#i have such a backlog and some of these less fancy ones are still fun

[animatedjen]

Life on Koboh | Jedi Survivor

[miku-earth]

miku.earth update: September 15

Hi all! This is a lil progress update for those interested. In a rush? Here's the cliff notes!

The map site at miku.earth is back: sorry for the delay in fixing it! Check it out: it has six hundred Mikus!

Including the hyuge ol' queue, we've collected over 3,100 mikus!

Representation is important! I've been using some fancy stats to avoid bias. To that end, please help make sure we have a Miku in every African country!

oh hey! you clicked 'keep reading!' well hi! here is your Miku Direct. . The map site, miku.earth, is back!

I ran into a kinda complex issue and it was a whole Thing. I was working on the site the whole time though! Sorry for the delay, and I hope you enjoy now it's back up and running.

This site has six hundred Mikus on the map, and more are added each week. It was recently rebuilt from scratch (fun fact! I am not a web developer) so I hope it is far zippier and less glitchy as before. A mobile-friendly version is coming soon too!

Also: check out the new search feature! In addition to the title, artist name and region(s), it can also search for the categories indigenous and historic!

cw: this video involves moving around a 2D map with some speed. on the site itself site, this only happens when you hit the Enter key.

We've reached more than 3,100 mikus!

Even at its Miku-per-hour speed, the queue will continue until 2025 at least! This is with thanks to an incredible number of contributions, including donations of literal thousands of links.

Thank you so much to @awnowimsad, @worldmikuposter @the-hatsune-miku-trend, @communist-hatsunemiku, @council-of-beetroot, L-A and a whole host of DMers and emailers for helping get this far.

Oh and by the way: over two thirds of the collection are tumblr posts! Given that this was originally a twitter trend… if you know any Twitter users who are into this trend, please reach out. Some napkin math tells me there are at least 10,000 works of art total out there, which is, by the way, surreal. Let's make sure not a single one is lost.

If you're super curious, the collection is public! I have some tools to auto-annotate (I do not want RSI), but be aware the backlog isn't vetted.

Representation is important!

Fun as this trend is, this project was always intended as a serious study into how people represent their own culture through artwork. I'm no anthropologist, but I feel it is important to make sure this collection is respectful and bias-free. If we're to represent the world, we have to avoid underrepresentation!

To that end I've used some fancy statistics to calculate a "representation value" for each country. Here's a table if you're into the stats of it! This info is handy to help me with the queue – especially with tweets as they're a lil more effort than a carefully-tagged reblog. Of course, Indigenous, hyperspecific and low-note Mikus get priority.

And, well, of course you can see on the site there are purple regions for countries still missing a Miku. In particular, please help me make sure every country in Africa is represented.

Thank you for reading!

Phew! That was a lot. If you're still curious, please check the behind-the-scenes and source code. I work in the open! Even if my code is probably messy.

And if you're a programmer, issues and pull requests are welcome! This is actually a static site, so it's purdy easy to develop.

[ofstarsandskies]

14 and 15!

send a number for me to talk about one of the following topics! || @talesofourworlds (hope it's fine I tagged the sideblog)

14 -- Icons || 15 -- Animated Icons

OutOfCanonShips;;

More enables, ayyyy. And 'tis a subject I got fun things to say I believe! And it let me go off on my own pain that some of y'all can relate.

14 -- Icons

To those who have icon formats, I must say: you have way more patience that I ever will. I have flash drives with backlogs of... at least 100+ in-game screenshots I still need to do. And even getting those took replaying the game's cutscenes sometime as many as 10 times because the camera cut is so quick. But y'know I signed up for this the moment I decided, "Star would totally try to invoke how his brother looks".

Anyway, for icon preferences, my standard is, "As long as my bat eyes can make out the expression, go off king/queen". Whether you like the fancy or the simple, all is welcome in this Kresnik Church. And for those with muses who have 30m screentime tops? I know your pain and I'm totally okay if you go icon-less!

Cause believe me I felt you when there was no proper Let's Play of Last Ranker (which is a PSP JP Exclusive) for years, so getting in-game icons for Zig was... pretty much impossible. And the official manga's uploads never finished either. We suffer here.

15 -- Animated Icons

Same as the above, if you can make animated icons, teach me your patience, master. I could probably do that now thanks to running X2 on a PS3 emulator, but I can only but imagine how much effort goes into framing those. I think my chimp brain would fold after the first few.

Do I jive with them myself? Sure, I think they can be neat! Especially in action games like the Tales Series where artes are best seen in motion. But do I see myself adopting them personally? Prooobably not outside using Ray's animated emojis. Mostly cause the work was done for me.

[superfamiblog]

How I Make My Gifs: A 2,000 Follower Special

Earlier today, I finally hit 2,000 followers on this tumblr. Hooray! I’m glad there are that many of you who are interested in my blog.

To commemorate reaching the big 2K follower milestone, I thought I’d celebrate by letting you guys get a peek behind the scenes of this blog. Specifically, how I make those fancy animated gifs I post every so often. Let’s get started, shall we?

1) First things first: whenever I play through an SNES game, I always keep an eye out for moments/setpieces/animations that I think look interesting, be they particularly atmospheric, or impressive, or beautiful, or funny, or what have you. I don’t have access to a photo editor that can convert movies to gifs directly (more on that later), so I used to just focus on short, simple loops: flickering torches, brief idle animations, stuff like that. But as I kept making these gifs I picked up some tricks that made it easier to capture more complicated animations (like, say, this one). Again, more on that later.

2) I capture the screenshots that make up the gif on SNES9x, my emulator of choice. Sometimes, if it’s simple 4 frame loop, I only take about as many screenshots as the loop lasts for. Other times, if I’m capturing something more complicated (such as, say, something moving on the screen), I can take upwards of one hundred screenshots or more. Again, it depends on the situation. For example, here’s a look at the screenshots that make up a gif I posted a while ago:

Now, for fairly complicated gifs like that one, I used to just crank down my emulator speed way low and wing it, rhythmically timing the F12 presses to hopefully get something useable, and to an extent I still do that, but for more action-based games like Zelda or platformers, I make an SNES movie (basically a replay file), record myself playing for a bit, then replay that on the emulator and take screenshots then. It’s still rather fiddly, but it makes capturing complicated scenes where everything, including the player, is moving around on the screen (like this gif) possible.

3) Once all the screenshots have been captured, I open up my photo editor of choice for animated gifs, a browser-based Photoshop clone named photopea (note: website contains ads), and plop the screenshots down in sequential order, on separate layers. Then, once all the screenshots have been placed into layers, I start converting them into animation layers, which is what photopea uses to make animated frames. This can get pretty repetitive, especially once there gets to be more than about 30 or so layers/frames to work with, so I usually do these gifs in batches and listen to something in the background.

(Above: an animated gif in the making.)

4) Oh boy, now for the fun part: Timing! Since making these gifs screencap-by-screencap can get pretty fiddly (to put it mildly), timing issues are almost always going to crop up. It’s not helped by photopea’s gif timing thingy being pretty much a slider. I usually try to compare with actual gameplay to make sure everything’s moving at the right speed, but eyeballing the timing is hardly foolproof. Sometimes I just say “screw it” and wing it, as well. If you’ve ever noticed some of the gifs looking fast or slow or just wonky in general, this is most of the reason why.

4.5) After finishing and downloading the gif, I let it fallow for a while in a folder I keep specifically for this blog. Sometimes I save a post (or series of posts) for a particular holiday or special event, but mostly I just try to build up a backlog. Here’s a look at it from a while back:

I upload these posts in batches, usually about a week or so worth’s at a time, and chuck the pics in a special folder once I’ve used them. There’s more to it than that, sometimes, but that’s more or less the process I use.

[ladyloveandjustice]

Spring 2022 Anime Overview: Some More Good Food

I’ve talked about three interesting anime about awesome girls from the Spring 2022 season, but what about the rest of my watch list? Well, Spring was smorgasboard of scrumptious shows and here are my thoughts on the rest of what I saw!

(Note I left some in the backlog because there was SO much good-sounding anime this season and I had a feeling summer season would be pretty barren in comparison...and it is. So I’ve recently started Ya Boy Kongming and will probably watch Aharen-San too, but they won’t be getting reviews)

Spy x Family

This one was such a smash hit I don’t feel like I need to say much about it. The golden premise is that we’ve got a highly fictionalized, extremely loosely cold war inspired setting in which a spy needs a fake family to infiltrate a fancy school and stop a war. For this purpose, he just so happens to adopt a daughter, Anya, who’s a telepath (he does not realize this), and then (in part thanks to Anya thinking it would be cool and setting it up) he ends up fake marrying an assassin (without either of them realizing it). The entire family is keeping secrets to each other and desperately trying to pretend to be normal, but despite all the subterfuge, they develop a love for each other that’s clearly real, and find people who can accept them for their weird quirks.

Spy x Family is just a good time, a great mix of action and comedy with loveable characters. It has an extremely broad appeal and the animators clearly knew they had a hit on their hands, because they bought their A-game when it comes to beefing up both the action scenes and the comical expressions and jokes. It’s a top quality treat to watch all the way though.

Pretty much the only thing to watch out for in this anime is the sadly all-too-common character who’s way too obsessed with his sister (and he’s a member of the secret police, so all around garbage person), though since the sister in question is married, much stronger than him, and they’re both adults, it’s far less…horrific than anime can usually get about it. (I will say his dub actor makes him unhinged enough I found myself laughing at some of his lines, and he did fulfill his role as a catalyst for shenanigans).  Having read ahead in the manga, he also doesn’t show up too much.

Overall, SXF is an easy rec. Whether you’re here for ass-kicking, cuteness, or to laugh a bit, it’ll scratch that itch.

Kaguya-sama: Love Is War Season 3

Speaking of animators who always bring their A-game, Kaguya-sama is back and as always it’s a spectacle. Especially the rap episode, which was bonkers and has to be seen to believed. Glad it’s canon Chika said motherfucker...twice. It’s still very funny, but doesn’t quite reach the hilarious heights of the second season and there were a couple more uncomfortable jokes- namely the series’ first ever mention of queerness is Chika mistaking Shirogane and Hayasaka-in-disguise-as-a-boy as being in a relationship and getting excited nosebleeds over it while also mentioning once that she’s “not sure if I should stop them or cheer them on”, so, not great.

However, on the character development front, this season was really great for almost everyone (except Chika, weirdly, because as the other characters have gotten nicer and gained depth, she stays the same and thus comes off meaner. Still pretty funny though!) We got to see Hayasaka assert her needs more with Kaguya, both Kaguya and Shirogane reevaluate their priorities, Ishigami continues the develop in a positive direction and…we make REAL PROGRESS on the central relationship. That’s right, actual solid progress on a will-they-won’t they rom com and the central premise of the series itself is challenged in a satisfying (and fun) way.

One thing that always bugged me a bit was that while we see a lot about what Kaguya sees in Shirogane and how she’s changed because of him, we don’t see her from his point of view and why he likes her as much, and this season actually fixes that by showing how he fell in love with her and how she inspired him and shaped a lot of his time in the school. There was solid growth for the characters and it will be interesting where they go next!

Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie

Sometimes you just want to watch a show about good kids being sweet and adorable, and that’s exactly what this series is. Anyone who comes in expecting a strong comedy will be disappointed, but if you’re down for a soothing, slower paced romantic slice of life, you might end up liking it.

The central idea of the series is Izumi is a very terminally unlucky, danger prone soft boi who has a cool, princely girlfriend who protects him, and a I’ve seen a lot of people react like “ugh, are gender roles so restrictive that even having a girl who’s cool AND cute is considered subversive enough center a comedy around” but that like…clearly misses the point of the series, which is allow you to imagine being in the the position where you can watch your girlfriend be cool and dashing and sweep you up in her strong arms, which as a lesbian, I 100% am here for.

‘Cool Girlfriend’ fantasies are nothing new, but what sets Shikimori apart as enjoyable is it doesn’t go into the aspects of that  fantasy that usually lose me- like the part where the average joe boy stumbles into being better than the cool girl at everything, because he can only be worthy if he outdoes her, or the part where the boy doesn’t have to put in any effort while the girl centers her life around him, or the part where she gets her clothes shredded…you get what I’m saying.

Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie works because Izumi works just as hard to make Shikimori happy as Shikimori works for him. It’s clear WHY she likes him- he’s genuinely very kind and, despite being cursed by the universe with bad luck, he spends most of his time thinking about the people around him and doing his best with what he has rather than being resentful. He also appreciates Shikimori for who she is and loves her dashing nature. Shikimori and the supporting cast also have enough interiority we’re actually able to spend an entire episode without Izumi in it at all.

Granted, Shikimori’s backstory- “I was just following along imitating other people in my family, which very coincidentally meant I was being more traditionally masculine and doing more masculine activities, until I discovered my TRUE dream (after reading a single chapter of shoujo manga), which just very coincidentally involved being more feminine”- is such a eyerollingly common cliché in anime that Gekkan Shoujo Nozaki-kun parodied it, but the end result is Shikimori discovered she didn’t have to hide the protective, rambunctious “cool” parts of herself even if she wants to be cute too, which while a common ending to this cliche backstory, isn’t a bad message.

It also did that thing I really love in anime like Kimi ni Todoke where two girls are set up to be romantic rivals, but instead a girl is like “well, liking this guy is something we have in common, actually, how could I hate you for having the same feelings I do?” and it becomes a point of bonding and reason for them to be friends. Look, is a little idealistic to hope for that for messy teenagers? Yes. Does it make want to cry and do I still absolutely love seeing a story where, where the cliche of women fighting over a man instead becomes a point of solidarity between girls? Also yes. Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie is a world where good, sweet kids support each other no matter what, and it’s heartwarming to spend time with them. 

In this cute friend group, Shikimori isn’t shamed for being traditionally masculine in some ways and nobody ever gets on Izumi for being in a more traditionally feminine role either. It’s not anything earthshattering or amazing, but it’s a sweet anime and sometimes it’s nice to escape to a world like this and enjoy the chill vibes.

Ascendance of a Bookworm Season 3

Unfortunately, I found this entry of Bookworm to be a lot weaker than its previous seasons, perhaps because of it’s truncated 10 episode runtime. It’s still a good show with interesting world-building and there’s a lot of big status quo shakeups for Myne…but it all feels pretty rushed, especially considered how huge and sad a lot of things that happen at the end are. Light novel fans have mentioned it does dash through the plot comparison to the source material, and that makes me curious to check them out. Basically, still good, had some shakeups, but I was left just a little wanting- that’s really all I have to say about it.

[pippenpaddlopsicopolisthethird]

Promare Fic Recs

A few people I know have been asking me for recommendations for some of my favorite Promare fics, so instead of just linking my AO3 bookmarks, I thought I’d start collecting some of my links here, with a bit of a sales pitch for each! I’m not trying to be comprehensive, these are just the ones I’ve personally enjoyed the most recently. Tried to roughly organize them by genre. 

Where There’s Smoke - T - Dramatic, hurt/comfort; 42k, 4/10 chapters released. While the Promare did heal the Burnish, Lio took on a backlog of injuries that hadn’t finished healing by the time he lost the Promare. (This is the fic I’ve been beta-ing since Chapter 3 and this author is absolutely incredible. There are two more 60k-ish fics already planned and plotted out in this series, which shows how far ahead the author is thinking. I always think I’m prepared for how good the chapter’s going to be, and then I get the next one in my inbox, and I’m stunned all over again.)

Light Up The Sky - T - Action/Adventure; 14k, 4/? chapters released. Galo and Lio don’t immediately fit together after the Parnassus incident, but new adventures and issues outside of the city limits of Promepolis might give them time to get used to each other. (The characterization and dialogue in this one... downright professionally impressive, even past how engaging the plot is. It’s still early in its story and doesn’t turn up on the top of any searches, so subscribe and keep your eye on this one, you won’t regret it.)

Carry Me Home - T - Dramatic, Action, AU; 70k, 12/26 chapters released. Canon-Divergence AU where Galo and Lio run across each other prior to the events of the movie, and how that changes the way things play out. (I’m not totally caught up with this one, but Oh Boy is it already so good. I can’t describe much because it’s exactly what it says on the tin, but like, one of those tins of really fancy cookies you have to order from catalogs.)

Safekeeper - T - Dramatic, Hurt/Comfort; 11k, 4/? chapters released. After the events of the movie, Lio takes on too much in order to prove that the Burnish can be helpful to Promepolis. (This author writes imagery like nothing else, which makes the action scenes just drill right into your heart.)

Galo Thymos’s Spectacular 24/7 Rescue and Repair Squad of Dreams and Prosperity - T - Action, Character Development, Politics; 13k, 4/? chapters released. Lio very vocally Does Not Want to work with Burning Rescue after the Parnassus, especially because of how idiotic Galo’s “leadership” style is. He doesn’t have too much time to grumble, because events far outside of their control keep spinning along. (This one’s taken such an interesting turn in the most recent chapter, I can’t even begin to predict what’s going to happen.)

everybody talks - T - Romance, Fluff, Drama; 42k, 7/7 chapters released. Fake-Dating AU where the new governor notices that relations between the Ex-Burnish and Non-Burnish improve when they think that the Mad Burnish leader is dating the Hero of Promepolis. (This one’s finally finished and OH BOY does it go places! Fantastic characterization, dialogue, and teases of original content keep the energy up right through to the grand finale.)

Somebody to Love - T - Comedy, Romance, Hijinks; 10k, single chapter. Aina mobilizes the rest of Burning Rescue in the service of helping long-pining Galo finally work up the nerve to confess to Lio. The only issue with that is they’ve already been dating for months and nobody’s noticed. (This is basically the opposite of a fake-dating plot and twice as funny. It’s the fourth part of a series where the first 3 parts were smut, but it’s easy to jump right in to this one. I died laughing so many times in this one; the comedic misunderstandings are played SO well.)

Maybe He Just Likes the Food? - T - Comedy, Romance; 8k, single chapter. Meis and Gueira decide to meddle to figure out why Lio hasn’t made a move with Galo yet, and have to puzzle out Galo’s eccentric home decor. (I laughed so hard at this one it freaked out my cat and she bit my arm, but I just couldn’t stop laughing. You see the ending coming from a mile away, and it doesn’t make it any less hilarious. This was the first one I read and is still one of my favorites.)

Throw Your Hearts into the Fire - T - Romance, Drama; 12k, 4/? chapters released. Galo accidentally proposes to Lio with a burnish custom and doesn’t realize. (This one’s very fluffy, and very melodramatic, and they don’t leave you waiting for the big dramatic reveals. It’s the rom-com fun kind of melodramatic where I just couldn’t stop gasping and cackling for chapters on end.)

Yeah, I’m aware that most of them are what you get in the first couple of pages when you sort by kudos on AO3. I tried to focus on the fics that really break the mold of some of the more common tropes you’ll find in Promare fics. Not that the common tropes aren’t great, but if you want short fluffy dumbass-mutual-pining get-together fics then you don’t need me to help you find em!

Well, maybe you do. Here’s a few of my single-chapter favorites that do all of the above, so I won’t waste as much time on explanations:

an answer (though you didn't hear the question) - T - 4.7k. Someone’s getting married, and they put Galo and Lio’s names on the same invitation.

waitin' for me 'round the corner - G - 7.2k. Gifts as a love language.

whenever you need me - G - 3k. Lio gets sick but still tries to go in to work.

cause in your warmth (I forget how cold it can be) - T - 7k. Lio runs cold, and Galo runs hot. 

[connorssock]

Breadstick here with a prompt! I've been really into an AU I've been seeing around where Gavin AND Nines are both androids, so maybe something about how those two get together for the first time? I just love the idea of busted faulty GV200 and top-of-the-line RK900 falling in love even though they're both disasters at having feelings

Ah! Breadsticks, dude! This is such a fun prompt, thank you.

Cats and Dogs

The unspoken wisdom around the precinct was, that if you were going to bring a new android into work, you’d better make the introductions to the resident androids (or rather, one specific cranky android) very delicately. If only CyberLife had gotten that memo when they blindly sent the RK900 model in, specifically to replace any derelict, outdated models the DPD wanted to decommission.

“Well, well well,” Gavin grinned without an ounce of kindness. “Fresh off the production line?”

He eyed the RK900 up and down with disdain as he sipped at his mug. Androids didn’t really need to drink, in fact it could be downright harmful to their internal workings, but Gavin had developed a taste to coffee and refused to give it up even when the technicians implored he stop the needless habit. He thought it made him seem more human -  self destructive habit like Anderson’s drinking and Chen’s smoking.

“I am the latest model built for efficiency in aiding police and crime investigation works. And you are?”

There was a hint of snobbish pity in RK900′s voice that had Gavin bristling. Before he could reply, RK900 scanned him and answered his own question.

“GV200, designation Gavin. CyberLife no longer makes parts compatible for your model so you’re a patchwork of make-do fixes that work because of wishful thinking rather than competent technology. I’m surprised the DPD were desperate enough to keep you on. No doubt I’ll be replacing you.”

Rage flooded through Gavin and he almost upended his cup over the front of RK900′s pristine white jacket.

“You’ll replace me when you figure out how to incorporate social protocols into your matrix. Though I doubt you could do break it into your programming even if you manually input the code line by line you stuck up prick,” he seethed.

“And I suppose you’re such an expert on social integration. I’ve accessed your personnel file. A string of partners, none of which could tolerate you longer than two weeks at most. A single human companion in the form of an Officer to keep you company most times and pull you out of trouble. Next you’ll be telling me you’re one of the original deviants.”

Neither of the missed the way Gavin’s LED flashed red. It wasn’t a term Gavin used often, in fact he avoided it as much as possible. In all of his existence he’d always known he was faulty, had a glitch that made him volatile unlike all other androids. The DPD kept him on despite it, putting it down to a temperamental, experimental code.

“A prototype that was never continued into a marketable model. Faulty right from the start.” RK900 stared Gavin down as he stood ramrod straight, military perfect posture and all.

“Like you’re going to be any better,” Gavin snipped but the fight had gone from him. RK900 had hit a nerve.

“I am the improvement. The RK800 line was the prototype and I am the finished product. Superior in every way.While you effectively ended the GV line before it even began.”

Gavin snarled, his cup came dangerously close to tipping. Before he could launch himself at the self-righteous prick in a feral way, Fowler called them both to his office.

They were to be the first android team on the force. An experimental combination of new technology paired with the tried and tested. No amount of arguing, refusal or bargaining moved Fowler and Gavin stormed from the room in one of the foulest fits of temper that anybody could remember.

They all hoped that given time, things would smooth out but they couldn’t be more wrong. The competition between the two androids escalated on a daily basis. Usually Gavin would leave his paperwork until the last possible moment and then hastily do the bare minimum he could get away with. It was no secret that when not on a case, he spent most of his time watching cat videos and drinking coffee. But he was such a staple at the precinct, nobody had the heart to report him. Fowler knew what he got up to, but Gavin got results when they were needed.

The morning Gavin strolled in with his LED conspicuously missing from his temple, people began to talk. He was the first android in active service to have done so and people muttered about it. However, his moods were still just as easy to read without the usually red flickering LED to indicate he was grumpy.

Productivity from him shot up with the arrival of RK900. Gavin worked through his backlog of paperwork, closed older cases before his partner could even get near them and smugly informed RK900 that his services were, yet again, not needed. He was a perfectly capable member of the police force without some fancy newer model propping him up like some geriatric, wonky kettle.

It had become the expected that when the two of them arrived at a crime scene, Gavin would hop out of the car as soon as he parked and set about surveying. RK900 would be slower in his approach and talk to the officers present before making his own circuit to assess the evidence.

“Hey,” Gavin called over, “hey Nines!”

There was an amount of glee in his voice as he prodded at something in the fridge. Cautiously, RK900 approached, curious about the newest development and the sudden nickname Gavin seemed to have bestowed upon him.

“Dare you to sample this,” Gavin prodded the slightly mouldy jelly in the fridge with a gloved finger and watched it wobble with glee.

“Why would I do such a thing?” RK900 asked and subtly scanned Gavin. “And when was the last time you entered stasis?”

“Because it would be hilarious to watch you lick it,” Gavin replied and looked over with a slightly manic glint in his eyes. “Stasis is for the weak. I had shit to do.”

After a moment’s hesitation, RK900 reached towards the jelly too. He carefully brushed against Gavin’s exposed wrist and forced a surface level interface. Before Gavin could jerk away, he got brief hints of worry, the need to look useful, panic that if he was outdone by RK900 then he’d be destroyed. They were such human worries, RK900 blinked in surprise and missed the scowl Gavin sent his way, filled with bitter betrayal.

The next day RK900 wasn’t quite as efficient as before. He even left work for the next day. It absolutely did not have anything with the tentative blossom of fondness that had seeped over the interface along with the exhaustion of keeping up.

After a few days Gavin seemed a little less harassed by life and his clutch on his mug of coffee seemed to loosen. If RK900 got him a coffee with a splash of thirium in it, nobody needed to know.

It seemed that the competition between the two of them settled a little. Gavin no longer charged bullheaded into situations without RK900′s knowledge. He still didn’t wait for his partner, but at least there was a modicum of acknowledgement that they arrived together and at least got briefed at the same time.

Of course the truce couldn’t last. While Gavin had taken to outwardly calling RK900 Nines, there were still moments where they clashed. Violently. One such instance was, ironically, the hostage situation that developed within the station. A group of suspects, brought in for questioning on a drug ring by a rookie saw the opportunity to get even. One of them grabbed a gun and held the arresting officer in a stranglehold, gun aimed at his head.

“Nobody move!” the suspect screamed. “Drop your weapons and push them to us.”

The precinct bullpen was helpless to do anything but obey and the other suspects grabbed weapons. Nines and Gavin exchanged looks. One looked exasperated while the other grinned sharply.

There was no way to predict the next few seconds. They both drew their guns, Nines dispatched of three of the suspects with precision shots to shoulders and legs to disable while Gavin took out two. There were still three of them left and Gavin charged.

“Aim for the human!” one to the suspects yelled and a shot clipped Gavin in the chest.

He stopped mid charge and looked down at the hole in his chest. The smile he turned his head back up with was cold as thirium soaked his shirt.

“Oops,” he said before launching forward again.

He quickly decked the stunned suspect and turned as Nines was advancing on the remaining two. Nines’ LED flickered yellow and a moment later he threw his gun up into the air. All eyes were on it, distracted from Gavin taking a running jump and using Nines’ braced body as a springboard. He followed the gun up and twisted midair to fire two shots at the suspects. His landing on the table in front of Nines was loud and he hopped off it with an easy smile.

“You fucking idiot!”

Everybody flinched as Nines yelled. He prowled towards Gavin, LED red.

“Is the last line of your self-preservation code degrading? They could have shot you in the pump!”

Nines cornered Gavin, his fingers brushed over the sluggishly leaking hole in his chest and they came away tinged blue.

“Gross,” Gavin laughed weakly as Nines licked his fingers clean.

“Your thirium is incompatible with mine.”

“So?” Gavin shrugged.

“You’re experiencing 37% thirium loss. At over 54% loss your systems will begin to shut down. Only advanced models can function with 70% loss. Not you. And I can’t give you a transfer,” Nines’ voice was softer as he bracketed Gavin’s body against a wall.

“I know,” Gavin replied easily. His eyes were wide though as he searched Nines’ face, ignored the LED flashing a harsh red. “Rather me than you. You’re here to replace me anyway.”

“You idiot,” Nine huffed out a teary laugh.

His hand linked with Gavin’s skin peeled back in invitation, completely oblivious to the rest of the precinct around them, the suspects being cuffed and lead away. A gasp went up around them when Gavin’s skin slowly peeled back, not as smooth as Nines’. It was a later upgrade he’d had patched in, originally he was never meant to have been able to pull his skin back.

Their hands linked and a soft blue light emanated from their connection. It glowed brighter with each second and flashed into an almost white when their lips met in a gentle kiss.

If anybody ever thought about replacing Gavin with a newer model, they were quickly dissuaded by Nines’ cold stare and formidable bulk towering over them. His loyalty to the precinct was never questioned but everybody knew that in his world, Gavin came first.

[junker-town]

How do I get into woodworking without losing a finger?

Stuck inside the house? Here’s how you, yes you, can get into woodworking.

Chances are you’re stuck at home right now, and you could use a new hobby. Maybe you’re trying to learn a new language. Maybe you’re getting into new kinds of personal fitness. Maybe you’re finally clearing out that backlog of unfinished video games.

Or maybe you’re like me and have small children at home, so you’re ignoring all of that stuff to watch Frozen II again.

But even kids eventually go to sleep (usually), and you can only watch Tiger King so many times. If you need something else to occupy your brain during quarantine, I’d like to suggest one of my favorite pastimes. Now is actually a great time to pick up woodworking!

Wait, why would anybody want to start woodworking? Why on Earth is that fun?

If you’d like to become more handy in general, woodworking is a great way to gain the basic skills and confidence needed to tackle all sorts of repair jobs. If you can teach yourself how to build a small bookshelf or table without cutting off your arms, you’ll be a lot more confident in your ability to tackle another project. Now you have an excuse to learn how to use the tools gathering dust in your garage!

Another fun side effect of getting into this stuff? You’ll be able to say stuff like “rip cuts” and “cross cuts” and “joinery,” asserting your dominance over other neighborhood dads. Sure, they may have nicer cars, and their kids are apparently all on the honor roll at St. Expensive’s Academy, but do they know how to rip some plywood and cross cut some hardwood? Huh, DARRYL?

For me, learning to build stuff also engaged a new part of my brain. If you’re like me, and you write or do spreadsheets or push paper for a living, there’s a good chance that nothing you create will last more than a few weeks. But that side table I built for my office — even with its dings, weird grain patterns and a screw that I couldn’t hide completely — will last for decades. I can step out of my garage after a few hours, covered in sawdust, and create something. For me, that’s immensely satisfying.

Plus, power tools are loud and fun!

Yeah, but I watched an episode of This Old House once and that guy has a gazillion tools. Don’t I need to spend thousands of dollars to actually make anything useful?

Listen, I love Bob Vila too. But you don’t need to own every single tool in order to have fun woodworking or to build interesting stuff. You really only need a few tools to get started, and you might even have some of them already.

As far as power tools go, for the absolute beginner, here’s what I’d recommend:

A power drill *and* an impact driver. Even apartment dwellers would probably benefit from a drill, which makes basic tasks like hanging pictures or assembling furniture much easier. You CAN get by with just a drill, but I really recommend springing for a separate impact driver and using the drill just for making holes. That way, you don’t have to fuss with changing bits as often (which means you’ll be less likely to lose them). And the extra power from the impact driver can make driving screws cleanly and quickly a little easier.

You can find a brand new set for around $100 bucks at most hardware stores, but you can find them used for much cheaper.

power drill go brrrrrr

A circular saw. This is about the cheapest saw you can get that will break down just about any kind of board. Nothing else breaks down large sheet goods, like plywood, as easily, making circular saws handy for household DIY-type projects. And if you don’t need boards to be exact, a circular saw is still very effective at making crosscuts (cutting boards vertically), though it can be cumbersome if you’re trying to “rip” boards (cutting them horizontally to make them more narrow) or do any sort of precise cut. I’ve built garden beds and rough shop furniture using nothing but my circular saw, but more often I use it for household projects.

You can find a circular saw new for $40, and for under $20 used.

A miter saw. Miter saws are used for cross cuts, or cutting boards vertically. They’re super easy to use, very safe, fairly precise and a great first tool for anybody new to woodworking. All you have to do is pull the saw down to the board where you want to make a cut, and a second or two later: boom, you have two boards and some sawdust. You can do some fancy joint work with these if you’re really patient, but even at a basic level, this may be the only saw you need to build your first workbench and other projects that rely on using dimensional lumber from a big box store.

You can get new miter saws for under $100, but I’d personally recommend you spring for at least a 10’’ blade, and those usually go for around $130 new.

A note about table saws: Most woodworking enthusiasts will tell you that the most important tool in the shop is the table saw, and that’s true. It is by far the best tool for making horizontal cuts, and just about any kind of joint that doesn’t involve a screw. But it’s also a more intimidating tool, and a little more expensive. If you play with the other tools and decide you really want to get into woodworking, a table saw is a must-purchase, but I don’t think it’s required for a newbie. My advice is the same for other useful tools, like routers, jigsaws, belt sanders, planers, jointers and more.

There are a few other things you’ll probably need that aren’t power tools, like wood glue, screws, clamps and sandpaper, but none of that is expensive or takes up much space. And it’s all stuff you might want to just own, anyway.

But I don’t have a garage, or space to store all these tools. Can I still build stuff with wood?

If you have electricity and a yard or common space, all of the tools I mentioned are very light and can be easily used outside (although you should probably double check with your landlord). You can also build all sorts of things with hand tools instead of power tools. Hand saws, chisels and planers can do a lot of the same stuff as electrical saws, and usually at an even more precise level. They just require more time and patience.

Personally, I think hand tools are more dangerous than power tools. I’ve never been injured in any way from any of my power tools, but I do have a big ‘ol scar on my left thumb from when a chisel skipped over a knot in a spoon I was making and plunged directly into my finger.

If your workpiece is properly secured, and you’re paying attention, you’ll probably be fine. But power tools make a lot of noise and force every cell in your body to give them proper respect. It’s a little easier to get lulled into a false sense of security with hand tools.

Personally, I use power tools for most of what I build, but I’m also a dumb caveman sports blogger. If you want to channel your inner Ron Swanson and learn to cut dovetails, live your best life. Your furniture will probably look better than mine.

I’m stuck in my house, how am I actually supposed to learn how to use any of this?

Youtube University is your friend. Just about every power tool has videos explaining how to unbox, assemble and safely operate it, and DIY Youtube is full of helpful explainers. When I was first getting started, I really enjoyed the Woodworking For Mere Mortals channel, but there are loads of other good ones, like Wood Work Web and This Old House. Even stuff directly from your tool manufacturer can be great. A quick search for “how to build X” is often really instructive.

Figure out what you’d like to build, find some plans online (there are loads of free ones), and give a basic project a shot! You’ll be surprised by what you can create.

Here’s some stuff I’ve built!

The coffee table and the two bookshelves were things I made. The plants and all the books? I didn’t make those.

Am I ready to quit the internet factory and pivot to carpentry? Absolutely not! Everything I make has tons of flaws, and I’m still a beginner myself. But is this a fun hobby that forces me to stay off Twitter, think differently and help keep my house properly outfitted? Sure!

And hey, if I have the power tools running, I can’t hear Frozen II again. These days, that’s a pretty big plus.

[deltaengineering]

Fall Anime 2017 Part 4: Screenshots don’t lie

Saturday’s a very busy day this season, and all the sequels are hitting too. Time to get to work!

Previously:

• Part 1: Maximum Something

• Part 2: The snooze cruise

• Part 3: Fooled again

Burendo Esu (Cat Balls the Animation)

Blend S is the story of schoolgirl Maika that has “mean eyes” (basically, she has tsurime in a tareme world), which prevents her from getting a job other than the one in a moe gimmick-themed café, where her duty is to make “mean eyes” at the customers. The other waitresses play a tsundere, an imouto, an idol and an onee-san. So yeah, that’s one way to get your standard moe show cast together. But wait! The twist here is that Maika is not actually mean! Quite the opposite actually! And that goes for all the other waitresses too! While girls getting forced into moe archetypes is a pretty amusing/scary concept, this is of course a Kirara manga, so they’re just different moe archetypes underneath. In short, the concept doesn’t amount to much. As far as Kiraralikes go, this isn’t a bad one though. It’s colorful, cute and a little funny, and splits the difference between a pure moefest like Knohana Kitan and the more structured comedy of a Working (obviously). Only the pervy Italian manager and his obsession with his blob underlings gets old pretty fast. If you’re down for a show like this, this is probably the one to watch, because unlike Konohana Kitan I didn’t wish for it to end.

Code: Realize - Sousei no Himegimi

While we’re on the topic of “best of the breed”, Code: Realize is an upmarket otome harem. I know, right. The setting is a basic steampunk universe, the bishounens are Arsène Lupin, Victor Frankenstein &c, and our bland heroine’s super special trait turns out to be killing everything she touches due to some jewels in “her heart”. I mean, who hasn’t been there. So everyone wants to “steal her heart” and Code: Realize is very keen to point out the double meaning of this constantly. Hey, we kinda did it in Katawa Shoujo so I can’t really complain. The thing is that Code: Realize is very obvious, but it’s also not all that bad – the fact that is has more going on than nothing at all already makes it the best otome harem since Akatsuki no Yona: It looks fairly pleasant, none of the main characters are tremendous assholes, and there seems to be some sort of story to go with the pretty boys. But it’s also not as hammy and ostentatious as, for example, Dance with Devils, so it’s caught in a middle ground where I can appreciate it not sucking tremendously, but I also don’t feel like watching it – because it’s too respectable.

Dynamic Chord

Dynamic Chord is another otome VN, this time about rock bands. Since this is 2017, apparently the production committee thought they could cut out the middleman, leave out the bland girl and just make a boyband anime instead, because those are all the rage right now. So it’s Tsukipro, apart from the bit where Tsukipro looks like a Ghibli movie next to this. Dynamic Chord is a production catastrophe that looks closer to a no-budget gag short of the Pikotarou Lullaby type (note: I mean “catastrophe” in the absolute sense, for all I know this could all be calculated perfectly and the producers are laughing all the way to the bank). The show consists almost entirely of two things: Long, quiet zooms and pans over stills, and montages, mostly of “performances”. Those performance themselves are really something else too. What if I told you that this is a show in 2017 that does not seem to feature ANY 3DCG? Turns out 3DCG actually costs money too, so when the band plays, they do paperdoll tweens of 2D artwork. Oh, and outside the performances lack of CG means you get the worst animated car since the QUALITYVAN. There’s also just baffling stuff like walk loops that don’t loop. Given that these montages are all endlessly long, you might think there’s not much space for a story. And you’d be right. Basically nothing happens, the singer of a band gets a bad case of the broods so some guy from another band has to substitute  for him. That’s it. Would have easily fit into 3 minutes, but I have to say that by the end of this show’s 24 minutes, I was straight up laughing my ass off when the next montage of bad stills started right after the last one ended. That’s something, right?

Garo - Vanishing Line

I’ve seen Garo before, but last time I didn’t know it was a tokusatsu meta-franchise, the anime versions of which really only share that there’s a gothick looking motherfucker fighting horrors called Horrors. So this has little to do with the last ones: different crew, different studio, different setting. Because this version of Garo is most definitely set IN AMERICA: The main character is a gothick looking motherfucker called "Sword” that charitably resembles Hellboy, and less charitably resembles a Leifeld original. He rides a big hawg around a Big Apple, eats big bloody steaks and looks at big boobies a lot because you know, setting. It’s charming in its idiocy, and this is MAPPA so you get a lot of fights with very nice animation too. I could watch this simply for the action, but I won’t because there’s a Murrica-sized caveat here: The fights take place at night, are edited very rapidly and most importantly their idea of an impact frame is to do an extreme camera shake effect with intense motion blur. And there is a lot of impact frames – believe me, that might have been the easiest screenshot to find for an article yet, and I highly suspect I could have found worse ones if this wouldn’t bring the point across already. I simply can’t tell what the fuck is going on because everything is an incomprehensible mess, no matter how nice the frames beneath the effects are. It’s pretty infuriating because this show is one mouse click away from being a good time, simply disable your After Effects layer with the shake on it. But I can’t do that for them, so Vanishing Line ends up being a bad time instead. And even if you are interested in some big, zany action in the ol’ Gotham, there’s a little something that makes Vanishing Line instantly obsolete:

Kekkai Sensen (Blood Blockade Battlefront) & Beyond

Yeah boiiiiiiii, Kekkai Sensen is back. I had forgotten how fun this show can be, and we’ll discuss the reasons shortly. A lot has happened since 2015, and I have a good reference point for it now: Kekkai Sensen is basically One-Punch Man without The Joke. It’s an universe full of all sorts of crazy nonsense and a bunch of cool dudes that try to keep thing under control, usually in an explosive manner. The one really important thing that Beyond changes is that it’s not directed by Rie Matsumoto. Shigehito Takayanagi is taking over, and while that guy is a noted jobber of little distinction (previous credits: TWGOK, Dagashi Kashi and uh... Toyko ESP...), he’s at least enough of a craftsman to imitate Matsumoto’s style very well. I only found out about this after the fact, and wouldn’t have noticed the difference otherwise. It is noticeable if you look for it though: this episode has all of the stylish action antics, but none of the more moody content that Matsumoto’s original character (do not steal) White brought to the show. I liked most of White’s scenes with Leo and they gave season 1 some welcome emotional grounding, but to be quite honest, it’s not what I watched Kekkai Sensen for. I can definitely accept losing it if this time the show isn’t consumed by White’s subplot and doesn’t culminate in an ending that not only is all about her, but also comes out a season after everyone stopped caring because auteurs can’t manage a production. With Kyousougiga and Kekkai Sensen S1, Matsumoto has shown a 100% track record of donking her endings, so I’m not complaining she got replaced with someone who just gets the job done. Especially if it’s still Bones relying on Yutapon for action cuts; when shit hits the fan, it looks straight up incredible and makes me question why I slummed it with My Hero Academia for three seasons when I can get the same amount of awesome fights in a single episode of this. And hey, White is still in the ending, so maybe we will get the less crazy end of it covered as well. Just keep the priorities straight this time around, please.

Houseki no Kuni (Land of the Lustrous)

Houseki no Kuni is a manga about gijinka gems of indeterminate gender that takes the amusing step of Mohs hardness directly translating into Shounen Powerlevel™. Apart from that, there’s not much content in this episode 1: We get to know the characters and a glimpse and how a society of a bunch of brittle gems in makeup works. What makes this interesting is that the setting is intriguingly vague and very pretty (think: Haibane Renmei), and the characters seem to be fairly strong and likeable. Not exciting, but I could see myself watching this just for the atmosphere. The big downside of it is that it’s a 3DCG show, and not one of those fancy mocapped ones either. The animation is, in a word, bad: robotic and clumsy, as usual. I’ll readily admit that in screencaps it looks great, especially the crystal shaders that would be difficult to pull off in 2D animation. Houseki no Kuni seems very okay, but it has a hard time on this crowded Saturday so I don’t think I’ll bother with it right now. If it delivers in the long run, I’ll readily admit it to my backlog though.

Love Live! Sunshine!! S2!!!

Sunshine’s back as well, and finds itself in an awkward spot right away. This first episode has a lot of things to get out of the way: Tying up the last season properly because the final episode of S1 fumbled that, reminding the audience of the characters, and setting up a new drama arc. In practice, that means it ends up feeling a lot more like the lost E1S13 than the S2E1 it is, because the other two aspects are pretty pointless: Reintroducing the characters just means they all shoot off their catchphrase in turn, and the brand new conflict is (hold on to your seats for this one) that the school is getting closed and there’s a new Love Live. With all these things going on and none of them being all that interesting, the episode feels very rushed and just accomplishes establishing that yes, it’s a Love Live show. I guess that is exactly what it was meant to do and I can say that at least they have it out of the way now. Well, the last time I said Sunshine had gotten something out of the way, it was the obsession with µ’s in episode 1, the getting out of the way of which ended up lasting 10 episodes. It’s gone now (thankfully), but maybe I shouldn’t assume too much here. So yeah, fairly weak first episode, but it’s not like I wasn’t going to watch this to the end and even at its most rushed and pointless it’s still Love Live: a polished Five Guys hamburger of a show that doesn’t exactly need to be great to be a joy to watch.

Two Car

I expected Two Car to be That Show: the one where a schoolgirl discovers her sudden love for Thing and goes on to experience Thing with the help of her friends. Two Car isn’t in the K-ON/Bakuon/etc mould however, it’s much more similar to the sports show style of Girls und Panzer, wacky sport with themed teams of contenders in a world where everyone seems to care about it a little too much. It helps that real sidecar racing is already weird as hell (looking forward to the breathless Anime Now article about how it’s a thing that actually exists) and is less motorcycle racing and more Twister on a fast-moving platform. Quite coincidentally, Two Car is also tremendously gay, as you’d expect from a show about two-girl teams in very tight leather crawling over each other competitively. The main girls aren’t even so blatant (and shown to have a crush on their male instructor, who has taken off to the aptly named Isle of Man), but the opponents are all some sort of standard yuri pairing. So yeah, the setting is a goofy blast, but I’m sad to report that episode 1 has tremendous structural problems. All the team introductions are very clumsy and intercut with an equally clumsy introduction of the setting, the sport and the main girl’s extensive backstory. I will give this more chances because the setup has a lot of potential, but I really hope this shapes up on the storytelling front or I won’t make it very far in.

[entergamingxp]

DualShockers’ Favorite Games of 2019 — Laddie’s Top 10

January 1, 2020 5:00 PM EST

2019 was truly a wealth of gaming experiences that I loved, from Control, to Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and more. Here are my top 10.

As 2019 comes to a close, DualShockers and our staff are reflecting on this year’s batch of games and what were their personal highlights within the last year. Unlike the official Game of the Year 2019 awards for DualShockers, there are little-to-no-rules on our individual Top 10 posts. For instance, any game — not just 2019 releases — can be considered.

As we entered 2019, my ever growing backlog of neglected or unfinished games had grown to epic proportions. I vowed to be better in 2019, so I made a New Year’s resolution that I would play and finish every game I acquired in 2019 before moving on to another. Well, it was a nice thought, but resolutions are meant to be broken and with only a few days left in the year, I have yet to play the very first game I purchased in 2019, Resident Evil 2.

Unfortunately this pattern continued as I found myself in a bit of a gaming funk, and for most of the beginning half of the year, gaming felt different, like I was doing it more out of habit rather than passion.  Had I truly lost interest in the one hobby that has been my comfort zone for as long as I can remember?

Don’t get me wrong, there were a few bright spots throughout my despondency, but it wasn’t until August that I finally got my gaming groove back. On a whim, I bought Remnant: From the Ashes, and that old familiar feeling was back, baby! Now, that game wasn’t previously on my radar and it’s not perfect, but sometimes you just need a little unforeseen inspiration to get you going again.

After Remnant, it seemed the hits just kept coming, and it was looking unlikely I’d get to finish the previous months’ games that I skipped. With that being said, I feel my top ten would look a lot different than its current state considering I have yet to finish Devil May Cry 5, The Outer Worlds, A Plague Tale: Innocence, as well as a few other titles that went unplayed. Never the less, top 10 lists must go on, and here are my favorite games of 2019.

10. Anthem

Anthem: it’s not only one of my favorites of 2019, it’s also one of the games that broke my heart with bitter disappointment. Early impressions of Anthem gave me the hope that BioWare was on track to release a game that would not only counter Destiny, but show Bungie how a looter shooter, live service game was to be done straight out of the release gate. Well, as you know, Anthem did not deliver any of this and released a glitchy game in a skeletal state that felt like an unfinished symphony. EA had perpetrated a betrayal that was of Aliens: Colonial Marines level and within weeks after Anthem released, the game was a ghost town as gamers went running back to Destiny.

Despite all of this, the game with the longest loading screens known to man still managed to give me a few moments of fun. First off, the game is graphically stunning, and is easily one of the best looking games from this generation. While the execution of the story was a bit bland and the characters were mostly forgettable, there was an underlying lore that could still be the impetus of a great game or even sequel. Anthem’s greatest strength was making you feel like Iron Man once you entered your Javelin, the powered exosuit that comes in three flavors to appeal to different gameplay styles. Donning the Javelin suit gives you a super fluid movement both in flight and underwater that was almost as enjoyable as Titanfall’s parkour and jet packs. This also made for super-fun gameplay that unfortunately was lost due to lack of content.

EA and BioWare have made some improvements and promise to continue making Anthem a better game, and I really hope they can turn it around, but with new games always on the horizon, even the biggest Anthem supporters like myself might be reluctant to come back.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Anthem.

9. Remnant: From the Ashes

The term “Soulslike” tends to inspire rage in me, and I refuse to accept it as a genre. Now, my experience with Souls games is very limited and consists mostly of Bloodborne. It’s not the punishing gameplay that sent me running from Yharnam, but rather the lack of checkpoints in the beginning. I grew up in a time where games were often difficult and had bad checkpoints that didn’t save automatically, I appreciated the challenge back then as I didn’t have my own money to purchase every game that caught my fancy, so anything that prolonged my interest in a game was welcome. However, as an adult who wants to play all of the games but has limited time, I prefer games with overactive checkpoints and generally steer clear of anything described as Soulslike. On a whim, I purchased Remnant: From the Ashes and fell in love.

I think the thing that appealed to me most with Remnant was the combat, which like all good Souls-inspired games has a rhythm that depends on dodging as much as it does attacking. While most Souls games are hack and slashes, Remnant: From the Ashes is a third person shooter. As you get to know me, you will learn, I like to shoot things in video games. Early on I died a lot but instead of becoming frustrated, I actually enjoyed the challenge of getting better. The game also features procedurally-generated levels where the enemies differ each time you play. Combine that with the unique look and feel of the four main areas of Remnant: From the Ashes, the game never gets boring.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Remnant: From the Ashes.

8. Borderlands 3

Borderlands 3 for the most part sticks to the creed, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” While there’s a few slight improvements in gameplay and graphics, the game is still the irreverent, looter shooter packed with a “bazillion” guns that we have come to expect from the series.

Featuring an all new cast of Vault Hunters, along with a few familiar friends, the most notable improvement in Borderlands 3 is the ability to leave Pandora and visit other planets. Not only does this make the game more expansive, each planet has its own look and personality which is a nice break from the somewhat drab Pandora. Borderlands 3 isn’t rocket science; it’s hours of mindless fun, and at the end of the day, that’s all I really want from a Borderlands game.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Borderlands 3.

7. Destiny 2: Shadowkeep

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with Destiny since the first game’s alpha. I always go back to Destiny but I have to admit that the constant changing of rules and its grindy disposition makes me a little crazy. I love Bungie’s dedication to the game and with Shadowkeep I feel that they finally nailed Destiny’s potential, even if it took them five years to do it.

While parts of Destiny 2 went free to play, Shadowkeep seemed to be a love letter to their dedicated community and proved Bungie can sustain this massive game even without Activision’s backing. Destiny 2 is one of the most frustrating and riveting gaming experiences I’ve had this generation, and while I’ll stray from it for weeks, even months, coming back to it always feels right.

6. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare

There’s not a Call of Duty game that I haven’t played, but the epitome of the series for me were the first two Modern Warfare games. Since Modern Warfare 2, I’ll admit that the series has had its shares of hits and misses, but each year I wait unapologetically for the newest iteration and hope it will be great again. Since Infinity Ward welcomed back several key members who had left for Respawn after Modern Warfare 2 and created a new engine for the aging beauty, there was hope this was the year that the series would return to its former glory.

I have to say, I wasn’t disappointed. Finally gone was the Treyarch imprint of the Pick 10 system in multiplayer that I hated; in its place was a more streamlined and highly customizable system which gave average players like myself a chance to actually compete. Some of the larger maps took some getting used to, but for the first time in Call of Duty there is no paid DLC, and the new maps have been correcting some of the shortcomings of the launch maps.

After last year’s Black Ops 4 decided to focus on Battle Royale instead of a campaign, Modern Warfare was back with one of the best and most poignant campaigns to date. While it never reaches the level of   guilt that Spec Ops: The Line left me with, Modern Warfare does a good job of showing  the horrors of war by making you question the morally grey area of who is good and who is evil. This hits you the most when you play as Farah Karim. Her backstory is heartbreaking, but necessary to show how she became the kick-ass rebel commander of the Urzikstan Liberation Force.

Modern Warfare is one of the most engaging games of the year and has offered Call of Duty a new lease on life. I’m still regularly playing (and enjoying) Modern Warfare and looking forward to what it has in store for the future.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare.

5. MediEvil

MediEvil was a real turning point for me in gaming. Not only did it thwart my gaming habit to obsession, it also paved the way to my PlayStation fangirl-ism. For the record, my heart might belong to Sony, but I’ll play on anything you set in front of me. Up until last year’s God of War, I always credited MediEvil as being my all-time favorite game. In fact, my love of the game runs so deep, I’ve always said that if I ever won the lottery, I’d singlehandedly fund a Kickstarter for MediEvil 3.

The game looked like a scene out of Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas and featured elements of action-adventure, hack and slash, puzzle, and platforming games. The end result ended up being an irreverent story of an unlikely hero that attracted a cult following who were very vocal in getting Sir Dan Fortesque resurrected from the dead and obscurity in a newly remastered version of the beloved game. I always felt MediEvil was ahead of its time, so it’s no surprise that it still feels like a fresh concept in 2019 that I still have a ton of fun playing.

4. Concrete Genie

Sometimes a game can still be fun and entertaining while raising awareness. Concrete Genie from Pixelopus tackles the subject of bullying as experienced through the game’s protagonist, Ash. Through Ash’s eyes and paintbrush, you will escape the wrath of the bullies through a visionary narrative where your art and imagination come to life.

At first it appears as if Concrete Genie is just a glorified graffiti simulator, but as the story unfolds and Ash gains different powers and abilities, the game soon turns into something that feels like inFamous Lite. It’s a unique and charming game that I won’t soon forget. It also contains an optional VR mode that really exemplifies the concept of art coming to life. I absolutely adore Concrete Genie.

3. Darksiders Genesis

The last new game of the year I played quickly earned a spot high on my top ten of 2019. I’m a big fan of the Darksiders games, and when I heard that a prequel dungeon crawler would release so soon after Darksiders 3, I was giddy with excitement.

Darksiders Genesis lets you play as Strife for the first time, but you can also play as War, who was the star of the first game. Despite its isometric view, Genesis still looks and plays like a Darksiders game. The ability to switch between Strife and War is like getting to play your two favorite Diablo classes at once. It makes for great combat situations as well, as opens up the challenge of figuring out when to use Strife and when to use War in various situations. Surprisingly, it might be my favorite Darksiders game yet.

2. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

From the moment I heard Respawn Entertainment hired Stig Asmussen and that he was going to be lead on a Star Wars game, I was over the moon. However, once I remembered EA was involved and that there hasn’t been a good Star Wars game in so many years, I started to worry that I was just setting myself up for disappointment.

You should always go with your first instinct, because Jedi: Fallen Order is so good. Everything about it just speaks to me. It feels like it’s an amalgamation of every game I have ever loved from Uncharted to God of War set in one of my favorite cinematic universes. Wielding a light saber in this game is the closest I’ll get to being a Jedi; well, I prefer the Dark Side, so we’ll go with Sith. For someone who has loved Star Wars for their entire life, I’ll be forever thankful for this game and Respawn Entertainment.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

1. Control

I fell in love with Control back in March when I played an early build of it at GDC; I knew then this game was something special. Remedy rarely disappoints and their games are all unique experiences, but Control is definitely Remedy at their best. I love the look of the game: it’s dark and eerie, which immediately sets the perfect mood and tone for what is to come.

What really attracted me was the gameplay. Sure, you have a service weapon that takes on various forms which is cool in itself, but once I started unlocking Jesse Faden’s psychic powers and learned how to use them all together, it was next level gaming. On consoles the game suffers from a few performance issues, but it didn’t diminish my love of Control.

The best way I can describe Control and the reason it is my favorite game of 2019 is that it made me feel like I was starring in an episode of The X-Files that was directed by David Lynch. Trust me: that’s the ultimate compliment in my world.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Control.

Check out the rest of the DualShockers staff Top 10 lists and our official Game of the Year Awards:

December 23: DualShockers Game of the Year Awards 2019 December 25: Lou Contaldi, Editor-in-Chief // Logan Moore, Managing Editor December 26: Tomas Franzese, News Editor // Ryan Meitzler, Features Editor  December 27: Mike Long, Community Manager // Scott White, Staff Writer December 28: Chris Compendio, Contributor // Mario Rivera, Video Manager // Kris Cornelisse, Staff Writer December 29: Scott Meaney, Community Director // Allisa James, Senior Staff Writer // Ben Bayliss, Senior Staff Writer December 30: Cameron Hawkins, Staff Writer // David Gill, Senior Staff Writer // Portia Lightfoot, Contributor December 31: Iyane Agossah, Senior Staff Writer // Michael Ruiz, Senior Staff Writer // Rachael Fiddis, Contributor January 1: Ricky Frech, Senior Staff Writer // Tanner Pierce, Staff Writer // Laddie Simco, Staff Writer

January 1, 2020 5:00 PM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/dualshockers-favorite-games-of-2019-laddies-top-10/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dualshockers-favorite-games-of-2019-laddies-top-10

[terryblount]

RAGE 2 – Review

What is the secret behind a good sequel? Some of the best examples focus on refining what was poorly implemented in the first instalment, while others just carry on the story and leave the core gameplay largely intact. On the other hand, certain sequels have achieved greatness by making everything bigger or more elaborate, and yet some of my favourites are basically just a graphical upgrade.

While there seems to be no clear or definitive answer, there is actually a common thread between all these different approaches. A good sequel comes from a developer that can objectively ask what their game needs. This may seem like an oversimplification, but all the best sequels in our industry work because they find something new in the familiar. A good sequel has the potential to lift out an I.P.’s residual potential rather than adding, rebooting, beautifying or changing.

That hair style was all the reason I needed.

So this brings us to RAGE 2, a sequel. This collaboration between id Software and Avalance Studios has stayed within the first game’s premise, but the graphics, gunplay and scope of the game have all been overclocked. I can sense an attempt towards continuity from the first game, and yet it feels like RAGE 2 could do without many of the changes that have been added. As an open world game, there is undeniably a solid experience here, but I would have a hard time convincing fans of the original to go out of their way to play this.

Up your asteroid

The first RAGE game was a pretty big deal back in 2010 even if the story hardly brought anything new to the genre. RAGE was released during the ‘Crysis era’ when first-person shooters were at the forefront of graphical experimentation. See, you played Rage to benchmark John Carmack’s fancy new ‘Mega Texture’ tech building the game’s identity from the world around you.

Rage plunged the player into a bleak world filled with mutants and garage bandits fighting for survival in the aftermath of a cataclysmic asteroid strike (rather than a nuclear winter you see often nowadays). RAGE 2 plays out within this same setting, but takes place 30 years later in a civilisation that has risen from the ashes and is no longer trying to get by on scraps of resources.

Meet the leader of The Authority.

Players thus enter a world in which the Arks, or satellites preserving life on earth, have been reactivated and a new world is beginning to emerge. Unfortunately, a formidable faction seen in the first game, named The Authority, has proclaimed themselves the leaders of this new Earth. Rather than earn their leadership, they have used a series of bloody wars to obliterate anyone standing between them and their authoritarian regime.

The only opposition that once proved a match for The Authority are a division of technologically-enhanced mercenaries called rangers. You play as either a male or female version of the last, surviving ranger named Walker (I can neither confirm nor deny if this is some kind of Chuck Norris reference). The campaign is subsequently centred on Walker’s exploits of starting a contingency plan against The Authority named operation Dagger. You do this by shooting, blowing up, eradicating and driving over anything they deem even mildly important.

Choose wisely. The game kills off the character you don’t choose shortly after this.

What’s my age again?

Sounds kind of familiar right? Well, Avalanche Studios are the developers of the Just Cause series, and they have fallen back on their tried and trusted template of toppling a South-American dictator here. Yet, this is also the problem since RAGE 2 plunges into the trap that I see many open-world games fall into. Namely, the rather poorly-told story just ends up fading into the background.

Now many might say “Hold up, the Just Cause games are about blowing stuff up, not a moving, deep story!” True, but remember that the post-apocalyptic and open-world genres are hopelessly oversaturated markets right now. Seeing as RAGE’s story was somewhat underdeveloped, this would have been the perfect opportunity for RAGE 2 to make me care about its plot and characters some more.

These arks are scattered all over the Wasteland. They unlock powers for Walker’s ranger armour.

Instead, you have to grind your way to a farcical and irrelevant main villain via a series of noticeably repetitive tasks. Let me be clear that these tasks are fun, but the fun only lasts for small doses at a time. Playing RAGE 2 gets monotonous too quick for comfort because every play through eventually began to feel like I was working my way down a checklist. Killed all those mutants? Check. Destroyed this big sentry turret? Check. Cleared the outpost of bandits? Check… why am I doing all this again?

This is a problem I see all the time in the abundance of open world types filling up my backlog. A character would yak-yak-yak away telling me so-and-so has their such-and-such and the solution is to go to point x and kill every last y. I don’t care about such-and-such because I don’t know them, and don’t bother yacking my ear off because I know how the mission is going to go anyway. This feels too similar to what I have been doing for the last 2 hours, and it is a design philosophy in open world games that needs to evolve.

Smash that asteroid

So you will probably forget the story, but does the gameplay redeem RAGE 2? Well, sort of. RAGE 2’s gameplay ends up feeling like a weird hybrid of genres. It is like 2016’s DOOM hardware, but running on Far Cry’s software. This means that Bethesda has recycled the explosive, momentum-based mechanics they had virtually perfected in 2016, and revived it in a lush, open world this time.

That is the actual shock wave from my shotgun.

What do you actually do in RAGE 2? You shoot the crap out of things, so that you can collect things, so that you can upgrade things, which is interspersed with the occasional race through the wasteland. It is really that simple because the aim of the game is not to find missions. The player’s task is using an arsenal of weapons and traversal abilities in order to turn themselves into a killing juggernaut.

RAGE 2 absolutely nails this part because the combat truly goes out of its way to make the player feel dangerous. It is every bit as gloriously violent as DOOM, except demons have been replaced with split-lipped mutants and punks who look like they are attending a Rammstein concert. There are also show-downs with big bosses who were deadly head-on, but fell quickly once I used Walker’s smooth acrobatics to stay just one step ahead of their sights.

Thank heavens for the dash ability.

The first RAGE had some of the best enemy AI I have ever seen in a video game, and this has been faithfully preserved in its sequel. Enemies dodge and leap out of your gunfire while their companions would sneakily flank you from behind, forcing you to switch to close-range artillery. Virtually all the missions dealing with baddies involved either clearing an outpost/bridge/building claimed by bandits, or, in the case of the mutants, it was a closed-off, darker lairs where Walker could mow them down in droves.

As a side note, I played as the female version because reasons, but this frequently became annoying due to the actress’s voice acting. I would recommend the male Walker because nearly every time she received an injury, she made a moaning sound which I can only describe as somewhere between an orgasm, and giving birth.

In any case, killing enemies gives you various kinds of loot used for the aforementioned upgrading, but once the environment is covered in blood, the player can also explore for additional goodies hidden in cooler boxes and crates. You will know it is loot because they are painted shocking pink. Who the hell was making all this pink paint before the apocalypse!? Far Cry: New Dawn this is your fault.

This brings me to the second issue I took with RAGE 2 because the developers have just gone way over the top with locked content. Worse still, the upgrades have all been arranged in a rather convoluted system of menus and sub-menus that made me exhausted by just looking at them. It is all really just too much since I rarely noticed the upgrades once I unlocked them, and let’s not forget that the first game had a much more subtle emphasis on this aspect of gameplay.

Look at all these upgrades… you don’t need.

Road Rage

Since Half-life 2 introduced drivable vehicles into shooter games, cars were basically just an interesting way of getting over long distance. Again, RAGE was sensitive to this. You could do races which I actually enjoyed as a minor distraction, but the major purpose of the armour-clad dune buggies was to get you through dangerous terrain.

The vehicles serve a much more central role in RAGE 2 as there is a lot more driving and races. I actually had to look both ways before crossing the roads since I was run over more than once, and had to restart from the last checkpoint (lol). However, I still felt most cars to be a little sluggish and unpredictable in their handling.

Some of my vehicular antics.

When cruising through the wasteland to my next objective and taking on convoys with mounted guns, this is less noticeable, thankfully. During the races, it is rage-quit inducing. I found almost no enjoyment in the racing at all since the cars refuse to turn, the handbrake is far too enthusiastic, I occasionally won only for a bug to tell me I placed second, and hitting certain plants made my buggy fly out of the track once. RAGE was much better on this point.

Boy you shur got a purdy mouth

Despite bandits having an unhealthy obsession with the colour pink, RAGE 2 is graphically quite varied. As mentioned, the arks have been terraforming the Earth again which means that forests and wetlands have begun to emerge in certain parts of the wasteland. This makes for a nice distinction between the missions when the same vegetation and rocks begin to test your patience.

Bandits love blocking the roads and attacking anyone caught in the blockade.

This game is also more expansive and more vertical than the claustrophobic canyons or corridors of the first one. There was the occasional, jarring pop-in while driving across the landscape at high speed, but the mountains did a reasonable job of hiding such things in the distance. The slow but steady day-night cycle produced some gorgeous sunsets, and I never felt that the wide variety of textures in the landscapes ever repeated themselves. Avalanche is really good at this stuff.

During combat, the game is more than capable of handling large variety of explosions and particle effects when the action intensifies. This is particularly noticeable when you use the nanotech abilities within the ranger armour. These are movement-based attacks which allow for devastating damage on the punks and muties, and they feel glorious within the physics system built into RAGE 2’s engine. I suppose I do not have to explain what everyone’s favourite, Shatter, does…

Even the sunsets are pink! Pretty though…

Dammit Bethesda

I get that everyone’s favourite target of internet hate is the Epic Store at the moment, but Oh My Gosh the Bethesda client is utter trash. It happened to be the platform on which my review copy arrived, and I instantly remembered why I have been avoiding their stupid software until now. I felt as if I fought with it to play this game.

I urge everyone to purchase RAGE 2 on Steam instead. Virtually every button on the client basically opens up a web page, you have to log in with your password every time, I could not find any option to save screen shots, installation of the game randomly restarted, there are only a handful of games, and my download speed was embarrassingly slow. My experience may represent no reflection on yours, but it is high time we start putting some pressure on Bethesda to get with the program.

That is the question

This conclusion puts me in a difficult situation. If you enjoyed the first game and you are looking to have a repeat performance of that experience, I am afraid that RAGE 2 will leave you disappointed. I actually played RAGE in preparation for this review and I have realised they are almost nothing alike. They share ideas but not experiences, which make me wonder if the title was trying to bait fans by using nostalgia. This feels more like some sort of a standalone expansion to DOOM.

The environments in RAGE 2 feel incredibly alive. Bandits are constantly racing past you and having little skirmishes on the roads.

However, if this is what you are looking for, or your appetite for open world games is somehow not yet slaked, you are going to love this game. The action is refined and intense, the world is big and begging to be explored, and there are tonnes of unlockables to refine your playing style. Matter of fact, you would have to be a cantankerous old fart who’s daily highlight is chasing children off your lawn not to find anything you like here.

Let me therefore emphasise, again, that the problem is how long this fun will last for. After playing for about 5 hours, my map was chockfull of question marks, arks to explore, bandit camps, and so on. One part of me was saying “seriously, do I have to do all that? I just cleared out a hundred hideouts!” The other part was hopping up onto a garage roof, charging up Shatter, and turning some blue-headed sucker into a cranberry smoothie. I like that part of me.

Decent graphics

Combat (DAMN!)

Story

Selection of guns

Interesting environments

Racing

Overemphasis on unlocking

Lackluster story telling

Too far from first game

Boring NPC’s

          Play time: About 20 hours total. Combination of both missions relating to main story line with a substantial amount of side questing.

Computer Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM

RAGE 2 – Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[kimsaysthings]

2017 in review

[Not my idea, just filling it out; questions by ablogwithaview]

1. What did you do in 2017 that you’d never done before?

No one specific thing, but I’m ending the year feeling fully like an adult for the first time. So I guess the answer is appreciated my parents love and support but didn’t need them this year.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

I kept a few! I resolved to put up with exactly zero intolerant behaviors and opinions; I spoke my mind every time I heard BS, particularly amongst people I know. I resolved to consume more feminist media; I read a few books, watched only TV shows that didn’t piss me off with their portrayal of women, and was especially pleased with the films I watched this year (Suffragette, Hidden Figures, Frida, All About Eve, Wonder Woman, and Last Jedi in particular). I’m going to keep up both of those resolutions and also start working on my backlog of photography from the last few years, among other things.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Not this year, but there are a few pregnancies in progress.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Unfortunately, yes. My Nana died. She was my maternal grandmother and the grandparent I was closest to. Her loss was not unexpected but nevertheless devastating for my family.

5. What countries did you visit?

Just the US this year. Might make it up to Canada in 2018.

6. What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017?

A job and an apartment.

7. What dates from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

January 20- The Inauguration from hell.

January 21- The global Women’s March filled me with righteous lady power and hope for the growing political resistance.

October 23- That’s the day my Nana died.

In general, I had some memorable moments with my friends. I will never forget the MeToo movement.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

I learned how to shoot and edit in RAW. This changes the quality of my photos significantly. There’s always more to learn, but this feels like a big step.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Another year has passed and I still live at home with my parents. It is both a personal failure and out of my control at the same time.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

A lot of back pain and trips to the chiropractor this year. For good reason and things that were unavoidable. Next year should be a better back health year.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

I surrounded myself with a lot of Star Wars things this year and I love them all.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Everyone who has turned out for a protest this year. The small army of lawyers who fought for immigrants at airports and detention centers. The Democratic governors and mayors and attorney generals and senators and state representatives who fought tooth and nail against injustice this year. Every single woman who came forward during MeToo, especially those brave enough to name their high-profile abusers. People of color, LGBTQIA+, and other marginalized people who are saving this country from white people one vote at a time.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

The fucking president. The damn GOP, especially in Congress. The state of Alabama. Everyone named during MeToo, but especially John Lasseter and Matt Lauer whom I had personally loved for many years.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Books, Disneyland vacations, and in-app purchases.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

My Disneyland vacations (both were sorely needed) and The Last Jedi.

16. What song will always remind you of 2017?

There was far less music in my life this year, but Spotify tells me I listened to Home by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros the most.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: (a) happier or sadder? (b) thinner or fatter? (c ) richer or poorer?

I am a) happier, which is weird because I don’t feel like I should be but I really, really am; b) fatter, by a lot, and it’s something I want to work on in the new year; c) richer, but also kind of not. It’s weird being unemployed.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?

Road trips. Exercise. Outdoor activities. I feel like I’ve been inside all year.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?

Yelling. I lost my cool a lot this year.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

Quiet day with my parents. It was pleasant but a little melancholy.

21. Did you fall in love in 2017?

Not in a romantic sense, but I’m even more in love with my friends than I was in 2016.

22. What was your favorite TV program?

For broadcast, I loved Timeless, Hawaii 5-0, and The Good Doctor. For cable, I loved Good Behavior. I also enjoyed a lot of one-off miniseries, especially My Mother and Other Strangers, Genius, and Feud: Bette and Joan. This was also the year I got Netflix and I’ve been enjoying binging The West Wing, Jane the Virgin, and Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce.

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

Hate is a strong word, but yeah. Not in my personal life though.

24. What was the best book you read?

I actually read books this year! My favorite was Dream Work by Mary Oliver, my first time reading poetry for pleasure instead of school. Everyone look up “The Journey.” It sums up where I am in my life right now.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

It was a fairly silent year for me, but this was the year I discovered Stan Rogers sea shanties, The Pogues, and Phat Cat Swinger.

26. What did you want and get?

I wanted to improve at my photography- I can now shoot and edit in RAW, I’m getting a strong grasp on how to effectively use spot metering, and I’m working towards aperture priority mode. As far as physical items, I’m blessed to be ending the year happy with everything I wanted and needed.

27. What did you want and not get?

A job, an apartment, a life of my own. Some personal projects remain unfinished as well.

28. What was your favorite film of this year?

Wonder Woman- perfection.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I turned 28 but had a shitty, shitty day because of Nana’s recent death. It’s okay; it’s just a day. I think it’s going to be a good year.

30. What one thing made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

There were some people I hadn’t seen in two full years. They’re a hugely important part of my life, but I’m just a blip in theirs. Seeing them again and having them instantly recognize me and be happy to see me literally made my year. They still care.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017?

I wore some clothes.

32. What kept you sane?

Humor- late night comedians picking apart this insane world, funny internet videos, the weird shit on this site. I desperately needed it this year.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Oscar Isaac remains at the top of the list, the whole pretty cast of Star Wars. But I’m super super in love with Gal Gadot too.

34. Who did you miss?

My friend who just moved to Germany with her military husband. My California friends, always. And in a deeper, aching way, my Nana.

35. Who was the best new person you met?

Some awesome Tumblr folks, some fun new Disneyland friends.

36. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017.

This was definitely the year of ‘pick your battles.’ It was physically exhausting to try to care about everything at the beginning of year. Sometimes you just have to know when someone else needs to handle a problem or when a problem is not fixable.

37. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

How bout a little Joni Mitchell:

“But now old friends they’re acting strange

They shake their heads, they say I’ve changed

Well something’s lost, but something’s gained

In living every day.”