#god. I’ve started to watch a few playthroughs of the game and 90% of people have skipped the chapter songs and every time im

[velvetjune]

the chapter songs in Alan Wake 2,, flawless

[one-hell-of-otaku-is-here]

Nitro+Chiral (hypothetical cos it’s not cannon apparently) timeline AKA the periodical order of each game events

Since nobody did this before as far as I’ve seen in this commmunity and because I am very bored and forgot airpods at home so I could watch playthrough of TGC (last game I have yet to see) I am gonna try and attemp to periodically list time settings of all games. Warning- this is just my own interpretation on how I would it - since I was 90 % sure all games take place in 1 big universe. Also it’s been a while since I’ve played these games so my memory might be clouded. So take it with grint of the salt and let’s do this:

1. Sweet pool

Time setting: Japan, urban area Tokyo? probably early to mid 2000s - no earlier than 1990 and no later than 2010 (assumption based on those flip up mobile phones)

Reason: We are starting with sweet pool simply because no magic (well if you don’t count whole Adam and Eve equals new race of perfect humans shit),no major technological development or dystopia shit or war has happened yet there. We only have some crazy occultism which should already warn us N+C is not going to play with us fair and square (as reality is cruel). Ironically, NC released sweet pool first lol

2. Dramatical Murder

Time setting: Midorijima, fictional island, Japan, 20XX

Reason: Dmmd already takes place in some neomodernistic era since the presence of Allmates, Coils and other technological advacements such as robots (Clear and Alphas), games such as Rhyme and Rib, whatever Akishima is carrying - plus they have ID chips in their bodies. Yet it seems like it is not advaced enough for Aoba to wear anything but headphones (well airpods were not invented yet at the time of game’s release so we can’t have anything). Now you can argue DMMD could happen AFTER TGC, after country was restored after WW3 but we have no direct proof of war even taking place before events of DMMD as far as I can recall at least

3. Togainu no Chi

Time setting: post-war Tokyo, Toshima ward, 20XX

Reason: Shit has really go down with the world of NitroChiral. In DMMD you don’t see young people depressed like at all (or simply generations moved on and mostly recovered and accepted their lives - again we simply don’t know as mainland was only briefly mentioned in Noiz’s and Koujaku’s drama CDs). Most of teens and young adults just wanna get high or/and fight and it is not all shine and rainbows with adults either as we have an evidence that most adults are unable to take care of these kids either (at least two characters experienced abuse, one with alcohol problem and other is just ignored altogether). All of this as a result of military training they couldn’t put to use - it is mentioned Tokyo (and Japan as a whole) is gonna recover in few years time but for now East and West are divided. I reckon if Dmmd happened AFTER all this then many years must have passed (at least one decade) and then our last game would have to take place which brings us to

4. Lamento

Time setting: Sisa- No humans, some forests, villages, remains of human inhabitation only in one capital we know about, probably located at place Japan used to be. The beginning period of nekos ruling lands is unknown but definitely at least one millenia after humans, proof of existance is demons who used to be humans and one and only sorcerer (well after everything from previous games it should be given cats can use magic when they are fused with cat god and humans who probably have magic brains divided into Desire, Reason and maybe Restraint or something) - it’s very likely that Sisa are more similar to humans not only because of their appareance - it’s just that due to cat genes their instics (Desire section) tends to rule over their Reason

Reason: should be pretty obvious - this is post-apocalyptic “fantasy” world ruled by Cats that is now also on verge of destruction thanks to our beloved Leaks (but honestly Leaks is my fav antagonist of them all he is very well written and I can at least symphatize just a little with him although it does not excuse his actions just like wih other antagonists’ actions from other games)

Edit: Slow Damage: Time setting: Shinkoumi, 20xx, very fucked up piece of land, after Japan fucked up Olympics (this is prob world without covid??), Japan’s recenssion started (haha as if our world isn’t in one rn) and made one entertaiment town into full blow shithole where yakuza rules as kings (and somehow people on mainland think they are construction company). A decade later even yakuza “monarchy” starts to stop working (divided into two sections both equally shitty) and now you have poverty everywhere you look but hey at least our mc Towa has cool scars and fucked up method for painting his very cool art Ig (he srsly needed his LIs does not that matter who cos this boi is traumatised and prob most fucked up on NCH Mc list here ilh agavahzgbw). Oh ya and humans have Smoke which is like aura?? I wonder how that is linked to our big three emotions but it definitely plays a role in how Smoke shows when human experiences emotions and various situations

reason: after playing two routes from SD I can safely say that timeline would be perfect for few years before TGC (tension between Shinkoumi mainland just beg for war conflict and I don’t think any ending would make it better) Not sure where DMMD would fit but Ig it doesn’t matter - personally I see it take place after SD. I am not going to number it again so I am puting SD as 1.1 on list because hypothetically it’s like section between two extremes war and high tech era (at least when it comes to setting) - in other words SD takes place before TGC and after TGC we get DMMD

[thefloatingstone]

Last time I made a playlist of recommended youtube channels to enjoy while in lockdown or self quarantine, I focused on individual videos while also recommending other videos from the same channel.

I thought I’d make another list only this time I’m going to be recommending playlists or series on youtuber instead of just individual videos.

This is gonna go exactly like last time, so check out any of these that might seem interesting to you, and hopefully I can give you something to look into if you want something to watch but don’t feel like watching a Netflix or Crunchyroll show.

Last time I tried to put this under a read more break but it didn’t work and I ended up posting this long-ass post on everyone’s dash. Well I decided to do so again here. hit J to skip to the bottom of the post if you don’t feel like reading this whole thing. If you’re on tumblr mobile; why?

In no particular order;

Cinemassacre movie reviews and topics

All of you already know James Rolfe as the AVGN. I started watching him before Youtube was even a thing, before he was even signed on with Screwattack. Back when his videos could only be seen on his own website (or for some reason included on the free DVD you got with the local video game magazines). However, I eventually outgrew the outrage style humour of the AVGN episodes... but then James started doing Monster Madness where he would talk about his love for horror movies, and this where I learned about his vast knowledge about movie history and even films I had never even heard mention of before! I think it’s safe to say, he got me to be interested in movie history just as much as movie production and film as a viewing experience.

I recommend this playlist which is a hodgepodge of James talking about old horror movie franchises, talking about his first experience with Power Rangers as someone who didn’t grow up with it, or how Bob Ross is a childhood hero of his. It’s an excellent play list that’s really laid back but you learn a lot of stuff from it. James is very informed for the most part and it leads you to wanting to check out a lot of these things too, just because he’s so passionate about it.

If I ever get over my weird hang up about speaking out loud, these are the kinds of videos I’d like to make.

Vinesauce Vinny: The Neverhood

Vinny is by no means a new Let’s Player, having been on Youtube for over 10 years now, but I only started watching him a few months ago. I started with this playlist when I saw he was doing The Neverhood, a game I had heard about but never seen played before. The Neverhood is a bizarre game, as a point and click PC game from the 90s where the entirety of the video game was made with stop motion and clay. Something that sounds so insane you would say it’s impossible if not for the fact that it exists. The claymation itself is extremely well done, and the game has a really weird and absurd sense of humour. Just the strangest things happen in this thing. Now couple that with Vinny’s very dry and straightforward delivery and you have probably one of the funniest Let’s Plays I’ve watched in a long time.

This is also “short” for a Let’s Play series. With only 4 parts to it, the longest video only being a bit under and hour and 30 minutes. It’ll still take up a good chunk of your time, but it’s not as daunting as some of the other Let’s Plays I’ll mention on this list.

Team Four Star: Pokemon Shield Nuzlocke

Exactly what it says on the tin. The guys from Team Four Star play Pokemon Shield with Nuzlocke rules. They’ve done several Nuzlocke runs in the past, but I find the Pokemon Shield is the best one they’ve done. Especially since a lot of the needless fluff and grinding has been edited out. So unlike some of their previous series you don’t see a lot of Kieran and Grant running in a circle for an hour trying to catch a specific pokemon or trying to get to a certain level.

It’s also hilarious as they have a lot of “house rules” for the Nuzlocke often involving the exercise bike they.... have..... for some reason.

It’s very good and the gym battles become SUPER hype with the Nuzlocke rules and the music.

Baywatching

Having been going to a few years now, watch Allison try her very best to go through and do a video series where she talks about summarises every episode of Baywatch.

.... Ever. Single. Episode.

She’s not even close to done yet (and now she’s introduced Baywatch Nights AS WELL) but her trying to explain the batshit insanity of this show, it’s over the top characters, it’s insane plots and behind the scenes weirdness with all the enthusiasm and love for this slice of 90s is amazing. Please enjoy a good thick chunk of inside jokes, silly character voices, and a whole lot of ?????

Brutal Moose: Shenmue

Probably one of the most chill channels on all of Youtube, Brutal Moose aka Ian, prefers playing games you wouldn’t think would make for good Let’s Plays. And maybe they don’t, objectively. A collection of playlists covering Truck Simulator, Nancy Drew, Hidden Object games etc etc, spliced in with old commercials from drive in theaters from the 50s,60s and 70s. Ian’s Let’s Play channel is great for just putting on and letting play for company while you’re drawing or grinding in a video game or playing Stardew or something.

I recommend his Shenmue playthrough as Ian completely fell in love with the game and went on to play both the sequel and the newly released third game. Ian genuinely adores the weird voice acting and all the menial tasks and mini-games you can do. I watched this a lot in 2018 when I was going through a rough time, and it really helped me in a strange way to just put Ian on and listen to him talk to the chat and drive a forklift around for like 4 hours straight before going to Tomato Mart or wasting all his money on the gacha machines.

A Measured Response to “In Defense of Dark Souls 2″

At some point, big name youtuber Hbomberguy made a video called “In Defense of Dark Souls II”. I’m not subscribed to Hbomberguy but I enjoyed his video on why Sherlock (the BBC show) is trash. (come to think of it I should have added that to the first list). And it seems the video on Sherlock was really good and well argued.... and it seems his “In Defense of Dark Souls 2″ video... was not.

Using subjective language, bad representation of facts, or simply outright getting certain information wrong, Hbomberguy′s video on Dark Souls II is, at best, a man trying to argue that he likes Dark Souls II because it is “Objectively good”, rather than simply accept he likes it... because he likes it.

MauLer is kind of an asshole, but I have learned more about dissecting someone’s argument and deconstructing what they have said watching his response series than I have in any english or debate class I have ever had.

The response is over 10 hours long, but this is because MauLer takes time with each and every statement he takes umbrage with, discussing what is being said, discusses why it is false or dubious, and then compares with actual facts and research.

If you ever want to know how to to distinguish subjective opinion from objective fact in someone else’s argument regarding... ANYTHING really, I highly recommend this series.

I may not like MauLer as a person, but DAMN if he doesn’t know how to deconstruct an argument in a logic, emotionless way.

John Wolfe: Maize

Maize is a stupid game. a Stupid stupid game.

It involves sentient corn, and underground secret genetics lab, a Russian bootleg teddy bear that hates everyone, sentient corn, and a crumpet.

This game IMMEDIATELY went on my wishlist after watching this playthrough. Please watch John try and figure what the actual fuck is going on in this Monty Python-eque weird black comedy. It’s stupid, it’s weird, it’s bizarre and it’s honestly one of the funniest games I’ve seen streamed.

Hollywood: a Celebration of the Silent Era

This is not a youtube playlist. I mean it IS, but what this actually is, is a TV series released in the UK in 1980 covering the Silent Film era. As it was made in 1980, it includes interviews with many of the silent film stars who were often still alive during this documentary’s production. Each episode covers a specific theme of the silent movie era. One episode is about comedies, one is about WWI, one is about Westerns etc etc.

It’s a fascinating series, because it focuses on the silent era which, in modern day, I think many people unfairly think of as “those first few years of movies before movies really became a thing.” And that’s such a shame and really not true. The artistry, camera tricks, and raw nature of this early era of film making is so important and produced films which can still be watched today easily, possibly even easier than a few modern movies as often the very fact that the films are silent means they are universal, regardless of what language you speak.

I think an episode or two might have been turned to private or copyright claimed in this playlist, but I know if you do a search on youtube you can find the episode uploaded by someone else.

Diamanda Hagan: Bonekickers

Bonekickers is the show Mathew Graham made before he went on to work on the new Dr. Who. It is about archaeologists and it is God-fucking-Awful.

It is.... look. Ok. I like Archaeology a lot. But this isn’t a show that’s bad “if you like history” or “if you know things about archaeology”. This show is bad because it doesn’t make a single fucking lick of sense, all the characters are awful and terrible, and even if you understand what’s going on in the story you’re still going to be screaming “WHY????” at the screen as each new baffling stupid piece of the puzzle slots into place.

Diamanda Hagan has 0 time for this garbage and she’s going to walk you through each episode to show you how truly horrible this piece of garbage is.

Cry Plays: Ori and the Blind Forest

With Ori and the Will of the Wisps releasing recently, now is a great time to go and watch Cry playthrough the first Ori game. an absolutely gorgeous piece of work with a beautiful soundtrack and really likeable character designs and a sweet story, Ori is a great game to put on, sit back, and just let it wash over you. Cry’s playthrough is also great because although its a Metroidvania game, Cry fast forwards the parts where he backtracks for a long period of time, so you don’t get stuck watching him run back and forth as he tries to figure out where to go next or anything like that.

Cry also recently started playing the sequel as well!

If you enjoyed this list at all, please consider tipping me for a coffee

☕️ Ko-fi ☕️

[annakie]

Thoughts on a DW Rewatch & Mass Effect replay.

So I’m in the Eleven / Clara half-season now.

Also I’m now replaying Andromeda.  I have thoughts, about both.  I’ll start with Doctor Who then label it when I get to Mass Effect stuff.

Oh my God this gets long and rambly.  Apparently, I have a lot of thoughts.

So, season 702... I’m ready for it to be over.  I miss the Ponds.  I felt like most of the first half of this season was pretty great, honestly.  I’d forgotten how fun some of those episodes were, I think at the time we were anticipating a new companion so heavily that it was harder to appreciate those episodes?  I feel like there was a lot of criticism levied towards them that now I felt like was a bit too much.  The western episode was kinda meh but still not bad.

I’m not sure what exactly it is about these Clara / Eleven episodes that I’m still not connecting with but I’m in the middle of the Crimson Horror episode (which is a Vastra/Jenny/Strax heavy episode and enjoying it more than anything else so far this half-season.  

*edit later* NOPE NOPE NOPE I’D FORGOTTEN HOW THE DOCTOR FORCES A KISS ON JENNY.  GROSS.  SUPER GROSS.  SHE’S A MARRIED WOMAN, A LESBIAN AND DID NOT CONSENT TO ANY OF THIS.  BAD DOCTOR, BAD.

Honestly even with some excellent guest start acting, the Russian Submarine episode was STILL a slog and the ghosts in the 1950′s episode no better.  Like they still weren’t ridiculous and unwatchable but... just didn’t feel fun or interesting at all?  The Journey to the Center of the TARDIS episode was decent, and I felt like that wasn’t nearly as cool as it should have been..

I remember reading a criticism of these episodes early on where they said that the biggest fault is that they failed to give Clara any real characterization or solid personality other than “girl the Doctor is obsessed with”.  She’s SUPER IMPORTANT but not only do we not know why at this point but it really doesn’t feel... earned?  I don’t recall it ever feeling earned that Clara was supposedly always so important?  “The most importantest companion EVAR!”  

And as someone who stanned the hell out of a character who was hated in the fandom for “replacing” a previous companion I’m checking myself to make sure it’s still not because I Miss the Ponds.  Like, I don’t HATE Clara, I just, at least at this point in the rewatch, can’t find any reason to really LOVE her?  She’s there, she’s fine, Jenna-Louise Coleman is doing a great job with what they’re giving to her but... I don’t know.  It all feels... off.

I had forgotten all about the “the Doctor rides a motorcycle up the side of a skyscraper” moment and something hit me in that moment that made me remember that wow people hated that moment.  It felt really... shark-jumpy somehow.  

I love Eleven, but this half-season isn’t connecting with me, AT ALL. It feels like the writers just went and dug through a bunch of rejected script ideas, polished them up and were likle “let’s just do this until Matt Smith is gone.”  I’m anxious to get to Twelve.

Mass Effect Stuff

OK TECHNICALLY I haven’t finished ME3.  I still need to do the party and the goodbye scene, (Citadel Epiloge Mod installed) but I’ve gotten all the Stuff and done all the missions in the arena.  I just wasn’t quite ready to say goodbye yet, so I started Andromeda a bit early.

-----------------

OK look I had a point I wanted to make and never quite got where I wanted to go with it right here.  I’m too tired of trying to fix it, so this stands as written.

This playthrough had me ruminating a lot on Kaidan and Garrus.  I really love both of those characters, though in my heart I’ll always primarily love Kaidan, I’ve done the Garrus romance and wouldn’t mind playing that character again to see the romance one more time.  In ME1, I bring Kaidan everywhere all the time, and pick which other companion I bring to the story-based missions based on what I know is gonna happen like I’m sure most people do.  Wrex for Therum, Tali for Feros (though I REALLY wish you could switch before going to see the Thorian), Liara for Noveria, Ashley on Virmire, Garrus for Ilos/Endgame.  I rotate through all five for sidemissions.  

In ME2, Garrus is my always-bring companion, with Garrus + Miranda being my favorite team.  Except after the Omega relay, where characters with Throw really shine with all those husks running at us, Jack holds the bubble, and Miranda and Thane, who both have Warp to help take down the Reaper Baby, are the preferred team.  Also so Miranda can tell TIM to fuck off.

Then in ME3, once the game opens up, Garrus is back on the perma-team, with a preference towards bringing Liara along... until we get Kaidan back.  And then I realized I didn’t bring him to a single thing except a side mission or two until Earth.  Mostly, this is because I’m following the Kaidan Banter guide and it turns out Garrus is a real banter hog for most of the missions.  At leat he’s not James, who I literally never use unless I’m going on an N7 mission and feel bad that I haven’t taken him off the Normandy in awhile.  I mean, even Javik gets more play.  Also EDI doesnt leave the Normandy til near the end when all of a sudden she gets real important.  

But Garrus is always on the team for Priority Earth.  And that always felt like the way the main game should end, with your two favorites.  (Also what kind of monster wouldn’t bring Wrex to the combat-centric areas of Citadel DLC?  I keep thinking I should have runs where I bring other people but... Wrex is my other fave and we don’t get him with us AT ALL since ME1.)  

I love Garrus, so much.  And I was thinking with this whole parallel DW rewatch / Mass Effect replay think I’m doing right now how both Rose Tyler and Garrus Vakaraian are characters that were ruined for me for awhile due to their respective... overly enthusiastic fanbases who a small percentage of were dicks to people who loved other characters.  The Kaidan tag (and from what I understand Thane got some of this too, but not nearly as bad) was a pretty hostile place for awhile (and yeah I used to check the Garrus tag too and there was a small amount of tag-invasion there but uh, like 5% of what the Kaidan tag got) which made loving the character of Garrus a lot harder for awhile.  But when actually watching seasons 1 & 2 / the end of 4 of DW, or actually playing the games, those characters are awesome.  

Fanbases can be amazing or terrible, and time and time again I think you start to realize that no matter how great a fandom is, there are going to be a few people who can only enjoy themselves by feeding on drama, or on lifting up what they love by stomping on other people/characters/plotlines.  Going back through my blog reminded me that even the TAH fandom had some of this, with a small percentage of fans being real dicks to two prominent female characters in favor of their favorite ship, which soured even that just a tiny bit.  

It’s not fair to characterize everyone who loves a popular thing as someone who does this.  It’s also hard to avoid completely because there will always be jerks, or young/new people who don’t realize what bad form they’re showing.  I did learn by trying to fight it for a year or two, that responding might help that one person not do it again, but it’s not going to stop overall.  Maybe yelling a lot about Martha Jones did change some people’s minds.  It still isn’t that good of a look now, even knowing that in general I was pretty polite and logical about it.  I might respond to an odd comment now and again in some favorite character tags, but in general, turns out that kind of fight just isn’t worth it.

And those fights seem so stupid in the light of everything else happening in the world today.

Anyway, don’t be a dick about the things you don’t like.  

-----------------------

I also wanted to say, and I know I said it in a few other posts about this ME3 playthrough, but seriously I cannot believe how much ME3 is a changed game because of the modders.  I cannot imagine ever playing ME3 again without these mods.  There were so many small things that I kept thinking I should take note of to talk about and I’m sure I forgot 90% of them, but there’s things like... adding in mentions of the Andromeda Initiative, closing a few plotholes, mentioning Emily Wong, adding in many more Spectre console options which end up having their own plotlines, adding in an entire plotline about the VI civilization that had previously only been talked about in like, social media or Cerberus News Network posts, having the Normandy be so much more populated, seeing so many more other species on the Citadel with more variety in clothing for those species that have clothing / could have more variety, way more female Turians.... every time I play ME3 the game is more and more like the game we wanted when it came out.  

I am kind of itching to go back and replay it even now.

But hey, instead, its time to talk about Andromeda.

-------------------------

So first of all, yes, mods for Andromeda.  A few appearance mods, a lot of convenience mods.  

After having recently played DA:I and I think Andromeda and DA:I are a lot more similar than Andromeda and the previous trilogy, I had decided it was time to cut down on the stupid stuff Andromeda does, like “Oh, you want minerals?  Spend 10 minutes in each mining zone finding the PERFECT place to gather materials or you’re fucked”  No, thanks.  I’ll mine but give me that “one probe placed anywhere and you’re done” mod.  

Make the modifications and crafting materials I use actually matter. 2% damage increase is nothing.  Make my squadmates not suck because I remember doing 90% of the work myself before and that got exhausting with the number of spawns.  

I tried to not go overboard so things feel like cheating, but there’s enough out there to just get rid of the stupid stuff, and it’s nice.  And works together a lot easier than the DA:I mods did.

One thing I did do was install the Multiple Romance Mod.  I enjoyed it in DA:I, even though ultimately I only did 2 full romances.  I am **NOT** romancing Gil or Cora with the mod, I just wanted to experience all the content available for female Ryders at once, since I’m not going to have the energy to replay this 100+ hour game enough times to see every romance on its own.  So I am poly-romancing Liam, Jaal, Vetra, Suvi, Peebee, Keri, and if it lets me, Reyes when it’s time.  

I’ve only gotten all the way through Andromeda once (where I romanced Liam)  My second playthrough was right after my first and stalled out about halfway through (was romancing Jaal.)  It was one of those “I’m totally gonna get back to this! (She didn’t.)” things.  I’m gonna be honest, I enjoyed the Liam romance and was enjoying the Jaal romance, I’d done a fling with Reyes but not the full romance my first time through and the fling with PeeBee on my second.  Reyes was probably my favorite out of all of them.  So this time I decided.. let’s see which I love the most, all at once.  I don’t know if I’ll do this in the future, but this game is too long to not see all the content I wanna see, TBH.  

And you know, I still really do like Andromeda.  It’s a GOOD game.  And I’m forever going to be mad that we’re not going to see how this story ends.  This story deserved to finish being told.  Like, there are a lot of very legit criticisms about Andromeda, but it didn’t deserve the harshness it got.  And the worst thing about it, and DA:I both is that... there’s just a little TOO MUCH of it.  100 hours is an amazing amount of game but... it’s also just too much.  For now I’m not trying to 100% this playthrough.  My plan is on each planet to get the planet to 100%, take out the Kett or whatever major base, the Remnant Architect, and yeah probably clear out the sidequests that show up on the map, but fuck quests that are like “visit random Kett camps until you find the right datapads that don’t show up on the map!” or “scan random blobs in the forest that don’t show up on the map!”  

So like, do the content, not the filler.  

I still hate the vaults.  The first one is cool.  The rest are tedious.  But they’re mandatory.

I love everyone on this spaceship though.  They did the Tempest stuff SO WELL.  All the companions I think are... good?  There’s no one I don’t like, even the non-squadmate shipmates ship have so much interaction and so much to do/say.  It’s not like “a bunch of randos and Joker, with occasional appearances by Chakwas and the Engineers”  There’s no randos, it’s just a few people you have real interactions with, and its great.

The lack of enough beds in the bedroom will never not annoy me.  There’s 4 beds for... Lexi, Liam, Cora, Suvi, Kallo, Vetra and Gil?  Even if Liam slept on his couch, and Vetra put a bed in her supply room... still doesn’t add up.  What, do Salarains not sleep or something?  Does Lexi sleep in a medical bed?!?  Peebee sleeps in the escape pod, Jaal brings a bed with him, and Drack’s like “Eh I’ll just sleep in the kitchen”.  WHAT?  THE KITCHEN?

I mean sure there weren’t enough beds, even with the sleeper pods, on the Normandy either, but somehow that was less disturbing.  

Also, I know you’re supposed to HATE Director Tann but I love Kumail Nanjiani so I find it hard to be a total dick to him, even if he usually deserves it.  If he wasn’t an anti-Krogan racist I think it’d be easier to like him.  He was thrown into a pretty shitty situation and... did actually hold things together for some time.  He’s not doing anything out of malice.  He’s a dick, but also doing what he needs to do to keep the Initiatiave going.  Oh, except for being a anti-krogan racist.  (Honestly, I also think  “until he turned Cerberus Udina was just doing his job pretty well” too, so...)

Taking some screenshots as I go.  I mostly just take screenshots for me now.  I have a few thousands screenshots from a dozen or more games rotating through my desktop background, and I keep adding to it, and love it.

Anyway, I’ve gotten Eos, Voeld and Havral to 100%.  Time to go save the Moeshe.  I’m having fun.  

*edit from later* I’d forgotten that... idk if the dialog they recorded for Jaal was the first thing they recorded for him or they used a different VA or what but on the Save the Moshe mission his voice is VERY DIFFERENT and oh man, that is still bad.

Might take a break for when Onslaught comes out for SWTOR, though.  I haven’t really played SWTOR in months. Oops.

[aaronpullinteeth]

Top 10s: Video Games

Ok, I got inspired to do this after watching UpUpDownDown and might do more of these for different topics. Right, quick rules. 1 game per franchise and an explanation as to why I love it will be given. No spoilers either.

10: Tomb Raider 1

Ok, there’s going to be a lot of PS1 games in here. It’s my era and the first console I got so deal with it. Nostalgia is powerful shit. I remember being really young, like 4 years old and watching my step dad play this game for hours. After awhile we started playing it together, we would play for hours and I was so hooked. The story was so good Lara Croft was the first human main character for a game I can remember playing and it will always have a special place in my heart. This is why the new Tomb Raider games have been so hard for me to get on board with.

9: Spiderman PS1

The first game I ever finished, start to finish, on my own. I finished it so many times I unlocked all the costumes without the cheat. I then lost my save so begged friends at school for the cheat so I didn’t have to do it all again. But ended up doing it all again anyway. I am a massive superhero fan and Spiderman was my first favorite superhero and I dreamed of a day he would get a game, so when he did, I played it to death. I loved it so much. It was like playing a season of the 90s animated tv show. Pure superhero gaming perfection.

8: Mass Effect 2

In the modern era it’s rare I actually finish a game. Modern games either have gameplay that just entertain (either handling terribly or just plain boring) or the story is terrible. This was different. I never got to play the first Mass Effect as I believe it never released for the PlayStation and I never had an Xbox. But I found the second one years after it released on the cheap. Figured I’d give it a go, I didn’t have plans that weekend. It was something else. It was the first time since....a game later in this list.... that I had experienced such great and interactive story telling in a game. And by that I mean a game where you actually felt like you shaped it. For those that haven’t played it I wont spoil anything, but when you get to the last mission, it really shows how a game can handle your choices.

7: Croc 1

The only game on this list I haven’t actually finished. But my god it was fun. Another example of games on the PlayStation 1 that were such simplistic perfection. Without much of a clear story and other than “save these creatures from the bad things!” it was engaging and that soundtrack......oh my god that soundtrack.

6: Medievil 2

Play it. Just play it. And the first one too. i struggled with which one to put on this list. And while the first one might have had a few more funny moments with dialogue, the variety in levels, weapons, environments and story for a PS1 game were way way WAAAAAY ahead of their time. A game that somehow took a great dry sense of humor, an engaging story, a lovable protagonist that wasn’t your usual “badass” (again, I wont spoil anything) it was just pure fun, start to finish. The dark, gothic yet funny aesthetic didn’t hurt either

5: Tekken 3

Fighting game perfect. Disagree? Fight me. I know the argument of “Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat vs Tekken” has been going on for ages. I am team Tekken. The massive shifts in tone between characters and story is so good and keep it entertaining no matter how many times you play. But the thing that puts this Tekken ahead of the others is the Tekken Force mode. Not only did you have one of the best one on one fighting games ever, but you also had a multi leveled side scrolling beat em up in with it. What was not to love? Sidenote: King is my character. I once was at a house party and we have Tekken set up and I beat everyone else there two times over playing as King to the point we changed the game because I just wasn’t losing.

4: Fallout New Vegas

In my humble opinion, the greatest RPG experience ever. I know a lot of people wont agree. A lot wont even agree with it in the case of only Fallout games. But this is my favorite and I pumped so many hours into this game. You could play it 20 times over and never play the same way twice. No matter what you did, it had an impact. You could start the game and kill the first person you see and that would have a massive effect on your game. You could be good, evil, smart, dumb, a scientist, a fighter, a talker, a lover, a loner almost anything you want. The only game (other than the next on this list) that I have finished without killing anyone in it....I mean games where that is actually an option, you can finish the game without killing. It’s amazing.

3: Undertale

What can I say that hasn’t been said? A game where it will make you laugh, it will make you cry, it will make you fall in love with side characters that you might only meet once, hell it’ll make you fall in love with the generic “enemies”. Everyone and everything has a personality in this game. And when it comes to being inclusive to all, this game is the best I’ve ever seen. Every character is different and so deep it’s amazing how much time and effort must have gone into it. If you haven’t played it for yourself, do it. I mean. You’ll get at least 2 playthroughs out of it that will be different. 3 if you have the time.

2: WWE Smackdown Shut Your Mouth

The game that I have lost the most hours of my life to....I think.....either this or number 1. Almost all WWE games have the same format, at least this era of WWE games. The mode that I will focus on is the season mode. 2 full years worth of storylines and madness. All different, all fun. Some based on real WWE storylines but with twists. If you are a wrestling fan, well a WWE fan, this is the best game for season mode.....well, this and Here Comes The Pain. It;s very close. This one wins for me because you get 2 full years worth. 

1: Crash Bandicoot 1 

The first game I ever owned. The day my dad brought home a PS1 and this game I was hooked. Hours of my childhood were lost to this orange, spinning asshole. Who doesn’t love Crash? He’s the best character ever created for PS1 in my opinion. Without saying a word he was amazing. The best. And the levels were all so good and challenging. But not bad challenging. You always knew what to do, just doing it was hard work. But the feeling you get when you beat the game......it’s so good. And shoutout to the music. Best soundtrack!

[rushingstonewind]

another sad post

and more sad stuff about fictional characters..

roughly a month ago I wrote a rant for my friend (said friend was involved in the anime suffix crisis) and I went back and re-read it, and I kinda wanna update it due to the fact that i

learned a lot more about kokichi’s death then I knew when writing the rant then and

have gotten more depth of the heather’s end of the death stuff, and wanted to add to that.  

For starters, here’s the original rant. I’ll either get the new one out tonight or tomorrow afternoon, not that anyone cares, just dumping my feels here.

THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR THE FOLLOWING: DANGARONPA V3, END GAME (if someone still hasn’t seen that and has been lucky enough not to have it spoiled 4 them), AND THE HUNGER GAMES. the new rant will likely contain spoilers to the Percy Jackson books aswell. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

the friend mentioned in this rant is @insertuwu. check em out. _______________________________________________________________________

January 29, 2020. Fictional Characters.

Oh boy- where do I even start here. Uh- maybe explaining what this is about? Well- that seems fair. When I say fictional characters, I mean fictional characters from actual adult author writer people or from an anime or a television show or movie or something. Not like- OC fictional characters.

Mostly this’ll just be a rant about my problems with them personally. Which means it’ll be 90% about being sad about dumb fake people-

Since I literally just cut to the chase, let’s get over this. I get emotionally attached to fictional characters SO easily. I can list so many- Percy Jackson. Annabeth Chase. Hazel Levesque. Frank Zhang. Piper McLean. Nico DiAngelo. Reina Ramerez-Aralleno. Jason Grace.  Tony Stark. Kokichi Ouma. Shuichi Saihara. Rantaro Amami. Kaito Momota. Katniss Everdeen. Peeta Mellark. Primrose Everdeen. Gale Hawthorn. Finnick Odair.  The list goes on and on and on. It just really- it hits really close to home when people die. I mean, for example- god there’s so many examples- well ok, let’s do the one that’ll work best for me to describe (kinda??). and then i’ll prolly do a few more, nehehe. THe first one, my friend will probably be able to guess this if/as she reads it, but, the Death of Kokichi Ouma from Danganronpa v3: Killing Harmony. I don’t know what actually happened at his death, because I can’t play the game and my friend’s not there yet, but what I do know is that he was crushed with a hydraulic press, and it has something to do with Kaito and possibly Maki. And, for all the little I know about it, it’s still C R U S H I N G. You know, I guess this is less about the characters and more about me, but screw it. I got into Danganronpa- maybe it’s been a month at this point? I watched a bit of a playthrough, but it’s boring. So I’ve mostly just watched executions and fan content. I’ve seen a lot of depressingly sad dead Kokichi content on Youtube- OK nope that’s a rant for another time. It just hURts when people you feel like you KNOW even if they’re not real, it HURTS when they die. Tony Stark is another example. I know we were all crying in the theater when that happened. Primrose Everdeen. When she died, I carefully folded the book corner up so I wouldn’t lose the page, gently, gently set the book down, and curled up on the couch. And cried. This probably isn’t very relatable, but I get emotionally attached to fake people real dam easy. So that’s about 90% of my problem. The other 10% or so is other people’s opinions. And this isn’t to limit self expression or anything, and most of the stuff I encounter I agree with. But people’s irrational opinions, like- bad example warning- but people who like.. Nyeh.. people who think- OOH. People who think Bramblestar is an innocent child who didn’t do anything. I mean, ok, he’s not as bad as OTHER people make him out to be, but he’s not great either. He did go behind Squirrelflight’s back with the Dark Forest training and stuff. And that’s about all I have to say. I really don’t have a lot of negative experiences with shipping stuff, so I can’t really say anything about that except for the fact that the majority of people out there are thinking the right thing!

[pesky33]

Something I’m experimenting with

So, I love reportage style stories and books, and I try to include some aspect of that every time I write something. I started writing Teurshima as a YouTube gamer, and it’s turned into an excuse to replay my favourite games. I’ll stick the first bit under a cut.

The idea is, each part will start with a transcript of one of his videos, and then there’ll be some exposition I suppose is the best way to describe it. Dialogue is my absolute favourite thing to write, and Terushima talks non-stop, so I thought it made sense to do this? Let me know what you think.

So far it includes two of my favourite ever games and ASMR. It’s basically just me enjoying myself.

Welcome to the Playground

[excerpt of transcription of video: “Psychonauts Playthrough – It's Not His Vault He's Psychic”]

“Hello, bonjour and konichiwa to The Playground! You're all most welcome, as always.

Today I'm playing 'Psychonauts' which is, urm, over ten years old! But, I just got it on PS4 because it was way cheap. It's taking a while to boot up, so I'll tell you a bit about it while it does. Oh, originally PS2, look at that! I was too young to play this first time (whispering) if I'd heard of it when I was ten, which I hadn't.

(usual volume) So it's developed by Double Fine. If you haven't heard of them, it's Tim Schaefer, and if you haven't heard of him, then I assume...I dunno what to tell you. It's TIM. FUCKING. SCHAEFER. Dude. You need to get out more.

Nah, nah, just kidding. Okay, so he's well known for Grim Fandango, but he's like, the king of indie games, 'specially point and click. We all know how impatient I get with those, right? But! This is a platformer! So we should be good to go. Running and jumping, yeah? I can do that. With my eyes closed! In fact I did. If you're interested, you can see me complete Super Mario 2 with my eyes closed by clicking on the pop-up I hope Kazu puts in the video. Let's have a graphic of Mario right *waves hand to one side* here please. Click on here to watch.

Oh shit! It's finished loading. Oh my god, this is so 90s already, I LOVE IT. And it wasn't even out in the 90s! 2005? So I...what? Walk around on this brain? This is...oh! Wait, there's a door. I'll just jump in there.

Okay, so this is a platform game. Jumping, running, collecting stuff. Looking online, there's a fuck ton of collectibles, which I don't normally give a shit about, but apparently that's how you level up, so looks like I'm gonna be trying to collect a bunch of crap. I. HATE. COLLECTIBLES.

At least it has analog stick compatibility. You know what I always say – life is too short for games without analog stick compatibility. If you port a PS2 game to PS4, give me my fucking analog stick, or it's not happening. Hmm, the movement is pretty smooth, though! Good job, urm, whoever did this. I've forgotten already. I literally just looked it up before we started streaming.

It's a much better port than Primal. Jesus, dudes, do you lot remember Primal? What an annoying slow piece of garbage that was. Ah, memories. I broke my controller that day. RIP Jemima the controller. We hardly knew ye.

These character designs are crazy, seriously. Have you seen this guy's afro? I really want some goggles and a flying helmet now though. Raz, you are one sick looking motherfucker but you have some smooth aviator style going on there. If anyone wants to tell me where to get freaky goggles like this, comment and tell me! I want some for my playthrough videos.

Also, I would TOTALLY wear that shirt of his.

Okay, so while I'm finding whatever it is I'm looking for, I wasn't really listening...anyway, while I'm titting about showing you the game, let me catch you up on what's been going on. So, you may remember last week I had to take Agro to the vet. Thank you all for your lovely comments, by the way. You're all so lovely to me, even though I'm such a prick.

Anyway, luckily, it's not serious! I was so worried, cause coughing can mean so many things in dogs, but apparently, he's just got a cold. I mean...way to worry me, man, I thought you had kennel cough or something. You big mutt, I love ya.

What else...oh look at that! I think we're getting into the game properly, I'll stop rambling, and do an actual livestream of this gameplay. If you miss this live, don't worry, as always we'll be putting an edit of it up later on. Let's do this!”

-

Yuuji sat back after watching the video Kazu put together. He'd added in the Mario graphic, as requested, even adding a pair of dark glasses. Nice little touch, thought Yuuji, as he scrolled down to see the comments.

People seemed to enjoy the playthrough, although almost every comment was thankful that Agro was doing better. Yuuji swore that dog was more popular than him some days.

One other comment caught his eye. “You should whisper more! OMG you have an amazing whisper, it set off tingles in my head! Please do an ASMR playthrough of something.”

“Hey, Haru! You know what ASMR is?” he shouted through into the living room.

“What?”

“ASMR? You heard of it?”

There was a loud sigh, sounds of shuffling against leather, and then Haru appeared in the doorway to his office. “What are you talking about?”

“Someone said I should do an ASMR playthrough. Never heard of it. Is it a game?”

“Show me.”

Yuuji pointed out the comment on screen, while Haru peered at it. “She says 'ASMR playthrough of something' so I don't think it's a game. Search it.”

He opened another window alongside the YouTube one, and started looking for ASMR. Comments continued to appear below the original one, Haru reading them out as they did.

“'Can you imagine him trying to whisper? Through a whole video,' this one says. They have a point. I bet you couldn't whisper for a minute, let alone an hour.”

“I could whisper that long!”

Kazu wandered in to see where the other two and got to. “You couldn't. I could hear every word you said from in the lounge.”

“Hey!” Yuuji shouted, as if to prove a point. “I'm offended! I'm not always loud. I can be quiet if I have to be!”

“You think? Well, then maybe we should try it. There's plenty of people who seem interested.”

“Is that all it is?” Yuuji carried on scrolling through the results. “Whispering? I could whisper! Are there other gamers who do this ASMR thing?”

They spent the rest of the afternoon researching online, watching videos, and brainstorming games which could be whispered through. Yuuji still wasn't convinced, but with over 400 likes on the comment, many agreeing he had a nice whisper (a compliment he never thought he'd ever hear), they all thought it was probably worth trying.

“There's a few gamers whispering over videos,” Kazu said, leaning over and scrolling through his history. “Mostly girls though. I could only find one bloke. I really think you should give it a go.”

“Things like Minecraft seem popular...”

“I'm not playing Minecraft. I'd rather boil my fingers.”

Haru tutted. “Well, there's plenty of those anyway. I meant, maybe play something similar. Something which won't get you over-excited so you accidentally shout.”

“You know what would be good?” Kazu said, looking up with wide eyes.

“I know exactly what you're thinking,” Haru joined in, both turning to Yuuji. “Come on, it's so obvious!”

Yuuji jumped to his feet and started scanning his shelf full of games, before finding the box he was searching for and holding it in the air triumphantly. “Journey!”

[canttalktumbling]

New Post has been published on Can't Talk

New Post has been published on http://www.cant-talk.com/2017/07/all-tied-up-792017/

All Tied Up 7/9/2017

Ness

  I was originally hestitant to read “Grace and the Fever” by Zan Romanoff because I had somehow gotten the impression that the author was a man, and I am not here for guys writing about teenage girls and fandom. But a recent episode of the Reading the End bookcast had the Jennys interviewing Zan Romanoff, who is not a dude, and they convinced me to read it. I’m enjoying it a lot so far! If you were into boybands as a teen (and if you still are), definitely pick this up.

I’m also in the midst of my bad decisions playthrough of “Mass Effect: Andromeda.” It’s going poorly (but not as poorly as my eventual darkest timeline PT will). So many people are going to be so mad at me. Sorry in advance Peebee, Drack, Avitus, Cora, Jaal—you know what, it’ll be faster to just say this: Sorry in advance, everyone in Andromeda.

Finally, the latest Cat Sebastian romance—“The Ruin of a Rake”—just came out, and it is delightful. It’s in the same universe as “The Lawrence Browne Affair,” which was phenomenol. Reading this when my summer class reading gets too heavy. (Yes, tell me more about metadata.)

  Amelia

  I have discovered a new interactive fiction game, thanks to a Twitter recommendation, called “Zarya 1.” In it, you support a group of astronauts as they track down the source of a mysterious signal on the moon. It’s fun—and yes, you can total party wipe, so be careful out there spacefarers. It’s available on Steam and Android.

I’ve also continued to enjoy “American Gods” quite a bit. Things that seemed overdone and tropey come back in truly fresh and surprising ways. Plus, Gillian Anderson appears as David Bowie and that’s pretty amazing.

I’ve also started my first ever watch of “Babylon 5” after learning that the show’s creator, J. Michael Straczynski, worked on “Sense8.” It’s delightfully 90s cheese, complete with weird-haired aliens and polyester costumes, and I’m enjoying it so far.

  Vianey

“Last Cinderella.” Picture courtesy of Crunchyroll.com

  I needed something light after Tokyo Ghoul ruined my life a few weeks ago, so I moved on to live-action Japanese dramas. I just finished “Last Cinderella,” which tells the story of Sakura Toyama, a 39-year-old unconventional (by Japanese standards) hair stylist who ends up in a relationship with a man 15 years her junior.

Full disclosure: I started watching this show because of Haruma Miura. I loved him in another Japanese drama (“You Taught Me All The Precious Things”), and while I’m not saying he’s the most gorgeous man I have ever seen, I’m also not NOT saying that… because:

  Haruma Miura in “Last Cinderella”

  You see what I mean?

In addition to being blessed with a perfect face, he is also a consistently good actor and a particularly convincing crier whose tears, I’ve found, have the power to destroy my soul. (Too much?) In short, I’m a mere mortal who came for the eye candy but stayed for the show’s fun tropes and surprisingly sexy scenes. I mean there’s a love triangle throughout the series and even a Let’s-Pretend-We’re-In-A-Relationship subplot. This is my bread and butter.

All-in-all, I was not disappointed! The show starts out fun and over-the-top, with delicious twists and turns that made me want to marathon it in one sitting (I did not), but there are plenty of heart-pounding, gut-wrenching moments as well. For a show with only eleven episodes, I was not expecting to get so attached to the characters, but the writing made me really sympathize and root for all of them. While I didn’t agree with the characters’ sometimes sexist and fat-shamey comments, the actors are very likable and really kept me engaged throughout the story, right up until the dramatic last episode.

It’s also peppered with adorable, super-relatable haikus about life.

    Click here to start watching on Crunchyroll!