#like the speedrunner got to the game first

[pink-pumpkin-princess-bitch]

Ok now what if it was that mod with multiplayer, and there where 3 players, and they kissed.

I read Outer Wilds fanfic sometimes and ponder over like, how long some of the Hatchlings in the stories spend in the cycle of loops. Not every story has a loop between exactly 22 minutes, but a lot of them do and then discuss how the Hatchling has been looping for months or years and I just wonder what they were doing in all that time. I consider myself a truly average gamer and in under 200 loops- less than 48 hours of playtime- I've nearly completed the game.

Given that even if you 100% the log it still takes less than 100 hours of play, what can you do in the hundreds of thousands of hours contained in a year or three of looping? Are you taking samples of Nomai pottery back for chemical analysis? Trying to perfectly hop around the black hole such that you can jump off from the Tower and get to Riebeck without dying?

From a *player* perspective, it's fun to match story time to player type to Hatchling personality too.

Perhaps on a meta level, this reckless Hatchling who spent years in the Ash Twin Project is a speed runner. They spent ages practicing to be able to take part A to location B in under twelve minutes. Perhaps this nervous wreck of a Hatchling is controlled by someone who has never touched a video game before and thus barely even knows that the A and B buttons do. Their months of loop time is spent learning how to use a jetpack without killing themself. Perhaps this Hatchling who loves the Nomai so much spent *their* loops examining every inch of Brittle Hollow because their player is a miniature maker who wants to make a Brittle Hollow scale model.

Food for thought, you know?

[thefirstknife]

Getting real sick of a certain subset of Destiny players complaining that it’s a baby game and crying to Bungie to nerf exotics and abilities when their ENTIRE POINT IS TO BE STRONG in specific ways as if they are being locked into using them.

IF YOU WANT AN EXTRA CHALLENGE STOP BEING SUCH A DPS GOBLIN AND JUST EQUIP SOMETHING THATS NOT TOP TIER META AND STOP COMPLAINING JESUS FUCKING CHRIST

MOOD. Go off.

It's incredibly annoying to me. They always use the argument of "the game should FORCE me to do things, I should not SELF-IMPOSE challenges." And like. ? I'm sorry but what? It's a video game for a big audience, it's here to be playable and accessible to the widest possible playerbase. There are plenty of ways to make the game difficult for yourself, so knock yourself out if that's your thing, but don't force others into it.

Like, I enjoy hard content, I regularly at least attempt day 1 raids, I do master raids, GMs, solo and solo flawless content and all that. But only when I want to. Sometimes I don't and I don't want to suffer in a patrol zone or struggle in a seasonal activity I'm doing for the story. The majority of the players don't want that. Designing games for the professional gamers only has NEVER been a good idea and never will be. Fifty streamers can't sustain a video game. It needs casual players who will want to come back to the game instead of feeling defeated.

One of the reasons I really enjoy helping others is because I know that casual players tend to struggle in stuff that's basic activity for me. I've seen people unable to get through a strike. I've sat for 10 minutes rezing someone who couldn't do the jump in a seasonal activity. I want those people to be able to play basic content without feeling frustrated and I want them to know that there are people out there who will help them out.

And this doesn't apply just to basic content, although it should start with that. I think all dungeons and raids and everything should be things that all players can complete. Fine, doing a master raid with all challenges should be tough, but it should be achievable with time and practice, not impossible. What a lot of these "pros" want is just completely divorced from reality.

It takes days and days of practice every time a new master raid is out for me and my team (all with thousands of hours of playtime) to get comfortable to finally finish it. We're far from casual players and it still takes a lot of time to be able to finish hard content. Making it even harder is insane to me. Like, if something is so hard that my team full of people, each with 5000+ hours of playtime and a coordinated team that's been raiding together for years now can't finish it, that means it's absolutely impossible for probably 90% of the playerbase. That's wild to me. Raids and GMs should have more people playing them. If master raids are too easy for you, Mr. I-Play-Destiny-For-A-Living, that's on you buddy. Unequip the super god tier god roll meta guns and loadouts or play something else.

And ofc, another excuse they make is "if I don't use meta, I am not going to win a raid race!" Then don't. Idk. Let me play you the tiniest violin. This affects literally nobody except a grand total of 50 people. Run your meta in day 1, and play with random shit otherwise. Play raids with all white weapons. Play without mods. Play without a HUD. Do things solo only. I don't know, make up a way to spice things up for yourself. I'm not interested in that and neither are 99% of the players out there. The game is genuinely hard enough for the majority of the players. On top of that, I am here to feel like a powerful space fantasy superhero. I am NOT here to die to dregs in patrol zones. If there's ONE thing that I know for a fact that put people off from Lightfall (as in this year of Destiny), it's the difficulty changes. They're annoying, frustrating and for some a barrier to entry more than anything else.

[abyssembraced]

They awoke to the cold yet comforting surface of the bench, having been defeated in battle once more.

...

...Was it okay for them to dislike someone just because of who their friends are?

[millenianthemums]

i watched jacob geller’s video “Time Loop Nihilism” for the first time today. i love jacob geller but for some reason i skipped this video til now, and i’m so glad i finally found it, because weirdly it gave me some big inspiration for Bill Cipher characterization.

rambling under the cut

so, like, when a character’s trapped in a time loop for long enough, they stop seeing their actions as having any consequences, because they don’t have any lasting impact on the world. they start seeing the world they live in like a speedrunner sees the video game they’ve been running. they start seeing the people around them like neutral objects that make noises and do things but don’t really matter. they’re toys to play with. and you can break them as many times as you want, in as many ways as you want, and then they fix themselves and it’s like nothing happened.

but still, most time loop stories end with the loop breaking and the character just… moving on. returning to normal life. but how could someone ever do that, really? after all that time, all those things you did? even if no one else will ever know about it, YOU will. you will know that you are a person who did those things. that will never not be true again.

Bill wasn’t in a time loop, but he has been alive for one trillion years. one trillion years is a REALLY LONG TIME. like, our universe has existed for 13.8 billion years. a trillion is 1,000 billions. in a trillion years, Bill could have lived from the beginning of our universe to right now about 72 times. who knows how many universes he’s lived from the beginning to the end of? not even to start on the galaxies, the planets, the PEOPLE in his life. i’m genuinely not doing the math on how many people Bill might have known in his life because i will get nauseous.

Bill is like Ama from the Through The Flash short story, but on a totally different level. how could you possibly internalize the idea that hurting people matters at ALL when you’ve lived through eternity a million times and watched everything you’ve ever done disappear into the abyss of time over and over? a trillion years. he likes killing people and he hates getting bored. how many new, creative ways of torturing and murdering people do you think somebody like Bill could dream up in a TRILLION YEARS?

and then this AU is like, welcome back to survival mode buddy! things matter again now! none of that crazy stuff you got used to doing is gonna fly anymore! also this is your last chance. fuck this up, and you’re dead forever. have fun!

i imagine for a while he’s just dead set on finding some kind of loophole. he can’t accept the idea of going back to caring about things again. he wants creative mode back and he’d gonna find the cheat code, dammit.

but then he makes friends with Mabel. and now suddenly, whether he wants it to or not, something in his life really, REALLY matters. he cares about this kid. this human kid who’s gonna live like 65 more years tops. and now he has, by his standards, an infinitesimally short time period to get his shit together and become somebody who can actually be a genuine friend to another person, despite all the terrible stuff he did, in the show and in the incomprehensible eternity that came before it. how is he gonna do that?? i don’t know. i’m still figuring it out. it’ll be fun!!!

but yeah, i was struck, hearing the summary of Ama’s conversation with her neighbor. it just fit, in my mind, with everything i’ve been thinking about. no matter how much he changes, Bill will never again be somebody who didn’t do terrible things. whether or not the effects of those things exist outside him anymore, they weren’t free of consequence. he is still the person who killed and tortured and exterminated billions of sentient people, even when he’s laughing at Mabel’s silly jokes or being terrible at video games. all he can do is keep moving forward.

thanks so much if you read all of this. <3

[purplekoop]

So Subnautica 2 got its first trailer today, after already having some teasers and interviews reveal its existence and main new feature of co-op multiplayer, and of course my excitement is right back at its usual highs when thinking about one of my favorite games ever. My friends I've shared the first game with are already hyped for the eventual multiplayer sessions, one even taking it as a sign to play the original on the spot for the first time. But in this excitement I checked the comments on the trailer, and saw some comments that... baffled me. Obviously looking at youtube comments for just about any game is going to worsen your mental health, but beyond the murmurs bemoaning and making edgy comments about Below Zero were people that are excited for the game, and listing what they hope a new Subnautica could offer. Such as... improved combat? New "enemies" and "bosses"? in... Subnautica??

Now, to some people this is probably just petty word choice that just puts Subnautica in line with almost any other game where things can attack you and you can attack them back. But to me, it conveys a misunderstanding of what Subnautica is, and what makes it so so special as a game, beyond just its worldbuilding and survival mechanics, but with its environment, its tone, its heart as a game made with the intention of doing more than just meet expectations.

So, here's:

A Brief Piece on Subnautica, Online Culture, and What Makes a Game Special

(note: this post will be free of any spoilers for Subnautica 1 or Below Zero, but does contain brief references to real world violence.)

If you took any number of people with a shared favorite game, and asked them why it is, it'd be bafflingly improbable to find they all like it for the exact same reasons. Most mediums of art are like this, but video games especially lend themselves to a greater number of different factors for what makes them enjoyable for different people. Not only can games have audio, visual, and narrative components capable of replicating or outright containing other mediums, but there is the added layer of interactivity and the art of creating a feel of gameplay adds a unique and extremely subjective element to a game as an experience.

Take Sonic the Hedgehog, a series that has a remarkably enduring fanbase for a franchise often panned by outside critics for the gameplay of some entries. While many fans love the series exclusively for the satisfying high-speed flow of some of the games, what draws just as many fans (if not more) is the impeccable soundtracks, or the charming and well-designed characters, or the stories that define those characters, or even the potential for further stories with them that fans realize themselves. A Sonic fan who hasn't even played a single game themselves but still loves the characters, style, music, or whatever other element has just as much reason to be called a "Sonic Fan" as someone who's played every game but never once interacted with the more character and story-oriented side of the fanbase. This dissonance between gameplay-biased fans and fans who enjoy the non-gameplay aspects isn't hard to find, but even within a gameplay focus there's a countless array of potential reasons someone enjoys a game. Minecraft fans for instance consist of speedrunners, minigame server grinders, hardcore challenge runners, people who play on peaceful because they're scared of the monsters, friend groups who goof around on a server playing normal survival badly, absolute mad lads making particle colliders or supercomputers, and your little cousin who just likes building roller coasters. Every single one of these is a valid way to play the game and enjoy it. Even if the core survival mode is the "intended" way to play, it'd be odd to say any of these other options are any less valid.

So... what about Subnautica? More specifically: why my frustration then, if those who see Subnautica's mechanics as a game with enemies and bosses to fight ought to be just as "correct" under this perspective as any other way to perceive the game?

Well, by my own logic, I can't dispute the traditional "fight enemies to win video game" approach as an objectively incorrect way to play the game. If you have Subnautica by whatever means, then you can certainly use the limited tools it offers you to kill any hazardous or non-hazardous creatures you deem fit. You could possibly even use the mods I presume exist that expand the arsenal of conventional weapons you have access to. You're taking an interactive medium and interacting with it how you personally deem fit, in a way that doesn't harm anyone else in any remotely realistic capacity. I can't stop you, or call you an objectively bad person, or even rightly think that much lesser than you.

I can still disagree though, and I'd like to elaborate on why.

Subnautica's lack of conventional weapons or general emphasis on combat is a very deliberate design choice with a very specific point of origin. According to the original game's director Charlie Cleveland, the game was first conceptualized around the time of the Sandy Hook shooting. While recognizing games aren't responsible for these real world atrocities, the idea of making another game that encouraged violent solutions and gun usage wasn't exactly appealing. Instead, Subnautica was made to be a game that encouraged other ways to solve problems. Even the worldbuilding within the game reflects this, as the PDA reveals a terrible massacare led to the banning of fabricating any weapons other than the bare essential survival knife.

This has been the one piece of developer insight on any game that's stuck with me the more than any other. Not to say that I think we should not make games with any kind of guns anymore, that'd be both fruitless and short-sighted. But it's hard for me now to see the world we live in and wonder how we choose to reflect it in the works we create.

For the unfamiliar, I have a few hopeful game projects of my own, one of which is a team-based shooter with the working title "War Bots". It exists as both a love letter to a subgenre I've sunk plenty of hours into enjoying, with the hope to expand and improve on the ideas they present. The violence is intended to be "cartoony", or at least disconnected from realistic violence due to its playable cast being robots and its enemies being hostile plant monsters. Most of their weapons are unrealistically fantastical in some form or function. The overarching story, as pathetically ironic as it may be to try and say, is meant to be a tale warning against mindless violence and mistrust, and that we can only survive by working together to not repeat the mistakes of our past.

I use the tag "war bots" to note my posts showcasing my art and writing about the project. Also using the tag is an entirely unrelated account... using it to discuss developments in drone warfare in the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. I can't say it feels great knowing I'm sharing terminology and concepts with very real atrocities committed daily on real, innocent people, and using them to talk about a video game I want to make. It doesn't feel right to scrap the project after this much effort, but I don't know how much retroactively applying themes and a story will change the fact that it's. A shooter.

Maybe a bit dramatic, but all that is to say I very thoroughly respect and appreciate Subnautica's active design against violence as an intended solution. Beyond the external reasoning and in-universe backstory, the game also has a very palpable friction against using the tools of violence it does offer you. If you do decide to kill a creature much bigger than a Peeper, which is a tedious process that gets exponentially worse with large creatures, then all you're left with is a corpse. No meat, no materials, even if it's something like a Stalker that has some other means of reaping resources from it. It doesn't poof into a convenient cloud of dust, or dissolve into darkness that gives the deed an excuse as part of a grand war of objective "good" and "evil". It simply remains a limp, static body slowly floating down as a reminder of something that did not need to be done, and brought nothing of value from being done anyways. You could scan it more easily than ever, since it can't run away or fight back. What a reward, huh?

So then... why? If nothing is gained, then why is violence still such a popular and desired approach to play the game? And why does it only seem capable of escalating, with it becoming a contest to see what's the biggest creature you can take down, even if the process is just using a Stasis Rifle to stun it indefinitely while you hack away at it with a pocket knife, a grueling tedium that can't possibly bring any joy? Why did those comments reduce this game's unique approach to dealing with innocent animals to simply be a matter of "enemies" and "combat" in the same way that thousands of other games already offer? When the game down to its very heart and soul wants you to get by in any other way, why is there such a pull to take the path of most resistance anyways?

Well, I think one reason is kind of a natural trajectory that comes out of games as a medium, especially those that interact so heavily with online culture, to pressure players into exhausting every possibility a game can provide and then pushing them further. It feels presumptuous to call it "just human nature", as I think the drive to play games as exhaustively as possible doesn't seem to be a universal experience. Instead, I think it's more often prompted by circumstance. An obvious instance is that someone who doesn't play many different games (either by limitations or by choice) and thus would naturally try to get everything possible out of each one. But I think a more common example, especially for a game with a specific history like Subnautica's, is that it comes as a result of online culture. I recall at the end of playthroughs by the big youtubers that skyrocketed the game's popularity, like Markiplier or Jacksepticeye, one of the last things they did before ending their series was to take down the biggest Leviathans they could. Because after all, they did everything else, right? They reached the ending, had plenty of laughs and screams along the way, what's left to do that's worth doing? But viewers liked the video series, why end it if there's anything left to keep it going? And this isn't to say a big youtuber was the first to try and kill a leviathan, it was probably someone who wanted to got bored and/or wanted something to brag about on a subreddit or steam forum. And then with that community aspect, the cycle perpetuates: "if someone else did it, am I really done with the game until I do it too? Am I too much of a coward for not wanting to sink my time into this like other people already have?". And then after the greatest obstacle has been cleared with tedium but relative ease, the pursuit then becomes to go further. Bigger, badder monsters. better weapons. More rules to make it harder. More challenge. More bragging rights. More because More is all there is left to do.

And then so what we're left with is not only the modding scene of the game being so heavily biased towards these sorts of hyper-aggressive additions, but now the desires of many fans for the actual next game are simply just "More To Kill". Not because it's interesting in of itself, but because that's the expectation.

But is it wrong then for people to want this? Well, no, for reasons I already outlined. But I think it is tone deaf to the artistic intent behind the game, and also to what I think makes the game special.

To me, what makes Subnautica such a special game is how beautifully it surrounds you in a believable world that feels both so warmly familiar and yet so alien, without trying to push into an uncanny valley. The flora and fauna of this world look and move so organically similar to life in our own oceans, yet look distinct in a way that feels oddly more charming than offputting in most cases. I think there is some personal bias though, as I could only sleep most nights as a kid with Finding Nemo on my little bedroom TV, and as a result fell in love with marine life and the lovingly rendered ocean environments that Subnautica captures the feeling of so wonderfully. The way the light dances on the sandy sea floors, the vibrant fish and coral. And looking up from this ocean to see a window of light: which in the game is your guiding target as a lifeline to air in your most dire moments, but was just as much a sign of comfort in hardship and the endurance in life in the film. The very nature of light ties the game into some of my fondest memories in such a profound way.

Of course, for as many people who like me are endeared by the ocean environments the game lovingly recreates, just as many are deeply terrified of the endless, unknowable abyss of the ocean, let alone one with even more deliberately horrifying creatures. I think that sort of dichotomy between comfort and fear is something so unique about Subnautica in particular, where its genre is up for debate as a cozy and uniquely nostalgic survival game or a gut-turning horror game just based on your perspective.

I do think Subnautica's breadth of optional mechanics, while technically being what enables turning its creatures into mere "enemies", are another part of what cements it as one of my favorite games ever. The base building mechanics are so needlessly, gloriously in-depth, to where the inevitable bulk of any playthrough for me is working towards creating a comprehensive mega-aquarium of every species I can put in a tank or growbed. There's also the variety of tools that aren't useful enough to keep your precious inventory space open for at all times, but are so fun to play around with needlessly. Not to be a hypocrite, but it's so funny to breed Crashfish and then use the propulsion cannon on them to make an extremely inefficient rocket launcher that takes too much space to reasonably do any useful damage. Alternatively, you could accidentally hit a big angry fish with your car 47 times to where it's so pissed off it dies by its own fault. Highlight of my streaming career. Regardless, the expansive variety of ways the game lets you interact with it is endlessly endearing, both in spite of and because of the fact you're not required to utilize most of them.

But I think one more big reason Subnautica is special is because it defies a conventional game structure of seeing every living thing that opposes you as an "enemy" that's most efficiently dealt with by getting rid of it. Subnautica hopes you see its world as alive, filled with creatures living their lives in the same way you are. Some of them are meant to be food, for you and for other creatures, but that's part of life too. Every simulated ray of light, bed of sand, patch of coral, and motion of creature is delicately crafted to make this planet feel as believable as possible while still making a satisfying play experience. And by doing so, with just these subtle details, the game offers a question of how do you see this planet, and burdens you to consider the consequences of your presence.

I could absolutely go on further about Subnautica, going more broadly into just what I like about it, but I wanted to keep things ""brief"" just to focus on this more specific topic. I might have lost some nuance or couldn't quite elaborate on every little detail, but I didn't want to leave this tumblr post in production for too long. I was tempted to make an extensive Undertale comparison, as another chronically misunderstood game with the appeal of "these aren't just enemies" that gets boiled down by edgy teenage boys to "how much can I stroke my ego by styling and fixating on the hardest arbitrary challenges it can offer" while completely ignoring any kind of nuance or themes aside from maybe digging into Lore (tm) for the sake of Lore (tm), but it felt like too much of a tangent distracting from the actual subject. I do have a more specific post about Undertale/Deltarune's community and poorly aimed focus that I need to rewrite at some point, but that's for another time.

If you read this far, thank you so much for your time, and hopefully you got something out of my rambling here. I don't often do these long "essay" style posts unless I'm particularly inspired, and hoo boy were those trailer comments inspiring. But this took a bit to write out, so hopefully it was coherent enough to read.

All that said though SUBNAUTICA 2 WOOOOOOOO

[oceandiagonale]

Volo here got a speedrun record of getting into a meanful relationship AND breakup, bro just went for it

Meanwhile Guzma over here is stuck in a 500k slowburn fic like a true soldier

PFFFTTTTTT

volo, speedrunner: and if we stand in this spot at JUST the right time and we have the right Secret ID and world seed -- this is why we did the RNG manipulation at the start of the game -- you can clip out of bounds and go directly to the end credits. It's all really quite simple, I got it on my first try, though I did have an advantage in that I was familiar with most of the controls from the prequel series --

guzma, completionist: so we're almost done with collecting every recipe -- we just gotta remake a couple of 'em with different toppings and we're missing some of the desserts that're locked behind other events and the skilltree. Now we've been grinding up for skill points, but we're actually gonna put these towards upgrading our dash ability and mitigating effects of low sleep, it's gonna really matter in the next -- chat, I already TOLD ya the romance skill tree's locked for a couple more plot points -- no, I'm not gonna use a speedrun strat to activate it before the cutscene!! -- chat, this isn't rigged, it's -- you're here at an 100% stream, you're gonna have t'wait -- all right, knuckleheads, I'll unlock the screaming sound for 2 minutes if ya wanna waste all your channel points on it, but I'm gonna keep makin' mac n cheese while you're doing that -- IT'S NOT RIGGED!

[noellevanious]

neon white hating below the cut (dont worry thisll be my last post about the game)

blown away by how Subpar and Ok this game is. Gameplay loop is sooooo basic and Just Alright. ive played TF2 custom rocket jump/surf maps that have more depth and challenge than anything in Neon White so far. I would keep playing for the story but oh my god i can not be forced to care about these characters theyre so bland and lifeless. It genuinely feels like the most cookie cutter set of characters ever.

Like Woah I'm brooding antisocial Emo Cute coolguy in a trenchcoat? and i'm a former assassin dude?!?! And Hubba Hubba those two Babes.... ones a bit crazy.... you might call her "Yandere" If you're totally Anime-pilled like me XD but the other is also aloof and wow..... shes so tall and slender and also legs!!! she's more of a """Tsundere""" type.... and can't forget about my Cool Abrasive Bro we're always goofing around sayin g and doing crazy sh#t!!! But we totally hate our parents or teachers- I mean. The Angels. And WOAH there are cats in heaven and they're all wacky!?!?

It's like man. I could just watch Persona 4 All Cutscenes on youtube while playing Source game surf maps and get more depth and creativity than I got in the past ~hour of playing this game. THe only semi-redeeming part is the style that is honestly kinda cool. But it's riding a thin line between genuinely creative/charming and "What if Anime Lo-Fi Girl Beats to Study To or TOTAL JUNGLE PLAYSTATION VIDEOGAME MUSIC by XxShinDeath22xX was a an entire videogame's OST"

I'm really only going on this rant because I feel like people would not stop singing the praises of it back when it released so i'm in awe at how like. 5/10 on a good day the game is. Bland generic writing, an okay gameplay loop that amounts to a Gamer's First FPS speedrunner experience, and weird visual novel bits that make me want to shove the devs in a locker for how fuckin otaku-level bad they are

[isa-ah]

what are your top reasons for hating totk? i havent actually played yet but i like listening to you talk and love being a hater so 👀 whats those opinions

oh my god okay i tried to do a cliffnotes of this like 10 times and it got so long and ugly every time let me just show u some of my favorite totk breakdowns:

and for good measure here is ZELTIKS review, which, in the wise words of skitty bitty, "you have to really fuck up to disappoint the professional nintendo fanboys" (thats his face when they say it LOL):

what i need you to understand is that i was HUGELY active in the zeldatube sphere while botw was a hot topic. the amount of fan theory videos about literally every aspect of the game was a never ending gush of inspiration, every day, for years and years and years. it never slowed down. monster maze, nintendo black crisis, masked nintendo bandit, zeltik- videos CONSTANTLY surfacing about new ideas and details theyd come to appreciate and speculate on.

when the first totk trailer dropped we ALL lost our minds. especially because the zonai had gone from a niche mention to center stage, from center stage to meme, and from meme back around to being talked about in earnest. when the trailer showed ZONAI ARCHITECTURE i cannot EXPLAIN how exciting that was. the videos were coming out right up until launch day, tripping over each other to be seen.

so how the fuck did tears of the kingdom go SO BADLY despite having zonai as the CENTERPIECE OF THE GAME that i have seen next to NO fan theories, speculation or deep dives into it? at all? in the YEAR since it released, the ONLY tears of the kingdom content ive seen are meme builds or disappointed retrospectives like the above. all of the botw content came to a screeching hault and nothing has cropped up to fill that void since. its been crickets. even the speedrunners like linkus that i follow are hard pressed to want to play the game because the opening segment is SUCH a slog.

this game was SO BAD it stopped the entire zeldasphere i was in on youtube. the only things ive seen since are some tentative excitement towards echoes of wisdom, and even those have come with severely tamed expectations. thats it. it fucking sucks

[transparencyboo]

Got myself an 8bitDo Retro Receiver for the Playstation which makes it possible to connect a wide range of different bluetooth controllers to the good ol' friend. I thought it would be great to use a 20th anniversary Dual Shock 4 for the occasion as it matches perfectly. They're sadly not available anymore, but I was lucky to get a hold of one good as new second hand.

The Dual Shock 4 is also my favourite Playstation controller ever made, as it has the perfect weight, shape and grip in my opinion. Kiki prefers the Dual Sense because of its heft, but I am personally not as strong as her, which make it less optimal for my baby hands.

Initially the Retro Receiver sadly had problems that caused the Memcard Pro from 8BitMods to not work properly. If you ask me the Memcard is essential if you have an Xstation, PSIO or just play a lot of PS1 games, so having it malfunction together with the new Retro Receiver made it practically useless. Feels like 8bitDo might have rushed this one a little bit, but luckily the issue has been fixed with a recent firmware update.

Anyway, with that issue out of the way, I have finally been able to sit down and play a variety of different games with the Retro Receiver. Among the ones I tried out tonight were classics such as Final Doom, Spyro the Dragon, Ridge Racer, Crash Bandicoot, Cosmic Race and Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. And so far I am very happy with the little bastard.

It feels very responsive, and I couldn't really notice any delay on the button presses. I am sure a silly ass speedrunner could pin-point the exact amount of frame lag buffer on the Retro Receiver, but as a more average player I doubt you would ever notice. I swept through the first level of Crash Bandicoot flawlessly with a clear gem in my hand by the end on my first try, so I'd say the thing works pretty well. It helps that the Dual Shock 4 is so gosh darn sexy though.

All in all I have now transformed this meager old Playstation into a veritable battle station of 32 bit goodness. It now has memory cards for days and wireless controllers up the wazoo. The Retro Receiver gets 8 wobbly textures out of 10.

/Alicia

[autolenaphilia]

Tomb Raider I-III Remastered starring Lara Croft is so good. This is how a video game remaster should be done. I’m very biased of course, as a fan of Tomb Raider and the classic Core Design games especially. But this very much is a remaster aimed at fans like me, you can tell. This remaster collection is what I’ve wanted for years at this point. The game has the overly helpful subtitle “Starring Lara Croft”, and I’m like damn right, this is a “return of the queen” moment for me, the return of classic Core Design Lara after over 20 years of neglect.

And I don’t even know how much sense this post will make to non-fans. I suppose everyone knows what a Tomb Raider is and who Lara Croft is, and the easiest way to explain is that this is a remastered edition of the first three games in the franchise, released annually from 1996 to 1998. It’s made by Aspyr, whose history with the franchise goes all the way back to making macintosh ports of these games back in the 90s.

And this truly is a complete collection of TR I-III, in that it doesn’t just include the base games, but the expansions each game received: Unfinished Business, The Golden Mask and The Lost Artifact. The first two were sold together with the original games as bonus levels for the Gold re-releases of the games, while the third got a separate release.The base games have been sold on GOG for many years (and also Steam, but the GOG versions run better), but the expansions have been abandonware for decades at this point. It was a pity, because the expansions were excellent and showed how cool expansions packs for games used to be (especially compared to the dlc of today) That these remasters finally allow them to shine once more is justification in itself.

Overall, this is a very “preservationist” remaster. You get modern graphics and modern controls, but these are just additions laid on top of the original games, which are mostly unchanged. In fact the original code and engine was actually used. And you can tell, because useful bugs for both casual players and speedrunners like the corner bug are actually preserved in the remaster, you can even get a steam achievement for using it. You can compare this to how Nightdive studios remasters old games, where their favored method is porting the game to their own Kex engine.

And for those who want to recreate the originals, it’s easy to do. The original tank controls is the default control scheme and you can toggle between modern and tank controls in the options menu. And you can at any time switch between new and original graphics literally with the press of a button. The majority of what I wrote about the original games way back in 2021 on this blog still apply (You can find my reviews for the original TR 1- 3, here, here and here).)

Yet as someone who has played the original games to completion so many times, I actually played all three games in the remaster with the modern graphics and the modern control scheme, and that’s because I preferred it that way. In fact I might find it hard to go back to the originals. I mostly toggled to the old graphics out of curiosity, to compare the textures.

The new graphics go for a cartoony non-realistic aesthetic which works really well and feels true to the original graphics, for even if they aimed for realism, the limitations of the time made them into 3d cartoons. And the graphics don’t try to go too HD and hide the inherent blocky squareness of the game world, which is such an important part of the look and feel of these games and the gameplay as well. The real point of the new graphics is to make the game look better on modern high-resolution monitors, in a way that feels true to the original games and it ably succeeds at that. And of course the new graphics are easily switched off if you don’t like them. But I did. The original graphics retain their charm, but they undeniably look very grainy and low-res at any modern display resolution, and the new graphics retain much of that charm due to their warm cartoonish style, while looking crisp.

I was skeptical about the other big addition, “modern controls.” It’s modeled off the control scheme in the 2006-08 LAU trilogy, and it’s, well, modern. Lara moves relative to the camera, moves instantly in the direction your input indicates, without left and right making her turn, etc.

I feared the modern controls because the classic controls were closely tied to the grid-based environment, and modern controls would loose that, ironically making the game harder. And my initial experiments with modern controls, trying to figure them out blindly, seemed to confirm that fear. Basic movies like the hop-back to set up a jump or safety drop off a ledge seemed absent. Yet that was only because I didn’t understand them. This was not entirely my fault, for the remasters don’t explain them at all, and that’s my main complaint with this remaster. Even the options menu to remap the controls is misleading, since it doesn’t clearly explain you have two action buttons now (in itself a sensible change). It simply calls one new button “secondary”, without explaining it’s “secondary action.”

There is no PDF manual included with the games, which we really needed. This page on Aspyr’s official site kinda is the closest to it we get, but it should have been included when you buy the game on gog or steam. And some fans explain it better, like this steam guide. There are also videos that helped me get my head around the new control scheme.

But once you do figure them out, modern controls are actually good. They are very fluid, without being too imprecise. They still give the player the option to move carefully, holding walk still means you will not walk off a ledge, and you can actually still safety hang off a ledge (just hold secondary action and walk off the edge, and Lara will hang from it, Angel of Darkness style). All the moves from the original tank controls you need are there, just in a different form. Just faster and more fluid. It’s not surprise that glitchless speedruns of the remasters all tend to use modern controls (while glitched runs use tank controls because it enables them to do the established set-ups for glitches, which as mentioned have been left in).

Other than these major but optional improvements, the changes are minimal. It's stuff like icons appearing when you are close to interactable objects, and boss health bars.

I noticed some changes in Tomb Raider III in an effort to ease some of the frustration of that game. You do actually get your ammo and medpacks back after being captured in Nevada this time, fixing a long-standing problem that I explained in my original review. Also the tribesmen’s blowguns are no longer hitscan, but have visible and thus potentially dodge-able projectiles. Otherwise the game is as frustrating (and shockingly racist) as ever. I do love it despite its flaws.

The other major change is that Unfinished Business expansion levels are re-ordered, so now the two Atlantis levels comes before the Egypt section. This is actually following the intention of the original developers and the intended storyline of these levels, so it’s an act of restoration of developer’s intentions compared to the original release of the expansion, instead of Aspyr imposing its own vision. And the levels do make more sense this way, the Atlantis levels are obviously meant to a direct continuation of the ending of TR 1, starting Lara off on the same slide she ended TR 1 on.

This remaster overall is a faithful act of artistic restoration. It’s a love letter to these games, made by people who love them and don’t want them changed too much. It’s truly a remaster for the fans, by the fans. Quite literally, developers were recruited by Aspyr from the fan community. And as an established Tomb Raider fangirl, I was quite pleased with the remasters. I don’t know how good it will be at bringing in new fans, but I’m very happy with it. Go buy it now, so maybe we’ll at least get Tomb Raider IV-V Remastered.

[mysteriousbp]

I find Glyde being the first of Frisk's deaths both interesting and "yeah, that make sense" at the same time. Shayy (an Undertale speedrunner that holds many world records) says that Glyde is the hardest normal enemy. Hearing that from a speedrunner suddenly made me feel less bad about losing over and over to them lol

Fun fact! On the OST vinyl cover, it shows that Glyde has rainbow wings

I didn't know that Glyde had rainbow wings. In his concept art, Glyde is just black and white. (Fun fact. Glyde is one of two fightable characters made by people who donated 500 dollars to the Undertale Kickstarter. The other being Muffet. I can only say that one of these donators got more lucky with their character than the other.)

Anyway. Glyde isn't a normal enemy. Apparently, they are a miniboss according to the wiki.

And let me tell you something about Undertale. In the game, you can check the enemy's attack and defense. But they are not the same in the code. Toriel, if you check her, she has 80 attack but in the code, she has 6 attack.

Why is this important? ... BECAUSR GLYDE HAS FREAKING 9 ATTACK IN THE CODE!

For context Toriel has 6. Papyrus has 8 but he can't kill you. Normal Undyne has 7. And Mettaton EX has 8. Glyde has more attack than the last boss before Asgore (in neutral and pacifist).

And you can only fight Glyde before Papyrus!

And your best armor at that point is Manly Bandanna with 7 def. Meanwhile, you fight Mettaton EX, who has 8 attack with the Stained Apron with 11 def or Cowboy Hat with 12 def.

Glyde is hard because he feels like a late game miniboss that was put in the beginning.

[stitchwraith-stingers]

📂 gimme ur most random fop hcs

trixie has the more bizzare family lineup (got adopted, but then her dad divorced and got remarried so those tad and chad are technically her step brothers) and is very less strategic at video games, but likes trying to glitch them and was secretly the one who usually started rumors under the truck style

Chloe would carefully think of stradigies, probably not speedrunner or competitive gamer levels of extreme but she does kinda take it seriously, compared to complete button mashing, and would unironically get upset if she can't 100% a game through legitimate means, also arvid player of those shitty mobile games you get ads on

Jasmine would play through the first 15 minutes but then either close it mindlessly and forget or go to the kitchen and make cereal (she forgets it In the microwave and spends half of the day trying to find it) and circle around do a few more things before 10 hours have passed and she realizes oh shit I had this game on the whole day, so she has to have guests over so they keep reminding her that she has something to finish, yes the electricity bill would be a nightmare, the only game that could keep her attention high is plants vs zombies

winn owns aton of bootlegs (and other trinkets) and if they don't like you they will try and find a way to make it like, scary, they can't code or anything they will just like glitch it enough that you cant play it at all, also owns a giant arcade cabinet in their room with that one alien game that you shoot, the game loads so slowly you can fry an egg on it

[blasphemyisjustforyou]

So, since i dont do a lot with my time right now besides play games I acquired through various means and use tumblr, I think it'd be fun to start using that time for something at least somewhat decent. Mutuals and followers, I introduce to you

The defininitve guide to Zelda:tm:

A list of Zelda games I've played, my opinions on them, and their rank against each other (or against the number one slot).

Starting this off strong, we have The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask for N64 and Gamecube. Arguably the best of the original 3D Zelda games, and a fairly short title as far as the 3D titles go, Majoras mask easily hits a 9.5/10. Its almost perfect. The graphics are lacking by modern standards but it makes up for it by having an interesting story, a fucking stellar mechanic that sets it apart from literally every other game in the series, and a weird level of complexity that you wouldn't necessarily need.

The general premise of the game: You are (The Hero Of Time), following the events of Ocarina Of Time. You are riding through a forest with said Ocarina, and you end up getting beaten up, robbed, and turned into a fucking creacher by some guy who just got back from a masquerade party. On top of that, upon following him through a fucking portal to a literal alternate universe (Because apparently those exist now) you find out that he is basically god and you have to stop him from killing everyone in the new universe.

Now you might be thinking "But Maeve, why is this any different than any of the other Zelda titles where (The Hero) goes and saves the world from someone trying to kill everyone?" and the answer is: It kinda isnt, unless you are story oriented. The main antagonist isn't Ganondorf, which isn't too strange, but he's also not like, inherently malicious. Spoilers ahead, don't read if you dont wanna know about the game.

<spoiler>The antagonist is a Deku Child, one who has been abandoned by his friends. The mask in question is just a plain evil mask that alters the Deku Child's personality, turning him into a monsterous evil creature. Sorta. Anyways, the big point is that the actual antagonist is just a mask, not the silly little guy wearing the mask.</spoiler>

Following that, the three day mechanic is the most important part of the game. Each game has a 3 day cycle. You start the game on day one, with 72 hours (Just under 1 real life hour) to complete the main objective of the game. Which, surprisingly, isn't actually entirely impossible. Speedrunners actually have the game down to 1h12m without major glitches, and just 15 minutes with major glitches for an any%. Of course, 100% glitchless runs take about 6 hours at their fastest, so you are in for a few hours worth of gameplay on your first run. Now, to beat the game you need 4 boss remains, and thats it. There's optional upgrades like 2 sword upgrades (technically 3), a mask that doubles your damage, magic bar upgrades, and obviously weapons, but realistically you can just Do The Bosses And Fuck Off. The mask that doubles your damage is actually the most difficult to get, as it requires you collect Every Other Mask In The Game, but the swords are easy to get since they're basically handed to you from the 3rd dungeon's city, and all you have to do is wait 2 in game days (after you pay the rupees for the first upgrade and give some gold dust for the second one.

Now you might have read That Fucking Paragraph and wondered "Maeve, why do you enjoy a game that not only sounds kinda complicated but also takes up so much time inherently?" and the answer is: Its just solid all around. The game itself is actually fairly easy, but it has its challenges. The time limit for each cycle means you have to be careful as you progress. If you start a dungeon on day 3 and you don't finish it before midnight, you have to start it over. Its a neat game that presents a unique challenge. Every other game is is so linear, but this game has you backtracking all the time if you wanna truly finish it.

I'm super sorry this is running long, but this is the first entry in the series. I still have to write up OoT, TwiPri, and Windwaker (once I finish TwiPri and Windwaker)

[niadevbutreal]

[ULTRAKILL ACT 3 SPOILERS]

Bug PSAs:

In 7-2, while you're sending the payload, LET IT EXPLODE BEFORE you fight the Gutterman and Guttertank - if you die, the bomb's timer will keep ticking down and explode on respawn, softlocking you and forcing you to restart he entire level. I still haven't found a way to respawn the nuke. I haven't tested if dying after the explosion occurs causes it to softlock but that's down to not dying to the Gutters.

In 7-1, if you're trying to P rank the level, let the Minotaur get to the end of the corridor where you first see it before triggering the next room - if it's in the wrong spot, a Maurice will fail to spawn and probably make it impossible to get P rank. I have not tested this yet though as I have not yet actually managed a P rank (I've come super close though) - UPDATE: This is actually probably fine, since I have been informed that you get the trampled style bonus from when this happens, which means that the Maurice does spawn, it just instadies, so this is actually probably a timesave. Might not be intentional but idk. UPDATE 2: P ranked this level yesterday doing this, so yeah P rank is unaffected.

This isn't for any level in particular, but Mannequins on stairs can freak out and just stop, which can cause them to be hard to spot and cost time for when you're P ranking 7-1. This is probably similar to when Streetcleaners get caught on that certain set of stairs in the Cybergrind.

In 7-2, the roof above the red pedestal has no collision. You can jump up and into it to skip the red skull and get past some of the hook puzzles. This isn't the intended break for the Challenge, though, it's just faster than getting Guttertank to explode the top of the red skull cage. Speedrunners will probably like this one in Any rank categories. UPDATE: I should clarify that the skip is possible by going to the end of the first 'path', then going right and then down to the path below and attempting to jump across the gap. There are probably ways to skip even the quadruple whiplash trigger jump puzzle but given this will probably be patched since this is a map geometry bug rather than an exotic clipping bug like every other preserved speedrun clip bug that the game deliberately keeps, I don't know how worth it is to investigate. UPDATE 2: Got fixed in 14b

Not run into any bugs in 7-3 or 7-4 though, so that's neat.

Obviously, bugs are to be expected in any brand new level, and especially ones of this scope and scale, so the fact these are the only noticeable ones on levels otherwise this high quality and with so many brand new mechanics is pretty impressive.

[void-sand-cat]

Assuming that Michael is the player for Fnaf 1/2/3/5/6 (I have no idea what's going on w/4), I doubt there is any way that the spirits (including afton kids & William here btw) knew who they were trying kill was.

So, the animatronics are old and kinda crappy right? So the missing kids wouldn't have the best vision, and (if I recall correctly) Michael looks a lot like William. Plus, we know they attacked anyone with a security uniform (rip phone guy), so they definitely didn't know. I subscribe to the headcanon that they were affected by possible murder machine programming in the animatronics from William, increasing the likelihood that they had 0 idea what they were doing, but I don't know any proof for this, so disregard it, this theory doesn't need it.

Aftons are tricker. Based on how Elizabeth talks about William, I don't think her or CC knew about how fucked up William was.

Next CC. First off, "It's me." Which works if you think he knows Michael is Michael, but it works just as well if CC thinks Michael is William. Again, I have my doubts he knew how messed up William was, but he definitely knew how much Michael was - at least Michael as Foxy bro. I do believe CC said, "It's me" with no ill intent. Whether or not it was meant for Michael depends on how forgiving you think CC is. Irregardless of how forgiving CC is, he is still affected by bad robot eyes and falls into the same hole as the missing kids.

Before moving on to William, I want to touch on Michael. I don't think he knows that Elizabeth, CC, & the missing kids think he's William. From what I understand of SL, Elizabeth does talk like she knows the player. As mentioned above, SL is not a game I have learned a lot about, nor have I learned about Eilzabeth. I said I didn't think "It's me" was said with anger/hatred, but I do believe Michael interpreted it that way. He had been fending off murderous animatronics all night, and another one just showed up in his office. What else is he gonna think? I don't know if Michael knew that CC was haunting the Golden Freddy costume, but if he did, why would he think his brother would forgive the person who killed him? As for the missing kids, he knew they were attacking security guards (at least after a point), I doubt he thought they knew how he was.

I wanted to touch on Michael before William because this is a special case. I still doubt that William knew the security guard was Michael. His eyes have to be total crap, and (if I recall correctly) he can talk, so why wouldn't he talk to his son? Why would he be trying to kill him? Instead of trying to control him, find out what's happened since he was gone, etc. That's the same. However, I think Michael knows William doesn't know who he is. And wants it like that. Michael likely figured out that William is treating him as a rando. It's not hard to put together, but why wouldn't Michael say anything? Counterpoint, WHY THE FUCK WOULD HE? He knows what William has done, and he's there to burn everything down with William inside.

I am technically in my 2nd fnaf phase, but I've only really ever seen gameplay of SB & Ruin, and that's from speedrunners. I got this far bc of game theory binge watching. Fnaf 4s lore is too confusing for me to touch, I think it doesn't matter, maybe as motivation? Eh, no idea. 6 is more of the same, up till Henry's speech everyone assumes Mike's (oh fuck. Mike has a nickname. I'm a dumbass, forgive me) some rando, Henry speech alerts them their wrong, but they burn before figuring it out.

Edit: According to AO3 tags, I misspelled Mike's name. Guess I should fix that quickly. (I can't fix the misspelling in the tags here, though.) I also fixed a mistake with Elizabeth's name at one point. Elizabeth was a typo, I have no idea how I ended up spelling Mike's name wrong. (I'm American seriously, how did I do that?)

[queenlua]

I've been thinking about picking up FF13, the way people talk about combat system intrigues me (I've never really liked standard final fantasy combat) and I love for a story to have a female lead... if the writing does a good enough job? I've heard a couple vague compelling things about Lightning as a protagonist but I've never known how much credence to give any of it. My hope, spun up from what I've heard, is that she's kind of a bitch (laudatory) without the writing being too... aggressively gendery about her being a woman, if that makes sense. Any information/perspective you care to share would be helpful 🙏

(and I don't care very much about spoilers-- sometimes spoilers end up being crucial for making me interested enough in a piece of media to actually try it!)

ohhh interesting yeah so re: ff13:

Lightning's arc didn't feel particularly gendered to me, surprisingly! overall i'd say her arc gave me vibes of Stressed-Out High-Performing Twentysomething Who Opts To Work Really Hard Instead Of Dealing With Feelings. which is, like, how i spent some chunk of my 20s, so, perfectly relatable on that front, and also a thing i've seen high-performing twentysomethings of p much every gender do at some point haha

for me her most compelling arc was the one she has with Hope, which is a kind of mentor-y arc—you sort of see her transition from "i'm barking orders and bossing this kid around because I Know Best," into, uhhh "oh fucking shit this kid is listening to me, they think i have Authority, how did that happen fuck fuck fuck i'm freakin out a little." you can read a decent amount of gender into that if you want to, right, mentor-liness is somewhat femme-coded—but not exclusively so; this arc also felt compelling to me in that i could kinda see that dynamic happening between a lot of different types of 20something-teenagerish pairs.

the writing has other weaknesses—ones you've probably heard already. the game seems to expect you to either Read A Bunch Of Tiny Print In Menus, or else Just Be Kind Of Confused For The First Few Hours, and i'm impatient so i opted to Just Be Kind Of Confused. weirdly, once you hit the 10-hour mark, the story tightens up hugely and everything's very coherent. and it's not like you're totally clueless before then. but it's just... yeah, it starts out a little wobby for non-Gender reasons

my big rec re: gameplay: would be, maybe watch a video of some speedrunners playing this video game first? just 15min-1hr should be plenty—watching speedrunners which got me interested in giving this game a second chance. the combat system is SO cool, but it's possible to do everything slowly/tediously/boringly, which will NOT feel satisfying, and unfortunately the difficulty isn't high enough to FORCE you to try interesting stuff early on. whereas, if you're trying to do Speedrunner Bullshit (try and finish combat AS FAST AS POSSIBLE, a few tricks you'll see them do), you will have an amazing time out of the gate. like i literally think those speedrunners TAUGHT me how to play the game "properly," and sure i wasn't LITERALLY speedrunning but i was focusing on gogogo in a way that felt really visceral and satisfying when i played.

i typed up some other scattered thoughts over here, ages ago

hope that all helps! & lemme know if you give it a shot, for good or for ill~