#it's a multiplayer game? excellent. move over. where do i start

[fictional-worlds-are-exquisite]

do you want to come over to teach me your favourite card/board game so we can play it together orrr

[dededaio]

Thought of a fun thought experiment that will either age brilliantly or horribly quite soon.

So, we all know that Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe is coming soon, right? Like REALLY soon. Less than 2 months kind of soon.

We still don't really know much about what this remake will change or add except for:

1 new copy ability

new multiplayer mini-games

looming Magolor Castle (that is left unexplained for now) in promotional artwork

I don't mention the visuals because it's the most obvious and expected change coming from the remake of 2011 Wii game.

So I want to do something fun. I'll list my predictions on what this remake will change and/or add. I will be splitting them into predictions that are likely and predictions that are more on pipe dreams territory. I'll present arguments and/or evidence towards each point as we go. Let's begin!

Things that I think are likely to happen:

Playable Magolor. I mean, come on now. Not only he's now included on the cover, which he wasn't in the original game, he's also one of the most popular characters in the franchise now. Like he's actually probably the most popular addition to the series since Meta Knight and Meta Knight was introduced in 1993. I'm not entirely sure yet how this would work (it partially goes into pipe-dream predictions territory), but I'm certain it will somehow happen. It helps that modern Kirby games on Switch had a tendency to have a late-game unlockable that is super OP and is related to game's storyline in some way. Star Allies had playable Mage Sisters, Forgotten Land had Masked Hammer and Morpho Sword as milestones for beating main story mode and post-game campaign. Magolor only makes the most sense to follow suit.

Dedede, Meta Knight and Bandana Dee will receive their updated movesets from Star Allies. While I wasn't overall a huge fan of how Star Allies treated those three characters, being way less polished than later DLC Dream Friends, one things they got right is by finally giving them more original moves into their arsenal. They basically started out as hammer clone, wing and sword clone hybrid and spear clone respectively, which, I assume, was byproduct of RTDL's co-op being a late addition in the development. Giving each of them more unique moves in SA was a great move and them to carry over into RTDL DX would be excellent choice as well. Not only they would stand out more against contemporary copy abilities they were based on, it presents more fun gameplay possibilities (I'm sleeping and dreaming how much I will spam super dedede jump in various boss fights like grand doomer). But the best of all, we have an evidence of this potentially happening, ladies and gentlemen! In trailer footage we got we can decipher Meta Knight doing Galactic Counter that was introduced in Star Allies.

If this is anything to go by, all new additions are set in stone and it's just matter of seeing more of it in the final game.

The boldest prediction yet, mainly because it's not based on anything except for my gut feeling. But Magolor Castle will be the hub-world for the post-game in RTDL DX. It makes the most logical sense as it would be a good way to differentiate post-game from the main story where the hub world was Lor Starcutter. What we will do there? Who knows, there's tons of possibilities. It will most likely house mini-games but I doubt they would design such elaborate looking location just to be a place where you could pick a mini-game. There would certainly be more stuff to do, but what would it be?.. Time will tell!

Things that I want to happen but aren't necessarily likely:

King Dedede, Meta Knight and Bandana Dee becoming playable in single-player (outside of arenas). There are many ways how it could work, but the idea I'm betting on (and therefore hoping for) the most is introducing Guest Star-like mode where each of them get an abridged and changed take on the main campaign's levels, taking advantage of their individual movesets in the process. I feel like them being locked behind co-op in the original game was some of the biggest shortcomings of RTDL so I genuinely hope remake will fix that.

Entirely new post-game story. Extra mode that original RTDL had is less than stellar, to say the least. It's basically the same game again with slightly updated bosses and halfed health bar. Lame. If this remake were to go down the route of recent Switch Kirby titles, introducing an extra-mode that actually continues the story of the main game is the way to go! It can go down many ways, but personally I think the most fun (And funniest) plotline for such extra mode would be helping out to build Magolor's theme park (aka Magolor Castle we've been seeing on the cover art), mirroring the story of the main mode, but with lower stakes and reestablishing Magolor's current status-quo on-screen instead of it being left to Miiverse information.

Old Extra mode being remade into a difficulty option. I think both this game and Forgotten Land were developed co-currently so they are bound to share some of the game design philosophies. Getting rid of the old extra mode entirely would probably be too harsh and unfaithful to the original game... But if you were to repurpose it instead, it's a different story entirely. It will become this game's "Wild Mode", I wager.

These are all the main ideas I currently have for what this remake will have in store. I hope I got at least one of those things right. See y'all in 2 or so weeks when they will actually drop a new trailer.

[literaphobe]

okay i’ll bite. what is mcyt and dream smp. like i know what they stand for but what exactly... is it.... is it actually good or just your latest hyperfixation AGSHJSJSKS

oh god beware this is long and also i technically wrote it as part of a tangent to another ask but i realized this response suited this question much better but it also makes references to that ask which i will answer right after this one

“what is minecraft youtube?” well any YouTube video that features minecraft is technically minecraft youtube. i specifically only care about like. dream + friends. i follow the ‘feral boys’ (dream george quackity sapnap karl) mostly? but if ur question is: what is dream known for? the answer is minecraft manhunt and dream smp

so what’s minecraft manhunt? to understand that, u need to understand that minecraft isn’t “just blocks” because it is a beatable game haha. u beat the game by killing the ender dragon and obviously there’s a lot of stuff u need to do to do that. but i won’t bore u w the details. “speedrunning minecraft” means u beat minecraft very fast. dream used to be the record holder for beating minecraft a few months ago. he no longer is but i won’t get into that. it’s an annoying discussion n literally no one cares. all i’ll say is if u really believe he cheated and that he wasn’t being targeted by people who have since been exposed for trying to frame him for saying slurs that he never said (amongst other stuff), then u literally hate neurodivergent people so much. that’s all!

so what is MANHUNT, specifically? basically, dream does a series where x number of people are HUNTING him down and trying to KILL him before he beats the game. if he dies even ONCE, he loses. he’s done this with one hunter (george), two (+sapnap), three (+badboyhalo), four (+antfrost), and now five hunters (+awesamdude)

the hunters have infinite lives, and a compass that leads them to where dream is at any given point in the game. dream is allowed to kill them as many times as he wants, as a form of self preservation

so what’s the allure to manhunt? essentially, it’s how dream plays the game. he’s incredibly skilled at pvp (fighting) and parkour (moving fast and agile that i can’t even begin to explain. u need to see this for urself. it’s even more impressive if u play the game) and “clutching” (how he saves himself from risky moves and all the absolutely CREATIVE ways he does it)

also all the traps he sets to kill the hunters since it’s hard to go up against multiple people no matter how good you are. and how QUICKLY he thinks. it’s amazing. people with adhd are amazing and dream is a PRIME example of that. it makes me less hateful of my adhd :) and more appreciative of my traits :)

how did he do this? lots of research, lots of practice, lots of training. dream used to be a really average minecraft player who had to beg GEORGE to go easy on him. now? george loses to dream even on 40/50 hearts (the usual is 10). dream poured his heart into making his videos, putting a creative spin and skillful spin to his content that had never really been seen/executed as well before. and so 1.5 years after he started actively making YouTube videos he has over 20 million subscribers. and I’m not kidding, that number could be 30 million in a few months from now. that’s how fast he’s growing

ok i got off topic. another great thing about manhunt is dream’s relationship w the HUNTERS. the hunters are friends who dream has known for many years, and also they come up with great plans to defeat him as well. in many ways, they can also be seen as the “underdogs” in manhunt, especially since dream won the 4 hunters series 3-2. anyway in manhunt, all of the players are in an open channel discord voice chat, so they can all hear each other talk, and also talk to each other. sometimes the hunters discuss strategies before the face off, or they dm ideas secretly in the game chat, or attempt to talk in code. but mostly dream can hear the things they say, and they can hear the things he says. it makes it so that they can attempt to trick each other, but they can also hear things that give them a leg up in the game. etc etc. the banter that goes on is like. BIG part of what makes manhunt fun to watch

and the editing...... it is very good and engaging n he chooses fun music :) the speedrun music is a meme by now but it still slaps unironically. he makes excellent choices n i am very entertained

OKAY. so what is dream smp?

(smp stands for Survival Multiplayer. aka: a lot of people play together in a world where u can die and monsters spawn. the dream part is because dream owns the server)

once upon a time, there were two best friends. their names were dream and george. they decided to play minecraft survival together, but they didn’t want to beat the game super fast this time. THIS was about having fun. they wanted to casually explore the world, build a house together, raise some animals, start a farm, etc! after a bit they started to add some of their other friends so more people could have fun with them. and then more people got added. and the dream smp started to include a roleplay aspect because they invited people who did roleplay on other servers

i won’t summarize the events for u. if u wanna know what HAPPENED plot wise, this dude evanmcgaming makes like. summaries that are low key documentaries. very well made, he includes clips from the actual lore streams when necessary! his channel is here and i’ll list the documentaries in order: first | second | third | fourth | fifth

and then this really cool 18 year old Filipino girl started animating events on the dream smp to look REALLY cool n it got so many views and her first animation was done on her PHONE w her FINGER and it made the people on dream smp go damn we need to step the FUCK up so that this girl can get better material for her animations. they are all huge fans of her. everyone is a huge fan of her. she’s called sad-ist, and so far there are 4 main animations: first | second | third | fourth

anyway now! dream smp is essentially what i would call gay planned theatre improv but the medium through which they perform is not a stage but on minecraft. there actually is WRITING involved in this, they script the series of events etc, but for the most part they don’t actively script dialogue afaik?

some truly AMAZING bits of dialogue has come out of the dream smp. the dream smp is basically. gamers transform into theatre kids before ur very eyes + some of these bitches WERE theatre kids and they’re showing it now!

it’s amazing watching the growth because a lot of them have improved leaps and bounds. one of the most notable improved actors is dream ❤️  yea im bringing him up ok because im RIGHT his acting used to just be him screaming but now he can give me chills. he’s very good n is the “main villain” on dream smp :)

and like. not only do we have people like sad-ist animating the smp we have members like quackity who include pre recorded elements in his lore streams to make it just. a truly incredible experience. quackity my beloved. i love him so much

[maxthommusic]

Halo Infinite Beta Discourse

I'm often very good at keeping to myself these days. The thoughts and feelings in my head don't need an outlet like they used to. When I was younger I thought I would explode if I didn't write everything down. But as time grows on and I either grow weary of the art form or just simply become more content sitting with my thoughts instead of expressing them, I don't feel the need to jump on the bullhorn and make a proclamation. However, sometimes a good piece of discussion rolls along and I feel awesomely compelled to share my opinion so that the discourse can hopefully steer in a certain direction. Sometimes when the trolls are out in full force you just gotta try and balance the scales. A certain type of discourse, when it gains too much steam, absolutely needs to be de-railed because it's damaging and counter productive to the industry in question. Today's transgression is with Halo Infinite.

At first I didn't pay it much mind -- new players griping about the Battle Pass system. Essentially, the issue is that how FREE players get cosmetics takes too much grinding. In Halo you play as Spartans and these Spartans can be customized with armor plates, battle charms, graffiti tags and more. Last week, 343 Industries released the BETA for Halo Infinite's multiplayer. Last week, players also began complaining how it takes too long to earn anything of consequence.

Now let's stop right there. We need to address the first elephant in the room: The game is FREE. As far as I'm concerned, Halo Infinite's free mode owes you nothing but the game itself. And I'm here to tell you: The game is awesome. It's polished, servers work, and I'm having tons of fun with the Halo formula -- something no other game has done, really, since Halo...

Now that we've established the game is FREE and it WORKS, we can get more nuanced with this Battle Pass discussion. So, okay, you don't like how it takes so long to grind -- but it's free? I just can't help but feel like that's a non-issue here. Yes, is it annoying? Do I wish I could have a cooler, unique Spartan sooner? Easier? Sure. But the game is FREE. Again, I say, FREE. Where do I get a right to complain? But okay, it's the Internet. I'm allowed to complain about whatever I please. I have the right to express my dissatisfaction, right? But here's where I take umbrage with the current line of conversation around Halo Infinite: It's all about the Battle Pass. I hardly see anyone talking about how GOOD Halo the GAME is. It's all vitriol about this Battle Pass. And it's been going on since "launch." Mind you, we're still just in Beta form. So if ever there was a time to complain, it's in the Beta time. But I say again: The core game is excellent. Shouldn't your dissatisfaction with the Battle Pass be a passing, "Man, wish this were better!" and move on? Why does my Twitter timeline continue to fill up with these threads?

Taking it further, the Battle Pass argument has escalated since a full roster of cosmetics has leaked. Someone crunched the numbers and said you can pay over $80 and still not get good gear. First of all: Biased. I think there are sweet Spartans in the store right now I can buy for like $5. So this line of thinking absolutely should not be getting as much attention as is. Next: That's probably what you deserve for buying $80 in cosmetics. The real question here should be: How is the gameplay? How are the game modes? How are the servers?

If Halo Infinite launches officially on December 8th with the same customizability as is found in the current beta, I will have no problem with that if it's the F2P version. If I buy Halo Infinite and don't get my Duos, Trios, etc. and a handful of more maps? Then yes, I think it's time to start feeling a bit jilted.

Everything is expectation and right now I can't help but feel like there is a subset of gamers who are way too entitled that are dominating the conversation online because they're the only ones who want to race to the Internet to share their crappy hot takes. So beautiful games like Halo get a bunch of bad press and new players might not take the plunge because the game seems greedy.

Let me reiterate: How is a F2P game greedy when the CORE GAME is near flawless? Of course I have gripes about Infinite, but they're all SO minor. Things Halo 3 did... differently. Yes, some guns don't feel like they used to and some game mechanics are a little different. But is the overall experience the same? In terms of my overall happiness playing with the crew, YES, it is. And if the product I'm receiving right now for FREE doesn't change, I can't help but think every other gripe about a FREE experience should not even be acknowledged. Because it is FREE. FREE FREE FREE FREE FREE. I cannot overstate that enough because what we expect for FREE has gotten so wildly out of control and Halo Infinite is breaking me in this regard.

All the cosmetics are so tangential to the Halo experience. To have this much conversation revolving around the Battle Pass just seems like a major head scratcher, like we won't be able to have nice things if people continue to get carried away with this line of thinking.

But the silver lining is exactly as I've stated above: My hope is that the people loving and enjoying Halo are all too busy playing Halo to have any thoughts about it for the Internet. In fact, I've dumped a bunch of hours on it and have had a blast and haven't even said a peep online yet. Why? Because I'm too busy texting the homies trying to get them to download and get online with me.

It's like Jim Ryan said a while back. "If there was any dissatisfaction with The Last Of Us 2, we didn't know about it." I'm paraphrasing... but the idea is that the Internet is fake. Internet vitriol is fake. Even though right now it feels like everyone is upset at Halo's Battle Pass, they probably aren't. I'm hoping Halo is charting big numbers and will make big dollars and have a bright, happy future. I want more maps, more characters, more improvements. And if people buy the game, buy the cosmetics and enjoy it, we will get all that. And I hope the jokers online who are all upset about this Battle Pass are just a super minority. But I do really hope that anyone seeing the Battle Pass discourse doesn't become discouraged. I hope people see through the thin veil that is Internet outrage. Consider what you are getting for FREE. Remember that! Expectations are everything... And I hope we don't lose sight of the game that is at the core experience here.

[summonerscenarios]

this isn't at all relevant to sin so feel free to postpone this but in your opinion. out of the summorners who would be the most to least helpful if mc starts crying? I can literally already see toji standing there like :[

ASDFGHJKL OKAY SO THE SECOND I IMAGINED TOJI IN THIS SCENARIO I JUST IMAGINED HIM IN THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM COMFORTING MC LIKE THIS

Buuuuuut in all seriousness here’s my personal opinions of worst to best (though the middle is a mixed mess lmao)

-------

Toji

Toji’s arguably the most awkward out of all of the Summoners and handles it the least well when he sees you crying. He isn’t sure what the best way to comfort you is - with words or with actions Toji’s expertise really doesn’t lie in either of them. He’s kept to himself for a long time and as a result handling others emotions and figuring out what people want to hear when they’re vulnerable isn’t something that he’s used to. Toji keeps his distance unless you explicitly state that you want him to come closer, though he does try his best to comfort you with his words. He’s aware that he’s not the best to handle these sorts of things - he’s confident that Ryota or Hanuman would be better suited to cheer you up, but if he’s the only one there he isn’t just going to walk out and let you cry unless you tell him to get out - even he knows that sometimes you don’t want to be alone when you feel like the world is on your shoulders. 

Gullinbursti

Listen I would put Gullinbursti higher on this list if it wasn’t for one major factor. He means well in thought, but the execution can go very, very wrong depending on what’s got you upset. Of course, seeing his master upset, let alone reduced to tears is a sight that physically pains him, and he’s desperate to fix anything that has caused you such distress no matter the lengths it may take to do so. All you have to do is to say the word on what he can do to aid you and he is ON IT. You might want to be careful how you word it however, as we know Gull tends to take things literally, and at the insinuation that someone is responsible for your state he will charge headfirst to confront them before you even have the chance to - if you don’t want that confrontation you’re going to have to practically drag him back and explain that - no, you just wanna leave it. He may be insistent, but he values your word above all else, so if you don’t want to pursue it that’s that.

Kengo

Kengo walks in on your crying and the first words he blurts out is an awkward “Oh...you okay?” which if you weren’t openly sobbing you would’ve laughed at. Once he realizes that you’re seriously upset though he gets serious. His first thought is that someone’s responsible for upsetting you and he’s immediately on the defensive, demanding to know who made you cry and to just point him in their direction so he can kick their ass. Of course if it is someone responsible for making you cry it’s up to you if you want to give him names, just be sure before you do because he will 100% throw down with them with zero hesitation even if it gets him in trouble. If it’s something else though he’s a lot less sure on how to handle it, but seeing you upset of course he’s going to still wanna do something about it! The first thing he’s gonna do is get you to sit down, asking you what you want to do about whatever’s making you upset - talking things out isn’t always his style but hearing what you want to happen directly from you is the best way for him to understand how to help you. You wanna go out there and tackle it directly? He’ll be right behind you. Wanna just forget about it? Sure thing! The two of you can just talk about something else till you’re ready to move on. Wanna just get out of there? Kengo’s going to get you out of there asap and find somewhere you wanna go - whether that’s a bustling shopping district or somewhere quiet for some peace. You’re his partner and he’s got your back, regardless of how good he is at the whole comforting thing.

Agyo

Agyo of course freaks out seeing you start to cry - he’s not prepared to handle this and you can practically see him frantically trying to go through all of the ways to cheer someone up in his head as quickly as possible from across the room. For what it’s worth though he doesn’t just wait for you to cry it out like Toji probably would, and instead approaches you. The type to rub your back and pat your head while you get whatever crying to need to get off of your chest, telling you to just let it out and that you’ll feel better. With the way he tries to comfort you, you wouldn’t be surprised if he’s picked this up from someone else (most likely from Ungyo when Agyo was upset.) but it’s more comforting than you’d think to just have those lil head pats. Admittedly if you’re the hugging type of comforter he’ll whine a bit when you pull him in for a hug, holding off on scolding you about using him like a teddy bear since you’re upset and all, but for what it’s worth he’s super fluffy and squishy so he’s peak cuddling material. Just be sure to give him plenty of head rubs and he’ll relent on the fuss until you’re feeling better.

Moritaka

When Moritaka catches sight of the tears welling up in your eyes his first thought is to take your cheeks in his hands and wipe away those tears as they fall. If you make a noise of discomfort then he’ll quickly back off with an apology for acting before asking, however he can’t ignore that you’re upset and implores you to tell him what has caused you to cry. Mori’s an excellent listener, always willing an ear to your troubles and he takes it very seriously, even if you try to downplay it he insists that if it’s upsetting you it’s important. If you’re okay with physical contact you can be sure that you’ll be getting a comfort hug from him too, just holding you while you cry it out and bury your face into his fur as you let out all of your emotions. Letting your feelings get pent up is an easy way to get overwhelmed and he knows that lesson well, so he encourages you to get whatever you need to off of your shoulders and that you don’t need to carry these burdens alone.

Hanuman

Hanuman’s the master of cheering up through distractions. He sees you starting to cry and he’s immediately at your side asking if you wanna see something cool, catching you off guard as he tugs you over to whatever he thinks will help you forget alllll about what made you upset. There’s plenty of games that you guys can play together - he recommends multiplayer since he’s got some awesome fighting games the two of you can compete with! Or ones where you guys can work together! Or there’s single player options if you prefer - he’ll make it a game night and invite Tsath, Ryota and friends over if you want to be surrounded by people who care about you. And if you wanna see some of his ninja tricks he loves showing them off! Anything that is able to make you smile instead of cry he wants to do! To Hanuman so long as he can at least get a laugh out of someone when they’re upset it means he’s doing a good job of cheering you up; so of course he’s going to want to make you smile and laugh as much as he can until you’re crying from joy rather than sorrow.  When it comes to actually confronting your problems however Hanuman’s inexperienced; comforting sure, but unless it’s an issue that can be sorted out with some mischief or swiping something up from right under someone’s nose he’s stumped on how to help. Aside from that though if you’re just looking to get your mind off of what’s made you upset, if only for today Hanuman’s the boy for the job.

Shiro

When the tears start to fall Shiro takes the initiative, getting you into a position of comfort or safety while you cry, be it leading you to take a seat or getting you something to drink once the tears run dry (gotta keep hydrated after a cry if you wanna avoid the headache after folks). And of course if you need something to cuddle there’s already three lil D-evils on hand, swarming around you with concerned screeches upon noticing their Summoner’s fretting over you. Just seeing them worrying about you and clambering to wipe the tears off of your cheeks with chubby little fingers is enough to make you cry all over again at how much they care (which just makes everyone panic all over again thinking they’ve done something wrong until Shiro swoops back in to calm everyone down). Unlike most of the other Summoners, once you’ve calmed down he’d like to sit down with you and talk through the options that you have available to get through what upset you. If it’s a particular event he’d like you to walk him through it if you’re comfortable with it, and throughout he’ll ask you where you would like to go from here; and, if it’s a person who’s responsible, how you would like to confront them to deal with it. If you’d rather just forget about what happened altogether Shiro’s supportive but also thinks you should reconsider - if this situation was bad enough to reduce you to tears he just doesn’t feel right about it going unresolved, if you push though he will relent, afterall the choice is up to you in the end. 

Ryota

Ryota’s arguably the best in regards to comfort. He’s an empathetic soul at heart and seeing anyone in pain makes him want to do everything that he can just to see them smile again. And this is especially true when it comes to you - you’re one of his closest friends and at the first sign of tears in your eyes his heart breaks at the sight and almost immediately he’s closing the distance to hug you. Ryota focuses on cheering you up above all else - anything he can do to make you forget all about what’s upset you if only for a little while he’ll do it in a heartbeat. It’s up to you whether you want to talk about what happened or not but making sure that you feel better is Ryota’s main focus. All kinds of snacks, a good movie collection and a whoooole lot of blankets is in the cards for cheering up any of his friends! If you’re not comfortable with hugs that’s totally fine! But if you are, you can bet that Ryota’s going to cuddle right up next to you, his hugs proving to be super comforting when it comes to making people feel better. The whole time he’ll be comforting you with his words too - telling you that it’s gonna be okay and that whatever’s upset you will be sorted out and that you won’t go through it alone! You’ve got so many friends who want to be there for you, and he’s sure to tell you that he’s going to be right there with you the whole time, wiping the tears from your eyes until they stop.

[kidmachinate]

Forget Pay to Win, Unite to Win

Alright look...the title could use some work but hear me out as I take you through this casual look at Pokemon Unite.

You may be thinking to yourself, why? Why listen to a guy who doesn't play MOBAs or enjoy them in the least bit due to the toxicity that exists within? I'd argue that is more the reason to listen. Because I don't care for a lot of what goes into these games and am having a shocking amount of fun with what is honestly a fun game, but definitely isn't without its drawbacks. Spoilers. The drawbacks are what everyone knows already. There is a Pay to Win aspect. Let's break this down.

MOBAs (to me) are intimidating. Huge focus on teamplay while juggling various mechanics and game knowledge. Huge focus on map awareness. Crazy stuff. This doesn't change in Unite and won't be a game that changes your opinion on the genre as a whole perhaps but if you find yourself bored and/or with a short attention span, this one may just get your attention. I've previously played League of Legends and Heroes of the Storm. The latter I found more fun but it didn't grab my attention. Apparently Activision Blizzard didn't like it either as the game got canned. Something about Pokemon just brings people who are into it together. Here's what works for me.

No focus on last hitting

I don't know if last hitting has a term but in Pokemon Unite, you get experience even if you don't get the last hit. You get more if you do, but still some without having to learn the timing for a last hit between different characters and trying to coordinate that potentially with a teammate in the same lane. This is huge for me. It was an annoyance from the start when playing. To do this for so long to potentially have so much else fall apart possibly about fortyish minutes later in a game.

Match Length

Matches are ten minutes long. By the time potential anger or team mistakes could get to you as it will anyone to some extent, the match is over and you can queue right back up for the next one. A lot more games can be played in the time it takes to play a single LoL game. The game respects your time in that aspect until you start to look into the various areas where it potentially doesn't. Unfortunately this does align with where the P2W aspect kicks in. More on that part later. Ten minute matches whether ranked or regular games makes daily tasks seem more doable. Sometimes dailies or other various things you can redeem will require a quick match. Five minute matches. Even better! Personally however, I don't care much for quick matches. The pace of the game is a bit too quick and one map in particular with treadmills makes moving more of a chore than it needs to be. Ten minutes goes by quickly while still feeling the phases of the game hit you as you get familiarized with the game. Early, mid, and late game phases all play different parts of what makes up a good game of Pokemon Unite. Ten minutes feels right to be able to focus quickly on what each of these phases are and quickly learn from your mistakes before trying that next game and seeing what you can do differently.

Pay To Win?

Quick answer? Yes. Not as bad as it is made out to be however. Many doing this are either content creators or whales. Sometimes one in the same. This does in the case of content creators allow them to be able to provide insight to builds and what works quicker but sucks for the beginners to both the game and perhaps the genre as a whole. Knowing this however, skill can outplay the money one spends. You get benefits for sure but in higher ranks, people are going to have higher level held items anyway. Held items give a Pokemon various effects or buffs. You can hold three of these as opposed to just one in the core games. There a slight gatcha aspect with the energy system. Basically a completely random either cometic or game enhancing item if you're lucky. You have a weekly cap on this and if you want to bypass it...you guess it! You can spend money. Looking past the complexities of various currencies, there is a lot you can get for free without having to spend a dime. Even if you do, if you're really against P2W, you could just...not. Crazy concept, I know but you can just not buy into it. Save your money for cosmetics or new licences which get you different Pokemon to play as. Saving for the ones you can't acquire for free is a good idea.

The game may lack the depth a hardcore MOBA player would be looking for, but has just enough to be more interesting to a wider audience, and lots of variety with the different Pokemon and team combinations, to make for a fun experience. I truly don't believe things are currently at.a point where an outrage is necessary but we also cannot pretend it isn't there. Considering the facts for what they are, I say this is a fun middle of the road type game. I'm having a lot of fun with it but could do without it. It's not excellent but it isn't bad. Not every game is a 0 or a 10. It's okay to play a 7 out of 10 game you may enjoy but also not be blind to potential shortcomings. The fun factor outweighs these shortcomings for me and it helps that many others I know currently feel the same way. Like any potential multiplayer effort, I'll keep playing until it wears out its welcome...but with how many Pokemon exist, it may be a long journey.

[cosmiciaria]

Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate Review! (spoiler free - long post)

It's done! I finished my first AC game ever! And I loved it!! YAAAY!!

First things first: this is going to be an honest review. I liked the game, A LOT, more than I expected, actually, but it has flaws. Not many that I could find personally, but it has. But before I delve deeper into it, let's have an overview of the game.

AC: Syndicate is the ninth?, installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise. It's a sequel to Unity, that came out just a year before, but you don't need to play any of the other AC games to plunge into this one (or any of them, to be honest), since each game tells a self-contained story. If you've been living under a rock for the past decade or you don't know a thing about videogames, Assassin's Creed games follow a character in the present time, joining the Order of the Assassins, warriors and masters of stealth that have been at odds with the Templars since time immemorial. The Templars desire the pieces of Eden, magical artifacts created with ancient technology by the Precursors, gods and goddesses that somehow bear the names of the Roman pantheon members. These pieces of Eden are extremely dangerous in the wrong hands, but have been long lost to the folds of History and withered pages of books. The Assassins must find them in today's world, through the genetic memories buried within the DNA of the descendants of the Assassins that at some point in History have come into contact with those artifacts.

Well, that premise is true for all Assassin's Creed games. This time, we're following the same initiate we met during Black Flag and Unity, if I'm not mistaken. The previous games have followed Desmond Miles, an actual character with a face, but in these "in-between" installments, the initiate is a faceless placeholder for the player to incarnate them. But, to be honest, the present timeline is, uh, what's this word…

BORING.

Nobody cares what's going on in the present! Let's move on to the actual plot!

Syndicate takes us to Victorian London! Through the DNA of the initiate we travel in time to 1868, to the middle of the British capital. Our protagonists this time is a pair of twins: Jacob and, lo and behold, Evie Frye. I say "lo and behold" because this is the first official female assassin protagonist that we have in the mainline series of games. Prior to this game, we have Liberation which also followed a female assassin, the real first one, but that game is a spin off and mostly overlooked, since it came out only for the Vita sadly back in the day (although there's a remaster for the ps3!). Either way, all previous Assassin's Creed games (if Syndicate is the ninth, then you got the number) have starred male assassins as their protagonists. In Unity this came to a great peak when in the multiplayer co-op players were unable to play as female avatars, which caused a great ruckus. As Syndicate intended to mend many of the problems players found in Unity, we have now an official, canon female character in the main series! And I say: CHEERS TO THAT!

I MUST address this because it was one of the two reasons why I bought this game. I was never interested in the AC games but I've always wanted this one, because you could play as Evie Frye. As a female cis person, I find the lack of canon female protagonist to be baffling, to say the least (the actual word I'm looking for would be "annoying"). I'm not going to say that I'm forced to play as a male character all the time, because nobody forces me to play any game, I play them all because I wish to – but the truth is that, for many years, the videogame industry has been directed at one public only: boys. And some boys, for some reason, won't play the game if the protagonist is a girl or looks like a girl. And I don't care if the presence of a female character breaks your history immersion and whatnot: we have fricking magic in this game, do not throw historical accuracy at me for it. So, Ubisoft: I AM GLAD you created Evie Frye. She's fearless, she's relentless, she's clever, she has a clear goal in mind and solves every little piece to make the bigger plan work. She's badass without throwing her femininity off the window, and for a change she's the one saving the man in distress. I love her and her cloaks. Also she's cute as hell.

I am ALSO GLAD that Ubisoft created Jacob Frye! Jacob is a good balance to Evie, since he's more impulsive, a brawler, and likes throwing himself into battle. He speaks with fists, while never leaving his morals aside. He shows disregard for careful plans, but ultimately works in favor of them. He might sound a little stupid when I picture him this way, but he's not: he follows the creed strictly, during the assassination missions he shows clear precision, planification and ingenuity, and most importantly, he has a golden heart, and knows his ideals and principles very well. And for the love of Minerva, he's so handsome I might die.

So the Frye twins are both your protagonists this time! During the open world map and sidequests, you can switch between them on the fly. But during main missions, one of them will be assigned for you to play as and you'll be forced to complete the quest with either of them. Evie favors stealth, whereas Jacob is all about combat. This allows the player to tackle the game and the different activities as they see fit. If you're patient, probably Evie will be best for you, but if you can't handle the stealth, choose Jacob and start throwing punches! The city of London is open for you to choose the way you can liberate it.

And that takes me to my second reason why I bought this game: London.

For a not native-English-speaker as myself, who has learned and studied British English for over ten years, London will always hold a soft spot in my heart. Two years ago I was finally able to realize my dream and visit the city for the first time ever. I cried when I stepped out of St. Pancrasse station, understanding that my feet were touching English ground. So when I saw that this game not only offered me the chance to play as a female assassin, but it would also allow me to revisit London, I didn't think twice.

We follow Jacob and Evie to London, where they must meet Henry Green, the assassin watching over that city, in pursue of an important Templar figure: Starrick. Along the way to assassinate him, we'll take down other important Templar members, all responding to him. As I will keep this spoiler free, let's leave it at that. Let's just say that Starrick is in London, controlling every nook and cranny, while his second in command, Lucy Thorne, is reservedly researching the leads of a possible piece of Eden that might be hidden in the city's most secretive places.

London is so well recreated, I cried once when I stopped in front of the Big Ben. You're only able to visit and play through a portion of the city, around the Thames and Westminster, but still, even small though it seems, the map is big enough and full of activities to fulfill. The streets feel alive with its multiple, many, MANY npc's walking, running, driving carriages, interacting with each other, often having conversations as well! I was astonished when I was walking with Evie down an alley and an npc waved his hand to another npc that was some feet away, and the first one rushed to the second one to greet each other. It was such a realistic thing to see on the street that I was amazed at the technology behind it. As always, AC games excel at the presentation of countless npc's, each with a different animation and voices. On top of that, the city looks gorgeous, with so many details that I often stopped to stare, especially in the most emblematic buildings, like the different train Stations, the Parliament, St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey, and, of course, the Buckingham Palace. Everything is so faithful and vibrant and alive, that… yes, I love it. I fricking love it. I travelled again there in this game and I'm thankful for it.

There are nine sequences with 4 to 7 memories each, and all of them are different and unique enough to make them memorable. In particular, the main assassination quests were complex, using exclusive scenarios to the mission, offering the player different paths to tackle the killing – they were my favorite out of all the game. The last mission was *chef kiss*.

Apart from the main missions, you can slowly liberate each neighborhood from the Templars' claws. Each borough has a set of different activities to complete in order for you to "conquer" it. Gang wars, bounty hunts, Templar hunts, there's a lot to do. It might seem a lot at first, but you'll soon see the patterns across the sidequests, only to (unfortunately) realize that they're all the same. These can get tiresome and repetitive after a while, but they're also the best way to level up and earn money quickly. My personal favorite were the child liberations, because I felt like I was doing a good deed and also as if Charles Dickens himself was asking me to do it.

Oh, yes, Charles Dickens is in this game! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT, because I don't! He's one of my favorite authors, so, to be GIVEN a QUEST by HIM, I'm in tears guys, do you understand why I loved this game so much??

But Dickens isn't the only historical person that you'll encounter: Darwin also makes an appearance, as well as Marx (of whom I believed to be in Brussels, but I guess he visited London at some point – now I want an AC game set in Brussels), and Alexander Graham Bell, who will be your DaVinci of this game (Oh, now I want to play Ezio's games), offering you new toys to tinker with as you pave your way across the city. There are other historical people, but I won't mention them, since they're probably a spoiler, so I'll let you be surprised!

You'll have like a "hub world", or more like, a hub train – a train will be your hideout, your base, where you'll collect money, take some quests, interact with some characters and buy stuff cheaper. This train will constantly move around the city – sometimes I found myself appearing on the other side of the map because I was studying and investigating the things the train offered. I really liked the idea of a "moving base house", also it's quite fancy, and besides, I love trains. This game just keeps bringing me the good content.

Evie and Jacob are good protagonists – I'm not going to say they slay at it, but they serve the purpose. They're quite stereotypical, specially Jacob, as he seems to follow the trend Ezio imposed back in the day, and to which Arno also contributed – and Evie is quite the "polar opposite", a cliché often used on twins to express how "different they are". Their personalities are nothing new; what is endearing and worth noting, though, is their interactions. At first I thought "this is going to be another of the never-ending cases of twins acting like friends instead of siblings". I do come across this mistake more frequently than I'd like to, only broken by some exceptions (World of Final Fantasy is a really good one), even more if the twins are a boy and girl. I'm not saying twins shouldn't be friends themselves, but they're siblings first, for the love of Juno, and most creators who put twins into their stories don't seem to remember how siblings treat each other. Luckily, this game proved me wrong, since the Frye twins showed me that they're real siblings: not because they quarrel (they do, sometimes, quite forced in my opinion), but because of the way they look at each other, they care for each other, they often joke about the other, the familiarity and complicity they treat some topics with, because of the small banter that you can hear them have in the train hideout, how Jacob teases Evie with Henry or how Evie teases Jacob for the cloaks he's wearing – that, all of that, all combined, make up for a good sibling relationship and show me that these two have been brother and sister for a while now. I'm glad they ended up being one of the exceptions to this godawful rule among the fictional twin characters. I would've liked, though, maybe a few more scenes with them having a real heart to heart – I think we were robbed of one or two (specially after sequence 8 if you ask me- Jacob please, let's talk, baby).

Henry is another important character – although I thought he'd be more important. He ultimately appeared in less missions than I expected, and is soon relegated to be Evie's love interest and that's it. And even that is, uh… a little underwhelming. I kinda shipped them at first, then I was like "please, they're FRIENDS, don't force this", only to see myself getting disappointed. I think Henry needed more screentime for me to care more about him, and I definitely believe that, after that mission with Evie, we needed a cutscene with an explanation. It was kind of forgotten later, and he felt more like a plot device than anything else. I'm sad, because he could've been a great opportunity to show us a bit of Indian culture, and also because by the end of the game he's treated like another protagonist, when it doesn't feel like he'd earned it, though, considering the whole game. My opinion.

There are other characters worth mentioning, like Freddy Abberline, another historical person, whose running gag about disguises soon grew on me; Clara O'Dea, a little girl who asks us to liberate her fellow children friends from the claws of foremen who exploit them and acts like a little spy for us; Ned Wynart, who brings trans representation into the game; and some other sequence exclusive characters, who I won't mention because it will spoilerish. Let's just say that Jacob comes across a very interesting man.

On the technical department, I already said that London looks great, but I want to stress this: the whole game looks great. From cinematography to animations, I think they nailed the direction in this one. As my first AC game I can't speak for the others, but this one is a gem. I must mention though that the game crashed on me only once, and I was looking for the "destruction trophy", the one that asks you to break 5000 destructible items of the city – well, it seems I had destroyed enough and the game couldn't take any more wrecked chaos across London, but other than that I didn't encounter any bug nor any trophy didn't pop up. It looks great and it plays great: the controls are responsive, you swiftly dash across the city feeling unstoppable – sometimes controls didn't do what I wanted but it wasn't the game's fault, it was mine, so I can't blame it for my own stupidity.

The soundtrack is also such an unexpected jewel in this game. The solemn tracks that play on the background while you're peacefully traversing the city – some are lyrical and dramatic, others go well with a rainy suburb. The vibrant and electrifying tracks during battles or escapes did bring all the Sherlock Holmes movies vibes to the game. It was all – so English, if you catch my drift. The music did fit well with the British atmosphere they were aiming for.

The ending is satisfying – don't expect an opera prima, or a huge revelation, or groundbreaking plot twists. The story is fairly lineal in its presentation: this is the goal? Alright, the whole game goes for it. We can say that it's quite predictable, but let's be honest, we're not here for the ending or the things that might happen to discover the characters in the present time, we're here to assassinate people with our beautifully hidden blade – wait, that sounded way too violent – we're here for the gameplay, for the historical events, for the feeling of being an assassin, and for some world-building regarding the Precursors.

In regards to that, I cannot not mention the World War I Simulation – a rift in time appears in the Thames towards halfway through the game, and you can enter it – it will take you forward in time, to the same London that is now under the attack of the German. In this more modern time, you play as Lydia Frye, Jacob's granddaughter, also an assassin, who collaborates with no other than Winston Churchill to defeat the Templars. In this kind of DLC episode we learn way more about the Precursors, Juno, Minerva and other important figures to this world-building, that it's mostly lacking in the rest of the game. This simulation does feel like a DLC since it only offers a few hours of gameplay, the metaphor isn't in vain – it's a huge change of pace, it plays a little different since you'll be doing war stuff, and you also visit a portion of the city that isn't available in the main game: the Tower Bridge. It IS worth playing, though, not only for the trophies or for the extended map, but for what I said earlier: world-building. Juno plays a big part in this simulation, and I encourage you to play it, even though it's optional. Slowly but steadily, the world of the Precursors is unfolding before our very eyes. Also, Lydia, YASS another female assassin joins the family!

All in all, Syndicate is a positive experience. Sidequests are repetitive and mostly boring after you complete the first borough, some characters needed more screentime, Evie and Jacob could've used a sensitive cutscene with a deep conversation – but the mechanics, the gameplay, the city, the main missions, the relationship between the twins, the customization of weapons and outfits, and the fact that I literally entered Buckingham Palace after killing a royal guard or two – that, is more than enough to compensate for what it's lacking. You might be tired of the same formula over and over if you're a fan of the franchise, but do give the twins a shot. If you never play an AC game before, try this one out – it might turn you into an AC fangirl, like it did to me.

I'm a trophy hunter myself, so I'll try to platinum it! And now my eyes are intent on Unity, because, if you've seen this post, you know that Arno and Élise resemble two of my oc's, so now I need that game to be injected into my veins, thank you very much.

[hempgaming712]

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Wolfsgamingblog.com Web page. Wolf's Gaming Weblog Xbox One & Computer Gaming, And Board Games.

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Actually glad that my weblog inspired you to begin your personal. Yes it is challenging perform and it takes some time to grow, but if you do it correctly you can have a excellent on the net brand. Starting the blog is only the starting, so make certain to study the rest of my articles in the Gaming Blog Series which will take you by way of all the measures. If you have any queries do not hesitate to ask me, I'm content to assist where I can.

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Flower is a single of the most relaxing experiences I've had in gaming. Exactly where most games continuously demand from you and punish you when you don't adhere to their strict objectives, this unconventional title simply permits you to just be. Right now we are proud to announce that Facebook Gaming is now integrated with Streamlabs OBS with full API assistance. Now users with Streamlabs OBS can stream their favorite games by way of Facebook with a suite of distinctive supported attributes more quickly than ever.

[cregames645]

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Thinking of Moving To Pc Gaming?

Enthusiast Gaming is a media and technology business developing the largest neighborhood of authentic gamers. Travel into a virtual world with a VR headset , where all of your senses will be treated to a barrage of stimulus from different sources. With the Oculus Rift + Touch Virtual Reality Program , you'd have to prepare your self for extra intense gameplays, much more immersive action, and a completely new and exhilarating gaming present experience as the package currently comes with six VR games that will maintain your heart pumping via your chest. The Oculus Touch controllers are ingeniously developed for optimum and unparalleled interaction with the many components in the virtual planet. You will want to meet particular technique specifications on your laptop, though. This also makes a perfect gift for nerds in your life.

It really is difficult to evaluate 15mm rulesets due to the fact they're typically so various, so rather than try I will merely say this Patrol Angis stands on its own laurels as an exemplar of contemporary wargaming. It is rapid to play, it has sophisticated systems, and it is not overburdened by rules. It has a working points technique. It benefits drastically from the great fluff of the Ion Age and the miniatures that go with it but could easily be applied for any 15mm games you want to play. Regardless of its billing as a one-platoon skirmish game I can not see any reason why it wouldn't hold up nicely with 10+ units on the board.

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Do you appreciate to fight even though constructing your own town or village in a game? If yes, Clash of Clans is the greatest option for your gaming requires. It is a single of the most popular games by Supercell. It is a multiplayer game that comes cost-free of cost with in-app purchases. The major aim of the player is to construct a village and fill it with every little thing that the villagers will need to have. A town hall, gold mine, army camp and much far more get unlocked through the course of time.

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If you are in the market place for less costly or more cost-effective games, make confident that you verify the Hot Offers section of the internet site. Green Man Gaming involves a link to that page on all its pages. You can appear at the Deal of the Day or at present specials that let you save up to 75% off the MSRP on common games. The Hot Bargains section also incorporates some VIP specials chosen by major games from around the planet.

[charmsgaming414]

What are some good gaming computer brands

Unforgettable Moments In Gaming Aspect Three

Twitter is exactly where game publishers, the gaming media, well-liked game streamers and entertainers, esports leagues, teams, players and commentators interact with their most engaged fans and with one particular one more. On the web gaming holds immense possible for developers as effectively as investors. The above list makes it apparent that online gaming has emerged as a key segment of the entertainment business. With mobile games, pay-to-play games, and free of charge-to-play (F2P) games becoming even far more inventive, it is expected that the worldwide on-line gaming industry will grow at an immense rate.

You are quietly accepting and at peace with your choice to develop into a board gamer for life. Your household knows you love board games and possibly play them with you. Your good friends know appreciate board games, and you have fantastic gaming groups. You have committed to assigning component of your residence to be a board gaming room. For the first time, you have began to eliminate games from your collection. Maybe you have sold the games, or you just do not have space to retain virtually all of them. Mentally you accept that you never require to play just about every game, and you've possibly narrowed down a handful of games that you want to play regularly.

The gaming industry saw a number of exciting developments in 2016 touching on distinctive elements of the sector. Gaming technologies is establishing in really exciting ways. The lengthy promised revolution of virtual and augmented reality moved closer to realization. The mania around Pokémon GO with its mass market place appeal and utilization of mobile phones introduced untold millions to the prospective of augmented reality. With its launch in India and South Asia it has come to be the poster youngster for the prospective of mobile games offered its advanced technology and the massive international smartphone penetration.

These days is the day! I will be progressively releasing the names of the major ten gaming blogs of 2014. Hunting over this list, I am positively blown away. So numerous awesome posts this year! If you had been disappointed by the Ennies… if you think that the true deep thinkers in gaming commentary don't get the consideration they deserve… nicely, people, we are going to fix that.

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Why The GAMING Is Better Than Yours

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It is worthwhile getting a niche which will bring persons back time and once again. This is how you become an authority in the gaming community. Your branding and domain must all point to what it is you do, generating you straightforward to find. Be creative. Put your personal personality into your writing, and your editing. Play to your strengths. If you're a whizz on the Xbox, run with that.

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If you are a video gamer, you will want to verify out the prime gaming blogs and game critique websites weekly—if not day-to-day. Nevertheless, not many people today have time to verify every single gaming blog and gaming overview web site, so it normally just comes down to checking a handful of select ones. So which ones must get the lion's share of your everyday browsing time? These are the top rated ones according to gamers.

Will this dominance lead to intense mobile gaming vs computer gaming competition? Or will Pc and mobile games handle to hold their niches with out crossing every other's boundaries? Below we have shared some of our most recent findings and thoughts. Gummicube is the gummy bear of all gaming blogs. The internet site delivers excellent App retailer optimization and spotlight. Never overlook to study via their gaming community weblog to locate out gaming reports on different genres each and every month.

It really is February! In 2017 that indicates that we get six additional weeks of winter AND your yearly dose of video game statistics and trends. We're taking a look at important events and shifts in the gaming market and taking into consideration the present state of gaming. Take a peak, or remain for a week! All statistics are thoroughly researched. See sources at the bottom of the web page for a lot more info.

As for the other topic E­sports seems to be expanding and developing, and with it Youtube. Video reviews from persons like AngryJoe let persons connect extra with the reviewer, and through that subtantial followings are built. Written media, on the other hand, is struggling, which is terrible news for me since I am not pretty adequate for Youtube! Sadly, though, we're nonetheless seeing a lot of hostility inside the gaming neighborhood, which the media loves to focus on.

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When purchasing an cost-effective gaming Computer, at times you want to make sacrifices to keep the specs to a minimum. Luckily, there are machines like this a single from Lenovo that lessen the quantity of compromise to a minimum, even supporting virtual reality platforms. The VR Ready” label means you can play with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive without any storage issues, offered the two TB tough drive and the 256 GB SSD. There is a variety of specs you can pick from, so if your budget enables for it, you can tailor the most effective elements for even much better final results.

The future of gaming is a planet where you are empowered to play the games you want, with the persons you want, anytime you want, wherever you are, and on any device of your picking. Our vision for the evolution of gaming is related to music and movies — entertainment must be available on demand and accessible from any screen. Right now, I am excited to share with you one of our key projects that will take us on an accelerated journey to that future world: Project xCloud.

[jackdawyt]

Following Jason Schreier's continued BioWare story, we have direct insight from many BioWare employees regarding the initial Dragon Age 4 BioWare were going to create code named 'Joplin' and envisioned by Mike Laidlaw, against the now in production Dragon Age project that has been code named 'Morrison'.  

Last time we talked about both projects - Joplin and Morrison, equally named after their respected music artists who died at the age of 27, but were both known for revolutionizing their respected industry.

This latest report examines everything that Joplin was going to be regarding the future of the next Dragon Age title.

Let's now delve into the potential game that Dragon Age 4 initially was going to be, before it was rebooted for Anthem and Andromeda's developments.

As I quote:

The plan for Joplin was exciting, say people who worked on it. First and foremost, they already had many tools and production pipelines in place after Inquisition, ones that they hoped to improve and continue using for this new project.

They committed to prototyping ideas early and often, testing as quickly as possible rather than waiting until everything was on fire, as they had done the last time thanks to the glut of people and Frostbite’s difficulties.

“Everyone in project leadership agreed that we couldn’t do that again, and worked to avoid the kind of things that had led to problems,” said one person who worked on the project, explaining that some of the big changes included:

1) Laying down a clear vision as early as possible.

2) Maintaining regular on-boarding documents and procedures so new team members could get up to speed fast; and

3) A decision-making mentality where “we acknowledged that making the second-best choice was far, far better than not deciding and letting ambiguity stick around while people waited for a decision.”

(That person, like all of the sources for this story, spoke under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about their experiences.)

Prepare the tears for this next quote guys....

Another former BioWare developer who worked on Joplin called it “some of the best work experiences” they’d ever had. “We were working towards something very cool, a hugely reactive game, smaller in scope than Dragon Age: Inquisition but much larger in player choice, followers, reactivity, and depth,” they said. “I’m sad that game will never get made.”

You’d play as a group of spies in Tevinter Imperium, a wizard-ruled country on the north end of Dragon Age’s main continent, Thedas. The goal was to focus as much as possible on choice and consequence, with smaller areas and fewer fetch quests than Dragon Age: Inquisition.

(In other words, they wanted Joplin to be the opposite of the Hinterlands.) There was an emphasis on “repeat play,” one developer said, noting that they wanted to make areas that changed over time and missions that branched in interesting ways based on your decisions, to the point where you could even get “non-standard game overs” if you followed certain paths.

A large chunk of Joplin would center on heists. The developers talked about building systemic narrative mechanics, allowing the player to perform actions like persuading or extorting guards without the writers having to hand-craft every scene.

It was all very ambitious and very early, and would have no doubt changed drastically once Joplin entered production, but members of the team say they were thrilled about the possibilities.

The first big hiccup came in late 2016, when BioWare put Joplin on hold and moved the entire team onto the troubled Mass Effect: Andromeda, which needed as many hands as possible during its final months of development.

The Joplin team expanded with people who were rolling off Andromeda and kept working, prototyping, and designing the game. After spending months of their lives helping finish a Mass Effect that didn’t excite a ton of people, it was nice to return to Dragon Age.

One thing that wasn’t discussed much on Joplin was multiplayer, according to a few people who worked on the project, which is perhaps why the project couldn’t last.

By the latter half of 2017, Anthem was in real trouble, and there was concern that it might never be finished unless the studio did something drastic.

In October of 2017, not long after veteran Mass Effect director Casey Hudson returned to the studio to take over as general manager, EA and BioWare took that drastic action, canceling Joplin and moving the bulk of its staff, including executive producer Mark Darrah, onto Anthem.

A tiny team stuck around to work on a brand new Dragon Age 4, code-named Morrison, that would be built on Anthem’s tools and code base. It’s the game being made now. Unlike Joplin, this new version of the fourth Dragon Age is planned with a live service component, built for long-term gameplay and revenue.

One promise from management, according to a developer, was that in EA’s balance sheet, they’d be starting from scratch and not burdened with the two years of money that Joplin had already spent. Question was, how many of those ideas and prototypes would they use?

It’s not clear how much of Joplin’s vision will shape Morrison (at least some of it will, says one person on the game), but shortly after the reboot, creative director Mike Laidlaw left, as did some other veteran Dragon Agestaff.

Matt Goldman, art director on Dragon Age: Inquisition and then Joplin, took over as creative director for Morrison, while Darrah remained executive producer on both that project and Anthem.

In early 2018, when I first reported that BioWare had rebooted the next Dragon Age and that its replacement would be a live service game, studio GM Casey Hudson responded on Twitter.

“Reading lots of feedback regarding Dragon Age, and I think you’ll be relieved to see what the team is working on. Story & character focused. Too early to talk details, but when we talk about ‘live’ it just means designing a game for continued storytelling after the main story.”

The game is still very early in development and could evolve based on the negative reception to Anthem. Rumor among BioWare circles for the past year has been that Morrison is “Anthem with dragons”—a snarky label conveyed to me by several people—but a couple of current BioWare employees have waved me off that description.

“The idea was that Anthem would be the online game and that Dragon Age and Mass Effect, while they may experiment with online portions, that’s not what defines them as franchises,” said one. “I don’t think you’ll see us completely change those franchises.”

When asked, a few BioWare developers agreed that it’d be technically possible for a game built on Anthem’s codebase to also have an offline branch, but it’s not yet clear whether Morrison will take that approach. If it does turn out to be an online game, which seems likely, it would be shocking if you couldn’t play the bulk of it by yourself.

(Diablo III, for example, is online-only on PC yet can be played entirely solo.)

One person close to the game told me this week that Morrison’s critical path, or main story, would be designed for single-player and that goal of the multiplayer elements would be to keep people engaged so that they would actually stick with post-launch content.

Single-player downloadable content like Dragon Age: Inquisition’s Trespasser, while often excellent, typically sells only a fraction of the main game, according to developers from BioWare and elsewhere across the industry.

Yet this wouldn’t be a “live service” game if it was a repeat of Dragon Age: Inquisition, which compartmentalized its single- and multiplayer modes.

Fans in the past have grown outraged at the idea of BioWare putting a lot of emphasis on multiplayer gaming, but there are ways in which a service-heavy Dragon Age 4 could be ambitious and impressive.

For example, some ideas I’ve heard floated for Morrison’s multiplayer include companions that can be controlled by multiple players via drop-in/drop-out co-op, similar to old-school BioWare RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, and quests that could change based not just on one player’s decisions, but on the choices of players across the globe.

Maybe in two or three years, Morrison will look completely different. It’s not like Dragon Age hasn’t changed drastically in the past. In the office, BioWare developers often refer to Mark Darrah’s Dragon Age team as a pirate ship, one that will eventually wind up at its destination, but not before meandering from port to port, drinking as much rum as possible along the way.

His is a team that, in the past, has iterated and changed direction constantly—something that they hoped to cut down for Joplin, but has always been part of their DNA (and, it should be noted, heavy iteration is common in all game development).

One BioWare employee summed it up well as we talked about the future of BioWare’s fantasy franchise. “Keep in mind,” they said, “Dragon Age games shift more than other games.

”Said another current BioWare employee about Morrison: “They have a lot of unanswered questions. Plus I know it’s going to change like five times in the next two years.”

There are other questions remaining, too: With BioWare’s Austin office gradually taking over Anthem going forward, when will the bulk of employees at the company’s Edmonton HQ move to the Morrison team?

Will Morrison be able to avoid following the lead of Dragon Age: Inquisition, which took on too many people too early and wound up suffering as a result?

And, most important, will BioWare work to prevent the burnout that has led to dozens of developers leaving over the past two years, with so many citing stress, depression, and anxiety?

End of article, so my thoughts on this, of course, I have my worries especially regarding the multiplayer part, it was to my knowledge that there is a separate Dragon Age team working on the multiplayer component completely estranged from the core team.

I hope that this is still the case, however, it's EA that're the ones who plaque BioWare to incorporate multiplayer and live-service.  

Honestly the biggest concern here is how much of Joplin's original vision and resources are going to be put into Morrison's production, because the description of Joplin is everything I've wanted in a Dragon Age game following from Inquisition.

To hear that this initial game has been canned is heart-wrenching, any signs of Joplin's ashes in Morrison is all I can hope for.

Hope is all we really have right now regarding the future of Dragon Age, and don't forget Mass Effect, which is also going to affected by this too.

Of course, I have my worries. But I am hopeful for what the Dragon Age team can do, and I feel to fear when we still haven't seen the game yet is a little blind-sighted. Who knows when we will see or hear anything, I imagine we may see something on EA Play's live-streams next June, just before E3, but honestly, I'm not sure!

The next Dragon Age project is expected to release within 2-3 years from now, all we can hope for next is a reveal of some-sorts, like a title or development update.

It would be incredible if BioWare could come out and share some insight on what the heck is going on with the next Dragon Age, like a development diary which they did with Mass Effect: Andromeda.

To get a glimpse of this next game and the vision for it is what we in the BioWare fandom all need right now. To know what is going on with the next Dragon Age and how true it will stick to Joplin's original vision.

But until we do hear something, like always, you're already in the right place...

[maxthommusic]

Overwatch in 2021

I vividly remember joining the Overwatch beta back in 2016. I was going through a messy break up and was living alone after moving to Los Angeles. My money was running dry and I had to start working a job I didn’t want in order to stay afloat. Yet like a beacon in the night, Overwatch shone its head through the fog showcasing an experience that promoted fellowship, teamwork and raucous good times. After an exhilarating beta, I secured my pre-order and would go on to play Overwatch religiously with a crew for nearly a year -- probably the longest I’ve ever played anything. But when single-player games like Yakuza: 0 and Persona 5 invaded my play space in 2017, finding motivation to continue the Overwatch grind seemed less and less appealing. While Blizzard has certainly outdone itself with world-building and deep lore (the plentiful CG short films after release seemed to beg for an actual film), by design there’s no end-game. Heroes never die. And as I switched to more narrative-heavy titles, I began to think I had my fill of being a Soldier.

Nevertheless, four years later, five years since Overwatch’s launch, I’m right back where I started. I’ve shaken off the dust and am falling in love with Overwatch all over again. The community is pulsating, the gameplay balance is unrivaled, and the additions Blizzard has made are all welcome. Even after taking an extended break from Overwatch, it still manages to reign supreme as the King of multiplayer games. But when games come and go, even without their “15 minutes of fame,” how is it Overwatch is not only the Old Dog, but the Top Dog?

#1: Community. I can’t stress it enough: Overwatch’s focus on teamwork makes playing with friends (or even a random squad) exhilarating. My favorite moments come from calling out which enemies I’m hunting down and seeing my crew follow suit. Coordinating Ultimate Attacks for devastating Team Kills never grows old and the pageantry behind such coordination enriches me with a sense of competitive glory I can’t quite find anywhere else. While you can employ such dynamic strategies in other games, it’s simply not found on the level like it is in Overwatch. I’ve gone away from games like Call of Duty, Battlefield, and even Destiny because I don’t get that same feeling of community. 

Blizzard really does everything in its power to make sure you remember that your team is what matters. From the addition of Endorsements, to voting on Player Achievements in the post-game, to even the Play of the Game reels -- everything revolves around highlighting the players around you (and possibly even yourself). Even matchmaking is quick and easy. My gaming crew and I have spent numerous hours playing Apex Legends, COD, Siege, the Division, etc. and Overwatch keeps us gaming the most consistently. There also seems to be the least amount of menu haggling -- when we’re ready to game, we’re in. No going, “Did you get the invite?” “Do I need to send another invite?” All these minor considerations add up to big gains for Overwatch, making it feel like the multiplayer game I spend the most time playing. 

#2: Heroes. In my mind, Overwatch has the best heroes. And I don’t mean I love the way they look and feel (though that it is true), but it’s the symbiotic relationship the heroes have with the gameplay that is simply the best I’ve ever witnessed. It’s an amazing feat that Overwatch allows you to develop an edge over your opponent by knowing not only your own skills, but theirs as well. To be great with one character isn’t enough and building your knowledge of every character will end up becoming your greatest asset. It’s an astounding feat to have 32 heroes at your fingertips with all of them remaining in balance. And what’s more is I know all 32 heroes. Because of this I’ve always rejected the idea that anyone is “cheap” and can’t be thwarted, no matter how devious. You simply need to find the foil and be ready to swap characters at will. This constantly evolving strategy forces the best combatants to rotate and understand the entire roster, making Overwatch a stalwart in achieving strategic excellence.

#3: Loot Boxes. Everyone wants to bitch and moan about micro transactions. In my mind, it’s easy to ignore and I’ve always done so. But that doesn’t mean I can’t recognize Overwatch handles it elegantly. Overwatch was probably my first real experience with Loot Boxes, and I remember, even from day one, finding them wildly tantalizing. With so many neat skins, sprays, voice lines, emotes, highlight intros and more to earn, receiving new swag for leveling up was, and continues to be, an exciting part of the Overwatch experience. Providing a seemingly endless array of cosmetics, I can’t help but feel like I’m a rabbit happily chasing his carrot on a stick. Outfitting my favorite characters with bad ass skins and giving them fun emotes is a side pleasure I thoroughly enjoy. Recently, I’ve even committed to getting Golden Weapons. Win enough rounds in Competitive Play and you can buy yourself a golden weapon for your character of choice. Maybe that’s dumb to a lot of people, but I think they make a neat statement about your dedication to the Watch and I’m here for it.

       *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *         *

5 years later and Overwatch is still a stunning roundhouse kick in the face. There are enough maps to continually find a great rotation, there’s a plethora of characters to always choose from, all presenting their own unique take on their specified Role. Most of all, Overwatch keeps you gaming with friends. If there’s one reason to highlight above all else, it’s that Overwatch has the best gameplay loop out of any online multiplayer I’ve found. 

Playing Overwatch in 2021 means I can play a game online with people and feel like my time is respected. At 30 years old, I just want to find matches quickly, know they’re fair and never have to feel like something else got in the way of my enjoyment. Even when the odds aren’t in your favor and your random squad doesn’t want to play like a Team, you can work your hardest to earn those Gold Medals and shoot for a Loot Box by the end of your session. Overwatch is about so much more than defending the payload. And because it insists on having numerous tantalizing systems in place, it also demands your unwavering attention.

[callsignbaphomet]

Rapid Fire Tips for New Players

You can hit a stunned partner out of their stun.

Speaking of stuns you can see when a partner is stunned, next to their name two little yellow stars will show up and they stand still while wobbling helplessly. You can also hear when someone gets stunned.

One fire? Roll 3 times on dry land and fire's put out. On water or moist surfaces you roll twice or once and the fire's out.

Sharpen your weapon between "matches". When a monster stops attacking to go to another area it'll be the perfect time to sharpen your weapon. Please do.

ALWAYS BRING LIFEPOWDER!

Unless it's an Elder Dragon always capture the monster. I know y'all wanna be edgelords and kill the monster but it's in YOUR best interest to capture the monster. Unless you want to repeat every single optional hunting quest. Plus it's safer to capture, say you're one cart away from failing the quest and the monster is finally going back to its nest. If you capture it it can't fight back which means there is ZERO chances for you to faint.

Speaking of Elder Dragons, they cannot be captured. Traps (shock, pitfall) do not work on them. There is no way you can capture an Elder Dragon, I don't care what the commander said. In fact he should've known better!

Always upgrade your weapons. Trust me, you don't wanna play catch up once you reach High Rank. It'll be insanely frustrating.

Go back to the smithy every once in a while to see if you can upgrade your armor. Don't be an idiot. More defense = less damage = less carts. Don't be cheap with your armor upgrades.

Always take some time to go gathering, fishing and foraging in all different maps. You get materials, you can gather monster clues, you learn the map, you find pets, and unlock investigations. This is also an excellent way to complete bounties which net you Research Points and Armor Spheres. Green (easy), blue (medium), red (hard).

Every time you spawn back in Astera stop by the Resource Center (place with the woman, elf and dawrf...I think it's a dawrf...).

Make use of the Botanical Center. Trust me.

Take some time to rearrange your item box. It's empty now compared to how it'll be later, especially after Kulve Taroth. You're welcome.

It's okay not to "main" a weapon. It's also okay to have a comfort weapon. Play around with all 14 and see how you do and how comfortable you feel. Some have a heftier learning curve than others. There are plenty of good tutorials on YouTube. The only weapon I can give a full tutorial on is Insect Glaive ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

However! I do suggest you get acquainted with at least 1 ranged weapon for hard to reach monsters like Rathalos, Paolumu, Bazelguese, Azure Rathalos and Legiana. *laughs in flash pods*

Hey, dual blade users, quit fucking doing Demon Dance every chance you get. It's extremely risky as you are locked in a lengthy animation and a monster can easily cart your dumb ass. You also should not do Demon Dance on a downed monster's head if you're in multiplayer. The head belongs to hammers and hunting horn users. You go for the body.

Downed/tripped/KO'd monsters can be divided in 3 parts for attacking: head, body (this includes the wings) and tail. Each weapon is "designated" for each part. To sorta give you an idea: horns and hammers go for the head. Insect Glaive, Dual Blades, Sword and Shield go for the body and/or wings. You can even divide yourselves. One on the back/wings and one in the front so you don't trip each other. Long Sword and Great Sword users go for the tail. Charge Blade and Switch Axe users can go for either the tail or body just asses the situation. Bow, Light Bowgun and Heavy Bowgun don't need to get up close and personal so they can go where they please just be mindful not to shoot your partners.

Hey, Great Sword, Switch Axe, Charge Blade, Hammer and Hunting Horn users. Be mindful of your partners and your upswing attacks. You'll send your partners flying which means less DPS on the monster which is never a good idea. Ever. Unless you're communicating and someone asks for a boost to mount the monster then go ahead and upswing that bitch and y'all can laugh about that successful mount later.

Hey, Hunting Horn users, before you even think about engaging a monster do the Improvement Song on yourself. You're welcome.

Hey, Bow users, you know the Arc Shot? Neat right? Stop fucking spamming that shit! Look, unless you got it set up to get consistent KOs all you're doing is flinching your partners out of their attacks which means less DPS on the monster and like I said that is bad, no bueno. Quit. It. Even if you have it set up right you only throw it when you can get it lined up right so that rocks hit the monster's head.

Hey, LBG users, you know your Wyvernblast? When a monster is tripped, falls over or gets KO'd run up to its head, plant 1 Wyvernblast near it and let your meelee weapon partners go ham on it. MORE DAMAGE!

Hey, Insect Glaive users, you know all those really cool aerial attacks you can do? They're practically useless! Stop it! While pretty and flashy it does less damage than grounded attacks. Aerial attacks are pretty much situational and a bit niche. Don't spam that shit!

Hey, Bow users, yes, you again! Dragonpiercer looks really awesome but you should never do it just because you can. You're locked in a long animation and the monster could aggro you and cart you because you decided to be flashy. There's other reasons not to do the DP because it has less elemental damage but I don't know the math behind that. Find some tutorials on why DP is no good really.

Wanna join a quest? Cool, do not click on "available quests". It's rude, you'll most likely fuck up whatever the host is trying to do and there's a good chance you'll get kicked out anyway. Unless you're in a squad session or someone asks people in the hall to join their quest there's no reason for you to do that. Don't be that person.

If you wanna avoid uninvited guests just change your player limit to 1 so it's just you. Or put a password so no one can come in unless they know the password. Just know that if you change the amount of players to 1 you can't use the SOS Flare.

Abandon Quest will replenish all items you used so if a quest isn't going your way you can use that option.

If you're in multiplayer and you or someone else carts DON'T BE AN ASS CLOWN AND LEAVE THE QUEST. Fucking stay, you never know, you might just make it. 4 is better than 3, 3 is better than 2 and 2 is better than 1.

Please, please, please refrain from making racist, homophobic, rape and other offensive shoutouts. It's stupid af, cringey and you look like a fucking moron. I can't believe it has to be said in the year 2019 but I've seen some really stupid shit.

When in multiplayer please fucking avoid taking every item out of the item box. Each person takes 1 pack of potions and 1 pack of rations. That's it. Everything is shared between y'all and taking everything is a bitch ass move. Share!

Don't be that person that stops in the middle of the fight to carve a tail. There's a good chance you'll get hit by an attack and cart. Do it when the monster leaves the area, is killed or is captured.

If someone mounts a monster DO NOT FLASH THE MONSTERS. If you're a ranged weapon keep attacking. If melee take the time to sharpen your weapon and heal or reapply buffs. Soon as the mounter takes the monster down it's time to go ham on it. You get a few seconds of free DPS as the monster will be down and won't attack.

A lot of people still do this shit and it's caused a lot of carts. Do not flash Lunastra. It doesn't make her fall, it just pisses her off and she spams her Super Nova attack. This is for High Rank people.

Guild cards! Send them to everyone you see but only once. There's an achievement that unlocks once you collect 50.

Need help in the arena but no one wants to help? Go to the Handler or board. Online Session - Search for an Online Session - Filter Search - Quest Preference and switch it to Arena. It can be filtered to find any specific thing you need and chances are there'll be people already hosting sessions to do a specific thing.

If you're trying to track down a monster but the scoutflies are all over the place and you're kinda lost just open the map and close it. That resets them.

You can save builds in loadouts and it saves everything you wear so it makes switching between builds easy. Everything saves. Only got 1 specific decoration that you wanna use for several different builds? That's okay, make the build, save it and then make the other builds. The game itself will remember what you had saved and it'll "move" tat one decoration to the build you equipped. Easy peasy. Though I suggest you wait till High Rank so you can save the good end game loadouts.

You can also make item loadouts and save them. You can also customize the wheel and save it to the item loadout.

There's monster poop in every map. Hoard that crap like your life depends on it because it WILL depend on it during HR when Bazelguese and Deviljho decide to invade your quests.

Investigations are perfect for farming. Need a monster piece? Check your Hunter Notes and see what part you gotta break for it and then start an investigation. Bronze boxes give you shitty parts, silver give you good parts and gold gives the best parts.

Slinger ammo is actually more important than you think. Try to always have some ammo loaded on your slinger in case you need to get a monster's attention, need to stop it from escaping or flinch it after it pinned you down and you need to make a quick get away.

Monsters have weaknesses and resistances. Check what a monster is weak to and use it. Don't go fighting Kirin with a thunder weapon! Remember Pokemon? Same concept.

When you or a partner makes a monster fall asleep stop attacking! You can tell because the monster suddenly stops attacking and the music dies down. This is the perfect time to put some bombs on the monster to do massive damage. When you see a sleeping monster don't touch it!

[richincolor]

K. Imani's Favs of 2019

Like everyone else said, this year there were a lot of excellent books that I read and many more that I still have to read! It was hard to narrow down my list, but I chose books that I would love to read over and over again, in addition to the start of what appears to be two exciting new series.

The Tiger at Midnight by Swati Terrdhala II My Review

Esha is a legend, but no one knows. It’s only in the shadows that she moonlights as the Viper, the rebels’ highly skilled assassin. She’s devoted her life to avenging what she lost in the royal coup, and now she’s been tasked with her most important mission to date: taking down the ruthless General Hotha.

Kunal has been a soldier since childhood, training morning and night to uphold the power of King Vardaan. His uncle, the general, has ensured that Kunal never strays from the path—even as a part of Kunal longs to join the outside world, which has been growing only more volatile.

Then Esha’s and Kunal’s paths cross—and an unimaginable chain of events unfolds. Both the Viper and the soldier think they’re calling the shots, but they’re not the only players moving the pieces. As the bonds that hold their land in order break down and the sins of the past meet the promise of a new future, both rebel and soldier must make unforgivable choices.

Opposite of Always by Justin A. Reynolds II My Review

Jack Ellison King. King of Almost.

He almost made valedictorian.

He almost made varsity.

He almost got the girl . . .

When Jack and Kate meet at a party, bonding until sunrise over their mutual love of Fruit Loops and their favorite flicks, Jack knows he’s falling—hard. Soon she’s meeting his best friends, Jillian and Franny, and Kate wins them over as easily as she did Jack. Jack’s curse of almost is finally over.

But this love story is . . . complicated. It is an almost happily ever after. Because Kate dies. And their story should end there. Yet Kate’s death sends Jack back to the beginning, the moment they first meet, and Kate’s there again. Beautiful, radiant Kate. Healthy, happy, and charming as ever. Jack isn’t sure if he’s losing his mind. Still, if he has a chance to prevent Kate’s death, he’ll take it. Even if that means believing in time travel. However, Jack will learn that his actions are not without consequences. And when one choice turns deadly for someone else close to him, he has to figure out what he’s willing to do—and let go—to save the people he loves.

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo II Group Discussion

With her daughter to care for and her abuela to help support, high school senior Emoni Santiago has to make the tough decisions, and do what must be done. The one place she can let her responsibilities go is in the kitchen, where she adds a little something magical to everything she cooks, turning her food into straight-up goodness. Still, she knows she doesn’t have enough time for her school’s new culinary arts class, doesn’t have the money for the class’s trip to Spain — and shouldn’t still be dreaming of someday working in a real kitchen. But even with all the rules she has for her life — and all the rules everyone expects her to play by — once Emoni starts cooking, her only real choice is to let her talent break free.

The Good Luck Girls by Charlotte Nicole Davis II My Review

Aster, the protector

Violet, the favorite

Tansy, the medic

Mallow, the fighter

Clementine, the catalyst

THE GOOD LUCK GIRLS

The country of Arketta calls them Good Luck Girls--they know their luck is anything but. Sold to a "welcome house" as children and branded with cursed markings. Trapped in a life they would never have chosen.

When Clementine accidentally murders a man, the girls risk a dangerous escape and harrowing journey to find freedom, justice, and revenge in a country that wants them to have none of those things. Pursued by Arketta's most vicious and powerful forces, both human and inhuman, their only hope lies in a bedtime story passed from one Good Luck Girl to another, a story that only the youngest or most desperate would ever believe.

It's going to take more than luck for them all to survive.

Slay by Brittney Morris II Group Discussion

By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the "downfall of the Black man." But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for "anti-white discrimination." Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process?

[writingrei]

inuyasha and kagome do stuff: arcade

shoes

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

"The hell is this place?" Inuyasha asked, holding onto Kagome’s shoulders as they navigated through the dark but neon lit room.

"It's an arcade."

"Arrhh- cayde?"

"Oh come on… I know you're 500 years out of touch, but that doesn't mean you suddenly don't know how to speak."

"Look! I don't know what this is supposed to be. You can't get mad at me asking questions."

"I am not mad!" Kagome chirped, yanking on Inuyasha and picking up her pace.

Inuyasha wretched. "Good god , what is that STENCH?"

"Stench? I don't really smell anything."

"It smells like sweat that's been embroidered into something."

Kagome cringed. She got the jist of it. Unfortunately, where they were headed was the source of the stench. Squeezing through groups of people huddled around games, they entered in a clear area of the room, lit brightly by one loud and bright game. In big English letters it said, "Dance Dance Revolution".

Inuyasha pinched his nose, observing the brightly lit words. "I can't read that."

Kagome groaned and facepalmed, reading it to him. He just squinted at her in confusion.

She shook her head, sighing. "It's a dancing game."

"Okay."

Kagome took Inuyasha's hands, stepping onto the platforms decorated in arrows. Inuyasha tensed up, lifting up one of his feet. "It's COLD! What is this stuff?"

"It's… its metal? It's-- don't worry about it."

She turned to the huge monitor, rustling in her pockets and pulling out a 100 yen coin. She put it into the slot, Inuyasha watching intently.

"Now Inuyasha, don't freak out. I'll have the game give you a tutorial."

Kagome stepped on the arrows, the screen responding accordingly. She stomped on the arrow in the middle for select on "TUTORIAL", the screen fading to black. As she stepped off the platform, she pulled Inuyasha to replace her. She slid behind the bars adjacent to platform, leaning on it to watch Inuyasha. He was mesmerized by the screen, his ears standing up when the light returned.

Kagome pointed, "When the arrows hit the top of the screen, step on the one on the platform!"

Inuyasha looked down, seeing the four arrows by his feet. Front, right, left, back. Okay.

A right arrow scrolled from the bottom of the screen to the top, landing on the adjacent one on the top. He slammed his foot down into the arrow on the platform, the sound bouncing off the walls. Everyone in the arcade looked at him in fear. A big “MISS” floated in the corner of the screen.

“WHAT! How’d I miss it? I stepped on it.”

“Not so hard,” Kagome whispered.

"Huh?"

“Don't step on the arrows so hard. Also, you’ve got to anticipate it. Step on the arrow as it’s coming to ensure that you don’t miss it!”

Inuyasha huffed, watching more arrows scroll up and stepping on the tiles in accordance. Kagome cheered in support, watching the “EXCELLENT” fly up on the screen. The half-demon started to get into it, bouncing up and down with the music that emitted from the machine. Right, left, right! Up! Up! Down! Left AND Right! He faltered a bit there, trying to figure out how to get both at the same time. He hopped and stomped on both, the same loud sound from before ringing out.

Kagome cringed at it again, feeling spectator’s eyes boring into them. Inuyasha remained fixated, keeping his eyes on the screen and his feet in the right place as the quick session ended.

“That’s it? That sucks.”

“No, silly. That’s only the tutorial! Now you can actually play,” she said, ducking underneath the top bar and squeezing her torso through it. She shooed him aside, deciding to use her hands to naviagate the arrows instead of her feet. “You want an easy song, Inuyasha?”

“EASY? What’d’ya take me for? Give me the hardest this game has got. I want a challenge.”

Kagome sighed, “I don’t think you’re ready for that, Inuyasha.”

“Oh come on, just do it.”

She wanted to go easy on him, but after all, he did ask for a challenge. After struggling a bit to find a decent match for Inuyasha’s ego, she landed on “PARANOiA ~HADES~”. Setting the game to start, she stood up again, facing away from the machine.

“C’mon Kagome, you’re not gonna watch?”

“I don’t need to watch to see how this is gonna turn out…”

Inuyasha scoffed, bordering on a hiss as he turned to the machine again. The music started, and he began to play. The onslaught of colorful arrows confused him, throwing him off of his rhythm. Kagome just yawned, hearing his sounds of distress from playing as she tried to peek at what other people were playing from afar. She continued to ignore him even after he threw out a few “Damn it, Kagome!”’s.

He heaved after the song ended, visibly steamed from his horrible result.

Kagome looked at his results. Mainly misses, a few goods, no excellents, and his highest combo streak stopped at 15. Inuyasha covered his head, his long sleeves obscuring his obviously embarrassed expression.

“Don’t speak to me,” Inuyasha growled from underneath.

Kagome nudged him. “I’ll do a round with you. If you want.”

He peeked at her.

“If you’re thinking I’m bad, then you’re definitely wrong,” she said, a smug look on her face as she stepped onto the platform next to him. “Actually, move over. I like this side better,” she said, moving Inuyasha to the right of her.

“Hey!”

She just smiled at him, leaning over to put two coins in both slots to start the multiplayer version. Kagome stepped quickly on the arrows, speeding over to a song titled “LOVE♥SHINE”. The preview of the music played before she selected, and Inuyasha folded his ears down onto his head.

“It sounds awful.”

Kagome glared at him. “Don’t be mean. I think that you could actually do this one.”

Inuyasha glared back, and they both just had a glaring contest as Kagome started the song. The arrows scrolled up the screen, Inuyasha a bit anxious this time.

“Juuuuust follow my lead~” Kagome cooed, getting a hiss in response.

She jumped on every step, swaying her hips from side to side as she got one “EXCELLENT” after another. The music was right up her alley, making it easier for her to get into the groove. Inuyasha watched her while trying to focus on his side of the screen, missing a few arrows as a result.

“Inuyasha! Look at your side of the screen! And just get into it!” Kagome said before zoning into the game again.

Inuyasha huffed, trying to step on the arrows with more efficiency. He couldn’t help but get distracted by Kagome’s enthusiasm towards the game-- especially seeing how light on her feet she was. She could afford to make big hops in between steps, she ensured that she wouldn’t miss a beat by staying on her toes.

He shook his head, trying to get focused so he wouldn’t get upstaged by Kagome. He was a bit stiff as he played, slowly loosening up as he continued. Despite this, he couldn’t get anywhere close to Kagome’s fluidity. She even had to hold down her skirt while she was jumping around.

The song died down and they took their last steps, Inuyasha a bit frazzled and Kagome extremely excited. A bit out of breath, she fanned herself as she looked at the steamed Inuyasha. His results were nowhere as good as hers and it almost made him want to run up a wall.

Kagome held out another pair of coins. “Wanna play again?”

[call-me-schmidt]

My sister came in with Man of Medan today. I've seen zero gameplay for this beforehand, I somehow missed everything on this until the multiplayer trailer, but I like Until Dawn a fuckload so I guessing I’m going be giving this some serious time.

So, some first impressions after about two, two and half hours messing with it? I am loving the electric guitar version of ‘O Death’, and I guessing that’s just Supermassive’s theme song now?

The setting is some good good shit - it’s so claustrophobic and dingy and mazelike, it’s like nowhere feels entirely right or safe once you’re on the derelict wreck. And the bodies are so gross and unnerving! Like, you get jumpscared by them a decent amount of times, but they’re really just unnerving enough being there that when you do it’s almost gratuitous. I’m gonna give a special mention to that surgery room where the doctor’s curled up in the corner and his mask makes it like he’s looking at you, and his patient who has the anaesthesia mask still on. You know the bit in Until Dawn where you find Beth’s head; the camera has it unfocused, right up close to the foreground? There’s been a couple shots like that and Mister Gassy there was the one that made me stop and “uuurrrrgghh” out loud. (The other one it took a while to actually realise that the camera was looking, like, over the chest of a dead dude).

There’s been some great subtle scares as well, it’s not all been jumpy. The way you begin to realise that the noises you hear and the things you see are not necessarily what your companion character is hearing or seeing is quite tense in the moment. There’s a point as Fliss where you’re being forced to walk down a corridor and the camera is set in front of you - and it’s only when the shadows move that you see that someone was watching around the corner. There’s another point in that same chapter where you can look through a grille - and I was expecting a jumpscare, but the spooky I was waiting for was already there and had been when I started looking. I was staring this thing in eye for a good ten seconds before I realised something was staring back at me and that’s just *chef kiss* excellent.

Also, that bit with Brad, and then with Fliss, where the corridor starts looping? Very P.T. Silent Hills 10/10

Aside, I wasn’t expecting this game to go so dreamlike? if that makes sense? Until Dawn mostly telegraphs pretty strongly when you’re not seeing the reality of your situation. That surely not the case in Man of Medan, and I’m pretty eager to see how they’re gonna play that out. Me and my sister have been debating whether or not we’d like it to lean towards a supernatural explanation or not, though most of our money is split between it being a healthy mixture of both as per UD, or a nice ambiguous Neither/’What Do You Think?’