoint a single time where I was having “fun” because I was try so annoyed at the gameplay.

this is not to mention that the plot is very ehh. like sure I get it but it’s nothing to write home about. Like if I described that the story is about a writer that is essentially living through his own manuscript you would think that’s cool right? Right?!?? Well save your self the fucking heartache and don’t fall for it. The story tries to do some very interesting things but falters in execution every step of the way. It doesn’t help that our main goal is to find our wife that we barely got to spend any time with. I would like to remind every game studio out there to stop fucking having characters go missing 30 minutes into a game and then expect me to give a single shit about them for the next few hours. I simply won’t!!!

the game itself also tried so hard to be edgy and Deep with some of its lines it’s honestly sad. and the parts where it attempted to be funny didn’t even get to me because I was still so fucking mad about the controls.

it’s the thing that makes me wary about playing the game Control since it’s the same studio and if it plays the same way then I would have no choice but to light my house on fire. however it thematically seems much more my style so I’m still willing to give it a chance and believe that they have learned over time

[popculturebuffet]

Static Shock: Shock to the System and Aftershock Review

“You know what? 13 years ago, me and some friends sat in a restaurant all night and daydreamed about the kinds of stories we would tell if we had the chance. We wanted to expand the concept of superhero to include characters that kind of looked like us, who had some of the same background, experiences and dreams as we did. We wanted to create something fun that a new generation would respond to the same way we responded to our childhood heroes -and damn if we didn't succeed beyond my wildest dreams. Today, Static Shock is a household name with millions of fans of all ages (Is there stuff I'd do differently? Yeah, almost all of season four but why nitpick?) Static is the most successful thing I've ever helped create and I'm both proud and gratified that people have taken it into their hearts. “ 

Dwayne McDuffie, Co-Creator of Static and Writer for Static Shock

This review is dedicated to Dwayne McDuffie and Robert L. Washington III.                                                        Rest In Power Static Shock is awesome. I grew up with the show watching it both first run on the WB and second run on Cartoon Network and loved it as much as I did other large parts of my childhood courtsey of DC like Batman the Animated Series, Teen Titans and both Justice League Shows. What makes this unique among the DC Properties is that Static wasn’t really a big name when he got a show. He wasn’t even part of the DC Universe. 

See as I had no idea for probably a good decade, Static actually came from Milestone Comics, a company ran by and focused on african americans. The goal was understandable: While black heroes existed at the time, and there were some fantastic ones like Storm, Jim Rhodes and Steel... these guys weren’t the center of their universes. The big faces of the big  companies, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, Iron Man, Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash.. were white. So milestone was a shakeup of that with the main teams and heroes all being black, from Icon, an alien who’d lived among man but rather than end up in kansas like say superman ended up imprinting on a slave woman centuries ago and has been with us since, who was encouraged by an energetic teenager named Rocket to put on a costume and do something with his powers and his community, Hardware, a tech genius who had his work stolen by a white asshole and wanted to fight back and BLood Syndicate, a group of gang members all caught in the “The Big Bang”, a huge fight between all of Dakota, the midwest city where the comics take place, that ended when the police released a bunch of experimental gas that gave them all super powers. 

As most of you who have watched the show already know, this is where Static comes from. Static was the company making their own Spider-Man, i.e. a nerdy teenager who suddenly gets super powers, in this case Virgil Hawkins who at the prodding of a friend took a gun to The Big Bang to get revenge on a bully. .but ultimately couldn’t go through with it, decided it wasn’t him and got rid of the gun and ran.. and still ended up in it, becoming Static, a young hero dedicated to using his powers to fight other “Bang Babies”.. a term that dosen’t really sound that great and they really should’ve thought through. But Phrasing aside the character was great and I look forward to reading more and only haven’t because I have to buy the issues gradually, but DC is currently re-releasing the individual issues of Static, Icon, and Hardware weekly in anticipation of a reboot of Milestone Coming in May digitally on Comixology at only 2 bucks a pop, and rereleased the original print collections that were long out of print for 10 bucks each, though i’m getting static on it’s own since i’ts really not that much less expensive as it only collects four issues while Icon and Hardware both collect 8, so I can wait a bit there on Hardware and already own Icon: A Hero’s Welcome.. and really need to review it at some point. 

While Milestone’s output was good, at least from the two books i’ve read, with Robert Washinton III, who sadly not only ahs also passed but was fucking homeless for a while  in the 2000′s.. what the actual hell, writing Static alongside Dwayne McDuffie, whose later moved onto animation writing tons of Static episodes all of them classics including the school shooting episode, the first three rubberbandman episodes and both Anasazi episodes. Point is it had good writers and artists and even had a distrbution deal with DC, so they had a leg up on the glut of other comic book companies.. but happened to start at the start of the comic book crash, a huge downturn in sales in the 90′s as the speculator boom, i.e. a bunch of people assuming every number one would be worth golden and silver age money, forgetting a character has to BUILD INTREST and this stuff takes time, and whose attempts to sell fast flooded the market with comics no one wanted,, caused the roof to cave in and with a bunch of assholes pegging milestone as a “Company for black people” rather than you know, a company trying to add fucking diversity and represntation to the comics industry, and that simply wanted a unvierse that was centered around people of color instead of white guys. The company eventually had to shut down, and was left to lisencing.  This is where the show comes in. Producers HAD been trying to make shows based on Milestone for a while, as far back as the mid-90s and the company was was all for it but the closest it got was an x-men style team series using various characters whose first draft was terrible and whose second draft by Alan Burnett, a producer on various DC Animated shows who’d go on to produce Static Shock, that McDuffie and others really liked but sadly did not get picked up. eventually though with presistance Static ended up getting a series and as I said McDuffie went on to write for it though he did not develop it. Some changes went into place naturally to make it work for an early 2000′s kids show and while i’ll probably miss so since again, only read one issue as we go. But due to Milestone coming back my intrest was peaking, hence finally reading the copy of Icon I had to buy from the library years ago due to keeping it overdue but am now EXTREMLEY glad I own as i’ts incredibly rare and really damn good, and wanting to read static, doing so lately since it’s finally on digtiial and again not too expensive. So join me as I give you a shock to the system and revisit this hell of a series to see if it holds up.. which just to cut that short it does and i’m only holding off binging MORE because I want the first two eps to be fresh enough in my head to review properly.. and also go over the various voice actors because that’s a thing with me now and charcter co-creator dwayne mcduffie because he’s awesome. 

As I like to do when covering a series first episodes, let’s run down the voice cast. 

First up is an UTTER LEGEND, and I use the term voice acting legend a lot, and mean it every time and have good reason to use it when I say it, and Phil LaMarr is a GOD in the buisness, having done a metric ton of voice acting roles, and being easily the most proflific black voice actor in animation. He’s also done some acting work, mostly in pulp fiction which I have not seen, but his true staying power and talent is in animation so here’s just the roles I feel are most notable or may not be very notable but i’m bringing up anyway because it’s my list. 

His roles besides Virgil include Lester Payton the Texas Ranger who showed up for one very good episode of king of the hill to be badass and show up the hickish, stupid and very punchable local Sheriff, Gearld’s obnoxious older brother Jamie O on Hey Arnold, Hermes Conrad from futurama, Carver from the Weekenders (PUT IT ON PLUS DISNEY), Axel Foley for exactly one bit in Clerks the Animated Series, but anyone whose seen it will know exactly which one, Micheal on the Proud Family, Black Vulcan on Harvey Birdman (In His Pants), Hector Con Carne and Dracula on Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy and Evil Con Carne, Jack on Samurai Jack something I didn’t know for decades (and I didn’t know about the carver thing till today though i’ts obvious in hindsight), John Motherfucking Stewart on Justice League and later Steel and Adult Static in the Unlimited seasons, Osmosis Jones on Ozzy and Drix, Bolbi Strogofski on Jimmy Neutron (And yes i’m just as shocked as you are.), Wilt on Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends, Marcus on Life and Times of Juniper Lee, Bull Sharkowski on My Gym Partner is A Monkey and Also a Sociopath Please Help God My Life is a waking nightmare..... okay the rest of that title is implied but we all watched the same show, we all know in our hearts that was the title

Moving on, he was also, and yes there’s MORE: Maxie Zeus on The Batman, Philly Phil on Class of 3000, Both Robertsons AND Fancy Dan on the Spectacular Spider-Man, Jazz on Transformers Animated, Kit Fisto and Bail Organa on Star Wars the Clone Wars, Gambit and Bolivar Trask on Wolverine and the X-Men, Aquaman I, L-Ron and Green Beetle on Young Justice, J.A.R.V.I.S. and Wonder Man (Simon Williams) In Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes, Gabe and Carny on Kaijudo: Rise of the Duel Masters (Really miss that game and have been snapping up what cards I can get lately), Baxter Stockman in the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (And there’s also an awesome photo of him with 2003 Baxter... the two best together in one place. I got chills), Dormammu (I’ve come to bargin) in various Marvel Shows, Noville in Mighty Magiswords, Zach’s dad Marcus in Milo Muprhy’s Law, Craig’s Douchey Brother Benard on Craig of the Creek, showing he’s clearly come full circle, And Mr. Scully on the Casagrndes. And given It took about two paragraphs to cover all of this, yeah, I MEANT legend. 

Next we have Kevin Micheal Richardson as Virgil’s Dad Robert, and it’s the first time since I started introducing Voice Actors on a show that i’ve overlapped. I already covered him during the second episode of legend of the three caballeros, but for the short version he’s also very acomplished, very damn good and I somehow missed he played the old blind guy in hey arnold> Needless to say the dude is awesome. 

Virgil’s Sister Sharon is played by Michele Morgan who was in the rap group BWP and did some smaller roles outside of this the one exception being Juicy on the PJ’s, which I have not watched much of but REALLY do not like, though i’ll at least give it credit for being a decently long lasted black claymation sitcom at at time when there were, and hoenstly still aren’t, many black animated shows. 

Back to long casting sheets, next up is Jason Marsden, who is one of my faviorites as i’ve realized recently as Ritchie. As I also found out only recently he started on the Sitcom Step By Step and while that show is .. ehhhhhhhhh, he is great in it because he’s great in everything. He also apparently has his own internet variety show which I have to watch now. His roles include Max Goof, ironically given I was just talking about that role a few days ago, Haku in the english dub of Spirted Away, Micheal, the kid being yelled at by a bunch of 80′s cartoons characters not to take drugs in Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue!, Nermal in the DTV Garfield movies and The Garfield Show, Tino on the Weekenders (SERIOUSLY DISNEY), Snapper Carr on Justice League, Rikochet on Mucha Lucha! for the last season (Why I do not knkow and while I love the guy he was not the right choice), Felix on Kim Possible, Chase Young on Xiaolin Showdown (WHich I did not realize was him and now I do easily his best role and I REALLY should’ve), Red Star and Billy Numerous on Teen Titans, Speedy on Batman Brave and the Bold, Impulse/Kid Flash II on Young Justice, and Fingers on Kaijudo. He hasn’t done as much lately which is a shame but hopefully i’tll pick up again. 

Next up is Hotstreak, Virgil’s brutal bully turned unhinted pyromancer played by DANIEL COOKSY, another actor i’m happy to talk about and another faviorite I haven’t seen much of lately. Daniel was an actor from childhood, playing Budnick on Salute Your Shorts, but he quickly gained a long and storied catalogue of VA Work: His first big roll was as Montana Max on Tiny Toon Adventures and if there is a god he’ll be back for the reboot, Stoop Kid on Hey Arnold, the incomprable Jack Spicer on Xiaolin Showdown, far and away his best role and part of why Chronicles sucked so bad was he was he didn’t get to reprise the role, The titular Dave the Barbarian, Django of the Dead on El Tigre (Had no idea), Kicks utterly insufferable big Brother Brad on Kick Buttowski and apparently he’s back at it again after laying low for a bit as he’s voicing Snag in Long Gone Gultch.. which I already really needed to watch but hot damn, I missed him. Sign me up. 

Frieda, Virgil’s crush and close friend who in the comics was his main confidante and love intrest but here is eventually pushed aside, is voiced by Danica Mckeller whose work didn’t seem all that familiar.. until I found out she was Ms. Martian on Young Justice. Hello, Megan. Very talented and she did get a major role in a dc show eventually so good for her. Can’t wait for season 4. 

So with our major players out of the way,  let’s talk about Dwayne. McDuffie is an AWESOME man and my respect has grown for him more and more with time. A writer and editor at Marvel, McDuffie has a decent resume doing smaller but awesome books, which I got most of for free last year when Marvel was giving out free digital collections due to the lock down, like Damage Control, a sitcom set in the marvel universe about the company that picks up after superhero battles and the logistics and antics that insue and Dethlok, about a pacfist trapped inside a cyborg zombie. He was as mentioned one of Milestone’s founders, and wrote Icon, Hardware and co-wrote the first few issues of Static. He’d go on to a pretty stacked career in animation, writing on this show and Justice League before becoming  story editor and show runner for Unlimited , even making a return to comics as a result writing the Marvel miniseries beyond and an arc of Fantastic Four in which Black Panther and Storm filled in for Reed and Sue while the two of them worked on their marriage after Reed did.. pretty much everything he did in Civil War. He also became head writer and show runner for Ben 10: Alien Force and Ultimate Alien, revamping the franchise a bit, and Alien Force, at least the first two seasons are awesome and I feel people overreacted on the changes. Ultimate Alien is okay, but has it’s problems but the finale was awesome and left the man’s legacy on a high note.. as he sadly passed in 2011 due to heart complications. He is truly missed and produced some utterly amazing stuff whlie he was alive. So on that melacholy note let’s see what happens when his creation hits the tv screen shall we?

Shock to the System:

This episode is written by Christopher Simmons, who is apparently a huge art designer guy.. but i’m not sure that’s the same chirsptoher simmons. Much more notable is the writer of the episode after this Stan Berkowitz, who was showrunner for season 1 and has done a LOT of DCAU work and is suprising talent, having written a lot of awesome Justice League episodes including Secret Society and The Royal Flush One. Point is we’re in first class hands.  Before the episode itself I want to talk about the intro and how it’s unique among DCAU shows. Like most Western Animation the intros for DCAU shows didn’t change much over the seasons with the most I can see is JLU changing up the footage to preview the current episode and later adding Hawkgirl to the intro after her return to the team. I THINK superman the animated series changed some of it’s footage too, but I can’t confrim it and may of just been imagining it. As i’ve talked about on my blog it’s normally a pet peeve of mine, mostly because shows you know, change after season 1, characters get added some one shot characters used for the intro never return, and after a while it can feel dated especially in more recent shows where the status quo is not at all set in stone and things change quite a bit. But sometimes it can be good enough that either the dated elements don’t matter or general enough that you don’t need to change it and i’ts just that good.. and given Batman the Animated Series has both in spades, you can see why i’ts probably my golden standard for intros and after superman the animated series DC mostly followed suit. But being part of the teen superhero boom of the 2000′s Static is unique in that it splits the diffrence: It’s intro gets the character across perfectly like a good intro should starting with Virgil getting out of bed and running a comb across his head before showing off to his sister to bug her and literally running into his dad who hand shim his bag and smiles, silently showing off his family. He then runs to school and runs into some trouble.. and said trouble changes for each intro, with Rubberband Man for season 1, Kanga (Whose name I only know because I happened to run across it) for season 2 and your guess is as good as mine for seasons 3 and 4, though Hotstreak is a constant. They still save some money for seasons 1 and 2 by recycling some animation.. but that’s alright with mea s it was good animation, and the improtant thing is cycling out old villians for new ones, while Season 3 is the only out and out redo to show off Richie taking on the Gear identity, adding about 10 seconds of intro to let him show off.  Seriously it’s an utterly great intro and like the other DCAU intros outside of superman, stuck in my brain. 

The other change that’s ENTIRELY diffrent from the rest of htem is that the music changes each time. The first two have the same formula just with a difrent vocalist and backing track: a superhero theme but with some hip hop beat boxing over it. The first intro is fine enough, not specattcular but stilll god. The second song.. is eh. Not really great and feels like a marked downgrade from season 1 and just dosen���t blend an ocrehstiral superhero theme with the beatbox elements NEARLY as well. The third song though is my faviorite.. even if I HATED Little Romeo as a  kid because I really did not like his nick show, it’s more a straight up rap song, but it has a faster beat that fits the intro better, and Romeo’s bragging fits Virgil’s character and penchant for Spidey quips perfectly. I also find it ironic that the theme that blends in with the dcau the most, the first season’s, is the one from BEFORE they decided to put it in the same universe. Still this season’s intro slaps, I just like the LIttle Romeo one a bit more.  The opening scene is picture perfect. Some masked crooks looting a warehouse are loading some stolen TV’s into a van when suddenly the lights come on one by one above one of the crooks before his tv switches to various channels before going haywire. Cue our heroes’ entrance. Let’s tak ea good look at him

Static’s Costume is awesome. While I prefer the season 3 redesign, and clearly DC agrees as the redeisgn was used for both pre and post new-52 when they used him, and while he’s getting a fresh design for the reboot, said design takes a lot of cures from said outfit. As for how the outfit differs from the comics itself  this is the design he had in the comics

It didn’t change much from the first issue, with the exception of his now iconic big puffy jacket which was added pretty early into the character’s history but I was unaware of that and just assumed he had the bodysuit the whole time. The more you know. But as you can see outside of the cool puffy jacket over a costume the two couldn’t be more diffrent. While the Dakotaverse outfit is more a standard superhero outfit, with some regular clothes touches on top the first cartoon outfit comes off more realistic, looking fantastic, but still coming off as something two teenagers could realistically have thrown together with what clothes they could buy, while still looking awesomely superheroy. IN short it’s perfect and only topped by the season 3 onward look...

But the slicker look, with an even cooler jakcet and the new colors all fitting the lighting ascetic better, but fits: not only has Virgil come along farther since he started, but with Richie now having a genius brain as Gear, he can provide a far slicker, far more professional superhero outfit on the budget the two have.  This show is just great  at costume design. 

So getting back to the episode at hand, Static puts up a huge sign in elecrticy saying “Bad guys here”, PFFFT, and then hides away and narrates that a few days ago he’d be the last person anyone would’ve expected to be a hero. Cue Flashback. 

We meet Virgil Hawkins on an average day: rapping into his razor, getting into a petty argument with his older sister Sharon, as a younger brother myself I relate to this, and talking to his dad who tries to get them to cut that out. We find out his mom has passed via his sister making really terrible eggs and saying that’s how mom made them. Exposition! Though we do get a great bit through this as when his sister gets distracted by her boyfriend calling, he uses the opportunity of her leaving the room to dump the eggs.. after having earlier jokingly prayed to his mom for a way out of breakfast. “Thanks for looking out for me mom” That’s both very sweet and very hilarious. 

This is a change from the comics it turns out as I was utterly flored to find Virgil’s mom alive and well when reading the first issue of Static. Turns out this was a change made during development and one Dwane McDuffie admitted in the interview I got the tribute quote from to not liking as he had a good reason for having Virgil have a nuclear family, as most black families in media at the time were just one single parent and a kid or two with the other having either left or died. He wasn’t too bothered by it as while he preferred what he came up with in the first place, the show DID get some really good stories out of her being gone and didn’t just have her be absent because shut up. Virgil is still working over her death and the way HOW she died ends up playing an important role in this episode and gives Virgil a dislike of guns, as she died to gang violence. So the change wasn’t for stupid or racist reasons, but likely both to keep the character count down while giving them something to work with for storylines. Or it could’ve been for stupid reasons and the writers simpily made lemonade out of that very dumb lemon, either way it ended up working.  Virgil also plans to ask his friend Frieda out. Frieda was a bigger deal in the comics, being Virgil’s friend and confidante as well as his ocasional love intrest, but here while she was inteded to at least be his love intrest here, that sorta fizzled out. As for the best friend role we meet her replacement in Richie, which McDuffie conceded was the kind of change a studio would make swapping out a female character for a male one. That being said the crew made the best of it and Richie is awesome, a bit of an overcompensating dipstick at times, but a good sounding board and pal for virgil and funny as hell too. He was also gay, something only revealed post series by McDuffie.. but unlike say Dumbledore, it’s a bit easier to swallow here: The early 2000′s were an even worse time for gay characters in tv let alone cartoons, and if they couldn’t kiss or have sex scenes on regular tv, there was no way we were getting any representation in a children’s show. So it was largely just hinted at by Richie overcompensating in how “into girls” he was and i’m once again fine with this being word of god as it was literally the best they could do and his counterpart in the comics was also gay, if not as relevant.  Ritch encourages Virgil to work on his opening to ask her out as it’s awkward as heck, hits a bit close to home.. but I do appricate the show just .. having him try and ask her out from the first episode. They likely would’ve drug thigns out a bit granted had they used Frieda more, i’m not blind to the convetions of the time. .but as someone who got the very wrong idea from tv that just waiting around meant a girl would like you eventually, when no you need to actually try even if rejection happens, I honestly wish we had more of this in media than the other garbage morals at the time. 

So he prepares to , not helped by her mentioning guy after guy is asking her out.... but before he can F-Stop, the future hotstreak, shows up.  F-STOP

That being said...... it’s not as bad as the original gangster name for the comic’s version, Biz Money B. Yes BIZ MONEY B

So yeah while F-Stop is no more intimidating, it at least means I can stop laughing. Francis, because I can’t type F-Stop without laughing and this review is already behind, shoves Virgil out of the way and agressively hits on Frieda, even saying “you smell good”, the international sign your a douchebag and also to call the police. Virgil steps up to the guy and gets PAINFULLY slammed into the lockers, something I give the animation team a lot of credit for, as you can FEEL how fucking painful that was. Virgil is saved by Wade, another local gangbanger who in the comics was a close friend of Virgils but here saves him seemingly just because.. seemingly. 

On the way home though Virg’s problems don’t end as naturally, the giant sized asshole with nothing better to do has his goons corner virgil before VIOLENTLY beating him.. off screen but the noises, and the clear brusies including a black eye, on virgil afterwords.. just holy damn i’m suprsied they got away with this but it shows just how horrifing it was and that this is a step above regular bullying, which make no mistake is absoluttley terrible and the series would later do an episode on it and school shootings, into straight up gang violence. Wade shows up again and gets the bastards to flee.. but also makes it clear he can’t keep doing this.. and forces Virgil to meet him at his base under the bridge. And it’s a tense sequence, with Virgil KNOWING this is a bad idea but having no real choice and Wade making it abundantly clear that he wants Virgil to join his crew, and makes a chilling point: while Virgils dad RIGHTFULLY dosen’t want his son to join a gang as Virgil points out.. he can’t be there for him all the time and eventually one of those times, Francis will be around. And he may not surivive that. Virgil nods noncomittaly.  At home it gets even more grim as he dosen’t open up to his family, understandably as his dad would jsut say to call the police and well.. we’ve seen how the police treat black people. At best they’d just try and use Virgil as an informant and that likely wouldn’t end fucking well for Virgil. Ritchie points out he can’t join a gang, virgil’s mom died that way.. see told you it’d be important to the plot.. but I like how the story dosen’t offer an easy answer.. well okay he gets electric powers soon enough but without the fantastic element this is just an innocent kid caught between either joining the very thing his mom hated or hoping a system not built to protect him will keep him alive. It’s utterly saddening and chilling and holy shit is it amazing a cartoon in the early 2000′s was able to get away with.. ANY OF THIS, and they handle it great, paired down a bit from the comics but even then it’s still incredibly balsy they got THIS much in. 

Naturally Wade calls in his favor and our hero is forced to come running.. and soon finds out Wade’s brought him in for a massive gang war. Welcome to the big bang, baby. He hands Virgil a gun as things get started and Virgil.. drops the thing and tries to escape, in a harrowing sequence.. and runs into Francis because god apparently REALLY hates this kid today. As if to prove that the police show up and while that prevents a beating, they demand they disassemble. then release untested gas on them because of course they do. 

As a result the big bang truly begins, with the various gang members getting mutated.. and naturally so does virgil. Though he wakes up the next day seemingly fine. How’d he get home? Does his dad know where he was?

I don’t know and we’re not getting any answers, but Virgil soon finds weird stuff happening like his clock shorting out, change being attracted to him and his razor going wild. It’s only once he get sback to his room he gets an inkling of what’s going on and calls Ritchie to meet him at the Junk yard.. though it is a bit of a dick move as he dosen’t you know, tell him anything about Wade or Francis right away. He does at the yard though.. and that he has powers, having finally figured out how to use them to a point. And the series does provide a decent justification later as to why he’d get this so quickly: Virgil is a smart kid, gets great grades at school and apparnetly there’s even an episode later where he gets a scholarship to a fancy genius school. So him getting how elctromagntisim works or being a quick study on it makes perfect sense. 

Richie suggest the obvious.. to become a superhero. And the thought.. hadn’t occured to Virgil. It’s honestly a nice twist on the old trope. That he hadn’t thought of it, not because he’s selfish or any of that or needs to learn a hard lesson, those have been done.. simply because the rush of getting his powers, and implicitly of having a way out of his current predciament, a way to keep Francis off his back and keep Wade from pulling him in further. His own path. But once i’ts brought up.. he jumps on it. Part of it is being a nerd like you or I, of course he wants to.. and being a good intetioned one, he knows this is the right thing to do. It’s waht makes a superhero a hero: Anyone can get powers in a universe like this, esepcailly the dcau, but it takes true courage and heart to use them selflessly and knowing you’ll be in danger. It’s why I love surperheroes: they often didn’t ask for this but they do it anyway because somebody’s gotta. We also get an intresting wrinkle is superman is, at least I think in this episode I could’ve missed it or misremembered things, mentioned as a fictional character. That’s because originally like the comics this wasn’t part of the DCAU.. but eventually the crew decided it shared staff from it, shared a network, both first run and on reruns, why not just make it part of the DCAU proper. I fully support this decisionf: While i’m midly annoyed unlimited never really used anything from static shock outside of Static himself in the time travel episode, despite you know Static and Gear having BEEN to the tower and not being much younger than Kara and defintely older than Courtney, I chalk it up to weird rights issues or something like that. But having Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman, Green Lantern and the Justice League itself all guest star was a good idea, and expanded both static’s universe and gave the DCAU something differnt as most heroes in it were older and more experinced in contrast to the up and coming virgil. Again really would’ve been nice if he and gear could’ve been a part of the expanded league but production might of just been too far ahead or, given he had his own series, they might just have wanted to stick to toher characters. Also begs the question why Icon or Hardware wasn’t adapted for the expanded League but hey, questions for later and the tricky logisitics of the milestone rights might’ve been the issue. I don’t know I wasn’t in the room. 

So we get a costume montage, including Black Vulcan from Superfriends, who again ironically would be voiced by Lamarr not too long after this, though weirdly they DON’T use his outfit from the comics for this montage. I mean why not? It fits the gag and would’ve been a good second to last choice.But what could’ve been aside we get our winner and cut back to present day...

Thanks boys. Static finds out one of the things in the warehouse is a shipment of computers for the school and can’t help but show off, showing up to the school, where Frieda and Richie are setting up for the dance, and dropping off the computers, and even saying his catchphrase for the first time “I’ll put a shock to your system” (Which Richie chimes in with awesome line and I agree, great catcphrase), before helping set up and flirting with frieda. 

Though as Richtie says he’s a natural. He’s not wrong as he can work a crowd. .but back it up too as his first run out had him easily taking out the crooks, and as many teen superheros and fans of heroes of hte type, myself included will tell you, getting it right in one is not easy. Not even Miles MOrales was immune. All Static needs now is a villian. 

And the end of the episode provides one as we see, in horrifc and once again damn suprising detail most of hte new metas aren’t doing so good and are melting and other stuff and we catch up with Francis whose burning up.. and naturally given that hair, though given he named himself F-Stop it’s the least of his problems, he’s got fire powers and escapes to “Have me some fun”

So with that we end episode 1. And it’s excellent, a great way to introduce the hero and while the warehouse opening is a bit superflous, it is a decent addition, showing our heroes first outing in costume and giving us a bit of an action scene to get us through the very heavy rest of the episode. But the rest of the episode is no less grippping, telling the tale of a teen caught in an unwinnable scenario who suddenly finds a way out. And speaking of which waht of Wade? Will we see him again? Is he perhaps Ebon, the series big bad as I thought when I was a kid? What comes of the man who directly caused static’s origin?

Yeahhh that’s the one mistep I think the pilot makes. Frieda is understandable as that was likely a simple change in creative direction. This though? Why build this guy up if your not going to bring him back. I mean where he went was probably the grave, as he probably did due to his mutation, but it’s still VERY weird to spend a whole episode focusing on this guy, building him up as a big personal threat to our hero.. and NOT have him become the series big bad. And maybe he WAS supposed to be ebon and they just changed their mind. I don’t know but it bothers me it bothers me a lot. Otherwise though flawless. ONe more to go. 

Aftershock: We open outside an electronics store, as our heroes watch the news reacap what happened in the first episode, with the media dubbing it the Big Bang and revealing their could be hundreds of “Metahumans”, as Virgil dubs after deciding the media’s term “Mutant” dosen’t fit, a nice wink to the fact that that’s the term used in dc comics and I believe milestone but could be wrong there. Me I like the term, has a nice ring to it. 

At the store while Richie mulls over waht this means Static finds out he’s a human CD player.... this was before mp3 players and streaming on your phone made them horribly obsolete mind you and if you don’t know what one is congradualtions you live in some sort of bubble and you made me feel really old junior. 

Frieda happens to be there and Virgil quips “What’s the matter they run out of britney cds”. Dude she’s not bad. Also be careful what you wish for man. Nickeback returned the year after this. You have not truly suffered through bad music yet my young friend. They spot a kid looking feverish, and he soon turns into a purple werewolf, as you do. It’s a bang baby.. those are richie’s exact word and you may not want to start a panic there bud. Just saying your best friend is one. THeir not all like this. Our heroes book it only to run into Francis who naturally refuses to let them leave and only doesn’t try to beat up Virgil because Virgil points otu the werewolf and nonplussed, he goes to fight it, scarring it off by revealing his own powers. He’s now dubbed himself Hotstreak which points for getting an actually good name kid. No points for what happens next as unsuprisingly getting powers did NOT mak ehim a better person and he attacks Virgil who blocks with a garbage can lid and thankfully is blasted into an ally. Richie tries to guard frieda for damn obvious reasons but gets hsi shirt burnt up because shut up Thankfully Static shows up, and we get our firsdt full on superhuman fight as both fight each other with aplomb, and it’s a damn good fight.. and one that goes pear shaped for Virg as he’s caught off guard when he finds out Hotstreak can use his powers to fly, and tackles him and his previous trauma causes him to freeze up. Thankfully , as Frieda put in a call earlier, the fire department arrive and HOt streak has to retreat, though Virgil is bummed that he “Choked”. And I love this as it not only shows Virgil’s inepxerince, as this is his first time fighting a bad guy but that just because he HAS power now dosen’t mean trauma and his previous fear of Hotstreak goes away or you won’t freeze up from time to time. It dosen’t make him weak or anything like some assholes would call it .. it makes him human. Humans make mistakes, and it makes him all the more relatable that he’s not pefect and that he did freeze up as I know I certainly would at last once in the circumstances. 

Things don’t get better at dinner as Sharon and Pops argue over the bang babies with Pops calling them a meance and Sharon pointing out Static exists so they can’t all be bad. See assuming a group of superhumans are bad because a handful of them ar edick sis why the x-men had to get their own island nation. You can only save an ungreatful populous so many times before you say “fuck it i’m getting my own island, pay me for life saving drugs, save your damn selves and stop doing genocides on us. Kay thanks”. But he does bring up a valid point that rattles his son: We don’t know anything about the Bang Babies or their biological structures and it’s likely they might further mutate into monsters, Static included. 

Virgil, understandably, wants to check this and thus he and richie compare blood samples in science, to no real conclusion. She he checks out with his doctor who assumes he’s sexually active in a great getting crap past the radar bit and a bit of realisim, but he agrees to the test though if something came up he would have to tell Virgil’s dsad and is up front about this. Nice dose of realisim.

That night City Council has a meeting and the Mayor TRIES to deflect Papa Hawkins questions about the bang babies which again, while being a judgmental ass as not every person hit was a gang member (Virgil, and as we discover later some others), and not every gang member is there by choice, some by circumstnace some, like virgil almost was, because they HAD no other option. Again years of reading x-men may of just made me a bit touchy on assholes admitely assuming superpower people bad. But it’s clear the public is upset and while she says an investigation is underway... Virgil and Richie are not only not convinced, but figure she’s actively covering it up. And unlike everyone else there who probably suspects the same, they can do something about it and tail her.  It’s during this, and cleverly as I didn’t realie till writing this using similar skills to his human cd player act, Virgil listens in and discovers whose behind it: Edwin Alva, whose apparently richer than bill gates and a beloved phinarophist Alva, as it turns out, was actually the arch enemy of Hardware in the comics, taking advantage of the guy in his civiliian idtentiy and thus casuing him to launch a war on the asshole. He does transition into this series well though, being the one behind the gas that caused it and with the mayor agreeing to back off, planning to simply dump the info about the big bang on a disc then destroy everything for now till the heat dies down. Yup sounds like a corprate douchebag. 

Static tails him, finds the lab and infiltrates it, stealing the disc.. but getting caught by Alva’s goon, and trapped in a glass prison, forced to use ALL his power to escape and barely getting out alive, but not before bouncing off alva’s car. Still he now has the proof.. and meanwhile Hotstreak, who I was wrong did get captured, is forced to take pill sbut spits them out once the orderly is gone. Dude.. WHY DIDN’T YOU WATCH HIM. Make sure he swallows that shit especially since, as he has no powers right now and can’t harm you. 

Hotstreak escapes off screen and our heroes discuss the disc before he shows up, and we get a REALLY fucking amazing scene: Virgil ducks into an Alleway and ritchie is worried.. and Virgil disarms him with just one word responses Ritchie: Virg you can’t take him.  Virgil: Gotta. Ritchie: Well at least wait for the fire department Virgil: Can’t.  It’s simpile but it gets the point across: This is his fight, he can’t wait for help, and people need him. And this is what makes a true hero: It’s easy to be a hero when everythings going well.. but it’s the true ones who stick it out against the odds and fight anyway. And he’s going to.  So we get one hell of a fight, though naturally Hotstreak burns up the disc. And I do like this as it dosen’t feel contrived.. yes Static could’ve left it with ritchie.. but he wasn’t thinking in the moment and dind’t really have time to think abotu the disc, only that people were being hurt and he was all they had between them and Hotstreak. It was no choice at all. Still that pisses Virgil off that the last night’s work is now worthless, and he fully charges up and curbstomps francis who retreats into a clearing. Hostreak brags when static follows, as even he’s figured out Static needs to be around metal, as he’s usually on his disc or the street, and in the park there suppodsidly isn’t any. But he’s not THAT smart as Virgil points out two things: one, he hoped to do this on PURPOSE so they wouldn’t be around people and no on e would get hurt and 2).. this is a city, there’s metal everywhere.. and he awesomely and cleverly proves it by unlodging a sewage pipe with his powers and dousing his foe, winning and proving his stuff. I love this solution, it’s a clever spider-man type way to disarm him, using smarts and the einvroment instead of just brute forcing it. Though the sewage part wasn’t intetional our hero still won and gets praise from the people dumb enough to follow the fight. 

However at home Virgil points out it was  Pyrrhic Victory and shows off his smarts by telling the tale behind it, which I didn’t know,because tv tropes didn’t exist yet: king pyrhus fought the romans and WON.. but had so little armies left that he still lost overall. That’s what this feels like to Virgil: he beat hotstreak but any chance at a cure for Bang Babies and Alva going to jail for causing them is gone. His mood does get a boost though as the doctor calls and reveals he’s fine, he just has a bit too much elctrolytes and just needs to lay off teh salt. He celebrates, we get a quick gag and the episode ends

Aftershock is another stellar episoe, giving us Virgil’s first super foe and a personal one at that, while showing some growth. As richie tells him he’s not virgil anymore he’s static and he can’t let his past get to him.. and he does’nt going from cowering in fear to easily beating his foe with simple logic. It’s a good followup that answers questions you may have from the first ep, like what does this do to virgil’s body, who supplied the gas, and why has no one done anything about this, and sets up another villian for Static in Alva. Great stuff. I highly recommend these episodes and the show as a whole: it’s fast paced, grounded and enjoyable, having just enough levity to not be too dour but just enough tension and stakes to be intresting. A throughly fantastic superhero show and one that i’d certainly love to revisit on this blog If you have an episode of static or the dcau in general you’d want me to cover, my comissions are open and details are on a tab on my blog or can be gotten simply by asking me via ask or dm. Tommorow we’re going deeper underground, there’s too much damage in this town as the Lena Retrospective continues. So expect gay ducks, straight ducks and some terrfirmains. See you next rainbow.