#i think there ARE plenty of problems with a lot of combat orientated games

[kinogane]

Meditations on Playing as Earthlings in Dragon Ball Xenoverse, Part 2

(previously)

The Dragon Ball Xenoverse games allow you to play as five races: Earthling (the default selection), Saiyan, Majin, Namekian, and the elegantly named "Frieza Race", with the first three races having an additional choice of gender. Compared to the Dragon Ball games mentioned in the previous post, Xenoverse probably differentiates the most between race/gender combinations. Each has a drastically different basic moveset that will be extremely relevant in combat, especially for strike-oriented playstyles, each have different stat spreads (and sometimes mechanics) that incentivize different playstyles, and arguably most importantly, each have their own unique techniques, the centerpiece of which is the race-specific Awoken Skill.

For context, in the first Dragon Ball Xenoverse, there were two problems with transformation skills like Super Saiyan and Unlock Potential. First was that they counted as Super Attacks, so you would have to give up a skill slot to make use of them, and second was that the transformations available to your character consisted of Kaioken, Unlock Potential, and variants of Super Saiyan. So like past Dragon Ball games, you weren't especially rewarded for playing a non-Saiyan character, since it meant you had to run Unlock Potential (or run a gimmicky Kaioken build), while Saiyans could at least nominally choose between that, and multiple variants of Super Saiyan that suited their playstyle.

This was remedied in the second Xenoverse game with the addition of Awoken Skills, which were transformations that occupied a separate slot. More importantly, Xenoverse 2 also added race-specific Awoken Skills, which meant that there was actually a compelling reason to pick races besides Saiyans.

In theory, at least. In practice?

Frieza Race characters probably gained the most in the sequel. Their Awoken Skill, Turn Golden, is relatively straightforward, both from a gameplay standpoint and an aesthetic standpoint. Your ki blasts are stronger and you do the Golden Frieza thing. Much like the form in the series proper, it's a bit dull and uninspired as a body recolor, but it is identifiable as a powerful transformation.

Namekians gained the ability to Become Giant, hearkening back to King Piccolo in the original Dragon Ball (and I guess Lord Slug in the movies), which as I understand was a fun transformation to use before it got nerfed in subsequent patches. Currently, it's a neat gimmick that's fun to mess around with and can be effective in bursts, but the stamina drain means it can't see the extended use that just about every other Awoken Skill can.

Majin gained the wildly unpopular ability to undergo Purification, which translates into becoming a Kid Buu with a special moveset. A Kid Buu that, mind you, only changes its skin and eye color as appropriate; regardless of how you customized your character before the transformation, your Purified Majin is going to look basically the same as any other Purified Majin, which is kind of a problem in a game where a significant portion of the userbase's interest in the game is at least partially in coordinating outfits for their player characters.

Earthlings got to ride on a Flying Nimbus and use the Power Pole.

The race-specific Awoken Skill for Earthlings is riding around on a cloud that kinda already loses a lot of its luster when, by construction, all characters can fly, and wielding a weapon/tool that hasn't been relevant since the original Dragon Ball. It's a nostalgia play that basically no Earthling character is going to use extensively, since you can't use your own skills and are limited to a moveset that loses its visual and gameplay novelty in minutes, at most.

It should be mentioned that Saiyans, as of the time of this writing, have access to five variants of Super Saiyan.

(Caveat that I can't speak for the PvP side of these evaluations, and quite frankly, I couldn't be bothered since Xenoverse PvP seems thoroughly unappealing, but I digress.)

So yet again, even when concessions are explicitly made to make playing non-Saiyan races an appealing alternative from a gameplay standpoint, Saiyans are still the clear winners and Earthlings are still clear losers. Furthermore, there's at least an argument that the non-Earthling Awoken Skills at least invoke an image of power as understood in Dragon Ball. For all the shortcomings of the Namekian and Majin Awoken Skills, you can at least point to King Piccolo and Kid Buu as signifiers of strength. If anything, the image of Goku on the Nimbus with the Power Pole is reminiscent of a time when Dragon Ball was significantly less concerned with displays of power, which is kind of counterintuitive when it's invoked as a method of attaining greater power.

Put reductively, it's kind of a bummer, but then again, isn’t this dynamic, of Saiyans being given the lion's share of power and relevance while Earthlings get virtually none, the most Dragon Ball shit ever?

Hindsight has only made Videl's presence in the early parts of the Buu Saga all the more fascinating. For that run of episodes, all the way up to the World Martial Arts Tournament, the degree to which Videl is an active participant and outright combatant in the action is kind of surreal. It's not entirely without precedent, since Chi-Chi had her moments in the original Dragon Ball and the occasional moment in Z, but unlike Chi-Chi, it really does seem like Videl's perfectly content to be this active for as long as she's around. What's more, the show explicitly makes reference to her being wildly more powerful than her dad, who himself is established as of legitimate world champion caliber, and it even goes out of its way to have Gohan teach her to fly. While that scene is absolutely primarily meant to set up her true purpose in the series writ large, there's a pretty good correlation in Dragon Ball between "people who can fly" and "people who can at least fight a little".

Then, of course, Spopovich happens.

I'm not particularly interested in litigating post-crisis Videl here, since it's been discussed plenty, and yeah, I also think it's more than a little bit of a bummer. But knowing the trajectory of post-Z Dragon Ball, especially Super, it makes Videl's irrelevance on an action level kind of an inevitability? Like, yeah, maybe if she bounced back harder and played a larger role after the Spopovich fight, you maaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe could draw a line to her at least being comparable to the likes of Krillin, Tien, and Yamcha, but given the reality of modern Dragon Ball, would that be anything more than a pyrrhic victory?

So really, when you consider that the frankly ridiculous power scaling of Super is really just the logical extension of the scaling in Z that was already well underway by the Buu Saga, it naturally raises the question of why they bothered to even make Videl this much of an active force in the first place. From square one, she's arguably destined to be relegated to Gohan's love interest and future wife, so why go through the effort of showing the audience that she's stronger than every Earthling that's not a Z-Fighter? It does parallel Chi-Chi's strength in Dragon Ball to help further foreshadow her pairing with Gohan like Chi-Chi with Goku, but then why make her be that into fighting when Chi-Chi was always clearly content to be a housewife?

And like, Jesus Christ, all that only to be that definitive with that Spopovich fight?

I bring Videl up because my main created character in Xenoverse 2 is a female Earthling. Ever since I booted the game for the first time, there was no doubt in my mind that I was going to primarily play as a female Earthling, because with it came the knowledge that I was going to control a female Earthling doing and achieving some frankly wild shit, like going toe-to-toe with Final Form Mira, literal deities, Jiren, and Ultra Instinct Goku(?!?), sometimes back-to-back in certain Parallel Quests.

And of course I can, because that is the entire reason for the Xenoverse games' existence. The game has always been an unabashed power fantasy all about defeating some of the most powerful entities in Dragon Ball history with your own created character on your own terms.

And yet, as I do all of this with my female Earthling, the knowledge that in canon, the most powerful analogue to my character is Videl, a character who almost literally gets the relevance beaten out of her in a brutal and unforgettable manner, makes the experience feel almost rebellious. It feels like everything from the godawful Awoken Skill to the subpar race/gender stat distribution for a strike-oriented build to the very nature and history of Dragon Ball itself is working against my character becoming a ludicrously powerful force of nature, and yet I not only can, but literally must push through and go even further beyond.

I cannot emphasize enough that this sense of transgression has no basis at all when it comes to the game. Absolutely nothing about the Xenoverse games explicitly suggests that Earthlings, female or otherwise, are somehow destined to be strictly lesser than Saiyans or any other races. Again, the game is an unabashed power fantasy; it's going to let you achieve that power fantasy regardless of race or gender, because to do so otherwise is completely antithetical to the entire reason people play the game in the first place.

But looking at past Dragon Ball games, at least to me, makes clear that they really didn't have to include the option to play as an Earthling. They clearly feel no obligation to do so, since they've excluded it in previous games. They completely dodge the need to include a human-like race option with the existence of Saiyans, who aren't even differentiated by the presence of a tail. I genuinely don't think any significant number of people would have even batted an eye over the exclusion of Earthlings. ‘Cause, you know, it's Dragon Ball, why would you play as an Earthling?

But they did. They let you choose to play as an Earthling, a race that Dragon Ball has essentially been drilling into your head, for years, is a strictly less powerful and less interesting version of Saiyans with practically no upside. They gave you the option, and I took it, all because it effectively let me play out an extended Videl what-if by proxy and stretch credibility into complete, unrecognizable nonsense.

I recognize that this absolutely reflects more on me and my relationship with Dragon Ball as a whole than it does on Xenoverse, but when it’s the only Dragon Ball game that embraces customizable characters to the extent that it does, it’s necessarily going to be the only game that actually lets me grapple with that tension between the source and the spin-off, and reckon with how that can shape the audience’s experience and perception of the bigger picture.

[husbandomail-archive]

(1/3) May I have a Pokémon matchup more specifically Gen 3 please? I’m a female INFP Taurus, heteromantic asexual (I want a male romantic partner please). I am 5”3”, baby faced with brown eyes and dark curly, brown hair and biracial (half White and half Black). I am quiet, shy, reserved. I am also passionate, empathetic, childlike, sensitive, curious, studious, creative, imaginative, sassy, bold, affectionate, loyal, smart, religious/spiritual, optimistic and idealistic.

(2/3) I am a dreamer and I try and do see the good of others. I have anxiety, depression, OCD, and Asperger’s. I have the tendency to bottle up my emotions and problems. I am perfectionistic, self critical, stubborn (a double edged sword for me) and I tend to withdraw if I am hurt. I love reading, Mythology, cooking, baking, drawing, and studying and researching about history especially the Classical Civilizations, and various sciences such as Astronomy Biology, and Meteorology.

(3/3) I love to research about psychology, having philosophical discussions, the Paranormal, and the Occult. I love Nature and animals especially cats. I am a witch and I practice Witchcraft and have an interest in magick and alchemy. I love playing video games, superheroes especially Marvel, watching cartoons, anime, and Disney. I love to collect books, crystals, gemstones, jewelry, stuffed animals, manga, and fandom merch. Please and thank you for considering my request.

I would pair you with Wallace!

He’s a very calm and attentive man, so I think he’d be good for you; while you���re getting to know each other, he’s careful not to push interactions and stress you out while you’re still getting comfortable with him. Wallace is detail-oriented, so it doesn’t take him long to learn to read you— you might think you’re hiding your troubles well, but he can see them written all over your face, and he doesn’t want you to keep bottling everything up. He’s here for a reason, after all. It’s a bit surprising; looking at him, you wouldn’t expect Wallace to be so gentle, but he really is. He can tell when you really do need time alone, and he’ll never push you past your limits. Whenever you’re feeling particularly bad about yourself, he’s there to combat all of your negative thoughts with gentle logic and plenty of kisses.

He loves how enthusiastic you get about your interests, even if a few are not ones he shares. The way your eyes light up, and the way your grin breaks across your face like a wave, and all your little gestures and rambles about this or that. Wallace is also the type to try pretty much anything once, so he’s more than willing to get involved if you’d like him to join you. Amusingly, he’s not very good at video games, but it makes you laugh, so he’ll play with you whenever you’d like. He’s also very much the type to spoil you— he notices how you slow down in front of certain stores but never ask to go in, so he’ll steer you that way, and then begin buying practically everything you pick up. He knows it flusters you, but he just thinks that’s cute, and wants to keep you happy.

There is a lot of overlap in your interests— as the Sootopolis Gym Leader, he’s deeply involved with the mythology of the Hoenn region, and in the process of his studies he’s learned a lot about other regions as well. Philosophical topics are also some of his favorites, and he’s very interested in your perspectives on everything; he’s interested in how two people living in the same world can reach so many different conclusions about life.

[firerwolf]

So to start out I’ll explain why this is formatted like this. So Tumblr did that thing it does where it shows you a post from a tag you follow and the post was for the “Sarah Palmer” tag. This tag has some negative things about Palmer and I asked the person to not tag posts that are negative about a character with that character. Basic etiquette for others in a fandom. Well that person didn’t want to see them as being negative about Palmer and when I again asked them to remove the tag they called me “annoyingly persistent” and blocked me.  But at this point I had things I actually wanted to say about the post and the attitude they had toward content of game series that I took a screen shot so I’ll be posting that and then replying. Their name is removed because what I have to say is more about the attitude that they present than them.

So I want to start with the fact that it is ridiculous to only consider a character in the window of a single game. That’s simply not how characters are developed in a large series like Halo. Saying that you can’t be asked or referenced to other material beside one singular game is like saying that you’ll only consider a character and who they are in season one when someone is trying to point you to an episode in season 4 that gives you more understanding. Not all of a story is in one media and it’s really crazy to consider official media of a series as less because it’s a different form of media. I’ll get more to that in the second point I want to make but the idea that because a series started as a game, which it should be noted was released with Fall of Reach so it was always also a book, is to ignore that that is official media. The books and comics are a part of the story that is being told. And particularly with the EU media around the time of Halo 4 it was even more intertwined. Like Escalation is a literal continuation of Spartan Ops. To say you won’t reference any of the comics is to ignore that that is half of the story of Spartan Ops. It reeks more of elitism to not take all media into account. It reads as though the comics and books are considered less than the games even though they’re all canon. This is a fault in plenty of fandoms where official books or comics are released and people seem to feel they’re above them because they aren’t a video game. If media is official it is equal to the games when it comes to examining characters.

Now on to my second point which is the place that stories told in comics and books have in large series like Halo. Comics and books are able to tell stories that would make for shitty games. The first entire fourth of Fall of Reach is the story of the start of the Spartan IIs, their training days, and their first mission. That would be a shitty game, but make for an amazing book. The point of media that is more text base and detail oriented and not combat involved. The first arc of Escalation is great but it’s also a lot of dialogue and not a lot of combat so it would make for a shit game. It made for a good comic. Same thing goes for Initiation, a lot of events in First Strike, New Blood, Ghost of Onyx, and most other books or comics in the series. There are also what usually people point to for context of things in the game because their format also allows for more depth of characters and more being in the head of characters which allows for more context for characters or their actions. That is the thing that written words have above medias like games where narration is less common or motivations are less explained. This is best shown by considering Destiny. Destiny has a in game story but it also has lore which fill in gaps, explains past events, and adds depth to some characters that gives their attitudes during the game some context, because games aren’t made as just games any more. To pretend they are is to be suck a decade in the past.

The final point that I want to make is about the way they compare Kat and Palmer. First, Palmer shouldn’t be compared to Kat, she’s not a second-in-command, she’s the leader of all the Spartans on Infinity. She should be compared to Carter or John, leaders of their soldiers. But comparing Palmer to Kat this person actually brought up a sort of problem with how people view Palmer. See the descriptors of cocky or emotional could both be used for Kat, and she’s far from professional. It’s also completely false to say that Palmer doesn’t command the respect of her soldiers when in Spartan Ops they absolutely all show her respect. So the comparison as anything negative really falls flat as Kat is all the things that they claim are negatives about Palmer. The only difference between them is that Palmer is in command, above other soldiers, while Kat didn‘t have authority. She was always able to be over ruled by Carter but no Spartan can over rule Palmer and as happened in Spartan Ops Lasky can’t even always over rule her. She is a woman with agency and without the safety net of not being the top dog. The fact that it’s a negative when it comes to Palmer but those same attributes aren’t negative in Kat speaks more to an ingrained sexism about women in power that I think people often don’t realize they have. Because she’s the top Spartan she’s held to a higher standard while those same negatives are ignored in characters that are lower on the totem poll. If you compare her to John or Carter her “flaws” are actually positives. The reality is that Carter and John both have their own flaws but Palmer’s are able to be more open and shown because she is the final evolution of the Spartans. Carter and John are both more serious and more reserved but they were both Spartans since they were kids, and Palmer was a normal person, then ODST, before she became a Spartan. All of the Spartan IVs are more human than those that came before them and that makes them these more openly human characters. Because yeah, Palmer can be cocky, she has pride in her Spartans and she’s a former ODST which are known for being cocky in personal interactions. Palmer can be emotional, she’s a ground soldier unable to take action to get things done and only able to give orders and watch as her soldiers die. She cares about her Spartans so she shows frustration at losses. It should be noted the person who made the post cited a “emotional outburst” which I could only figure they meant that one singular event where she punched the table after the Prometheans took Palmer away but not only was that only one time but it was a reasonable reaction. Palmer spent like three episodes trying to enforce to others that Halsey was a threat, she then betrays them to have the ship invaded, soldiers killed, and nearly killed her Captain and friend and then even when they’re finally beating them back Jul steals Halsey and her anger is by far the one most believable event in that entire game. She warned people about Halsey, they ignored her, and they’d lost all their gains and the lives of soldiers because no one listened to her. A small sign of anger was one of the one few good moments from that entire game.

Now I’m going to cover this last bit on it’s own because this part actually annoyed me greatly. If you read that post above you might have noticed a particular part that seemed confusing as it being considered part of her “portrayal”. The part where they claim an aspect of her character is that she is “sexualized by other Spartans”. The only time in all of Halo 4 and Spartan Ops that any sort of comment or sexual thing was made about Palmer was DeMarco’s first encounter where he makes a pass at Palmer and she shuts him down. DeMarco shuts up, right away stops any of that and never again is any sexual or even physical comment made about Palmer for the entire series. Not even in the comics, Halo 5, of Halo Assault is anything sexual ever said about her. Note that this also isn’t an aspect of Palmers portrayal. She doesn’t make a sexual comment about herself, it’s a part of who DeMarco is but to blame Palmer for his comment is blaming her for his actions as though being hit on is a personality trait for women. This is plain sexism to consider this a ding against Palmer in any way. If anything that scene was at the start to shut down any idea that because she was a woman that she was going to be sexualized at all in the series.

Well that’s all I wanted to rant about for the day. Remember not to tag characters if you’re going to post negative things about them. It’s simply not necessary. People in the tags want positive posts about that character.

[unpopularly-opinionated]

My friend shared with me this reddit thread where someone outlined a list of features they claim are “missing” from CP2077, and because I’m me and like to rant, I wanted to go through it and agree/disagree based on what I think should or shouldn’t be in the game.

So probably spoilers below, at least for gameplay.

- Walk toggle for keyboard.

Agree.

- Key re-mapping for certain elements.

Agree. The game has some rebinding functions, but not enough to be honest.

- Accessibility features missing (ie: text scaling for menus).

Agree.

- In-game benchmark feature.

Personally, I think this is somewhat extraneous and I wouldn’t knock a game for not having it since most games don’t, but sure if they add it I wouldn’t complain.

- Dash should be a separate key and not a double press of walking key.

HARD agree. It’s beyond me that they thought it was okay to have that as-is, honestly. It makes moving around while sneaking a huge pain because you accidentally dodge which puts you into a standing position which can reveal you easily. At the absolute least, they should disable dodging when crouched, but ideally allow it to be rebound to something else.

- Crouch and skip dialogue should not share the same key.

Again, HARD agree. It’s possible to rebind the key (I certainly did) but something I noticed is that, while the dialogue no longer skips when I press crouch, it doesn’t seem to register the crouch button at all while in dialogue, meaning you can’t uncrouch if in dialogue.

- The minimap is too zoomed in to be helpful in many cases.

I only noticed this as an issue while driving, personally. You’ll be going 90mph down the freeway and not know that your turn is coming up until you’re already 90 miles beyond it. Outside of that, I’m not sure why you’d need the minimap zoomed out but hey if it fixes it while driving, I’m for it. Agree.

- Missing a toggle aim feature.

Quality of life, sure. I won’t use it, but agree.

- Ability to respec attributes (Note: Existing item respecs perks only)

Personally, I disagree with this. I think respeccing perks is fine because some of the perks are kinda lame so I can understand wanting to undo that, but I feel like respeccing attributes would sort of negate the purpose of developing a character a certain way. It makes multiple playthroughs more valid, forcing you to develop your different characters different ways. Sooo disagree.

- Ability to disable objective marker.

Agree. Mild nuisance to be sure, but still a nuisance never the less.

- Ability to lower ADS sensitivity.

Quality of life, sure. Agree.

- Add proper ultrawide (21:9, 32:9) support.

Quality of life, sure. Agree.

- Add loot by area or/and autoloot feature.

Eh... I don’t know. I think there should be a “scrap item” button when looting added but I’m unsure about a loot all or autoloot feature. It’s a change that I personally think falls under “optimizing the play out of the game”. Disagree.

- Add “stash all” feature.

And then some. Inventory management is atrocious in this game, it’s actually unreal how they thought it was okay to ship it like that. You can only manage one item at a time, and the UI needs to completely reload each time you do. It’s obscene. Hard agree.

- Add transparency option for HUD elements.

Quality of life, sure. Agree.

- Add way to remove mods from unequipped weapons.

This was actually sort of news to me. I’ve just been scrapping weapons I unequip with the mods still attached, assuming the mods were just going back to my inventory. Evidently that’s not been the case, but I haven’t actually noticed it as an issue because mods are so frequently found. A bit arguable, to be sure, but I don’t see why guns couldn’t return their mods automatically when dismantled. So agree, I guess.

- Add toggle mouse acceleration.

Quality of life, sure. Agree.

- Driving markers and onscreen trajectory (alternative GPS).

I don’t actually know what this means. Does this mean have the line leading to your objective be in-world as opposed to the minimap? I can maybe see that being a thing, I guess. If that’s the case, agree.

- Body slider customization (height, weight, muscle mass).

Eh...I’m ambivalent on this one. It seems extraneous in that it’s unnecessary and just something someone wants rather than something the game strongly needs, but at the same time, with as much marketing that went into how customizable your character is in this game, it’s sort of depressing how poor the character customization really is. Because of that, part of me wants to agree with this, on the grounds that the game was sort of sold to us this way. So I’ll say I tentatively agree.

- Very few options for some of the character creation features (hair colour, tattoos, skin complexion, scars, etc).

See above.

- Animations for eating and drinking (excluding scripted ones).

The problem with adding animations to consumables is that not only would you need one for each type of consumable but that the animation would then need to completely play out each time, which can give players burnout. Going to have to disagree with this one.

- Unable to remove underwear outside of inventory.

I assume this means giving the player the ability to run around stark naked as opposed to in your underwear, and weirdly enough I have to agree. Much like the character customization, a significant amount of attention was paid to the fact that this game has nudity, and yet nothing is done with it. Even in the areas where you’d expect nudity to play a part (I.e. having sex, showering, etc.) it doesn’t, so it begs the question why even implement it?

- Vehicle customization.

This is going to maybe sound odd given my next answer but I kind of agree with this one to an extent. You can buy a fair amount of vehicles in the game, but you can’t customize any of them. At the very least, changing it’s colour and/or design I think is warranted.

- Apartment customization.

This I disagree with, again, to an extent. This isn’t Fallout 4 or the Sims, I don’t think there needs to be a fleshed-out feature to decorate your apartment. I do however think that some changes to it would be nice, even if they’re just preset changes. Like maybe the layout of misc. objects in your apartment changes as time goes on. Shit moves around, I don’t know. Or maybe you can pay for preset additions, like buying a lamp or poster or something that always goes in the same spot, but lets you feel like you live there I guess. Ultimately though, this is completely extra and unnecessary. Disagree.

- Cosmetic slots or transmog feature.

Hard agree. Again, customization of your character was made out to be a big deal, so let us wear the clothes we want to wear. The number of times I’ve had to run out in a skirt that says “Bitch” on it and a bra as a man simply because they’re my best clothes is unreal.

- Very few actual merchant stores in quantity and variety.

Quantity, I somewhat agree. The map could do with a few more of each type of merchant, although the map does sometimes already feel cluttered so perhaps not. Variety however, I disagree. I think there’s plenty variety in terms of merchants, I’m not sure what else you’d need. There’s merchants for guns, clothes, hacks, cyberware, resources, and consumables. What else is there.

- No garages or parking lots.

I assume this is related to owning multiple vehicles which I don’t yet so I’m not sure I understand where this argument is coming from. There is a parking garage at your apartment, so I don’t see why that couldn’t be a garage you can use, but ultimately I can’t weigh in on this without more information.

- Crowds have low level of reactivity and awareness to the game world.

This one bugs me because it’s like how much reactivity do non-interactable NPCs need? They run away from cars and violence. They say “oh shit” lines when you’re driving into them or shooting near them or they see a body, etc. What more do you need? Gonna have to disagree.

- Very few interactive NPCs outside of missions with meaningful dialogue.

See above and literally every open world game ever.

- Very few options to meaningfully construct a personality to V. You get to choose mission endings, but not an actual persona.

I disagree, I think you can pretty comfortably pick a persona for V. I mean it’s not the most advanced system in the world, no, but every game is going to limit your options. You can choose to be an asshole, a scumbag, a nice guy, honest, a liar, competent, incompetent, etc. It all depends on your attributes and what dialogue options you pick really.

- Lack of non-action oriented stories and quests about meaningful themes of cyberpunk dystopia.

This one I sort of agree with, but then again I’m a huge philosophy nerd so I generally can’t get enough philosophy in my games. I want every game to be as deep as Bioshock. I still have a long way to go in CP2077, so perhaps the quests get better, but many of them I’ve not found super interesting. Some have been memorable, sure, but very few, and of those not many are memorable for fitting the Cyberpunk theme explicitly.

- Player cannot smoke.

This one is just funny to me because, yeah in an RPG it’s not ideal to railroad the player, but because of the way the story goes, V doesn’t smoke. All so they can have a few funny lines of dialogue in the story, but w/e I’m okay without smoking.

- Weapon mods and skill trees largely irrelevant outside of marginal and mostly numerical improvements to combat.

I kind of agree with this. To be honest, I don’t even look at any of the stats outside of DPS and I get along just fine. I am playing on normal, so perhaps at a higher difficult these things matter more, but I can’t imagine how much more. So sure, I agree.

- Lack of emergent gameplay events in the game world (ie: dynamic and random triggers).

This falls under “how much is enough”, similar to the bit about the NPC interactions. From what I’ve seen so far, the only in-world ‘events’ that transpire are shootouts between cops and gangs that aren’t marked on your map as predetermined events. Could there be more? Sure, I guess. Does there need to be more? Eh, not really.

- Unable to alter character’s appearance (barbershop, tattoo parlors, plastic surgeon).

Agree. One mission I did, one of the rewards I received was a tattoo which made me think I was going to frequently unlock new customization aspects like that, but it ended up being a piece of cyberware for some odd reason. I think it would be neat if you didn’t have every bit of customization unlocked from the start and could change your appearance as you go unlocking more things.

- Lack of character reflection outside of the few mirrors available. This furthers the disconnection between the player and the character.

This was something I was thinking about genuinely, when standing in front of a mirror. A mirror has to be ‘activated’ in order to start showing your reflection, which I thought was odd, but I assumed it was because of performance issues which makes sense. At one point, even though my PC can’t run the game at ultra graphics, I switched over to it to see if mirrors would reflect all the time but they do not. I don’t however think we need to see our character all the time but more would certainly be better.

- No ownership of items (you can rob NPCs under their nose).

Yeeeeah, this bit I find kinda odd to be honest, especially because the UI for looting items is red which is commonly the colour used to denote “this item is owned and picking it up constitutes as theft”. Part of me thinks that the reason items don’t have ownership though is because of how clunky the stealth system is. There’s no way of knowing if an NPC can ‘see’ you or not. I feel like this is also why when you break a glass bottle or something, it doesn’t alert enemies because that would be so broken in this game because things explode all the time for no reason at all, you’d never be able to steal period. So I feel like no item ownership is because the developers know their game wouldn’t be fun with it.

- No prison or lasting crime system.

The lack of a prison is sort of explained (very briefly) in-game. The prisons are just way too overcrowded, and the police are basically a paramilitary organization who shoot on sight anyways, so there’s really no need for prisons. That said, committing a crime doesn’t have lasting consequences but again I think this is because the game knows that it’s too clunky to punish players for that. Driving is so wonky in this game, imagine if running over an NPC punished you beyond the small threat of police intervention? It would be unbearable.

- Wanted system is largely underdeveloped, with cops spawning out of nowhere and disappearing shortly after.

Yeah it is a little scuffed how cops just appear, that I will agree with.

- Cybernetics lack variety in meaningful choices that alter gameplay (except for limb weapons). Deus Ex has far more impactful mods that actually change the way you approach combat.

While I do sort of agree with there being a lack of variety, I feel the comparison to Deus Ex is a bit unfair. Deus Ex used cybernetics as it’s skill tree/progression system. When you leveled up in Deus Ex, you installed new cybernetics. That’s not the case in CP2077 though. I do however believe that outside of the legs, arms, and hands, not much really changes. I’m not sure what else they could do, but more would certainly be nice.

- The lifepaths are frustratingly brief and have little impact other than dialogue choices. V is essentially the same character regardless of path.

I can’t speak much to this because I haven’t even finished my first playthrough yet, but I will admit that there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot that comes from your lifepath. I’m playing as a Street Kid, and as someone who supposedly grew up on the streets, running with gangs, getting to know everyone, etc., it seems like there should be a bit more maybe. Like maybe Street Kids start with more gang rep because everyone knows who you are because you grew up together. The game tries to explain this away with “you went away for two years and have just recently come back” but right off the bat you meet one of the fixers who you knew and worked for before you left as if you were old friends, and two measly years is not enough for everyone to just forget who you are.

The traffic AI is lackluster and there are too few cars driving around for a large metropolis.

Disagree. There are plenty of cars for a reasonable driving experience. I don’t know if this guy was expecting bumper-to-bumper LA traffic or what, but there are plenty of cars to make the world feel alive and full while not being obnoxious and make driving impossible.

- Trains were obviously cut, even though the whole infrastructure is visible.

I genuinely don’t even know what this is referring to so I won’t comment on it.

- The world interaction is quite minimal. Among items that should be interactive: chairs, benches, toilets, stools, sinks, gym equipment, light fixtures, restaurant menus, smartphones, taxi, trash bins and dumpsters, most merchant stalls, microwaves, dancing floors, gaming tables, arcards.

This is a lot but some of it I agree with. You should be able to sit down on a lot more chairs, but at the same time I kinda understand why you can’t. The world is littered with places to sit, so much so that “Press F to Sit” would be on your screen 99% of the time. Taxis I was actually extremely disappointed were not in the game. The game literally sets up from the beginning that being a passenger in a car is a thing which gives you the impression that it’s a thing that can happen often, and that you’re able to either sit through the car ride or skip it altogether. I thought for sure that fast travel was going to constitute you hailing  cab and it taking you to wherever you’ve marked on your map, with the option to sit through the ride or skip it at-will. It’s actually a huge disappointment that that’s not the case (I even had my friend who is playing as a Corpo test whether Delamaine was specific to Corpos-only but alas, it didn’t work).

- You cannot preview wardrobe and weapon purchases.

I’ve not actually bought any guns or clothes so I can’t comment on this.

- There is no reliable cover system.

This one is odd because there is a cover system, but it’s only a weird hint of one. If you’re crouched by a low wall and you aim your weapon, you will peak around the wall, but it’s very finicky and poor. I think the game could do without one altogether, but the fact that there’s a hint at one already implies it’s intended, so it needs reworking.

- Loot system is overdone, invasive and distracting. You are constantly showered with redundant and marginally better items and have no attachment whatsoever with your fashion and weapon choices. (Dear god, I hate this one).

Hard agree. This seems like somewhat of a repeat to an earlier one about not being able to really customize your character out of necessity to wear whatever is best. Loot is prevalent, but hardly ever relevant.

- Enemies are too spongy and level design forces frontal assault way too often.

This one is interesting because I almost agreed with it until I played the game a bit more. In fact, I might’ve made a post about this before, I can’t recall, where I said that it didn’t feel like stealth was always an option. In many cases, I stand by that statement. The stealth gameplay specifically isn’t always an option, which is frustrating. If you’re like me, and you’re using stealth with quickhacking, then it becomes way more relevant. Being able to breach into a camera network and kill everyone with quickhacks is amazing. However, the game seems to somewhat punish this style of gameplay for some odd reason. I will go through and systematically kill everyone via cameras from outside the building, but the moment I step into the building, more enemies will show up out of nowhere. It’s not just that they’re hiding in areas outside of the cameras view, no they literally spawn into existence the moment you go inside. It’s really jarring, odd, and kind of unfortunate. Oh and as for sponginess...eh, yes and no sometimes. Weirdly my quickhacks sometimes one-shot enemies, and other times it takes like 8 quickhacks to kill one enemy. It’s seemingly random, or a bug, or something. I’m not sure.

- Robotics and drone control largely absent (outside of scripted missions).

Hard agree. I was genuinely shocked to find out I couldn’t control turrets when they started popping up more frequently. Drones I can let pass because they’re mobile and therefor a bit more complex to code properly I guess, but turrets are child’s play to code. They’re literally the same as cameras but with guns. It’s really odd that you aren’t even given a perk that’ll let you control them.

[bearpillowmonster]

KH: MOM Review (Gameplay)

Every Kingdom Hearts game feels different. It's always innovating and always adding new types of gameplay. This is no exception. Rhythm minigames are no stranger to the Kingdom Hearts series but a whole game based on it is new.

I don't play a lot of rhythm games but I have played the infamous Atlantica section in Kingdom Hearts 2 as well as the Symphony of Sorcery in Dream Drop Distance and the Ice Cream Beat of Birth By Sleep, Guitar Hero and I'll even throw in the Honeybee Inn rhythm game in FFVII Remake. Out of all of those, Atlantica has been my favorite, that's right, I actually didn't mind it.

Now this system is entirely different than any of those, at least to me. It's definitely the most complex though but just hold on because I know how the word 'complex' can be triggering for a game, I just mean in comparison to the others is all. It's not a DDR right, left, up or down. So without further ado...(Nonspoiler for this part, it’s just gameplay)

This game begins with a stage. You're thrown into it without any notice, there were things that I didn't grasp until near the end of the stage, luckily it doesn't count towards a score yet, and after it is the tutorial but that's just the opening so if you're clueless and want to be prepared, I would say to try out the demo, I didn't even realize how much it helped me until I played the actual game. 

I wanted to say at just how friendly this game is to newcomers, it's literally all laid out for you. Nomura came out with HD remasters and collections of the previous games then a recap of the franchise on YouTube then put it IN Kingdom Hearts 3 and people still complained because they don't know the story and are too lazy to play the other games. Now Nomura's packed it all into one whole game to sum it up, explained from the perspective of Kairi herself so that you're still entertained while catching up. If there was ever an easy path to get into Kingdom Hearts, this is the answer. If I hear complaining about it from this point forward, I will be pissed. Now, as you can see, I didn't make it to story yet but that's not entirely what I'm talking about. All the buttons and functions are the same as a regular game, you basically have it all but the different keyblades (well you can collect them but not use them because they're cards). You can play as casually as you want, a song here and there. There are even options for a shuffle and sort function if you want to just jump to track selection but you'll need to unlock them individually in World Tour first. This may sound complicated but that's where the clean and accessible the menu comes in, I have to give props for that.

You're on a set track, it runs on its own, does its own thing except when you're gliding which is just moving left and right to collect notes. You use the normal KH abilities to your advantage because some enemies will be high in the air so you need to jump and slash at the same time but you can't just button mash any more, there's timing involved now. Once you get used to the gameplay, it's quite enjoyable, you may even get a song that you hit every note, my first one was 'Another Side', the first try too, I didn't hit all excellent though.

How do party members work? Well let's say you have Sora, Donald, and Goofy in a party. You have 3 buttons you can press to attack, Sora's the only one that can jump and the only one that can use the reaction commands so you need to pay attention to all three because there could be enemies on the floor and in the sky at the same time. The one thing I will say is a little bit of a complaint and that's that it doesn't tell you which buttons to press except on specific stages, it just has the symbols, I guess that's what makes it more combat oriented but it's definitely different and a little bit harder. But I guess it gets to be muscle memory, after a while. If you already know the themes, it gets easier for you to manage because you focus more on what you hear and less on what you see, that's how I started getting better with timing. I experimented with pretty much everything I could think of so I tried it with low volume and found that I missed a whole lot more because I couldn't hear it, which might be obvious because it's a rhythm game, but it just goes to show how important sound is. I even tried using headphones, I suppose that's up to you, it definitely made the music clearer but my performance was about the same. 

What do songs net you other than progress? Well you get materials. Also similar to KHUX, you get crafting materials except these ones you can use for potions and stuff, I did a potionless run because I didn’t feel the need (but I also didn’t do it all proud either) but I used a few summons and item boosts just for fun. You can also craft cards, which are really just for looks to see in the Museum after you finish one of the memory dives (which I'll get into) but the way you get the cards, grinds my gears because it's gacha, you craft them and it's a surprise what you're going to get...so it's essentially a loot box that you don't pay money for?? What the-

(notice how it says KH2 or Days at the bottom, you don’t even know. Of course I have Writhing Shards rn but that’s because I beat the game and didn’t open a whole lot of keyblade cards but the memory and scene ones are the annoying ones for me)

You don't even have to "finish" the song, just get it most of the way before you die then you'll still get credit and still get a ranking, just no exp. Now, there are also stars, stars are from 'missions' for each stage, if you play KHUX, it’s kind of like how it says “get this amount of Lux” or “use this type of medal” or “don’t use continue” so most stars are just “get this many points” and you need to collect enough stars to get to the next area. With that, so long as you have enough stars, you don’t “have” to play every stage, just like regular Kingdom Hearts and skipping worlds, I did though, just for sport, except Let it Go, just for spite. I could see plenty of fans going after those A+++ Proud Performer 3-Star rankings, I can't wait to see the hype it generates, same with the co-op.  

They went all out when they didn't have to. The Museum is where everything is collected, so all the cards you collect and craft. You can also just play the song on its own without gameplay through the Museum, so if you want headphones to just chill, it's really nice. You can also play the cutscenes and memory dives on their own without the gameplay. There are "feats" or missions such as finishing a certain number of songs, like Nook Miles or the ones they had in Re:Mind. You can collect profile pictures for your co-op or versus account, mine is Simba (even though I don’t really use it). But the co-op can get pretty intense as you can “sabotage” each other, which seems similar to a Smash or Mario Kart match, adding that much more to the gameplay.

A few more complaints, one is that certain enemies from a stage, (say, the Wyverns) won't have the same attacks as the other stages, sometimes they'll have it so that you jump to hit them and sometimes they'll just have them take a normal hit without the jump so you can't memorize what each enemy requires (there are too many to really do that anyway). The other thing is more just opinion based, particular enemies such as Large Bodies tend to carry a weight so you need to hit them more than once even if its just one enemy. How it does this is that you hit it and then the enemy gets knocked back as your next note so you hit them again. There were definitely times where I struggled because I knew I was hitting the buttons but nothing was happening, I would guess timing was the problem in some of those cases but the indicators can be difficult to keep track of because it has to be “just right”. I think even just a line on the floor to tell when you’re supposed to hit would be a major help but in a way, I feel like that’s on purpose. Also, in the Museum, you can view all the cards EXCEPT the Keyblades which is pretty shotty if you ask me, what's the point in grinding to get my favorite Rumbling Rose, if I can't even look at it properly?

(also new names for some keyblades (this is a zoom-in))

There will be a lot of things happening at once which can be daunting, I do appreciate that they included the easy, standard, and proud modes though. Keep in mind, each of those are used for individual songs, not playthroughs so if you want to change, go ahead, at least as far as World Tour goes. On top of that, there are different modes that also gauge at how good you are (to use on the track selection). There's the basic mode which I already explained, then there's the one button mode which should be self explanatory, and then there's the performer mode which is quite a lot to put on your plate all at once because on top of normal gameplay, you're adding new buttons and things in the middle of your attacks, I would probably only recommend that after you've got a decent amount of experience because I tried it day 1 and it seems like you would need a good understanding of the game and to be on the same wavelength before even attempting it. You can view a playthrough of each stage called a "demo" which is the little play symbol button next to the "play" button, it shows you how you should be playing to get an A+++ rank and giving you a heads up of what's to come, all excellent all the time. On top of that, when I was playing Xenoblade, one thing I proposed was flicking the analog stick in a certain direction for each move, that’s present here in the form of bosses and memory dives but if you want it to, you can go into the menu to enable it for regular gameplay. You'll find out if you want it on the very first stage, again, I would only recommend it after a lot of experience.

Your characters level up but it mainly just has to do with HP so you don’t die so easily but at the same time, you have potions so I don’t see much of a point for normal gameplay. All three of the party members only have one health bar, so leveling does come in handy for the bosses. However, I don't understand how each party member has a different level, maybe it's just based on the amount of notes you hit with that character but it's kind of weird because I don't think it matters. Even on the team selection part of the play screen, it has one compilitive level so why would they be different on the menu?

For bosses, you only encounter a few. If it were me, I would've made one per game but it is what it is. You don't worry about jumping anymore, it's just holding the attack button down instead and the amount of "dodge" notes that you hit will work in your defense whenever the boss attacks. Once the dodge section is over, it actually tells you how you did with the dodging section. The first time I ever did it, it said "Oh No." it has a sense of humor, it took me a while to nail those ones you hold down which is odd because I rock the gliding sections most of the time. 

There's only one more type of gameplay type I can think of, memory dives. It's similar to a boss but you're flying and there's a scene playing in the background, also some of the directional notes will have doubles, so you need to point the analog stick in different directions which is as difficult as can be because you have to use BOTH analog sticks (took me forever just to figure that out). You 'mainly' gain the memory dives from crafting which is a bit odd but you unlock the recipes and items as you go through World Tour and then play them separately in Track Selection, until you get to KH3 at least. 

Keep in mind that I played the demo on both PS4 and Switch and compared the two, my performance was about the same, though I will say this. With Switch, you can take it on the go and just do a few levels here and there as well as remove the joy-cons. The thing about that is that I feel the need to shake the joy-cons but there's no function that uses that in the game, I really wish there was though. And those directional ‘slide’ notes have to be way easier on PlayStation because the analog sticks are right next to each other.

[operationrainfall]

Title My Friend Pedro Developer Deadtoast Publisher Devolver Digital Release Date June 20th, 2019 Genre Bullet Ballet Platform Steam, Nintendo Switch Age Rating T for Teen – Blood, Violence, Language Official Website

I’ve been looking forward to My Friend Pedro since I demoed it last year at PAX West. It’s not often you see a concept so wacky nor a control scheme so ambitious. In many ways, this is the closest we’ll probably get to a true Deadpool videogame, and that’s something developer Deadtoast seems to be very aware of. They play with reality as you progress, as well as poke fun at gamers and the industry at large. The simple question then is this: was My Friend Pedro worth the wait? Or was this banana not quite ripe yet?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

You start by waking up in an industrial facility next to a talking banana named Pedro. Don’t expect how that’s possible to get explained, cause this isn’t that sort of game. Since you’re understandably confused, Pedro explains why you’re there and what your goal is. Turns out there’s a butcher that isn’t very particular about the meat he uses, and your goal is to put him down permanently. As the game continues, other events transpire that require your skillful execution of other bad people. Thankfully, despite your amnesia, you still have incredible muscle memory. Whoever you are, you’re a killing machine, and you quickly find a pair of pistols to prove how adept you are. Over the course of the game you’ll find many other weapons, such as a pair of uzis, an assault rifle and even a sniper rifle, but your pistols are the only weapons with infinite ammo. Everything else you’ll need to find more ammo for by taking out goons. Additionally, you will find healing kits as you progress, though thankfully you have a healing factor, and will recover health so long as you aren’t taking damage. You have three bars of health, so if you are cautious, you can stay at full health for a very long time. But if you’re not so careful, the game has plenty of helpful checkpoints where you can respawn after you’re slagged.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The combat is the main draw of the game, other than the zany premise, and it asks a lot of you. I played on the lowest difficulty and still found it very challenging. That was mostly because of how many actions are mapped to the left Joy-Con. Not only does that joystick control your movement, pressing it activates your Focus mode, where you can momentarily slow down time. Also, the L button controls your dodge and the ZL allows you to split your aim and shoot in two directions at once. Meanwhile, ZR fires your bullets and the right joystick lets you aim your guns. If you think that sounds like a bit much to keep straight, you’d be right, especially when you factor in you can also kick enemies with X and will have sections where you’re riding a skateboard or a motorcycle. My Friend Pedro is an utter delight when you reach that zen moment and everything is working, but don’t expect that to last forever; this is a truly challenging game that expects you to do your absolute best.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In fact, the game does score you at the end of each level. I got a couple of coveted S scores, but many more Bs and Cs. To get an S, you have to get through a stage pretty much without dying once and keep your combo going by continuously murdering everything in sight and avoiding most damage. While that is possible, it’s also quite rare, or it was for me. Thankfully, I found that by being stubborn and persisting I could beat every level. But if you’re one of those hardcore gamers that has to get a perfect score for every stage, be ready to spend a long time replaying each one.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Despite my complaints, I did enjoy the combat. I felt like I was cast in some John Woo movie, flipping around, surprising foes and dodging goons armed to the teeth. For most of the game, I stuck with my trusty pistols, since I love infinite ammo, but the later parts required me to equip my heavy artillery. Mostly this was because the foes in those sections have body armor and rapid-firing guns, so you’ll be mincemeat if you stand there trading bullets with slow firing pistols. And while you can use your Focus to slow down time, it doesn’t make you bulletproof in the slightest. Your only way of avoiding bullets is using L to dodge, which makes you do a fancy spin. It also changes where your guns are aiming, so it’s a bit of a trade off. My favorite portions in the game were when I was swinging from a zip line spraying lead, or using metal signs and frying pans to deflect bullets in crazy directions. You’ll also occasionally be able to use explosives found around the levels to great effect, but only if you can shoot them before you get discovered. Oh and quick pro tip: if you need to reload and are surrounded, use the kick attack. It’s just as fatal as your bullets, just a bit slower. The only real downsides are that the range is shitty and kicking doesn’t seem to contribute to your combo meter.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Besides the combat, there are also puzzle and platforming sections in the game. Oddly, these were perhaps my favorite parts, though that’s likely because I’ve played far too many platformers in my life. It was just nice to bounce around and wall jump without worrying about bullets coming my way. It was fun rolling through narrow ducts and shooting switches to trigger them from afar. I also really liked a few sections late in the game that are pure platforming terror, with lasers chasing you and proximity mines flinging themselves at your head. Frankly, I felt these sections were more intuitive and clear-cut than the combat-oriented ones, which is a bit of a shame, especially given how much the game is focused on the over-the-top combat.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

It wouldn’t be an over-the-top game without over-the-top bosses, and thankfully My Friend Pedro delivers on that front. Each and every boss is totally different, and blisteringly difficult. The first boss you fight while riding a motorcycle. Another memorable one chases you in a helicopter as you run screaming. There’s even one fight where it’s just you versus another incredibly nimble and dangerous armed gunman. I really thought all the boss fights brought a lot to the game, and my only real complaint is that there weren’t more of them. Having said that, the final boss fight in the game redeemed the game in many ways, and was an utter joy.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Visually, My Friend Pedro is attractive and runs at a fast clip. I never encountered any slowdown, other than when I was using Focus to literally slow things down. While I do wish there was a bit more variety for the backgrounds and even enemy types, what was on display was well animated. Get ready to see a lot of human goons, robots and various deathtraps. There’s also some good use of unconventional colors like yellows, grays and reds. The one section that completely impressed me visually is when you go to Pedro’s World for a few very strange levels, which have colorful pastels and background pieces that would be right at home in a Runner game. Musically, the best I can say is that it’s inoffensive. I just really didn’t notice the music much while I was playing, and can’t even recall any standout songs. There were lots of great sound effects though, especially the weird whistle that plays at the end of each level.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Though I mostly enjoyed my time with My Friend Pedro, there are a couple of problems that I need to mention. One was what I already mentioned about the complexity of the controls. While it’s true you can remap them, I’m not sure that would help much given the sheer amount of things you need to do. More problematic was that many times when I would use ZL to split aim, my Focus would abruptly end, and time would speed back up. This happened on multiple occasions, and each time my Focus meter wasn’t depleted. As a result, I mostly stopped using split aim, and just got more aggressive to compensate for it. Another issue was that in the skateboard sections, it was way too easy to flip off the damned thing, and very difficult to flip it back upright. Lastly, I just felt there were some sections that needed better signposting. I got stuck a handful of times as I played the various puzzle sections, and often had to die and restart to figure out what I was doing wrong. Other than these issues, the game was enjoyable.

Who is that masked man?

Overall though, I did rather enjoy My Friend Pedro. It’s far from perfect, but there’s lots of ingenuity and ambition on display here from the folks at Deadtoast. Though the plot was a bit psychotic and hard to parse at times, the humor kept me invested. For $19.99 I got about 10 hours of gameplay out of it, and had a good time. If nothing else, this is another worthy game that Devolver Digital has in their stable. Now I just hope we get a sequel that smooths over the issues I mentioned and explains the ending of the game…

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: My Friend Pedro Title My Friend Pedro

[maxismatchccworld]

Created for: The Sims 4 by asiashamecca

*** Created with Seasons and Game Version 1.46.18.1020 (August 16, 2018 Update) *** PLEASE NOTE: You WILL need the current Neia Career Commons file (included in download) also! Educators are amazing! I think of facing a room full middle school kids and my knees get weak. Also, there are so many paths and choices you can make in the education field. And all of them are equally important and interesting. I wanted to kind of dig into what kinds of things Educators do (and I kind of miss the Sims having a teacher career). I hope you have a teacher in your game who will enjoy it. Most of the paths have 5 levels. Academia has 7, taking you all the way up to university President. The idea is that your Sim will probably be an Elder by that time, which seems fitting. Also, that's where the big Simoleons are.  Pay levels are more EA than realistic for a teacher. Educators are sadly underpaid. I wanted to give your Sims a break and pay them what Educators DESERVE. Play with life, right? Lastly, during most of the school and Academia levels you earn a ridiculous amount of PTO. Like, a day per day. Rack it up and take summers off like a real teacher (well, except your Sims will get paid, so BONUS!). And so... on to... The Ultimate Educator Career Teaching is one of the most challenging careers a person can pursue. Expect to work long hours in what can be a highly stressful environment. However, educators can make positive impacts that may last for their students’ lifetimes. Great teachers do it all. Across all ages, languages, ethnicities, and subjects, teachers are some of the most widely skilled people around. Are you patient, calm, and detail-oriented, with an ability to clearly communicate information? Education may be the field for you.

Ultimate Educator Teaching is one of the most challenging careers a person can pursue. Expect to work long hours in what can be a highly stressful environment. However, educators can make positive impacts that may last for their students’ lifetimes. Great teachers do it all. Across all ages, languages, ethnicities, and subjects, teachers are some of the most widely skilled people around. Are you patient, calm, and detail-oriented, with an ability to clearly communicate information? Education may be the field for you. Grade-Level Teacher Welcome to your first teaching job. At the most basic level, a teacher is expected to be a fount of knowledge: an expert in their field with a thorough understanding of the subjects they instruct. School is the place where much of a student’s future is determined, and it is teachers who play a large role in a students' direction. Stay sharp and keep their interest. Remember, your role is not only to teach, but to inspire and empower! Mood: Focused PTO: 0.99999 Hourly: $21 Daily: $168 Schedule: M T W T F - - Objectives: Charisma 1, Logic 1, Wellness 1 Master Teacher You’re developing professionally. Why should you keep your wealth of knowledge to yourself? You’re already a leader in your school, sharing knowledge and skills with others; mentoring new teachers; and developing strong relationships with parents, families, and stakeholders in the community. Now as a certified Master Teacher, you also serve on the district school board and help define the most effective use of district resources. Mood: Focused PTO: 0.99999 Hourly: $23 Daily: $184 Schedule: M T W T F - - Objectives: Charisma 2, Logic 2, Wellness 2 Mentor Teacher Staff attrition costs districts billions of dollars, contributes to low teacher morale and disrupts student learning. To combat this problem, many school districts use mentoring programs to support new teachers. A common element of these programs is assigned mentors, who guide new teachers' professional learning. Hey! That’s you! Congrats! Mood: Focused PTO: 0.99999 Hourly: $26 Daily: $208 Schedule: M T W T F - - Objectives: Charisma 3, Logic 3, Wellness 3 Curriculum Specialist A curriculum specialist works on developing and improving curricula and assessing the effectiveness of curricula and instruction. Sounds fancy right? With your invaluable experience teaching in the classroom this was a natural fit for you. You also advance staff development, conduct research on trends in curriculum and make recommendations to the administration. Mood: Focused PTO: 0.99999 Hourly: $30 Daily: $240 Schedule: M T W T F - - Objectives: Logic 4 Graduate Student As rewarding as a career in education can be, classroom teaching is not always the final destination for many educators. You love teaching. But can’t help feeling you could be more… impactful. Maybe traditional classroom teaching isn't for you? There are plenty of roles in education that would benefit from your experience and skills. Time to go back to school and expand your options a bit, and with the grants you landed, you can study full time! Mood: Focused PTO: 0.99999 Hourly: $35 Daily: $245 Schedule: M T W T F - - Objectives: Logic 6, Writing 1

Path 1: School Leadership Did you thrive in leadership roles at your school? Crave the opportunity to grow beyond your classroom? Your path as an educator may expand into positions where you oversee everything from the budget to the performance of the entire teaching staff. If you like the idea of creating standards around education and cultivating leadership in others, school leadership sounds like the career for you! Principle (Level 10) Look out Joe Lewis Clark! As Principle (at last), YOU are responsible for establishing a schoolwide vision of commitment to high standards and the success of all students. You have the chance to set your own academic vision, supervise staff to reach it and build a culture… your way! They may never make a movie about you, but you’ve touched and molded a LOT of lives in your career and that’s what it’s all about. Hey!... On the other hand, maybe they will at that! Mood: Focused PTO: 0.99999 Hourly: $78 Daily: $702 Schedule: M T W T F - - Objectives: Charisma 10 Path 2: Education Products and Services The skills you learned as a teacher have prepared you to develop products and services for teachers and schools. What’s more, you have a keen understanding from your experience of what materials and services and would be helpful to classrooms. Love to write, coach… never seen a societal issue you didn’t want to join or advance? Education Products and Services may be your calling! Startup Founder  (Level 10) Education should be for every student. Not just the ones who can afford textbooks. Partnering with Sim Scholastic you form a foundation to provide free educational digital media to for free to students most in need. Digi-Ed produces solutions and products in conjunction with Sim Scholastic to address that unmet need and finds the resources to distribute them… for free. You entered this career to make a difference. Now you do that on a national scale. Mood: Energized PTO: 0.33000 Hourly: $105 Daily: $840 Schedule: M T W T F - - Objectives: Charisma 10, Logic 10 Path 3: Policy and Advocacy Advocacy encompasses a wide range of activities that influence decision makers. Further your commitment to education by sharing what you know with new audiences. Advocating for teacher issues and pursuing policy positions involves relationship building, networking and strong leadership skills. You can lead a classroom, but can you lead teachers in demanding the help and resources they desperately need? Foundation Founder  (Level 10) Your policies have made a difference and now it’s time to use those policies to make the system better. You’ve founded the Nationwide Board of Teaching Standards (NBTS). Your team is committed to advancing better teaching and the NBPTS is the gold standard in teaching certification. Higher standards for teachers means better learning for students and your national voluntary system certifies teachers to meet those standards. Well done! Mood: Energized PTO: 0.33000 Hourly: $115 Daily: $920 Schedule: M T W T F - - Objectives: Charisma 10, Logic 10 Path: 4: Academia If you decide to pursue education to the level of academia you will influence students at the collegiate level. On a given day, you might have to write a reference for a student; develop teaching materials; read and comment on a PhD dissertation; review a journal article and organize a workshop. Choose Academia and a professional life surrounded by brilliant colleagues, teaching stimulating advanced courses could be yours. University President  (Level 10) As University President, your overarching mission is to provide the university with long-range strategic vision. You oversee 50,000 students, 4,000 faculty, and 28,000 employees. You have used your office to push forward initiatives for BBU, such as expanding online courses, hiring more faculty, and increasing the efficiency of the university. Fundraising is a big part of your job too, and you frequently meet with lawmakers, businesses, and other leaders who can make a positive impact on the school. Congratulations President. You are a leader for the Brindleton Bay University- both on campus and off. Mood: Focused PTO: 0.75000 Hourly: $253 Daily: $2024 Schedule: M - W T - - - Objectives: None (hasn't your poor old Sim been through enough? )

Download: http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=618068 Get featured: https://maxismatchccworld.tumblr.com/

[bestfungames1]

New Post has been published on https://bestfungames.com/marvels-avengers-review/

MARVEL'S AVENGERS REVIEW

69

MARVEL’S AVENGERS REVIEW

Marvel’s finest have never looked or sounded this good, but their best efforts feel in vain.

By Robert Zak September 07, 2020

As the Marvel’s Avengers campaign ends, to be replaced by samey missions, it reminds me of the dual identity of so many superheroes. Avengers straps on its tightest, glossiest spandex for the campaign and dazzles with its moves, but once that adventure ends and it returns to the daily grind of a multiplayer-oriented endgame, it blurs into the crowd. Inoffensive, yet indistinguishable but for its famous superhero superstars.

The frustrating thing about Marvel’s Avengers is that for the first few hours, you see hints of what it could have been—a visually spectacular and satisfying adventure—but then a functional, unoriginal loop of missions takes over, and you realise that that’s the actual game you’ll be spending most of your time with.

The campaign offers a simple story, following future Ms. Marvel Kamala Khan as she seeks to reassemble the Avengers following a disaster that creates a wave of new superheroes labelled as ‘Inhumans’. You’re pitted against floating-head-with-tiny-limbs, MODOK, who’s intent on wiping out all Inhumans with the help of AIM’s Scientist Supreme Monica Rappaccini and her army of robots.

A pretty regular Marvel setup then, and beautifully written, animated, and voice-acted throughout. I found myself actively looking forward to the cutscenes and snippets of in-game banter.

R relationship between Bruce Banner and Kamala Khan unfolds beautifully. Banner’s unsure body language and mix of irritation and avuncular care he shows towards Khan—whose chirpy teenage optimism is just what 2020 needs—is a masterclass of voicework and mocap. It also elegantly addresses the fact that, to a 30-plus curmudgeon like me, the fresh-faced Khan can be kind of annoying, but her convincing character arc soon gets me completely onboard.

(Image credit: Marvel’s Avengers)

Given the amount of big names the campaign has to introduce, it’s understandable that not all the relationships get the same level of attention, but each character still entertains as you bring the Avengers’ floating command centre back to life. The villain MODOK, with his pustulent, hypertrophic head that seems to swell up with every scene, is brilliantly brought to life. The performance turns one of Marvel’s goofiest-looking heroes into a memorable, eerily soft-spoken villain.

However, once you’re aboard the Avengers’ Chimera ship, it becomes a little too obvious that you’re being roped into the publisher’s long game. You walk around on deck as your Avenger of choice, picking up time-limited challenges from vendors, buying gear using real or in-game currency, and using a map to freely drop into missions set across several biomes around the world. Some you do solo, others you do alongside up to three other Avengers, who can be controlled by AI or online players. I’d play with others where possible, and it speaks to the simplicity of the missions and combat that there’s not too much need for communication or a balanced squad.

I did get to play online alongside Hulk wearing a Hawaiian shirt and fedora though.

(Image credit: Marvel’s Avengers)

PERFORMANCE

I’ve been reading a a little bit about performance problems on PC, but can say that my experience has been mostly stable. There were a couple of odd bugs during the campaign that forced me to restart the game, and multiplayer matchmaking has been very slow from my experience, forcing me to give up after minutes of waiting multiple times.

The combat is a curious mix of classic brawler moves like juggling, suspended aerial attacks and light-heavy combos with the counter-and-dodge-based style of the Arkham games (there’s even a move where you jump over a shielded enemy’s head to break their shield). Little icons on the edges of the screen tell you how close a missile or laser is to blasting you away, while enemy melee attacks are telegraphed by coloured circles, which let you know whether to dodge or parry them. Get enough attacks together, and your rage meter fills, letting you unlock spectacular special moves like Iron Man summoning his Hulkbuster mech, or Ms. Marvel turning into a long-limbed giantess resembling a wacky waving inflatable tube girl.

The icons give you a lot to think about while filling your screen with a confetti of mechanised enemies and special moves executed by your fellow Avengers, and it doesn’t always feel like you—or even the game itself—can keep up. A couple of dozen hours in, I’ll still often dodge instead of parrying when the enemy attack circle is white (dodge for red, dammit!), and that all-important telegraphing of enemy moves isn’t entirely consistent, and the camera’s a little too close for comfort – great for ogling Hulk’s slabs of back muscle, not so great for managing space in a scuffle.

Playing as the speedsters of the group, Ms. Marvel and Black Widow, feels much better than Hulk, whose lumbering style doesn’t sync well with the already slowish animations and floaty jumping physics. High-flyers Iron Man and Thor, meanwhile, definitely offer a buzz as you can freely swoop into battle from way overhead of your buddies. Unfortunately finer aerial maneuvering and attacks are fiddly and much weaker than melee. It may be fun to fly, but the action’s really on the ground.

But in a game so much about fan service, there’s something to be said for making each superhero feel unique, even if that is at the expense of balance. The characters move and attack just like you remember from the movies or imagine from the comics, right down to the disinterested way Hulk toe-pokes chests open. During these little moments, and amidst the on-screen muddle when you string together a bunch of counters and executions before letting rip with a hero’s special move, the superhero fantasy successfully shines.

(Image credit: Marvel’s Avengers)

The bigger problems come later. Missions may be set all over the world, but levels themselves are sparse expanses of snow/forests/city where you hunt for crates hidden in metal bunkers guarded by faceless robots, before proceeding to complete a main objective—destroying a few structures, or holding onto some control points, Battlefield-style.

The game tries to spruce things up with awkward platforming segments and hunts for SHIELD stashes (essentially a slightly better stash among endless stashes), but they’re visually ugly and unvaried, in stark contrast to the elegantly animated and designed superheroes that run around them.

Also, for some reason the ‘Power’ level required for various missions is all over the place, greatly restricting the amount of missions you can tackle. I was quite up for a boss-fight mission that SHIELD offered for their daily challenge (which improves your faction rank with SHIELD, which lets you buy locked-off gear yada-yada), only to find that I was dozens of levels below being able to do it. These are the kinds of things that can be smoothed out over the coming months, but as things stand a good chunk of the endgame remains level-gated.

(Image credit: Marvel’s Avengers)

Back aboard the Chimera, the metagame of daily challenges, endless gear upgrades (with daily ‘specialty’ items) and missions becomes particularly noticeable post-campaign. Without the more bespoke campaign-specific missions and story to break them up, the monotony begins to set in, and while there is an obsessive feedback loop to repeating missions, upgrading your gear, and improving your character in perpetuity, you don’t even get to see these gear upgrades. The only aesthetic changes are different costumes, which are a hard to find, and otherwise locked behind higher levels and real-world currency.

There’s nothing too egregious about the microtransactions, which are purely cosmetic and also include emotes, nameplates and execution animations, but there’s nothing particularly satisfying to work towards in the endgame either.

Perhaps a fleshed-out single-player campaign will never be enough to satisfy Avenger’s marketing aims. The story is worthy of Marvel’s movie canon, but it’s too short and ends up being a shiny wrapper for what’s currently a rudimentary game-as-service.

(Image credit: Marvel’s Avengers)

This comes with the caveat that it’s just getting started, and there have been plenty of online-oriented games that started slowly. There’s enough button-mashy mileage in the combat system, especially as new heroes get introduced as DLC, but it’s the mission design and loot loop that let it down. It’s just not strong or varied enough to justify the long-term investment the game wants from you.

Not that justification beyond a 14-hour campaign and ‘it’s your favourite superheroes and they look amazing’ is needed for a day one purchase, based on the game’s early sales. But if Marvel’s Avengers wants to keep loyalists sweet and expand its player-base, it needs a lot more flesh on its vibranium skeletal armature. If only the game could carry some of its narrative prowess from the campaign over into the endgame.

[forestangelwrites]

I think a lot of the appeal, for me, is that Aizawa the first example of a hero and authority figure who ‘made it’ with ‘barely’ a quirk. Sure, Erasure is pretty OP as a game changer from a meta perspective, but in-universe it only negates some categories of quirks, and literally ‘blink and you’ll miss’. It implies that Eraserhead’s success as a hero, albeit underground, is because of his skill, strategy, determination and training. The fact of his existence runs counter to the vlaues being preached about the more ‘desirable’ your quirk, the more worth you have as a human being, never mind as a hero.

So we come to Izuku’s burning question to All Might on that rooftop after the slime villain: “can a person become a hero without a quirk?”. All Might said no. He had reasons for saying no other than simple bigotry - but the fact of the matter was, the #1 Hero said no. He changed his mind about Izuku later, but even then, he offered Izuku his quirk right after saying he could be a hero. So you can argue he didn’t actually negate his comment on the rooftop. The anime (and presumably the manga, but I’ve only watched the anime) then changes lens to the insane lengths Izuku goes to master his inherited quirk(s). Given the drawbacks such that he seemed better off NOT using it (exhibit A: first & 2nd rounds of the sports festival) in the early seasons, I’m probably not the only one who wondered whether Izuku might have been better off without OFA. Maybe then he’d have learned to fight smarter rather than try to be a carbon copy of All Might. (Izuku-kun, you are an inspiration for working so hard for your dream and the legacy entrusted to you, but please stop breaking your body). Like, Izuku eventually learns to fight both smarter as well as harder; but like that saying goes - when you when you’ve been given a hammer, all your problems start to look like nails. And bad habits are hard to break. Wish Izuku would have learned that lesson from the start.

And who do we know that HAD to have fought smarter not harder because he didn’t have a combat oriented quirk? It was established that Aizawa himself got into the hero course @ UA through the Sports Festival because his quirk was no good for the entrance exam. As a lot of fanfics have noted, Aizawa essentially fights quirkless. So can’t blame us for wondering if Eraserhead would’ve given a different answer on that rooftop. And because Izuku deserves all the good things, it’s only a small leap from there ( only rational) to have dadzawa thrown in the mix. I agree that these fics could do without the gratuitous All Might-bashing though.

It doesn’t negate the dadzawa phenomenon for Eri and Shinsou, of course. Dadzawa!Eri is pretty much canon, and Shinsou is the Aizawa analogue for the current hero cohort, so there’s plenty of those fics floating around. But the most powerful draw for Dadzawa and Son!zuku (besides him being the protag)? “It might have been”.

Hones i just don't really get the appeal of dadzawa with izuku? It makes sense with eri and shinsou, but izuku already has a father figure who cares about him in Canon.

Agreed.  I don’t understand why more people just go do dadzawa with shinsou instead of bashing all might to make it work with izuku.

[derkastellan]

Old School vs Truth

The “Old School Revolution” (OSR for short) is a niche within the wider role-playing ecosystem that has attracted my attention over the years. By now, it has diversified into people experimenting more with rules, but right now I want to look at the origins because frankly that is so much easier and is also something I have the most beef with.

Without mincing too many words the OSR seems to be about emulating the play experience of the versions of Dungeons & Dragons that were around during the Gygax era, so mostly Classic D&D (Original Edition or Oe, 0e), Basic D&D (Basic/Expert mostly), and Advanced D&D (AD&D 1st Edition or 1e). Most of this was done by writing retro-clones which either emulated the original rules, stream-lined and cleaned up the original rules, or versions that added popular house rules. The strongest contenders were Swords & Wizardry (based off of Oe mostly), Labyrinth Lord (based off of Basic mostly), and OSRIC (based of 1e). 

It’s interesting that OSRIC basically became the least used of these systems. This doesn’t mean there are no people playing 1e, though. For example Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea is a 1e-based ruleset that seems to go strong. Also Labyrinth Lord incorporated the Advanced Edition Companion. 

All of these games benefit from the basic compatibility provided by the D&D stat block. While details may differ on how to do such things as saving throws or attack rolls, in general monsters and other trappings can be shared with these games with minimal hassle - or used from the original game materials from the 70s and 80s. After all, the purpose of a retro-clone was in part to play a game that is out-of-print. (And to clean up rough edges of which there were plenty.)

“Virtues”

Having spent a few years browsing or participating on OSR boards, groups, forums - whatever was at the time an appropriate social medium - I came across various arguments in favor of old school play.

There were claims that old school gaming is...

Fostering emergent story.

More creativity-driven on the GM side because it is less defined. “Rulings not rules.”

More problem-solving-driven on the player side.

Inviting GMs to tinker with the system and getting into a do-it-yourself culture.

Overall more challenging than later games (mostly iterations of D&D).

I think it’s also perfectly fair to say that a lot of people are attracted to OSR because either of nostalgia, like I was. I see an old adventure book with black line art and I can get giddy. But somehow the OSR always wanted to rationalize an emotional response into something that is of presumably higher virtue. You may like or dislike various editions of D&D for various reasons. The question is whether you make a high horse of it to talk down from.

The list above is basically the “best of” of rationalized boasting about why older is better. The amount of claims that “D&D used to be more challenging” or “D&D has been dumbed down” and the endless amount of “war stories” from playing classic modules were truly legion. 

One could easily rephrase this list to a critique of something else and not be far off, I think:

Modern-day D&D...

Is more story-oriented or “railroady.”

Defined the GM’s job very narrowly and the rules claim to cover everything.

Diminished problem-solving on the player side.

Encouraged GMs more to be consumers than producers.

Is less challenging.

And in fact, this is the variation you will find more often expressed in the player base. It has a bit of “old man shaking his cane” at all those people playing mostly 4e or 5e D&D. 

It is also, if you ask me, partially true. It depends on how you select your data. 

You may find decades-old grudges against Dragonlance as the TSR setting that introduced rail-roady gameplay into D&D more heavily. And with the advent of unified rules the mindset of “I roll a die to succeed” has become more prevalent in both many GMs and players heads. In fact, many players come from very different backgrounds now, having cut their teeth on video games and MMORPGs.

But here’s the thing. Nothing requires you to run a 5e game as rail-roady, roll-driven, or less challenging. And while I can see how it encourages a certain mindset, style of play, and attitude, there’s plenty of systems around that one might chose instead. The world is larger than D&D, even though it ends up cornering so much of the US market for itself.

Wild times

I have no doubt that uninspired modern modules exist aplenty, providing unchallenging diversion to players. (The deluge of material for 5e is mind-boggling even when considering 3e flooding the market with 3rd party product.) 

But this already started from the days of AD&D 1e, with people clamoring for TSR to release stuff to run. And in fact, people in the OSR cite such modules also as their influences, with a very few standing out. And in fact a lot don’t stand out so much! The Greyhawk setting has probably around a hundred modules associated with it (though some or many may be set anywhere).

B2: Keep on the Borderlands was released in 1979. Tomb of Horrors in 1978. Within 4 years after the original game’s first release the idea of a game module as consumable product takes shape for TSR. Before that it took TSR about 2 years to publish “supplements” which added rules and general game stuff - as opposed to “adventures.”

The very first players had nothing to guide them by - no true introduction to running the game, for example. The first introduction as to how to play and run the game would be left to later products, like Basic D&D. So the first players pieced together what they could from a jamble of rules, thing they had heard, etc. 

How vague are we talking about? If my index search doesn’t betray me, only one of the three books contained in the original boxed set contains the concept of “caller” (without explaining it) and an example of an actual gameplay conversation between caller (on behalf of players) and referee. From this and the rules you had to deduce how the game is played. (The role of caller appears in other products but the Players Handbook of 1e finally casts it as the leader of a party, requiring “obedience” or the party is penalized for their confused actions.)

So, for many years people basically had only the vaguest hunch of how to play the game at all. It would be a bold claim to say people had a strong idea of how D&D was meant to play unless they made it to a convention and played with people who had in turn played with original players. Or read about that in a zine.

Gygax tried to make the game more uniform and defined in AD&D 1e, which in turn also curbs the most free-flowing aspects of the game and drives it towards “weapon speed factors” and a detailed list of armaments. 

The “advanced” in AD&D certainly stands for more detailed. It also stands for the end of a free-wheeling era and aims to be definitive and unifying. It goes from “you could do it like this” (even suggesting other games as part of the game) to “this is how it is done”.

“Rulings not rules” was necessary during this time as the rules were incomplete, haphazardly organized, lacked uniformity (yes, this includes AD&D 1e), and relied on the GM to fill the gap. AD&D 1e partially fills this gap but in my opinion is lacking a coherent design. It is more like an “opinionated, polished, and edited” version of the original game. It is one possible thing that could have evolved from the original soup and canonizing Gygax vision of the game.

So within a few years of the first D&D release into the wild we move from “rulings not rules” to “my rules, not your rulings.” Except for the areas like social interaction where D&D left it vague, probably for its benefit in the longer run.

It was a creative time... a time of problem-solving and challenge!

But what did players do before that? Now here we have mostly accounts of people chosing to involve themselves with the OSR in the sense of a wider audience, shaping a legend of how play was, leading to the claims I listed above.

I have heard numerous claims, in one case in person, of how this was a time where smart people devised ways to assure winning by avoiding combat or dice-rolling altogether because it was so damn risky. And this is how it was meant to be played. One played carefully, probing floors for traps with 10 foot poles, always on the lookout what GM (and module) might throw at you, and this is how you won the infamous Tomb of Horrors. 

It has a sense of e-sports athletes, doesn’t it? Because Tomb of Horrors was a tournament module you could test your gaming mettle against. Depending on who you ask it is a great challenge or a screwjob. 

Now, there are good examples of disabling traps that I do like from these accounts. Freezing traps or pouring concrete into a mechanism - good stuff. Some solutions were decidedly cool. This is certainly the response some players had to the game. They adopted a gameplay driven by cautiousness, avoiding rolls, bringing hirelings and henchmen, and otherwise minimizing risk and optimizing chances.

Reading around the internet I found other accounts - like people saying that characters used to die a lot and having a 2nd level elf was special. Running away is also mentioned as a valuable reaction to encounters. Of course, breaking the enemy’s morale also played a role, not running all encounters to the very end.

My bet is, however, that many people house-ruled D&D to be more heroic before D&D canonized step by step with 2e and later editions. My bet would be that people not only awarded more hit points, they might also fiddle with tables, the rules for dying, etc. And why shouldn’t they? If it was desirable to modify the game, why not modify that? If D&D was a means of having fun, people probably modified it to have more fun which was probably not had by dying a lot, no matter what certain GMs or Bill Webb or whoever claim.

My suspicion is that most experimenting and problem-solving went into puzzles and tricks, and occasionally traps, especially if they resembled puzzles and tricks more. And I see no true difference here today - if you provide players with something complex that they have to figure out, a lot of them will pool their problem-solving skills and try to reason it out and some will mash buttons or smash it. What has changed is that detecting traps became a lot more passive. (And traps have always been a divisive topic - how to run them well, what makes a good trap, and what outcomes are appropriate traps vs death traps, considerations of fairness, etc.)

In general, the challenge argument hinges on very few things. Part of it is that players had so few hit points on the lower levels, their survival was constantly at stake even from small challenges. On higher levels, save-or-die effects could easily kill the PC just the same. Sudden death was certainly possible enough. In other words, being vulnerable, often crazily and unrealistically vulnerable, was part of the game. A level 1 wizard might have less hit points than a cat and might be killed by one.

These don’t stem however from design, and came about at best unconsciously. If these are virtues they were at best acquired at random, not planned or designed for. They were at best happy - or depending on whom you ask, unhappy - accidents.

Dungeons & Dungeons

Looking at the material published for the OSR you notice a lot of dungeon crawls. Draw a dungeon, run a dungeon. I wonder what real story is supposed to “emerge” here? How I tricked that troll out of a magic sword? How we snatched the dragon hoard without fighting the damn thing?

The whole thing about “we evaded combat” and “not everything is scaled to your level” or “we did some pretty inventive things to disarm traps” tells a story of its own. The game itself was mostly about monsters, traps, and dungeons. Beyond that, any degree of freedom you might feel you had can frankly be had in most other RPGs with a willing and capable GM.

I have no doubt that a lot of interesting things went down in Dave Arneson’s games when everything was new and he had to adjudicate the game on the fly, stuff ideas in, make up systems, etc. It was less of a game in a codified sense and more of an experience. That must have also been born from this new sense of freedom of discovering the story angle of your avatars, and since they had all their own interests and turfs and stakes their adventures likely often had some ingrained motivation D&D often lacked. 

Evaporating marketplace

This aversion to “stories” is interesting. When you see what is published inthe OSR ecosystem, it quickly went away from plain dungeon modules to more exotic affairs. Weird set-pieces, playing to a heavy metal vibe, gonzo adventuring - I know several series of publications that thrive on that. And how about Sword & Wizardry? Half of the stuff published for it is also published for 5e. I think you will find nothing in there upsetting to “modern” sensibilities and yet it comes also for an old school system. Are we more alike than “they” think?

None of the actual retro-clones are truly thriving. They are multiplying, but who is publishing adventure modules for them? Fewer than you think. Labyrinth Lord had a pretty humdrum Kickstarter to get a new edition out, OSRIC is probably best considered dead,  Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea is selling as much a setting as a system, and Swords & Wizardry is also not brimming with new stuff. Look at the DriveThruRPG page of stuff for the S&W rules and you find that the section ordered by “Popularity” has barely seen any change - because no new major stuff got published for it. Labyrinth Lord in turn sees mostly publications for the compatible Dark Places & Demogorgons. Settings sell, retro-clones fail. Funny that. Games like the Black Hack stole most of the OSR’s thunder depending on how you want to see it, all these games like Polyhedral Dungeon that want to innovate the rules a bit, and encourage actual “hacking” instead of polishing slightly the “same ol’.”

So, unless we assume all of these happy OSR GMs homebrew, the OSR has largely failed as a marketplace. The ones succeeding to attract attention are the more gimmicky ones, the weird of LotFP, Dungeon Crawl Classics, and various module and adventure series heading into more gonzo, weird, and surreal directions. And some of the weird and surreal authors are leaving the OSR behind, like Ultraviolet Grasslands and the Black City or Electric Bastionland, having clear old school roots but playing them out their own way. Even seemingly successful publishers like Hydra Cooperative branch out into also providing their material to DCC. Both the Troll Lords and Frog God Games cater to the 5e crowd. Material palatable to more flexible old schoolers seeps into Dungeon World, the Year Zero engine, and other lightweight or even narrative systems. The OSR might not be dead, but it is not really expanding, nor is it getting stuff into stores unless you count the weird, gonzo offshoots.

Or let’s say, it’s not expanding the original OSR sphere. The old school’s influence is felt everywhere, including 5e itself. An old school vibe has reached far and wide in the RPG community, but left the OSR community behind. Unless you think that the Black Hack and other new systems are the inheritors of the OSR, that this next generation OSR will actually continue to thrive. I actually hope so. It might end up being less preachy. 

[jackmonkeygames]

https://ift.tt/2XfK7bC https://ift.tt/2ScDBPb

“Space battles are boring in RPGs.” This is was what was said on the Happy Jacks RPG Podcast. For the most part, I agree as unless the player is the pilot or a gunner there is not a whole lot to do on the ship. The players are spending a lot of time waiting for those who are engaged in a battle to be done with their turn and nothing really interesting happens. the next thing you know the players are stacking dice and on their phones. This bit of Sci-Fi RPG Advice talks about if you treat a ship like a flying dungeon the non-active party members will have plenty to do. Like, survive.

Think about this what is boring about a space battle. Even in Star Trek where the cast basically stands in front of consoles and pushes buttons things can get rather exciting when they start to take damage. You have panels falling from the ceiling, Crew members being vented out into space & loss of life support on deck three. Imagine if you were playing one of those crew members in those areas?

From a player perspective, there are all kinds of Obstacles like loss of gravity to the air slowly running out. This can really set a scene of urgency.

Sci-Fi RPG Advice: From a Dungeon Master perspective

We all know how to create a dungeon. It’s one of the first things we do as Dungeon Masters/GameMasters. Basically, create a map then add traps to each of the locations. But it does have a little bit of tweaking to make it work.

During a battle find a reason why the non-combat characters are in a different part of the ship. Then let all hell break loose inside the ship. Now your Players are no longer bored during the battle.

Avoid Instant death

One of the things to consider is that in space there are a lot of ways to die instantly. This sounds like a great idea if you are going to make something sound dangerous (Or if you are twelve-year-old GM and have not figured out that you are not trying to kill the player characters) But real space is very dangerous. There are things that can kill you before you even know something is wrong. In a Sci-fi RPG setting, you need to make sure that each “Trap” has at least three ways to avoid instant death. (That is what Red Shirts are for) .

Unlike Dungeon traps, these traps are failing equipment and not meant to keep invaders out. In a Science Fiction scenario, these bits of malfunctions have deadly results but no ill will towards the RPG characters. So that electrical cable that is flopping around is not after the players.

The other part of the space ship trap is that the player will want to fix the issue if its their ship. So they are less likely to use a blaster to burn something unless that really needs to happen.

Ideas for Sci-Fi Traps

Here are a few ideas for things that can go wrong in a space ship. Now I am currently writing a longer version of this that will be in the coming Star-Fall RPG. But for now, here are some basics. I’m sure the Cast of the Star-Fall Actual Play Podcast is getting a little nervous reading this. I also want to mention that we are leaving the hard science in the books at the moment as this is Science Fiction with the focus on the fiction. I make no claims of scientific accuracy.

New To Star-Fall?

Go back to the first episode to see what you are missing.

Start from Episode One!

Taking traditional traps and making them a busted space ship system

The Bottomless Pit Trap = The broken airlock

This trap is the same as the old bottomless pit but it’s on the wall. (And the void of space will kill you in a few rounds. (Sorry explosive decompression is a myth ). Think of reasons why this airlock is broken. Why did it open like that? And what is it going to take to fix it. Being that an airlock is a very sturdy system most likely the issue is electrical or software-related.

Something else to think about is that there is a good chance that the air is already vented out into space by the time a player needs to go fix the issue.

Poison cloud trap = Gas or reactor leak

What is a good science Fiction without a reactor leak of some kind? The idea of this trap is that the gas or radiation is very bad for the player characters. The players will need to figure out how to fix the problem before all the air in the area is affected. In situations like this its always a good idea to allow the players to be creative with coming up with solutions.

The Arrow Trap = Exploding pannels

Another classic dangerous trap but now instead of having the arrows triggered by a pannel they were going to explode anyway. Or perhaps a short in the system will cause the fule system to rupture while the players are walking by. once again allow creative answers.

I’m curious about what traps you might use

I hope this bit of Sci-Fi RPG Advice is helpful. I would love to hear how you have converted traditional rpg traps into Science Fiction death traps for RPGs.

Scifi Space Battle, Episode Six

December 13, 2018

Battle in the airlock! Episode 12 of Star-Fall Actual Play podcast

January 1, 2019

Sci-Fi RPG podcast vs Just a tabletop game

March 29, 2019

The post Sci-Fi RPG Advice: Flying Dungeons appeared first on Star-Fall RPG podcast.

[fantabulosogamedev]

Midweek Update: The Detailfriend Overhaulplace

Hey everyone!

Much of this week’s work ended up focusing on improving the detailing of the Fightyplace, letting the terrain look much more organic and natural.  In addition, work has begun on the Shamrock’s corner of the level, and some pretty significant changes have been planned to prior systems and will be implemented in the coming weeks.  As a result, this one’ll be a little bit text heavy, but don’t worry, I have plenty of nice visuals to show off to you guys too!

Note that, as a result of this update, much of the fightyplace is being renovated.  This means some walls are missing, some textures aren’t mapped quite right, and other similar fun things -- everything’s back in a very WIP state!

(full size here)

Starting off, I’ve finally decided on a grass texture I’m pretty happy with!  The old one, used since before the Midweek Update program even started, has finally gotten the boot in favor of a more stylized, polygonal material texturing system.  Furthermore, the Fightyplace’s terrain has been un-flattened -- it’s now full of far more natural hills and bumps, helping the level feel more filled out and less artificial.

(full size here)

The Spherefriend Fort has also undergone an addition in detail -- as well as having the sloping terrain, the vines infesting the Fort now have small dirt mounds where they’re emerging.  Additionally, said dirt mounds finally have a texture, as opposed to simply being a flat color!

(full size here)

Additionally, piles of clovers have been added within the Fort, to help provide that sense of infestation further.  I plan on adding 3D clover models to the area as well, in addition to some more foliage effects.  On that note...

(animated)

I’ve created a nice-looking and very efficient 3D grass effect!  This grass will be littered around the fightyplace, further increasing its detailing.  As you can see, the grays sways gently in the wind, and also pushes away from Capboy as he walks through it.  The coolest thing about this grass is that it’s nearly entirely GPU-based -- as TFG is not especially graphically intensive, there’s a lot of flexing room for the GPU, and this grass is one of the ways I plan on filling said unused potential.  On my GTX770, a moderately old graphics card, I was able to get somewhere around 10k concurrent bushes without dipping below 60fps -- and that was before occlusion culling or LOD detail being added.  The short of this, for those who don’t know what any of that means, is that the grass is not going to be very hard for most modern computers to render!

(full size here)

Finally, work has begun on the Shamrock’s corner of the Fightyplace.  While the Spherefriend Fort holds a Golden Sausage locked away with a puzzle, the Shamrock Fort will hold one based on a combat challenge.  Exactly what this challenge is, I haven’t figured out yet, but that’s the current plan!

(full size here)

The tower of this wall provides quite the view of the fightyplace...where you can see the new UV mapping and shape of the mountain!  This shape is much more natural-looking, a common theme of this week’s improvements, and also provides a larger arena at the top to fight the boss.  Just what is the boss, you may ask?

Though it may not mean anything, Spherefriend spies have heard rumors of a Shamrock “Chosen One” -- a Shamrock with an immense attunement to its ancestors, capable of channeling the true power of Slamorbing.  With the Royal Flying Fortress nowhere to be found, it’s thought that this Chosen One has been assigned control of the troops in the Fightyplace.  Of course, no Spherefriend has seen the Chosen One with their own two eyes and lived to tell the tale, so it could simply be a myth spread to demoralize the Spherefriends...none of them have been brave enough to find out, however.

That’s it for everything visual this week!  However, a substantial amount of planning has been done to smooth out the rest of the Fightyplace’s development -- all but two of the area’s Golden Sausages have been determined concretely, and general level direction (i.e. where the player needs to go) has been determined.

---

The main issue affecting level exploration was the Dogjail -- both mini-collectible rewards via the Researcher and Spheredog collection are awarded from completion of the Dogjail section, but the Dogjail itself is located at the very base of the mountain.  As my ideal goal for the game is to only require the player to access and then kill the area’s boss, this is obviously a bit of a problem: two crucial mechanics, and their subsequent natural tutorials, were placed in an optional area.  

My first thought was to simply require the player to go through this room to be able to reach the boss, but this makes the level feel far too linear for my liking.  So, instead, in order to actually leave the Fightyplace when the area’s boss is dead, Capboy will need to rescue the Researcher -- only his knowledge is able to clear out the now-dead infection blocking the road to Cragwell Woods.  As the Researcher can only be rescued after rescuing the dogs, this provides a natural way to force the player into encountering them, while still allowing them to tackle the level in whatever order they’d like.

---

Additionally, I’ve planned out several more mechanics that you can expect to see within the next month or so -- I’ve figured out how to implement the classic collectathon Quiz Minigame in a way that’s unobtrusive to the player (don’t worry, it’s not required to beat the game!), a way to help the player located unexpectedly-hidden Golden Sausages, and an improvement to the Fantabula sublevels’ rewards systems.  If you want more detail on these changes, you can check out the game’s Discord by clicking here, or you can wait until I actually implement them within the next few MUs!  There is, however, one change that I’d like to announce in its entirety...

The Skill Tree is being entirely reworked.  In my preliminary playtesting consisting only of myself, I found that (while it was a cool idea), the skill tree simply ended up being clunky and confusing to navigate.  Planning out builds was far too difficult, and while I think the idea of a skill tree you can walk around in is really cool, I don’t have the time or desire to implement it in a way that does it justice in TFG.  But don’t worry -- I have a far better system designed to replace it!

The Skill Tree room will still remain, though its structure will likely change quite a bit.  Instead of the current trees -- health, stamina, melee, stealth, fortitude, ammo, ranged, and general -- 7 Stat Statues will take their place.  These statistics will be Energization, Fortitude, Friendliness, Smashitude*, Nimbility*, Aimfulness*, and Ichorification*.  As Capboy gathers collectibles, every single collectible will award him varying amounts of SP, with Bludsausages awarding the most.  Furthermore, when Capboy kills enemies, he’ll gain SP as well -- however, the more full the enemy’s Bestiary entry is, the less SP he’ll gain, making it so that grinding is not an infinitely beneficial strategy.

*working names, not settled

Capboy will be able to offer his SP at these 7 statues in order to increase the stat the statue is based on.  Every time he increases a stat, the cost to increase a stat is increased -- those familiar with Souls games should recognize this system quite well, and the roles of the stats should make themselves apparent quickly too:

Energization is, essentially, just another name for Stamina.  As Capboy increases his Energization, his maximum stamina will go up, as will his stamina regeneration speed.

Fortitude is exactly what it used to be -- it affects Capboy’s resistance to being staggered by attacks.  Not much more to say here, besides the fact that it’ll scale up more slowly than it did in the skill tree representation!

Friendliness is the Ammunition-related stat.  Every level of Friendliness will give Capboy 1 extra ammo, possibly increasing as the Friendliness level goes up.

Smashitude and Nimbility are the first new stats, essentially replacing the Melee tree.  Smashitude affects Capboy’s damage output with heavy weapons, whereas Nimbility affects Capboy’s damage with smaller, faster weapons.  Capboy’s fists will scale evenly with both stats.

Similarly, Aimfulness and Ichorification are Capboy’s new stats for ranged weapons.  Aimfulness is the stat for more physically-based ranged weapons, whereas Ichorification is focused more on magically-oriented weapons.  Once again, Spherefriend Yellow’s ball form will scale evenly with both stats.

As for the interesting and unique skills that were in the skill tree, have no fear: they will now be relegated to Crag upgrades!  Stuff related to slipstancing, stealth, and bestiary learn rate will now be directly purchasable with Golden Sausages, when Happy Crag has them available for sale.

TL;DR: The skill tree is being replaced with a more streamlined stat-based levelling system, and the unique upgrades of the skill tree are being put into upgrades sold by Happy Crag in exchange for golden sausages.

So yeah, that’s the summary of everything that’s happened this week!  Next on the agenda is continuing work on the Shamrock Fort while also completing the Skilltree overhaul.  This overhaul will include all 7 statue types, mechanics for raising each of the 7 stats, reworked stamina/fortitude bars, and changed geometry for the skilltree room.  If I have extra time, I’ll begin work on the inventory system, and by extension implement the stat scaling on Capboy’s default weapons.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you guys next time!

Last Week: Death of a Stickfellow

Next Week: Shamrocks and Stat-ues

[dmsden]

Making Adventures More Hair Raising

Hi, folks. My Lovecraft LARP is this weekend, so here's anther old advice article. Enjoy! My latest D&D game ended with the defeat of Auntie Mengybone, the Elite Briar Hag that has been causing the PCs trouble for a while now. One of my players looked down at the carnage on the map. “That was really touch and go for a while there. I honestly wondered if we were going to win.” In truth, so did I. Or at least, that was my worry the week prior. The truth is, my players seem to think I have an uncanny ability to judge exactly how much they can take to make it seem like all is lost…but not so much as to overwhelm them completely. And I have some skill in that direction, it’s true, but part of it is that I’ve learned when to adjust my plans, when to insert a secret bonus, and when to make a monster do something stupid. And I’d like to share what I’ve learned with you. Hopefully, it’ll help you make the battles in your games seem that much more intense…the kind of battles that players feel like they succeeded by the skin of their teeth. Careful Planning It’s not shocking that the first thing I do when planning out an adventure is to look at the battles I expect to take place. While my games aren’t inherently battle-oriented, battles add tension and drama to an adventure, and they give the players a chance to show off their tactical skills. Let’s face it…when they’re exciting, battles are fun, so they get a lot of my attention as I plan an adventure. As I’ve said in previous articles, I take the basic encounter concepts of 4E, try to make sure there’s an interesting twist or mechanic in any given battle, and pick monsters I think will be fun and interesting to fight. Once I have that framework, I might think about which monsters might go after specific characters, or special actions they might take. Will a goblin guard break from the battle to sound an alarm? Since the owlbear has so many dang hit points, will I let it run around in something of a frenzy, provoking attacks of opportunity (and giving PCs with special powers triggered by that a chance to use them?) Are there any dialogue bits or character quirks I might want to bring in? I jot some notes as I plan. But I also prepare to throw it all out the window. As much as I want battles to be exciting and interesting, I also want them to further my storyline. I’m not a fan of battles as filler. I want them to tell the PCs something about my world, or move the story forward. And if abandoning a concept I had seems like it will further those ends, then I’m prepared to do it. I can always use the idea in another storyline down the road. The key to keeping things going is a level of flexibility. Upping the Ante Sometimes, as a story progresses, I find that the players are cake-walking through what I thought would be difficult encounters. Maybe I misjudged how effective their attacks would be, or how well they’d work together in a given encounter, or maybe the dice just fall a certain way. Well, the nice thing about playing a game with a human gamemaster (as opposed to a computer) is that a gamemaster can make adjustments on the fly, deciding to change the difficulty of the situation. This can really mean the difference between a fight being memorable and being just another notch in the players’ belts. One of the saddest things that’s ever happened in my game is when the Colossal Red Dragon I threw at my players towards the end of my 3.5 game was taken out in round 3 of a fight by a cleric with the Implosion spell and the roll of a 1 on its saving throw. Kind of sucked the challenge out of that fight, I can tell you. Thankfully, 4E doesn’t have the sort of “instant kill” attacks that earlier editions had, but it’s still sad to watch a monster meant to inspire fear and awe going down in a blaze of attacks. Now, I don’t like to fudge dice that much. I might, however, occasionally give a monster a “nudge”. Are all their attacks hitting my ogre nightstalker? Well, when he gets bloodied, I might give his defenses a boost. My players know some monsters have special effects when they become bloodied, so this isn’t much of a stretch. It doesn’t break the game, but it keeps an important monster in the fight longer and gives them (and the players) a chance to show off all those nifty abilities they have. Other on-the-fly adjustments I’ve made have included bringing in reinforcements, either more of the same coming in from open corridors, or even “summoned creatures” or “raised undead”. This works best if you have something set up in your notes, like giving a necromancer an ability as a standard action to create undead. That way, if you never need it, you can ignore it, but if you do need it, you can bring it into play. It’s important to note that, whenever I do put in something like this, I give the players a way to take it away. If the necromancer is summoning undead every round, and the PCs kill the necromancer, then no more undead come into play. Auntie Mengybone had a way to heal herself through power she was stealing from her captive Archfey. Once the players realized this, they split their energies between fighting her and running a skill challenge to free the Archfey. Once the Archfey was free, they were able to quickly turn the tide of battle and overcome their foe. But until they did, it was, as previously mentioned, rather touch and go. Toning It Down Sometimes, despite good planning, good resource management, and good playing, fate just seems to want to kick your adventuring party where it counts. Most commonly, the dice fall the wrong way, and things just generally go wrong. In instances like this, I’ll look for ways to help the party along. Maybe I’ll decide not to roll to recharge a specific power this particular round. Or maybe I let the monsters get a little cocky. They’re winning, aren’t they? Why not ignore the paladin’s mark? They have hit points to spare, and they can strut the fact that they can take it. If I had reinforcements planned, maybe I’ll decide not to bring them in, or maybe I’ll make it easy for the party to prevent it from happening. Maybe the necromancer needs to make an Arcana check to summon those undead, and the party’s warlock can make an arcana check to counter-magic it. Sometimes, you realize that it’s not the players or the dice causing the problem…it’s you. I recently realized that, although I’d converted some monsters from elites to normal, they still had elite damage listed on their sheets. This caused the players to burn through far more of their healing resources than they should’ve needed to and left them very weak against a very tough foe that was still fresh. In a case like this, I find a way to give the PCs an unexpected way to heal or regain abilities. Maybe there’s a healing potion on the alchemist’s table, or a magic circle in a temple fight allows them to draw on the help of the gods for some aid. I hadn’t planned on this initially, but it helps make up for my earlier mistake. Putting It Together – A Concrete Example The final battle with Auntie Mengybone was set. Besides the elite briar hag herself, I put in 3 bone golems that I’d dropped from elite to normal, representing that they were simply bone constructs, rather than full-fledged golems. I also added a displacer beast which Auntie referred to as “Fluffy.” It was a tough, but balanced battle for a group of 6 level 8 PCs. In the middle of the fight, I realized that the bone golems were doing way too much damage. Although their hit points and defenses had dropped properly, their damage was still elite level. I hadn’t spotted this, however, until I’d hit the PCs with a few of their attacks. “That seems high,” I thought to myself, and then I realized the error. Luckily, the session ended mid-fight, with all monsters but Auntie Mengybone slain, but the PCs in dire straits…almost all encounter and daily powers spent, and several PCs with either 1 or 0 healing surges left. If this had kept up, it would almost certainly have been a complete party wipe, due to my error. In between sessions, I pondered how to fix this. I wanted Auntie Mengybone to be a memorable villain, so I didn’t want to depower her. I had given her a healing power representing drawing on the power of the Archfey she held captive. While I didn’t want to take this away (the PCs hate nothing more than a villain that can heal itself), I wanted to give the players something to draw on, too. I expanded the skill challenge to free the Archfey. Now, if they made a hard success on certain skills, the captive Archfey would aid them. I allowed them to choose between giving 2 healing surges to members of the party, using a healing surge, or recovering an encounter power. This gave a concrete reward to those who chose to step out of combat to aid the Archfey, and gave the PCs a way to stay in the fight, even though their foe was still in good shape. Because I didn’t want them to simply all jump into the skill challenge and overwhelm it in two turns, I gave Auntie a new attack, a little less damaging than her old ones, but one that would negate one of their successes. That made it a more back and forth affair. Finally, I gave Auntie conditions under which she would flee. I would give the PCs plenty of chances to catch her, but I knew this would change the tactical landscape of the fight. So the rhythm of the fight went something like this. The PCs waded in against Auntie Mengybone and discovered that she could heal herself using her connection to the Archfey. At that point, half of them broke off to free the Archfey, engaging in the skill challenge while the other half held her in place. Their Controller was particularly helpful in that situation, using his powers to keep moving her away from the skill challenge. Once the skill challenge was complete, it become another “dogpile on Auntie Mengybone” situation, until she hit her retreat conditions. She used a power to move out of the fight and began to flee, causing the players to switch tactics to catch her and hold her in place, and then defeat her. When it was all over, the players let out a sigh of relief and admitted that they hadn’t been sure they were going to win.

[original-character-archives]

Keira Fuchs

Biography: Keira’s past is a simple one; she’s a soldier in a time of peace within a Galaxy. She cracked a few too many jokes to her superiors and managed to piss one off, so she was relegated to what is probably the most dangerous thing during peacetime for a soldier: Testing of prototype equipment, specifically a Nanite Armor Suit and Jetpack, as well as a Railgun that is connected directly to her suit. 

Appearance: The picture shown is actually just partial inspiration for Keira. Her other inspiration is Valkyrie’s in mythological lore. 

Keira Fuchs is a tall woman, 6'3", with bright hazel eyes and dirty blonde hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. Her face was a strange sort of beautiful, with a square jaw and strong chin, a heart-shaped face, full lips, and a small, almost button-like nose. In fact, out of everything, her nose stood out the most, as it just didn’t seem to fit the rest of her strong features, even though it was cute. Her large eyes were protected by long, dark eyelashes, expressive thick eyebrows set above. Two strands of her hair framed her face, her small ears barely showing behind them. Her body was amazonian in structure, with hard muscles and little body fat. Seemingly despite the fact that she had an eight pack, and that her thighs were able to crush coconuts, the woman’s breasts were still the size of grapefruit, defying the rest of her body’s lack of body fat. Her arms ended in hands that seemed to loom, with long fingers and a wide spread. Her feet were equally large, though arched highly. She probably needed a lot of arch support. Her calves and thighs were sculpted and long, giving her a majority of her height. Her skin wasn’t without flaws, such as freckles, and a large dark spot across her back, nor was it without piercings or even tattoos; her face alone had three piercings, two in one eyebrow and a third in her right nostril, usually filled with rings for the eyebrow and a stud for the nose. Her ears had three each, all rings. She even had one in her naval, a stud. She only had three tattoos; a butterfly on the side of her stomach, a pair of black wings on her right wrist, and a ring of fire around her neck. None of them would show in her armor or in a uniform, if she wore one. Keira wears a military uniform, which can change based on orders from on high. Casually, she tends to wear whatever she feels like at the moment; whatever personality she used to have in this department was stamped out by the military training. If she’s out to a low-class type place (A bar, for instance), she’ll wear blue jeans and a black v-necked tee to show off her tattoos (A normal tee wouldn’t show her collar tattoo very well). The higher class a place, the more likely she is to wear a dress, unless it’s a wedding, in which case she picks a tuxedo.

Personality: Keira is laid back in the sort of way that could have been attributed to drugs on most people. Fortunately for her, that was just her normal personality. She has little issue with baring her body, being naked in front of people, or otherwise embarrassing things, simply due to the fact that she no longer cares. Before she joined the military, the opposite was true, but once she went through nearly a hundred showers with people of the opposite sex and couldn’t bring up the effort to care anymore, that was pretty much over. It’s hard to care when you’re exhausted from a thirty hour hike up a mountain to a training ground you have to personally build, and no one cares about anything but scrubbing dirt off. Keira is intelligently kind; she thinks before she acts, but she tends to act in ways that help others. She prefers getting to the root of a problem and tackling the source issue rather than whatever surface problem has shown up. She’s more likely to want to just go to the gym and work out than sit around, but for her, exercise is relaxing, a sort of meditation with rules and limits. She finds video games charmingly boring.

Favourite & Least Favourite things: Keira doesn’t really hate anything, though not because she hasn’t given it thought; she’s actively thought about and mulled over plenty of things she could hate, but the process of doing so eradicated any hate she had for it. Other than that, she likes exercise, the color green, and chocolate ice cream. 

Strengths and Weaknesses: Ultimately, Keira’s #1 weakness is that she acts too slowly in times of non-stress (her combat training prevents that issue in times of stress and adrenaline), making her appear unintelligent, though she clearly is not. When people want immediate answers from her, she gets frustrated and is more likely to just tell them to fuck off than anything. Her default laid back nature is also a detriment, as most people see it as disinterest, or even depression; that she almost never gets excited is off-putting to people, and her calm, collected nature has had some of her more erratic associates to accuse her of being a sociopath. It is these same things that give her a lot of strength, however; she almost never panics, and she thinks through her problems and arrives at solutions less obvious to others. Where others live hectic and frenetic lives, she lives one with very little personally created stress. Her jokes keep her relatable to her coworkers, and she finds simple joy in just existing. 

Additional notes:  Armor: Keira’s armor was no joke; metalic, heavy, impossible to operate without training and being on. It weighed at least a ton, but it wasn’t bulky; instead, it was seemingly made out of layered powered mesh, form fitting and powerful, two large wing shaped anti-gravity pod rocket wings jutting from the back. They merged seamlessly with the suit, and small cables went from the back of her neck to the suit. Her helmet was a full version, with a raisable visor that could keep air in. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much room in the helmet for hair, so, bruises were common for those unused to it, or incapable of putting their hair up in the right way; a tight braid that spread hair out along the entirety of the skull, acting more like layed cornrows than anything. The boots of the Valkyrie suit were high heels, a design malfunction that no one corrected, the ‘mesh’ nearly skintight on the calves and thighs, though it thickened and became less revealing further up, tightening again around the waist. The suit only slightly hid the breasts, forming a more solid plate material in the area, though it was form fitting at the top. Another design ‘malfunction’ that no one bothered to fix. The suit worked with nanites who were permanently interlocked, allowing for both ‘push’ and 'pull’ methods for each tiny machine, in every direction, allowing for anyone to be able to fit into the suit rather easily, as well as enhancing strength and dexterity. It was several inches thick at the thinnest, creating inner joints within itself to allow for free motion, never restricting the user. It’s only trouble was that it required to be hooked up to the nervous system directly, or else it would not be able to respond in time to motions, simply slowing down the user.

Weapon: Keira’s main weapon is a bolt action open rail railgun, generally firing one ounce slugs at about one per second, depending on user. However, it’s rails could spread and fire larger slugs than usual, though it required more power to do so; it could fire slugs as large as a cubic foot in volume, though it would be the only shot for an entire day. Still, such a shot would generally destroy whatever was in it’s path for a mile. Even the one ounce slugs were fairly devastating, though, at close range, it tended to simply puncture through with almost no damage, relatively speaking, than at max range. Due to the nature of the velocity of it'sslugs, it was impossible to dodge without prior knowledge of the shot, even at ranges of up to a mile. It also didn’t tend to move from wind, gravitational pulls, or pretty much anything else, for up to five miles.

Keira’s armor is intentionally fanservicey in-universe. A top scientist more or less designed it that way, and then went about proving that it didn’t do anything but degrade the woman inside, while providing a morale boost to anyone else. While his ethics are certainly flawed, there aren’t any design flaws inherent to the design; the high heels were never meant to touch ground in the first place, since the jetpack is supposed to last for hours on end without refuelling. The nanites can reform around anything, and move to protect the wearer by thickening the armor in any area that needs it (for area’s of impact, not bullets. If the wearer falls, it can spread the damage out over a large area, rather than focusing it into one spot, and in-air impacts can be nearly negated. Where traditional fanservicey platemail fails in that the chestplate would direct any shot inwards if hit, this armor can simply move to prevent that), and it more or less has the same level of thickness no matter where you go on the armor itself. 

Keira is also intentionally fanservicey. Mostly because her inspirations were that way, but also because I wanted at least one character who just didn’t give a fuck. She does what she wants, and she’s a badass for it. of course, as I went further along into the design, more and more of that got stripped away for a more military mindset, but that’s okay. Characters evolve. The armor is a great fit for her, since she doesn’t care. 

If you want to read some stories about Keira, you can visit my blog!

Fanart would be epically awesome, because nothing on the internet really fits Keira that I can find. 

Thank you for reading!

[entergamingxp]

Journey to the Savage Planet review

The first time I throw down a cannister of GROB, I’m not entirely sure what it is. As it explodes into a satisfying puddle of goo, the exotic creatures around me – my scanner tells me they’re Pufferbirds and they “like, love me”: it’s already reciprocal – screech a joyful, if alien, screech and waddle straight to it. Awed, I waddle right after them.

Journey to the Savage Planet review

Developer: Typhoon

Publisher: 505

Platform: Played on PS4 Pro

Availability Out January 28th on PC, Xbox One and PC

Moments later, their little bodies start contorting and their cheerful chirps fade. With dawning horror, I realise I’ve mindlessly thrown down this unspecified foodstuff without knowing anything about it – even though I’m playing a game with the word “savage” baked right into the title – noticing for the first time it’s labelled “bait” in my inventory. It’s too late for recriminations, though, isn’t it? These poor creatures are jitter-bugging their final death throes. I’ll be branded a Pufferbird Poisoner, I think. The Avicide Assassin. Spare me no leniency, I’ll wail, as they drag me from the dock. Don’t let me-

The convulsion ends in an obnoxiously noisy fart and a cloud of blue atoms spills out from beneath the Pufferbird’s backside. Its neighbour swiftly follows it up with a clamorous bottom-burp of its own. There’s another trouser toot from the corner of the cave – I hadn’t even spotted that one – and the faint luminosity of untapped atoms now presses softly against the dark walls of the cavern. I step cautiously towards them, still wary of upsetting the fowl, and gather my first resource – carbon – of the game.

The critters here, like, love you. Well. Most of ’em.

Not all experimentation in Journey to the Savage Planet ends so innocuously, of course, but this initial encounter sets the template for what will probably be several hours’ worth of “ooh, I wonder what happens if I do THIS?”. I spend/waste a lot of time idly skipping through the striking regions of planet AR-Y 26, ears pricked for the telltale “gloop-gloop” sound that lets me know something gross but edible is pulsating close by. Other times there’ll be a gentle tinkle to tell me a rich vein of coveted resources – carbon or aluminium, perhaps – is close at hand, or a hypnotic musical sting will indicate a secret is hidden nearby.

The similarities to titles like No Man’s Sky and The Outer Worlds are numerous, and several mechanical aspects of the gameplay echo those of others, too, but to be fair to developer Typhoon, Journey to the Savage Planet cultivates its own charm. And oh – it’s so gorgeous here! There are craggy mountains and snowy vistas and leafy glades and icy caverns stuffed with indigo crystals. There are giant mushrooms and scolding lava falls and bulbous, explosive shrubs and hallucinogenic trees and plants that shoot fiery lasers at you. Pulsing sacs of… well, I don’t know what they’re made of, really, but they’ll drop seeds that can be trampolines or sticky traps or flowers strong enough to withstand a grapple tether. The game never tells you any of this, of course; it’s up to you to fiddle with the curious items in your inventory and experiment with the bright, bold world around you.

Over the moon.

Most of AR-Y 26’s animal life is delighted to meet you, whilst others are unaffected by your presence. It troubles fewer still, which means you’ll only occasionally need to charge your infinity-ammo pistol and remind the critters you don’t necessarily come in peace. Journey to the Savage Planet isn’t a shooter in the traditional sense which is probably just as well; the floaty gunplay and frequent recharging mean intense combat sequences with tougher foes can be frustrating, especially if you’re looking to take down a boss or relieve a nearby vault of its precious cargo. So unless I’m collecting very specific resources that are only shed when certain species shrug off their mortal coils, I prefer to leave the wildlife be.

A lack of meaningful peril means you can indulge the whim to ignore your in-game objectives as often as you wish. Co-operative partners can float about as they please, free to explore different areas unchained from their companion. Regularly upgrading your equipment means there’s always a reason to jump into a handy transporter and revisit old ground, utilising your new tools to unlock areas that had hitherto been inaccessible.

Perhaps most amazingly of all, not once did I begrudge this; despite its dizzying verticality, the maps are contained enough and accessible enough to ensure you’re rarely far from your next objective, making backtracking a welcome distraction rather than a chore.

Mostly, though, you’ll spend your time leaping across AR-Y 26’s fascinating flora and fauna as you scout for resources that’ll help get your stranded ship up and running. You’re working for Kindred Aerospace – the fourth-best interstellar exploration company on earth, no less – which had mistakenly presumed this planet was devoid of intelligent life. The discovery of alien architecture suggests otherwise, but it’s up to you to traverse the world, collecting samples and data as you go, and locate what you need to get back home again.

Very occasionally, I encountered a problem. Sometimes, Savage Planet’s beasts glitched through the environment, once making it impossible to dispose of a key enemy to unlock a vault until I’d left and returned to the area via a transporter. Without a map to help orientate yourself, the waypoint compass system can be a little confusing, and on a couple of occasions, my handy respawn buddy spawned me in mid-air, which sent me spiralling to my death again. Not sackable offences, granted, and they didn’t happen often enough to mar my experience, but something to bear in mind, perhaps.

Savage garden.

And it’s funny, too; honestly, genuinely comical. I know, I know – humour is in the beholder’s eye, and I’ve already told you about the farting. Beyond that, though, Journey to the Savage Planet is stuffed with gentle Portal-esque self-deprecation, often breaking the fourth wall and offering up some of the most impressive, and entertaining, FMV in-game videos and advertisements I’ve ever seen. The AI voice in your ear, EKO, is both informative and charming without ever becoming an irritant, but if you suspect you’d prefer a more solitary experience, you can tweak her chatterbox-ness in the settings.

There are missions and objectives to complete, of course, and items to unlock and upgrade via the wonders of your 3D printer, plus there’s plenty of collectibles, too (oh, how I love collectibles!) Succumb one too many times, however, and you’ll lose the resources you’ve collected thus far and be forced to make a Dark Souls-esque dash to retrieve them.

But good grief, there’s something so special about being untethered this way, free to float and stomp and cheese my way around this remarkable place, poking my head into the nooks and crannies as I meander along, admiring the friendly fauna I pass by. I don’t know why EKO’s so keen for us to find the fuel and get home. I’m pretty sure I never want to leave here.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/journey-to-the-savage-planet-review/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=journey-to-the-savage-planet-review

[operationrainfall]

Title Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition Developer Moon Studios GmbH Publisher Microsoft Studios Release Date September 27th, 2019 Genre Metroidvania, Platformer Platform PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One Age Rating E for Everyone – Mild Fantasy Violence Official Website

After beating Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition, I have to question whether I’m as good at platformers as I’ve always thought. Though, to be fair, Ori and the Blind Forest is a mix of hardcore platformer and Metroidvania. That is an odd distinction to make, but after experiencing what the game had to offer, I can’t help but feel it’s accurate. I’ve known about Ori for a long while, but it took the Switch release of the Definitive Edition to finally spur me to trying the game. It would have happened much sooner had I known that it was part Metroidvania. This game is lush, melancholy, beautiful, and full of wonder. It’s compelling and emotional. Then, the real question is, was Ori and the Blind Forest worth my wait?

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Ori and the Blind Forest starts with a storm that set events in motion. A lone light is dislodged from the luminous Spirit Tree, and crashes to the earth. It turns out the light is our hero, Ori, though he starts as a frail, innocent child. Looking like a hodgepodge of forest animals with bright white skin and dark eyes, Ori nevertheless awakens the mothering instincts of Naru. Naru couldn’t be more different from Ori, being huge and hairy, but that doesn’t stop her from loving him dearly. Things go well, and time passes peacefully, until something dramatic happens to impact the natural health and bounty of the forest kingdom of Nibel. Food is less plentiful, the elements become much more extreme and suddenly there’s not enough food to share. In a heartbreaking moment, Naru sacrifices her share of food to Ori, and one day he finds her still and lifeless. Orphaned, Ori sets out into the elements, where he perishes. Revived by the last flicker of the Spirit Tree’s light, our hero goes on a journey to restore the elements and discover the source of this catastrophe.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

What’s truly impressive about the presentation of Ori and the Blind Forest is that most of the story is told visually. There are some minor narrative moments, and you’ll quickly gain an ally who explains the basics, but the vast majority of the powerful story moments are ones that the game doesn’t fully explain. I find this a wise strategy, since it lends the game a “living fairy tale” vibe. Take a spoonful of Studio Ghibli, mix in some Grimm Fairy Tales, add a pinch of Disney, and you have a heady concoction. While there is a large part of me that prefers that every minute detail of a plot get explained, I still feel this approach worked really well here. Sure, I still had some lingering questions at the end of the game, but the most relevant details were made perfectly clear.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Now, I consider myself a champion of both the platformer and Metroidvania genres, so you might be surprised that I found Ori and the Blind Forest incredibly challenging. Part of the reason for that is that, as I stated earlier, the game doesn’t really hold your hand. Instead, you’re left to your own devices, taught new skills as you explore, and everything else you do at your own pace. A more important reason for the difficulty is that Ori is incredibly squishy, and there are traps and threats everywhere, most especially spikes. And while you can increase your base health like in any proper Metroidvania, it never seems to do much to protect you from harm. Hell, even after I purchased an ability called Ultra Defense, I still felt like I could get walloped in a few solid hits. Plus, when you factor in that Ori moves like he looks, meaning he skitters about like a squirrel, you can start to comprehend why I started to question my gaming skills.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Quite simply, Ori and the Blind Forest is not an easy game, even for this veteran of the genre. You’re going to die a lot, and god help you if you try for the aptly named Unhinged achievement, which requires beating the game without dying once. That said, I’m happy to admit that Ori is also a wonderful and fun game, despite the difficulty. Sure, there were times I saw so many spike-covered surfaces I thought I was playing Celeste, and yes, I yelled and screamed at the game when I screwed up and died repeatedly. However, it’s also rather satisfying whenever you manage a seemingly impossible feat, such as grappling off owls determined to claw you to death, or riding a gust of wind through stalactite covered death traps, or escaping from a river of magma. There’s no shortage of challenge in this game, but those willing to brave them all will find a fascinating and beautiful world.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

You’re probably wondering how combat works in Ori, and the simple answer is it’s Sein’s doing. At the start of the game, Ori is completely defenseless, and can only move and jump about. That all changes when he finds Sein, a fragment of the Spirit Tree. While Ori is mute, Sein is very talkative, and explains the task ahead of you, as well as giving advice how to proceed. Sein will also protect you with powerful beams of fiery light that burst from him, as well as other attacks like a chargeable explosion. Ori and Sein have a very symbiotic relationship, but for simplicity you can just think of Sein as an extension of Ori’s will. You still have complete control over when he attacks. I admit that this took some getting used to, since most Metroidvanias have you directly attacking foes, whereas here you can be running away from them and Sein can still lock on and blast them. Thankfully, even though Ori can’t directly defend himself, he learns many, many skills that help him traverse the environment.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In traditional Metroidvania fashion, Ori will come across altars that empower him with new skills. These range from the standard stuff like wall climbing, double jump, and hovering, to more exotic things like his Spirit Flame and Charge Flame, and most importantly, his Bash skill. I have to say, the Bash skill is one of the most complex and unique moves I’ve seen in a long time, and I have somewhat mixed feelings about it. Bash allows you to latch onto a projectile or enemy and freeze time, then by rotating your orientation to said item with a handy arrow, you can fling yourself away from it. Where this got tricky was that there are many times where you have to flip the orientation, flinging yourself away and aiming the projectile at a breakable wall. The game really likes this mechanic, and eventually will start throwing it at you when you’re in mid-air or rushing for your life. I think my biggest issue was that it never became a secondhand reflex to use Bash, and I was constantly required to utilize it. That said, the vast majority of the skills Ori learned were fun and intuitive, so I can’t fault the game too much over one I had problems with.

More Ori on Page 2 ->

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

As if that wasn’t enough, Ori also has an Ability Tree. At any save point, you can use Energy either found in the world or obtained from beating enough enemies to purchase new powers. Some are passive, and others are new, modified versions of your skills. There are three branching paths for you to explore, and the only proviso is you need to purchase the abilities in sequence, and they progressively cost more Energy. In my 9 hours with the game, I only managed to fully acquire one branch of the Ability Tree, and found around a third of the Energy Meter (which dictates how many times you can use certain attacks) and Health upgrades. I’m sure there are other gamers much more hardcore than myself who not only managed to 100% the game, but did so in a fraction of my playtime. I tip my hat to them, but feel my experience much more accurately represents the average gamer. Oh, and back to the topic of save points, while there are stationary ones that heal you fully, called Spirit Wells, the vast majority you make yourself. This is done when you have enough excess Energy, and you hold A to create a save point wherever you like. Or mostly wherever, since the game won’t let you make them in mid-air or in areas it considers unsafe. Though, honestly, the entire game is dripping with menace, so that’s a somewhat dubious distinction.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Now, I’ve spent a lot of time talking about Ori, but it wouldn’t be fair if I didn’t spend a little time talking about the game’s villain, Kuro the owl. Calling Kuro a mere owl denies the scale and menace of the bird, not to mention her cruel intelligence. Kuro is responsible for the state of things, and she will ruthlessly hound you at key points in the game. Ori is a infinitesimal speck compared to Kuro’s size, and if she catches him, he’s done for instantly. Thankfully, whenever you encounter her, the game conveniently autosaves so you don’t start over from the very beginning of the stage when you die again and again. At first I completely loathed Kuro, but about halfway through the game the truth of her story is revealed, and I found I had a ton of sympathy and newfound understanding for the villain. It takes a special game to accomplish that sort of feat.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

While Kuro is undeniably the primary antagonist in Ori and the Blind Forest, the game doesn’t really have traditional boss fights. Sure, there are a couple areas you face mini-boss encounters, typically against a recurring foe, this leaping tentacle monster that erupts from the floor to harass you. But, in lieu of real boss fights, the game instead has epic chase sequences. One of Ori’s goals to restore the Forest of Nibel is to find and restore the three Elemental Lights. These each represent a distinct element, namely Water, Wind, and Fire. But, as a result of the corruption of each of these elements, upon restoring them they blaze wildly out of control, and you have to run like hell to survive. These are heart-pounding and harrowing sequences, and they provide a huge challenge. Though they are all more than epic, I found the first one to actually be the most challenging, racing against rushing waters seeking to drown Ori in the Ginso Tree. While I don’t mind the difficulty of these overmuch, I still found myself longing for a more traditional gauntlet of boss fights. That said, if the game eschewed these sequences for big bosses, it wouldn’t feel nearly as unique. That said, I most definitely have a love/hate relationship with these chases.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

For the most part, I feel the level of challenge in Ori is fair, but there’s a couple areas that were overwhelming for the wrong reasons. On occasion, I found the controls to be a bit unresponsive, such as leaping from a wall and double jumping. Sometimes it just doesn’t work properly, and I ended up falling to my death. Regarding my issues with the Bash skill, a good example of my frustration is the following. There’s a late-game area called Sorrow Pass, and it has beams of light that instantly kill you. Your goal is to push boulders to block these beams, as well as pushing them to the right positions. Problem is, often I had to leap in mid-air after launching one to redirect them with another Bash, which was incredibly difficult. Lastly, I faced some frustration when I encountered barriers that none of my skills or abilities could open up. I know you do get a couple powers from optional areas, the Black Root Burrows and Lost Grove, so it’s possible that’s why I couldn’t figure them out, but it was still annoying. Lastly, while I like how Ori skitters about, oftentimes he’s too floaty for his own good, and I would end up overshooting things. I understand his movements are dictated by his physical attributes, but I would have killed for his platforming to be a bit more precise.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Visually, Ori and the Blind Forest is a transcendent experience. I almost always take my own screenshots while playing Switch games I review, and I easily took more than 200 while I played. This is just a beautiful and melancholy world, where darkness swallows all but a speck of light. Yet it’s a world full of natural and unnatural beauty, such as purple thorny bushes, huge mushrooms and incandescent infernos. Though there’s not a ton of different foes, they all look and act differently, such as heavy leaping toads, explosive larvae that erupt into smaller threats, and much more. I love the use of dark blue colors in the game, and the clever use of lighter hues to illuminate it. Musically, Ori is even more breathtaking. Though there’s not a ton of different tracks, they each serve a distinct purpose, as do the many sound effects. More importantly, the music is very emotional, which helps ground the tone of the game. I even found the occasional use of silence was genius, and did a great job of building the tension or momentary peace in this world.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I can’t help but love Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition. Sure, it’s far harder than I expected, even on Normal, but that doesn’t take away from the glory of this experience. In my playthrough, I uncovered about 75% of the map, and still have plenty to unlock. And that’s not taking into account the many achievements you can fulfill (though I’m not even trying for Unhinged). For only $19.99, it’s hard to turn it down. While it’s true some of the mechanics and controls were a bit finicky for me, overall the game played like a dream. If you love emotional and unique experiences that truly draw you into the game, you have to play Ori and the Blind Forest. Even if you don’t think you’re good at platformers, you can always try on the easiest difficulty, because this is an adventure that demands to be experienced. Kudos to Moon Studios for developing it and to Microsoft for bringing it to another console.

[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”4.5″]

Review Copy Provided by Publisher

REVIEW: Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition Title Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition