#i may not get the switch 2 on launch day

[atwas-gaming]

Switch 2 releases on April 2!!!

A few things to note:

I am very surprised "Switch 2" is the official name. Nintendo's always had things like "Super NES," "Gameboy Advance," "Wii U," so I was expecting the "Super Switch" or something. (I personally thought "Switch UP" would have been a cool name.)

The design is almost exactly the same, but they did finally give it a proper kickstand. The important thing, I think, isn't the design, but how well games run on it. I, personally, haven't ever noticed too many problems with running anything on my Switch, but I know a lot of people have, so higher power is the most important thing here.

My only real complaint- or rather, concern: the joycon connections look flimsy to me. Just a prong that you insert it into? I'm scared it's gonna break off.

One of the best parts: it's supposed to be backwards-compatible for both physical and digital Switch games! It doesn't look like the entire Switch library will be playable, but a lot of games could be.

Nothing official from Nintendo about the launch games, to my knowledge, although I do know Metroid Prime 4 is set to release sometime this year. A few of the better rumors I've heard:

A new Mario Kart as well as a couple of indie games (these might actually be true, they're citing reliable sources)

Xenoblade Trilogy remaster (if this turns out to be true, I plan on getting it, I've never tried Xenoblade but I've heard great things about it)

There was a supposed Silksong ARG that got debunked, I'm only including it here because it was hilarious how the HK fandom resembled the UTDR fandom for a hot minute there.

Of course, the entire Zelda community is theorizing that OOT will get a remaster ("to dream the impossible dream"). A lot of people are also hoping for a BOTW remaster (why? it's not even 10 years old yet).

[reimenaashelyee]

Creator's Guide to Comics Devices: November 2023 Update

The first newsletter since launch came out a few days ago! It summarises all the updates I've made in November, which includes 2 (!) new devices, a sub-device, and other site changes.

Subscribe to the newsletter to get these updates direct to your email.

New Devices:

Aside

A short comment that sits outside of a balloon or character that is not perceived by anyone except the comment maker and the reader. An aside may come from the author, usually placed outside of the panel or near the edges. (Page with examples)

Topper

A secondary row of panels or single panel that goes 'on top' of the main comic. They are typically removable and non-essential, and usually contain the comic's title. (Page with examples)

Sub-device

Markers in Code Switch

Languages are assigned flags, pictographs or other iconographic symbols. (Page with examples)

News from the Curator and Site Changelog

I'm delighted over how well-received the library has been -- thank you to everyone who has shared, commented and provided feedback! I really appreciate the enthusiasm and generosity. <3 As a comics creator taking my first formal steps into the arena of comics studies, there is still a lot to do and to read for the library. Even with 63 devices catalogued, it's only still the beginning! 

From the Interwebs

‘The Creator’s Guide to Comics Devices’ Is the First of Its Kind, an Incredible Resource for Comics Creators & Readers Alike (The Mary Sue, Joan Zahra Dark) Lovely roundup from my fellow Cartoonist Cooperative co-founder Joan setting the historical context for Comics Devices and why an accessible resource is like this is due.  

Kibbles n Bits (Comics Beat, Heidi MacDonald) An enthusiastic feature of the library in Heidi's roundup.

Shout Outs

Thank you to Ritesh, Tan Juan Gee, Samantha Philipps, Blue Dellinquanti, Ted Anderson and Hannah Pallister for their contributions. (I really need to get that credits/curator's notes page set up. That's this month's to-do) Once again, thank you to the Sequential Artists Workshop Teaching Fellowship for supporting the development of the library this month.

Updates to the Site (Nov 2023)

Added the Store page and dedicated a subsection for it on the homepage, if only to direct people to the already-existing zine that’s currently distributed by Sequential Artists Workshop and myself. I might use that page to hold things like signing up for workshops and panels if they ever happen. Added the Newsletter page so it’s easier to link to across the site and elsewhere. Opened up the page that displays all the devices on one page. Added ‘Contribution’ ‘Newsletter’ ‘All Devices’ to the sidebar. Fixed the 404 page. It suggests the Site Map for advice. Finally opened the Links page! Check out all the resources in there! Thank you to folks who have submitted feedback/contribution! I have added new example pages for Harmonious Juxtaposition/Time & Space/Pictorial Lettering/Colour Coding and a longer definition for Map Panel. Added two new devices – Aside and Topper. Added ‘Markers’ and ‘Balloon Styles’ as a subdevice to Code Switch. Finally set up the Gallery page: this is where comics pages featuring the relevant device will be catalogued. Now for the slow work of filling up the galleries…..

New in Store: The Comics Devices Quick Reference Zine Before the website launched, I produced this zine as a promotional thing + quick reference. This is a 12-page zine showcasing the devices in this library as of 2023 (not including the Topper and Aside). Perfect for students, teachers and anyone who needs a quick, in-person reference if there's no wi-fi available. Sequential Artists Workshop is selling copies for North Americans in their online store. Folks in Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia can directly contact me to get a copy. An ebook version is on the way. I will announce it via newsletter.

[fisheito]

which yakuroom am i voting for??

proooobbabbly (in order of preference) 1. vampire yaku (i REALLY wanna hear yakumo lash out. AND the goofy mirror training) 2. idol yaku (lots of lore in this one, along with potential for snake-language yakumo. bonus: panicked whisper yaku in R1) OR 3. iced coffee yaku (give me more of that dulcet service voice)

deliberations under the cut

when they launched the poll, my immediate answer was SHADOW LINEAGE YAKUMO! I WANNA HEAR HIM SCREAM AS HE PLUMMETS FROM THE CLIFF but, not so hasty... did he ACTUALLY scream while hurtling to his doom? after i checked the rooms, no. no he did not. in fact, he was quite coherent throughout the crisis. that simply will not suffice. so, scrap shadow lineage. i must now go through room by room...

Things that , voiced, may INTRIGUE me? 👀👓:

White day yakumo: - eiden's weaponised incompetence while yakumo teaches him how to stir 😁

Idol yakumo: - blade and oli!! - yakumo ?happy!? it feels like it's been so long - yakumo speaking ancient serpent language - i can see the appeal in hearing yaku sing [ancient mating ball music], but i kinda prefer letting my imagination do the work. hmm...

Count drakumo: - yakumo losing his temper with eiden (I WANT TO HEAR HIM LASH OUT AT PRECIOUS EITO-SAN. JUST ONCE) - eiden talking about his hidden scalp scar and past anger issues - garu and aster!! often talking about food!! - eiden saying affirmations in the mirror about himself :)<3 - yakumo being forced to repeat eiden's compliments about his stamina and cuteness 😂

Nerdkumo: - some extra lines of being nervous and flustered never hurt anyone

Shadow Lineage: - a loooot of backstory but it's from Great Serpent POV/outside narrative, so it's not as relevant voice-wise - if they could squeeze in some distress noises every time yakumo nearly dies , that would be great

umbrella yaku: - yakuei being scared about ghosts and clinging onto each other - baby yaku? but... he's just crying again, in a pitched up voice probably. not the MOST interesting for me 🤨

Mermaid yaku: - the stupid sappy moment where eiden lies on yaku's lap and gets his tummy rubbed and theyre all disgustingly sweet n whispery

Iced coffeeyaku: - rei and blade!! - confident service yaku voice? talking with customers??? - yakumo switching between his calm happy-to-serve mode to being DEAD FLUSTERED by eiden's advances - idk something about yakumo acting as little coffee boy with a jingly collar .. bringing back this relevant line from the aster/yaku fic:

[ekssims]

Sims 2 UC tests with updated memory ~

Okay, I tested out UC with changes I made on my laptop recently as everything was going good with S2 Legacy the other day!

I updated my graphics rule maker as a refresh and also used this lighting mod to start.

Trial One

The texture memory I chose was 8033, as it is my shared memory on both of my drivers.

The game was super laggy on launch, when I went into a household pink soup was everywhere, and when I loaded into another household, the game crashed lol

The only positive was that load times were quicker!

Trial Two

I auto-detected what GRM felt like I needed, and it gave me 4096 MB of texture memory.

the load times were quicker, there wasn't really any lag, and initially, there was no pink soup

but after about 10 minutes of playtime, I got pink flashing in a household, (but none in the neighborhood view)

I was able to load into a second household and my sim did go out, but once they went home the game crashed. (while she was out there was pink flashing)

I'm also having the same issue with inventories resetting (kind of), and I don't understand the cause of that :/ (it may be a mod idk)

Trial Three

At this point, I switched back to this lighting mod because I think Cinema Secrets is causing some issues for me, unfortunately :[

My texture memory has been updated to 4018 MB as it is the highest texture memory on one of my drivers (shown on GRM)

for one household, I played for a bit, and they went out and came back home (no issues or pink flashing there)

I was able to create a sim and a pet (with no crashing or issues)

I decorated their apartment for a bit, but the game crashed

I think that was roughly two hours of playtime, but my laptop was sleeping with the game open for two hours before I officially started for transparency

overall, there were major improvements in this test, so I'm feeling good! but I am gonna try it again and do a normal playthrough

What I've learned:

Gunmod's lighting mod is the best one for my computer since my laptop has two drivers, one is mainly for display, and the other for performance, I believe I need to adjust settings based on that. My display driver has 128 MB of texture memory, yet my driver with the best performance has 4018 MB.

So, it makes sense to keep it at the performance's MB, but I'm gonna try 128 MB and/or use in-game settings/ui files based on that. I'm just throwing stuff at the wall to see if anything sticks atp lol but it's honestly been fun experimenting.

I'll do about three more tests S2UC:

Using 4018 MB (again),

using 128 MB (and decide what works best from there),

and using the S2Legacy GraphicsRule file.

and, of course, I need to test S2Legacy with the extender that just released💚, EA's recent update to the game, and mess around in CAS to see if I don't deal with crashing there!

Still hoping for the best, but like I said, things are getting better!

[delicatefury]

You know what? I’m excited about the Switch 2. I know a lot of people are underwhelmed and the launch trailer was more of a “fine! You already ruined the surprise anyway,” but I’m genuinely excited.

The Switch is a fantastic system. It’s just old and under powered for most modern games. So a lot of us fans just wanted the Switch-but-better. Which is what we’re getting! Backwards compatibility and all.

It doesn’t even need to be as powerful as the ps5 or whatever the next Xbox is. Just a lot more powerful than the Switch. Just closer to current processing speeds. Which it should be!

And the joycons! I’m a bit worried about the usb connectivity. The slides are annoying, but I’m worried about the plug snapping off. But that’s okay, because they can be used as mice! Mouse controls! On a console! Even on a system that no one was expecting to have big leaps of innovation, Nintendo did something new.

Color scheme is kinda blah. Wish they’d go back to the crazy colorful days of the N64 and GameCube, but if they’re smart, there will be multiple joycon colors ready to hit the market at launch.

And I’m so excited for the ports and expansions! Did you know you can’t get the last graveyard keeper DLC for switch? It was just a few too many things for the switch to process at once. No more excuses! And the impossible ports we had? Witcher? Red Dead Redemption? Hogwarts Legacy? Can you imagine what we could get on a more powerful Nintendo console? Hell, may e Bethesda will finally give us fallout instead of Skyrim for the nth time.

I’m just… I’m really looking forward to the April direct.

[cakerybakery]

Sacrifical Child AU part 2

Having a baby around was strange and difficult. Charlotte was rather attached to him, which made sense. She needed to fed every few hours. Lucifer was effectively her mother until she would be weaned. Everywhere that he went, she was in tow.

Including a meeting with heaven over the humans he killed.

An imp watched over Charlotte in the lobby of the embassy as Lucifer attended the meeting.

He took his seat and was surprised to see that Adam and Sera were there in person.

Lucifer greeted them but Sera launched right into it.

“Killing humans is a serious offence, Lucifer.”

“They murdered a woman and tried to sacrifice her child in my name.” Lucifer raised an eyebrow at her, “would you rather I let them live so they could keep killing?”

“No.” Sera conceded that. “But had they lived they might have repented. You interfered with the natural course of their lives.”

“Why would you want them? They said sorry and heaven goes, it’s okay. But if a soul dies and repents, they get nothing?”

“It’s not the fucking same.” Adam argued. “You get one shot at life!”

“Enough!” Sera interrupted them before the brewing argument exploded. “We are not here to rehash the debate about redemption!”

They settled into a sullen mood when there was a knock on the door. It opened and Lucifer could hear Charlotte crying.

He got up from his seat. Lucifer knew that cry.

“Sire, the princess-“ the imp started.

Lucifer brushed past him and picked Charlotte up from her pram. He undid the buttons of his clothing and helped her latch, wincing as it hurt.

“Thank you for bringing her to me.” He spoke to the imp before going back to his seat.

“Is that the child?” Sera asked, surprised.

He nodded. “Yes. She was given to me. So I kept her.”

Looking up her caught Adam’s eye and the deep frown on his mask.

Adam got up from his seat and Lucifer pulled back protectively. He walked the length of the table and approached them.

“That’s not a very good latch.” He reached for the baby and popped her off by sticking his finger in the corner of her mouth and breaking the seal. Adam helped reposition her body and latch on properly.

“Oh, that feels better.” It didn’t hurt that time.

“Yeah. It should be easier now.” Adam took a seat nearby and watched Charlotte feed. “She’s cute. Have you named her?”

“Charlotte.”

Adam nodded his approval. “Good name.”

Lucifer sat up a little straighter, pride blooming in his heart. Adam approving of a name was high praise indeed.

“Does she sleep well?” Adam asked.

“I believe so.” Lucifer hadn’t had any issues getting her to sleep. “Although sometimes she wakes up when I go to put her down.”

“She’s only a few days old, right? Have you tried swaddling?” Adam shifted in his seat a little to watch as Lucifer switched Charlotte to his other breast. “Keep her straight.” He reminded. “Swaddling can help them feel comfortable at this age.”

“No. I haven’t. How do you do that?” Lucifer had never heard of swaddling.

Before Adam could explain, Sera cleared her throat.

“About the child. Normally, you wouldn’t be allowed to keep a mortal soul. However, as it appears she was intended to be a sacrifice in your name and drinking your milk has altered her into a demon, she is as much a part of hell as you are.” Sera didn’t seem to like that ruling. “There is still the matter of the humans you killed.”

“Fuck ‘em.” Adam shrugged. “Who cares if they could have repeated. They fucked around by summoning the devil. If they didn’t want to be killed they should have sealed him in the summoning circle.”

“Be that as it may, Lucifer, you’re not supposed to kill mortals.” Sera sighed. “But they did summon you.”

Lucifer knew the rules. He couldn’t just willynilly murder humans. Now, if he was summoned. That changed things.

“And there was no protective spell used. So heaven must rule that their deaths by your hand are acceptable.”

As if it was going to go any other way. This meeting was a mere formality. Basically paperwork. Although, it was fun to get under his big sister’s skin by arguing with her. The devil has to have some fun.

The meeting was concluded and Sera went to leave, pausing as Adam lingered.

“Adam? Are you coming?”

“Uh, yeah. Just. I should show him how to swaddle a baby and shit.”

She nodded. “Yes. I suppose so. Very well. Return when you’re done.” She left them alone.

As Charlotte finished feeding Lucifer caught Adam looking at more than the baby.

“Like what you see?” He teased.

The eyes of the mask looked away in embarrassment.

“Shall I take it as approval?” He tried to keep his tone teasing, but insecurity seeped through. Was Charlotte getting enough? Did he need to make his chest bigger?

Before Charlotte, he’d never been around children. He didn’t know what he was doing and Lilith wasn’t much help.

She knew as much as he did about babies and liked them even less. Lilith mostly avoided Charlotte, unsure what to make of her husband’s daughter. She didn’t think he should have left her there to die. Just uneasy about being left alone with a baby.

Funny that she had been made to be mother of humanity, but Lilith had the maternal instincts of a rock.

He knew the science behind the milk he was producing for Charlotte. Giving himself the right glands so his body could use his blood to make milk for her. He was making sure he was eating the right foods so she was getting vitamins. But what if he needed to make more?

“I wasn’t-“ Adam faltered trying to find an excuse.

Adam was made to find breasts attractive. It can’t be helped that he’d take a peek. Lucifer had to admit he’d checked himself out too.

“Do you think they’re big enough to feed her? I’m not sure how much she needs.” Lucifer held Charlotte with one arm and showed off his breast with the other.

The eyes of the mask wandered back to look before quickly looking away. “Babies don’t drink much at the beginning. You can always use your powers as she grows if she needs more.”

Lucifer absorbed the information, glad that Charlotte was getting enough.

He got up and put her into the pram to rest. “I might as well take you home with me, Adam. I have a few other questions you might be able to help with.”

[doubleddenden]

I see some people worrying that the Teraleak will cause Pokemon projects to be delayed or canceled (thanks to a fake leaker who lost his credibility trying to stir the pot like usual), especially ZA.

I'm not a leaker with inside info, I'm not a TPC employee, I'm just a lifelong fan like many others- just to preface this.

My opinion is this, for what little it may matter: I don't think any game projects are in any rush to be canceled or completely restarted from scratch. This leak is huge and does cover other facets of the franchise like anime and movies- those could be possibly affected, but I'd say the chances of anything deep in development being outright canceled is near zero- not impossible, but very low.

Imo the worst that may end up happening across the board is that stories in the works may need to be rewritten, characters planned reworked, certain new Pokemon or forms shelved for later or permanently jailed like other beta Pokemon, or maybe get delayed a bit longer than what they normally would have.

That being said, there's something very important people need to realize about this: Pokemon isn't a passion project, it's a franchise that makes more money than any other. They are a business that makes products to be bought, watched, consumed, all in pursuit of appeasing people in suits who like money. That sounds like a cold take to some, and I'm sure there are plenty involved that are passionate about their work, but money is the MAIN objective here- I think we can all see why SV released so early despite clearly being unfinished with that understanding.

In other words, there are billions of dollars tied into a lot of projects going on. Shareholders and investors will want their money back and extra. Employees need to be paid for their hard work, and while the games don't make nearly as much as mobile games or merch, that's still a pretty heavy billion or more dollars earned with each release, quality not really important. This year, they're banking on merch, tcg, mobile games, and especially TCG pocket to help make up for the gap year.

However that still leaves the next year or two. They are balls deep in ZA and gen 10 production right now, it is literally too late to turn back now or risk SV but WORSE, and to drop it all because of a leak is tantamount to lighting billions of dollars ablaze and shooting your own ass with a pistol.

A source code and a possible PC build being out there can lose a little money, but let's be real: most Pokemon games have leaked before their scheduled launch date to be available for some form of Piracy. I can attest that this has been the case since- from my own memory- HGSS's and BW's initial releases. In recent times, SwSh and SV both were being emulated days and weeks before commercial launch.

And you know what happened? They still made so much money that the more recent games have collectively sold more than most of the older gens.

Sure, you can emulate, you could try the pc build if it ever leaks- but the pc build supposedly requires specific specs to play- in other words, it is most likely a dev build meant for simulating the Switch or Switch 2 specifications. Emulating is harder to do the more recent a game is, and not all pcs are made for it in general (my "gaming" pc can play plenty of Steam Games just fine, but it absolutely shits itself trying to run an RPGmaker game or trying to emulate anything more complex than the gba or n64). Even then, most fans would prefer to play the games on original hardware because it simply WORKS the best and as close to intended as possible, and it is just easier to buy a game than figure out how to get just the right settings to run a Switch game at lower fps and overall quality, let alone find a source for a game that doesn't come preloaded with a virus or a tracker to get you fined. In other words, people who emulate are probably a very small percentage of the total player base, and people who would emulate a more recent Pokemon game are probably smaller in that group. And let's be real- the people who will emulate were already planning to anyway.

Let's be clear- a source code can be worked wonders with... if you have the time and know how to figure out how to do it and THEN the time and know how to also do it. If you're a game studio and it is your JOB to work with it, you get paid to do so for many hours a day. If you're a fan trying to get a game to run natively on pc or other devices, you're most likely going to be doing this while you're off work or dealing with other life commitments, and it'll still probably take more time than if you were someone who originally made it.

Here's 1 more important thing: yes, this is probably the earliest a Pokemon game project has gotten leaked, but A. It is not leaking to the public YET other than 2 or 3 small bread crumbs that barely mean anything OOC and only stated by the one guy who has it. B. Although ZA is playable, even the Leaker himself said that the game still needs to have more side quests and things worked on. It's not the final product yet, in other words, meaning even if he did go back on his word and leak everything, there will still be things missing they haven't added as of August of 2024 when GF was breached. That definitely includes Pokemon, plot lines, etc.

All of this being said- people will buy the games. Simple as that. That's guaranteed money. That's money they want and need. So what this means overall is that ZA and gen 10 will most likely not be canceled- least of all as a way to "punish" fans for the actions of 1 guy.

A delay, perhaps? Well, all we know about ZA's release window is what we've already been told: 2025. That's it. No point in 2025, just the year, anywhere from January to December. If they decide to redo huge portions of the story- which I doubt they'll erase too much- we probably won't even know about it until the next big leak (which if gf have half a brain they'll invest more in their cyber security, if nothing else than for their own safety) or unless we are told to our faces by them directly, which I doubt. Any delays will strictly be internal rather than on our end- maybe they'll need to delay from April to November of 2025 for ZA, but we don't know that because all we know is 2025!

In simple words, if something changes, we won't know anything until after the fact. We won't see a difference from our perspective until later, like how we're now discovering a bunch of new gen 3 and a few gen 5 beta Pokemon 22 to 15 years after the fact. Worst outcome is maybe they'll cut content and blame the leak- but let's be real, they cut content anyway because of anything from time constraints to "kids and their smart phones."

It'll be fine. Don't stress about that.

[dvskf4llz]

Hi happy pride moth!! <3

Can i requeat a tango x short raccoon male reader who is exactly like him (pathetic mad scientist everyone loves, probably eats redstone) and everytime tango flirts with him he gets all blushy and his fur gets poofy

AGH YESSS I LOVE THISSS

We love our mad scientist that may or may not eat redstone

My silly little raccoon

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

TW: nothing too bad. SFW. tango being extremely flirty, tango teasing reader

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

You loved Tango, a lot. You and Him were literally meant for each other, you 2 had a lot in common.

You were a scientist, he was a scientist aswell. You both have a passion for redstone, both of you caught each other eating redstone a few times.. Ok maybe more than a few, but anyway.

You both loved working on little projects together, they usually involve redstone.

During those projects, Tango liked to flirt with you randomly just to get a reaction out of you. He found it extremely cute whenever your fur poofed up everytime he had flirted with you, it made him laugh. He especially finds it cute whenever you start angrily pouting when he laughs at your fur poofing up a lot as you blush, he pats your head and gives you a kiss on the cheek. You immediately switch moods after he gives you a kiss.

You both like to give each other little kisses randomly, mostly during when you both are working together. It can be just a small little kiss on the lips or a kiss on the cheek.

Everytime Tango had to do something like working on a project involving redstone, he likes to have you in the same room or even helping him in anyway you can.

Tango just loves making contraptions for you, a few times he's made a very simple machine for you that would pop out a note and it would have motivating or flirty words written on them such as: "𝓘 𝓵𝓸𝓿𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾 <3" "𝔂𝓸𝓾𝓻 𝓼𝓸 𝓬𝓾𝓽𝓮 ;)" "𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓬𝓪𝓷 𝓭𝓸 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓫𝓪𝓫𝓮 ᰔ". It was extremely cute. He once made a machine that launched fireworks spelling "I love [Name] ♡", you gave him lots of cuddles after that.

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

𝓘𝓶𝓪𝓰𝓲𝓷𝓮:

You were just doing the usual, doing your scientist things, eating redstone from time to time, you know.

Tango just popped out of nowhere and started flirting with you.

"Did you know that your so cute when you work?"

"It's adorable seeing your little expressions and reactions."

"Your so hot you know?"

You then shut him up with a kiss on the lips, which worked a lot.

Everytime he pulled a stunt like that, you would just be shutting him up with multiple kisses. He gets flustered by them so.

One day, you decided to scare the crap out of Tango being sneaking up on him.

"BOO!" You yelled as you pop out from the ceiling, Tango got extremely startled as he screamed and almost fell backwards. He was panting like crazy, you gave him a real fright. Meanwhile, you were just laughing so hard.

He glared at you for a moment which made you stop laughing, he then start laughing as he rolled his eyes.

"You're such a nuisance sometimes." He said, chuckling. You pouted at that, he brought you in a hug and patted your head.

"I'm kidding I'm kidding." He said, you hugged him back

"You're such a silly little raccoon." He said

"But you're my silly little raccoon that I love so much." He said smiling down at you lovingly, you smiled back at him.

"I love you too." you said back, Tango leaned in for a kiss. You 2 shared a soft yet loving kiss, once you pulled away you 2 couldn't stop smiling widely like idiots.

You then cuddled together for the rest of the day <33

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well- hope you enjoyed that. I did not know what to do for the end TT

I'll post another one in a bit!

The end sounds a bit cheesy but ehhh- i didn't know what to do TT.

Hope this is what you wanted anon!- I might rewrite this and my other oneshots when I have more free time.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Down in the (link)dumps

On September 27, I'll be at Chevalier's Books in Los Angeles with Brian Merchant for a joint launch for my new book The Internet Con and his new book, Blood in the Machine. On October 2, I'll be in Boise to host an event with VE Schwab.

Back when I was writing on Boing Boing, I'd slam out 10-15 blog posts every day, short hits that served as signpost and public notebook, but I rarely got into longer analysis of the sort I do daily now on Pluralistic. Both modes are very useful for organizing one's thoughts, and indeed, they complement each other:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/09/the-memex-method/

The problem is that when you write long, synthetic essays, they crowd out the quick hits. Back in May 2022, I started including three short links with each edition of Pluralistic, in a section called "Hey look at this" (thanks to Mitch Wagner for suggesting it!):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/01/reit-modernization-act/#linkdump

But even with that daily linkdump, I still manage to accumulate link-debt, as interesting things pile up, not rising to the level of a long blog-post, but not so disposable as to be easy to flush. When the pile gets big enough, I put out a Saturday Linkdump:

https://pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/

All of which is to say, it's Saturday, and I've got a linkdump!

First up, a musical interlude. I've been listening to DJ Earworm's amazing mashups since 2005 and while I've got dozens of tracks that shuffle in and out of my daily playlist, the one that makes me wanna get up and dance every time is "No One Takes Your Freedom," a wildly improbable banger composed of equal parts Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, George Michael and Scissor Sisters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaboIeW1A_4

I defy you to play that one without bopping a little. I think it's the French horn from "For No One" that really kills it, the world's least expected intro to a heavy dance beat.

Moving swiftly on: let's talk about fonts. I remember when Wired magazine first showed up at the bookstores I was working at in Toronto, and my bosses – younger men than I am now! – complained that the tiny, decorative fonts, rendered in silver foil on a purple background, was illegible. I laughed at them, batting my young eyes and devouring the promise of a better future with ease, even in dim light.

Now it's thirty years later and I'm half-blind. Both my my decaying, aging eyes are filmed with cataracts that I'm too busy to get removed (though my doc promises permanent 20:20, perfect night-vision, and implanted bifocals when I can spare a month from touring with new books to get 'em fixed).

Which is to say: I spend a lot more time thinking about legibility now than I did in the early 1990s, and I've got a lot more sympathy for those booksellers' complaints about Wired's aggressively low-contrast design today. I'm forever on the hunt for fonts designed for high legibility.

This week, Kottke linked to B612, a free/open font family "designed for aircraft cockpit screens," commissioned by Airbus. It's got all the bells and whistles (e.g. hinting) and comes in variable and monospace faces:

https://b612-font.com/

B612 arrived at a fortuitous moment, coinciding with a major UI overhaul in Thunderbird, the app I spend the second-most time in (I spend more time in Gedit, the bare-bones text-editor that comes with Ubuntu, the flavor of GNU/Linux I use). A previous Thunderbird UI experiment had made all the UI text effectively unreadable for me, causing me to dive deep into the infinitely configurable settings to sub in my own fonts:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/UserChrome.css

The new UI is much better, but it broke all my old tweaks, so I went back into those settings and switched everything to B612, and it's amazeballs. I tried doing the same in Gedit, but B612 mono was too light for my shitty eyes, so I went back to Jetbrains Mono, another free/open font that has 8 weights to choose from:

https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/

Love me a new, legible font! Meanwhile, a note for all you designers: the received wisdom that black on white type is "hard on the eyes" is a harmful myth. Stop with the grey-on-white type, for the love of all that is holy. This isn't 1992, you aren't laying out type for Wired Issue 1.0. Contrast is good, actually.

Continuing on the subject of software updates: Mastodon, the free, open, federated social media platform that anyone can host and that lets you hop between one server and another with just a couple clicks, has released a major update, focusing on usability, especially for people unfamiliar with its conventions:

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2023/09/mastodon-4.2/

Included in this fix: a major overhaul to how you interact with posts on servers other than your home server. This was both confusing and clunky, and the fix makes it much better. They've also changed how sign-up flow works, making things simpler for newbies, and they've cleaned up the UI, tweaking threads, web previews and other parts of the daily experience.

There's also a lot of changes to search, but search still remains less than ideal, with multi-server search limited to hashtags. This is bad, actually. Thankfully, we don't have to wait for Mastodon devs to decide to fix it, because Mastodon is free and open, which means anyone with the skills to code a change, or the money to pay techies to do it, or the moral force to convince them to do it, can effect that change themselves:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/23/semipermeable-membranes/

Case in point: Mastoreader, a great new thread reader for Mastodon:

https://mastoreader.io/

Every time that guy who owns Twitter breaks it even worse, a new cohort of users sign up. Not all of them stay, but the growth is steady and the trendline is solid:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/11/of-course-mastodon-lost-users/

It's the right call: while there are other services that promise that they will be federated someday, promises are easy, and there's world of difference between "federateable" and "federated." As GW Bush told us, "Fool me twice, we don't get fooled again":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/06/fool-me-twice-we-dont-get-fooled-again/

One big difference between the kind of blogging I used to do in my Boing Boing days and the long-form work I do today is the graphics. When you're posting 10-15 times/day, you can't make each graphic a standout (or at least, I can't). But I can (and do) devote substantial time to making a single collage out of public domain and Creative Commons graphics every day:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/12/25/a-year-in-illustration/

I am not a visual person – literally, I can barely see! – but my daily art practice has slowly made me a less-terrible illustrator. I got in some good licks this week, like this graphic for the UAW's new "Eight-and-Skate" work-to-rule program:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/21/eight-and-skate/#strike-to-rule

That graphic was fun because all the elements were from the public domain, or fair use. I love it when that happens. I've spent years amassing a bulging folder of public domain clip art ganked from the web and this week, it got a major infusion, thanks to the Bergen Public Library's Flickr album of high-rez scans of antique book endpapers. 86 public domain textures? Yes please! (Also, the fact that Flickr has one-click download of all the hi-rez versions of every image in a photoset is another way that it stands out as a remnant of the old, good web, not so much a superannuated relic as an elegant weapon of a more civilized age):

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bergen_public_library/albums/72157633827993925

Speaking of strikes: there are strikes! Everygoddamnedwhere! After 40 years in a Reagan-induced coma, labor is back, baby. The Cornells School of Industrial and Labor Relations' Labor Action Tracker is your go-to, real-time observation post as hot labor summer turns into the permanent revolution. As of this writing, it's listing 968 labor actions in 1491 locations:

https://striketracker.ilr.cornell.edu

There's no war but class war and it was ever thus. Brian Merchant's forthcoming book Blood In the Machine is a history of the Luddites, revisiting that much-maligned labor uprising, which has been rewritten as a fight between technophobes and the inevitable forces of progress:

https://www.littlebrown.com/titles/brian-merchant/blood-in-the-machine/9780316487740/

The book unearths the true history of the Ludds: they were skilled technologists who were outraged by capital's commitment to immiseration, child slavery, and foisting inferior goods on a helpless public. You can get a long preview of the book in Fast Company:

https://www.fastcompany.com/90949827/what-the-luddites-can-teach-us-about-standing-up-to-big-tech

Merchant also talked with Roman Mars about the book on the 99 Percent Invisible podcast:

https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/blood-in-the-machine/transcript/

If that's piqued your interest and if you can make it to Los Angeles, come by Chevalier's Books this Wednesday, where Brian and I are having a joint book-launch (I've just published The Internet Con, my Luddite-adjacent "Big Tech Disassembly Manual"):

https://www.eventbrite.com/o/chevaliers-books-8495362156

Where is all this labor unrest coming from? Well as Stein's Law has it, "anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop." 40 years of corporate-friendly political economy has lit the world on fire and immiserated billions, and we've hit bottom and started the long, slow climb to a world that prioritizes human thriving over billionaire power.

One of the most tangible expressions of that vibe shift is the rise and rise of antitrust. The big news right now is the (first) trial of the century, Google's antitrust trial. What's that? You say you haven't heard anything about it? Well, perhaps that has to do with the judge banning recording and livestreaming and not making transcripts available. Don't worry, he's also locking observers out of his courtroom for hours at a time during closed testimony. Oh, and also? The DoJ just agreed that it won't post its exhibits from the trial online anymore. You can follow what dribbles of information as are emerging from our famously open court system at US v Google:

https://usvgoogle.org/trial-update-9-22

If the impoverished trickle of Google antitrust news has you down, don't despair, there's more coming, because the FTC is apparently set to drop its long-awaited suit against Amazon:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ftc-poised-sue-amazon-antitrust-163432081.html

Amazon spent years blowing hundreds of millions of dollars of its investors' cash, selling goods below cost and buying up rivals until it became the most important channel for every kind of manufacturer to reach their customers. Now, Amazon is turning the screws. A new report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance details the 45% Amazon Tax that every merchant pays to reach you:

https://ilsr.org/AmazonMonopolyTollbooth-2023/

That 45% tax is passed on to you – whether or not you shop at Amazon. Amazon's secretive most favored nation terms mean that if a seller raises their price on Amazon, they have to raise it everywhere else, which means you're paying more at WalMart and Target because of Amazon's policies.

Those taxes are bad for us, but they're good for Amazon's investors. This year, the company stands to make $185 billion from junk-fees charged to platform sellers. As David Dayen points out, Amazon charges so much to ship third-party sellers' goods that it fully subsidizes Amazon's own shipping:

https://prospect.org/power/2023-09-21-amazons-185-billion-pay-to-play-system/

That's right: as Stacy Mitchell writes in the report, "Amazon doesn’t have to build warehousing and shipping costs into the price of its own products, because it’s found a way to get smaller online sellers to pay those costs."

Now, one of the amazing things about antitrust coming back from the grave is that just the threat of antitrust enforcement can moderate even the most vicious bully's conduct. Faced with the looming FTC case, Amazon just canceled its plan to charge even more junk fees:

https://www.reuters.com/legal/amazon-drops-planned-merchant-fee-ftc-lawsuit-looms-bloomberg-news-2023-09-20/

But despite this win, Amazon is still speedrunning the enshittification cycle. The latest? Unskippable ads in Prime Video:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-09-22/amazon-prime-video-content-to-include-ads-staring-early-2024

Remember when Amazon promised you ad-free video if you'd lock yourself into shopping with them by pre-paying for a year's shipping with Prime? The company has fully embraced the Darth Vader MBA: "I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it further."

That FTC case can't come a moment too soon.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/23/salmagundi/#dewey-102

[futureslaps]

The Captive - Chapter 3

Chapter 2 Chapter 4

Hi everyone 💙

Only one main POV in this chapter (with a mini-Jake POV).  I had a lot written and didn’t want to post a massive chapter compared to the others, I want to keep the length fairly consistent. Thankfully, this means the next chapter is practically half-done.

Enjoy!

Since he’d woken up, Quaritch had made an effort to keep his mind occupied. For some time, he searched anywhere he could reach, trying to find a weakness in his prison’s design; a loose section in the wall, a forgotten tool, maybe a rock he could use to work away at his bindings. But Sully had done his job well, and the hut was completely devoid of anything not dedicated to keeping him where he was. Even his vest, which had contained various emergency tools for such a situation, was gone. As was most of his equipment. He’d been left with nothing but his undershirt and pants.

Once his escape plans had been foiled, and when it became clear his death wasn’t imminent, Quaritch switched his focus to passing the time. After all he was clearly meant to be here for the long haul.

He’d briefly attempted some exercises, but his wounds and tightly bound legs made that a non-starter.

Eventually he settled on counting the rings on the tree the hut was structured around and trying to catch various sounds from the outside. It was mind numbing but still something.

Eventually, despite his efforts, thoughts on how absolutely fucked he was started to creep in. As far as he knew, he was presumed dead by the RDA. None of his squad had been left on the ship in those final moments, and he doubted the RDA was eager to launch another ship into enemy territory to recover the wreck and bodies from the last…

And then there was the matter of Spider. When he first woke up, he’d been primarily concerned with Spiders well-being. He still was, but as the hours passed, he began to feel the actual lack of Spider’s presence more and more.

As far as he could tell, at least a full day had passed since the battle. He’d never been away from Spider this long since they’d met in the jungle all those months ago, and the more time he spent alone in the damp, stuffy shack, the more he missed having the kid around.

He missed that bright, genuine smile Spider briefly flashed when he was happy. He missed the passion he had whenever he was explaining something about life on Pandora. Hell, he even missed Spider’s sass and insults, the ones that somehow made him both irksome and endearing.

He grinned in the half-dark as he remembered a few of Spider’s “greatest hits”. Goddamn, he didn’t know when let himself become such a sap when it came to the kid. It pissed him off a bit, but he didn’t mind too much.  

If he ever got out of here…

“Let me through.”

Quaritch quickly recomposed himself as he heard a familiar voice behind the flap that served as the hut’s door.

Sully

Quaritch steeled himself. Was this it? If it was, he wasn’t going down without a fight, however weak it may be.

The flap lifted and Sully stepped through, holding a pair of bowls in his hands. And if looks could kill, face Sully wore would have easily sent Quaritch back to hell.

The two men stared at each other for a moment, each trying to put as much contempt into their face as they could.

“Quaritch.” Jake broke the silence.

“Sully. It’s about time you showed up, I was starting to get bored.”

Sully looked like he was about to say something, but bit his lip, and placed the two bowls down in front of the bars. One held water, the other some kind of stew.

Food and water? What the hell?

“What’s this Sully? Trying to fatten me up before the slaughter?”

“You will have food and water while you are kept here.” Sully replied almost robotically, clearly trying to keep himself in check.

“Speaking of here, would you mind telling me why you decided to ‘graciously’ spare my life and dump me in this shithole instead?” Quaritch said, intently keeping his eyes focused on Sully. Truthfully, he wanted the food and especially the water, but there’s no way he was letting Sully know that.

Sully visibly sighed, then spoke, trying to keep his voice level.

“When you surrendered on the Sea Dragon, you asked Eywa’s mercy. As a surrendered warrior, you could not be killed, by Eywa’s laws.”

Surrendered? Asking for mercy?

Hearing Sully describe him like that enraged Quaritch, but he held his tongue for now. He still had to know more about his situation.

“So has your Eywa god commanded you to keep me in jail?”

“Only until your trial.”

Quaritch’s breath hitched at the words.

Trial?

You’ve gotta be shitting me.

“A trial? What trial?” Quaritch responded, his rage starting to seep into his words.

“13 days from now, when the monthly cycle ends, you will be brought before the Na’vi people and judged for your crimes against them, and Eywa.”

With that, Quaritch couldn’t hide his rage anymore.

“Oh, it’s not enough for you to beat me, is it Sully? Now you want to parade me in front of all the blue bastards in town?! You going to tar and feather me before you chop my head off?!”

“You are being shown respect by being granted a trial!” Sully hissed, his own rage bubbling. “Respect you don’t deserve, but Eywa grants you anyways!”

“You should have killed me on that ship Sully.” Quaritch spat. “Spared me the humiliation. But I guess you’re more of a maniac than I thought.”

“I would have Quaritch, believe me.” Said Jake, collecting himself as he turned to leave.

As he watched the other man turn, a thought forced its way into the front of Quaritch’s mind.

Spider

He had to know something.

Before he had time to think, he spoke.

“How are the kids, Sully?” He cringed internally as soon as the rushed words left his mouth.

(…)

Jake stopped midway across the hut’s forward half.

Huh?

Was Quaritch trying to goad him over Neteyam? The way he had spoken made the question sound … almost sincere? Why would Quaritch care about any of his kids?

Jake wasn’t going to stand here and ask himself those questions now, though. Not with Quaritch behind him.

“They’re all fine, Quaritch. No thanks to you.”

Jake knew it wasn’t exactly true, but he wasn’t about to discuss his family’s issues with his worst enemy.

He covered the rest of the distance to the door and quickly left.

(…)

Quaritch caught a glimpse of the outside world as he watched Sully leave. It was sunset, there was a beach, a village…

The canvas flap locked him back into the hut’s world.

He lay on his back and let out a long sigh. He had a lot to think about.

Goddamn traitorous asshole. Thinks he’s high and mighty with his “Eywa” and “trials”.

So, he had an expiration date. He didn’t know what this so-called “trial” implied, but it couldn’t be anything good. He had no doubt what judgement he’d get, and he had no doubt what would happen to him after.

13 days to live. No hope of rescue…

Quaritch reminded himself not to focus to much on his prospects. The last thing he wanted was to go crazy and be led to his death as a lunatic.

The rest of the conversation…

He cringed again over his stupid final question. He’d sounded like he’d lost the plot. What the hell was he thinking?

Maybe he’s going crazy already.

At least he knew Spider wasn’t locked up like him, he assumed Sully would have let him know if he was. Quaritch knew Spider though, and very much doubted he was “fine”. He’d seen Spider when he was “fine” before. On the Sea Dragon during the village raids. In the jungle. It wasn’t good. He felt the urge to talk with Spider, as if he wasn’t so close yet so far.

As he turned his attention to the food Sully had left, he wished more than before ever he could see Spider again, even for just a moment.

Things are certainly not fine for anyone in this story at the moment ☹️. 

I’m overjoyed at the response this has gotten so far. I’m not a huge writer by any means, so this truly means so much to me! 🥺 Thank you to everyone who has read!

[greenknightlao]

Nintendo Direct Predictions

I know the Nintendo direct isn’t happening for a few months now but eh… I’m going to do my predictions now while it’s fresh in my mind if there is anything that directly contradicts a prediction here I’ll just update it like a few days before but anyways:

Metroid Prime 4 as a Switch game that’s all like “you can play this on the Switch 2 too and it’s better”

Switch 2 either be May/June or November 

Mario 3D game as a launch year game

Kirby 3D game also launch year game

Zelda likely won’t be here UNLESS it’s a port 

New Mario Kart: I mean we are already confirmed of a Mario Kart game and I REALLY hope it IS a new one (all signs point to that as being the case but I won’t presume either until it’s confirmed)

Splatoon 4 given my guess as to when the Switch 2 is releasing it could be a year 1 game that releases in 2026 so it could be shown off here… I will be disappointed if I see 2025 for this game though…

Xenoblade Not really we have X Definitive Edition releasing in March so I can’t see a new Xenoblade game releasing in 2026 never mind 2025 UNLESS it is a warriors game or something (but even then it’s a slim chance)

Fire Emblem: I feel like a brand new original game is too soon as Engage was released in January 2023 and being realistic we’re looking at about 2.5 years give or take for a 2025 release date doesn’t really make a lot of sense IMO but a remake on the other hand would as many concepts are already there for it but I also just… feel weird about a remake being Fire Emblem’s debut on Switch 2…

New Smash game is possible but ONLY as the last reveal and 2026 release

I think NSO will be implemented here as well and maybe even upgraded to include new consoles like GameCube

Hopes/System sellers (for me)

XC4 of this list I think it’s least likely due to XCX releasing in March and the next new Xenoblade could be XCX 2 for all we know…

XCX2 depending on how the story goes for X but again definitely not anytime soon

Fire Emblem Genealogy remake of any Japanese only remake will do here but this is the most likeliest one from what I hear so… but yeah I probably won’t get NA fire emblem remakes ASAP for sure

New Fire Emblem but it has to pique my interest more than Engage did to get it ASAP I probably will get the new Fire Emblem game at some point if it doesn’t but… well what good is speculating over a game that may not even exist anytime soon…

All of these games have like a reasonable chance of showing up as Switch 2 games here while also being things I personally want the next ones are more low chance overall

Advance Wars Dual Strike remake: I mean it’s possible all things considered before reboot camp was confirmed I thought the series was dead so…

New Advance Wars game: kind of the same but I feel less likely about

Pikmin 5: definitely not 2025 given Pikmin’s history with game releases

Xenoblade Warriors my random prediction literally 0.1% chance 99.9% Faith here…

Pokémon is absent because a Pokémon presents is likely going to happen before this direct anyways I’ll give more thoughts on that around then

[c7thetumbler]

Quick Game Reviews: September - December 2024

This is the game review post for the remaining 4 months I got too lazy to keep up with during the year! I'm going to skip my favorite game I played this year part for now, but I hope this provides some insight to someone somewhere.

Let's get it going!

Screenshot from my Gameplay

Colossal Caverns (Pikmin 2 mod)

^link to PikHacker's download site with all their mods.

Hot off my Super Mario Eclipse playthrough, I finally decided to give this a go! For those unaware, this is a Pikmin 2 hack that puts every boss, enemy, and treasure in a single, gigantic cave level and the challenge is to escape. The REAL challenge is to get all the treasure, and the REALLY INTENSE challenge it to defeat all the enemies. There are a number of customization options such as including the Onions underground, max Pikmin limit increase to 200, and some enemy health adjustment, but I would recommend you do those for one playthrough and then really try it without those changes so you really have to learn enemy behavior and feel how intense it can get.

This is a really fun hack, and I'd recommend it for Pikmin 2 vets. this isn't something you hop into if you've only played 4 though.

image stolen from a redditor

DOOM Eternal (Steam)

I'm a big OG Doom/Doom II fan, and Doom 2016 was pretty good, so I figured it was about time I played this single-player game.

Then I launched it in steam, already a layer of DRM that requires a login, and was immediately greeted with another login screen!

I uninstalled, may ask for a refund. Is it petty? Idk. The game may have a multiplayer component or online features, but there's 0 reason why I need to do that for a single player game. Hell, I feel like I have a pretty low bar given I've hooked up my Ubisoft account to Mario V Rabbids and Rayman, but that's also optional and the games work independent of it. I suspect if I looked for a pirated version, I could play this game without giving them my email address and logging in, so why are we doing this. The game doesn't even let me adjust options or take a screenshot without logging in

Splatoon 3: Grand Festival (Switch)

The final splatfest!

But not really!

This was actually a really cool in-game event. Not only did they extend the "finale" to the full 3 days and bring all 3 idol groups into play, they made an entirely new overworld map that adjusted and actively changed over the course of the three days.

The amount of love and polish that went into a very short, non-repeated in-game experience that fans from the past 10 years would absolutely enjoy is just unparalleled. In the first 2 days you could visit one of three stadiums which rotated which group was playing, but in the final day all three groups were performing together on the main stage with pyrotechnics and flying platforms and it was nuts. Over the course of the evening, the other venues actually caught fire and burned down while it continued, making it a more clear reference to Burning Man than it already was.

It did however fall to the typical downsides of a Splatfest in terms of gameplay. Even with three teams it was quite easy to get paired against your own team and have that entire battle not count towards your clout or your team score, and even though I played like 20 triple battles only 3 of them were against other teams. This is something of a long-running bug bear; I understand you want people to play frequently, but there should either be an option to say "Yes I will wait longer to fight against other teams" or a rewards incentive to play against your own team instead of just throwing it or being dissappointed when it happens. It also unfortunately suffers from the lack of matchmaking, and this was pretty clear when team past started getting prestige ranks in the double digits on day 2 vs a normal teams as well. That's a little trickier, as genuinely I can believe that people who picked Past are genuinely long-time players, but it's an unfortunate issue with competitive games with ladders.

The stage for the triple battles though was also cool. Personally I wasn't a big fan of it's layout, however if your team secured the Ultra Signal your idol group would actually come out and cheer you on, which was rad af. The whole event was just one big hypefest that really fit the style of the game, and the best send-off to date. I wish more games were able to do a big send-off like this rather than just slowly deteriorate and fall-oof, but that's an impossible standard and made me excited for the series' future.

Also, there was a Splatfest in October and they're still doing balance patches so it wasn't really a send-off but still

Image from download page

Super Mario and the Rainbow Stars (PC)

I forgot what pointed me to this game, but it's pretty good! definitely made by people who love the series and want to see a more cohesive world and Mario RPG level story inside a platformer. It's pretty fun and has a great amount of content despite only having 1 world so far!

Gameplay wise I do have some criticisms. The game tries to bring Mario Odyssey gameplay into a 2D platformer, and while sometimes that can work, it does feel a little out of place here. It's not bad, and the levels do a good job of showcasing it, but it feels a little out of place and I personally had issues with the movement options and the star throw at the same time.

Level design is another thing. I'm not sure if this was a limitation thing, a deliberate choice, or just coincidence, but basically every level has similar feel and recurring layouts. Specifically, you'll find yourself going up for a few jumps, then a part where you need to ground point or descend vertically, and then back up again in the next area. But the levels themselves aren't vertical, and in fact pretty limited in that direction, so seeing that same layout repeatedly makes it feel more like a fan game than a real one. It's difficult to describe, but picture the heartbeat line on an EKG and that's how your path typically seems to pan out. With this many movement options and gimmicks in the game, it would be cool if they took a more open-level style approach where you could skip some of these sections through some more technical, high jumps, branching paths, etc.

All that said though, it's still a very good fangame! Visuals are great, Music and Sound design are great, and there's a lot of love put into it. I'm hoping that the level design continues improving over time, and this could be a really iconic fangame.

Screenshot from the Steam Store Page

Spark the Electric Jester 2 (Steam)

This has been floating around my backlog for a while; I've tried it before but I got distracted by collectibles and didn't give it a real shot, so I figured I'd give it a go this time and just go through the game without obsessing.

Spark the Electric Jester is an indie game series that's based off of Sonic, and 2 is the first 3D one that builds off of Sonic Adventure 2's playstyle. It adds in combat as well, with combo building and timed parries which open up the attacker to your assault, but ultimately the game shines the most when it's just the classic Sonic 3D platforming.

Like real Sonic it's a little Janky; sometimes when you try and run up walls it doesn't quite stick right, some jumps are a bit strange, enemy targeting is finicky, but overall it's a fun time. The game itself is very short, taking me only 2.4 hours to beat between both my attempts, but I also didn't focus on doing the achievements and gathering the collectibles, of which each level has a few in their branching paths. Plot-wise, it suffers a little bit from taking itself a little too seriously and being a bit too complicated for my tastes, but that doesn't detract from the gameplay.

If you have a Sonic Adventure itch and this is on sale, it's worth a pick-up I'd say, but if you don't the game is just okay by its own merits. 3 is where the series really gets into its own.

Screenshot from the Steam store page

Spark the Electric Jester 3 (Steam)

This is like 2 but way better!

An actual, really well-polished love letter to Sonic Adventure 2, Spark 3 goes back to Spark being the main character and a less-linear level structure. Each level has a few challenges within them to keep you coming back and replaying, and the combat as a whole feels way better with some unlockable moves and even alternate characters to play as.

Again, the story is convoluted but you won't miss much if you skip straight to this one as they do a good job of recapping enough so you're not totally lost. I still think it takes itself a little to seriously, and I'm not a huge fan of how it gets near the end, but as a game it's a great experience.

Highly recommend this over the 2nd one for Sonic Adventure fans, though both are great games. The replayability and polish on this surpass even SA2 in those regards, imo.

Screenshot from Steam store page

Neon White (Steam)

Reminds me of Lovely Planet but with more polish and care placed into level design! I'm not too big a fan about how long the between-worlds sections can take with the plot, but I also haven't gotten very far in it.

Gameplay-wise, it's an FPS where you pick up cards to use guns/abilities to quickly defeat all the enemies and get to the end of a level as fast as you can. Replaying the level will open up other opportunities to get goodies or complete it faster by showing you a hint somewhere in the level that will save you enough time to get the highest rank. I really liked this game, but my attention span prevented me from getting very far. That's a me-problem though; this is a great pick-up for precision platforming and execution fans.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Switch)

I don't know how I feel about this game to be honest. I mean, I really like it but after I was done I was torn between "this game dragged on" and "I wish there was more to do".

To get started, this is a Zelda game where you play as Zelda, and instead of attacking directly you use a magic wand to copy and paste items and enemies to attack other enemies and solve challenges. It's a very fun concept, and I think they executed it well, but it runs into a few problems. First, when you find items and summons that let you bypass multiple things, you end up only ever using those. These get mitigated after a while with a few rooms and bosses that require specific elements, heights, wind obstacles etc. to get past, but "grab spider and climb wall" is a fairly early game discovery and a faithful one throughout nearly the whole game.

Second, narratively the game could use some work. I like the idea that Link is silent through the whole game, canonically, however Zelda really shouldn't have been. A game from Zelda's perspective has a lot of unique potential to tell a familiar story from a new angle using its own gameplay, but what really seems to have happened is we got "what if Link didn't have items but instead was kirby, and then also you can be Link normally sometimes." The game certainly shines in a lot of places with clever puzzles and copy interactions, but Zelda being the main character isn't explored upon and feels more like the gimmick than the gameplay gimmick. That on top of the entire game being about people fawning over how cool Link is and nobody outside of the castle knowing the princess of Hyrule somehow really cements that she can be done better, Nintendo. This point is also tough to bring up because it could easily be misconstrued as me saying "why ruin this game by making me play as a girl, UGH" but I would like to stress that I'm definitely not making that point; I'm saying they picked a character who is always crucial to the plot and arching theme of every game and didn't use that to the game's advantage. Also, every other Zelda game you should've been able to play as a girl don't @ me

As for the good parts though, they did a good job of world and puzzle design despite the issues with dominant solutions. I did 100% the game and run through areas multiple times to discover fun puzzles I hadn't seen before and cool hidden things that I would've missed had I not been so thorough. Ultimately this is a good game and I'd recommend it, but if possible try and find a way to play a bit of it first before dropping full price on it, as it may not be for every LoZ fan.

Super Nintendo World (Universal Studios Hollywood)

That's right; I went to a REAL LIFE VIDEO GAME!

And it was pretty cool! I'll open up top with a few caveats though:

Universal Studios struggles in comparison to Disney when it comes to immersion in their theme-parks, with their employees being not so much in character as much as people who are trying to keep a theme park going. In most areas this is fine, but SNW's facade and experience necessitates a bit more character work than they're clearly paying these people for.

Universal Studios Hollywood is cramped for space since it's actually a functioning Studio with over 20 sound stages and in the middle of an incredibly cramped city. As a result, there is only 1 ride, vs Japan's 2 (soon 3) and Orlando's 2. I also doubt they'll be adding the Donkey Kong Country to it.

This land requires that you pay $42 for the power up band, as without it you can only ride one ride, and the minigames/interactable content don't do anything if you don't have one. For families that didn't realize this, this is a huge bummer for kids who get to see a bunch of other people having a blast hitting blocks and getting coins, only for those same blocks to do an empty thud if you don't have one.

The space is way too small and without other rides. Since it's clearly USH's biggest draw at the moment and the ride easily gets to over an hour long wait and the missions encourage you riding it several times, it makes for an overwhelmingly crowded and anxious experience.

That all being said, I had a fun time there. With the power-up band and a smart phone, there are over 132 stamps to collect, including secret interactables in the world, collecting keys and coins to fight Bowser Jr (the biggest minigame in the area), completing minigames such as an interactable block wall that will stop a thwomp from falling, hitting timers to keep a piranha plant asleep, and timing a pow block hit to knock a koopa shell into a key. It's a really cool, well-done immersive experience and I appreciate that they made the whole place a game rather than a reference.

That being said, the band interactions could use some work. The Mario Kart ride is an interactable, AR 3D shooting game where you use koopa shells you get from item blocks to try and beat bowser's team, and while it's fun in its own right, the visors aren't wide enough to get a good view of everything, and the employees make no effort to tell you where to scan your band so that the ride actually counts in your app. As a result I had some fun with the ride itself, but my progress was not tracked and I was left wanting to try again only to be met with the 75 minute wait time, which we weren't doing. This would be mitigated with a much bigger park; you can encourage guests to re-run the same rides over and over again if all of them had similar band interactions, but with just the one it really grinds it all to a halt. The employees not explaining band interactions was a recurring issue; you'll spend a lot of time wondering if you're doing it right for some minigames and you don't know that somethings don't count as being completed, like character meet-ups, unless you make a point to ask and they let you scan something specific.

All-in-all, it's a fun experience but there's not too much there unless you're a freak like me, and it could still use a lot of work. I had a good time though and would go again, but the park being restricted to such a small space with only one real ride limits its potential, and on the whole it's an expensive experience.

If you do go though, I would highly recommend getting the early pass and going on a Tues/Wed/Thursday; Those are the cheapest, least crowded times, and the early pass will let you get in the Mario Kart ride without a wait if you're there on time. Avoid any times near holidays of course

Super Mario Party Jamboree (Switch)

Super Mario Party gets a sequel!... I'm not sure how this is different branch than Superstars though. I guess more sub-modes and focus on switch-only motion controls? It's fine, that's a nitpick.

I'll start out by saying that its core Mario Party game mode is pretty good! Most board have their own gimmick, but as a whole it's pretty close to the style of Mario Party everyone knows and loves without trying to reinvent things to the point of over-complication. The inclusion of "Pro mode" is also nice, as it allows you to play solo without feeling like the computers are robbing you and makes every decision you make on the board actually mean something. I have yet to play this with friends, but this feels like a fun game night experience and a good entry in the series for sure.

I will say that pro-mode feels like a necessary option in this one though. Mario Party is known for having a lot of randomness, but this game in particular has a TON more minigames, random events, and just un-counter-able nonsense than Superstars did. It's a little frustrating because I want to play with more minigames, but a lot are dominated by what are basically that exploding bowser minigame in terms of luck. No idea why "Select a key, select a door, hope for the best" is in there.

It also boasts having a ton of minigames in its own right, which technically isn't wrong, but when you split it by game mode it comes up severely lacking. On the box it says there are over 100, but when you play the main mode, exclude the completely random ones, and while I try not to personally I understand that a large chunk of players exclude motion controls, You'll be seeing repeats within the same game over 10 turns, and there are really at most 40 available. That sucks! I feel like I speak for a lot of people when I say I don't mind them bringing back more mini-games from Superstars; they add more variety, are nostalgic, and genuinely people appreciate non-repetitiveness more than they would appreciate having "new" minigames that they end up seeing way too often.

In terms of some new mechanics, the free-roaming team mode and buddy system present in Island tour and then in Super Mario Party has been replace by a "Jamboree buddy" system. Roughly half the characters (The unique, non-minion ones) have the chance of appearing on the board, and passing them initiates a unique minigame that if you win lets them follow you for 3 turns and grants you special perks. Events will proc twice when you have them, including shops, coins from spaces, stars, and even Bowser spaces, which is a fun risk-reward feature. They can also be stolen after being won, which is a bit frustrating because all that takes is passing the player with them. Would've preferred a duel minigame, boo, and/or an item to challenge them instead. But regardless, the gimmick is fun and most of their special minigames are cool because they're uniquely tailored to the character. My main issue with this is that it would've been cool to have minigames for every character, but I understand that time constraints would make that difficult.

The lack of the previously mentioned team/partner modes is a little sad though. Those modes were definitely my favorite "new" game mode the series introduced, and the unique dice per character added some fun and strategy to the otherwise simplest aspect of the game: rolling the dice. I would've preferred it over a couple of the Game modes they added, which I'll get into.

Party-Planner Trek is their single player mode, where you select a character and wander across the 5 main board completing challenges and mini-games to collect stars, each board ending in a boss minigame where you team up with characters you may have found along the way. It fine as a game mode, not too exciting and introduces you to each board, but also not really that difficult or entertaining in its own right. It'll only take a couple hours to complete, and the story itself is pretty low stakes

Para-Troopa flight school has you holding the joy-cons out to your sides like wings and flapping/gliding with them to move around in game. Unfortunately this is where my experience with it gets in the way; I have essential tremors which unfortunately means that my small, constant shaking easily meses up the sensors and I have to make much bigger movements to compensate. It's not for me, and Toad's Item Factory I've not even tried for similar reasons. Rhythm Kitchen is also similar to a Super Mario Party Game Mode, but again I found it improperly reading movements I made so I'm just passing on all these.

Koopathlon is a fall-guys esque? game mode. Not sure if "A lot of players bumble around trying to get further than the rest" is a genre yet, but also it's a little different, like Super Mario 35 was. Basically you go against 19 other players and play 3 "solo" minigames in a row where you try and rack up more coins overall before a bowser minigame that can even the playing field more, as you're playing directly against the other players and if you get eliminated you get sent back more and more spaces depending on your current lead. The minigames then come back a difficulty level harder. It's fun, but not really worth more than a couple replays, in my opinion.

And then finally Bowser Kaboom Squad has you working as a group of 8 players trying to take down imposter bowser before 5 rounds are up, running around and breaking crates to load bombs into a canon while environmental enemies and bowser himself tries to take everyone out. This is the game mode other than the main one I spend the most time in. It's not too difficult or stressful, and I much prefer the cooperative nature of this rather than the chaoticness of Koopathlon, but again this suffers from a shallow mini-game pool and only 3 levels.

Thematically this game also suffers from being a recent Mario spin-off, where they're not allowed to stray far from the Mario formula. Indeed, every NPC is aa different color toad or a basic enemy with a hat, which makes the game a lot more bland when those characters are already playable. It's frustrating that in the Gamecube era they were very willing to embrace the variety of wacky characters they had like Piantas and wacky hosts, but after Odyssey, 3D world, Wonder, all the Luigi's Mansions, Princess Peach Showtime, and their RPG games we're back to "Kamek is the host, everyone is a toad or bad guy, and we made a fake Bowser." The Mario world has a lot of creative things in it; please start using them

Overall this sounds like a bad review, but I still quite enjoyed it as a Mario Party game. I think Superstars is still a better core Mario-party experience, but this definitely stands up in it's own right. But if you're looking for a lot more variety in minigames, I'd maybe pick this one up on sale or something later down the line.

Screenshot from the Steam store page

Shadow Generations (Steam)

Ohey, the best 3D Sonic game, which previously I would've qualified since Generations, but it's EVEN BETTER?

I had a lot of things on a Wishlist for a Sonic Generations remake/sequel, but I wouldn't have ever said "side expansion about Shadow" as one of them. But lo, it was a wonderful decision! Plotwise, the story is somewhat hampered by the fact that it takes place before Lost World, meaning nothing can substantially change with Shadow's character/ knowledge in future games like Forces, but they did a great job with his characterization none the less. His voice actor, whose been on the job for a while, still feels like he's trying just a bit too hard to be edgy, but not so bad that it detracts from everything more than just being like "Haha, edgehog"

Gameplay wise it's a vast improvement over the baseline Generations. It's in a different engine (more on that in the next review), but it's close enough to stay familiar while also being much smoother. Shadow's Doom powers add the sort of progression that Sonic's been flubbing with for quite some time, offering options that both improve movement and attacks in ways that allow you to properly branch paths in ways more interesting than "did you jump when the spring wasn't visible on the screen" that Generations liked to do.

Length wise, it's also pretty decent. I would say that I would've liked one more "world", something like Prison Island from Shadow the Hedgehog and a boss fight with a GUN robot. It was actually surprising that that game didn't get any level representation, and they opted to instead shove Radical Highway in every level. It was the first level you play as him in the series, but Doom being like "That's some nice platforming you're doing, shame if it were suddenly RADICAL HIGHWAY" every time got old. I would've rather they stuck with themes in the level, like Rail Canyon could shift to have weird gravity and parts from Mystic Manor, The ark could have you planet hopping like you did in the Rouge/Knuckles levels, Forces could've had the ruby fucking with everything. It would be more novel anyway.

But for those who like the boost style gameplay of 3D Sonic games, this is the best outing yet and worth picking up for $30 at least. If you've not played the original Generations, this is a great bundle.

Screenshot from the Steam store page

Sonic X Shadow Generations (Steam)

This is for the "remake" part of the bundle, which is just a slightly updated Sonic Generations. I did 100% both of the games in here.

I consider these to be separate games mostly because even the game considers them to be separate. Instead of remaking Sonic Generations in the engine they had access to, they really only did some slight, almost mod-like changes to the version of Sonic Generations that was already available on steam to account for Sonic being an asshole to Amy (for literally no reason, originally framing Sonic shoving his hand in her face to talk to tails as "cool", so a good change actually) and then plot changes for Shadow Generations to fit better in. This version of Sonic Generations is then launched after you select it in the starting menu, as if it was a launcher itself.

On the one hand, I'm okay with this because it was likely a rights/age of the engine issue that prevented them from updating the game significantly or remaking it entirely in the new engine. On the other... Modders have used Generations as the base for like 12 years now? It would've been cool to see them add in more levels, if only just the 3DS levels that now are unplayable through any modern means. Granted, the 3DS levels weren't good, but they had game representation in there that's now just completely lost.

Adding in new levels would've also been nice. Sega re-used, and will continue to re-use assets from the Sonic Generations, so there's justification for adding more substantial content from games that are overwhelmingly popular in the series and were missing from the original, ie anything from Advanced, Rush, 3D Blast, to newer games that never made it to 3D like Mania.

Gameplay wise, it's still pretty good. It definitely shows some of its age with level and mission design, but overall it was the best 3D Sonic experience since Adventure 2, and then undefeated until Shadow Generations in my mind.

I would recommend picking it up if you don't own Sonic Generations anyway, but if you've played it at all, especially recently, don't buy it for Sonic Generations; Buy it for Shadow

Screenshot from Steam store page

Sonic Origins (Steam)

So now I'm on a Sonic kick, and while I waited a while to pick this collection due to its price and also misleading release, I'm glad I did now the plus version is out and it was on sale.

Full disclosure, I'd never actually 100% CD and 3 & Knuckles. CD was a bit to complex for me (and I had no idea you had to go back in time and destroy the generators on every level), and I only ever had &Knuckles to play with originally. The removal of lives (optional) and the ability to use medals to replay levels and specials stages really allows for exploration of levels without fearing losing all your progress, and to makes a much more enjoyable experience on the whole. The music they had to replace is definitely worse than the originals, but easily overlooked. Otherwise, the games play well, the inclusion of Amy was a good choice (though I would've liked to have seen more classic characters for the price) and the other quality of life features are good as well. The 10 Game Gear games are nice, but none of them are really that memorable or play well on their own so that's passable.

If this is on sale for $5-10 and you haven't played all these games to death, I'd pick it up, but if you own these games in another form this is certainly a more polished way of enjoying them but nothing to drop too much on

Image from srb2 website

Sonic Robo Blast 2 (PC)

After an attempt to revisit Forces to continue my Sonic 100% streak up to 7, I decided to pick up one of the most beloved Sonic fangames which started out as a DOOM mod (and I think still is? I didn't research this tbh).

Overall I'd say it's pretty fun; the multitude of characters to play as cool and the levels feel more or less true to what a 3D classic sonic would be. I however didn't finish it, as I kept getting frustrated with the thok move, camera, and controls, and after all those 100%'s I kept needing to restart to find those chaos emeralds. Ultimately, I made the experience worse for myself to achieve an arbitrary goal.

The game is free and a really fun fangame, so give it a try but also understand the controls and movement aren't for everyone

Screenshot from my only god pack pull so far

Pokemon TCG Pocket (Android)

I hate Gacha Games. Blind Boxes are gambling. Therefore, this blind box F2P game is the worst thing I've ever downloaded on my phone.

Except it's not? I really can't explain it past Nostalgia for when I was 5 collecting Pokemon cards, especially since I suck at battling as much now as I did then, but there's just something cool about collecting all the pokemon and seeing all the cool card art. I am not immune to the dopamine rush of opening 2 card packs a day and a 1/5 chance of picking from friend's packs.

Gameplay wise it's a little simpler than the in-person game, but as a result smaller balance issues make greater impacts. In most cases for example, it's much better to get tails on the initial coin flip to go second, as the energy advantage is usually way more useful that the evolution advantage that the first player gets on turn 3. Also, a large number of decks rely on coin flips going well, and that can get frustrating very quickly when you're already relying on card draws being in your favor.

This game is a dangerous gateway drug into getting into TCGs for real. Use responsibly, and understand that when you drop your first buck on any gambling game you have crossed the biggest line to cross and it will be hard if not impossible to go back.

Mario & Luigi: Brothership (Switch)

I was so excited to see the series not only return, but in stylized 3D! I was very concerned this series was dead after the studio shut down.

That being said, this one is just... alright. The way it's structured with the constant return to hub and the disjointed islands is not doing it any favors. It might be more... "streamlined" I suppose, but what I really liked about the series was for the most part the world was interesting to explore and really bizarre and wacky. With every dungeon essentially being a rather small island among a vast, mostly empty ocean, it kinda feels a bit shallow.

It also unfortunately suffers from the issues that prevented Dream Team from being on of the greats, mainly the constant tutorials all the way up to the final boss and cutscenes explaining what just clearly happened on screen to you in case you weren't playing during the playable section where you did the thing.

Gameplay wise it's pretty solid; It can get pretty repetitive, especially in the first half the game when you're missing a lot of your kit and mainly just focus on jump attacks. But it's a M&L game, so even that feels really solid, and the battle plug system also adds a lot to the game. The characterization of Bowser, Jr., and his minions is also really solid.

Overall this game suffers from dragging on way too long, which I can't even say is because it's just too long a game or the dialogue and constant explanations really stretch it for all it's worth. I'd place this below Dream Team, as not a bad game but one with a number of flaws preventing it from being good. Worth a pick-up if it ever goes on sale, but also not a necessary experience like Superstar Saga, SMRPG, or TTYD.

Official Update Artwork by Hibachi (@HibachiX1)

Dead Estate: GOOD NIGHT! (Steam)

The final update for this game! I decided now would be as good a time as ever to catch up on those achievements. I never did, but only because of Assignment Anya (the last update I covered earlier this year).

This update adds a Dream route, which include 4 floors, a bonus floor that can appear in the main route, and some insane bosses leading to a unique ending for each characters and even more costumes! It's a really solid cap on the game and a great note to end on; I thoroughly enjoyed almost every moment with it.

If you've not picked up Dead Estate yet, it's now "complete" and definitely worth the purchase. If it's been a while, it''s worth a revisit (but warm up on some basic runs and challenges first)

Screenshot from the Steam store page

ATLYSS (Steam)

Once again it's proven that randy furries can make some of the best content known to man (I don't know if the creators of this, Pseudoregalia, or Dust an Elysian Tale are horny furries it's a joke I should probably delete this when I proofread it).

Atlyss is a Diablo-like game combined with a 3D platformer, where you can pick one of 6 races and then 3 classes to get a variety of skills, weapons, and attacks to overcome enemies, dungeons, and complete quests. It's very fun despite only having 2 dungeons in it so far, and even better when you grab a friend or few to do some dungeon runs. I'm very excited to see where the game goes!

This game really took off of course because of its character customization, which lets you slide bars all the way to the right to get absurd proportions and wear some pretty thirsty clothes. That being said, while its character designs are definitely what you would expect with a game that lets you do that, the amount of options lets you create some really cool looking characters. The game even makes a point to give you scrolls that let you learn the skills other races have innately pretty early on, so there's really no reason not to make your favorite character look how they want and then play them exactly how you want (because imp's life drain is insanely powerful)

You could wait for more content, but honestly there's a good 8 hours in there right now to mess around with a some built in replay ability, I very much recommend this one

Screenshot from the Steam store page

UFO 50 (Steam)

I'm gonna have a couple controversial reviews on this list I think, but maybe not too controversial.

This is a collection of NES style games, with on overarching narrative about this being a found classic console with these 50 games released in order in the 80s. The games themselves for the most part feel very modern in a way that's hard to describe. They lack that classic jank that NES games used to have, like the sprite limit flicker, bad hitboxes in ice climbers, etc that make it just enough not to hit my nostalgia buttons but also mechanics that are much more polished overall.

Total I think I played 15 games before I put this one down. Each game is actually a real game in its own right, ranging from RPGs, arcade style games, platformers, puzzle games, even some strategy games in there. I've definitely spent a lot more time in some games than others, but this is unfortunately where I run into a personal problem when it comes to compilation games. If I'm not excited to try every game in the bundle, I often time abandon it pretty quickly.

I understand this is a me problem and I may have just not found the crazy good ones yet, but these games for the most part all just felt like fine. None of them really grabbed me except one of the later ones where you play as a Spaceman and gather resources like the top-down sections in Blaster Master, but even that was hindered by the design choice to make you wait for meat to regen in your town before you can explore more.

Overall, I can tell a lot of love went into this compilation and i'm not faulting it for that. Personally, I just couldn't get too into a lot of these games in the modern era, and because of that I ended up dropping this compilation early. Your mileage may very!

Screenshot from Steam store page

Black Mesa (Steam)

The Half-Life 2 update that made it workshop compatible and contain every Episode reminded me of this! But mostly my friend Blossom sharing funny videos of it actually.

I actually wasn't a huge fan of original half-life that much; I find the sequel nails the tone and game feel a lot better, but again it's not bad. Certainly this is the definitive way to play the original, and worth picking up for that alone, but if you didn't like the OG half-life you're not going to get much mileage out of this

Screenshot from Steam store page

Marvel Rivals (Steam)

Overwatch but better! I think. It's very easy to get overwhelmed in this game, and clearly takes a lot of time to understand character dynamics and what is even going on, but honestly I enjoyed what little time I spent with this way, waaaaaaay more than any time I spent with Overwatch. Sniping also doesn't seem to be nearly as prevalent; a huge plus for people like me who, on top of knowing that snipers take away any fun from a game that balances around weapon strength/reload speed/range, are correct.

There's clearly some balancing issues, but overall since I'm never going to be playing competitive it's just a good time and I can look past that.

It scratches that hero shooter itch without fomo or demanding so much of your time. Definitely worth a try (with friends)

Screenshot from DLC Steam store page

Disney Dreamlight Valley: Storybook Vale (Switch)

This is again what my Sister plays when she visits (or I visit her), so this is from the perspective of someone who watches her play and occasionally when she doesn't complete timed events finishes those up after the visits.

I'll open up by saying that the game definitely runs a lot better overall. Granted, it's very far from perfect, but the game crashes are now few and far between, slowdown is a lot less common, the music no longer skips, and a lot of item spawning issues have been fixed. Granted, the slowdowns are still there, loading times are frankly unacceptable still, and the item management system still needs to be reworked to prevent forced loading screens if they're going to be this long, but it's good progress.

This expansion specifically adds a whole new land in the form of the Storybook vale, a world shaped vaguely like a book that has 3 biomes: a ruined library in the fall, a golden Greek paradise based off of Hercules, and a fairytale forest with references to Alice in Wonderland and Sleeping Beauty. It adds in 3 new befriendable characters (will like increase to 5 later), Merida from Brave, Flynn from Tangled, and the star of the show Hades from Hercules.

The lands themselves are much better design, going from geometric walls and winding paths found in the base game and last expansion to much larger, more detailed and open areas that allow you to see further into the distance and actually take in the sightlines. It also adds in a new mechanic, a net, which you use to gather Snippets (small creatures made out of paper) which you then use to rebuild a book and create art to advance the plot.

On the whole, it's more of the same gameplay loop but better polished. It's very easy to lose yourself running around and doing tasks, but since my sister isn't one for decorating the world that specific large aspect of the game gets lost.

The new characters are neat, though I've not seen Brave myself. Flynn is also an odd choice, as now all three main characters from Tangled, what I thought was one of Disney's weakest movies, are now present in the game when other majorly successful movies like Alice in Wonderland and 101 Dalmatians are nowhere to be seen.

My older reviews still mostly stand in terms of recommending this game at all, but the expansion offers a fair amount of new content and promises to release more throughout the year so it's not a bad game.

Luigi's Mansion 2 HD (Switch)

Aight so I have major beef with this one, to the point where I kinda want to do an extensive write-up on all the switch ports/remasters that Nintendo's done over the past 7 years. Their record kinda sucks but this is the worst by far.

This is just a straight port of Luigi's Mansion Dark Moon on the 3DS. It can only technically be called HD because of the resolution, but other than that, some lighting, and a few specific textures I cannot tell the difference between the two. Additionally, they did not fix any of the animations, something that's forgivable on the 3DS because the resolution's so small and it's a tiny console, but when you see animations in cutscenes just run out and characters freeze on the big screen it's frankly unacceptable to call this "HD." In a lot of games I review, I talk about how their jank is part of the charm, but this isn't just jank, it looks bad and lazy.

As far as new features: There aren't any. This game is virtually identical to the 3DS original, except there isn't 3D. I know a lot of people didn't like the 3D on that console, but I loved it and consider it a feature taken out. So to me, this is the equivalent of an upscaling mod on your PC. For nearly twice the price the game was 11 years ago. Absurd.

Gameplay wise, this is the weakest entry in the series by a mile. The constant interruptions from E. Gadd and the mission structure make it really difficult to get into the gameplay and environments since you're constantly being told what wacky thing just happened on screen or just straight up yanked out of the level back to the hub. It was again acceptable at the time because portable games typically get different experiences than you would expect from a home console, but on a home console it's just not an engaging experience.

I got this as a gift, and I spent the whole time playing thinking about how much a waste of money this was. Skip it and get Luigi's Mansion 3 if you haven't

Screenshot from the Steam store page

Awaria (Steam)

From the makers of Helltaker comes Helltaker but as a fast-paced arcade-like game instead! You play as a repair-lady who runs around between generators and generator part dispensers to fix them while being assaulted by ghost ladies with strange powers related to how they died. Then you smooch them at the end of each level. Pretty simple, but really addictive and easily overwhelming as parts take time to generate, you have a limited amount of time to fix generators, and you can only hold 2 items at once. As it introduces parts that take other parts to generate, it really forces you to strategize instantaneously while running around and dodging like a madman.

The difficulty is quite up there, but it wasn't anything insurmountable and I played it on Hard mode by default, which you don't have to do of course. I would highly recommend giving this one a go; it's another labor of love and insanely fun for the time you spend with it. Also it's free

Screenshot from Steam store page

Balatro (Steam)

I'm really bad at poker and I've only gotten to like Ante 4? in a run so far and that felt like a lot of luck by getting insane straight multipliers and then losing when I couldn't make a straight. Other than that, I really don't get it; it seems like a distilled rogue-lite in that they've removed core gameplay elements and turned it from a platformer/shooter/deckbuilder etc. to just playing cards, and while I typically enjoy that style of gameplay I need more than that out of a game. It just genuinely feels like luck.

Personally I would skip this, but it's also one of the most bought, played, and well-received games of 2024 so like my opinion's an outlier here.

Screenshot from Steam store page

Tower Factory (Steam Early Access)

This is a really neat idea! Basically a mix between your standard Tower Defense game and your endless factory maker (Satisfactory, Factorio, etc.) You basically have to create and optimize factory buildings and conveyor belts to get the resources you need, process them into different resources, and then use those top create the towers to defend this.

While doing this, you need to create light towers to further unlock the map and find Light Crystals, which you then use to defeat the wizard tower (enemy spawn point) which you also have to find. Maps are randomly generated, with your resource pools, obelisks that power up adjacent towers, resource/coin chests, and light crystals scatter across the map. This allows for your replays to be different every time each level, of which there are 4, progressively harder ones so far.

Despite not seeming like a lot, the replayability is high and in fact key, because you start off with very few towers and resources and may end up losing your first bout on each level, gaining coins depending on your performance at the end of the level. These coins can then be used to permanently upgrade and unlock new towers'/factory components to help you perform better on the next run.

It's pretty fun! It can get really hectic jumping between the two halves of the game, especially since resource pools can run out and you may need to refactor your factory during an intense wave, but the actual TD aspects of it are pretty simple so it's not overwhelming. It unfortunately falls into the pitfall that almost every genre crossover game has however, where if the audiences for both were a Venn diagram, the only people who would really get into the game would be at the intersection of both genres, not pools from both sides. The TD aspect is pretty simple, and the factory aspect seems so as well, and they have to be so in the intense moments you're not overwhelmed fine tuning either. Again, I like it, but it's very easy to tell it's not for everyone.

Keep in mind it's early access, but if you like TD and Factory games this might be worth a pick-up! or at least a follow to see when it nears completion if Early Access is understandably not your thing. I picked it up in the Steam winter sale.

And that's it! thank you for reading this far, and have a great 2025!

[unofficialgayawakening]

hi, thank you for your work in trying to help keep gay awakening updated! Question: is there any way for someone to individually remove specific support options from the mod? I’d like to use it but would very particularly like to remove the chrom/Frederick option for my own playthroughs because Frederick is canonically stated to have helped raise chrom and lissa according to the drama cd so it makes me uncomfortable :’) if it’s not something that can be done I understand, but if it is id very much love to know how to do that!

Hey there, sorry to hear that Chrom/Frederick makes you uncomfortable! This is the first time I'm hearing about this part of the drama CD-I should really listen to/read that one of these days.

It's actually really easy to add/remove support options nowadays, you just need a program called Paragon and a full dump of the vanilla game's romfs (what the folder containing all of the game's files is called). I'll include instructions here below the readme. If you get stuck or can't get things working, feel free to join the discord and we'll be able to help you more directly!

Step 1 - Get a clean dump of your game's romfs.

Citra users: Right click on your game and select 'Dump RomFs'

Luma users: Launch your 3ds while holding Start to run GodMode9. (note: this guide was written for version v2.1.0 of GodMode9 and any older or newer releases may have different wording) - Physical: Select 'GAMECART' - Digital: Select 'SYSNAND SD' and go into 'title' folder. Open the '00040000' folder to find your games and select FEA's title ID. NA: 000A0500 EU: 0009F100 - Open 'NCSD image options…' and select 'Mount image to drive' then press A. Open 'content0.game' and press R+A while hovering over the romfs folder. Copy to 0:/gm9/out. This is the filepath you'll use to find it when you move to your computer.

Step 2 - Now that you have your romfs dump, you're going to download Paragon and start a new project. The project name can be whatever you want it to be, but make sure you select the right language and game. Your Extracted RomFS Directory is the vanilla romfs dump that you just grabbed, and the Output Directory is going to be UGA's romfs folder. The filepaths will be different when using Luma or if you move anything around for ease of access, but it should look something like this when you're done:

Step 3 - To remove the support options itself, you're going to open the Characters module in the section labeled "Core Data". From there, go to Chrom's name and switch to his Supports tab. Scroll down until you see Frederick's name, and change the Support Type from Fast to Non-romantic. Do the same thing for Frederick- select him and look for Chrom in his support tab to change the Support Type from Fast to Non-romantic. If the support type doesn't match for both characters, they won't be able to gain any support ranks at all, so make sure you change both of them!

Step 4 - The previous step removed the ability for them to support, but you probably want to remove the S support from the support log as well. In the main Paragon menu, you're going to look at the left side where it says "Nodes" and look for the option called "Support / Reliance List". From there, go to both characters and delete their last support (the one that says Support Level 4, with 0 as the Support Number). Make sure to select the correct Delete button as shown in this image:

For Frederick, you're also going to want to delete his PC supports with Lucina, so scroll down and delete all three of the Fredrick x Lucina posts that have the Support Type set to Parent/Child. Now, make sure you also go to select the first support in these lists (the first support with male robin) and select the Regenerate IDs option furthest to the right (not the one on top!). The automatic 0 it gives you is fine, this step is to ensure the game reads the edited support log correctly- failing to regenerate IDs may cause issues. Now that that's been done you're finished in Paragon, so you can go to File > Save to save those changes!

Step 5 - The last thing you can do (if you so desire) is delete the actual supports themselves. You can find the support files in romfs/m/E, where you'll see a ton of files named with Japanese characters. Chrom and Frederick's modded supports are named "クロム_フレデリク.bin.lz" while Lucina and Frederick's PC support is named "マルス_フレデリク_親子.bin.lz"

Step 6 - After that, just make sure your romfs folder is where your mods go and you should be set! You should be able to see the changes both in-game and in the support log now.

Lastly, here are a few things you should know when it comes to updates:

The two files you've edited are the static.bin.lz (this controls many things in the game, including support options) and the RelianceList.bin.lz (the support log)

Unless the support options in the latest update change, or there's a bugfix regarding support gain, you will not need to replace your static.bin.lz! Just keep the one you edited when you update, everything will work perfectly fine. I don't expect the static.bin.lz to be updated frequently, but I will be tweaking support options for the Spotpass characters later down the line so you will have to redo Step 3 when that happens.

The support log for UGA has not been finished yet, so the RelianceList.bin.lz WILL get updated in the next major release, so you will have to replace your own edited one. When that happens, you'll have to repeat Step 4 again, but that doesn't take too long so hopefully that's not an issue! When I finish the support log, you won't have to do this ever again.

And that should be everything! I hope it wasn't too confusing- after you set up Paragon for the first time it's honestly really easy to make changes to the game. It's a super friendly program, and you can do all sorts of silly things with it. Like I said though, you're welcome to join the discord for more direct help from us! We're friendly, I promise :P

[jackalopes-pen]

Chapter 2: Oddity

Summary: Fastpass begrudgingly goes to handle a call, and finds himself asking a few strange questions.

Characters: Jimmy Valmer | Fastpass , XXXXXXX | The Crow

Word Count: 1059 words

Previous: [Encounter]

A/N: One note, thanks. Oh well, still gonna do this.

Night is when the fun really starts in the city. It’s when your job lets you get off to go drink, it’s when the bars are populace and bustling, it’s when you can breathe and really let yourself relax. On nights like these where the wind is tempting people inside and the drinks are at a more modest price, normally Fastpass would take up the opportunity for an open mic night. That would be what he was doing if some idiot didn’t decide to ruin his night and break into a construction site. It’s probably rats or some homeless guy but sure, ruin his night for a false alarm. It’s not like he has a life too.

Fastpass arrived at the construction site, a new building for Mortengrad Corporation to run operations in the city more directly. In seriousness, Fastpass never liked the company, but it didn’t matter what he thought about the company itself or its actions. Be a paragon, do the right thing, save the day. He looked around, there was no sign of entry or struggle over the tarp of the fence. Someone experienced then?

He sped around the site, and was genuinely confused to what he was supposed to be looking for. No footprints but his own, nothing disturbed, not even a missing beam of steel. Just as he was about to call it a night, he felt it. The wind was blowing east, yet a gust blew north. Something was definitely here, something that would take an annoyingly long time to handle. He slowly looked around before sighing and deciding to use the age old technique of ‘made you flinch’.

Fastpass banged his metal crutch into the foundation of the building, setting off a chain echo of noisy metal. The skittish little thing popped out, gotcha. Fastpass rushed over to where it was hiding, whatever it was and was immediately struck with a scythe. Fuck, not them again.

“W-well well. If it isn’t the biggest p-p-pain in my ass since c-c-Cosby.” Fastpass quipped. Standing on the third row of beams up in the sky was a tall winged figure, with a scythe in hand. 

“What a title.” The Crow’s face was completely masked by a caplet and half mask of a crow’s face. Even so, the sarcasm was palpable and the eyeroll may as well have been a whole broadcast. 

“W-well don’t just loom up there. Come at me b-bitch.” Fastpass spoke, with all the tenacity he could muster. Crow seemed eager to take him up on the request.

Crow swooped down from above and swung at Fastpass, aiming for his crutches. The two did this a lot, Crow keeping to the air with his massive black wings and Fastpass zooming around the ground. Fastpass never understood why Human Kite couldn’t take calls regarding him. They could actually fight in the air instead of running around like a mouse.’

“You know something, Crow? You n-never seem to talk to me when we do this. Do you hate me?” Fastpass said, striking up a conversation. This back and forth was always so damn boring, the least they could do was talk.

“Maybe I prefer to talk to someone who has more tact.” The Crow replied, with venom in his voice. He landed, and switched to a more hand-to-hand approach, probably seeing that his flight strategy wasn;t panning out.

“Tact? I’m a fucking s-s-stand-up c-comdiean. I have tact.” Fastpass argued. This idiotic bird clearly doesn’t ideate. He sped over to the vigilante with a rope but the bird launched himself up with his wings in the nic of time. He swooped down to remove the rope from Fastpass’ grip and tossed it aside.

“If you’re such a comic, make better comebacks.” The Crow huffed. He dropped down to kick at Fastpass’ legs but the hero is far too fast for that. He sped out and the two rescued a more hand-to-hand combat.

“Wow, what a great audience.” Fastpass huffed under his breath, as the two traded blows. This was starting to drag longer than he wanted.. Oh fuck it. He spoke up. “Say bug guy, w-why are you messing with this site anyway?”

“A-are you serious?” The Crow stopped dead in his tracks, seemingly very confused. 

“W-well yeah. W-what’s the big deal?” Fastpass also stopped. The two were just standing, facing each other with one much more confused than the other. 

“Uh.. well, the position of the building would mean it runs on East District power, and would likely cause regular black-outs and shortgages. So.. we don’t want it completed.” Crow is choosing his words carefully, that’s obvious. 

Fastpass thinks for a moment. The cause is decent, and even kinda noble to risk imprisonment to save the East District. It was almost too… human. These are villains, they shouldn;t have an actually decent cause for their wrongs but that’s valid. Especially if The Omens live in the East District, which is the poorest part of the city. Why they not defend their home?

“You w-what? I actually have something I want to do tonight, so go ahead. B-but if anyone asks, I did fight you.” Fastpass smirks, as The Crow seems even more baffled.

“Okay, yeah. You… definitely left a mark or two.” Crow is being hesitant, probably very on edge about the whole exchange.

“Cool, just d-don’t hurt anyone.” Fastpass shrugged and sped off before Crow could even respond. His work was done here, as far as he was concerned.

It was strange though, he’s more than willing to admit that. To see The Omens of all groups holding a noble cause to their chaos is.. weird. He didn’t have to worry much about that now though, the site would be largely destroyed and a token would be left at the scene. That’s what they do.

Tonight just became Jimmy’s night again, though, and that was absolutely wonderful. He sped down to Skeeter’s bar just as the back door was closing. He wooshed into the dressing room so he could get out of this costume and into some normal clothes that are actually comfortable. He looked in the mirror, as he smiled and took a breath to prepare for his act. He, of course, wrote it to utter perfection. 

“Jimmy? You ready to go on?” the stage manager asked.

“Oh h-h-he-hell yes.” Jimmy stutterd out.

[mental-mario]

Part II: Borderline Boogaloo!

Before I continue about my experience in the psych ward, I want to thank my new friend (who is hopefully a real person) lady-macbeth13 for joining me and hopping aboard! I encourage you if you're reading this to click that follow button so you can be my friend as well. Hop aboard this thing before it takes off so you can say, "I knew him when..." Also, please help a friend out and tip me if you can spare it! You can't see but I'm shaking my change cup on the corner right now. I currently have no income, so I am trying to afford the monthly bills and also a video capture card and HDMI splitter so I can get live streaming off the launching pad! I am also trying to afford Super Mario Bros. Wonder, so I truly appreciate any tips you can help with! I want to get some online multiplayer up and streaming with everyone, so look out for that as well! Finally, my friend code on Switch is posted in my bio at this time and QR code is my profile pic, so send me a friend invite! I'm lonely and need friends! :)

So when we left off, I was getting strip searched by 2 nursing staff, and as kinky as that was, it ended rather abruptly when they had me put my jumpsuit back on. Before I could contain my arousal, they showed me to the infamous padded cell. Now, this is all taking place in a cramped, locked, dark area with no windows. The padded cell felt much like a cubicle made of the padded mats from gym class. The walls were the same material, and there was a camera up in the corner of the ceiling near the dingy yellow light. The door had a small slotted window as well. The staff member told me she had to show me the cell so she could document that she showed it to me, and I would only need to see it again if I got violent. From there I was let back out into gen-pop and was given a dinner tray with microwave pizza, which was probably the best thing I had there to eat. As an aside, you may want to make sure what you eat can be a finger food because it is a tall order to eat an overcooked pork chop or chicken breast with a plastic spoon.

As I sat at one of the tables in the dayroom, I got the chance to better observe the environment. There was a TV which was showing the ever-therapeutic local news, where they were running a story about another shooting somewhere. I started feeling less depressed already...There were also a few games like Jenga and Sorry available, which nobody played. Also available was some paper and colored pencils. I ate and sat in a stupor, as the atarax was still kicking in my system. There were posted rules on the wall, stating we are to remain in the dayroom during the day, participate in groups when scheduled, make our beds every day, and clean up after ourselves, including our food trays. The doors were all locked with security monitoring the main doors and cameras everywhere except for the bedrooms. There were a few locked doors designated for group exercise and meeting with the psych team, but I wouldn't get the chance to be evaluated or talk to anyone until the next morning. The rooms were mostly 2 beds but some were private. I did end up having a roommate that night which I hated, but he was quiet enough that I could sleep that night in combination with trazodone. Also in the room was a sink, a bathroom with half door (no lock), a toilet with no seat, and a shower that was surprisingly adequate. For other entertainment, if board games don't grab ya, you could walk laps around the nurse's station, and they even had a helpful sign to let us know that just 33 times around = 1 mile! I know nothing could make me feel more prepared to reintegrate into society than stumbling around the nurse's desk like a zombie in a paper suit that was 2 sizes too large for me.

Since I had checked myself in voluntarily, I was allowed to sign a discharge request notice, which would allow them no longer than 72 hours after submitting it to continue holding me. By 9:30pm, I was ready to go to bed after a long day, and I was also ready to sign the aforementioned form. The unit was loud with lots of hollering, and that triggered my anxiety and shut me right down. Brought me back to my year at the college dorm, which was traumatic and did not go well for me. When I knocked on the door to the nurse's station, I was informed that my nurse was busy at the moment, as she had patients on the other unit to attend to. I stood outside the station, waiting for my nurse to return. By 10:15, I had enough. I knocked on the nurse's door again and said that I didn't care who handled the form but that I wanted to sign it. This other nurse then comes out and gets in my face and tells me it has to be with my nurse and also, "you won't be leaving here tomorrow...I can tell you that!" She replied with such a nasty attitude, and if it's one thing you want to do as a medical professional working on a psych unit, it is to instigate someone with BPD. I started to get nasty right back, and the nurse slunk away back behind the glass, perhaps realizing that she wasn't making the best decision in that moment. I stood around some more until my nurse finally arrived at 10:30pm, and I was wondering the whole time at what point I could expect this experience to actually start making me feel better and less suicidal. Spoiler alert: that moment never came. After this nurse checked that I properly swallowed my late meds, I went to sleep at 11pm, which began quiet time.

I am going to break there and continue on in Part III for my next post, so make sure you click FOLLOW to make sure you don't miss out on that! After all, I feel like we are starting to become good friends now, so friend me and make me a part of your day! I will try not to be too needy! And again, my friend code on Switch is SW-4419-5159-3401. Send me a friend invite and I will accept! I'm lonely...and I'm also broke and unemployable, so please hook your new friend up with some tips on my page! Thank you, and I love you!

[madewithonerib]

The Entrepreneurs Who Regret Starting Businesses

Becoming your own boss can be glamorous. But not everyone who’s forged their independent professional path is happy they did. BBC Worklife | Megan Tatum

This one is fun bc it reminds me of Adam Witt's comment on getting glamourous lol, I love that kid. I've already read up on the subject of entreprenurs burning out & regretting expanding from solopreneur to a team of 4-10. This article expands on the risk factor of running a business in a tumultuous business climate where the going concern emanates past your own to that of others whom you rely on.

Sam Schreim has been his own boss for nearly 20 years. He’s opened his own consultancy firm, launched multiple start-ups and advised high-net-worth clients as an independent consultant. But if the 54-year-old could go back, he may never have taken the plunge.

“If I’d had a crystal ball, I would’ve never made that jump,” says Boston-based Schreim. “I regret it all the time. I look back, and by now I would’ve consistently been making seven figures as a management consultant had I stayed working with the large firms.”

Quitting work to become your own boss has rarely been more popular. In 2022, for instance, new US business applications spiked to their highest levels since 2004, with more than 5 million new firms starting. But as evidenced by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March, which left many small firms without access to their essential accounts, being a founder comes with big risks and responsibilities – and leads some people to regret ever giving up their day jobs. 

Schreim learned this the hard way in 2008, when Great Recession struck. He was forced to pay salaries to a team of 15 out of his savings. He racked up sleepless nights and huge amounts of debt. The start-ups he later launched all ultimately failed. And even now, as a solopreneur, combining freelance consultancy with writing books and developing information-based products, he often looks back with regret at not simply sticking with his job at a large management consultancy in Beirut.

“My friends envy me,” he says. “But they don’t know what I go through. Every entrepreneur is a risk taker, and the world needs them, but it's not an easy lifestyle."

It isn’t uncommon for the realities of running your own business to clash with expectations, says UK-based careers coach Ayesha Murray. “As business owners, we want to succeed, but we often have unrealistic expectations from the outset around sales numbers, income or work-life boundaries,” she points out. “If you've had a successful career before starting out on your own, there could be an assumption that whatever you try next will also work out.”

Added to this is the risk of comparing the gritty reality of your experience as an entrepreneur with the seemingly thriving experiences others share online.

Case Study #2

That was the case for Catherine Warrilow, who first set up her own PR agency in 2006, having found she struggled with the hierarchy of a traditional workplace. From the outside, it looked like a positive move. The agency grew into a successful business, with seven staff and top clients.

“But I never switched off,” says Warrilow. “I felt overwhelmed and anxious all the time. Nothing ever felt good enough.”

The stress turned her into “a complete control freak”, always micro-managing her team. It wasn’t what the now 43-year-old from Oxford, UK, had imagined. “My biggest misconception was that being my own business equalled freedom, that you could come and go as you pleased and set your own hours,” she says. The reality was life had to fit around work, with clients expecting her to be constantly available.

lol I take it she never took Entrepreunurship course where you are required to interview real live entrepreneurs for their hot takes? My one person told me she actually sleeps in her office that is how much commitment is required of her to run her own business; she was a tax accountant though, so I dunno.. but my CFO at another firm was texting my director at all hours of the night, bc his brain wouldn't stop coming up with problems to check into. Tough customer, that's what this comment reminds me of + the tech bubble-prenuers who work 16+ hours 7 days/wk + playing GOD, an interview with a Psychiatrist who treats ppl with anger issues

That’s why, in 2015, having been offered a job by one of her prospective clients, the mother of two decided to give up the company. “The day I decided not to carry on being self-employed was probably one of the best days of my professional life,” she says. “It felt like a massive weight had lifted.”

Now managing director at travel company daysout.com, she says she enjoys many of the freedoms she’d hoped would come hand-in-hand with entrepreneurism. She’s able to pop out for appointments and finish early some days to meet a friend for coffee.

As for Schreim, he will stay his own boss for now. Though he tried working full-time for a large firm as recently as 2017, he just couldn’t make the transition.

“I found myself despising having a boss over my head, having to report to work and having to deal with admin tasks,” he says. He says, though, these elements may not have bothered him if he’d simply never become his own boss in the first place.

Of course, there are plenty of success stories, and many people who hang their own shingles would never look back. Still, Schreim is cautious about encouraging anyone else to follow in his footsteps: “Anybody who wants to make that jump into entrepreneurism needs to be aware of the ups and downs.”

This post originally appeared on BBC Worklife and was published April 3, 2023. This article is republished here with permission.