#i have an interview coming up and my ps4 is broken and i feel a little insane lately but we're doing our best

[punishedsurge]

SBFC 003: My Snake Have Started to Move

Woolie sets up the website, it dies right away and he stays up all night trying to buy better servers and make sure the shit works.

Audible is the first ever sponsor, Woolie says it’s a product he uses and is comfortable advertising. He goes on to list Opie and Anthony as a favorite radio show on the service, he mentions they have Louis C.K interviews on their show. Some comic called Woolie Shitlocks.

[Anthony Cumia got kicked off the show with his name in the title because of racist tirades on Twitter dot com. Louis C.K was cancelled for jerking off in front of people, maybe DON’T do that?]

As Matt cleaned his snake’s tank it escaped the temporary enclosure, he calls out to the silent predator, its name is Jack. “My snake have started to move.”

Pat: Woolie, who are you?

Woolie: A black person.

They make it a point to introduce themselves so the listener knows who is who, and realize they didn’t do it last week.

Woolie: I’m gonna let everyone in on a little secret: Woolie isn’t a nickname.

Pat: That’s not a secret. Are you going to let people know the real secret? As to—

Woolie: NOOO. YOU SHUT THE FUCK UP.

[A mystery we still don’t know, probably.]

They talk about where the podcast is available. [You could listen to them on the Zune, what a fuckin’ throwback.]

On to their weeks:

Liam played Dragon’s Crown. He also watched episode 1 of RWBY, he says the action is good but the characters are shallow and tropey, the rest of the writing doesn’t fare better. He doesn’t think he’ll keep watching it. 6/20 review score.

[RWBY is fairly popular, I only see rule 34 in my feed on the rare occasion.]

Matt has been working on Rustlemania and playing Divekick, is hyped for Killer is Dead. His birthday is today (the day the podcast publishes, they record the day before) so his birthday is coming up.

Pat has an aside. He played Saints Row 4 on pc and tried to fix a texture issue, he ended up having the entire rig shit on itself and then just played Divekick on every other console he has. Dork girl beats his ass with Kenny in every match she picks him. He tried to play FF14 but it was broken so he was unable to, Woolie jokes it’s because of its massive popularity.

Woolie has been mourning his recently bought, pre-owned launch PS3 that was also repaired. The group talks about how many 360 consoles they have burned through; Woolie went through 3, Pat through 4, Liam broke 1 at work, Matt went through 5 at work and only 1 personal console. Woolie laments the issue with getting his saves off the console because apparently PS doesn’t automatically back up your saves digitally? Finally he looked up the podcast’s performance, Ep 002 hit #15 the day it came out.

Gamescom time:

They start with the Xbox showcase, or the lack of anything. They laugh at Fighter Within, Liam calls it flail simulator, Woolie calls it QWOP for Kinect. Matt wants to get a copy of Fighter Uncaged and compare the two games jokingly, he then says the game’s screenshots look nice, like it would be a game he’d play if it were an actual fighting game.

PS4 talk begins with talking about how ugly the red and blue Dualshock controllers are, Pat blames it on the ugly PS4 controller. They agree it’s way more comfortable than the PS3, Pat says it’s 1% better than the 360 pad, “Completely negligible,” he states. Pat feels the Xbone controller is worse and feels bulkier, doesn’t care for the ‘Impulse Triggers’, or rumble in general.

They lust for the White Xbox One, which was ultra limited at the beginning of the console cycle. They spiral down conversations about wanting specific color consoles and cobbling their limited run handhelds together to keep them for longer.

The rest of the news:

Wonderful 101 was meant to be a Nintendo crossover game, similar to Smash Bros. They discuss which weapons would correlate to which character, then Liam says, “Yo, a Captain Falcon character action racing game by Platinum!” Pat and Woolie pog. Pat believes there will a Star Fox-like level in Wonderful 101 that just barely skirts the line of being Star Fox, based on Kamiya’s constant talks about the IP.

[Platinum Games made a Star Fox game in 2016, I think people liked it.]

Matt brings up the issue with potentially making 101 a crossover game, claiming people would complain Nintendo is not making new IPs, but then voices that people are already complaining it’s not a crossover game. “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” he aptly says.

Pat: The problem is that new IPs are great, but crossovers are rarer than new IPs.

[AYYY LMAOOOO THIS ONE TRULY AGED LIKE SHIT. Sasuke, Doom Guy and Ariana Grande squadded up about to hit 2013 Pat like a fucking Mack truck.]

Rare is ‘kicking around ideas for their IPs’. They lament the state of the studio. Matt states ex-employees said they had dozens of game ideas and Xbox shot them all down because they didn’t include Kinect integration. Woolie and Matt mock Banjo Kazooie Nuts and Bolts. Pat doesn’t care about the upcoming Killer Instinct reboot, but says he’d care more if Rare was working on it.

[Rare has put out Rare Replay and Sea of Thieves, they worked with the devs who made KI and the newest Battletoads, and Everwild has yet to be a real game. Not a great record, but hey Banjo and Kazooie got into Smash Bros, that’s something I guess. Also Nuts and Bolts walked so TOTK could run. The validity of the last statement is irrelevant because I have played neither.]

This section is dubbed “SNK get your shit together” by Liam. Evidently there are 4 games called KOF Online, this most recent one is a MOBA. They joke about other kinds of weird spinoff games the series could be, RTS, etc. Woolie proposes Metal Slug as a Maple Story type of game.

Blizzard is not opposed to making World of Warcraft free-to-play. Pat claims they’re on the way to it, based on the decline of players in the game. He also mentions cosmetic packs that players can buy have been very successful. Liam asks their guesses for FTP, Pat says in 2016, Woolie mentions ‘Titan’ is delayed until 2016 so he guesses 2015, Matt agrees with someone, Liam says 8 months.

[WoW has maintained ‘free up to level 20’, which was started in 2011 from what I can see, so they’re all wrong. We can all blame WoW whales for the microtransactions hellscape being normalized, fuck you MMO dorks. Titan, a new MMO, was delayed in 2013 but was actually cancelled internally, a small team of 40 (from 140) were tasked with making a new game. They made Overwatch.]

Woolie doesn’t care about the FTP date because the farthest things on his ‘list’ are SF5 and the Mars Mission in 2023, where we’ll be sending humans up to the red planet to colonize.

[Lmao that Mars shit ain’t happening bud, grab a brewski and enjoy the end of the world if you can see through the smoke. Street Fighter 5 released on 2/16/2016, so he didn’t have to wait too long.]

FFXIV relaunched and people are turning around on the game, the problem is the server are entirely busted. [They go into a viewer question that asks which MMOs the boys played, it’s not interesting enough to reiterate here. But Pat did say this:]

Pat: Phantasy Star Online isn’t an MMO. PSO2 is, but you’re never going to get it, shut up.

[PSO2 is on all major consoles and is playable outside of Asia as of 2020, thanks Xbox.]

Fite Game time:

Woolie and Liam played Aquapazza. They like it as a fighting game but are confused as to why *this* one is coming to the West.

Woolie jokes that Undernight Inbirth is coming over, they all agree that it doesn’t need to come over. [It did eventually, as well as its sequel.]

Yatagarasu is getting renamed to Legend of Raven for the Western release, it is also switching from 3DS to Vita. They wonder why the full switch from the different handhelds, Matt says it’s because Nicalis is “a shit publisher that will do anything they can to get the easiest thing….” He is spoken over by Liam and Woolie who adamantly contest his claim.

Woolie says Nicalis deserves respect because he is the guy who convinced Pixel (creator of Cave Story) to get back into making games. Matt’s issue with them is that they promise new games for years, then do not support them. Woolie and Liam are still upset with ‘shit publisher’, Matt doesn’t back down.

Pat tries to divert away from the topic by calling Capcom a shit publisher. They aren’t giving Ace Attorney 5 a retail release, and the WiiU version of Shadow over Mystara has been delayed until September. No one knows why he brought that up during the fite game section.

Ultra Street Fighter 4 is coming out and getting rebalanced. Liam and Pat will fight to the death over Hakan’s oil. Post hit KOs were breaking the game so they took it out.

Killer Instinct has a bit of info. They feel the model for KI is weird with the ‘packs’ that were being introduced, apparently they were different than the new character add-ons and is confusing. Pat would have preferred if they made the whole game then released “Super KI” later like Capcom.

Liam: The biggest bummer for me is that there’s no physical version.

Pat: Hey Liam, get used to that being a bummer.

Matt: Ken Lobb said the physical version will come out way later.

Pat: Oh, I meant in general.

[Killer Instinct’s model is the current model for most fighting games now: launch, add new purchasable characters and costumes, add other free stuff, update until you’re done. Lack of physical releases has only gotten worse, physical is disappearing everyday. I personally don’t care but the choice should remain.]

Pat is concerned about game preservation. If a digital storefront is closing, like Games for Windows Live, the games on it will simply disappear; he also brings up the issue of discs needing to activate via server pinging. He has an opinion about Xbox wanting people to buy into their online infrastructure, even though they have shuttered the OG Xbox online service as well as Games for Windows, though he doesn’t quite finish the thought. He does call those 2 services garbage, however.

[This section is still very relevant, but Pat hasn’t even seen the worst of it yet. Nintendo has closed the Wii, WiiU, and 3DS shops, entirely cutting off the last legal avenue to obtain those games easily; they clearly hate game preservation so it’s a good that emulation is a thing. Xbox has at least tried to get older games onto their backwards compatibility library, though the amount of exemptions is undeniable. We’re still waiting to the Xbox 360 closure coming July 2024, they are vocal about preserving as many titles as possible before then. PS and Xbox are no longer making all-new storefronts it seems, so that’s a plus.]

They have a discussion about how online services lasting longer than it’s initial lifetime is rare, they end up comparing games like APB to digital storefronts, which really aren’t comparable. Pat believes Steam is the gold standard that all other online services should be compared to.

Back to KI [yeah, we’re still on that topic], Ken Lobb promises that KI will be THE first party fighter, they will keep adding onto it rather than make a sequel. A new character was accidentally shown in a Thunder video provided to Gamestrailers, Woolie believes it was Kim-Wu but it is actually Sadira; Maximillian Dood is the only one with the footage of the character so he went sort of viral for it.

Matt thinks all the old characters should be in the game first before a new one, they rip on Spinal for being a dumb skeleton. They also speculate how the returning characters will play.

[Spinal is undoubtably awesome in this KI. The devs release both new and returning characters throughout the game’s life and no one really seemed to complain about all old characters not being before characters like Hisako and Rash.]

Ben Affleck is confirmed the new Batman, “what’s his face” is still Superman. Woolie describes Zack Snyder flicks as ‘cool action, nothing in between.’ Woolie gives Batfleck the benefit of the doubt because of Heath Ledger’s Joker, Pat says Affleck already sucked as Daredevil so he has no faith in the casting. Matt retorts with Chris Evans going from the Human Torch to Captain America. Matt continues with saying people shouldn’t be mad about Batfleck, they should be mad they’re getting ANOTHER Man of Steel movie.

Pat: Ben Affleck has like a 13 movie deal…

Matt: Everyone has a 13 movie deal.

Woolie: Until it tanks.

A bit of an aside, but they get to Mark Hamill voicing the Joker, they state how he’s ‘not doing it anymore’ because Troy Baker is voicing the character in Arkham Origin.

Pat: Troy Baker is going to be the new everything.

[Ben Affleck was fine(?) as Batman. We wasn’t Batman in very many DC movies, cameo or otherwise. Not naming Henry Cavill as Superman is hilarious to hear today because of his status as the unhygienic nerd’s power fantasy come to life: absolutely nothing against the man himself, he’s just a dude. Mark Hamill voiced Joker plenty of times after Arkham Origins; he has stated that he’s no longer interested in portraying Joker now that Kevin Conroy, his Batman, has passed. I hear Troy Baker a lot less nowadays, probably because game devs are avoiding using unionized actors.]

Matt Watch:

He is stalking Trish Stratus, iconic WWE Diva. She owns yoga studios in Toronto called the Stratusphere.

Questions:

“So, has many times has Matt been banned on Neogaf?”

3 times.

“At any point in your life, were you ever sucked up in a shitty card game?”

Woolie: Marvel trading cards, Yomi

Pat: Triple Triad [Answer Validity Contested]

Liam: Magi-Nation, Neopets card game, Legend of the 5 Rings

Matt: Killer Instinct fighting card game, Udon Street Fighter

“Have you ever cosplayed?”

Liam: Brown haired guy in the blue team from Ouendan 2, Neku from TWEWY, Naoto from Person 4.

Woolie: Xavier Stone from Guitar Hero.

“Woolie, why do you hate Deadly Premonition?”

Woolie: I don’t get it. It’s weird in a way I don’t get. It doesn’t appeal to me.

They jokingly talk about the requirement to finish a game before you can dislike it. It leads to Woolie calling out “the i, Robot game.”

Pat: Binary Domain, a great game that you hate because it’s kind of racist.

Woolie: When your black character makes Cole Train look like Nelson Mandela, there’s a problem.

Pat: I wish that Nelson Mandela made Boateng look like Cole Train.

What’s coming up:

Maybe start the next LP, coming 9/1 or 9/2. Rustlemania, one-offs.

[theirrationalzone]

My Top Ten Games of 2020

Let’s just address the giant elephant in the room from the offset: 2020 has been one giant mess of a year. Every event, every major moment this year just felt like the worst case scenario every time.

For a lot of us though, there was one saving grace: video games.

2020 has been a damn fine year for video games. From the return of certain classic franchises to some amazing new entries and experiences. Gaming really managed to thrive in a year where other entertainment mediums such as films and television struggled.

Let’s dive in and take a look at some of the games that made this year a lot more bearable:

10: Watch Dogs Legion

I’ve had a soft spot for Ubisoft’s hack ‘em up franchise for quite a while. I didn’t think the original was as disappointing as it was made out to be and I thought the second one was an underrated gem. When Legion was first announced, I liked a lot of what the game was setting out to do but I wasn’t ready to pull the trigger on getting it. I decided to give the game a chance in the end and I’m glad I did.

Legion might suffer from the same pitfalls that have plagued other Ubisoft enterprises, but the recruitment mechanic is one of the coolest systems I have seen in any game ever. The fact that you can recruit any NPC that you see on the streets of London and use their unique talents to complete your objectives is just an awesome thing in and of itself. Its depiction of London is also incredibly fun to explore and cause mayhem in. While I found the writing to be pretty subpar, the game quite buggy and the whole PS5 upgrade fiasco a farce, I still found Legion to be a fun open world experience overall.

9: Resident Evil 3

Resident Evil has been on a real hot streak as of late, hasn’t it? Ever since Capcom made a promise to its fans that the Resident Evil series would go back to what made it so popular in the first place, the series has gone from strength to strength. Last year saw the release of the RE2 Remake which was absolutely excellent in that it kept the spirit of the original while also taking a few liberties of its own. It was only a matter of time before RE3 got the same treatment and well... it did.

I’m just going to spit this out. It’s not as good as the RE2 Remake. It didn’t need to be though. I still think this is a good game that provides a satisfying and fun survival horror experience. It carries over a lot of the elements that made the RE2 Remake such an excellent game and in certain areas (especially the writing) it makes a few improvements. Plus the game looks absolutely stunning thanks to the RE Engine. It is quite short. It is missing quite a bit of content from the original game. It definitely isn’t as replayable as the RE2 Remake. I still had a blast with it though overall. If this really is a blip for the Resident Evil series, then it must be in a really good place right now.

8: Tell Me Why

Dontnod Entertainment have fast become one of my favourite developers in the industry right now. When I first played Life is Strange back in 2015, it felt like a revelation. It weaved a fantastic story with characters you genuinely cared for and took you to a place you never wanted to leave. I’ve enjoyed all of their other ventures since then such as the underrated (if quite janky) Vampyr and Life is Strange 2.

Tell Me Why is another venture that fits the Dontnod MO: A grounded emotional story with slight supernatural elements, a degree of player choice and a setting that makes your jaw drop. The major difference here is the game’s attempt to portray a transgender character. That’s nothing new in and of itself. It’s more the fact that it attempts to accurately portray a transgender male character which is a bit of a rarity in all forms of media. Transgender portrayals (from what I’ve seen) tend to focus on male to female rather than female to male.

I’m in no position to comment on whether the portrayal is accurate or not, but I got the impression that Dontnod really went out of their way to get this right. Their FAQ explains that they worked with GLAAD and the voice actor to get it as right as they could. That alone deserves huge praise, but I also loved the Ronan Twins’ story as they dealt with their harsh past and the uncertain future. The game was a delight from beginning to end and it just looks absolutely gorgeous to boot. Dontnod have done it again.

7: Bugsnax

One of the early delights of the last generation was a little ditty known as Octodad: Dadliest Catch. It was a fun little physics based affair which cast you as a octopus masquerading as a human. The game had a terrific sense of humour and it was just bloody fun to play. Young Horses (the developer of the game) kinda went dark after that. They only really resurfaced to release two bonus levels for that game and then they just disappeared again. Now we know why that was the case...

Bugsnax retains some of the qualities that made Octodad such as a memorable game. A great sense of humour and a unique gameplay hook. You play as a reporter sent to the mysterious Snaktooth Island to interview an explorer called Elizabert Megafig who has discovered these unusual creatures known as Bugsnax. After crash landing onto the island, you discover that Elizabert and her significant other have gone missing. It’s up to you to find out what happened while also documenting and capturing Bugsnax for yourself. Capturing the Bugsnax is a big part of what makes this game such a delight to play. As you unlock more tools to play around with, you can come up with different strategies and methods to capture these weird snack based creatures. It’s pretty awesome. Throw in a lovable set of characters to interact with and a beautiful environment to explore, and you’ve got one of the most lovable games released this year.

6: Mafia: Definitive Edition

The last few years haven’t been too kind to the Mafia franchise in my eyes. I really wanted to like Mafia III when it came out back in 2016. It was a sequel I waited years for and it did have some good qualities such as an excellent story that dealt with some pretty heavy topics, solid gameplay mechanics and an amazing licensed soundtrack. Unfortunately the game had one of the most tedious and boring gameplay loops I think I’ve ever seen in an open world game. It just got so dull after the first couple of hours.

This year saw the announcement of the Mafia Trilogy which was to be a celebration of the entire franchise with a remake of the first game, a remaster of the second and a re-release of the third. Half of this was botched with the remaster of II being poorly put together and the re-release of III receiving a broken patch. Things were looking grim for the remake...

As you can see by it being in this list, we were proven wrong. Mafia: DE is a fantastic remake that pays good lip service to the original while also expanding on certain elements. The story which follows the rise and fall of cab driver turned wiseguy Tommy Angelo is more fleshed out with new sequences and character moments that weren’t in the original. Gameplay still retains the solid shooting and cover mechanics of Mafia III and the driving feels absolutely excellent especially when you put it in simulation mode. Lost Heaven is just gorgeous to behold as well with its bustling neighbourhoods and beautiful countryside. I hope this is the beginning of a redemption arc for Hangar 13 and the Mafia franchise. There is a lot of promise to build upon from here.

5: Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing in Disguise

Anyone who knows me personally or has followed me on social media for a while knows that I’m a big fan of Deadly Premonition. The 2010 cult survival horror hit pretty much encapsulates why I love video games with its lovable hero, an eccentric cast of characters and surprisingly solid mechanics considering the budget it was made for. It was definitely more than the sum of its parts.

When I found out that a sequel was being made exclusively for the Nintendo Switch, my jaw hit the floor pretty hard. I thought any hopes for a sequel were dashed when SWERY left Access Games (the original dev), and yet here we are. A Blessing in Disguise is a brilliant sequel to the zany original. It captures everything that I loved about the original game to a T while also improving in certain aspects. The story is more ambitious this time with it being both prequel and sequel. A lot of the gameplay elements have been improved. The combat benefits from better aiming controls and an upgrade system for both York and his weapon. Getting from A to B is less wonky (and more fun) thanks to the addition of a skateboard rather than a car.

While I do still think the original is better due to the more creative side quests, the more challenging difficulty and the fact that it functions better from a technical perspective, I’m still a big fan of DP2 and it deserves your attention. Here’s hoping that it makes its way to other platforms in the future.

4: Ghost of Tsushima

This last generation has been good for Sony and its Worldwide Studios. In the last five years, they’ve managed to produce hit after hit after hit. A definite far cry from the first year of the PS4 where they produced some dire exclusives. Infamous Second Son was one of these. Sucker Punch’s first effort on the console was very pretty and a good technical showpiece for the console, but as a game, it was boring and dull. I couldn’t even muster the strength to finish it. The standalone expansion First Light was a huge improvement in my eyes. It cut out a lot of the fluff from Second Son. I knew then that Sucker Punch would eventually give us something amazing. They certainly did in the end...

Ghost of Tsushima is honestly one of the best exclusives that Sony has ever produced. Giving us a brutal tale in the vein of a Kurosawa flick where samurai Jin Sakai is forced to betray his code in order to drive out the Mongol force that has enslaved his homeland; we have a story that is genuinely gripping from beginning to end with an incredibly powerful final duel to boot. The combat is incredibly fun with a brilliant combat system that is easy to pick up but challenging to master. Duels especially show the combat system at its finest. Upgrading your abilities genuinely makes you feel incredibly powerful as you begin to decimate enemies left, right and center. Stealth is solid giving you plenty of tools at your disposal and certainly changes up the gameplay a fair bit. Did I mention that Tsushima Island is one of the most aesthetically pleasing locales in any game to date? Well I’m saying it now. It is one of the most beautiful locales in any game to date.

I’m very excited to see where this new IP goes in the future because this first entry is just incredible. A must buy if you own or plan on owning a PlayStation 4 or 5 in the near future.

3: Astro’s Playroom

Memorable pack-in exclusives are a bit of a rarity nowadays. The last one that sticks in my mind is Wii Sports, and that was a long time ago.

Astro’s Playroom serves as the pack-in title for the PlayStation 5 as it is pre-installed on all units. It’s also my favourite exclusive for the console so far. The main reason for this is that Astro’s Playroom evolves past being just a tech demo for the console and its fancy new controller. It actually is a fun little platformer in its own right. It offers something different with every level. In one level you can transform into a giant ball and attempt to navigate some pretty tight platforms, and in the next, you take control of a rocket ship and navigate through corridors while also avoiding bombs. There is great variety here and to be fair, it shows off the potential of the new DualSense controller fantastically.

Plus the game is just one giant love letter to the PlayStation brand and the games that made it what it is today. You’ll see references to obscure PlayStation paraphernalia such as the Multitap and UMD discs, and also games like Final Fantasy VII and Silent Hill. The final boss of the game in particular is one giant callback to something you might remember if you got a PlayStation 1 back in the day. I won’t say any more, but it made me yelp in joy when I saw it. If you plan on getting a PlayStation 5 in the future, make this the first game you play. You won’t regret it.

2: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2

Activision have been on a roll in the last few years with the revitalisation of some of their classic franchises. Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon for example have enjoyed newfound success thanks to the excellent N Sane Trilogy and Reignited Trilogy. When it was revealed earlier this year that Vicarious Visions and Beenox would be resurrecting the Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater franchise with a remake of Pro Skater 1 and 2, my heart skipped a good few beats.

The Pro Skater franchise means a lot to me personally as I have very fond memories of putting hours into 1 and 2 when I was a kid. Going through the Career mode with each skater, learning the gaps and getting used to doing manuals when they were introduced in 2, it’s all ingrained into me. I’m happy to say that this is probably the best remake I have ever played. It perfectly captures what made those first two entries so special. Each level is beautifully recreated with a ton of new details that serve to enhance these levels. The soundtrack includes all of your old favourites like Goldfinger’s Superman and Rage Against the Machine’s Guerilla Radio along with some fantastic new tracks like Less Than Jake’s Bomb Drop.

The gameplay definitely taps more into Pro Skater 3 and 4 territory with Reverts and Flatland tricks included. These tricks don’t feel out of place and the game does give you the option to play it legacy style if you want. It feels magnificent overall though. The physics are pitch perfect. Creating lines and large combos is still as addicting and rewarding as ever. Online leaderboards certainly tempt you to reach for the stars if you’ve got the ability. Career mode isn’t particularly long, but the pretty robust Create-a-Park editor and solid multiplayer suite should keep you coming back for more. I’ve already put dozens of hours into this and I have no intention of stopping anytime soon.

If my number 1 entry on this list didn’t exist, this would be my Game of the Year. As it stands though, this is a very close second.

1: Doom Eternal

How do you follow up one of the best first person shooters in recent memory? Basically turn everything up to eleven and then some. Doom (2016) was such an eye opener when it launched. It gave everything we could have ever wanted from a new Doom game: a whole planet full of demons to kill and some big guns to help them back to where they belong. It was awesome and an easy choice for my GOTY back in 2016.

I anticipated Doom Eternal with bated breath. The excitement was building but the nerves were building with it. How could it live up to the previous one? What if it makes the same mistakes as Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus? Thankfully my worries were unfounded as soon as I loaded up the game and was thrown straight into the fold with a Combat Shotgun and some entry level demons to destroy with it.

Doom Eternal is the FPS genre at its absolute finest. The levels are much bigger with more secrets to find and loads of demons to kill. Said demons are much more plentiful in their ranks and they move faster too. Fortunately enough, you have a huge arsenal to deal death to these demonic denizens from the depths of Hell such as the starter Combat Shotgun, the Plasma Rifle, the Ballista and even a giant sword known as the Crucible. Enemies now have weak points to exploit as well which can turn the tide of battle and it rewards accuracy. Before you know it, you’ll be entangled in a ballet of bullets, beams, blood and guts (HUGE guts mind you.) This game makes you feel like a hero at the end of every fight. It’s so satisfying.

Toss in a soundtrack that will get your blood pumping and your goosebumps raising along with environments that will make your TV or monitor look like a window to a scorched earth, and you have my Game of the Year for 2020. Well deserved for sure. I really need to get on that DLC.

To those of you who actually took the time to read all that, you have my heartfelt thanks. I really appreciate you reading this and I hope my choices made sense.

To those of you who just glanced at each entry and skimmed through the text, I don’t blame you for doing that. I still appreciate you taking a look anyway.

All that’s left for me to say is that I hope each and every one of you has a safe holiday season and I hope that the New Year will be better for all of us.

I’ll see you all in 2021. Stay safe and well, folks.

[tonyloveseverybody]

r.e. job offer

Prompt: Call T.S. r.e. job offer

Verse || Earth-1048 {aka} Spiderman PS4

Warnings || n/a

Word Count || 1305 words

Side Notes || I really have been wanting to follow up on this note and after a little research I found it this is actually roughly the only mention of Tony Stark in Earth-1048 but apparently it’s assumed Tony Stark is like Earth-616 Tony Stark due to the fact we know he is Iron Man because of not only the Avengers tower being present in the game but also a small crossword puzzle Easter egg. It may just be me pulling at strings but I thought the concept of an actual job interview hosted by Tony Stark would be fun for many reasons. So here we are. 

r.e. job offer

So turns out the dumpling incident wasn’t a one-off incident, after attempting to take up cooking, Peter found it very difficult to actually keep up in the line of cooking as a career. It demands whole days of work and then the rush hour. 

Oh god the rush hour.

He found fighting the whole sinister six at once easier then a rush hour. And he’s done it before. Even if that left him with fourteen broken bones and an apocalyptic New York City. But he still did it. That has to count for something right? Gold star for effort?

So a cooking career wasn’t for Peter. Cooking was meant to be like chemistry, which he was good at. But it wasn’t. It was more than exact measurements and exact cooking methods.

Stir for five minutes, allow simmer at low degree for ten.

In a kitchen it was chuck it in, let the flavors have a brief meet and greet, set it on fire and somehow result in a two hour recipe completed in half an hour. Maybe MJ thought his curry was good, but customers of restaurants he worked at didn’t share that same line of thought.

The career also cut into his time put aside for his hobby. He couldn’t be Spider-Man when expected to wake up at four every morning and leave at twelve every night. He tried. 

The sleep deprivation ended in nine stitches and the ugliest bruise on his rib cage because he could hardly throw a punch, let alone dodge. 

He needed a new job with more flexible hours that also allowed him keeping his job. And Peter remembered Tony Stark’s offer. 

The offer occurred at some science convention, himself and Doctor Octavius  attending and once again desperate for funds and grants. Peter needed to be paid, it was the best shot they had. It just so happened Tony Stark was in attendance and had taken a shining to Peter when Otto had briefly left to grab some coffee.

Peter would’ve been in awe if he was normal, but let’s face it, Peter Parker had fought beside Tony Stark a few times and had ended up bickering with him even more times, so Peter was hardly impressed. 

“You know.” Tony began, smirking slightly as he pushed down his glasses slightly “For a twenty-three year old Mr. Parker, you may as well be smarter than half of the scientists in this convention.”

God he was such an asshole, Peter had to hold back the eye roll. Tony Stark’s ego was bigger than it should be. But at the same time he was somehow still humble. Peter sometimes forgot the man went through a lot. But what hero hasn’t been through a ton of crap. 

“Thanks, but I think everyone is smart in their respective fields, Mr. Stark.” He clips back.

This only caused a brief chuckle as the male pressed a small pad on his watch “I like your attitude, I’ve added my contact to your address book... If you’re interested, I have a job for you Parker.” 

“Thank you, let’s hope I don’t dig myself too deep to end up at Stark Industries.” Parker replied dryly.

Tony pressed back his glasses and simply gave him a lazy smile “I’m not the one begging for grants.” He pointed out before strolling back.

By then Otto had come back with two coffees, passing one to Peter “Was he interested in giving a grant? Maybe an investment?” He asked, hopeful at the idea of support from Tony Stark and Stark Industries to back him up.

Peter scoffs and shakes his head “Nah Doc, he’s only here to gloat.”

Funnily enough when Peter had got home he quickly scribbled down a note, sticking it just underneath the newspapers and promptly forgot about it. 

A year later, the sticky note was long gone, along with the majority of his belongings due to eviction. Thank you New York. But Peter was scrolling through his contacts, by now used to the crack that stemmed from the corner of the screen when his eyes caught the number listed as ‘Tony Stark’ and he clicked on it, raising an eyebrow when catching the small note ‘get a stark phone, parker.’. 

“I think I like my iPhone a little better.” He muttered with a frown. But he did need a job like one Stark Industries would offer him. Stable income, flexible hours and something that his degree was actually qualified for. Regardless he dialed the number.

A week later, Peter sat on an unforgiving couch, his hair pushed back and begrudgingly pulling at the hard and stiff collar, pulling at the knot of the tie that threatened to choke him. He needed the job, he needed to not crash on Mj’s couch every second night. He needed stability that went hand in hand with the job that didn’t pay. He needed to be able to open a fridge that had more than half a bottle of arizona iced tea and three eggs. How many times had he found refuge on some high building in a long untouched corner?

“Mr. Parker?” A women asked, she smiled at Peter and honestly, he didn’t even notice at first the women had a metal exterior. That was FRIDAY, the A.I. who had served Tony for a long time. Peter had read plenty of articles about the constant robot conflicts. Robots deserve rights as well, right? 

“Mr. Stark will see you now.” 

Peter stood up and nodded with a brief thank you before following her through into the spacious office to come face to face with the CEO. Briefly, he watched FRIDAY leave, the door closing with a soft click. 

“Please, take a seat.” Tony said, not even looking at the other male, rather focused on the skyline of Manhattan and Peter couldn’t help but feel it was on purpose more than the fact the other didn’t actually care.

“Yes sir.” Peter abruptly spoke, almost stumbled as he walked towards the chair, pulling it out and sitting down. The two didn’t speak for a moment and Peter took the moment to shift, pull the chair in more.

Finally Tony Stark turned around and smiled “So how deep did you dig anyway?” The other asked with a smug tone.

Peter could kick himself, part of him wanted to stand up and exit right then and there but he needed job pretty damn badly. “Deep enough, my last boss became a super villain.” Peter replied dryly. His last boss in this field. But considering how much he was paid by his recent string of bosses, they may as well be villains as well.

Tony laughed and nodded “I saw, Spider-Man did good job at stopping him.” He pointed out.

Peter nodded, feeling a surge of pride for his secret identity. But it hurt, it hurt to see Otto spiral like that. It did a number to Peter. Regardless he nodded “Yeah, I don’t know what we would’ve done without him honestly.” 

Tony nodded in agreement “Yeah, I mean if I was around though, I’m sure there wouldn’t have been a problem in the first place.” 

Peter had to bite back a string of curses and he breathed out “I’m not sure, I mean, everyone is better in their respective fields, it was sort of a Spider-Man job, I mean, it was a pretty large amount of super villains that are mainly his nemesis that terrorized New York.”

���I suppose, but it was a year ago anyway, a lot has happened since then. It doesn’t really matter now. Anyway, on to more important things then my hero gig, as cool as it is.” Tony remarks and Pete clenched his fist.

God this man pissed him off.

“What makes you think you’d be a good candidate to work at Stark Industries?”

[vgperson]

What Did I Translate in 2018?

[lovedinapastlife]

Riverdale Reaction - 3x17 - “The Master”

They could’ve renamed this episode “The Snacks” and it’d be pretty damn accurate

The Serpents are slithering in the name of justice and laser pointers! I’m already 10/10 all in

No necklace on V! Is that growth? Can Betty get her a BFF chain thing? Like a heart with two halves and they each wear them? Ohhhh look at my scheming girls.

HA! The Serpents pool table replaced the dining room table. I mean, priorities. Really.

There is an obscene amount of orange juice in the Jones house. Commentary on the acidic relationships? Sunny dispositions? Maybe not. The photos on the fridge have changed and transferred! Woo! OH NO SHE DID NOT grab Jug by his hair and hat. Momma is going down. I’m siccing the girls on her.

Omg Betty’s “ritualistic drowning” line and Veronica’s big smile like “That’s my girl” made my heart swell. Love them when they’re fighting evil instead of perpetrating it.

Did Kevin just put “garden” in air quotes? It sounded like he did. They do have a garden. We saw it. Multiple times.

Alice looks good in white. And crazy XD Wear a silky camisole out in the world as a shirt. You do you, girl. I love the orange/red "yeah I used to be a Serpent” outfit from S2 and hope that comes back at some point.

Why do they choose the creepiest area of Mercy to do interviews? I enjoyed it, weirdly enough. Made their facial expressions reminisce of unimpressed teens sitting in on a scary story. Also, I love how it’s just a check mark box of YES or NO on whatever’s on the sheet and Evelyn didn’t bother marking the last one.

Hermione, the whiney ex-wifey. What was she gonna do if Hiram actually stayed down during those 2 murder attempts? Girl, all you had to do was hold those tubes of oxygen and he’d be taking a dirt nap

Archie’s face as he makes a healthy shake while Jughead noms on chips made me laugh. Classic. Also, any time Archie eats something unhealthy he looks anxious like it will immediately deflate his abs. The prison storyline is silly. Still. Am I the only one who’s still confused by Mad Dog’s status?

The Varchie scene. Sigh. Sometimes I want to bite Archie’s nose because I’m not passionate enough to slap him but I’m frustrated enough I wanna leave a pointy little imprint for a minute. “You worked so hard…before…” Oh like Mary, Sierra, and Betty did as well when you were in trial? And yes, Veronica worked her butt off too and made CUPCAKES for your return! THE CUPCAKES! I’m still upset about it.

“Yes, they wear white after Labor Day…” Is it intentional that Cheryl’s wearing white in this scene? Foreshadowing? Love the little detail on her sweater and Betty’s red sweater as if she’s an ally for the Blossoms.

Ok I’m loving the over-the-top nonsense of Jughead with a switchblade demanding they look for gargoyles on telephone poles and confiscate “gaming equipment.” The Serpents oughtta get a PS4 or something. I love Deputy!Serpents. SOMEONE has to actually do some investigating in this town. And ass-kicking? And pin-pushing? Hilariously enough. Did anyone else notice Jughead thanked a kid named “Jason” on the walkie? Is there a Serpent without a stupid nickname? Or is that a codename?! So many questions.

Ha! FP is mad the Serpents “ruined” his bust. Like, sorry for doing your job before you, sir.

BETTY SNOOPER! What a nickname. Love you, girl.

ELUCIDATE THAT. Damn, sir. You know how to use that vocabulary. I never had an affinity CMM as a teen but he’s got some vibes I’m digging. Like the colorful candles intermixed with the regular ones.

I love how Elio shows up in a full suit to antagonize men he doesn’t know and walks away after it appears Archie is more interested in Fight Club Light

Ok Cheryl has a daddy kink. I know she’s a canon lesbian but canon also has her very interested in the DILFs as eye-candy. Ooooh I cringed when she called him “Eddie.”

I had to rewatch the Archie and Juvie Crew Pop’s scene to get the significance of the guy saying “If I never ate anything but these burgers again, I’d die happy.” WHELP! Good news, person I presume is “Baby Teeth!”

People are terrible at assassination in Riverdale. Why send her a fish? That’s a decent dinner if she could cook. Which I somehow doubt, despite her waitressing at Pop’s. Now her apartment smells.

Betty stands alone in a sea of psychos

Oh my god Hiram’s little SPOOOON! He’s just trying to eat his tiny snacks in peace. He is so done with being accused of everything XD Honestly, he’s probably as sick of his storylines as we are. Also, is that a man with the Olympic torch on the left? Is that gonna be his S4 storyline? Hiram goes for Gold?

Uuuugh I know it was a useless but cute scene and Bughead are so soft I wanna cry. They’re glowing.

Are there ribbon-cutting ceremonies for prisons? Only in Riverdale, I guess.

Maybe there’s a good reason Betty didn’t ask Archie to be her mole at the Farm. He’d definitely join them or just break stuff with his new boxing crew and be like, “LOOK, BETTY! I DID WHAT YOU ASKED :D”

So the juvie guys know the same Serpent deputy secret signals, huh? This sequence is so Riverdale. And Jughead takes NO ONE up with him except Mr. Crowbar? Look at this crazy fight sequence. Good thing the Gargoyles choose to wear masks that limit their vision or our boys may have been in trouble. Because in this DARK SHOW with 99% leather and jeans on boys, how would they know who was who otherwise?

Omg Rhino!Archie is on the loose! I have mixed feelings about the raid sequence.

The ascending window-escape wasn’t really a build-up? They needed some creepy dialogue or something more than that one line. That fall looked pretty painful though? At least he didn’t snag the beanie on a stray plank.

Ok this show doesn’t get how marriage and annulment works. But that’s okay. Hiram can be like Henry VIII and make his own rules. It’s Riverdale.

VERONICA! You schemey schemer! I’d clutch my pearls if we still had any!

Okay does Gladys genuinely not care if Jughead gets shot? Like, she doesn’t actively want to murder him but she’d be fine if he was gone? Because that SUCKS. And giving the Gargoyles guns, she knew that was a possibility. Okay, lady. Game on. Jug should tell his dad. Oh man. My heart.

Betty, my precious snoopy angel! Find Edgar’s tapes and Evelyn’s if you can!

“Like a seance?” anyone else having flashbacks to Jason’s wake and Betty and Juggie bein’ cute lil detectives? Cheryl…oh Cheryl. You saw Jason move on. CARRY ON MY WAYWARD BLOSSOM~ Also, I know the Toni breakup thing was a ruse, but uh…where is she? Just pretending to be broken up with Cheryl? Not caring that she’s in a cult? Alrighty then.

I wonder if Archie or Hiram kept the random trophies in the gym. Again, I’m gonna randomly say that’s gonna be a future season storyline. Forget state champs, these teens wanna get to the Olympics, only to be undermined by their jealous parents!

Okay Betty in a scooped/V-neck? Nice. Also, it looks like Alice is wearing a sheep pin which makes me laugh and also die a little inside.

Alice. You have a daughter. Two, in fact. Neither of whom you have a good experience with because you’re a crap mom, so of course the imaginary dead son is your favorite.

Betty vs. Evernevers! Hell yes! Can we have V join Team Betty more actively as a badass and ignore the speakeasy/divorce stuff in favor of righteous awesome? ‘K thanks!

The Baby Teeth stuff was gross. No thanks. Next.

[rantingnbanting]

It’s finally time

Spider-Man: Far From Home Movie Review

Hee hee i had a shit ton of this done already and then my dumbass accidentally closed the tab so yeah :’)

For some reason, this took me so long to want to write. I saw the movie this afternoon, and it’s almost midnight as I’m writing this. Granted, I am on vacation and was a little busy, but I just needed time to process this movie. The movie seemed really dense to me, and I just had to scroll through tumblr looking at other posts to finally get the nerve to write this.

So, the moment you’ve all been waiting for...

***SPOILER WARNING. MAJOR PLOT POINTS AND THE ENDING OF THIS WILL BE DISCUSSED SO IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS DO NOT CONTINUE***

Just as an FYI, I saw this with my sister, a fan of the MCU, and my dad, a diehard DC fan but just saw this for shits and giggles. And I will be referencing endgame a lot during this too.

- Did I like it?

Yeah!!!! I loved the humor in it, and the plot was well written. Mysterio is an awesome character in this, though he is a villain.

- What didn’t I like?

(I’ll go into more detail later) The cgi in this, the lack of some of the topics introduced in endgame, the casts’ age, and some of the Peter X MJ scenes (I said some! I do love Peter and MJ together!)

- Pacing?

Honestly? Pretty good for a marvel movie. Marvel usually has some issues with pacing *cough cough endgame cough cough*, but I was thoroughly impressed with this one. Everything seemed well drawn out, and I was never left feeling that a certain scene was too long/short. Kudos because that I am very picky with pacing lol

- Humor

This movie is probably one the funniest movies in the MCU, and it was one of the most memorable aspects of the movie. The morning announcements made my sister and myself wheeze and I had tears rolling down my face as I cackled. Ned and Betty were the truest presentation of Highschool romance I have ever seen. Starting on a whim, being attached to the hip for a few weeks (maybe even a few months), and then breaking up. I honestly loved them together. I’m happy they didn’t go down the “sad and neglected best friend” route with Ned because he deserves so much better. “I’m strong and sticky” made my stomach hurt because I was laughing so hard. PETER BITCH-SLAPPING FLASH WHEN HE WOULDNT GIVE BACK THE GLASSES. AHDHDBDJDHDJ

- plot?

I thought the plot was really clever. Like I said earlier, anyone could see mysterio’s real side from a mile away, but the way they went about the conflict and the climax of the story was very interesting as well. The only thing is that when they were first explaining the secret plan and thinking everyone, I got a little lost. I did finally realize how the bots produce an illusion, but I kind of had to figure that on my own. I was confused how things were being broken and destroyed by the creatures, but the team said that nothing was actually getting broken because it’s all just an illusion. Idk there were some plot holes, but they got mostly filled, so I’m not worried about it lmao.

- Favorite character?

While I do love Ned with every fiber of my being, he just didn’t have the same spark that he did in homecoming. Maybe that’ll change as I see the movie again, but my favorite character in this movie was definitely Mysterio. Jake Gyllenhaal is a phenomenal actor, and I don’t think anyone could have pulled off Mysterio like he did. As I assume most of the internet knows, Mysterio is an actual villain in the Spider-Man comics, and he has powers that create illusions, and I thought that this was a really cool way to portray Mysterio with making him a person. Even without knowing that Mysterio is a villain in the comics, it wasn’t that difficult to predict that he would reveal that he’s a villain. Thinking back, there was a part during the the fight with the fire monster in Prague when something broke off of the Ferris wheel, and I thought to myself “damn, it was almost like the Ferris wasn’t really there” And the illusion scene was by far the coolest scene in the entire movie. It gave me strong Doctor Strange vibes (I wonder why I like I so much lmao) and it showed how vulnerable Peter is. But Mysterio has the aura that just made you love to hate him, and I love characters like that.

- Soundtrack?

It was awesome. Mysterio’s theme is definitely the best. I actually listened to the soundtrack before I saw the movie, and it was cool to hear some of the familiar tunes. It would fucking awesome to hear an ensemble perform the Far From home suite live.

- Peter and MJ

Okay, I understand what they were trying to do with their relationship: display a typical, awkward high school relationship. Ngl, they kind of overdid the awkwardness. Not every relationship is both people constantly stuttering and muttering when they’re next to each other. And that fuckin kiss. It made me so uncomfortable. Me and my sister literally looked at each other and said, “That was the most awkward thing I have ever seen in my entire life” after the kiss. I like that the writers were trying to break from the stereotypical high school relationship, but I do think they overdid the awkwardness a bit.

- WHERE THE HELL WAS MORGAN STARK

HOW DARE YOU RIP A FATHER FROM A BOY AND GIRL AND NOT HAVE THEM INTERACT AT ALL. This is probably one of my biggest critiques because this movie makes it look like they introduced Morgan just to take her away. Same with Harley! Imagine how awesome peter and Harley could be together.

- CGI

Okay, I blame my dad for this. He was the one who introduced me to CGI (Computer-generated imagery) and how to spot it. In marvel movies, CGI is not uncommon, especially in the fight scenes. And I honestly did not give endgame enough credit when it came to CGI hulk. He looked absolutely phenomenal, but I have to say that a good amount of the CGI in this movie was rough. I always say, if you can tell it’s CGI, then it’s bad CGI. It’s really hard to explain, but if something looks like it belongs in a video game rather than in a live action movie, then the CGI is pretty rough. It takes experience to learn how to point it out. Mysterio didn’t look bad the entire time, but some shots of him floating (like the rooftop scene) just looked so fake. And the swinging scene at the end was absolutely horrendous. It looked like MJ was swinging with the peter from the ps4 videogame. The background imagery and the elemental monsters looked real for the most part, and they looked great and real. Just some character mods were really wonky.

- Cast

Okay, I’m going to just say it. What the fuck was that cast? To me, everyone looked so much older than the first one. Like I get it that some of them were “blipped” and aged, but holy shit Ned and peter looked so much older than in the first movie. And, holy shit, Peter is ripped in this movie. I know Tom mentioned in an interview that he was more buff in this movie compared to homecoming, but he was so much more, for lack of better phrasing, wide.

I mean, come on

If the next movie is set in high school again, I honestly have no idea what they will do because, right now, Tom is 23 and Zendaya is 22. And yes I get it that it’s not that old, but if the next one is going to wait 2 years at least for the next Spider-Man movie, they’ll be less like high school students and more like adults.

And while I would have been extremely pissed if they changed the cast, I’m just kind of peeved on how mature the cast looked.

- Ending?

The first ending was what everyone wanted. I could have left the theater then and would have been perfectly fine. But I had to watch the end credits scenes. And then my world crumpled. Hearing Mysterio reveal Peter was so surreal. Almost too surreal... but that’s for another post ;). It provides for a great cliffhanger, but it makes me wonder how they’re going to continue the MCU from here. Obviously, they’re going to do the Black Widow Movie and Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 3 (hopefully) but what next? Is there going to be another “avengers” movie? If so, what about Peter? Bc he’s in quite the pickle rn. And the pair credits scene just confused me ngl. So, Fury and Hill were never actually there? It does make sense why fury didn’t catch onto some things, but it does allow for some interesting conversations. This plus BARF equals who knows what for the future because this stuff is practically the reality stone. No one knows what’s real or not. And that’s scary. Also, does the multiverse exist? I know Beck and his crew made some stuff up for the purpose of tricking Fury and Peter, but the avengers still used the quantum realm to time travel, and who knows what types of alternate universes that created.

What does the future hold? No one knows

But it does allow for interesting theories ;)

Side note: I really noticed the resemblance in these in ffh

Hey marvel please introduce Deadpool played by Ryan Reynolds into the MCU thansk ily

[mrpotatobrown]

73. DREAMS come true

3... 2... 1... Blast Off! And the drawing’s Done. I’m most of all happy with how fast I doodled it out using Microsoft’s free ‘Notebook’ drawing/writing software on my Tablet, and that’s truly down to the app’s accessibility. Could I have used more powerful sketching software? Yes. Would it have resulted in a better drawing? Probably. But trying to juggle layers in Sketchbook or fight with the insufferable clunkiness of Photoshop is just something I don’t enjoy facing, and so I’ll stick to my quick simple doodles. And I’m happy with that.

Because making it all result oriented can sometimes destroy the enjoyment of the process, (not that I’m saying a result isn’t important, rather the journey is equally crucial) and I openly admit that I sketch away on Notebook because I enjoy it for many of the same reasons I adore writing: It’s the fastest way to get my ideas down.

Throughout my entire childhood, my imagination was fast and fickle, Ideas rushing in faster than I could output them, which resulted in a short attention span on any projects that took longer than, well, a sit-down. And so when a tool pops up that allows me to get ideas down faster, which potentially cuts out that “Photoshop” middleman, it ALWAYS draws my attention, especially if it yields the same high-end results.

But, as a filmmaker who wants to dabble in music, Game design and anything and everything, these tools seldom pop up. Sure, everything’s most certainly become more user-friendly, especially with such game engines like ‘Unity’ and ‘Unreal 4′ now becoming freely accessible, cutting out a lot of Dev. time/hurdles. But these advancements have never articulated in the form of tools that make animating, game design, music and everything in-between feel as intuitive as the sketch I did above on my Tablet or the essay I’m plonking out on my keyboard as we speak (or read). 

Until recently, most notably announcements of an upcoming Tool made at the last Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3).

But let us jump back a moment for there’s an origin to this great new tool; an earlier iteration that’s celebrating it’s Ten-year anniversary right now, a birthday I’m personally celebrating with the way it changed games/creativity forever. I know that sounds hyperbole, but trust me when I say this comes from the most Sincere place in my heart, a heart that yearned throughout my entire childhood as I stuck together simple stick men levels in Alien Hominid (Ps2, 2004) or laid out cookie cutter racetracks in RC Revenge Pro (Ps2, 2000) for the game I speak of next brought that childlike wonder back into my heart. I’m speaking of the warm, fuzzy, ambitious and very successful:

Released Ten years ago by Media Molecule (also known as Mm), a small team compiled of such visionaries like Alex Evans and Mark Healy which was founded in 2006*, their first outing on Ps3 from a distance looks like a simple fabric styled platformer. But sown (excuse the pun) deep into the fabric (sorry) of its very roots were creative ideas that grew larger than life.

* 2006 also being the year they released ‘Rag Doll Kung Fu’ which was the first third-party game to be distributed on Steam. Their progressive thinking was there from the start.  

The articulation of these ideologies can be best expressed through Mark Healy���s early foray into game development when he programmed titles for the Commodore 64 (Console, 1982, also known as C64). The C64 was the Guinness Record champion for most units sold at 10-17 million units, a record laid to rest with future consoles such as PS2 hitting over 155 Million. Yet, in recent interviews, Mark has spoken of those open source tools that allowed him to create with relative ease, and how as future consoles rolled out into people's homes which ended up selling more and more with each passing generation, that accessibility to create was lost. I mention the word ‘accessibility’ like a broken record because that’s the very word Media Molecule seem to have as their unofficial modus operandi. It’s their very soul!

And it was this very soul that was poured into their 2008 juggernaut, Little Big Planet (Also known as LBP), which was teased far earlier than it’s release (to my impatient frustration); I saw the announcement perhaps a year before, the game post-phoned, but I had a taste of the potential and it was the only thing my heart called out for every day leading up to its release*. Finally, a game that gave me the tools to make my very own games. 

* This part was actually true. Extreme? Sure, but I was stuck on an Farm growing up so it was the light in my tunnel.

The Puzzle Platformer’s official slogan was “Play, Create, Share”, basically boiling down to a Gaming Youtube with the tools ready built in. Here’s a cute 10-year-old trailer that best expressed this warm fun collaborative charm and it’s progressive stance on creativity (as well as one of the funkiest Game soundtracks from recent memory). You could make levels with ease, publish, get “views” (in this case, plays) and “likes” (expressed through Hearts) and then surf Mm’s servers to play other's creations. The first worry expressed by Critic’s was that no one would want to make levels, but Youtube as a creative platform was already the monolith of proof that this was not the case; people wanted creative output, and once the game was released with Metacritic scores averaging around 95% the Game sold well and the coMmunity was born.

The creative tools were easy to grasp but hard to master, the layers of ways to utilise them for more complicated contraptions and professionally polished levels took time to learn; fumbling around to mediocre results might draw you to the conclusion that quality couldn’t be obtained, but Mm cleverly put those anxieties to rest by including a campaign that was built exclusively with those very same tools. You had no excuse apart from “lack of practice”, and this pushed the coMmunity to make all kinds of contraptions from Mm’s physics-based engine, including someone building a fully functioning Calculator (the Creator even allowing you to fly around Jet-pack style to see how complicated the mechanisms were; turns out, very). 

LBP 2 built on that success, implementing a new refined tool called ‘Logic’ (among other improvements) which was an array of different microchips with simple functions that could be wired together to essentially ‘code’ objects to do your bidding. It was deceptively simple and never bogged down the ease that was at the heart of LBP’s Creative tool-set. The step up between games showed up past ‘peak’ coMmunity created inventions (namely the previously mentioned calculator) as bare-bones in what you could achieve with this new instalment.

I poured hours into these games, playing every LBP sequel; the future iterations were handled well by Sumo Digital (LBP 3) and Tarsier Studios, Double Eleven and XDev (LBP Vita). Mm also produced the Bafta-winning Vita/Ps4 Tearaway which I’m part way through now, enjoying endlessly in an attempt to fill the void till their next highly anticipated game.

For once again they’ve teased a pipeline title which the public await with bated breath; their next instalment in their Creative franchise (and the very reason I’m writing this article) doesn’t just build on their previous efforts of community-based tools but fully realises them. They finally made what I and many others have always wanted, a Gaming engine with the ease of drawing; a level creator that’s as simple as me typing on this keyboard; the true Youtube of gaming:

I love the LBP franchise a whole lot (still play it now), but whatever I built always felt a construct of ‘LBP’; the most approachable expressive tools I’ve ever used still restricted by the 2.5D realm of Sackboy’s recognisably cloth based world, and while you could creatively open up the borders to reveal new perspectives and ways to make games there was always the nagging feeling that you weren’t truly making YOUR game, you were making a game for Mm. This wasn’t their fault, and it’s not like you could point at any other accessible tool to exemplify these faults, because Mm was leading the charge, and still are. But this upcoming release of their new title aptly named Dreams (Beta 2018, full release TBA) shows with ease that Mm doesn’t just continue to lead this push forward, but are doing so with such an extent as to potentially shake up the gaming industry; for you truly are now making YOUR game.

Strong words are easily backed up with results I’ll show further down, but the final hurdle on their next instalment’s success isn’t just the quality or function of the final output (which Mm shows with confidence on their near-weekly streams and collaborations with other gaming developers via Twitch/Youtube) but with how the market will react to it, or if they even will react at all considering a relatively quiet reception in the wake of AAA games like Red Dead 2 and other heavyweights.

But before we discuss that further, speaking of a game like this with mere words doesn’t really do Dreams justice. I’ve watched nearly every video they’ve released across this last year so here are, in my opinion, the videos that best exemplify what their upcoming game/tool has to offer:

Trailer (TGA 2017 Trailer), which is the shortest of the bunch, quickly highlighting the general feel and look of Dreams.

Game Informer’s playthrough of campaign levels, which is fantastically demoed by Veteran Mm founder and C64 programmer Mark Healey.

A run through of fun bite-sized levels made by their team, showing off the astounding variety and how each level flows into the next like a Youtube playlist. 

And should you choose to watch only one of these videos, choose this next one; Game Informer’s Rapid-Fire Q sesh (with other Mm Founder Alex Evans), which isn’t just informative but should also be commended as creative and engaging journalism at it’s finest, running at the speed of a scripted TomSka Sketch* (It should be noted that Game Informer has been hitting it out of the park over the last month with their fun and insightful cover of Dreams).

* ’TomSka’: a popular Youtuber, famous for the ASDF Cartoon sketches and his fast and frentic comedic sketches. He’s done much, and with such a consistently recognisable style and tone across all projects it could be argued he’s an auteur, which excites me greatly that Youtube can own such a phrase and that ‘auteur’ could also translate to the users on Dreams (the platform I indulgently want to be referenced coining the term ‘Youtube of Gaming’. I’ll stop saying it when everyone else starts.)

TL;DR to sum up those clips: Dream’s works. Not just in regards to it building on LBP in every conceivable way (especially in being fully 3 dimensional) but also being easier to use, with motion controls utilised to essentially free-mould the level around you, and the jump between creative and playing being even more seamless; I was previously going to link three individual videos, title-ing them ‘PLAY’, ‘CREATE’ and ‘SHARE’ respectively, knowing there are such videos that focus on each aspect out there (shown at this year’s E3), but the Videos linked above demonstrate far clearer how the boundaries between those three different worlds are getting harder and harder to define; less “Play, create, share” and more “placrehare”... which isn’t as catchy but you get the idea.

Above: Picture of the Mm Team taken by Game Informer during their visit.

Everything about this game covers all aspects of game creation, even in terms of building a CV the defines your best skills (Animator, Modeler, Musician etc.) and then allowing you to allocate different roles to different creators (if you so wish). Objects/characters/music/levels etc. can be shared and remixed, creating a library of never-ending stock objects which either help fill in your weaknesses or set up a foundation to build on. Everything is built around a coMmunity which is so heartwarming considering an industry which, much like the film industry, is very clicky and “who you know”.

To prove how Mm appose this, and help highlight their deep-set sincerity, online creators from some of the finest levels on LBP were later hired by Mm to work in their company on future projects based on how well they grasped the tools. Mm recognised them for their talents and allowed these artists to flourish, artists who may have never broken into their dream profession without that much-needed step up.

This harks back to that phrase I’m trying to coin: “A Youtube of Gaming”. Film-making has gotten far more approachable over the last 10 years with equipment becoming progressively more affordable and every PC/MAC coming pre-loaded with editing software. The ability to share with ease online has helped many Video creators land roles in the industry or even create their own*.

* Youtube channels FreddieW (now named Rocketjump) and Corridor Digital (founded by Niko and Sam) springing to mind; their effects driven action/comedic shorts is what made many even consider film-making as an option (they even put out free tutorials/BTS) and their channels frequently collaborate with each other, other channels and even known names (Smosh, Key and Peele, and Jimmy Kimmel to name a few).

And so this is what makes Dreams so special; a chance to lower down the industries’ impenetrable defences and highlight player’s hidden talents with a tool that’s grown beyond ‘making levels for Mm’s games’ and matured (while retaining its essential charm) into a fully fledged game engine*.

* Many of you might think I’m counting eggs before they’ve hatched; understandable, but even if the game came out as a mere shadow of it’s intentions (which at this lately developed stage I doubt considering their showcases), the idea is already there. With VR and motion controls improving across all platforms there will doubtlessly be an imitator who can pick up where they left, improving from their failures. Failures I believe unlikely due to Mm’s track record of achievement and future support (they’re very involved with their CoMmunity, hence why I’ve placed a Mm in every use of the word CoMmunity (not my idea btw, Mm do this themselves)).

But more importantly than this future engine’s apparent depth is it’s accessibility, which cleans the slate of any straight up coding (LBP’s ’Logic’ is still there in spirit), rubs away clunky creation and puts all the tools under one roof with a platform to share and collaborate on. An infinite world of infinite creations that you can join your friends to play, Sofa sharing or online, streaming through playlists or creating, new content or remixed, in infinite combinations with infinite flexibility with an accessibility that has been unheard of until this game/engine.

Above: Front Cover Mm did for Game Informer’s November issue, which was created entirely within Dreams.

Which brings me to why I’m writing this article. I’m not writing extensively of the tools you can use, I’m linking other journalists’ work and mostly speaking of Mm’s past and what their new game could mean; so what’s the function of this? Well, as mentioned earlier, their success on something so CoMmunity led will be based on how the CoMmunity utilise it, which first and foremost means they need a CoMmunity to start with. And as also mentioned earlier, I think the reception for this game is relatively quiet compared to larger AAA games; this feels wrong to me in so many ways, as Dreams with the right support could literally shake up the gaming industry and influx a new wave of creative talent, showcasing an entourage of new ideas; a French New Wave of Games but, well, British (at least in origin). And I want this to be heard. I’m writing this article because I want to support them, in an attempt to build awareness. Because I want them to succeed. For their success will change so much in so many innovative ways.

When I saw all this beautiful creative potential oozing from their E3 trailers earlier this year something inside me changed. It wasn’t a new feeling, not at all, rather a familiar one; one I missed. It was that childlike wonder I had so long ago; that awe and glee when I watched the announcement trailer for LBP; the many days I sat scribbling and doodling on the floor as a child in those long stretched out Summer holidays; those 3 hour long GCSE English Language exams where I would write out whatever story popped into my head (honestly, only exam I ever enjoyed). Those are some of the happiest days of my life: pure unchained creativity with seamless tools.

Finally, those days are returning. Finally, I can be a child once more. And hopefully, so can you <3

[thistlewhistler]

Interviewing the Flock, featuring: The Bloodsucker Proxy

Zach: What would you like me to call you?

Proxy: Anything you like. Most people here call me Proxy, my real name is Kyran if you'd prefer that.

Zach: Okay! Have you played any good game recently? Anything you could suggest?

The Bloodsucker Proxy: afraid not; my xbox has been broken for about a year now and I haven't been able to afford repair/replace it.

Zach: Ooooooh.. Anything you could strongly disparage then?

The Bloodsucker Proxy: regarding video games? yea, fuck EA.

Zach: Their games, their company, their loot box concept, their advertisements, their corporate interests, or their lack of compelling footage at E3?

The Bloodsucker Proxy: Mostly it's the loot box thing,

especially in regards to Star Wars Battlefront 2.

Zach: So coming from a person who didn't play the first one, how did they screw this up?

The Bloodsucker Proxy: I did get the opportunity to play some of Battlefront at my cousin's house a couple months ago, and I was less than impressed with that one too. Too many characters and stages that were only available via DLC.

I feel like entirely too many game studios abuse the concept of DLC and release an incomplete game.

Like how Arkham City sold a separate Catwoman bundle, without which you miss huge chunks of the story, and there really wasn't enough content to justify releasing it separately.

Zach: eugh, that's low.

The Bloodsucker Proxy: compare that to Mortal Kombat X which has non-canon bonus characters as DLC: it's a complete game and the DLC are fun extras.

Zach: That's a perfect example of how DLC works beautifully- as a bonus, rather than a requirement.

The Bloodsucker Proxy: Exactly.

Zach: While I have this here soapbox handy, is there anything you'd like to share with the flock? Something funny from the internet or that you'd like them to know, a lifehack or important lesson?

VamProxy: Hmmm. Well a piece of advice I've really taken to heart is from the Game Grumps: "don't let your default setting be asshole".

Zach: Solid life advice.

VamProxy: Yea they were talking about people being cynical, always assuming the worst.

Zach: Hm. What word would you remove from current use and circulation?

Vote Nosferatu by Proxy: I honestly can't think of any.

Zach: That's alright!

Zach: What are you working on improving?

Great-Fanged one: Well my creative writing, for one. related to that: following through on things

Zach: You've been writing a story, I recall!

Great-Fanged one: Yes.

I'm working on finishing the first chapter, but I've only recently figured out where I want to take the story. I've got quite a few other ideas on the back burner that I'd like to complete.

Zach: So, followup question: what are you proud of?

Kyran: A few things.

I'm proud of the creative work I've done so far,

I'm proud of my education, this year I got an AAS in Graphic Arts,

I've made a lot of other improvements just over the past two years that are very personal to me.

Zach: I'm glad for it.

What... what does AAS stand for, by the way?

Kyran: Associate of Applied Science. Basically the precursor to a Bachelor's Degree.

Zach: That's cool!

Zach: Do you have any scars or tattoos with stories behind them? Would you want to have a scar or tattoo with a story connected that you could tell?

Long-in-the-tooth: I've got a few scars, none of them have particularly interesting stories behind them.

Zach: Alright, so you have to make an omelet.

But you only have $15,000 to do it.

What do you do?

'anything you like': To make an omelet.

Zach: Correct.

'anything you like': Shoot I've got eggs bacon and herbs I could just make the omelet and and pocket the money.

-pay off my student loans

-buy a PS4

Zach: See, there's the most intelligent answer to that question!

Zach: Last question. What's your ideal thing to have on a calendar?

It could be a daily comic, twelve pictures of landscapes across US highways, National Parks, subterranean mole-people's socio-economic formats, cool looking rocks, et cetera...

Proxy: That's a surprisingly tough question.

Zach: It is, isn't it?

Proxy: I'm just gonna go with the mole people example since it sounds the most interesting.

Zach: Facetious extreme examples to stir the mind's imagination for the win!

Proxy: Woo!

[theinvinciblenoob]

2018! We did it! Way to go, Earth! We’re number one! We’re number one!

As we do each year, the TechCrunch Staff — our writers, our illustrators, our editors and more — have gathered together and come up with a mega list of our favorite things of 2018.

“Things” here is intentionally defined rather loosely. “Things” here can be a book, or a game, or a concept, or a thought, or an album, or anything else. It can be something that popped up for the first time in 2018, or it can be something we’ve had for a while but found a new appreciation for this year. We tried to limit it to things you, too, might be able to enjoy (so no people from our respective lives, for example) — but beyond that, if it left a positive mark in our lives in 2018, it can make the list.

Here goes!

Greg Kumparak, Editor

Google’s Night Sight Mode

Google recently added a low-light photography mode to its Pixel phones, and it’s just ridiculously good. It’s one of those “Hahaha there’s no way it really works like thaaaOH MY GOD WAIT HOW DID IT DO THAT” features. Other phone makers will be chasing this feature in 2019.

The magical combo that is the Kindle Oasis with a PopSocket

I liked my Kindle Oasis in 2017. It’s light! It’s waterproof! The battery lasts for-freakin’-ever! But the more I use it, the less certain I am that it was actually designed for human hands. The back is slippery smooth, with a weird ridge that looks like it should be easy to hold onto for extended periods of time but isn’t really.

In 2018 I stuck a PopSocket on the back and it changed everything — I’m reading more often, and for much longer stretches. My Kindle has gone from something that lives on my nightstand to something that is always with me. Between the light weight of the Oasis and the flexibility of the PopSocket, it’s the most comfortable reading experience I’ve ever had.

99% Invisible

I’ve been commuting more this year, with the upside being that I’m finally able to catch up on a thousand podcasts I’ve been wanting to listen to forever.

My favorite right now is 99% Invisible — it’s one that friends have been suggesting to me for years, and now I’m sort of mad I didn’t start listening sooner. Each episode focuses on something that we tend to overlook; the history of the places around us, the clothes we wear, the tools we use, etc. They start most episodes with a bit of narrative, then throw you face-first into a rabbit hole. They present a little dangling thread, then spend the next 20-30 minutes tugging on it until your understanding of that thing unravels and reforms. I’m hooked.

Spider-Man for PS4

This game. Just… damn.

I can’t remember the last single player game I enjoyed quite this much. It’s the first game that convinced me to pre-order all of the DLC long before I was even done with the main campaign. It’s the first game I’ve been drawn back to after completing every storyline, side quest and collectible.

There’s too much right about this game to fit into a little blurb like this, but above it all: that webswinging, though. Insomniac Games built a webswinging system that’s intuitive enough to immediately make sense, but complex enough that you can get more adept and precise every time you sit down to play. What could’ve been deeply frustrating instead feels very natural and, before long, wired in. Sequel please.

Devin Coldewey, Writer

Return of the Obra Dinn

At once an interactive storybook, a maddening logic puzzle and a beautiful game, Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn bucks pretty much every gaming trend and is a resounding success. Tasked with investigating the fates of all hands aboard the derelict Obra Dinn using an artifact that shows you the scenes of their deaths, you work your way backwards and forward through a strange, compelling story told in freeze frame, snippets of audio and your imagination. Not for quitters — this game is hard.

Vita Nostra

I’ve been disappointed by modern sci-fi, fantasy and magical realism for years, and thought I’d try my luck with this newly translated novel touted as “Harry Potter meets metaphysics in backwater Russia.” A girl is approached by a mysterious stranger offering entrance to a mysterious school… but instead of magic the students seem to be having their minds systematically broken. I was very pleasantly surprised by the freshness, weirdness and intelligence of Vita Nostra, which is nothing like anything else I’ve read, and certainly not in the increasingly overcrowded YA genre, which this only barely fits into. I’d recommend this to anyone over 16 who’s okay with having their mind bent a bit.

My trusty iPhone SE

As everyone in the world fusses about the latest, largest phones, which notch is best and how to get the most out of your virtual assistant, I’m content with my years-old, pocket-sized iPhone SE, in my opinion the zenith of Apple’s design philosophy. It’s been discontinued (I suspect because it was still showing up newer models) and that’s a shame. I wish more things in the tech world worked as well and lasted as long as this phone.

Catherine Shu, Writer

Trekz Air

I belong to a group for fans of true crime podcasts who are also parents of young children. We were wondering how to indulge that interest without traumatizing our offspring and someone suggested bone-conduction headphones, which send sound vibrations through the bones of your cheeks and jaw, keeping your ears open so you remain aware of surrounding noises.

I bought a pair of wireless Trekz Air and they have totally changed my life. Fine, that’s hyperbole, but I love being able to listen to things while keeping an ear out for my toddler, deliveries or traffic. Not surprisingly, the sound quality doesn’t match traditional headphones, but it’s more than clear enough for spoken words. Trekz Air are lightweight and a good option for people who find earbuds uncomfortable but don’t want to lug around over-the-ear headphones. The vibrations tickle at first, but you get used to them.

Paprika (the app, not the spice)

Before downloading Paprika, using online recipes meant printing them out or smearing grease, flour and possible traces of salmonella on my iPhone. Paprika makes everything easier by downloading recipes, cutting out the 2,000 word essays and dozens of photos many food sites publish, and sorting ingredients and directions into organized sections. You also can keep an inventory of ingredients you already own and match that against meal or menu plans to automatically create grocery shopping lists. The iOS and Android apps cost a very reasonable $4.99.

NPR’s Believed podcast

Believed is often painful to listen to, but it is one of the most important podcasts released this year. Through interviews with survivors, their parents, advocates and law enforcement officials, Michigan Radio reporters Kate Wells and Lindsey Smith not only examine how Larry Nassar was able to get away with sexually abusing hundreds of girls and women for so many years, but also how his young victims eventually found their voices and succeeded in bringing him to justice. (For people raising kids, the “Gaslighting” and “The Parents” episodes are essential listening.)

BBC Radio 3 Slow Radio’s episode “Forgotten Sounds”

The episode captures many of the noises that once formed the ambient soundtrack of daily life, but are disappearing as technology advances, including typewriters, printing machines and looms. All are combined by composer Iain Chambers into a gentle medley that’s awesome for background noise if you find music too distracting while you work.

Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee

Lee, a designer, breaks down the aesthetic elements that induce feelings of contentment, wonder and glee: lush bouquets and bright colors, balloons bobbing in the air, gardens hidden in the city neighborhoods, the glow of sunlight against pale yellow walls, a silly pair of socks, the perfect harmony of a Rockettes’ kick line. Her book makes a solid argument for the link between good design and social well-being, while serving as a guide for how you can create more moments of transcendence and joy in your life.

Rookie on Love edited by Tavi Gevinson

I’m more than a decade older than their target age bracket, but I loved Rookie, the online magazine for teenagers edited by Tavi Gevinson, because it was the kind of thing I longed for in high school and I was just happy it existed. It also brought exposure to an amazing group of young writers and artists, including Jenny Zhang, Hazel Cills, Petra Collins and Rachel Hodgson (to name just a very truncated list).

Though the site recently announced it will stop publishing new content, this year also marked the release of  Rookie on Love, an anthology of essays, interviews and comics about all kinds of love — romantic, platonic, familial, self — and heartbreak. It is just as remarkable as the Rookie Yearbook series and cements the legacy Gevinson and her colleagues built over the last seven years.

Bougainvillea

Photo by Leonora (Ellie) Enking

Want a plant you can’t kill? Screw succulents. Get a bougainvillea instead. I bought four potted ones and they make me feel like a gardening genius. The bright pink perennial blooms also add a happy note to my balcony on cold and grey days.

Romain Dillet, Writer

VanMoof bike

2018 has been an interesting year for people living in Paris and who love bikes. In 2017, I was using Paris’ bike-sharing system (Vélib) constantly, but couldn’t anymore because the new provider made the whole system unusable.

After a lot of Ofo and Mobike rides, I became frustrated with the unpredictable nature of free-floating services. Will I find a bike? Is the bike broken? And let’s be honest, those bikes tend to suck.

So I switched to a VanMoof Smart X and I love this bike. It’s a solid, connected bike that doesn’t need a ton of attention.

People

This weekend, maybe you can leave your phone in your pocket and talk with people around you. After countless examples of Facebook missteps, multiple digital well-being dashboards and many #quitfacebook hashtags, it’s time to act.

If you were waiting for proof that social networks, ad companies and addictive engagement tricks were hurting your social behavior, now you have it. A tiny little red number shouldn’t stop you from engaging in an interesting conversation with your family, your neighbor, your Uber driver or the person waiting in line in front of you for a concert.

I’m not perfect on this front. The goal isn’t to reach perfection — being mediocre at something is OK. But trying to talk a tiny bit more with people around you is already better than clearing your Instagram feed multiple times a day.

Natasha Lomas, Writer

Open DMs on Twitter

It’s a bit of a love-hate “favorite” because my Twitter account’s noise to signal ratio has inexorably taken a (small) hit after I opened up DMs this year. But, on balance, having to tune out a bit of spam PR/worthless crypto pitches/random “suspicious” photo-messages (which are helpfully autoblocked from being displayed by Twitter anyway) has been worth it to allow some interesting new signals to filter through via direct message.

Email is an alternative channel for this, of course. But the level of inbox noise makes it challenging for this type of “alien signal” to break through. Ditto LinkedIn, which also only offers the messaging feature to paying users or existing contacts. So Twitter — at least for now — offers a decent alternative where interesting strangers can whisper in your ear. There’s no predicting what might happen to the calibre and cadence of these alien signals in the future though. Much like Slack used to claim to aid productivity until it became a self-replicating, attention-sucking virus, comms technologies work until they break from overuse (and/or corporate growth targets…).

Travis Bernard, Audience Development

Sonos’ 5.1 Surround Sound Set

My sound system stopped working this year, so I looked into getting a Sonos system. The price was initially a turn-off, but after using it for the last few months I can honestly say it’s well worth the steep price tag. The sound is stellar, but what’s more impressive was that it only took 30 minutes to set up a 5.1 surround sound system.

Megan Rose Dickey, Writer

OWL Two-way Dash Cam

It’s an always-on camera for my car that gives me peace of mind that no one is smashing my windows or towing my car.

Otter, a transcription service

These transcriptions are the actual best. This tool has become my go-to for transcribing recorded interviews.

Super Mario Party for Nintendo Switch

It’s a fun, pick-up-and-play kind of game that’s great for groups — even if half the group isn’t usually super into games.

Brian Heater, Writer

Hell-On by Neko Case

“God is not a contract or a guy / God is an unspecified tide” is one of the great opening lines, on-par with Patti Smith’s “Gloria” and Nick Cave’s “Into My Arms.”

I don’t know how, but seven records into her solo career, the sometime New Pornographer keeps getting better. Hell-On is an intricately layered and deeply personal expression from an immensely talented singer-songwriter.

Sorry to Bother You

If you haven’t had this spoiled yet, congrats. Turn off all internet notifications and go watch it immediately. Sorry to Bother You is such a beautiful brainfuck in ways the trailer, thankfully, doesn’t begin to approach. True, there’s all of the social commentary one would expect from the directorial debut of Coup frontman Boots Riley, but the movie explores the subjects through shockingly hilarious unexpected avenues.

Muse 2 headset

I’m bad at meditation. Like really, really bad. I may be the only person in the world who actually gets MORE anxious when I sit quietly with my thoughts. I’ve had mixed results with apps (Calm has been my go-to, of late), and while I initially balked at the idea of gamifying the process, I’ve actually found this wearable a useful tool in helping regain my focus, even when not wearing it.

Nancy by Olivia Jaimes

Nancy, Olivia Jaimes’ take on the octogenarian newspaper strip, feels too good for this world. Or at very least, too good for the hate-spewing comments section that follows it around on GoComics.com. You see, newspaper strips are like Ghostbusters or Star Wars. People want a fresh take on something familiar that’s somehow exactly the same as the original. Jaimes has the unenviable task of being the first woman to take on Ernie Bushmiller’s beloved strip, and some of the angrier corners of the internet have not been so kind — causing her to take on a forced anonymity. It’s not for lack of brilliance. Her take on the strip is often hilarious and frequently meta — exactly the sort of stuff we’d hope for Nancy and Sluggo.

Sharp Objects

I travel a lot and do around 75 percent of my movie watching on planes. Turns out you run out of reasonable movie choices pretty fast. Thankfully, I discovered this Showtime series at the beginning of a 16-hour flight back from Hong Kong and proceeded to watch the entire thing, front to back in one leg-cramping binge. It’s the only show that’s held my increasingly short attention span since last year’s Twin Peaks reunion. Sharp Objects leans less on the weird, but has enough left-field twists and turns to make it one of the most engaging series in recent memory.

Sarah Perez, Writer

DoublePane for macOS

I’ve used this for years as a window manager for when I have to drop from 2 screens to 1. I realized how important it was to me this year, when it was one of the first installs on a new Mac.

This $11 clear case for my iPhone XR

I mean, I drop my phone a lot and it’s not cracked yet, but feel free to spend 3x more on Apple’s version.

(also, +1 to what Greg said about PopSockets)

Bryce Durbin, Illustrator

All the Answers by Michael Kupperman

Michael Kupperman is known for hilarious, absurd comics such as Snake ‘n’ Bacon and Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910-2010, but the author opens up about his own family history in this graphic memoir. His father is “quiz kid” Joel Kupperman, who became world-famous in his youth but retreated from the spotlight after adolescence. The memoir is beautifully rendered in stark black and white drawings as Kupperman tells his father’s life story in an effort to understand his own. Buy it here.

Meet My Friends The Friends

Meet My Friends The Friends is ostensibly a recap podcast about Friends, but you don’t have to like or know the ’90s sitcom to enjoy this.

Tom Scharpling (who also hosts The Best Show) tries to run a smooth ship that seems to be coming apart right from its launch due to infighting with his engineer(s). Running jokes about music cues, sound effects bumpers and fake ads for ridiculous companies and products build throughout the series. Unlike the sprawling Best Show, each episode of MMFTF is about 15 minutes.

Jordan Crook, Editor

Nanette by Hannah Gadsby

I’m a huge fan of stand-up comedy, but no special has ever touched my heart the way that Nanette did. Hannah Gadsby reimagines what a stand-up special can be. She feeds information to the audience bite by bite, whether it’s the sad reality of art history legends or her own personal stories, all the while narrating the underlying meaning of the special. Bottom line: Is it funny? Yes. Very. Does it go beyond funny to something more meaningful? Indeed, it does, and with a combination of authenticity and grace that are rarely paired so well.

Red Dead Redemption 2

If the holidays are a time for rest and reflection, heading into the new year means taking on new challenges. Red Dead Redemption 2 is great for both. It’s a laid back beautiful game that at times feels much more like a movie than a game, and yet the sheer volume of the game is most certainly a vast undertaking. It follows the story of a man, Arthur Morgan, but also the story of a time and place.

Brooklinen sheets

Growing up, my parents’ bed was always the best bed in the house. Not only was it a giant California King (which feels like a cruise ship to a six-year-old), but it was beautiful and had the most luxurious, soft sheets. The older I get, the more I feel pushed to make my bed just as luxurious, and Brooklinen has paved the way. The mix-and-match sheet sets are adorable, and they feel amazing. Plus, they’re pretty affordable.

Lucas Matney, Writer

Apple HomePod

I am what most would call a smart speaker power user. Despite living in an apartment with few distinct rooms, I’ve somehow gotten addicted and am situated with a dwelling that has twice as many smart speakers as it does doors.

As such, I was super intrigued by the HomePod when it came out. I was already an Apple Music user because of the enhanced support for other devices, but I’ve really enjoyed the capabilities of the HomePod beyond its nepotistic relationship with Apple Music. The voice command isolation usurps similarly priced speakers, and the speaker is incredibly well-balanced, with solid bass and volume that fits my needs. Siri’s capabilities are getting there and hopefully Apple gets a little bit more aggressive with what bits are Siri-enabled in the next iOS release. Overall, I am still a big fan of Siri’s most custom-built hardware home.

Logitech Harmony Home Hub

Combining home theater gear into a unified smart system is often the most frustrating tech task you can attempt. This year I picked up a Harmony Home Hub for about $50 and made everything a lot easier. The idea of controlling all of your gear with your phone is sometimes better in theory than it is in practice, but by using the IFTTT app you can create custom Google Assistant or Alexa controls for the Harmony Hub so that you can easily switch between audio and video outputs. I still keep my remotes around, but I’m able to do a good chunk of what I want with my voice.

Oculus Go

The perfect flight companion. I have spent a ton of time with VR headsets and, for the most part, it’s been time I wish I could get back. That being said, I’ve really liked traveling with Facebook’s Oculus Go headset on my last couple long-haul flights. A lack of self-awareness is something Santa can’t put under your tree, but spending 7 or 8 hours with a VR headset strapped to your face binging movies on an airplane is borderline magical if you can stomach the fact that you’ll end up being ridiculed in about a dozen tweets by the end of your flight.

Anthony Ha, Writer

The Leftovers

Friends — and regular listeners of our Original Content podcast — know that it takes a lot for me to stick around for more than one season of a TV show, even a show that I’m enjoying. (There’s just so much else to watch!) But this year, I finally caught up on seasons two or three of HBO’s The Leftovers, and I can now confidently state that it’s one of the best shows ever made.

Aside from maybe Twin Peaks, I can’t think of anything else that mixes goofy humor and existential despair, the surreal and the mundane, so effectively. Carrie Coon delivers an all-time great performance as Nora Durst, a woman whose entire family disappeared in the mysterious Sudden Departure, and when Justin Theroux sings “Homeward Bound,” it’s probably the most emotionally devastating karaoke performance you’ll ever see.

Forest

Like everyone whose working life has moved online, my concentration has been shot to hell, which is why I’ll happily try out anything with a halfway-decent chance of making me less distractible and more productive.

The Pomodoro technique (basically: you work without interruption in 25-minute intervals, then take short breaks) turns out to be less-than-ideal for covering breaking news, but it’s great for other, longer-form writing, like fiction. And while there are plenty of Pomodoro timers in the App Store, Forest has become my favorite, thanks to its playful design, and the cheerful scolding you get when you’re tempted to break concentration by checking your phone.

via TechCrunch

[fmservers]

TechCrunch’s Favorite Things of 2018

2018! We did it! Way to go, Earth! We’re number one! We’re number one!

As we do each year, the TechCrunch Staff — our writers, our illustrators, our editors and more — have gathered together and come up with a mega list of our favorite things of 2018.

“Things” here is intentionally defined rather loosely. “Things” here can be a book, or a game, or a concept, or a thought, or an album, or anything else. It can be something that popped up for the first time in 2018, or it can be something we’ve had for a while but found a new appreciation for this year. We tried to limit it to things you, too, might be able to enjoy (so no people from our respective lives, for example) — but beyond that, if it left a positive mark in our lives in 2018, it can make the list.

Here goes!

Greg Kumparak, Editor

Google’s Night Sight Mode

Google recently added a low-light photography mode to its Pixel phones, and it’s just ridiculously good. It’s one of those “Hahaha there’s no way it really works like thaaaOH MY GOD WAIT HOW DID IT DO THAT” features. Other phone makers will be chasing this feature in 2019.

The magical combo that is the Kindle Oasis with a PopSocket

I liked my Kindle Oasis in 2017. It’s light! It’s waterproof! The battery lasts for-freakin’-ever! But the more I use it, the less certain I am that it was actually designed for human hands. The back is slippery smooth, with a weird ridge that looks like it should be easy to hold onto for extended periods of time but isn’t really.

In 2018 I stuck a PopSocket on the back and it changed everything — I’m reading more often, and for much longer stretches. My Kindle has gone from something that lives on my nightstand to something that is always with me. Between the light weight of the Oasis and the flexibility of the PopSocket, it’s the most comfortable reading experience I’ve ever had.

99% Invisible

I’ve been commuting more this year, with the upside being that I’m finally able to catch up on a thousand podcasts I’ve been wanting to listen to forever.

My favorite right now is 99% Invisible — it’s one that friends have been suggesting to me for years, and now I’m sort of mad I didn’t start listening sooner. Each episode focuses on something that we tend to overlook; the history of the places around us, the clothes we wear, the tools we use, etc. They start most episodes with a bit of narrative, then throw you face-first into a rabbit hole. They present a little dangling thread, then spend the next 20-30 minutes tugging on it until your understanding of that thing unravels and reforms. I’m hooked.

Spider-Man for PS4

This game. Just… damn.

I can’t remember the last single player game I enjoyed quite this much. It’s the first game that convinced me to pre-order all of the DLC long before I was even done with the main campaign. It’s the first game I’ve been drawn back to after completing every storyline, side quest and collectible.

There’s too much right about this game to fit into a little blurb like this, but above it all: that webswinging, though. Insomniac Games built a webswinging system that’s intuitive enough to immediately make sense, but complex enough that you can get more adept and precise every time you sit down to play. What could’ve been deeply frustrating instead feels very natural and, before long, wired in. Sequel please.

Devin Coldewey, Writer

Return of the Obra Dinn

At once an interactive storybook, a maddening logic puzzle and a beautiful game, Lucas Pope’s Return of the Obra Dinn bucks pretty much every gaming trend and is a resounding success. Tasked with investigating the fates of all hands aboard the derelict Obra Dinn using an artifact that shows you the scenes of their deaths, you work your way backwards and forward through a strange, compelling story told in freeze frame, snippets of audio and your imagination. Not for quitters — this game is hard.

Vita Nostra

I’ve been disappointed by modern sci-fi, fantasy and magical realism for years, and thought I’d try my luck with this newly translated novel touted as “Harry Potter meets metaphysics in backwater Russia.” A girl is approached by a mysterious stranger offering entrance to a mysterious school… but instead of magic the students seem to be having their minds systematically broken. I was very pleasantly surprised by the freshness, weirdness and intelligence of Vita Nostra, which is nothing like anything else I’ve read, and certainly not in the increasingly overcrowded YA genre, which this only barely fits into. I’d recommend this to anyone over 16 who’s okay with having their mind bent a bit.

My trusty iPhone SE

As everyone in the world fusses about the latest, largest phones, which notch is best and how to get the most out of your virtual assistant, I’m content with my years-old, pocket-sized iPhone SE, in my opinion the zenith of Apple’s design philosophy. It’s been discontinued (I suspect because it was still showing up newer models) and that’s a shame. I wish more things in the tech world worked as well and lasted as long as this phone.

Catherine Shu, Writer

Trekz Air

I belong to a group for fans of true crime podcasts who are also parents of young children. We were wondering how to indulge that interest without traumatizing our offspring and someone suggested bone-conduction headphones, which send sound vibrations through the bones of your cheeks and jaw, keeping your ears open so you remain aware of surrounding noises.

I bought a pair of wireless Trekz Air and they have totally changed my life. Fine, that’s hyperbole, but I love being able to listen to things while keeping an ear out for my toddler, deliveries or traffic. Not surprisingly, the sound quality doesn’t match traditional headphones, but it’s more than clear enough for spoken words. Trekz Air are lightweight and a good option for people who find earbuds uncomfortable but don’t want to lug around over-the-ear headphones. The vibrations tickle at first, but you get used to them.

Paprika (the app, not the spice)

Before downloading Paprika, using online recipes meant printing them out or smearing grease, flour and possible traces of salmonella on my iPhone. Paprika makes everything easier by downloading recipes, cutting out the 2,000 word essays and dozens of photos many food sites publish, and sorting ingredients and directions into organized sections. You also can keep an inventory of ingredients you already own and match that against meal or menu plans to automatically create grocery shopping lists. The iOS and Android apps cost a very reasonable $4.99.

NPR’s Believed podcast

Believed is often painful to listen to, but it is one of the most important podcasts released this year. Through interviews with survivors, their parents, advocates and law enforcement officials, Michigan Radio reporters Kate Wells and Lindsey Smith not only examine how Larry Nassar was able to get away with sexually abusing hundreds of girls and women for so many years, but also how his young victims eventually found their voices and succeeded in bringing him to justice. (For people raising kids, the “Gaslighting” and “The Parents” episodes are essential listening.)

BBC Radio 3 Slow Radio’s episode “Forgotten Sounds”

The episode captures many of the noises that once formed the ambient soundtrack of daily life, but are disappearing as technology advances, including typewriters, printing machines and looms. All are combined by composer Iain Chambers into a gentle medley that’s awesome for background noise if you find music too distracting while you work.

Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee

Lee, a designer, breaks down the aesthetic elements that induce feelings of contentment, wonder and glee: lush bouquets and bright colors, balloons bobbing in the air, gardens hidden in the city neighborhoods, the glow of sunlight against pale yellow walls, a silly pair of socks, the perfect harmony of a Rockettes’ kick line. Her book makes a solid argument for the link between good design and social well-being, while serving as a guide for how you can create more moments of transcendence and joy in your life.

Rookie on Love edited by Tavi Gevinson

I’m more than a decade older than their target age bracket, but I loved Rookie, the online magazine for teenagers edited by Tavi Gevinson, because it was the kind of thing I longed for in high school and I was just happy it existed. It also brought exposure to an amazing group of young writers and artists, including Jenny Zhang, Hazel Cills, Petra Collins and Rachel Hodgson (to name just a very truncated list).

Though the site recently announced it will stop publishing new content, this year also marked the release of  Rookie on Love, an anthology of essays, interviews and comics about all kinds of love — romantic, platonic, familial, self — and heartbreak. It is just as remarkable as the Rookie Yearbook series and cements the legacy Gevinson and her colleagues built over the last seven years.

Bougainvillea

Photo by Leonora (Ellie) Enking

Want a plant you can’t kill? Screw succulents. Get a bougainvillea instead. I bought four potted ones and they make me feel like a gardening genius. The bright pink perennial blooms also add a happy note to my balcony on cold and grey days.

Romain Dillet, Writer

VanMoof bike

2018 has been an interesting year for people living in Paris and who love bikes. In 2017, I was using Paris’ bike-sharing system (Vélib) constantly, but couldn’t anymore because the new provider made the whole system unusable.

After a lot of Ofo and Mobike rides, I became frustrated with the unpredictable nature of free-floating services. Will I find a bike? Is the bike broken? And let’s be honest, those bikes tend to suck.

So I switched to a VanMoof Smart X and I love this bike. It’s a solid, connected bike that doesn’t need a ton of attention.

People

This weekend, maybe you can leave your phone in your pocket and talk with people around you. After countless examples of Facebook missteps, multiple digital well-being dashboards and many #quitfacebook hashtags, it’s time to act.

If you were waiting for proof that social networks, ad companies and addictive engagement tricks were hurting your social behavior, now you have it. A tiny little red number shouldn’t stop you from engaging in an interesting conversation with your family, your neighbor, your Uber driver or the person waiting in line in front of you for a concert.

I’m not perfect on this front. The goal isn’t to reach perfection — being mediocre at something is OK. But trying to talk a tiny bit more with people around you is already better than clearing your Instagram feed multiple times a day.

Natasha Lomas, Writer

Open DMs on Twitter

It’s a bit of a love-hate “favorite” because my Twitter account’s noise to signal ratio has inexorably taken a (small) hit after I opened up DMs this year. But, on balance, having to tune out a bit of spam PR/worthless crypto pitches/random “suspicious” photo-messages (which are helpfully autoblocked from being displayed by Twitter anyway) has been worth it to allow some interesting new signals to filter through via direct message.

Email is an alternative channel for this, of course. But the level of inbox noise makes it challenging for this type of “alien signal” to break through. Ditto LinkedIn, which also only offers the messaging feature to paying users or existing contacts. So Twitter — at least for now — offers a decent alternative where interesting strangers can whisper in your ear. There’s no predicting what might happen to the calibre and cadence of these alien signals in the future though. Much like Slack used to claim to aid productivity until it became a self-replicating, attention-sucking virus, comms technologies work until they break from overuse (and/or corporate growth targets…).

Travis Bernard, Audience Development

Sonos’ 5.1 Surround Sound Set

My sound system stopped working this year, so I looked into getting a Sonos system. The price was initially a turn-off, but after using it for the last few months I can honestly say it’s well worth the steep price tag. The sound is stellar, but what’s more impressive was that it only took 30 minutes to set up a 5.1 surround sound system.

Megan Rose Dickey, Writer

OWL Two-way Dash Cam

It’s an always-on camera for my car that gives me peace of mind that no one is smashing my windows or towing my car.

Otter, a transcription service

These transcriptions are the actual best. This tool has become my go-to for transcribing recorded interviews.

Super Mario Party for Nintendo Switch

It’s a fun, pick-up-and-play kind of game that’s great for groups — even if half the group isn’t usually super into games.

Brian Heater, Writer

Hell-On by Neko Case

“God is not a contract or a guy / God is an unspecified tide” is one of the great opening lines, on-par with Patti Smith’s “Gloria” and Nick Cave’s “Into My Arms.”

I don’t know how, but seven records into her solo career, the sometime New Pornographer keeps getting better. Hell-On is an intricately layered and deeply personal expression from an immensely talented singer-songwriter.

Sorry to Bother You

If you haven’t had this spoiled yet, congrats. Turn off all internet notifications and go watch it immediately. Sorry to Bother You is such a beautiful brainfuck in ways the trailer, thankfully, doesn’t begin to approach. True, there’s all of the social commentary one would expect from the directorial debut of Coup frontman Boots Riley, but the movie explores the subjects through shockingly hilarious unexpected avenues.

Muse 2 headset

I’m bad at meditation. Like really, really bad. I may be the only person in the world who actually gets MORE anxious when I sit quietly with my thoughts. I’ve had mixed results with apps (Calm has been my go-to, of late), and while I initially balked at the idea of gamifying the process, I’ve actually found this wearable a useful tool in helping regain my focus, even when not wearing it.

Nancy by Olivia Jaimes

Nancy, Olivia Jaimes’ take on the octogenarian newspaper strip, feels too good for this world. Or at very least, too good for the hate-spewing comments section that follows it around on GoComics.com. You see, newspaper strips are like Ghostbusters or Star Wars. People want a fresh take on something familiar that’s somehow exactly the same as the original. Jaimes has the unenviable task of being the first woman to take on Ernie Bushmiller’s beloved strip, and some of the angrier corners of the internet have not been so kind — causing her to take on a forced anonymity. It’s not for lack of brilliance. Her take on the strip is often hilarious and frequently meta — exactly the sort of stuff we’d hope for Nancy and Sluggo.

Sharp Objects

I travel a lot and do around 75 percent of my movie watching on planes. Turns out you run out of reasonable movie choices pretty fast. Thankfully, I discovered this Showtime series at the beginning of a 16-hour flight back from Hong Kong and proceeded to watch the entire thing, front to back in one leg-cramping binge. It’s the only show that’s held my increasingly short attention span since last year’s Twin Peaks reunion. Sharp Objects leans less on the weird, but has enough left-field twists and turns to make it one of the most engaging series in recent memory.

Sarah Perez, Writer

DoublePane for macOS

I’ve used this for years as a window manager for when I have to drop from 2 screens to 1. I realized how important it was to me this year, when it was one of the first installs on a new Mac.

This $11 clear case for my iPhone XR

I mean, I drop my phone a lot and it’s not cracked yet, but feel free to spend 3x more on Apple’s version.

(also, +1 to what Greg said about PopSockets)

Bryce Durbin, Illustrator

All the Answers by Michael Kupperman

Michael Kupperman is known for hilarious, absurd comics such as Snake ‘n’ Bacon and Mark Twain’s Autobiography 1910-2010, but the author opens up about his own family history in this graphic memoir. His father is “quiz kid” Joel Kupperman, who became world-famous in his youth but retreated from the spotlight after adolescence. The memoir is beautifully rendered in stark black and white drawings as Kupperman tells his father’s life story in an effort to understand his own. Buy it here.

Meet My Friends The Friends

Meet My Friends The Friends is ostensibly a recap podcast about Friends, but you don’t have to like or know the ’90s sitcom to enjoy this.

Tom Scharpling (who also hosts The Best Show) tries to run a smooth ship that seems to be coming apart right from its launch due to infighting with his engineer(s). Running jokes about music cues, sound effects bumpers and fake ads for ridiculous companies and products build throughout the series. Unlike the sprawling Best Show, each episode of MMFTF is about 15 minutes.

Jordan Crook, Editor

Nanette by Hannah Gadsby

I’m a huge fan of stand-up comedy, but no special has ever touched my heart the way that Nanette did. Hannah Gadsby reimagines what a stand-up special can be. She feeds information to the audience bite by bite, whether it’s the sad reality of art history legends or her own personal stories, all the while narrating the underlying meaning of the special. Bottom line: Is it funny? Yes. Very. Does it go beyond funny to something more meaningful? Indeed, it does, and with a combination of authenticity and grace that are rarely paired so well.

Red Dead Redemption 2

If the holidays are a time for rest and reflection, heading into the new year means taking on new challenges. Red Dead Redemption 2 is great for both. It’s a laid back beautiful game that at times feels much more like a movie than a game, and yet the sheer volume of the game is most certainly a vast undertaking. It follows the story of a man, Arthur Morgan, but also the story of a time and place.

Brooklinen sheets

Growing up, my parents’ bed was always the best bed in the house. Not only was it a giant California King (which feels like a cruise ship to a six-year-old), but it was beautiful and had the most luxurious, soft sheets. The older I get, the more I feel pushed to make my bed just as luxurious, and Brooklinen has paved the way. The mix-and-match sheet sets are adorable, and they feel amazing. Plus, they’re pretty affordable.

Lucas Matney, Writer

Apple HomePod

I am what most would call a smart speaker power user. Despite living in an apartment with few distinct rooms, I’ve somehow gotten addicted and am situated with a dwelling that has twice as many smart speakers as it does doors.

As such, I was super intrigued by the HomePod when it came out. I was already an Apple Music user because of the enhanced support for other devices, but I’ve really enjoyed the capabilities of the HomePod beyond its nepotistic relationship with Apple Music. The voice command isolation usurps similarly priced speakers, and the speaker is incredibly well-balanced, with solid bass and volume that fits my needs. Siri’s capabilities are getting there and hopefully Apple gets a little bit more aggressive with what bits are Siri-enabled in the next iOS release. Overall, I am still a big fan of Siri’s most custom-built hardware home.

Logitech Harmony Home Hub

Combining home theater gear into a unified smart system is often the most frustrating tech task you can attempt. This year I picked up a Harmony Home Hub for about $50 and made everything a lot easier. The idea of controlling all of your gear with your phone is sometimes better in theory than it is in practice, but by using the IFTTT app you can create custom Google Assistant or Alexa controls for the Harmony Hub so that you can easily switch between audio and video outputs. I still keep my remotes around, but I’m able to do a good chunk of what I want with my voice.

Oculus Go

The perfect flight companion. I have spent a ton of time with VR headsets and, for the most part, it’s been time I wish I could get back. That being said, I’ve really liked traveling with Facebook’s Oculus Go headset on my last couple long-haul flights. A lack of self-awareness is something Santa can’t put under your tree, but spending 7 or 8 hours with a VR headset strapped to your face binging movies on an airplane is borderline magical if you can stomach the fact that you’ll end up being ridiculed in about a dozen tweets by the end of your flight.

Anthony Ha, Writer

The Leftovers

Friends — and regular listeners of our Original Content podcast — know that it takes a lot for me to stick around for more than one season of a TV show, even a show that I’m enjoying. (There’s just so much else to watch!) But this year, I finally caught up on seasons two or three of HBO’s The Leftovers, and I can now confidently state that it’s one of the best shows ever made.

Aside from maybe Twin Peaks, I can’t think of anything else that mixes goofy humor and existential despair, the surreal and the mundane, so effectively. Carrie Coon delivers an all-time great performance as Nora Durst, a woman whose entire family disappeared in the mysterious Sudden Departure, and when Justin Theroux sings “Homeward Bound,” it’s probably the most emotionally devastating karaoke performance you’ll ever see.

Forest

Like everyone whose working life has moved online, my concentration has been shot to hell, which is why I’ll happily try out anything with a halfway-decent chance of making me less distractible and more productive.

The Pomodoro technique (basically: you work without interruption in 25-minute intervals, then take short breaks) turns out to be less-than-ideal for covering breaking news, but it’s great for other, longer-form writing, like fiction. And while there are plenty of Pomodoro timers in the App Store, Forest has become my favorite, thanks to its playful design, and the cheerful scolding you get when you’re tempted to break concentration by checking your phone.

Via Greg Kumparak https://techcrunch.com

[nihilcr]

I just want to say a big thank you to the people who messaged me about the passing of Jahseh. Those people will know how much I loved him and know what im going through now. I cant really say much other then Rest in Peace Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy you and your music kept me going through everything and anything and I greatly appreciate it. I made this collage to pay respect for everything you achieved and gave to everyone at such a young age. I love you. I woke up late this morning feeling like there was a dark cloud over me and there definitely is. Thank you to everyone who messaged me today it really means a lot. Ill leave you all with my level 3 English Speech on X and how he inspired me and also my auto biography in which I intertwined his lyrics from the song 'Lets pretend were numb'. There is alot to read. I dont expect you to read it all but if you are feeling the way im feeling it may help. If any of you are ever down about anything and struggling mentally please message me. I will try and help. I love you all. SPEECH: Intro: Why is some of my music depressing? Because when the lights are off, all the moneys gone,and the club scene is no more, I want you to be able to find comfort in me behind closed doors, when it all matters the most. - X Jahseh Dwayne Onfroy or as some of you may know him XXXTENTACION (pronounced X-X-X-tent-asi-ohn) or simply as X, was born on 23 January 1998. X grew up in Pompano Beach Florida but was thrown around the area because of his behaviour issues. At age 6, he plunged a glass shard into a man whom he believed was threatening his mother. He also got expelled in middle school for punting the mouth of a kid who had made fun of his mother. According to his own description, he was living the life of a "young savage" -- correctional houses, grandma's house, robbing houses. He built up a formidable list of offenses including : armed robbery, armed burglary, possession of a firearm, resisting arrest, three charges of grand theft and oxycodone possession. He was thrown in prison on October the 8th 2016 for supposedly beating his girlfriend at the time. During his imprisonment his music career popped off without any new releases or music videos. People started stumbling along his music on Soundcloud and supporting him, he was released from jail on March the 26th 2017. X, over the past couple years as gain some meaningful tattoos scattered across his body including Cleopatra along his chest which is his mother's name. The word “alone” tattooed above his left eyebrow. The word “numb” tattooed under his right eye. “Bad Vibes” tattooed on either eyelid. A broken heart under his left eye. An elephant on the front of his neck/throat area representing the whole idea of “an elephant in the room”, which is a metaphorical idiom for an obvious problem or risk no one wants to discuss. All these tattoos mean something close and personal to not only him but myself, but one sticks out in particular. Under the word numb is a tattoo of three dots in a line. These three dots or ellipsis represent life. X says that each dot stands for 1 - Born 2 - Peak 3 - Death. I tend to relate to this tattoo more and feel as if the other tattoos all come under this belief that you are born, you have a peak in your life and then you die. “When you have that genuine love for someone and they are your source of happiness. They become your drug” Born. X was born caring. Despite his size being 168cm tall and weighing around 60kg X does not shy away from violence. But I believe that his acts of violence are acts of caring. Stabbing his mother's partner because he felt he was abusing her is an act of caring. Kicking another student at school was because of the mentioning of his mother in a negative way. X defends himself and his family until he stops breathing. X cares for himself, his fans and his family not only physically but mentally. While in prison he was interviewed over the phone and was asked “What are you trying to do when you get out?”. He said he wants to invest in a teenage therapy where every teenager that is happy talks to another teenager that is struggling and depressed. This is because he believes it's really hard for most kids to be motivated to talk to a therapist because they can't relate to them as much. He also wants to donate PS4’s and TV’s to foster homes in his area and gather up as much money as he can to give back to the community in which he was raised. He even started filling the fridges of the less fortunate in Florida but sadly stopped the ordeal about a week into it as a group of people robbed him of his items and said he was doing it for attention and that he didn't care for the community. X cares for the kids and feels that's why many of them gravitate to his music. He has talked to certain fans that were depressed and looking for answers. He has also responded to some direct messages from kids on the borderline of suicide and has talked them out of it. X understands how it feels to be mentally alone and quotes “You can be in a room with a million people and still be alone”. He realises that some kids have families that just dont understand theres something going on in their head bigger than everything that's around them, he understand that feeling and how that feeling can drive you to the edge. X quotes “Even if my material is vulgar or i'm seen as a bad person, as long as these kids are happy and i'm giving them something to rage to instead of being depressed, that's all that matters to me”. The impact of X being caring relates to me a lot. When in primary school I knocked a kid out with a stick after he said something about my mother, and we were regarded as friends. As i've got older i've been told by counsellors I have anger issues and my anger does release sometimes but I have controlled it. I care for my family and friends over anything. Not only do I care for friends and family physically but I am told by my peers I am a caring person mentally and verbally. I enjoy making people happy, making people laugh and enjoy helping people out when they are down. I've had a lot of people come running to me for advice the past few years and some people keep coming back for guidance and for a certain comfort that other people can't give them. I am yet to truly discover why. Why do people come to me? I am definitely not the happiest chap in the world and I struggle with mental issues that circle my life on a daily basis. If my friends and family are happy then i'm happy and i've realised their happiness fuels me to keep going. X has made me realise that to be caring is a gift and you should cherish your friends and family. He also has made me realise I do need to take time out for myself and care for myself and my own issues. I feel he has realised this aswell because he is suffering from depression to this day but is still willing to help people through their own issues and not as much his own. “Be a blessing and then disappear, so you don't have to watch it all crumble in front of you” Peak. X being in prison was a peak in his life, it may not be a positive peak but the realisation he got from being imprisoned has made X look at life differently. He was asked “While you've been locked up recently, what have you been thinking about?”. X quoted “I found the answer to life”. He believes life is but a perception. He thinks the way you perceive things is very important, life is but brainpower, life revolves around your brain, life is purely the brain and your thought process. Your conscious and subconscious mind rule the world X has made me learn that nothing else matters. Nothing else matters except what you desire and what your dreams are. X believes the whole purpose of humanity is to create and the problem is that everybody reaches a certain point of enlightenment or succession and it upsets the balance, the balance being the people around that individual. You can have a squad of friends and a certain character can become overly successful introducing jealousy between friends. If you have a friend that treats you differently and more harsh because of your succession and your hard work they aren't your friend, they aren't the people you want to be around, they will do anything to bring you down. I respect my friends decisions and their beliefs even if I don't agree with it, I still support them and help in any way I can. Some of my friends have made stupid decisions and i've cleaned their mess up hoping that they'd do the same for me. X said being in prison has made him want to become a better person and that prison changed his world. X wants to give all of his fans and this generation information they’re not supposed to receive or opinions that some people don't want to hear because they don't agree with it. He quotes “I dont mean to disrespect anybody, but religion is for the small-minded.” I again don't mean to disrespect anybody but I agree with this statement. All religions believe in higher powers. Both X and myself believe if you're going to be a good person, be a good person. If you're going to be a bad person, be a bad person. It doesn't matter. Nobody's opinion should matter. Nothing matters. Anything you put on this plant will stay here. If life is infinite and there's the slightest possibility that you have to come back to this miserable fucking planet, Id stop putting all this horrible fucking shit out here and make sure you live your life happy. X and I believe that happiness is all that matters. If it makes you happy, it's all that matters, and you will struggle and struggle and struggle but happiness will flower in the end. X quotes “I will help everyone find happiness or I will at least help everyone find an answer and a purpose”. X’s beliefs have impacted me greatly, i'm not religious and feel religion is something I could never see myself falling to. I respect peoples beliefs, some of my closest friends are religious but in my opinion I don't feel as if I will ever sought out guidance from someone that isn't proven to be real. I seek guidance through my friends and family, through music, through art, through happiness. I believe whatever makes you a happier person is all you need to worry about and all you need to focus on. Whether it's video games, sport, music, anything. I believe people need to stop judging, stop throwing comments at others because I feel they won't ever recycle. Judgement is just a part of this harsh reality we live in today. But it's up to us to look at life in a way that makes us happy, in a way that no matter how much you get judged for it you can carry on and be proud of yourself. Anything that takes me away from joy and happiness, I hate. Anything or anyone that makes me feel worthless, makes me look endlessly into the mirror at myself and contemplate killing myself, I have no respect or love for. They are to me simply a piece of dirt sitting on my shoulders waiting to be wiped away so I can play on. “When I turned 13, I blew out my candles, my wish was to be dead at the age of 18” Death. Nowadays depression has become a characteristic of many people on this earth. X has been depressed and packed with anger since he was a child but is still plagued with both to this day. X said he was a weird kid and was alone a lot of the time even when he was at home. He was asked “You’ve dealt with a lot of anger and depression in your life. Where do you feel like that stuff comes from?”. X answered “Being alone”. X’s mother went through a lot while raising him. She did everything she could do and as he has grown he has looked back on everything he's said and feels she deserved a lot more credit. X didn't have his dad around, it was just his mother. His father was in prison at the time and I assume he still is, X has nothing to do with his father and doesn't mention him at all. Because of his behaviour issues he was thrown around the Florida area. He lived not only with his mother for a time but stayed at his grandmothers, aunties and even his mother's friends houses. He felt alone. Being placed away from people he had any attachment to is what made him the way he is now. X believes being alone breeds a different kind of madness and a different kind of pain. He believes not receiving a certain amount of love can also break a person, especially a child growing up without love and support. But because of his beliefs he has realised and looked in on depression and used it to his advantage. His lyrics are based off his depression and anger, if any of you have actually listened to a range of his music you can tell a difference between a depressing song and a song based on anger. He puts all his pain, insanity and dark thoughts into his music because he feels its therapeutic. He felt as if sharing his thoughts was bad but good at the same time because it made him feel better and happier. He realised people fed on his music so was motivated to keep making music not only for himself but his fans as he saw it was giving people energy and healing them and he cherished it. His tattoos have a lot to do with his depression, the broken heart and the words “numb” and “alone” all represent emotion and feelings he is stuck with to this day and what he is basing his lyrics off. Making music helps him release his feelings, it makes not only him happier but his fans and this is proven by a post I found on his tumblr. A fan said “This isn't actually a question but I wanted to thank you for your music, it saved my life, thank you.” X replied “and I wanna thank you for listening, you give me a reason to stay alive, if it wasn't for you guys I would've killed myself a long time ago.” His reply hits me quite hard as I can relate to it because there are people in this room right now that don't realise they are the ones that are keeping me going. There are some friends that stand out from others. There are some friends that don't realise how much I actually appreciate their company, their voice, their laugh the list goes on. There are some friends that aren't actually friends. There are some friends that are more than friends they are family. Nowadays i'm learning to identify my true friends and getting rid of the people who linger around me for my possessions. I fill my mind everyday with a quote from Trent Shelton “If all you had to offer was friendship who would you still be able to call your friend?” I started offering people nothing but my company and have quickly realised how many people were using me, those people have turned into a piece of dirt just like the judgemental people have. Alongside his reply helping me discover my true friends, his music has impacted my life quite strongly. His lyrics and beliefs inspire me to write for example my autobiography had his lyrics throughout it. My photography writing and the photos themselves now speak to me because of his lyrics. The mood of my writing is strongly based on his songs and his feelings. His music inspires me to care even more, they inspire me to believe and perceive life differently. His music although it's depressing takes my mind into a deep dark space, it makes me truly think about if I were to kill myself, how would the people around me feel. It makes me realise how I felt when my brother killed himself, it makes me realise how my friends felt when Harman killed himself. It makes me realise how serious suicide and depression is. Conclusion: X has made me realise that what is real will prosper. His music has taken me into pools of darkness on a daily basis and no matter how badly I want to kill myself, his music stops me in my tracks. His perception on life creeps into my mind and I realise killing myself wouldn't be an act of caring, it wouldn't make my friends happy. It would slowly burrow into their hearts and fill their souls with corruption. My friends will end up the way X feels. The way I feel. Numb. Alone. Broken. They'll forever be the elephant in the room. Anima vestra - free your soul- AUTOBIOGRAPHY: Numb I advise you to not hide your feelings. Don’t pretend to be okay when you’re not okay. Don’t pretend to be happy when you’re sad. It’ll only lead to your misery. I dream so much and i just can't seem to find an answer for what i'm living for in general. Everyday I seem to wake up on the wrong side of the bed. Everyday I stumble down the hallway to locate the shower. Everyday I sit - trapped, dazed, lost - in migraine, drowning myself in hot water that hits my pasty skin as if it were acid rain. Everyday I curl up in a glass box and contemplate crying, contradicting what people have told me “It will get better just give it time”. “You’ll be fine, you’ll push through”. “Someone out there loves you for who you are” I can't keep living like this, it's breaking my heart day by day. Everyday I lather myself in clothing representing a place I hate, and i say to myself, “How is this going to get better.” Four years. Four counsellors. Four lives lost. “I don’t want to talk to you, you can’t help me, i'm not algood.” Everyday I think, why am I like this? Why am I so depressed? Why am I so angry? Why am I so negative, so overwhelmed with a cloud that is slowly hovering over my life, slowly killing off positivity as if it were a pest. Why I ask? Well all I can nail it down to is 17213. But is it truly the answer? I mean who's to say you find an answer when there isn’t? 17213 are probably just numbers to you; the 17th of the 2nd 2013 aren't just any numbers to me, they are the numbers symbolising the day my brother decided to end it all. Chase Robson - loving, honourable, committed - was a father, a son, a grandson, a brother, a soul that was forever changing for the best, changing for his son, changing for his family, changing for himself. I was unsuspecting of the literally breaking news that was to be heard. What if you just die? Wondering why I was slouched in a hunk of metal on wheels, dad sat uncomfortably as if something was stuck to the end of his tongue. Regretfully, my father voiced a collection of words. I didn't know they would deprive me of positivity and create a continuous loop of death and darkness. “Chase has committed suicide.” I, awakened by the news, had then truly discovered what suicide was - dark, destructive, unexpecting - what it can be and what it can do. Destroy. What if life as we know it is all a dream? The car's window that day seemed to be the cleanest it had ever been. I was able to pierce right through it, through the calm gathered clouds resting in the sky. I was able to envision hope in the sky, a sense of life after death, something I never believed or contemplated until then. What if we live for no reason? My mind - deserted, abandoned, lost - searched for answers. It searched amongst the sky and its infinite crowd of clouds to discover nothing but the vision of the sky’s hue, that darkened, caved in as the sun hid behind the pimples of our earth. It threw a ribbon of fire that seemed to slash my eyes causing them to close forcing me to see and feel the internal darkness that had been brought upon me. What if we just disappear when we die? I had felt like my life was not special anymore, like it wasn't worth living. I discovered that one type of drug can kill you. One type of firearm. One type of knot. One type of idea can end it all. I was filled with the idea “If he did it, so can I”. Should I cling to life? Or should I just kill myself? I now feel - four years on - lost and numb. I have accepted the harshness of reality and let it take over my life. I have become the kid who doesn't care anymore. The kid who takes the piss out of himself so no one else bothers to. The kid who is positive and social. The kid who has a lot of potential but doesn't realise it. The kid who drinks - nearly every day - to forget, but always remembers. So many contradictions, contemplation. I don't care about myself. I care too much for others, for the people around me. I enjoy helping people. Doing things for people. Buying things for people. The problem is that it fills my mind with the idea that people use me. I shove people aside and hate them for using me and despise them for not giving anything back. I throw them away and realise that they are what I need because seeing them smile is what keeps me going, it makes me feel worthy. And now here I am trying to save the world, when I can't even save myself. It's getting harder and harder to mask my pain. I come to discover that I have lost. Lost hope. Lost positivity. I have lost the race that everyone is competing in. Constant laps of death. Everyday i'm alive adds to my slow unpreventable death. I can't decide whether I want to keep running or just fall. I have enough money to be happy, but having all the money in the world doesn't make you happy. You can't buy true friends, true love or true life. The world will know money can't stop a suicidal weakness. I feel i'll forever be the elephant in the room. I can't tell if I wanna live or if I wanna die. Waking up on the wrong side of the bed isn't the problem. It isn't the reason for the way I am. It is because everyday I seem to wake up. Please save me.

[samualkillough-blog]

Printing A Manual On Kindle.

Mourinhoesque off United, that were actually constantly responsible from the activity, set up at the back, sharp in risky as well as midfield in attack. Along with the previously mentioned much higher resolutions and structures, odds are a new Personal Computer video game already appears much better than its console version today. He skipped the initial 43 games final time handling signs like migraines, nausea or vomiting and also a hurting neck. The bodily manual itself was actually a X-mas present to me coming from a GoodReads good friend, as well as to him I give ordinary many thanks on flexed leg. Just knowing that because these two were 6 and 9 years of ages they were actually adhered and also going to end up in love produced the anticipation for that happening really excellent in my thoughts. If you loved this article and also you would like to receive more info concerning randkapeltron.xyz generously visit our webpage. That will not startle you to find out that getting low as well as selling high deceptions at the center of your economic strategy right here, but there are particular traits you need to bear in mind about just how specifically shares behave in the activity. The video game is actually established by Video game Fan and also released by Nintendo as well as The Pokémon Company. In the long run, the very first procedure taught me effective ways to make peace along with my work, the imagination I put out in to the planet, and also along with whatever the action to guide would certainly be actually. That's a major one. Stencyl now supports native, hardware-accelerated Windows, Mac and Linux activities that offer remarkable performance as well as a better overall encounter. I'm reluctant to do that kind of review here and now due to the fact that the expertise from going through The Evening Circus felt like odoring a magnolia blossom ... perfect, sweet, rich, satisfying a necessity I didn't recognize I possessed until it was actually satisfied ... however to analyze that, to manage it, also carefully, dangers that somehow the wonderful soft beautifully distinctive vessel of chastely sexual pleasure that this publication is actually will allow it start, necessarily as well as certainly, to brownish as well as buckle and die, and end up being ... just a wonderful publication. I will adore the UK FGC to discover its feet on the arena of qualified esports, but I dread that will certainly never ever be attained with such a broken community split around so many video games. Computer game could supply strongly appointed statistics in real-time They collect records every action of the means, which offers situation for a youngster's progression as well as specific discovering routines. One week off today, the book is going to be actually officially released as well as out on the planet. Mobile video games like Farmville and Angry Birds used platforms like Facebook and iPhones, saw millions of folks which had certainly not previously considered on their own gamers, getting rid of opportunity at the workplace, while driving, and also in your home. From any of the encounters our company have actually participated in up until now, Arizona Sun seems like just what Virtual Reality games may inevitably end up being when designers have the amount of time and money to craft full-length online reality encounters. Meanwhile the activity from soccer is actually thought to be the very best from all by me. Its own regulations are 'understandable and also does certainly not get too long a time period to finish like cricket. Shakman, meanwhile, is actually a Video game of Thrones rookie: the director is perhaps well understood for his work with the funny set That is actually Always Sunny in Philly. With The Walking Dead's Period 3 on the horizon to premiere eventually in 2016, that is actually an interesting opportunity for followers from The Walking Dead, and Warning commitment portion even more information in the coming months! March 22nd 2016 Update: The debut from The Walking Dead Video game's Season 3 are going to fall later on in 2016" (Q4 2016) baseding upon Telltale Games CEO Kevin Bruner in a Mashable job interview today. Sony also meticulously revamped the shoulder and trigger buttons on the DualShock 4 for less complicated gain access to and much better comments for activities like racers or even shooters. I have to talk about Johnson for a second due to the fact that although this was not HIS story, he played such a terrific job within this publication. They have 2 children now and have actually carried out article on each nurseries/bedrooms ... they could manage to give some beneficial DO-IT-YOURSELF concepts. Is there an option that the firm will definitely cease Because ps4 is actually today did that to psp after ps profile happened out, making ps3 games merely. This cloud-based streaming service permits you to participate in PS3 games on your PS4 by streaming all of them over the internet, along with repayment tackled a rental or even regular monthly membership manner. Every single time I reread an old fashioned manual that I actually suched as when I was a kid this creates me want to provide the author a buzz and ask what the heck is actually going on. It feels like they are actually attempting to offer you the moment in the back of a taxi when you do not think that receiving the moment at all. Perhaps make an effort purchasing coming from their website: 10% off a half-case (3 jars) as well as an additional 10% off a full instance (6 bottles). These games enable players to face sensitive concerns in an environment without public opinion or worry from repercussions. Stephen Sauce, who racked up 34 points in the Video game 3 win, passed the video game ball to Golden State GM Bob Myers to give to Kerr on Saturday night. When there could be actually hours between campaign objectives, Guerilla Games has established up some superb motifs that kept me invested even. That's certainly not to mention I don't like a challenging board game, obviously, specifically when it concerns collective activities that place everyone in the very same boat, however unbeatable boardgames have a tendency to end up being unplayed parlor game.

[atomicmooanamootion]

You can’t have a story without characters.

This was the idea that stories can’t exist without a character, wether that’s a physical person, an object such as a lamp or giving characteristics to an environment by describing it. 

On top of learning about that theory today we also discussed ways to improve our research and how to not write biasedly by thinking up questions that we might be tempted to guess rather than research.

                            Kubo.

1. How were the clothes manipulated for animating?

“Each puppet requires a complicated custom body, handmade clothing, and a rig that can hold the tens of thousands of 3D printed faces the animators swap in and out. (A quick sequence at the end of Laika's ParaNorman shows a sped-up version of the complete puppet-fabrication process.)”

2. What are the clothes made up of?

“With the costume department providing the VFX team with fabric swatches to scan, and the fabrication department building physical character models for the effects team to manipulate, then copy into a digital environment.” Some of the main characters like Kubo and his mother have actual fabric that’s sometimes stabilized with piano wire for support.   

(www.theverge.com/2016/8/18/12500814/laika-studios-behind-the-scenes-kubo-and-the-two-strings-video)

3. What era was Kubo set in?

I couldn’t find the era from any Laika interviews but I searched the Edo period in Japan and found very similar descriptions of hairstyles to those that Kubo and his mother wear, with this I can theorise that the film was set between 17th and 19th century, also known as the Edo Period.

^^^ Accurate for Kubos’ mother. As a princess of the moon she would be considered a moon maiden, very beautiful and kind and so her very long hair represents Japanese social class structures.

(https://www.opendemocracy.net/arts-hair/article_766.jsp)

(https://edoflourishing.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/hairstyle.html)

I feel like the traditional Edo hair style has been mixed with western hairstyles and a want to somewhat cover Kubos eye has led to his final design. 

4. How did Lakia achieve such fluidity in the faces of the characters?

“When there are 66,000 faces made for a movie, sometimes with 24 different faces used once for one second of a scene, that’s a lot of physical stuff that needs to be created on site. They’ve evolved that printing process from film to film going from plastic 3D printing to powder printing to, on Kubo, being the first people ever to use a color plaster 3D printer. Kubo also has the first ever fully 3D printed stop motion character ever. The flying snake meets electric eel-looking character named Moon Beast was given a unique look not just by its printing but shooting it under different lights to create colors the three color printer was unable to achieve.”  

 “All of those characters are then fitted with those numerous faces, each of broken down into different eyebrow and mouth sections. All combinations considered, there are roughly 48 million possible expressions on a character like Kubo alone. 

(https://io9.gizmodo.com/kubo-and-the-two-strings-mixes-stop-motion-and-technolo-1782837158) 

                            Six 

1. Where did Six come from? 

It’s uncertain to say with confidence where Six actual comes from. The whole game is very vague about everything including its themes of surrealism and nightmares so it’s applicable to a wider audience. This makes it harder to figure out where she’s from. As far as knowing about her culture and where she came from I can only assume from the Eastern Asian designs over the games environments.    

“One thing that we wanted to do, is to not be too specific,” says narrative designer Dave Mervik. “My nightmares will be different from yours. What we’ve done is try to go as far back as you can, and find the root of this stuff. A fear of being alone, or not trusting that things are as they seem. They’re the things that more specific fears or phobias spring from.””

(https://www.theverge.com/2017/4/28/15468396/little-nightmares-horror-game-ps4-xbox-one-pc) 

We’re also informed that Six belongs everywhere...It’s possible to think that rather than her environment and other characters being the nightmare it might in fact be Six herself that is the nightmare...it’s the theories and speculation like this that litter the internet and make reliable sources difficult. 

(www.little-nightmares.com/)  

2. What is Six’s motive? 

Despite completing the game myself and watching many other people play through it her motives are still unclear. With the lack of dialog and a linear gameplay it makes it difficult to realise what’s actually going on. You can only assume her want is to escape but at the end you realise she can’t because she’s trapped on the Maw (which is a massive submerged boat) so we’re left wondering if her motive is to kill The Lady, (the creature that runs and powers the Maw), to take The Ladies place or to escape...these possible motives also change her archetypes, sometimes from Hero to shapeshifter to shadow. 

(www.little-nightmares.com/)  

I think from this point on I’m going to choose Kubo as my character, unlike Six there's easily accessible information that’s not full of theories and unanswered questions, evident by the difference of answers below.