#of the xbox i was made to purchase

[wileys-russo]

"alexia i want to play mario kart hand the controller over."

"no."

blurb about it possessive ale over her xbox

annoying bf alexia, my religion controller freak II a.putellas

you glanced up from your book and sighed seeing the game still going, your girlfriends feet resting in your lap as she stretched out comfortably, eyes trained to the tv.

"ale." you wiggled her foot as she hummed, eyes never leaving the game. "how long?" you asked for what seemed the tenth time, awaiting your turn to use the nintendo switch you shared.

"soon." she replied curtly making your eyes roll and your book snap shut, placing it down beside you and leaning against the back of the couch with a sigh.

you noticed the countdown in the top right hand of the screen, perking up a little seeing there was only 4 minutes left of her game. "mierda!" the blonde swore as the opposition scored, grumbling in annoyance as it was now locked 2-2.

"who are you playing against?" you asked curiously seeing she wasn't on the solo mode, tapping your fingers absentmindedly against her ankle, repeating the question a little louder when she didn't answer.

"mapi." she finally answered, shaking her foot and muttering for you to stop tapping her as you huffed and sank further back into the couch staring up at the ceiling.

you hummed away to a song stuck in your head, lifting your head a little as your girlfriend dug her heel into your thigh. "sh amor." she warned quietly, eyes narrowed at the screen and you sighed again seeing there was 3 minutes added time.

"no, no no no!" you were again snapped out of your daydreaming by a loud groan, mapi apparently having scored as the game ticked down to its final minute and you waited patiently until the whistle blew.

"puta estúpida!" your girlfriend grunted as she dropped the controller in her lap and dragged her hands down her face making you chuckle. "it's only a game baby." you reminded with an amused smile, squeezing her ankle.

but before she could respond her phone rang, feet swinging out of your lap as she sat up to grab it off the coffee table, clicking answer.

"qué maria?" alexia rolled her eyes, and you couldn't quite make out what her best friend was saying on the other line but if the faces the blonde was pulling at her words was any indication of it, alexia was not happy.

you shook your head with another chuckle as she clicked end call, tossing her phone back onto the coffee table with a thud and a huff that made you wince, muttering angrily under her breath and taking the controller in hand.

you held out your own expectantly, but your smile turned to a frown as alexia loaded up another game, rummaging beneath the coffee table and pulling out the headset neither of you ever really used.

"ale!" you huffed, kicking her as she glanced to you and raised an eyebrow, adjusting the headseat to sit snugly on her ears. "qué estás haciendo?" you questioned, holding your hand out again.

"playing mapi, she thinks she can win again in pro!" alexia mocked with a roll of her eyes as you looked on uncaring. "we had a deal, after that game it was my turn?" you reminded, clearing your throat when she didn't respond.

when you first purchased the console alexia couldn't have been less interested, but it allowed you to play against your friends back home in england and she knew that was important to you.

but then she'd learned she could play against her friends here, and that fifa was switch compatible, which you could thank mapi and patri for. now the blonde could be horribly possessive over the console, and quite the bad loser.

yet anytime you flagged buying a second one for your shared bedroom she would assure that wasn't necessary, distracting you with kisses and leading you to the bedroom in question, pushing you down onto the mattress and grinning down at you, promising there were other games the two of you could play together without needing any sort of console.

"one more game." she waved you off like you would a fly causing you to scoff. "ale!" you kicked her again as she pushed your foot away and began to select her starting 11. "alexia!" you stood and yanked the headseat down to her neck.

"que? stop!" the blonde huffed, looking up at you with a frown. "alexia i want to play mario kart. hand the controller over! we had a deal." you tried to grab it from her but the taller girl effortlessly held it out of reach.

"por favor princesa, one more game!" the catalan smiled charmingly, but it was wiped from her face as it would appear the headset kicked in, alexia swearing down the mic at her best friend to shut up.

"not you! mi amor i did not mean you!" alexia groaned as you huffed and went to leave the room. "no, stay." her hand snagged the back of your shorts, which were really an old pair of her national team shorts you'd stolen as pajamas, tugging you down onto the sofa.

"no! this is boring, y me has cabreado!" you warned sharply, wrenching her hands off of you where they tried to pull you to lay down beside her.

you heard an ooo over the headset and some teasing jests from the spaniard on the other end about how you clearly wore the pants in the relationship and alexia needed to step up.

eyes narrowing your hand fell to the back of the blondes neck pulling her closer to you, grabbing the mic wrapped around her and growling a warning into it which silenced the younger girl on the other end, a quiet apology mumbled instead.

"por favor bebita, stay?" alexia muted the headset and pouted, long arms wrapping around your torso and pulling you into her, peppering kisses to your jaw with mumbled pleadings.

"bien! one more game, and then i get it for the rest of the night." you gave in with a sigh, a large hand grabbing your jaw and tilting your head back allowing the midfielder to capture your lips in her own.

"vale! get on with your game putellas." you blushed a little as her tongue swiped the roof of your mouth, the older girl pulling away with a grin and letting go of you, kissing your cheek and patting her lap, your legs swinging up into it as you laid down and got comfortable.

you started to doze off as you grew bored of watching her play, awoken every time she or mapi would score with a victorious yell or annoyed groan, the girl grabbing your hand and kissing your knuckles apologetically when she noticed she'd startled you.

you excused yourself to get some water and use the bathroom once the game was almost done, grabbing out some snacks to munch on while you played, a happy vamos sounding from the living room telling you alexia had won this time.

you smiled with amusement at the sounds of her teasing her best friend, rolling your eyes fondly at her somewhat childish behavior, a side of her that only a handful of her inner circle really got to see from the stern captain.

you knew she wasn't much more than a huge baby at times, often clingy and needy for your attention to be on her whenever she demanded.

flopping her taller body on top of you with a huff and tapping your side when she'd had a bad day you knew she'd want to be cuddled and have her back scratched, letting down the firm walls she'd had up all day and letting you charge on in to make her feel better.

however, today was not one of those days.

"alexia!" you scoffed seeing she'd started another game as you returned to the living room, her headset on she wasn't paying attention and jumped as you pulled it off, snatching the controller from her hand and clicking pause.

"qué demonios? bebé!" the footballer huffed trying to take it back as you held it out of reach, standing while she was sitting, her grumbling something quietly to mapi on the mic before muting it.

"you said, my turn. off!" you warned, shooing your hands for her to move as she shook her head. "one more game. we break the tie!" your girlfriend pleaded, hands clasped together and bottom lip jutted out though this time all you did was roll your eyes.

"no. move!" you warned, alexia scoffing and standing to her feet, though as you went to take her spot you squealed as she tackled you onto the couch, the two of you wrestling for the controller in your hand.

"alexia! estás siendo un niño." you grunted, trying to fight her off but the girl much stronger you knew it would be only seconds before she easily plucked it from your grip. "one more game. then your turn!" sure enough she grabbed it without much struggle.

"ow! princesa." alexia whined as you rammed your foot into her ribs with a glare. "one more game. one more game. liar!" you mocked then hissed, grabbing the bag of pretzels and storming off to the bedroom, making a point to slam the door behind you.

you weren't surprised when a few moments later it creaked open, your girlfriend stood staring at you as you pretended to be super interested in the show playing on the tv, refusing to even glance her way.

"hermosa?" alexia called cautiously, wincing at the vicious glare you shot her way. "we play now? together?" the blonde asked hopefully, holding up two controllers she'd already fitted into the wheels you liked to use as you ignored her.

"por favor, i want to play the eh, driving game with you." she moved to sit on the end of the bed and you hated that she knew you often crumbled when she spoke english finding it adorable.

but when that didn't work she repeated herself again, this time poking your foot as you huffed and tucked your knees to your chest.

"amor!" the girl whined as you gave her the finger in response, shoveling a handful of pretzels in your mouth and rolling your eyes.

"come play with me." alexia laid down on the bed, grabbing the bag of pretzels in your lap and moving them out of your reach, wiggling so her head laid in its place instead as again you rolled your eyes.

"hola guapaa." she sang out, reaching a finger up to poke at your cheek as you firmly pushed her hand down and away from you. "do these work? or not work?" her other hand reached up as her finger poked inside your ear and you cringed.

"stop!" you grunted pushing her other hand away and trying to shake her head off your lap but it was to no avail.

"stop staring at me." you muttered, grabbing one of the many throw pillows on your shared bed and covering her face with it, a hint of a smile passing your lips as you were dangerously close to breaking.

"i will play as the girl you do not like. the ah...the princess apple?" your girlfriend tossed the pillow away and guessed, your teeth clamping down on your bottom lip to stop from smiling.

"peach, princess peach." you muttered in correction, still refusing to look down at her as she hummed. "ah! still a fruit, lo sabía." the footballer clicked her fingers with a nod, other hand messing with the hem of the over sized graphic michael jordan t-shirt covering your top half, which also belonged to her technically.

"stop." you smacked it away as she tried to sneak it underneath, nails grazing your stomach lightly as a grin curled into her features. "no, come play the game with me." within seconds she'd wiggled her body more so her head disappeared beneath your shirt.

"ale!" you squealed as she blew a raspberry against your stomach, smacking the side of her head where it was tucked under your shirt and pushing her off of you. "you are so annoying!" you huffed, her large hands catching yours as they tried to smack her again.

"let go." you demanded trying to pull away but it was no use as she held on with a smirk of amusement at your attempts. "alexia!" you groaned, head thumping against the headboard with a tired exhale.

"me amas." the catalan grinned, kissing your palms one by one and wiggling her eyebrows suggestively and puckering her lips at you as you glanced down to her, that being the final straw that broke you as you let out a sigh and rolled away from her, pushing up and off the bed.

you watched as she looked on like a kicked puppy from where she still lay on the bed as you hovered in the doorway, rolling your eyes and gesturing toward the living room with a nod of your head.

"well what are you waiting for? vamos! princess apple."

[creations-by-chaosfay]

So Close to the Goal!

Woooot!

We're 70% of the way to my goal, and need just $640 USD to reach it. When I reach my goal, I'm giving away a lap quilt. Everyone who has contributed to this goal will be entered into the giveaway.

All the money is going towards paying off this last debt, and then any money after that will go towards purchasing something fun. Thus far, all the money I've earned, since February, selling my work has been put towards paying off debts, home repairs, bills, and groceries. Not much fun there.

My favorite video game series, Dragon Age, is releasing a new game on Halloween. It will require I have a console that can play it, and said console (XBox Series X) is nearly $500. I cannot justify spending that much money on something when there's a major debt hanging over us. Nope. Pay off the debt, then have fun.

If you would like to see to it that I have the console, but you don't want anything from my shop and/or you don't want to be known, you can purchase them on my behalf here:

If you provide me with your name and shipping address when you purchase this on my behalf, you will have the option to receive a free quilt, either custom made or something already listed. If you don't want to be known, send it anonymously. Either way, I may very well cry with joy.

For those curious about receiving a free quilt upon me reaching my goal:

Make a donation, or

Purchase work from my shop, or

Commission me, or

Becoming a member.

Any of these will gain you an entry into the giveaway I'm hosting when the goal is reached. Everyone who has helped since the last giveaway is entered, and all my members are automatically entered.

Please reblog this!!!

Examples of my work are listed below the cut:

[freak-accident419]

Helloo, I hope you’re doing alright!! I was wondering if you can make a fic about Josh Futturman that’s set after the show?? Like at around the early 2000s (since they end up in 1999 iirc) And when he meets the reader at his new job he gets a crush on them so he invites them over to hang out :-)

I think it would be cute fluff (like a little kissing) but if you can manage to make it smut that’s good too :P

His Silver Lining

Josh Futturman x GN!Reader

Summary: Josh had been adjusting fairly well to the year 2000 after tragically getting stuck in it. Though for quite a while, he had developed a crush on you ever since he first met you during his new job at Blockbuster. He finally gets the courage to ask you out—which was inviting you over at his place to watch a horror movie.

Word Count: 2.7k

Content: fluff, gender neutral reader, takes place in year 2000 (after season 3 events), Josh uses “Pastman” for a fake name, spoilers for season 3

(A/n: First of all, I’m doing just fine, thanks so much anon !! Second, I don’t know if this was exactly what you wanted based on the request, but I hope it’s okay !! I can’t tell if it’s half-assed, but it was the best I could do!)

-

Josh adjusted quite well to the year 2000. He found a place to live, got a simple job at a Blockbuster store in Pasadena, and almost accepted his life here in this timeline. Sure, he would usually make a few slip ups like the fact that NYSC would break up, Britney Spears’ conservatorship, and the existence of the Xbox, but nobody would think too much of it; to them, they were just wacky, pessimistic predictions—except for the Xbox, of course.

You were a regular customer at the Blockbuster store. You were quite the film buff, immersing yourself in old cinema and classics as you would rent a new movie every twice a week. And it was almost love at first sight for Josh when he saw you at the counter renting The Last Starfighter—it was destiny.

A bit sheepish from how attractive you were to him, he stammered over his words a bit clumsily, which you only smiled admiringly at.

The first thing he noticed about you were your eyes. They were bright and optimistic. With this, it revealed to him that you were quite charming and friendly. The second thing he noticed about you was your style—your fashion was unique, yet delightfully peculiar. It was sort of refreshing to see, which made you stand out compared to anyone else he’s met. And he should’ve seen this first if it weren’t for your eyes, but the third thing he noticed was your smile. It was so beautiful that he couldn’t believe that it was himself that brought you to grin like that.

“‘The Last Starfighter’? Really?” Josh asked after he came out of the trance you put him in, ringing you up.

“Yeah, I know, I… It’s a bit of a classic, hell, I was, like, nine years old when it came out, but… Y’know… I’m just… Expanding my horizons. I kinda just immerse myself in mostly eighties movies,” you chuckle. The cashier was endearingly dorky to you. He had soft brown hair and eyes, with a cute smile, undeniably caused by you. You’ve never seen him before however, and you came here frequently, so you assumed he was a new hire.

The movie you’re renting would only remind himself of his own life—how his video game became reality, bringing him into the most traumatizing and insane adventures. Hell, it took him a month to finally stop seeing his parents from afar ever since he got trapped in this timeline. So the subtle mention of it would have sparked melancholic nostalgia in him under different circumstances, but right now, he was far too distracted from how pretty you were.

“Yeah, it’s… it’s an alright movie, I’d say,” he replied with a faint chuckle, reinforcing your belief in the film as you took out your cash to purchase the rental.

“Hey, so, um, are you new here?” You asked briefly.

“Yeah. Yeah, I am. Did I—did I make it that obvious? Like was there something unprofessional I did—”

“No, god, no,” you giggled—it was the sweetest thing Josh had ever heard in a long, long time. “It’s just—I’m a regular here. Rent movies all the time. Usually Brandon or Steffie rings me up. When did you start?” You asked, watching him place your money in the register, then retrieving the amount of change you had.

“Oh, like, a week ago,” he answered, giving you your change.

“Well,” you peered at his name tag, “Josh. Welcome to Blockbuster. Get used to seeing this face every twice a week.”

He chuckled softly to himself, almost in fluster as well, because he knew he would look forward to be seeing you frequently. “I’ll look forward to it, um…” He trailed off with anticipation as he handed you the VHS tape and receipt.

“Y/n,” you grinned, taking it in your hands and making your way to the exit.

And so, the last thing he noticed about you was the silver ring on your right index finger.

***

It was like this for a couple of weeks. You would come in, get a movie, exchange smiles and giddy laughter, then leave. He would observe the movies you would rent, though he would also occasionally make some more accidental slip ups about the future:

“‘Dead Poets Society’?” He raised an eyebrow as he looked at the VHS cover. You nodded pridefully. The image of Robin Williams caught his attention. “A shame he died. He was awesome.”

“Neil Perry? Yeah, I suppose,” you reply.

“Wh—Oh,” Josh stammered in realization.

***

“‘Dawn of the Dead’? Hell yeah! That man, Zack Snyder, is a genius.” He declared with a wide grin.

“Who?”

He looked back at the cover. This was the 1978 movie. The Zack Snyder version wouldn’t come out until four years from now. “Oh.”

***

You brought up a ‘Back to the Future’ VHS at the counter, causing Josh to raise an eyebrow.

“Huh.” How ironic.

***

You came into the Blockbuster store once again. Over time, your crush on Josh only increased. There was something about his dorky, sweet, awkwardness that charmed you, that even on days you didn’t feel like watching a movie, you went anyways and rented one as an excuse to see him again.

Today, Josh had a confident mindset—this was the day he was going to ask you out. He felt very prepared to speak to you once you would walk up to the counter with a movie.

“Hey, Josh,” you smile softly as you see him at the counter.

“Oh, hey, Y/n. Got any specific movie you’re looking for, or are you just gonna browse today?”

“Well, now that you mention it,” you began, “Do you have any movie suggestions for me?” You walk to the front counter where he was, crossing your arms on the surface with an expecting smile on your face.

“Hm. Depends,” he answered. “What, um… genre are you looking for?”

“Not sure,” you shrugged. “Just anything. Any movie you’d like.”

“A movie I like?”

“Yeah,” you smile.

“Why me?”

“Eh. I guess I trust your taste.”

With an attractive chuckle under his breath, he led you to a specific aisle of the store. Then, he finally grabbed a movie for you.

“Sleepaway Camp?” You raise an eyebrow as you gently took the VHS from his hands.

“Yeah. Yeah, um, it’s a really great horror movie,” he claimed. While Josh would usually be scared shitless of this kind of slasher, he was so desensitized to nearly everything due to all of his time travel adventures. He witnessed his companions chop up his co-workers and saw his work crush’s head explode right in front of him. And plus, he already watched this movie, so he knew where all the scary parts were.

“Horror movie? I don’t know if I’m much of a horror person,” you bit the inside of your cheek and smile kindly.

“Wait. You’re scared of horror movies?”

“I didn’t say I was scared—”

“I think it’s heavily implied.”

“No, I… I quite enjoyed the—The Silence of the Lambs and—”

“No, no, no, Y/n, that’s different. Like, you gotta watch Sleepaway Camp. It’s crazy. Like, insane,” he emphasized.

“I don’t know, man,” you laugh softly.

It’s now or never, Josh thought. “Okay, okay, how about this: we watch it together. At my place. I have a TV and microwavable popcorn. I can even let you know where the jump scares are and everything,” he initiated endearingly.

You offer a coy smile as you fidget with the ring on your finger. “Josh Pastman, are you seriously asking me out?” Because his six-year-old self exists in the same timeline as him now, he would’ve had to have a cover name—which was actually the same one he used back at the meth lab.

You could swear you saw his face flush red a second after you said this, making you giggle to yourself.

“I—Well. Sorta. Well. Only if—if you—if you would want to—”

“I’d love to, Josh,” you interrupted charmingly, looking at the back cover of the VHS’ clamshell to skim through the movie’s details.

“W-wait, really?” He blurted in surprise. While he did intend to ask you out, he never really expected you to actually accept it—his self confidence was fairly low and the poor man has never gotten a break.

“I mean, yeah, sure, why not? Bold of you to suggest a horror movie for our first movie together, though,” a smug smile appeared on your lips. You suspected he would choose it because you would inevitably cuddle with him in fear. It really wasn’t his intention, though. It was genius, nonetheless. “Hm. Respect.”

Josh stammered over his words, slightly abashed. “I—Wait—No, that’s—”

“I’m just messing with you.”

He sighed in relief. He was adorable. “Okay, so, the movie’s fine? We can—we can change it—”

“It’s all good, Pastman,” you laugh. “Don’t sweat it. I’m gonna be busy for the upcoming days, so is tonight gonna be alright with you?”

“Yeah. Yeah! That’s—that’s perfect!”

You scoffed playfully at his mannerisms. “I’ll see you then, Josh.”

“I’ll—Yeah! Yeah, I’ll see you then!”

***

“Oh my god, I hate you, I fucking hate you,” you breathed in his neck as you held onto him tightly. A quite gruesome, unsettling scene had just appeared on the TV screen, not like it was the first one that occurred, but you were at a point where you couldn’t take it anymore.

Josh was blushing furiously as he felt your warmth on his body, your hands clutching at his shirt, and face buried in his neck. It felt nice for him to protect you, holding you in his arms, feeling his blood rush to his face.

It was an unintentional plan. It practically wasn’t even a plan to begin with. But it was genius nonetheless.

“Hey, it’s not that bad, it’s just shitty special effects of the eighties,” he chuckled, looking down at you.

“Dude. I get nightmares of even the most mildest crap,” you argue.

“Yeah, well, at least we’re not watching The Human Centipede. Now, that shit is fucking crazy.”

You grimace as you hear the title name. “I don’t think I even wanna know what that is.” And you wouldn’t. Not until another 9 years, give or take.

You peek fearfully at the TV screen with uncertainty. “If I see shit like this in my dream tonight, I am going to fucking destroy you,” you claim.

“Oh, really?” Josh raised an eyebrow.

“Well, yeah. I know where you live.” The two of you laugh softly. It was a beautifully, harmonious sound, your laughter. The way your voice overlapped with his, it was a sweet symphony. He had the greatest laugh. You finally moved your face from his neck and looked at him. Then he looked at you. Another calm, shared laugh until he finally grabbed the remote to pause the movie.

As you remained to grip onto his shirt, he glanced at your silver ring. “Hey, what’s—what’s that?”

“What’s what?”

“That!”

“Wh—what?”

“The—the ring.”

“O-oh, my ring?” You chuckled softly as you look at the shiny band hugging your finger.

“Yeah. What’s the—what’s the deal with it?” You raise an eyebrow as you looked at him with playful uncertainty.

“Well, I always believed on ‘the bright side,’ you know? The saying that ‘every cloud has a silver lining’. Like, when shit hits the fan, there’s at least one advantage coming from it.” Josh looked in your eyes as you explained, yourself too preoccupied with the carvings on your ring. “And a silver ring is quite literally sort of like a silver lining. I know—I know it’s corny, but a friend gave it to me, and I guess it means a lot.”

He hums in response, not taking his eyes off you. You were gorgeous. “Take this moment, for example,” you start, finally looking back at him, which elicited another blush on his cheeks. “I am being scared shitless by this fucking eighties horror movie, but… at least I’m watching it with my favorite Blockbuster employee.”

His eyes widened, quite comically as well. “I—I’m your favorite?”

You nod with a polite smile.

“Me?”

“Yes.”

“Not even—not even Steffie or Brandon?”

“N—”

“Not even Matty? He’s, like, everyone’s favorite, he’s so kind, and—”

“Josh! Holy shit!” You exclaimed, giggling at his disbelief. “They’re all nice, yes, but you are definitely my favorite.”

He slightly parted his lips in awe, then grinned sweetly. “Well, I hope you’re happy to know that you’re my favorite customer.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Well, yeah. Even the guy who knows so much about video games, that guy cannot take your place.”

“Oh jeez, so technically I did have competition, huh?”

“Eh, not really. I like you too much.”

Josh actually couldn’t believe he just said that to you. He wanted to play it cool, but his eyes widened once he processed what be just told you.

You blushed softly instead, smiling to yourself as you bit the inside of your cheek. “O-okay, so, why’d you ask me about my ring?”

“Well, initially, I was curious. But also, I thought that if you had to explain and think about something else, you would forget at least some of the scenes in this movie that freaked you out,” he explained.

“Wait, really?”

“I feel a little bad. I don’t want you to get nightmares because of me.”

“Seriously? That’s so sweet of you, Josh.”

“Well, yeah. I mean, it’s not a big deal, anyone wou—”

“I mean, I know that, but,” you intervened, “It’s not just that, you… You’ve always been so amazing to me, you know? You’re kind, and charming, and patient, and… you are really funny.” Josh smiled at you bashfully as you chuckle. You were so charmed by him. He stood out to you, and you didn’t really know why. He was kind and considerate, like everyone else, except it wouldn’t feel the same—in the best way possible. Josh paid close attention to you. He genuinely admired you. “You’re a really great guy, Josh. I would… definitely be lying to myself if I said I wasn’t crushing on you for a while now.”

His eyes widened, and you just smiled faintly. “W-wait, really? You—You like me in that way?”

“Um, well, yeah. I thought—Was it not obvious?”

“I—I don’t know, I—”

You both laughed together, feeling nothing but giddiness and contentment.

“But yeah, um, I really like you too,” Josh claimed after the laughter died down. “I just… I looked forward to seeing you every week because you’re just… You’re so amazing! And it just… blows my mind that you like me back, because why would someone as perfect as you, like such a loser like me?”

“Hey, you’re no loser, Josh,” you chuckle. “There’s a reason why I like you, alright?” He let out a scoff, but then nodded with a cute smile on his lips. “Hey. You said I was perfect.”

“Yeah.”

“You really mean it?”

“Of course, I do!”

You looked into his eyes quite intimately. They were brown and doting. He was beautiful.

Your hands were already on him, as you had held onto him tight in reaction to the gory movie scenes. So it wasn’t difficult to trail your hand up to the side of his neck. It seemed like he read your mind, because he remained quiet, shy, yet prepared. His eyes would switch from looking into yours and your lips.

You whisper lightly, “Can I—”

“God, please do—”

You two kissed each other slowly, yet passionately, your hands moving more comfortably to his face as you adjusted your legs slightly. His lips were soft and gentle, moving deeply with yours in the comforting silence of the room. You both were generous with your actions, as well as intimate.

Josh had realized; you were his own silver lining. It absolutely sucked to be trapped in a reality that wasn’t his, a timeline that he was forced to adjust to. That was the shittiest thing about it. But at least you were something great that came out of it all. With all of the calamity and mishap he’s experienced, you seemed to be his only comfort, an anchor to keep him stable in this reality.

You continued to kiss each other, which sort of transitioned into making out, as he held onto your hand, moving his finger gently over your ring. You gave him hope. That life here was going to be okay.

He was going to be okay.

[paleopinesofficial]

The Pumpkin Patch notes!

BIG ONES

Added the Trick or Treat and Spooktacular DLCs.

Added a new ‘strength’ boost which makes it possible to dig up and replant fully grown trees on the ranch, including the pine trees

Added special content which is active during the week of Halloween:

Jack-o’-lantern decor item.

Albino and Melanistic ultra-rares are more likely to spawn.

Fixed Sarcosuchus shadow holes on Low graphics quality.

Tweaked several dino petting poses. 

Fixed being able to place paths in places you couldn’t dig them up from (e.g. the outer ranch fences). You can now dig up these paths.

Foods which provide multiple boosts are now displayed correctly in the journal and cooking UI.

Fixed being able to attempt to shovel poop with a full inventory if it was on a biome tile.

Fixed errors after adding a flourish to the cooking pot if any of the first three inventory slots were empty.

Fixed errors when inspecting Willem or Squillem with the journal.

Fixed the cutscene triggering too early in the “All the Colors of the Rainbow” quest.

Fixed an infinite money exploit involving the Small Water Bowl item.

Fixed a hang when opening the roster if notes had been entered for Lucky.

Paths can no longer be dug up and destroyed by tilling with a dino.

Various small optimizations, especially on rainy days.

Fixed particle colors when eating human food.

Optimized windmill and pine tree models.

Another possible fix for the “Why Can’t I Hold All These Dinos?” achievement (Xbox only).

Any bug reports made over the weekend will be reviewed as soon as we're back on Monday! As always, we want to say a huge thank you to all our players for their continued love and support. We released Paleo Pines one year ago today and we still can't believe what an impact it has made. If you decide to purchase our DLCS, we can'ty think you enough, but eve if you don't we are still so thankful for such an amazing community!

Now, let's get festive this spooky season!

All our love, The Paleo Pines Team.

[multidimensionalsock]

Games engines and their pricings for Indie Devs

Based on Unitys recent changes to their pricing model, I thought it would be useful to put together a list of different game making softwares and their pricing models to compare which would be best for you.

Unreal

Programming language: C++ and visual scripting.

Dimensions: 3D, VR and AR

Platforms: all platforms

Standard license: free to use, pay 5% of your revenue over $1 million over the lifetime of the game, due each quarter (as long as the game is still for sale or generates more them $10k per quarter)

Enterprise: $1.5k+ per seat per year, includes premium support and private training and/or custom licensing terms

Custom licenses: larger developers can renegotiate with epic for lower or waived royalty fees.

More about their licensing here

Gamemaker

Programming language: GML and visual scripting

Dimensions: 2D

Gamemaker doesn't require any royalties made off of your game no matter which license youre on.

Free: access to gamemaker and export that can only be used on their games website (GX.games)

Creator: access to game maker, GX export and desktop export $4.99 a month

Indie: access to the above with web and mobile exports, $9.99 a month.

Enterprise: all of the above but with console exports as well $79.99 a month.

Godot

Programming languages: GDScript, C# and C++

Dimensions: 2D, 3D, AR and VR

Platforms: Not able to port to console due to it being open source unless you develop it yourself or via a third party.

Royalty free and free at point of purchase.

RPG maker

Programming language: Java and visual scripting

Dimensions: 3D (in some), 2D

Platforms: windows, mac, web

Doesn't ask for royalties from games, has a 20 day free trial. RPG maker MZ costs £66.99 initial purchase, costs may vary by which engine you buy.

CryEngine

Programming language: C++

Dimensions: 2D, 3D, VR and AR.

Platforms: Windows, Linux, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Oculus Rift, OSVR, PSVR, and HTC Vive. Mobile support is in development.

5% royalty fee over $5k a year, free to download and use.

Cocos2D

Programming languages: C++, C#, Lua and javascript

Dimensions: 2D

Platforms: android, mac, linux, and win32.

Free to use, no royalties

Cocos creator

Programming languages: TypeScript and JavaScript

Dimensions: 2D and 3D

Platforms: IOS, android, windows, mac, HTML5

Free to use, no royalties

Defold

Programming languages: Lua 5.1 and LuaJIT

Dimensions: 2D and 3D

Platforms: PlayStation®4, Nintendo Switch, Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, Windows, Steam, HTML5, Facebook, Q3 2023 PlayStation®5, Q2 2024 XBox

Free to use, no royalties

Phaser

Dimensions: 2D

Programming languages: JavaScript or TypeScript

Platforms: Web (HTML5)

Free to use, no royalties

Unity

Programming language: C#

Platforms: all platforms

Dimensions: 2D, 3D, VR and AR

Edit: unity has changed their policy you can see the new one here

[puppetboysx3]

South Park Games (Info Post)

this is a blog post about the official South park games , this will include some general info on the games , plus where you can play/buy them , some of these are not games you can play on their original platform so ill include emulators for what I can

South park ( December 21, 1998 ) 

Developed by Iguana Entertainment/Appaloosa Interactive

Published by Acclaim Entertainment

Distributed by Comedy Central 

came out for Nintendo 64 in 1998 

came out for Windows and PlayStation in 1999

first-person shooter , it has both a single player and multiplayer mode 

 N64 emulator 

 PlayStation emulator

South park : Chef's Luv Shack  (October 12, 1999)

Developed by Acclaim Studios AustinPublished by Acclaim EntertainmentDistributed by Comedy Central

came out for N64 , Dreamcast , PlayStation , and Windows in 1999 

Game show style party game 

N64 emulator

PlayStation emulator

South Park Rally (January 5 , 2000)

Developed by Tantalus Interactive

Published by Acclaim Entertainment

Distributed by Comedy Central 

came out for N64 , Dreamcast , PlayStation and windows in 2000 

Simple Racing game 

N64 emulator

PlayStation emulator

 South park Lets go Tower Defense Play (October 7 , 2009) 

Developed by Doublesix, in collaboration with South Park Digital Studios and Xbox Live Productions

Published by Xbox Game Studios

came out only for the Xbox Live Arcade which was a service on Xbox 360

Tower Defense game 

very little info of this game exists online 

South park : Tenorman's Revenge (March 30 , 2012) 

 Developed by Other Ocean Interactive, in collaboration with South Park Digital Studios

 Published by Xbox Game Studios 

came out for Xbox Live Arcade 

Platformer 

South park : The Stick of Truth (March 4 , 2014) 

Developed by Obsidian Entertainment, in collaboration with South Park Digital Studios

Publishing rights purchased by Ubisoft due to THQ filing for bankruptcy, resulting in the game's release being delayed 

Came out for Windows , Playstation 3 , Xbox 360 in 2014

came out for Nintendo switch, Playstation 4, Xbox one in 2018

South park : The Fractured But Whole( October 17 , 2017 ) 

 Developed by Ubisoft San Francisco, in collaboration with South Park Digital Studios, Ubisoft Osaka, Massive Entertainment, Ubisoft Annecy, Ubisoft Reflections, Blue Byte, and Ubisoft Quebec. 

came out for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One in 2017 . came out for Nintendo Switch in 2018

South park : Phone Destroyer (November 9 , 2017) 

Developed by Ubisoft RedLynx, in collaboration with Ubisoft Pune and South Park Digital Studios 

Came out for IOS and Android in 2017 

South park : Snow Day (March 26 ,2024) 

Developed by Question, published by THQ Nordic, in collaboration with South Park Digital Studios 

Comes out for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S 

and an honorable mention to

South park : pinball (1999?)

this is an add-on/DLC to PinballFX 2 & Zen Pinball 2 . also made into a stand only phone game during somewhere around 2014 but was removed due to legal issues 

[miquellah]

✧ After Elden Ring: What Next?

This is intended as a condensed, spoiler-free guide for people who have played Elden Ring and no other Soulsbornes, but are very curious about the rest of the genre. If you were enamored with Fromsoft's game design or lore, and are otherwise new to things, I'm here to peddle you some other potential starting points!

I'll give a lowdown on systems available, DLC available, and some thoughts in regards to each as a starting point post-ER. And just because I like him, also whether or not each game contains our favorite little guy: Patches!!!!!

DARK SOULS 1 (2011) Systems: Playstation, Xbox, WIndows, Steam, Nintendo Switch DLC: purchaseable intact with special editions or purchased in online store (intact: Artorias of the Abyss, Prepare to Die, Remastered)

With slower combat than Elden Ring, and no fast-travel for a good portion of the game, this is often a tough sell for many. Nonetheless the entire Dark Souls saga is a shining gem of its own right, and it all starts here. The setting is somewhat similar to Elden Ring, albeit striking far further into Low Fantasy than High. You may or may not have some growing pains, but don't let that deter you; determination is all very much part of the experience. (And, it's got enough cracks in the code you can sufficiently cheese a lot, should you get fed up and stuck.) Contains Patches, the Trusty.

DARK SOULS 2 (2014) Systems: Playstation, Xbox, Windows, Steam DLC: purchaseable intact with special editions or purchased in online store (intact: Scholar of the First Sin)

Considered by many to be the black sheep of the DS trilogy, given its abrupt change in development direction; nonetheless, it's still a VERY worthwhile title, and a very apt inclusion into the Dark Souls story. Certain mechanics such as a gradual, incremental loss of HP bar per each death MAY seem daunting, but for a mediocre player like me it actually wasn't all that big a deal. You COULD jump into this one as a starting point, but you may as well just go for DS1. Does NOT include Patches (but has a Patches-like).

DARK SOULS 3 (2016) Systems: Playstation, Xbox, Windows, Steam DLC: purchaseable intact with special editions or purchased in online store (intact: The Fire Fades Edition)

Faster-paced in combat than the previous two titles, it serves as a decent starting point from Elden Ring, if only for the relative similarity in feel and mechanics. It also has just a bit more hand-holding that the previous two, though nothing to sand away the bulk of challenges. But as the final title in the trilogy, and intended in and of itself as a send-off, though, if story is your priority then you're best off starting with DS1. Contains Patches, the Unbreakable.

DEMON'S SOULS (2009/2020) Systems: Playstation Only DLC: no expansions, only items

Alright so I haven't played the remake, which also may very well be the most accessible to you unless you have a PS3 and the original discs. Nonetheless, Demon's Souls in and of itself was the predecessor to Dark Souls, and the beginning of the Soulsborne formula itself. It seems a bit simpler on the surface, but there's a lot of brutal charm here all the same, and unique lore you could still dig through for years. Contains Patches, the Hyena.

The remake is most easily available, and has a higher graphical fidelity if you're into that; nonetheless, there's been a lot of understandable qualms about the changes made in much of the art direction from the original, so if you want the true, ORIGINAL intentions in full... well, find yourself a letsplay or a PS3.

BLOODBORNE (2015) Systems: Playstation Only DLC: must be purchased intact in special editions or purchased in online store (intact: The Old Hunters)

Everyone's favorite. Bloodborne is a standalone Soulsborne that gave the genre that latter half of its name, and takes place in a horrific, Victorian-era England. Its primary focus is on offense over defense, and there's a bit less customization available in builds... nonetheless, the trick weapons are fun as all hell. It's got a unique, dreadful atmosphere unlike anything else, and a feel I've been craving to see again anywhere. Contains Patches, the Spider.

SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE (2019) Systems: Playstation, Xbox, Windows, Steam, Stadia ?? DLC: no expansions, only items

While NOT a true Soulsborne, it's considered by many to be within the fringes of the formula. I personally still have yet to play this one, but the combat is apparently fast-paced, and primarily focused on deflections, with a story centered in fictionalized Sengoku Japan. It's been praised consistently and highly by many, but may have a bit of a learning curve. Does NOT include Patches, to my knowledge.

ARMORED CORE VI: FIRES OF RUBICON (2023) Systems: Playstation, Xbox, Windows, Steam DLC: none. yet?

.... Okay this one isn't a Soulsborne at all. It's actually the long-awaited revival of Fromsoft's Armored Core series, and it's a mech game. But do you like crazy customization in builds? Do you love Fromsoft's lore and stories, and want to see their unique writing in a fresh, yet still crazily strong take? Do you LOVE critiques of hypercapitalism and want to see it all burn? Please play AC6. Please. It was so fucking good. (Doesn't contain Patches, but he DID appear in AC4: For Answer)

_________________________________________

And that's that! If you feel I missed anything, or have any further questions, don't hesitate to add anything on or shoot me a message. Elden Ring has brought sooo many new people into the fold and there's so much more for you to discover!!! Don't ever be afraid to try out the rest, challenge yourself, and fall in love!! ദ്ദി(˵ •̀ ᴗ - ˵ ) ✧

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

I have leveled up after another trip around the sun!

Plans we had made for the day are mostly scrapped because it's raining, and I did a lot two days ago. We're still going to the GF bakery though. I get a free drink and a discount on a treat.

It's 5AM, I'm done sleeping (I rarely sleep more than six hours), and Bubby will be I'm bed another four hours. Looks like breakfast (in an hour because adhd med) and gaming to start my morning. I finished a mug rug top yesterday, so machine quilting that in an hour or two.

If you wanna give me a good day, please consider making a purchase from my shop. Use BDAY24 for a 25% discount on your purchase. It applies to everything, including the original paintings. If you do purchase my paintings, I will be ecstatic!!!

If a gift is something you would rather send, I have a Throne wishlist here. What I need is a printer. I also have a quilting frame there, batting, watercolor paint, books, and an XBox Series X but that thing is a gift for my husband. He turn 50 in a couple months and his console is an original XBox One. If you order anything and the total is $150+ USD, I'll apply it as a credit towards a future commission from me.

As for what we're gonna do today...I'll likely spend it it sewing. I need to finish commissions and have quite the To Do List for the summer. If we didn't need the money, I would keep commissions closed until next year. Alas, that's not a viable option until Bubby finds employment. He's been denied unemployment assistance because his former boss lied. The check he receives from the state for being my caregiver, plus my monthly SSDI payment, covers our mortgage and most of our bills. We greed-flation makes groceries expensive, plus other necessities are overpriced. I have a single pair of shoes and would like to get a second pair, I need new underwear because several of mine are getting threadbare, new pants for sleeping in because two pairs of my pajama pants are also very threadbare, and yeah...

If you would like to send money:

Mark money sent directly to my PayPal as a gift. I will otherwise need to return it because PayPal will demand a tracking number.

We will likely need around $800 to get through the month.

Thank you!

[randomisedgaming]

A list of of the Xbox 360 DLC still up to buy in the store! Along with all delisted DLC we are aware of.

With just over a week list we've put together a quick list of every game where the DLC is still up to buy in the UK store. They may be delisted in your region however. This list was made using the all search list, which is still up at present expect it to disappear on the 29th of July.

Link here: https://marketplace.xbox.com/en-GB/Games/All?SortBy=Title&PageSize=90

Change the letters GB to the letters used for your region of the website North America is US for example.

All the games listed have at least one of their DLCs still up in the store, some DLC content may be delisted already and a few still show in the store and can't be purchased as we found out with the Map Pack for Ninety-Nine Nights II yesterday when we tried to buy it.

This is a full list and includes all games, some have the DLC on Xbox One / Series others do not. Some games like N+ and Lost Planet 2 have DLC on Xbox 360, but not in the Xbox One Store.

Some games like Fallout 2 and Star Wars The Force Unleashed have complete version. Others like Mass Effect, Borderlands 2 and Two Worlds have version with some of the DLC on disc, but not all.

I've tried to list free DLC and Compatibility Pack for games, but as I've done this in a hurry I haven't labeled them all. Hopefully I didn't miss any from the official marketplace webaite, but let me know if I did.

I've tried to list all games with their full name, but the shop's A-Z has some odd listings, something they list them by the word "the" but not others. Some games are just initials, some use the full name like Tony Clancy's etc.. others skip the author name and just use Splinter Cell.

Example Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes turns up in the C listing.

I've included a very rough list of delisted or unobtainable DLC at the bottom which is a work in progress. At some point in the future, I might try and turn this into a full list of games with DLCs.

All Xbox 360 Games With DLC in UK

0-9 Numbers

0 Day Attack On Earth

0D Beat Drop

3D Ultra Minigolf

A

A Kingdom For Keflings

A World Of Keflings

AFL Live

Alan Wake

Alice: Madness Returns

Alien Hominid HD

Alien Spidy

Alien: Isolation

Aliens Vs Predator

Aliens: Colonial Marines

Anarchy Reigns

Ancients Of Ooga

Arcana Heart 3

Arcania

Arkanoid Live!

Armored Core V (Has Compatibility Pack)

Armored Core: Verdict Day (Has Compatibility Pack)

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood

Assassin's Creed II

Assassin's Creed Revelations

Assassin's Creed III

Assassin's Creed Rogue

Assassin’s Creed IV

Assault On Dark Athena

Asura's Wrath

B

Band Of Bugs

Banjo Kazooie: N N B

Bastion

Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman: The Telltale Series

Battle Vs Chess

Battlefield 3

Battlefield 4

Battlefield Hardline

Battlestations Pacific

Battlestations: Midway

Beautiful Katamari

Bellator: MMA Onslaught

Binary Domain

Bioshock

Bioshock 2

Bioshock Infinite

Birds Of Steel

Blazblue Continuum Shift Extend

Blazblue Continuum Shift (Has Compatibility Pack)

Blood Bowl

Blue Dragon

Bomberman Battlefest

Bomberman Live

Borderlands

Borderlands 2

Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel

Brink

Brütal Legend

Bubble Bobble Neo!

Bulletstorm

Bulletwitch

The Bureau

Burnout Revenge

C

Command & Conquer 3

Command & Conquer Red Alert 3

Command & Conquer Kane's Wrath

Caladrius

Call Of Duty 2

Call Of Duty 3

Call Of Duty: Advanced Warfare

Call Of Duty: Black Ops

Call Of Duty: Black Ops II

Call Of Duty: Black Ops III

Call Of Duty: Ghosts

Call Of Duty Modern Warfare

Call Of Duty Modern Warfare2

Call Of Duty Modern Warfare3

Call Of Duty World At War

Call Of Juarez: Bound In Blood

Capcom Arcade Cabinet

Carcassonne

Carnival Games: In Action (Subtitled: Monkey See, Monkey Do In North America)

Cars 2: The Video Game

Castle Crashers

Castlestorm

Castlevania HD

Castlevania: Lord Of Shadows

Castlevania: Lord Of Shadows 2

Champion Jockey

Child Of Light

Choplifter HD

Civilization Revolution (Three DLCs are not available for purchase on Xbox One)

Conflict: Denied Ops

Costume Quest

Crackdown (Game And DLC Is Free To Download)

Crackdown 2 (Game And DLC Is Free To Download)

Crazy Machines Elements

Crimson Alliance

Crossboard 7

Crystal Quest

D

Dance Central

Dance Central 2

Dance Central 3

Dance Evolution

Dante's Inferno (Trials DLC Delisted)

Dark

Dark Souls

Dark Souls II (Has Compatibility Pack)

Dark Void

The Darkness

Darksiders II

Darkstalkers Resurrection

Dragon Ball: Raging Blast

Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3

Dead Island

Dead Island Riptide

Dead Or Alive 5

Dead Or Alive 5 Last Round

Dead Rising

Dead Rising 2

Dead Rising 2 Off The Record

Dead Space

Dead Space 2

Dead Space 3

Dead To Rights Retribution (DLC is free, but only in North America, delisted in Europe)

Deadfall Adventures

Deadliest Warrior

Deadliest Warrior: Legends

Deathspank: Thongs Of Virtue (Achievement DLC)

Defense Grid

Destiny

Deus Ex: Human Revolution

Diablo III: Reaper Of Souls

Dirt 2

Dirt 3 (All bar Online Pass delisted, needed for online play and only sold in Xbox 360 Store)

Dirt Showdown

Dishonored

Disney Infinity 3.0

Disney Universe

DmC

Dark Messiah Might & Magic: Elements

Dogfight 1942

Dollar Dash

Domino Master

Doritos Crash Course

Dragon Age: Origins

Dragon Age 2

Dragon Age: Inquisition

Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen

Duke Nukem Forever

Dungeon Defenders

Dungeon Siege III

Dynasty Warriors 6 Empires (All Free)

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2 (All Free)

Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 3

Dynasty Warriors: Strikeforce

Dynasty Warriors 7

Dynasty Warriors 8

E

Earth Defense Force 2025

Earth Defense Force: Insect Armageddon (DLC not sold in Xbox One store)

Enemy Front

Enslaved

Escape Dead Island (All Free DLC)

Exit (All Free DLC)

Exit 2

F

F.E.A.R. 2

Fable Anniversary

Fable II

Fable III

Fable: The Journey

Fallout 3

Fallout: New Vegas

Fantastic Pets

Far Cry 2

Far Cry 3

Far Cry 4

Fight Night Champion

Final Fantasy XIII-2

Fist Of The North Star: Ken’s Rage

Fist Of The North Star: Ken’s Rage 2

Front Mission Evolved

Frontlines: Fuel Of War

Frozen Free Fall: Snowball Fight (Free Game With £40+ Worth Of DLC)

Fruit Ninja Kinect

Full House Poker

Funtown Mahjong

G

Guilty Gear Xx Accent Core Plus (Free DLC Upgrades Game To R Revision)

Game Of Thrones

Gears Of War

Gears Of War 2 (All Free)

Gears Of War 3

Gears Of War Judgement

Get Fit With Mel B

Ghost Recon: Future Soldier

Ghostbusters: Sanctum Of Slime

Gin Rummy

Goat Simulator

Golf: Tee It Up!

Gotham City Impostors

Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto V

Grid Autosport

Gripshift

Gyromancer

H

Halo 3

Halo 4

Halo Wars

Halo Reach

Hard Corps: Uprising

Hell Yeah! Wrath Of The Dead Rabbit

Hitman: Absolution

How To Survive

Hydro Thunder

I

IL-2: Birds Of Prey

Ilomilo

Infinite Undiscovery (All Free)

Injustice: Gods Among Us

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet

Iron Brigade

J

Joe Danger Special Edition

Joe Danger 2: The Movie

Just Cause 2

Just Dance 2014

Just Dance 2015

Just Dance 3

K

Kameo

Kane & Lynch 2

Kane And Lynch: Dead Men

Killer Is Dead (One DLC Smooth Operator Pack not sold on Xbox One)

Kinect Fun Labs (Air Band, Avatar Kinect, Battle Stuff, I Am Super!, Junk Fu, Kinect Rush: Snapshot, Musical Feet,

Mutation Station) (All Free) (Some Expansion Delisted)

Kinect Party - Base Game

Kinect Sports

Kinect Sports: Season Two

Kinectimals

Kinect Joy Ride (All Free)

King’s Quest – Ch. 1

King's Quest

King Of Fighters XII, The

King Of Fighters XIII, The

Kung Fu Panda: Showdown of Legendary Legends

L

L.A. Noire (Complete retail edition features all DLC and the PS3 exclusive case not sold on Xbox 360. It also restores the DLC quest back to their intended place in the story making for a far better version of the game, than the base one)

Lara Croft And The Guardian Of Light

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead 2

Lego Batman 2

Lego Batman 3 Beyond Gotham

Lego Marvel

Lego Movie Videogame

Lego Rock Band

Lego Star Wars II

Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7

Lego Jurassic World

Lego Marvel's Avengers

Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Life Is Strange Episode 1

Lightning Returns Final Fantasy Xiii

Lma Manager 2007

Lococycle (Free DLC Is Required To Play Game, So Download It)

Lode Runner

Lost Odyssey

Lost Planet 2 (One Pack Not Sold In Xbox One Store, Map Pack 1)

Lost Planet 3

Lumines Live! (Two free DLCs are only up for download on Xbox One)

M

Madballs Babo: Invasion

Mafia II

Magic 2015 (Free DLC Magic 2015—Garruk’s Revenge Must Search For As Game Is Delisted DLC isn't)

Marathon: Durandal

Mark Of The Ninja

Marvel Puzzle Quest

Mass Effect (Pinnacle Station DLC Only On Xbox 360)

Mass Effect 2

Mass Effect 3

Max Payne 3 (All Free Compatibility Packs Needed For Online)

Medal Of Honor

Medal Of Honor Warfighter

Mega Man 9

Mega Man 10

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

Metal Slug XX

Meteos Wars

Metro 2033

Metro: Last Light

Middle-Earth: Shadow Of Mordor

Might & Magic Clash Of Heroes (Achievements)

Mighty No. 9

Mindjack

Mirror's Edge

Monday Night Combat

Monopoly Plus

Moon Diver

Mortal Kombat [9] (Most DLC Is Delisted Only Compatibility Packs Remain Up, Must Use Search To Find)

Motionsports: Adrenaline

Motogp13

Mud

MX VS ATV Reflex

N

N+ (Still Up, DLC Is Only Up On 360 To Buy, One Is Free)

Naruto Storm R

Nat Geo Quiz! Wild Life

Naughty Bear Panic In Paradise

Need For Speed Most Wanted

Need For Speed Carbon

Need For Speed Rivals

Need For Speed Undercover

Nier

Ninety-Nine Nights II (3 DLC's The Map Pack Said It Is Delisted In The Uk When You Try To Buy It And Errors. Use Search To Find)

Ninja Blade (Free DLC, Use Search To Find)

Ninja Gaiden II

Ninja Gaiden 3

Ninja Gaiden 3 Razor's Edge

Novadrome

O

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Wizard's Tower DLC Errors When You Try To Buy On Xbox One)

Omerta - City Of Gangsters

Onechanbara

Orcs Must Die!

Outpost Kaloki X

P

PAC-MAN Championship Edition DX+

Painkiller Hell & Damnation

Payday 2

Peggle

Perfect Dark Zero

Photo Party (Free Game / App For Xbox Vision / Camera)

Pinball FX2

Plants VS Zombies Garden Warfare

Port Royale 3

Portal 2

Prey (All Free DLC)

Prince Of Persia (2008 Retail Title)

Prison Architect: Xbox 360 Edition

Project Sylpheed (Free DLC, New Missions)

Prototype 2

Puzzle Arcade

Puzzle Bobble Live!

Puzzle Quest

Q

Qix++

Quantum Conundrum

R

Rabbids Invasion: The Interactive TV Show (Warning Do Not Buy Ubisoft Season Pass As It Doesn't Work)

Race Pro

Rage

Raskulls

Red Dead Redemption

Red Faction: Armageddon

Red Faction: Battlegrounds

Red Faction: Guerrilla

Remember Me

Renegade Ops

Resident Evil 0

Resident Evil 5

Resident Evil 6

Resident Evil Operation Raccoon City

Residen Evil Revelations

Residen Evil Revelations 2 (Digital Edition)

Ride To Hell: Retribution

Ridge Racer Unbounded

Rise Of The Tomb Raider

Risen 2: Dark Waters

Risen 3 Titan Lords

Rock Band

Rock Band 2

Rock Band 3

Rock Band Blitz

Rocksmith 2014 Edition

Rugby League Live 2 (Has Compatibility Pack)

Rumble Roses XX

S

Sacred 2 Fallen Angel

Sacred 3

Sacred Citadel

Saints Row

Saints Row 2

Saints Row IV

Saints Row: Gat Out Of Hell

Saints Row: The Third

Samurai Warriors 2 (Xtreme Legends Upgrade, Expensive DLC)

Sanctum 2

Scarygirl

Scene It? Box Office Smash! (DLC Is Called Award Winners)

Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster

Skate 3

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Sleeping Dogs

Small Arms

Sniper Elite 3 (Has Compatibility Pack)

Sniper Elite V2 (Has Compatibility Pack)

Sniper Ghost Warrior

Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 (Has Compatibility Pack)

Soltrio Solitaire

Sonic & All-Stars Racing

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed

Sonic Adventure

Sonic Adventure 2

Sonic Generations

Sonic The Hedgehog (2006)

Sonic Unleashed

South Park The Stick Of Truth

Space Invaders Extreme

Space Invaders: Infinity Gene

Spelunky (Game Delisted DLC Still Up To Buy Two Items)

Spider-Man 3

Split/Second

Splosion Man

SSX

Stacking

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II

State Of Decay

Steel Battalion Heavy Armor

Stranglehold

Strania

Street Fighter III: Online Edition

Street Fighter IV

Street Fighter X Tekken

Stuntman: Ignition

Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition

Supreme Commander 2

T

Tom Clancy's Endwar

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Vegas 2

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Blacklist

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Conviction

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent

Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Test Drive Unlimited 2

Texas Hold'em

The Crew (Bonkers I Know As The Game Has Had It's Servers Turned Off, But You Can Buy The DLC For This Dead Game!)

The Evil Within

The First Templar

The Gunstringer (one Is Free Two Are Paid For)

The Last Remnant

The Maw

The Outfit (All Free Map Packs)

The Raven Episode 1

The Walking Dead: Michonne - Episode 1

The Walking Dead: Season Two

The Wolf Among Us

Thief

Things On Wheels

Thrillville: Off The Rails

Ticket To Ride

Timeshift

TNT Racers

Tomb Raider

Tomb Raider Underworld

Tomb Raider Anniversary

Tomb Raider Legend

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5

Too Human (Game And DLC Is Free To Download)

Trials Fusion

Trials HD

Tropico 4

Tropico 5

Two Worlds II (One Of The DLCS Is Not In Game Of The Year Edition And Has To Be Bought "Defense")

U

Ugly Americans: Apocalypsegeddon

V

Vampire Rain

Vanquish

Vigilante 8 Arcade

Virtua Fighter 5

Virtua Fighter 5 Final Showdown

Viva Piñata

W

The Walking Dead

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine

Warriors Orochi 3

Watch Dogs

Way Of The Samurai 3

Worms

Worms 2: Armageddon

Worms: Ultimate Mayhem

Wreckateer

Wrecked Revenge Revisited

X

XCOM: Enemy Unknown

Y

Yosumin! Live

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's Decade Duels Plus

Yu-Gi-Oh! Millennium Duels

Z

Zombie Driver HD

# - Symbols

虫姫さまふたり / Mushihimesama-Hutari-Black-Lavel (Japanese Game, DLC Listed For UK Owner Who Had The Game)

Delisted Games With DLC

Ace Combat 6

Ace Combat: Assault Horizons

Airmech Arena

Angry Birds Trilogy

Army Of Two

Army Of Two The Devil’s Cartel

Army of Two: The 40th Day

Batman: Arkham Origins

Battlefield: Bad Company

Battlefield Bad Company 2

Chromehounds

Crysis 3

Eets: Chowdown

Fantasia: Music Evolved

Final Fantasy XI: Seekers Of Adoulin (Online Only)

Forza Horizon

Forza Horizon 2

Forza Motorsport 3

Forza Motorsport 4

Grid 2

Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition

Hellboy: The Science Of Evil (DLC Was Never Released, But Achievements For It Were Added)

Hunted Demon’s Forge (Pre-order DLC Only Never Sold)

Just Dance (Need To Research Which Others Had DLC Likely Most)

Kinect Nat Geo TV

Kingdoms Of Amalur: Reckoning

Kinect Sparkler (Delisted Still In Store Won't Let You Buy It)

Kinect Star Wars (C-3P0 Background Dancing DLC Only Sold With R2d2 Xbox 360 Units.)

Kingdom Under Fire: Circle Of Doom

Kung Fu Strike

Lego Dimensions (Delisted, May Need The Lego Models To Obtain Some Of The DLC)

Lollipop Chainsaw (Pre-order DLC Only Never Sold)

Lord Of The Rings: Conquest

Magnacarta 2

Mercenaries 2

Minecraft: Story Mode

Minecraft: Story Mode - Season Two

Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition

Naruto Rise Of A Ninja

Need For Speed Shift

Need For Speed Shift 2

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax (Had Compatibility Pack)

Project Gotham Racing 3

Project Gotham Racing 4

Phantom Breaker:Battle Grounds

Pinball FX

Race Driver: Grid

Section 8

Skate 2

Skullgirls

Skydrift

Snoopy Flying Ace

Soulcalibur IV

Soulcalibur V

Syndicate (Limited Edition Version Had Gold Weapons And Scanner Never Sold)

Tales Of Vesperia

Tales From The Borderlands

Tekken 6 (Pre-order Only Content)

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X

Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X 2

Test Drive Unlimited

The Darkness II (Limited Edition DLC, never sold)

The Lord Of The Rings: War In The North (Weapon Included With Collector's Edition)

The Saboteur

Toy Soldiers

Toy Soldiers: Cold War

Trials Evolved

Undertow

World Of Tanks

Worms Revolution

Follow Randomised Gaming on Tumblr, YouTube, Twitch & Twitter for video gaming & video content! Buy us a tea on Ko-fi

[inkmo]

went to report a rammer on forza and i noticed they had a 'feedback and suggestions' option in their support tickets, so i decided "why not? i have thoughts about this game". two and half hours later my partner had to get my attention to remind me we needed lunch and it was already 4 p.m. my last therapist said i don't have ADD. long rant under the cut. I'm 100% correct, btw.

Generally, i think this is a really great game when everything is working right. It's just about the only one i'm playing these days. I came to it from Assetto Corsa and Gran Turismo, so I have some modest sim racing experience that informs my expectations. Anyway, here is a list of features i'd like to see some day, some comments, etc:

the option to auto-sell most cars that are won in wheel spins when racing online (currently the car goes straight to your garage). Perhaps a slider based on value or rarity. removing cars from my garage by hand is a very time consuming experience.

on that note, i feel some utility to easily manage downloaded tunes, paintjobs, and garage cars would be greatly appreciated. even if it's an external program that doesn't run in game. at current, tunes can only be deleted when you are in the car they apply to, and paints and cars have to be deleted one at a time, which is very time consuming with menu lag (my xbox takes a while to do this each time, and I have had a few marathon sessions where I'd spend half the day just deleting and organizing things in my garage). in the my paints menu, thumbnails take a very long time to load, and deleting one sends you back to the front. perhaps a toggle for whether it is currently on a car in my garage or not would help, too. and a way to see what tune i have on my car and who made it. it's necessary to delete tunes at times because of the limited number you can have. if you don't have the tune in your collection to compare against the car, it can be really easy to forget exactly what you have that car for. my workaround for this has been to devise a paint color system (red cars for power, blue for road and street, orange for dirt, green for offroad, black gray or white for purists, chrome for highway pulls. i think i might need another color specification for hotwheels cars and to differentiate between circuit and sprint cars) but this requires a high number of paints to be saved. my workaround for that is to just buy a fresh car and specify the solid color I want there. this seems to not use a paint save slot. maybe there can be an option to click on for each car in your garage so you can remember if a car is for rally or street racing etc…

and on that note, menus take a very very long time to load, and selections are never acknowledged right away. it's been two years and I still find myself pressing the button repeatedly in menus when i select things because i just can't tell if it really registered or not. sometimes when i enter an event, it can take up to twenty seconds for my thumbnails to load on the car select screen, and this can get a little nerve wracking when the timer's counting down. I still have an xbox one, and i think there is a chance this could be more of an xbox one problem than an fh5 problem.

constraints/settings for events for tire choice, drive train, engine swaps, maybe even a locked tune that can be purchased and installed at the event car selection screen for spec racing and club time trials. for instance, i LOVE RWD dirt racing, but RWD cars are not very competitive when AWD cars are in the mix.

the option to race expert, pro, and unbeatable drivatars if you want in the weekly playlist events. i like these events because they enforce some variety in car choices, and i just like getting to check things off a list, but the actual racing tends to be a snooze.

even unbeatable drivatars tend to do mystifylingly stupid things every race. mostly jerking the wheel hard on straightaways for no reason, or parking it on corner apexes needlessly, especially in sweeping turns where i would expect to be able to follow flat out. i realize that they can't actually be that good if you want to have a chance of catching them in only three laps, but single player often feels like i'm just trying to get past 9 or 10 mobile chicanes so i can actually race with the one or two real competitors up front.

i don't always have xbox live gold, and single player freeroam can be a real shitshow at times. mostly it's encountering drivatars just parked in the middle of the road (I guess they're mimicking real players that pause while driving? I do that sometimes), or that there seems to be a few places on the map that spawn loads of drivatars at once. like i'd almost without fail encounter an 8 to 10 car roadblock on the sweeping downhill south of guanajuato leading to the stadium/street scene for instance. i know horizon life and horizon solo can't be the exact same experience, but i came to find driving in freeroam in horizon solo at times infuriating.

head-to-heads ought to punish players for leaving the road. they always devolve into eliminator style as-the-crow-flies racing when they actually happen. that's just not racing, and it's why i guess you see people doing them so rarely. the real freeroam racing seems to mostly be at the drag strips and on the tarmac side of the mountain. (by the way, the tarmac side of the mountain is a masterpiece. chef's kiss. good work.)

backmarkers should be ghosted in online lobbies. I didn't know this was an issue, but I accidentally rear ended a guy pretty hard the other day who i was going to lap, because I expected to just ghost right through him. I don't think i've ever encountered trouble makers hanging around at one point on track to try and ram the leaders when they come through, so i can't comment as to whether this would help with that. wall riding should maybe be punished harder, too. i saw someone wallriding at HMC in the trial last week, and it was good enough to keep him in front of all the unbeatable drivatars. but that's also the only time i've ever seen someone wallride like that in this game, so it's perhaps not a big problem. i didn't even know it was something i could report people for until today.

can it be possible to turn off some particle effects when racing online? it's pretty common to get stuck behind people who can't or won't put the power down right in fast corners. this makes a smoke screen that's impossible to see through. i'm not sure exactly what amount of power and angle starts making big smoke; I don't notice my tires smoking if I'm using slip angle in a turn, though, and i don't recall seeing drivatars do this.

i use the braking line only setting, because there are just too many car and track choices to truly internalize. i've noticed the braking line tends to 'lie' on hotwheels races. it seems like i'm always braking too late in hard braking zones in hotwheels races, but this doesn't seem to be a problem in mexico or badlands. is it just me?

this is just a polish thing, but what if players that use the borrow car option get a random manufacturer color instead of every car being the default color. just to add some variety to the grid.

another polish thing: the Buick GNX has a bump map or UVs problem on its doors. my 3D modeling knowledge is a little lacking, but SOMETHING makes that car look like it has a big dent in its doors on the trailing edge.

i loved the stock car trials you guys were doing for a minute a year or two ago. i remember the one with the porsche desert flyer was really fun, especially when i realized i could set the car up (this car has a very short gearbox, but it's a race gearbox -- and anyone that didn't think to tune theirs was a sitting duck). on the other hand, i also learned i could get away with building those cars to have more power as long as the PI was still the same as the stock option, so maybe that should be fixed). on the other hand, i thought the mini and landrover offroad B class trial the other week was total dogwater. idk what it was.. maybe i just don't like those cars. the mini john cooper works buggy x-raid seems to be particularly underpowered no matter what i use it for. I would love to see more stock car trials in the future.

i wish we could have the oval in freeroam all the time.

i think you guys did nothing wrong with the blower bentley forzathon. it was early in the game for me and i had to grind to just buy the thing, but i didn't think it was that bad…

an option to fire A class boneshaker drivers into the sun. J/k! A class rods and customs tours tend to turn into boneshaker only, and that's kinda fun. boneshaker cup someday perhaps? consider it won't you? ;-)

((i think the meta is a little wonky in general. for instance, drag tires make for some of the best road racing builds in B class. rally tires are hands down some of the best road racing tires in A class and above. Rally tires are almost never used for rallying because offroads handle dirt better, allow some PI for more horsepower, and aren't that much of a hindrance on road (ex: I won every event in the trial yesterday (A class Lexus Road events) on offroads. I accidentally grabbed one of my rally cars instead of the road build I'd made, but that rally car was still good enough to win). muscle cars with whitewalls seem to be one of the choice build types for hotwheels hazard and offroad events. in fact hotwheels open seems to devolve to a small handful of power meta cars that are the only viable competitors, and that's why i guess it seemed so dead when i was still doing it. I guess my thinking is tire and drivetrain constraints could reel the meta game in a bit, and we'd see fewer people griping about "bring clean cars, no forza aero, tires etc" in looking for group posts and on reddit. after my first couple months playing this game, i had to go and do research about the build/tuning meta because i realized i just wasn't fielding competitive cars most of the time. maybe this is actually the correct way to play the game if you care about it. i've raced enough in sims that i knew racecraft wasn't my issue. and i think this might not ever occur to players that don't already have experience with racing games. i'm not sure it's really possible to learn in game what a 'good' car looks and drives like. the game won't teach you and the autoupgrade seems to be nearly useless in this regard. you have to go looking on reddit or youtube for good tuners to follow, and be willing to take notes.))

that's about everything i can think of off the top of my head right now. this seems like a lot, but i love this game and have thought about it a lot the last couple of years. and i know y'all have done quite a bit to fix things. game crashes are fewer now it seems. i'm genuinely surprised these days if i get it to crash, but it was a pretty common occurrence a year or so ago.

p.s. attaching a fan art i drew of the nissan tsuru just because i like you guys. have a good day :)

oh, i just remembered. the existence of 'rivals lines' strikes me as a problem. this is where the checkpoint gates don't adequately constrain the track boundaries and players can cut, or go way off road to carry more speed into an otherwise slow corner. are these by design?

one more thing. and i can't believe i forgot it because this was at the forefront of my mind when i started writing. we really need some sort of car proximity marker or radar in first person views. like in Assetto Corsa or Gran Turismo. i find 3rd person racing kind of disorienting so i'm always in dash or bonnet view. i think most of the time when i make contact, it's turning into cars that are significantly alongside during corner entry. I just don't know that they're there until it's too late.

[welcome-to-green-hills]

Heh, funny enough, I never played SA2 until a few years ago during the pandemic - mainly because I was born the year before SA2 came out, so...unless 1 year old me could hold a controller properly XD and never had a Dreamcast, and I only learned during the pandemic I could play SA1 and SA2 on my Xbox :3 Best purchases I ever made XD - BUT ANYWAY. I got emotional simply watching cutscenes all these years...And when I finally did complete SA2 myself ;_; Yep...had tears going down my face. Maybe it's the difference between actually playing than just simply watching :3 Just that black screen with the text appearing, and the final shot of Shadow's portrait on the world...

Awww! That’s very sweet, honey. Yeah, that euphoric feeling that you get playing the Adventure series for the first time almost never goes away playing it the second (or third!) time ❤️✨

[lavolamp]

Too late to make a blog?

Hello. In a conversation with friends I decided to start using this Tumblr blog as a means of, well, blogging. I would use some website like Wordpress, Neocities or even Blogspot, because those tend to have features that make organizing blogs by tags a little easier, but I will admit I am a bit vain and don't want to feel like I'm screaming in to a void when I could instead reach out to the remains of Tumblr's userbase post-porn. This is absolutely the best website for it at the moment. And this would also make it easier for people to reach me for whatever reason. I kind of thought of blogs as outdated, because everybody's lives have become so consolidated in to websites like Twittex and Instagram and even this one that leave little room for larger scale personal thoughts and travels. I remember the Myspace or Geocities or Blogspot days where everyone had their own cute little website, and the internet was much smaller so it was easier to find people posting things that fit your interests. Nowadays things are just too huge, so apart of me thinks blogging might be a little ridiculous. But I think there is still a use for these, because I would ultimately like to use this blog to organize my thoughts on things and document my progress on my projects, mainly so that I don't just end up bothering my friends on Discord about stuff, because I'd feel bad. Maybe one of the goals of this blog is to find out if there is a reason to blog in 2024.

I suppose I should introduce myself. I've posted a few pieces of art on this blog before, so as you could guess I'm somewhat of an artist. The medium I primarily work with are comics, because not only are they a very accessible medium to work in but I also just have a deep appreciation for the medium. I'm working on many comics at any given time, but at the moment I'm focusing down on two. A comic made for the Webtoon platform and one that I would like to be published as a book. I'm more enthused about the book than the webtoon. Maybe I'll make a post about that later. Otherwise I'm big into cinema, animated cartoons and especially video games, and one of the two things I pretty much only think about is storytelling. Whenever I am not thinking about that and the other thing, everything in my life kind of feels like a dream. So I suppose this blog will primarily be focused on storytelling, but that's just a means about talking about my opinions on art in general. Otherwise, I think people would tend to describe me as very passionate in my beliefs, which is to say when I like something I really like it, and when I hate something I suddenly transform in to one of the world's leading professional haters. And I guess I'll make you know it. I'm bad about making impulse and useless purchases and I really like chocolate. Don't ask me how many video games I have on Steam or how many tubs of chocolate ice cream I've had stacked sitting in my room at some points.

Anyway, to kick things off I'd like to talk about the last thing I did, which is beat the game Alan Wake II from Remedy games. They've done a few things like the Max Payne games and the critically acclaimed Control, but the Alan Wake series in particular holds a special place in my heart. It was one of the first "triple a" games I ever played, because at that point I had mostly played Nintendo games on GBA, DS and Wii (I played Gamecube games too, don't worry) and adventure type games on my computer. Games outside of PC classics and Nintendo games were a new frontier for me. Earlier in 2010 I got an Xbox 360 in order to play Modern Warfare 2 with the other kids at school, in which afterwards I found out that they all had PS3's instead. But at least I could play Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing with Banjo Kazooie, whom I didn't even like or even ever had played his games but his design is fun so whatever. By the way, no spoilers for Alan Wake or it's sequel here aside from me saying how I felt about the ending.

The original Alan Wake game came out in mid May of 2010. I was about 11 at the time, but I was about to turn 12 as my birthday was at the end of the month. Around when the game came out I ended up catching a lot of press footage and playthroughs showing off the game, and I was just enchanted by it. It was a game that was really nothing like I'd ever seen before. It was dark, gritty, moody, realistic, and revolved around shooting but unlike other 360 games it had this incredibly unique and eerie vibe that pulled me in, and while I didn't really understand the story very much, I thought Alan was a really funny protagonist because he just kind of came across as a dick. Kid me's mind kind of rationalized it as Sonic but he's basically just in the real world. I also thought the main mechanic of the game was also really cool. I guess it sounds too convenient to be true, but I've always loved flashlights. It's a device that's just a beam you can turn on to dispel darkness. I feel like a detective. It's fun to wave them around and point at things, I always kind of thought of them like a really cool sword. I especially love the big ones because it feels like I'm holding a cannon in my hands.

But anyway, everything about the game was just really interesting to me, and in a way it also kind of made me feel a little more adult because of the graphics and tone. So with my birthday at the end of the month, you can imagine what I asked for. In the days leading up to my birthday, I was kind of obsessed with the game and I spoiled much of it for myself. But eventually my birthday came and I finally had the game in my hands! I've still got that copy next to me as I type this. It's in far better condition than my other 360 boxes too, cause my Sonic Unleashed box is in real bad condition. Maybe it's an object of power. Anyway, I played through the game, loved it, loved the twists, scares and turns, surprisingly hilarious characters and utterly beautiful music, and how unique of a protagonist Alan was. But then, I beat the game. I won't spoil the ending, but it's the kind of ending where I'm still not sure how it's designed to make you feel. It's basically a cliffhanger, (and while there eventually was DLC that continued the story I never got around to playing it and none of it really took the story anywhere) and it left a longing in me. I wanted more. I wanted to see what happened to Alan and the people in his life. But the game didn't provide any real closure. Afterwards I scoured the internet for answers, reading other people's theories and consuming all the lore in the game that I missed, obsessively trying to get a a straight answer, any kind of meaning. I desperately wanted someone to tell me anything so I could know how to feel. Nothing else before really left me like this! You know how a lot of people, especially in the past decade enjoy watching videos that explain the lore of their favourite games, like Dark Souls or Five Night's at Freddy's? That was me with this game. But it wasn't just for the sake of consuming content, I needed closure. But I couldn't find it. I guess like Alan I was left wandering in the darkness fruitlessly searching for a way out of this headspace this stupid game got me in. Sonic had fucking closure. I was happy I had the experience, but other games had closure!

By the way this is kind of irrelevant, but in case you're wondering why my parents would let me play games like this at a young age like that, I think my dad stopped caring after I had a little argument with him in 2008 when Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out and it had a T rating but then he saw the game was fine. Or maybe he just thought I could take it, or maybe he just didn't care. He let me play No More Heroes, which, for the uninitiated, is not a child's game.

Anyway, I eventually got bored of searching for answers and my interest in the game eventually faded into the background. As I grew older I didn't forget about the game. I still listened to the music from time to time, but it definitely became a second thought, and sometimes I felt it might have been because of the ending. Sometimes though, periodically, I would revisit the game. Watch the cutscenes, look at the ending again, try to formulate a theory. It was still a game I liked, but I couldn't kick the feeling of a giant blueballing. But as you grow up, you change, and experiences you just had become a nostalgic memory. I don't think you change as much as people say you do, I think it's more like you realize things about yourself as you're able to better articulate your feelings into words. As I grew up, and now I think I almost fully realize, is that I kind of love not knowing some things. Maybe not in like a, hell yeah I love not having answers kind of thing, but I find it's utterly intoxicating. Witnessing the rise of Dark Souls and Five Nights at Freddy's in the 2010s and also being able to think about storytelling on a deeper level, I realized something that seems kind of insane to me. Alan Wake is a video game with a definitive beginning and a definitive end. At some point, the game runs out of content to show you and you will have inevitably seen and done everything. But what if I told you there was a way to keep the game going even after it's exhausted it's digital limits?

You probably know where this is going, but I realized that it wasn't the fact that Alan Wake had an ending with a ton of closure that kept it going in my mind, it was the that it left a ton of things unanswered! There are so many pieces of media I've played, or watched where it just ends, and while I enjoy them I never really paid a second thought to them afterwards. They just fade. But Alan was a light that continued to burn bright in my mind. This feeling of longing that I had after beating it, in a way that's better than just a happy ending. Other works of fiction have used this to their advantage. I don't think it's any coincidence any time David Lynch gets his hands on Twin Peaks, which Alan Wake is teetering very close on being a ripoff of sometimes, it ends on things that leave you with a billion more questions than you came in with. Sam Lake and Lynch understand the power of planting a seed in your head. Because that not only lets the work of art live far past it's expiration, but that's where the imagination also flourishes. There are so many other people who come up with theories trying to interpret these works of art, and because of this I don't think they'll ever truly die. Now, I don't think every piece of art should do this, because I will admit, most of the time it is nice to just have a neat bow placed on something. But like every device in a story, it is merely a tool that is waiting for the right time to be used. Even in stories with closure we can use this to keep things going, the possibilities are never ending. It's so exciting to think about.

But like I said, as time passes other things take precedent. Other works of art and stuff, so these things, even Alan Wake will eventually fade in to the background. The game if I recall sold well and became a cult classic through word of mouth. Even some of my normie friends know about the game. But I never really thought it would continue. Mainly because of the open ended nature of the ending and the fact it isn't an uber popular game that exists in a gaming environment where the maximum amount of money needs to be pumped in to every game in order to make the maximum amount of money back, which is why to my absolute jaw dropping, during the Game Awards 2021, a fucking Alan Wake II was announced. When the trailer first came on, I had my suspicions it might be Alan Wake II, because even in my faded memory I could still recall the layout of the main town in the game. And then he showed up, it was fucking Alan Wake. Rocking a beard and looking very conspicuously a lot more like John Wick, but still, it was him. The title dropped and I couldn't believe it. It was actually happening. Now, this was already kind of insane year for me in games. Because it just so happened not one, but THREE other games I liked a ton as a kid got sequels I thought were utterly impossible earlier that year. In the same week no less, Psychonauts 2 and No More Heroes 3 came out! And then a couple of months later, a Metroid 5! Hell, Mega Man 11 also came out in 2018. What the hell was going on? Why are all these old ass games that I thought were just made for me getting sequels? Now, of all times? I guess nostalgia plays a big part in getting these made, but it's still kinda weird. Hell, even Shadow the Hedgehog is getting his own fucking game this year. If a Portal 3 happened, I think that might just be a sign of the end times. But, regardless, because of this, I also have to wonder if, just like starting a blog in 2024, if it's just kind of too late to make sequels to these kinds of games.

Admittedly, I don't think about this topic a ton, because at heart I'm a consumer of media and much of the time I like to see things I like get continued, but the adventures of Alan Wake is a weird one. This is a game that opened me up to the idea of never getting closure, but here we are with a sequel. It could either do two things, give us closure and kill the vibe or continue not giving us answers and leave us feeling the exact same way the original game did.

Because I'll finally cut to the chase, I think Alan Wake 2 is pretty much a perfect video game. The new survival horror gameplay that is apparently just ripping off Resident Evil 2 now was great, the puzzles were great, the scares were legitimately good, the music was still amazing, the game was funnier and had even more quirky characters and moments than the first one, and the story was very well thought out! I would recommend it instantly. Despite all the differences from the original game in gameplay, tone and even featuring a new protagonist, it still felt like a perfect followup. But I beat the game, got to the ending...and to what I suppose is not justified shock, I felt exactly the same completing Alan Wake 2 as I did completing Alan Wake 1 all those years ago. I feel a longing. Maybe not as painful, but it's still there. But for the record, I think this is a really cool thing, I think that just proves Sam Lake and the team at Remedy haven't lost it, that they can make a game that feels just like the original. But....is that even a good thing? It makes me feel good, on some kind of dopamine level to think that they haven't lost it, but do we actually want those exact same vibes? Is it healthy? Playing the game, I was ready for something different, something new, but instead I kind of just got exactly what I paid for...I got more Alan Wake. Like, you feel me, right? It's intoxicating to have a perfect recreation of those same feelings, but I'm also really conflicted here. From a consumer point of view, it's great that we just got more of what we like. And in a lot of cases, this is what a "good" sequel is considered to be. But here's my thing about that; I've never felt like that is sustainable. Assume a franchise keeps going forever with the same vibes, eventually it's just going to get stuck in it's own tropes and formulas and themes. You need to introduce new elements to the story to keep things exciting, I think that's just how it is. Some people might tell you that it's possible to do something new with a franchise while sticking to all the same things, but I think that's total bullshit.

Eventually, you will hit a wall where there isn't a new topic to be explored without introducing some kind of tonal shift or alien plot element. I think that's just how stories fundamentally work. Everything is a runner that eventually runs out of track to run when it reaches the end. Why do you think so many sequels to things end up so repetitious? I think many creatives at heart are aware of this, and in today's environment of nostalgia and IP centric mania we have people attempting to do new things with certain franchises, but sometimes that just ends up pissing old head consumers of those things off! But we're not allowed to make anything new so what else are we to do?? Everything these days like fucking Star Wars or Batman needs to be beholden to it's own internal logic and rules and established characters and themes to work, but if you don't do anything new it's just not interesting! But if you be different you'll just make people mad! It pleases nobody! Hell, an example is Psychonauts 2. I've seen several people complain about Psychonauts 2 (one of my all time favourite games for the record) because of the tonal shifts from the first game (granted, a few other things too, like not focusing on the previous game's characters more, but that's also another thing that contributes to my argument). It's an incredible game that I believe is a true work of art, but would it have just been better if it were a new IP rather than a sequel? Maybe so. I think it manages to build upon the established lore, themes and rules of the first game magnificently while still retaining the same twisted sense of humor, but for some people, they just wanted a goofy cartoon game with interesting looking levels and instead got a careful examination of several individual's deeply held personal trauma. It's just a like, a different thing!

We don't need new IPs...no, new worlds, NOT because of new characters, or even new storylines. We need them because we need new rules for stories to function under. We need them in order to elicit new, different feelings in us.

I'm conflicted. I think having the same vibes as the original thing is truly intoxicating, but I worry that it's not healthy. I worry that this definition of a "good" sequel just creates a negative trend where we just can't allow anything new to be done with established franchises. If we will just hit a point where any change is instantly disagreeable on the basis of not fitting some perceived version of the original product. Like, it gets even more insane when everyone just has their own version of something in their head, it all depends on taste. I could probably go on about what I think makes a sensible evolution of something, or if we should even respect the notion of evolution in favor of a new creation, but this post is already excessively long so I think the easiest way to put it is that I think we just need a healthy balance of the old and the new In both established series and new series, and in what the big slop corporations feed us. I look forward to the day this trend of sequels pass and companies seek out new stuff again. Despite my complicated feelings on Alan Wake 2, I think it is almost an exception to this, because I feel it is a true work of art that came from a place of passion and hard work. It thoughtfully takes elements from the original game and expands upon them in ways that are fresh and interesting while also introducing crazy new elements that make it feel fresh! But I guess this sentiment could also vary from person to person depending on what the work of art is.

The point is, Play Alan Wake and Alan Wake 2!

and uhh, Alan Wake's American Nightmare. You can play it, I think it's cool too. Anyway, as a reward for getting to the end of this post, here's an old sketch of the main character from the comic book I'm working on meeting Alan Wake. Your reward is more reading.

[creations-by-chaosfay]

Neither of my machines are large enough for the Cutie quilting frame. The diagram on Grace Company's website was unclear of where they measured the machine, but it turns out both my machines are nearly two inches too short for the lowest setting. I need at least 8.5 inches of workspace, also know as the throat.

I won't be able to handquilt for the next several months. My hands and wrists are a wreck and need time to heal. This is why everything I make will need to be handquilted until probably next spring or summer. It's why I need the frame, otherwise finished items will need to be small enough to fit in my machine without straining myself. I can manage about 30 inches square max, which is why the largest items I'm making are table runners and wallhangings. Large quilt tops are an option, but finishing the quilt won't happen unless I hire someone else, and I don't want to do that.

Grace Company made a machine specifically for the frame. It's called Little Rebel, and I hope to be able to afford it next winter. It's $3k, which is waaaaay outta my budget. There's a second machine, a Jenome, that's $1200. I have bills, my debt, and smaller things I need, like a printer, an XBox for my husband, and some inexpensive exercise equipment (my asthma cannot handle summer air and my body cannot tolerate summer heat or sunshine), just to name a few things. All money I receive goes to my goals and bills, not machines.

If you fancy purchasing a machine, I have my Throne list here. When I have either machine and get practice in, commission prices for quilts wheelchair/baby size and up may cost less than half the original prices I had them up. Handquilting will be reserved for love and personal pieces.

I will happily give a quilt I finish on the frame to whomever buys one of these machines for me. There are half a dozen quilt tops in my standing wardrobe, all waiting to be completed quilts. More tops will be made, which are more options to choose from.

I'll take my frame apart this weekend, once we figure out a place I can store it in the house. Until I get a machine that works with it, this will remain stored away and no larger quilts will be made except as just listed quilt tops.

Thank you.

My work below, for the interested:

[sunlightfeeling]

so..... how did you get into smap, anyway? (i would like to hear the origin story)

hiii anon! i would love to tell this story!!

first the elevator pitch version:

like a lot of more recent fans (i.e. post-JE launch), i was a victim (affectionate) of the RGG to SMAP pipeline

…bit of a boring story, and honestly isn’t a real indication of how I got to have this brain (affectionate, i love having five old men stewing in my brain all hours of the day 👍😬)

sooo im going to tell the story of how the pipeline hit me so hard 😄

the real origin goes back to 2021…

(im gonna make a cut for this story because this is gonna be long long - i promise this isn’t an exaggeration)

so back in 2021, i had an xbox one and game pass (side note: game pass is so worth it, actually fantastic)

and I found a series that I had never heard of…Yakuza

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hX9EomZwntU

sorry

anyway

downloaded Yakuza 0 and started it up

really dug the vibes, story, music, legitimately everything

then I reached Majima’s first chapter and ooooh the opening got me good

not too long after getting to this chapter, I was graciously gifted a ps5

and one of the first things i did was…

…impulsively buy every Yakuza release on ps4

…and the Judgments as soon as I realized they were under RGG’s umbrella

…after only playing like probably less than 10 hours of a prequel

(disclaimer: i do not mean to romanticize/minimize impulse purchasing; I’m more trying to give an accurate image of how deeply invested I got in a series that essentially sent me on my path; i was/am very fortunate and cognizant of how lucky i am to be able to cover/shield myself from consequences of my actions - so to speak lol)

probably six-ish months and 2 hiatuses later, I reached Y6

and i dont know if it was because the game was the last Kiryu game (at the time) and I was getting all emotional, or if it was because the likeness to Kuroda was pretty…

<stares at pictures of Y6 Kiryu way too long>

…preeeetty 🫠

i started developing (what knowing what i know now call) a hyperfixation on not just Y6 but also Kuroda Takaya lol

basically listened to his music whenever I could/on repeat; Y6 was the only thing I wanted to spend my free time playing; etc etc etc

(for reasons, this fixation actually led me to consider my possible neurodivergence; I wonder why 🤔..🥲)

finish Y6 and become baseline-which-isnt-really-baseline normal about Yakuza when I play LAD7

but then….

“Alex, stop hyperlinking sound effects”

(affectionate)

yeahhh it’s Judgey Time

okay so ive mentioned in tags somewhere but i actually didnt have high hopes for Judgment

at all

the cover just didn’t do anything for me at all…

…and i thought the protagonist was ugly 💀

(im actually genuinely serious, this isn’t me “not like the other girls”ing; i vividly recall looking at the cover when it was about time for me to start playing it and whining to my then-bf that I wasn’t sure I was gonna like it cuz the guy looks really weird 🤣)

but i booted it up and right when Yagami shows off his badge in the prologue

girl

giiiiiirl

I didn’t realize at the time but the seed had been planted and baby that beanstalk grew

Halloween 2022 (and I only know this date for a fact because I memorialized it texting then-bf about it) is the day I decided to look up who this guy really was

I can’t recall what made me finally look him up, whether lurking on the Yakuza subreddit or just something in the game, I dunno

i shared it once but I’ll share it anytime i can…

^^ this was my first Kimura photo

the first one I actually paid more than just a passing glance at anyway……

…i finished judgment in like two/three weeks [and not in a rushed playthrough by any means - getting all the cats, doing all the side cases/romance, etc.] (have a text trail of me going into the finale and date stamp is p exactly two weeks from Halloween 🥲)

started lost judgment immediately because i have texts days after this bitching about dropping money on the dlc before even starting it lol (again: not recommending/romanticizing; just giving perspective on how active my brain was about RGG/Kimura already)

now this…..this is where my timeline gets fuzzy

because i cant really remember how fast i beat lj before starting his dramas

or if maybe i started them before even finishing the game

skipping ahead to January 2023 and I’ve definitely wrapped lj by this point

and have watched a fair amount of kimura dramas (i genuinely cant give a number tho 😭)

around this point, ive determined that im fairly confident in being audhd

and i personally would have described kimura as a combined special interest-hyperfixation at this point (because the intensity would ebb and flow in a way)

started collecting things, starting with his albums and his live recordings (and eventually a lot lot more [I’ll get back to scanning consistently eventually I promise lol])

the defining moment to when I finally crossed from Kimura to SMAP…

…was actually watching Go with the Flow

I had heard bits of SMAP, but, as many unfortunately discover, accessibility to their music is…..well it’s just not there lol

I even got YouTube Music because I found playlists of SMAP performances and could just listen to them while I was working or driving

not that I could really hear them all that well since they were all live performances w screaming or muffled audio/crunchy audio/remixes/etc etc etc

(except for pams seigi shoutout to pams seigi [sorry goro 😔; also i linked that specific one for the tags but please look in the reblogs for a diff version of seigi that they did because it’s ridiculously good])

On Go with the Flow, Kimura performs “Style” which made me go on basically a witch-hunt to find the song since it wasn’t an album track and I didn’t know SMAP’s discography

Eventually found out it was SMAP (Kimura solo on s.m.a.p specifically) and decided that I actually really needed to listen to SMAP

aaaaaand I did ☺️

and then I found Jes yeah no I definitely didn’t

and…that is my SMAP origin story

[forter-from-meteos]

What is this silly meteos stuff

oh! ohohoho

I took a quick peek at your blog because of the thirnova icon, and love the theming you've got, but i didn't see any meteos posts (which is fine) so I'm gonna give the full rundown 👍

lemme just start by dropping a few links: Miraheze Meteos Wiki - Meteos Wikipedia Page - if you want comprehensive, objective stuff

Alright! Now time for the Cliffnotes version of that stuff, plus my own subjective info

Meteos is a game series consisting of Meteos (2005) for the DS, Meteos Wars (2008) for the Xbox Live Arcade (Xbox 360 online store), and some other titles that I'm not knowledgeable on, like the now defunct Meteos Online and Meteos: Disney Magic (which is just funny to me)

The very basic plot is: The planet Meteo is sending out streams of destructive matter called meteos, which is threatening to destroy all the planets in the universe. The various alien civilizations discovered that when the meteos group in a certain way, they change direction, and launch the meteos falling from the sky back out into space. Now they're fighting back against the meteos, and one of the civilizations has created the Metamo Ark, a spaceship made of meteo ore, to sail to Meteo and defeat it. There's some details I'm leaving out, but this isn't an award-winningly deep plot we've got here.

Actual gameplay is essentially just a match-3 game, but with a twist: meteos (matchable blocks) fall from above, and by moving them through the columns, you match them, and they launch upwards. The real kicker is the many different planets with different mechanics. For example, Forte (the home of my namesake) has a playfield 9 columns wide, has relatively low gravity (stacks fall back down slower) low-ish horizontal launch power (matches where the blocks are next to each other instead of above/below) but very high vertical launch power. And now that I'm typing this, I realize that I'm just saying words, so, uh, I'm just gonna drop another link to this playlist of gameplay samples for every planet in the original Meteos DS. The uploader is playing pretty fast, but it should give a basic idea.

Anyways, subjective opinion time. First of all, the gameplay is simple, but it's really good. Second of all, the art and general visual design is just, also really good. This post is already on the bulkier side, so look through the miraheze wiki if you want some images. I just, I just like it a lot, especially the aliens. They're all just color, no shading, just flat shapes, and the lore is bare-bones, but what's there is so nice and creative! It's beauty in simplicity, and it's a perfect little base to build off of!

Ok, but how could I play it? Well, the roms for both Meteos DS and Meteos Wars are easy to find, and the emulators DesMuMe and xenia are too! The company that made Meteos is defunct now (sad), so I don't think supporting the devs is something you can really do here, but if you really wanna play legit (or if your computer can't handle Xbox 360 emulation, like mine) and you have the consoles, then Meteos Wars is still available for purchase from the XBLA, and there's copies of Meteos DS still floating around on online marketplaces.

In summary, Meteos is a simple but good game (series) with very nice visual design, with easily available roms. If you're thinking about playing it, do. Please. /lh

[demonfox38]

Completed x2 - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Sega Saturn version)

Madness may be doing the same thing over and over again, but hey. At least I'm having fun doing it.

If economics were indicative of what my favorite video game of all time is, "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" would win bar none. Just off of the top of my head, this is how many times I've made purchases of this title alone:

US PlayStation Copy - $6.00 (disc only from a now defunct GameStop location in 2006, so don't get too optimistic)

Japanese PlayStation Copy - $38.00

PSP Copy of "Dracula X Chronicles" (contains a unique SOTN variant) - ~$40.00

PS3 Digital Copy - ~$5.00

Xbox Live Digital Copy – Free (promotional; probably was a tie-in to "Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night" being released)

Additional copies for friends - ~$5.00

US PlayStation Copy for my sister - $50.00

Sega Saturn Copy - $140.00 (2016 in Akihabara; keep the date/place in mind)

This probably isn't even the sickest I could be in collecting copies of this game. Hell, I've been hung over at a stranger's house with access to their Xbox 360 and thought about purchasing it there as well just so I could distract myself from being sick.

For this particular situation, we're going to talk about the Sega Saturn variant of "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night." While I had heard about this one before, I hadn't thought about hunting it down. Content differences aside, I didn't have a Sega Saturn, nor has the Sega Saturn emulation scene been particularly stellar. But, on the one time (and hopefully not last time) @jeannettegray and I were physically in the same place, she happened to find this in the retro game store we were in. At first, I protested. It'd be irresponsible to buy something like that, right? And then I caved because, as established above, I'm kind of a bitch (submissive) for this game.

Fast forward to 2023. I've gotten into the anime series "Lupin the Third" (again, thanks JG!) I've been accumulating some "Lupin" games because they're fairly uncontested in the grand scheme of video game hunting. Considering that at least one is a staple on the bad/weird video game tournament Kusogrande, that should tell you about how well they normally go. But, I did happen to watch a match for the Lupin the Third game "Sage of Pyramid," which seemed to be generally well received! So, I found a copy of it on eBay in a three-pack with two other "Lupin" archive titles. To make a long story short, I ended up with a Japanese Sega Saturn, plus a few extra games.

I know. Between this and the Nintendo Wii U purchases this year, you've really got to ask what's wrong with me.

"Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" is a title I have previously reviewed, so I’m not going to bang too much about the shared properties here. Game good; game great; game arguably one of the best games ever made. The Sega Saturn port occurred about one year after the original PlayStation release by Konami Computer Entertainment Nagoya (KCEN), a branch office (and notably, not the original developer pool from KCET.) While KCEN mostly made either portable versions of console-based Konami games or movie-licensed games, KCEN is notable in "Castlevania" development for both this and "Castlevania Legends," the GameBoy title with female lead Sonia Belmont. Which means that they:

Chugged women-respecting juice like water.

Got everything they did chucked into a historical/narrative paper shredder.

Given this development, the Sega Saturn version of "Symphony of the Night" is in a weird place. It has more content—particularly, in additions to Maria Renard's presence and playability—but is often looked down as an inferior product. In particular, some of the most ridiculed items include load times, transparency implementation/workaround issues, and sprite quality. And boy, did I see some actual, verifiable hardware issues. But, despite that, I do think this variant has some serious charm to it. At least, I'd be way more likely to come back to this version than the PSP version.

Look, if I buy a Sony PSP, you have the right to hit me…up for donations for a charity.

Before we can talk about this game, I think we need to talk about the Sega Saturn itself. Like, the poor bastard only seemed to have success in Japan. (Being $100.00 more expensive than its competitor will do that to you.) It was the kind of non-successful entity that when I heard the Nerve Tower recommending the Sega Saturn version of "Baroque" above all other versions of the game, I felt nothing but mockery for the sentiment. My opinion on the console changed somewhat after tending to a minor memory issue for the console. See, with old consoles or games dying, I'm used to having to buy oddball components and then getting help from my dad in resoldering them into place. With the Sega Saturn? It was simple as buying a new CR2032 battery (from a Wal-Mart! Imagine that) and just popping it into place.

Let's just say I have a lot of appreciation for a console that is easy to manage.

Now, if it were as easy to program as it was to fix, I doubt the Sega Saturn would have floundered as much as it did. I haven't done a great, deep deal of reading into coding for this console, but it seems like working with it required a great deal more knowledge than just popping in some C++ and plugging away. I suppose comparing programming for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation is somewhat like the difference in operating a racecar versus an average sedan. In the right environments and with the right skill level, the former will out-perform the latter. But, at the end of the day, whatever is easiest to handle and cheapest to purchase will be used by more people.

Granted, "Symphony of the Night" should have been a natural slot-in for the Sega Saturn's library. While its best-selling titles were in 3D, a significant chunk of its library contains 2D sprite-based fighters. Weirdly enough, "Symphony of the Night" could qualify for this with its visual presentation and its control style. It's just…well…from what I can tell, this was KCEN's second and last Sega Saturn title. I don't think the experience or confidence was here for a perfect port. Hell, even notes from the developers themselves are frequently lamenting development delays.

Also—Yoshinori Suzuki is the realest for having a reference to Goblin music in his note. I'm more team Suspiria when it comes to Goblin music, but I have full faith that band could slay a "Castlevania" composition.

Okay. Enough sympathy for the devil! Let's get down to the game itself.

The objectives for this port of "Symphony of the Night" match up to the original base game. If you've got SOTN down 200.6% elsewhere, you'll easily hit 210% here. Does the math not add up? Well, it never really did. But, in this case, the first noticeable change is the addition of two new areas per map side. These new areas are respectively dungeon and garden-flavored, both of which make sense in terms of an addition. Neither add a great deal of room content to the game (capping at about 6 rooms for the garden and 3 for the dungeon), but they do provide some benefits, including:

A bridge piece between the Marble Gallery and Underground Caverns

New enemy types

A new boss fight

Access to the Alucard Spear (which, granted, is more important for Lecarde family lore than anything. But it's nice to pick up!)

These areas (and the castle's entrance) also sport some new tunes. Okay, maybe just "Chaconne C Moll" and "Guardian" are wholly originally. But, it does contain pairs of dance and jazz mixes for the "Vampire Killer," "Bloody Tears," and "Beginning" themes. Sure, they're the most 90s-sounding compositions on this planet. But, goddamn if that isn't exactly what I wanted from a "Castlevania" game.

I know. Real trash-core behavior on my part. At least give the "Beginning" remixes a shot before you take another one at me.

Item distribution and placement has also been slightly tweaked from the base PlayStation game, although it is generally in the player's favor. (For example: the Sword familiar is just below the save room of Orlox's Quarters instead of being in a hidden ceiling space.) About the greatest addition of note here is a cape called the Rainbow Robe, which cycles through palettes to create a constant color swapping effect. Very cool. There are also some different familiars than what is present in the US PlayStation version of the game, but about all that is unique there is getting a Half-Faerie that sings if you get her some lyrics. Which…thanks? I guess?

Honestly, the big content augment to the game is Maria Renard. Not only does she become a boss for Alucard to fight (having him prove his strength to her), but she's also playable! And holy shit, does she kick ass! Like, she generally kicks ass, but my God. Literal ass kicking here! Kicked my ass as a boss. Kicked everyone else's ass when fighting them in her mode. I'm not kidding when I say that only three bosses posed a threat to me while playing her. (For those of you that want to attempt this playstyle: it was Orlox, the "Castlevania III" trio, and Galamoth that gave me the most trouble.) If you've got Alucard's Dark Metamorphosis and Soul Steal input commands down, congratulations. You can absolutely slaughter the game as Maria.

It's wild. In her mode, she's got:

A chargeable magic attack as her primary attack

A triple and high jump

An evasive somersault (while Alucard doesn't even have a slide mechanic, so LMAO)

A base kick attack (for when you're storing up magic)

Access to standard "Castlevania" subweapons

Combo commands for summoning all four Celestial Beasts whenever you've got the MP (granting on-the-go healing, two massively damaging attacks, and a limited-time familiar)

A variety of martial arts attacks, and

Access to a full invincibility-granting move! (Like, you've gotta do a full clockwise input + a charge to do it, so it does require some serious skill to use. But still!)

Talk about a power fantasy! Like, no wonder people talk about the reset to Maria's move pool in the PSP version of "Symphony of the Night" being a downgrade. She's an absolute beast here.

Begrudgingly, I can see why Maria's abilities were augmented in later releases. To some extent, I think the IGA team was trying to keep in lockstep with the "Rondo of Blood" version of her, especially considering that the PSP game is primarily a remake and re-release of that game. And, okay, yes. She was originally designed as a tiny Belmont alternative. But in the Sega Saturn SOTN version? With her input pool and abilities? She's an Alucard alternative. Hell, her heal move maps to one of his recovery abilities (Genbu to Dark Metamorphosis), and her primary devastating spell is also the homewrecker in his (Seiryuu to Soul Steal.) She wasn't designed out of nowhere. She was just pulled from a different man's ribs.

I guess if nothing else, the PSP sprites of her are prettier. So…there's that.

Oh! Prettiness. Guess that leads back to the overall aesthetic quality of the game (or potentially lack thereof, depending on who you ask.) Personally, the biggest issues I had here were not so much with sprite distortion, but with load and lag. This game doesn't have the same load-in grace going between new areas or loading in boss fights as the PlayStation version does. It seems like it struggles greatest with particle effects, although bosses with multiple chunks and entities to them can also cause severe rendering delays. Hoo boy, does it not like a bunch of stuff on screen all at once! The Beelzebub and Legion fights in particular bring out the greatest lag in the system, so be prepared for that when/if you tackle them. Even Galamoth has some lag (although, I was using that to my benefit when possible.)

In terms of transparency compensation, the Saturn version does well enough to skirt around some issues. The trailing movement sprites are still following you, so A+ there. Some magic spells were altered to use white instead of using transparency, which honestly? I thought that made some look very pretty (Tetra Spirit in particular!) About the only place I could point at and scold was the hidden cavern behind the waterfall in the Underground Caverns section. In the PlayStation version, it is smoothly revealed as the player steps into it. In the Saturn version? It's like someone flicked a light switch on. Honestly, it would have just been better to let the player always see it, if that's what revealing it was going to look like.

Also, killing Fire Demons is particularly ugly in this game. It's just a lazy, nonsensical sprite swap (as opposed to the color cycling in the PlayStation version.) The Marionette deaths are pretty funny, though!

There was one point where the lack of full implementation actually impressed me. Anti-spoiler at this point, but the final boss fight with Dracula has a much different feeling in the Saturn version. Not that the move cycles he has have even remotely changed. It's the background! In the PlayStation version, it's a bit psychedelic—maybe more like something you'd see in an "Earthbound" or "Star Fox" ending fight. In the Saturn version? 100% black. Cheap? Sure. But, considering Alucard is fighting his father in a realm between the living and the dead—in a complete abyss—it honestly grew on me. Like, yeah, ha ha! The devs couldn't figure out how to do the funky color/texture cycling! But also? Absolute darkness works, too.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the bodily injuries I'm currently nursing post playthroughs as well. Like, my left thumb was taking some abuse from the default controller's D-pad, so I ended up playing through portions of Maria Mode using an HSS-0104 Virtua Stick. (Like I said—I spent some stupid money on this console.) I just ended up pushing the injuries from my thumb to my shoulder blades. 😅 I can't completely blame the game on that, though. I should know better than to do 8+ hours of gaming in a day.

By the way—I did confirm something switching controllers. It seems like this "Symphony of the Night" variant likes to pick up on Up button presses more than in the PlayStation version regardless of the controller used. At least, I was pulling the Fireball / Byakko spells more than intended. I also found myself thinking less in terms of hitting every button in a combo, instead just smearing into cardinal directions. Like, the Saturn seems to have more of a slide detection to it than I anticipated? It's the difference from going down + down-forward + forward to down and forward while smushing your thumb up. You just kinda go legato, not giving a thought about the intermediate inputs.

Okay, verdict time!

Did I enjoy the Sega Saturn port of "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night?" Absolutely! While it has its oddities, I hesitate to call this product inferior. It's definitely not as tight of an experience as the standard PlayStation version, but what is here is cool. I would put this in the same category as "Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow" in that if you can't vibe with the main game for some ridiculous reason, it's got awesome side-modes to back it up.

Would I recommend other people play this game? Of course!

Would I recommend other people buy this game?

Look. I know when I'm being ridiculous. This experience personally cost me somewhere between $300.00 to $350.00 USD. Like, what the fuck. Madness! It would have been worse, had I actually bought this game this year! I mean, as of writing, this game, complete in box, is trending at $219.15 USD on PriceCharting.com! Shit, I might as well tell you to buy an arcade cabinet for how ridiculous this could get! And then you've got to weigh the pros and cons of taking systems out of their native countries, what international buyers are doing to the Japanese video game market, the risks of transporting stuff that far, and so on. It's not something you can just say, "LMAO, do it!" about.

But, what I will say is that BizHawk has a pretty good Sega Saturn emulator. And also, I might have written some documentation on how to get BizHawk set-up for Sega Saturn emulation. Chances are you're smart enough to figure out the rest.