#now i know ubisoft did too

[collinnmckinley]

So Siege's new operator gadget has been teased, and by looking at it's is just- *sigh*

This comment put it right tho;

At this point, it might as well be a fucking bulldozer truck cause man idk how long this shit is gonna be going for.. like come on... how many operators do you think you can pump out? It's getting boring, repetitive, and quite tiring tbh.

Powercreep is really taking over this game but in reverse cause the old operators are so much more viable than the new ones, and they're barely being used in games. And not to mention that, its just confusing af for any players (not just new players) to choose what to play in a game, so at the end they end up choosing one of the og operators, which are more useful and still viable in any scenario. New ones? End up not being played as much. And if their gadget is weak? They get reworked. I mean look at Grim, poor bastard didnt even get full year of being useful until his rework was announced.

Let the game die and move on to its next instalment, please...

[devotedlystrangewizard]

ac rogue is so perfectly everything i would want from a franchise like assassins creed and it SUCKS because to play it i need to swallow my pride and download the ubisoft launcher and its horrible

[300iqprower]

Wait Assassin's Creed Valhalla has single player microtransactions????

Every thing i learn about that shitheap has me more and more confused at how not only do so many people talk so lovingly about it, but it also was nominated for so many fcking awards.

Genuinely, what the fuck could you possibly see in it

[teecupangel]

Ok so I have had an idea. This is a bit of reference to the ratatouille au continuation of Desmond being able to hear us in the animus servers. So picture this, after a while of us talking to Desmond checking up on him and the others. Someone the group chat somehow makes a mod that gives the players (us) avatars to pilot in the servers for a short amount of time, but instead of the bodies being human they're just random animals from mise to crows to hawks and eagles. So here kinda how I think this would go. So all the ancestors are asleep or resting in the servers, meanwhile the person who made the mod adds it into the server and there's a bit of commotion as the person tells everyone else, and so the players get to work making the avatars. Then morning comes around, Desmond and the others wake up and see this excessive about of rodents just gathered around everyone. After a moment of panic and shock for our dear assassins and templars they come to find out that now the voices "inside" Desmond's head are now here ready to try And cause some havack.

Oh don't forget to drink water and eat something l. I hope you have a great day/night

Thank you, nonny! I hope you're having a great day/night too! (And yeah, I'll be eating my dinner after this hahahaha) The Ratatouille AU where the ancestors can hear Desmond while ‘playing’, its more unhinged cousin, the Ratatouille AU where Desmond can hear us and the outside POV of Al Mualim thinking the Apple broke Altaïr and the sidestory of Altaïr accidentally connecting with Ezio while looking for Desmond

Here’s the horror-esque version of this AU for this interested in that kind of setup.

.

Alright, confession time. When I was writing for the voices, my brain immediately to the ‘chat windows’ that popped up in Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint and in The Perks Of Being An S Class Heroine.

Then I thought, you know what would be funny? If it was like an actual chatbox with our preferred avatar kinda like this:

To make this stranger, all the avatar are like stock photos of animals and plants. This way, when their avatar finally comes to form, Desmond will be surrounded by various animals.

What happens to the ones who chose plant avatars?

My initial idea was that they would be floating plants like a leaf or a flower just floating in the air.

But then I realized…

We’re crazy enough to band together and create a ‘strange’ unique flower crown to put on Desmond’s head.

The ones that transformed into animals would go “That’s not fair! Why do you guys get to be that close to Desmond?!”

“Plant ftw, bitches!!!” A dandelion of all things would shout out, accidentally blowing itself up and floating away from Desmond, “Fuck!”

A second passed and the dandelion glitches out of existence.

Only to glitch back into the (technically floating) flower crown on Desmond’s head.

“Hey, guys, did you know it cost 1000 Helix to respawn? Fucking Ubi████.”

For those who don’t care about Ubisoft’s monetization scams (as you should), 1000 Helix is more or less $10 and they don’t sell 1000 Helix, they sell the small pack for $9.99 and it gives 1050 Helix. For reference, AC Valhalla’s complete sets (full armor + 2 weapons + mount and raven skin) usually cost around 1500 Helix.

So yeah… even though the ‘players’ have spawned in Desmond’s world, they are still haunted by monetization. (This does mean Desmond has gotten himself an immortal army of plants and animals)

[raymantogether]

Rayman Together Community Spotlight #3 - Clairiphi

Rayman Together Community Spotlight #3 - Clairiphi

Introduction:

Have you ever made your own Rayman comic book series? Growing up, I spent thousands of hours outside of playing the Rayman series creating comics and drawings, making my own adventures for Rayman and his friends. However, I never could create something as captivating and truly unique as the Rayman Nightmarish Series. Rayman Nightmarish stole my heart and is something that I have followed since 2020. Every few weeks to months, I eagerly anticipate the next chapter. There is something so personal about the art style and original characters, which I fell in love with. Every strip is full of personality and charm. I had the pleasure of meeting Clairiphi, AKA Chiara, during my visit to Ubisoft Milan. In person, Chiara is just as amazing as her series. So when I decided to make this Community Spotlight Series, I just had to make a segment on Chiara and her Rayman Nightmarish series.

1. Please introduce yourself.

"My name is Chiara; I go by Clairiphi on the web, and I'm a storyteller from Sardinia (Italy) who dabbles into drawing to accompany her stories. I hope one day, not too far from now, to become a professional comic writer if the comic industry in Europe gives me the chance. For now, I sadly remain an enthusiastic hobbyist."

2. What are you currently working on in the Rayman Community? 

"I’ve been publishing my fan comic Rayman Nightmarish for a few years with the frequent help of my partner Francesco (@thepinna on Instagram and Cara), who is a professional illustrator and studied as a comic artist as well. Without his teaching, I would be nowhere near where I am with my skill level. He taught me how to storyboard, how to efficiently use a drawing tablet, and helped me train my writing skills. He also offers his direct artistic input from time to time, when work hours permit him (for example, while I did the storyboards and pencil sketches for chapter 11, he did inks and colors)."

3. What is your inspiration behind Rayman Nightmarish?

"One December evening I was particularly bored and haven’t been writing since the beginning of high school, but that evening I was coming from a long period of frustration regarding the school path I chose, and coincidentally, I was also back on my Rayman obsession because I was playing Legends and Origins. I had this fairy character (Waaty) and a horrific, almost lovecraftian villain (The Lighteater) in mind for a while, and all of a sudden I said, “You know what? Let’s stop daydreaming and write an actual story!” I took a huge empty notebook from my desk drawer, and a bunch of years later, here we are!"

4. For any newcomers, what is the story of Rayman Nightmarish about?

"With Rayman Nightmarish, I aimed to narrate a classic Rayman adventure, with the humor, the combats, the voyage across fantastical places... And zombies! Yeah, I love horror, and of course there was going to be a twist. But no worries! This is still a story for all ages, like Rayman always was after all.  An ancient evil called The Lighteater is rising from the depths of the sea and is going to bring a dark plague that will soon turn The Glade of Dreams into The Glade of Nightmares. Of course it is Rayman's job to save the day once again, with the help of Globox and a few unexpected friends, like Waaty, the livid dead fairy with strange clairvoyant abilities...and many others along the way! Will he be able to do it this time? Very likely knowing his records, but this could actually be more challenging than he thought."

5. Is there anything new or unreleased you can share?

"I’ve actually been working on a new original fantasy series for a while. The story is already all planned, I'm in love with the characters and every process I came across during the planning of the plot. I hope with all my heart that I'll be able to bring it to life, not as a webcomic but as a fool-blown series for comic stores’ shelves."

6. What made you fall in love with the Rayman series?

"When I was a little girl, I didn’t have much social skills, and my first ever playmate, before my brother was born, was my dear cousin, who one day came to me with a copy of Rayman 3; his parents got him somewhere during a trip. That game changed my brain chemistry because as soon as I saw the fairy council level, I was hypnotized, and I wasn’t even the one playing! The music, the scenery, the jokes—I don’t know, but every time we played it, I came home wishing I was still in that world. Then a few years later, my cousin got a PS3 and gave me and my brother his PS2, Rayman Raving Rabbids, and Rayman 3. I was so happy! My first ever “comic” was a very cringy Rayman fanfiction I wrote in middle school, kind of an ancestor of Rayman Nightmarish in a way, haha! I thank my cousin every day for showing me that game that evening, and if he were still here today, I bet he would think Rayman Nightmarish looks pretty sick (especially in comparison to his middle school predecessor)."

7. What is your favorite Rayman game?

"I think it’s pretty clear by now that it’s Rayman 3 since it comes with so many dear memories, but I really liked playing both Origins and Legends in co-op with my brother when they came out. They were really fun to play with others! While I’ve always considered Rayman 3 like an intimate journey to take alone in a fantasy world, as silly as it sounds. Haha!"

8. Who is your favorite Rayman character?

"I’m going to be very unoriginal and say it’s Rayman because it’s true."

9. Tell us about your time at Ubisoft Milan.

"It was better than Disneyland! I felt like a kid again being able to hang out with a team of professionals behind a whole videogame. Not only was I happy, I felt seen, like, “Woah! These guys know I exist and even asked me to come here, hello???” Pretty surreal experience!"

10. Other than playing Rayman, what are your favorite things to do?

"I’m going to be completely honest; I haven’t been playing a Rayman game since the dawn of time. Haha! Back when I was a little girl, I wasn't much of a gamer and only played Rayman games because I didn’t care for the others. Now I love my switch, and I found many more games I love to spend time with. Rayman still has a special place in my heart, because it’s thanks to it that I found out I was actually meant for writing stories. Two of my other favorite things to do (besides writing and drawing, which are obvious) are reading books and watching movies, and in both cases, my favorite genre is horror. I also like to play fantasy TTRPG games like D&D or Pathfinder from time to time; they are very stimulating for the imagination."

11. Tell us something interesting or funny about yourself that we might not already know. 

"I’ve actually graduated (both bachelor’s and master’s degree) from a music conservatory in classical piano and never taken a single class in any art school. Sometimes I feel stupid about my past choices, and sometimes I’m glad because learning to play an instrument on a professional level has helped me build discipline and time management skills that helped me greatly in the writing process."

12. Do you have any hidden talents?

"I don’t know much about "talent,” but I do love to sing in my car, and I can memorize the entire script of a movie if I like it a lot. Haha! I remember when I was in elementary school, I used to recite Madagascar to myself when it was past bedtime, but I didn’t want to sleep."

13. What is one thing you can’t live without?

"Besides my air conditioner, I think I would go insane if something happened to any of my writing devices. I keep all my notes scattered between my computer, my iPad, and many physical journals. While clouds are essential, sometimes I just need an actual piece of paper and a pencil to figure out a scene or a plot point."

Want to discover more about the Rayman Nightmarish series? This is my link tree where new readers can find the best social media platforms to either catch up with the story or stay tuned for any exciting news:

[fereldanwench]

apropos of nothing and certainly not my tag rant from a few posts back

did you know that out of 150 popular video games released between 1985 and 2022, only 6% of them feature sole female protagonists?

did you know that prior to mass effect 3, female shepard was never used in any promotional material for the series?

(and there's no hard data available on this, but i very distinctly recall a lot of gamerbro outrage when me3 had an optional reversible cover so you could pick between male and fem shep on your personal game)

did you know that only 18% of players chose femshep in any shape or form (default or customized) during the original release?

(anecdotally, i know a few people who didn't even realize you could play a female at all in me1 bc of how the cc is setup)

did you know with the release of the legendary edition in 2021 the percentage of femshep players didn't even double (despite jennifer hale's seemingly enormous popularity amongst the broader playerbase over the past decade) and is reported at 32%?

did you know that dragon age inquisition has the same breakdown between male and female inquisitors (68% to 32% respectively)?

did you know during the playtests for assassin's creed odyssey, it was a 50/50 split between kassandra and alexios, and ubisoft suits actually thought when the game was released, kassandra would be more popular? and yet once again, about 70% of players chose the male protag

did you know evie and aya were both supposed to have a much larger roles in assassin's creed syndicate and origins but were forced into a smaller role bc the ubisoft marketing team didn't think the games would sell well with a female lead?

cdpr hasn't released data on male vs female v, probably because the game handles gender a little differently than just two strict options like many other rpgs, but it was revealed that panam was the most popular romance, sitting at about 68%, which means at least 68% of players chose the male v body. I'm sure some players did not make that choice as a cis male v, but i would also guess that those who didn't are a small minority of this demographic, and if you factor in kerry romancers, this split is probably very similar to other games in the genre

now i realize that a lot of the male v players who are in more transformative fandom spaces (like tumblr) are not the str8 gamer dudebros of reddit angry about pores on a female character's face and whatnot. i realize that a lot of you are also on the outskirts of the perceived norm and also feel under-represented by mainstream male protags and that's incredibly frustrating and alienating and i genuinely feel for you

but female protagonists and female gamers who want to play as female protagonists and who have a few niche spaces to celebrate female protags are not the reason for your lack of representation

and frankly you don't sound a whole lot different from the angry incel gamer boys when you say shit like "fem v gets too much attention"

so maybe try advocating for male protags who don't fit the generic boring gruff white guy mold without throwing women under the bus. we're should be allies in this fight, not rivals

[funnyscienceman]

Ok but like WHYY did ubisoft have to insist with the one game a year thing. Why couldnt they let syndicate cook in the oven more. Why do they have THREE queer men in the same game and not do ANYTHING with them!!!

Like yes, yes, i get it, i get wanting to for once make a story in a fun setting where you dont have to think about real life prejudice and hardships and bigotry and just have characters be silly, i love that too. I do! And id be all for that if doing it just didnt waste a potentially banger study of the characters and the setting ;-;

Like god i go back and forth on this constantly. I already love syndicate as it is, i think it's fun and neat and the happy gaming vibes about it is core to its identity, it's just that simultaneous to that, three queer men in the same game!!!

like GOD im still miffed that there are only, like, two or three fics about this, and so far i havent found any discussion or anything of it, but oh my god how different all three of them are from each other. You could do so much just with having any of them in the same room — and they are often enough in the same room (jacob and either ned or roth at a time), but nothing's really done there!

we have roth who sees fcking nothing wrong with getting kids hurt, because he doesnt actually care about anyone or anything, he's just some fucking joker wannabe that yeah, sure, probably has some anger and resentment at society because he's a gay man in his 40s or 50s by now, but jesus fucking christ retaliation against homophobia does not equal rampant needless unproductive violence roth!!!

then we have ned, who — i mean he doesnt ever give his opinion on whether kids deserve any respect or anything but considering in every other department he's pretty much just Some Guy, it'd be fair to assume he also has the extremely average stance of 'dont fcking kill kids and dont blow up buildings for no good reason??' in the grand scheme of the templar-assassin stuff he has just about as much relevance as roth: roth was just the boss of the blighters, ned just finances the fryes by virtue of them working for him. He probably doesnt even know about it, and tbh i dont even know if he'd care??? But like i imagine roth doesnt care in the way of 'as long as you dont get in my way, it's all set dressing,' ned i imagine would be smth like 'are yall fckin serious? are you kidding me rn? i have to skirt around transphobes on a daily basis, now youre telling me there's a secret society on top of that with even worse ideas?? What the fuck???'

like uh, not caring about it as in 'I cant deal with this rn i need a nap'

HE'S JUST AN EXTREMELY REGULAR PERSON (besides the crime lord stuff) IS WHAT IM GETTING AT.

then there's jacob, who's the youngest out of these guys btw, fckin 21 good god he should be at the club not trying to disassemble systemic oppression— ANYWAY

(ned is 27-28 over the course of the game, btw; we dont actually have a solid timeline for anything, just the year, so tbh jacob could've also been 20 and not 21 yet during the game. both he and ned have late birthdays, just a month apart)

so, yknow, being extremely early 20-somethings, both frye twins just take a train to london completely on impulse and dive headfirst into undoing the templars that've had an iron grip over the city for basically as long as they've been alive, yknow, as you do; and throughout the game jacob has to deal with goddamn daddy issues and fighting with his sister and insecurity and trying to be an assassin — and that's a lot for a guy to handle!! Especially one who's still just a couple years out of being a teenager! That's a fucking lot and if the devs are right, then he hasnt even realized that he's bi yet! Not until roth fucking kisses him while jacob's got a knife in his throat for the aforementioned indiscriminate, unproductive violence!

i mean, granted, yeah there were gay undertones during sequence 8, but i have to admit my bias here because i honest to god cannot take those missions seriously. Roth fucking preaches this and that about freedom and whatnot and then im plopped into the mission and it's the most rule-heavy shit ive ever seen in my short life as an assassin's creed player. Like what the hell, those missions were atrocious. Apprently i need to detonate the bombs a specific way, i cant just shoot them from a distance, i have to hold a button crouching down right next to the bombs, and then run the hell away! I have to avoid THIS and THAT while kidnapping xyz! Like there's freddy's apprehend missions and then there's THIS.

at least with ned's missions all you have to do is get the shit and go… i'm still salty that ubisoft cut his questline because they fucking insist on releasing a game a year >:((

my battery's dying. All these guys are different flavors of queer on top of just being pretty different and pretty similar in various ways, and there's just… barely anything about it. Ned especially, since he's just a quest giver whose screentime totals to, like, 2-5 minutes. I just wish they really did more with the setting; not just the queerness and these three specifically, but like, evie, henry, the class conflict — like there are shreds of it, seeds, but there's not much before you kill starrick and credits roll :((

idk. im just gonna refresh ao3 again cjemddjekjx

[lulu2992]

I wanted to say I love your meta and lore posts, and how frustrating it is to see so much inconsistencies with the lore and timeliness. Like, the wiki (which I know I shouldn't completely trust) says thatbthe events of FC5 and New Dawn are non-canon/happened in an alternate universe, probably to restore the timeliness with FC6, so...did the game ever matter? Also I find it so hard to fit what happened to the characters with the timeline, like did Grace lose her dad during the Reapibg or prior? How long did Mary May lose her family was it before the events of the game or during the Reaping? It's just hard to write fanfic when everything seems watered down, inconsistent and a mix of early concept and half baked ideas. Anyway, keep up the good work!

Thank you! Yes, once you start deep-diving into the lore, you notice all the inconsistencies and it’s annoying.

To try to answer your questions, though, I suppose whoever wrote on the Wiki that Far Cry 5 and New Dawn weren’t canon rightly concluded Far Cry 6 couldn’t exist in the same universe if the “Resist” ending, so the true one, happened. Ubisoft already “justified” that when they retconned the series’ timeline and said each game now had its own world. Basically, there isn’t just one “Far Cry universe” anymore but several. Far Cry 5 and New Dawn indeed take place in an alternate universe… but so does each game in the franchise.

Grace explains her dad’s car was ambushed about two weeks before the Deputy arrived, so two weeks before the Reaping. That said, I always find any mention of the Project being openly violent before Joseph’s arrest weird since what most characters say in the game is that cultists only started doing that when the Reaping began. They would do bad things before too, but in secret, and only a few people (like Dutch or Merle) believed they were dangerous but were unable to prove it. However, in an early version of the scenario, they were already terrorizing Hope County long before the Deputy’s arrival, so it seems to me that Grace’s backstory was based on this context instead.

It’s hard to tell when Mary May lost her parents exactly. We just know that happened after the Project arrived and before the Reaping, and that her dad died before her mom… or the opposite if you read the novel Far Cry Absolution in which she also has a brother. Anyway, her father wanted to confront the Project (or John Seed specifically) and never came back home. But again, I find it a bit strange that a group most people in Hope County simply saw as weird but harmless neighbors before the Reaping would risk causing someone’s death like that. Even if it looked like an accident, it’s careless and suspect when you want to lay low.

I imagine it’s difficult to write Far Cry 5 fanfiction when your goal is to remain as faithful to the source material as possible. There are things you have to ignore or try to find justifications for for the story to fully work...

I’m glad you enjoy my posts, though :D

[phoenixriaartemis]

So umm little(not that little) post about the situation.I will try my best to not spoil.

Anyways as we all know(I sound stupid for saying that)in 5 days(that's quite short ._.)we have the event of Night Swan backstory to know about her like her name(even though most of us and I will risk to say all of us know her real name already if they didn't change it in the last minute but yeah no they wouldn't actually done that)and her whole story of how she fall down into the darkness with two new songs(this is one of the things that I know and I can't say)

This last part is what kinda frightening the fandom but not in the way that maybe her past will make us terrified more in the way of someone that can change the entire plotline but in a bad way...

Him...

The Traveler,coach from Rock your Body and Save your Tears which is a duet with another coach who is Si'ha Nova and this song it's their love story(I'm not gonna explain their whole love story but I recommend to watch littlesiha lore video about them)

This two coaches also have a son who is the main character in the story mode of Just Dance,Wanderlust

Now the whole issue:Since January I think it was?there was a theory going around that Wanderlust and the son of Night Swan Jack Rose might be related since the Just Dance team despise the ship between this two a lot(like literally there's some post about it)and it might be because of Traveler and Night Swan had a past relationship and Ta-Da!! Jack happens.There's also some kinds of aspects about it like Jack unknown father or Night Swan real name being base on a mythology(that one can be kind of debated)

There's point that made this theory more real,but also there are some points that made this whole theory(probably gonna happen)with not so many senses.Posts like @surr3al1sm and @halfratsalready have talk about it like one of them being the zero ressemblences of Jack and Traveler in their appearance to hint that they are father and son.

My take about this is more of a critic but also having a realistic point.I think that if they actually wanted to go down with this plot twist they should have atleast make some obvious connections(and I won't take it if they change Jack appearance to match Traveler once it's out the twist)or just straight up say it.I know that it will kill the "surprise" but with this kind of plot with already existence characters for one year and almost five months that wouldn't be good.If they did actually wanted to do it they could made a new character not using an already existing one(Side note:This part sound hypocrite from my part since I have in the sims Wanderlust and Sara as "siblings"to say more or less but since the moment I did it I thought to change it since I could see that I can kind of change but that would mean to delete the ones existence and put them again from the gallery something that it's not that bad even though they will lose something already gain but I wouldn't mind to do it)And if they wanted to do something with Traveler and Night Swan they could have taken the dating ,but not too far for Night Swan and Traveler to have Jack,and then something happens that connects to Night Swan failure and Traveler ended up with Si'ha AND Night Swan founding or already know someone that Traveler also know to be her partner and then BOOM Jack and father's gone.Also because the whole thing will be chaotic if they pull that because they are killing a wholesome lovestory,two ships,the lore of Traveler and Si'ha and Traveler(who is pretty like and love by most of the people in the community)whole character in just one map and I don't think that will be taken well

But to be realistic and knowing Ubisoft(and also because I don't have that much hope even though I want to)they're probably going to pull that but we will have to wait to find out...

[djsherriff-responses]

Kinda funny that they’re making a Watch Dogs movie now despite that series haven’t really been much spotlight for several years now. They just finished filming it so I guess it’s progressing fine. I think there’s supposed to be a show too as well.

Not that I can blame them I mean they tried a Prince of Persia movie that flopped, that Assassin’s Creed movie got forgotten so quickly.

A rabbids movie? I feel like they’re more than a decade too late on that front not to mention Minions have mostly stolen that niche very successfully. Unless they go the Mario + Rabbids route on that movie but I doubt we’ll see it soon.

I vaguely remember watching Prince of Persia but based on the fact I barely remember it , it was a forgetful movie, haven't seen the assassins creed film so I can't comment on the quality of either film

What I can comment on is the various factors that makes those movies different to Watchdog , or rather the environment they've released in

Prince of Persia came out in 2010. In that same year we got movies such as Scott Pilgrim , Percy Jackson , Clash of the Titans and Tron Legacy. There was also meant to be an ALTA movie but it never got made 😔 Prince of Persia had a lot of competition when it came out, but it stood very little chance against those more memorable flicks

Assassins Creed came out in 2016 along side Batman Vs Superman and the Killing joke , no chance of out competing those

(obviously all these movies did not come out at the same time of year , I'm over simplifying a it)

Heres an important similarity Prince of Persia and Assassins Creed have besides being made by the same company: They're video game IPs

For as long as video games has existed , there was this issue that movie adaptions of popular video games were never gonna be good (Never seen it but the discussion around the 80s Mario movie is a prime example). Whether these films were actually bad or fans just never being satisfied I can't say, I don't have the energy to research and this is already getting long

However that drastically changed when the Sonic Movie came out in 2020

Now obviously we know about ugly Sonic and how close the film could've gone down the cursed game movie path. But it didn't , Paramount listened to the fans and redesigned Sonic (even though that most definitely made people do overwork last minute) which lead to the film being such a success it's getting it's third installment released this year and a TV series spin off

Than we got the Mario Movie , which was also a success and so on and so forth

Now something worth keeping in mind is that , in the 2010s when Prince of Perisa was released , nostalgia bait wasn't as prominent as it is now

Which is why I think the Watch Dogs film , as well as the Rabbids movie, is Ubisoft trying to cash in on the video game nostalgia train. Maybe even using the film's success as a way to test if people will buy a new game

[melskytodstar]

Concerning Star Wars Outlaws

People might not know, but I am a huge Star Wars fan. In fact, I think I might love it even more than Sonic The Hedgehog, and that’s saying something! So when I heard Ubisoft were giving us a game where you can explore different planets AND fly through the galaxy far, far away, you’d better believe I was excited!

I’ll just get my three biggest problems out of the way now. First of all, the game is slow to start. So slow in fact that Ubisoft have given gamers a in-game gift as well as an apology. Secondly, it’s buggy. In the week that I’ve had the game, enemies and NPCs have been appearing in different spawn points (whether that’s by design or not is in question), and it’s crashed on me four times. Finally, Kay herself. The way she’s written didn’t sit well with me, that she only cares about herself, Nix (her furry little pal) and ND-5 (the Commando droid in the trench coat). Then again, I may not be used to playing as an outlaw…

The gameplay itself is nothing that hasn’t been done before. Ground combat felt like a mix of Battlefront and the Batman Arkham games, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Space combat felt exactly like it did in a previous Ubisoft game, Starlink: Battle for Atlas (that game with the Switch-exclusive Star Fox content), so it felt familiar at the very least. I may also have developed an addiction to playing Sabacc. It’s strangely relaxing for me… as long as I have the credits to spare…

Music is very much like an experience from the movies and Disney+ shows, which is good. Story was all right too, despite the problem I mentioned previously. And despite getting spoiled for a character in a YouTube thumbnail, it didn’t ruin the twist at the end of the game, which I did NOT see coming!

In conclusion, I might be biased, but I have legit enjoyed my time with Star Wars Outlaws. I hope that Ubisoft continue to patch the game, especially with what’s to come in the season pass. Now if anyone wishes to disagree with me, I’ll be exploring the galaxy… or playing more Kessel Sabacc. - Todd

[randomrabbidramblings]

A "little" bit regarding Phantom

Here's the analysis I've wanted to do (for a long time, actually) about everyone's favourite bastard opera bunny.

Minor spoiler for The Last Spark Hunter!

TLTR in meme form:

While my zero expectations to find the Phantom in this DLC were met (even if to be honest for more than a minute I tought Allegra's friend was going to be him, lol), I was hoping for another cameo. And Ubisoft delivered!

Sailing around the Ruins you can find this very creepy... giant plush half buried in the sand? Is that a reference to the real life Phantom puppet? Did Phantom's megalomaniac ass commission this? Creepy factor aside, I love that he looks like he's wearing eyeliner! Phantom wears makeup canon yesdonteventrytofightmeonthis!

Anyway, I'm not the only one that thinks Beep-0's comment is highly sus. Even in the tone he's using sounds like the devs behind are being so proud of their troll. Maybe I'm just overthinking as usual and that dialogue is just Beep-0's seething hatred towards Phantom, but... That, paired with everything else going on... it doesn't convince me.

Phantom does have his fair amount of reasons he could make a real return song and all, there are a lot people wanting him back (not only in the fandom) and he's also Soliani's favourite boss who, let's not forget, waited 20 years to make a boss like him. It would be a wasted opportunity to only use him once. Since Donkey Kong Adventure featured Rabbid Kong, who was one of the two main bosses that did not unmerge after defeat (the Bwah Trio didn't unmerge too, but they were mini bosses), it wouldn't be so odd to see Phantom having a DLC too (after all a lot of people thought he was going to be the final boss of Kingdom Battle after his feature trailer). Let's not forget this time he has a juicy chance for another diss track. To Rayman and his decennary absence in the videogame scene. Another thing: we still don't know anything about the third DLC villain. This may be a bit of a stretch, but hear me out. When the posters for the three DLCs were published, Ubisoft gave us very little info about The Last Spark Hunter, but we knew there was a new enemy. The only thing they told us about the third DLC is that Rayman will be in it. Now they gave us a teaser, info about the general setting, but still no villain. This makes me think that there will not be a new villain, but someone we already met.

I don't think the cameos, the updates to his shenanigans, the grammophone sitting right there in the third DLC poster and the last almost blatant bit of foreshadowing in the Melodic Gardens were put there for nothing. And be honest, at this point who wouldn't want to see Beep-0's reaction to Phantom after all the hate he has been expressing towards him? All of this make a lot of sense. Almost too much sense to not see him return. The funny thing is if he shows up wearing Cursa's broken mask (a fan theory, but far too appropriate to rule out) it means they have been foreshadowing his return since Sparks of Hope released.

Personally I'd be happy even if he had a very minor role, like an NPC with a quest. Or even a little cameo in person, just to see him in Sparks of Hope style since he seems like he's changed a bit since Kingdom Battle (canonically he can remove the grammophone from his belly and apparently he wears makeup). I hope they'll keep his fourth wall breaking abilities even if it's just for advertising the DLC or to justifiy his appearence, as we know he's well aware of the developers (and, as expected, he sounds like he has a bit of beef with them as one of his unusued lines says "I'll have the art director's head for this", lol).

The thing that worries (and at the same time excites) me the most is the dubbing work they'd have to do for him. Since now all Rabbids are fully voiced (and in a lot of languages too) and assuming an hypotethical song will not be dubbed (as I think they'd do), I'm very curious about how they would manage Phantom as he has a very characteristic tone and accent and everyone knows his voice as he wasn't dubbed at all in Kingdom Battle. I do think it would be epic if they managed to get an actual singer for every language, but... it would be a bit too much in terms of everything, at Ubisoft they are madmen, but not like that, lol.

In all this there's still that one unusued idea where the Phantom was going to change music genre as his battle progressed. Who knows maybe it will be the right time we hear the metal song Soliani has been threatening Kirkhope with all this time, lol.

The only reason I can think of that makes everything crumble, would be if Beep-0's lines about Phantom's cameo were a result of an oversight, like it seems to have happened with Allegra (her memory states that she can change the colour of her skin depending on the "mood" of the planet, but it's never shown in game nor in her backstory). Or, perish the thought, it's just a placeholder as to say: "if we can make him appear again, good that was foreshadowing, if we cannot, we told you" to save thier buttcheeks in case they'll not bring him back. Even if I highly doubt Ubisoft would do such a thing after making everyone suspect a foreshadow.

Foreshadowing or not: if he will not appear in something like a poster, a teaser or a full on trailer, this doesn't mean he will not be there. Remember they pulled this thing too in Kingdom Battle where the devs said he was purposefully left out of the poster with the bosses as they didn't want to spoil him (even if then they released a feature trailer for him, but... idk, marketing shenanigans I assume, lol).

As a conclusion, take all of this infodump as a theory, there's no real evidence to definitively assume Phantom will return any time soon. I don't want to influence people to think he'll come back and then have them disappointed because he didn't. This is just my thoughts on the topic. And don't think I'll be disappointed if Phantom doesn't show up because, while I am biased, I'm not only looking forward to that.

[miss-3625]

Well you did warned that “Too Much To Ask” was sad, but I ended up bawling (“He was alone, alone, alone” hit me baaaad) So anyway thanks, it was very good fic, poor Ezio

Oh! I'm sorry that it made you cry, please accept these stickers as my apology.

No, all jokes aside, I'm glad that it did, because it means that I did a good job in expressing what Ezio was feeling.

Earlier that day I played the mission of "the incident" for a second time and (for some reason) the scene hit me way harder than the first time. Probably because now I know how lonely Ezio (as well as Claudia and Maria) will feel in the following years and how dedicated Ezio is in avenging his family.

(I actually wanted to add another scene where Ezio finds a crying Claudia and then they cry together - because Ubisoft really did them and their brother-sister-relationship dirty - but I thought that it was already sad enough haha. Maybe another chapter? I guess we'll see.)

Even just writing this OS made me sad ("He was alive, alive, alive." and "He was alone, alone, alone." hit me bad as well, because it shows how perfectly conflicted Ezio feels about still being alive and now having the responsibility about his mother and sister, while at the same time not really getting any time to mourn his father and brothers and having to get his surviving family away as quickly as possible but having no idea how and where - man just thinking about it makes me sad again), so thanks for reading through it!

Sometimes we all need a good cry :)

[perkeleen-lavellan]

So about that Avatar game. I have some thoughts. Before I can get into those thoughts I need to preface this with;

I do not care whether or not you find James Cameron's Avatar movies and their plots boring. I do not care if you did not connect to those characters. I need you to understand that I am looking at this game as its own work of art, separate from the movies and their production.

Now, with that out of the way, Frontiers of Pandora. It's kind of underwhelming, huh?

First, let's get the praise out of the way. The construction of the world and its biology is pretty amazing. The creature design and flora design is wonderful, you can see that that's where the input from Lightstorm Entertainment (James Cameron's production company) was most actively going. The game world is beautiful, it looks and feels exactly like Pandora, I have no complaints there.

The combat gameplay is okay. I find Ubisoft's combat mechanics range from okay to very fun, and this time I think it's closer to okay than very fun. The reason for that is, that while the archery and gunplay plays okay, there is no real melee combat, and worse, the stealth is straight up unplayable.

The stealth relies on a hacking minigame a lot, which gets super unwieldy when you're trying to hack a dozen enemy mech suits, but they all keep moving away from range before you can finish the minigame that takes way too long to complete, for a minigame that happens in real game time. And in addition the enemy AI seems to spot you way easily, often it feels like the combat areas don't have enough covers in their geography. In short, stealth, something that would have added some much needed variety to the combat gameplay, is unplayable as it currently exists.

But this isn't what's really been eating at me, oooh no. If you know me, you know that I am not so much a gamer, as I am an enjoyer of stories who tolerates video games around them. Sometimes even enjoys them, to be honest. So I invite you to join me, and hear the gospel that I now have to share about the state of the story of Avatar Frontiers of Pandora.

It falls so damn flat!

I feel like this is a game that really could have actually benefitted from the game mechanic in recent Ubisoft games, which admittedly is often quite performative, wherein the player is given some dialogue choices, usually mainly for flavour. The choice to say a thing this way or that way. To be clear, the story should still remain linear, since clearly that was the intention. But by giving the player character that small subtle choice, the game could have alleviated its biggest flaw, which is that it failed to make me care.

It failed to make me care about the various members of the Aranahe and the Zeswa clans. It failed to make me care about the PCs own childhood friends. It failed to make me care about the members of the Resistance, and it failed to make me care about the villains. And I am predisposed to caring. I like Avatar, I think it's cool. I think Pandora is cool. I thought The Way Of The Water managed to deepen the characters of Cameron's existing movie, while also making me care about at least 5 completely new characters, and one old previously quite one dimensional character. A villain! That movie was packed with a lot of cast and it still took the time to allow me to connect with every one of those major characters. So why won't this video game?

The player character's (who I will from now on refer as the Sarentu) childhood friends would have been the natural characters to focus on during this game. You are literally kidnapped, taken to a reservation school to be groomed, and witnessed the Sarentu's sister being murdered by your kidnappers together. That event should have been something to continuously haunt the Sarentu and their friends' journey. But the death of the Sarentu's sister is something that is only mentioned off handedly a few times in the early game. The Sarentu meets many Na'vi who have had loved ones die by human hands, and yet not once have I heard the Sarentu say "I know that grief too friend". Shouldn't that have come up at least once with Etuwa, whose mother's ghost is one that haunts the main quest of the Aranahe? This is where the option for the player to have flavour choice might have come in. You could have had the option to share the story of your sister with Etuwa, or her father, or choose not to.

The childhood friends the Sarentu escapes with quickly turn into an after thought. They hang around the Resistance Base doing fuck all. Which is infuriating, when the game already did the work of setting each of them up enough to give them a clear internal conflict they are all dealing with on their own. I really expected to see them way more in the story, with the way the beginning set it up. But they hardly even comment on the various things happening around them. I would have thought they would at least have an occasional opinion to share, as the story progressed. So far I've only experienced one side quest, after the initial scene with all of you connecting with the Tarsyu flower, where Teylan turned up on location as a surprise, actually outside the base.

The Resistance itself seems to be trapped in Dyer's Bowl, despite the Sarentu eventually rediscovering many of their former bases, and bringing them back online. But no one ever turns up at those bases, they only serve as stashes and fast travel points.

What is sorely lacking from the story of Frontier's of Pandora is some kind of an emotional connection between the Sarentu and the characters that they meet. That is to say, the emotional connection is right there, in the grief over the dead sister and the reclamation of their stolen culture, but the game rarely if ever allows the Sarentu to express that.

And despite what many people think about the movies, Avatar is and always has been a character focused story. Yes, the message of that story is hugely environmentalist and anti-capitalist, but it was still always told through character drama. It's just that the environment surrounding those characters is a character of its own, and in Frontiers of Pandora the character that got the most screen time.

[hard-times-paramore]

The Assassin's Creed movie was so bad it was funny.

Like... I don't even know what to do with this. I didn't know if that movie was a canon installment to the franchise, because it contradicted pre-stablished canon from the games.

It looked cool though.

Full ramble under the cut.

It sucks as an entry to the Assassin's Creed universe. It completely messed up the modern lore Ubisoft built for itself. As a movie on itself it was confusing as hell too because it's supposed to be a tie-in to the games. They priorized the visuals over the story, and the poor protagonist didn't know what was happening 90% of the time - just like anyone trying to watch it without seeing the games - but anyone who did play the games knew that most of the exposition and plot and elements directly contradicted canon.

So yeah, it was a mess. It was a beautiful trainwreck.

There were some pros. Listen, Michael Fassbender is a hot dude. I like the hot dude and it did give me great enjoyment to see him all anxious and soggy in hospital-prisoner clothes. There was a lot of whump in this movie with the beautiful man and I can appreciate that.

But we also had a buuuunch of exposition and Abstergo apparently just hunts Assassins to do experiments on them now, and yet, they keep them - people who know how to sneak around and steal shit - in the same building as a bunch of ancient Assassin weapons.

And the whole fuss over finding the Apple, like. Aren't there a ton of Apples? Why were they treating that one as unique? Don't they still have Desmond's remains to find the other one? Was Callum really their last hope?

I also dig the historical sessions. Aguilar de Nerha, Callum Lynch's ancestor (also played by Michael Fassbender) was fucking cool in his hooded robes and hidden blades doing parkour chase scenes around. But yeah, he didn't have that much characterization either. Again, it's like they just priorized the visuals of it. And him speaking Spanish, like 💀 my god.

I'd genuinely have enjoyed just the historical sections aside from their last fucking minute where they revealed fucking CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS was a friend to the Assassin Order and the person Aguilar trusted with the fucking Apple of Eden.

IF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS IS ANYTHING HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A TEMPLAR. WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS.

Also you should see this movie's Animus. The Traumatron 3000. They put him in the GLaDOS

It looked like a fucking GLADOS, seriously, it was a VR spine connected to the ceiling and Callum was AWAKE for his memories instead of sleeping like Desmond's. He was having full Bleeds after ONE session and everyone was like "oourgh he can't go back in there it's too risky"

Y'ALL HAD A PERFECTLY SAFE ANIMUS, WHY DID YOU MAKE A NEW ONE THAT MAKES YOU GO CRAZY FASTER?

Also, Aguilar fucking hated Callum. Like, in his Bleed episodes, his ancestor just fought with him. It's so fucking funny when you compare with Ezio and Desmond, who was like "everything will be alright, your suffering will end someday" meanwhile Aguilar was just beating the shit out of Callum.

And in the end the fucking Oppenheimer quote when Alan Rikkin was asking his daughter for a world domination speech.

What a beautiful trainwreck of a movie. Dude it sucked, you gotta see this.

[prototypelq]

So, I stumbled upon a video about Adi Shankar today (that's the netflix anime exec and showrunner), and I...now feel much, much more positive about the whole thing!

What I've learned, is that Adi is basically El Donte with Vergil-drank-a-whole-Monster levels of hype&energy&perfectionism in tv series industry. The guy is clinically unhinged and deranged, which I think could fit the DMC anime tone nicely.

He has been making gaming adaptations for a long time now, and his works all come from a genuine love and care for the source material, enhanced with a special Adi TM take on the whole thing. Sadly, I've just learned of his other works, so not exactly best source for this kind of thing, but I got the feeling the guy likes to gore and darken up the source, spice it up with self-irony, and sew everything to skeleton made out of pure-geek love and obsession over the original.

He had a sort of El Donte arc in the industry, as the guy liked to come in shattering doors and expectations of 'normal' executives and investors, but he seems to have matured a little to start combining the best of fan-love and big investor money into amazing and unique works of art. He is most known for working on Castlevania series, but personally the show I learned about (and was sold on to give a watch) is Captain Laserhawk.

Captain Laserhawk is Ubisoft doing a RARE INDEED creative take on their stuff, basically they gave Adi creative freedom over every franchise Ubisoft has ever owed, and a result of that was a.... an adult show which roasts the ever-living hell out of Ubisoft, their practices and everything, with Rayman doing news-anchoring, drugs and then having an existential crisis? Oh, and also for animation he specifically commissioned a studio known for the...furry carnal desire series they uploaded to their own page.

The most bizarre thing is that Adi said he had a Ubi-lawyer follow him to every meeting to confirm that, yes, Ubisoft gave a green light to all of this.

So, uh, yeah gotta give Captain Laserhawk a watch, I wanna see Ubisoft roasted.

Mind you, Captain Laserhawk was Adi given a free-out-of-jail card on going unhinged, so he did not disappoint. His Castlevania show seems to have been loved by all fans, and seems to be much more tone-according to the series, as far as I can tell. At least, I've heard nothing but praise for that series. Also, knowing japanese studios, I think Capcom was keeping a close watch over everything, still, if Adi's previous work is to go by, then this anime is sure going to be

C R R R A Z Y

Adi claimed to have played all the DMC titles, so he knows his source, and I now believe that those manga in the latest anime preview weren't for show either. We also know the father of the series, Hideaki Itsuno, oversaw the anime production to some extent, so I'm sure it's going to tonally fit DMC. I also wouldn't mind a darker take on this series at all. The anime would be the perfect form to do that, too, as DMC is a world where demon incursions are a frequent occurrence, this HAS to affect the people of this setting somehow. The games can't really tap too much into that either, cause the gameplay of this series is 'bully your opponent back into hell' basically, these games are f u n, and you can't really have fun gameplay and a depressing story, the tone clash wouldn't really work.

DMC5 tried, but it is still mostly a very fun experience, the tragedy of the Qlipoth attack is highlighted only in the beginning, and the game even ends with Nero brightly lit and looking around the ruins, which works for him as a character, but the human tragedy that happened has already been forgotten by that point.

This is not a critique, I wouldn't have DMC any other way, but I DO want additional material that brings the setting down when we exit the 'sparda idiots' radius, and I feel like with Adi at the helm that's exactly what we might get with the anime. Oh, he also claimed to have been working on the anime all this time since 2018, and with his drive and obsession over every project I feel like Adi is not exaggerating, the production of that size and obsession could have very well taken over five years in the oven.

So yeah, I am now feeling much more excited for the whole thing. That's a very nice feeling)