#render art with background is a rarity

[vennyriz22]

Beach date

[miadoodling]

Cecilia holding rarity like jesus with a lamb.

[urbaneturtle]

DCAU Rewatch: Batman the Animated Series 3: Nothing to Fear

NOTHING TO FEAR

Credits

Written by Henry T. Gilroy & Sean Catherine Derek

Directed by Boyd Kirkland

Music by Shirley Walker

Animation Services by Dong Yang Animation Co., LTD.

Someone is targeting Gotham University and tormenting the people of the city with horrifying visions. Batman is about to come face-to-face with a new villain who may be even more frightening than he is.

The episode opens on sunset in Gotham, a notable rarity for the series. The city is beautifully rendered with an orange sky casting a golden glow upon the art deco buildings. But with the backgrounds painted on dark paper, the vibrancy is muted, as if the darkness is always just behind the horizon, waiting and beckoning.

Bruce Wayne is visiting Gotham University, which has been beset by a string of robberies. He encounters a professor named Dr. Long, who was a classmate of Bruce’s father Thomas. Bruce tries to chat him up, but Long dismisses Bruce, bemoaning how he has run his family’s company and good name into the ground. The name Wayne once stood for great respect–Now all it stands for is a self-centered, jet-setting playboy. As Long leaves the elevator, the camera stops for a moment on a close-up of Bruce who looks uncomfortable and casts his gaze downward. The animation in this episode is not great but he clearly looks injured by the comments. The playboy act is necessary for Bruce to provide distance from Batman, but it requires certain sacrifices. Bruce knows his real legacy is Batman but the public perception hurts and causes him to doubt.

That legacy is the primary thematic concern of this episode. Bruce’s fear is letting down his parents. Dr. Long’s comments get under Bruce’s skin because he fears that his mission does not honor his parents in a way they would understand or accept. The idea that he may be torching their good name publicly for a fruitless mission haunts him. In his fear-toxin induced hallucinations, Batman constantly sees and hears his father shaming him as a disappointment.

When Bruce admits these images to Alfred, there is a brief moment where Alfred offers encouragement to Bruce. It’s a nice character moment that builds up the paternal relationship between the two, but perfunctory and quickly glossed over. A similar scene is handled better in Mask of the Phantasm. There’s also something lacking here in the way Clive Revill delivers his line. It is stern and assured but lacking the warmth that Efrem Zimbalist brings to the character.

Legacy also figures into the Scarecrow’s motivation. After his research into fear is condemned and he is removed from his professor role at Gotham University, he swears revenge to prove his supremacy as a scientist and cement that legacy….

Read the rest by backing for as little as $1 a month on the Turtle Club Patreon.

[cerebricarchives]

Heroes Die spark of inspiration; if they are structured like comic book style animated as a cartoon via KaBlam!, the episode's story arc will be segmented into two. 12-minute block of Story (I), moving onto a short. The short would represent an event that happened in the Heroes Die universe in the form of "animated web comics" where still renders of characters shift around a background and a text bubble pops up their lines. The "Heroes Fly® Comics" are retold events of off-screen hero happens made for a child friendly market.

Sure Issue #43: Trouble In The Jungle does tell the events of Captain Awesome taking down Tiger Discipline and his plot to burn the Enchanted Jungle down for target practice, along with recovering the jewel of the idol. However Tiger Discipline has told his side of the story, mourning over the death of his wife taken by Captain Awesome's restraint of his power. "For damn's sake! She was raised by wild leopards until she turned 21. natural cat like reflexes. I saw her fall off a plane taking off and she walked it off in a day! Good damn job, cappn!" Outside sources from former Tiger Discipline goons expressed their concern over the injures the caped hero made. "Poor Wayne. He like...I don't know if you played Mouthwashing I mean .. he looked like a bacon wrapped hot dog. "

The splash cover art would be in the style of a MAD magazine cover, highly parodic. Kind of seeing kids wearing Halloween mask version of the heroes and villains, like they're playing cops and robbers. Still in the style of a classic '70 style X-Men comic. Jack kirby. Whoever the guy's name was.

Then would soon follow is the follow-up to Story (II). Finding this sort of style that it would make this constant little whiplash and given the viewer or the person or whoever's watching this idea that I have no interest in just putting any work into some sort of rarity hook that will lead them coming into watch like what more of this guy is going to do with this stuff. I think that also in a way does expand the story of the universim or that happened to be too involved with like the actual story as I do believe it does have the sort of venture Brothers style where it's supposed to be all Ken out on a goal and connected and they conceived way but I don't think I got that sort of strife I mean this is now at the point where I'm just yapping and ranting to myself as I grab a fresh guy.

[ayyiel]

The Tale of Aries

Disclaimer: this was made for LineOfSounds’ event purposes. This plot has no correlation with Aries’ background.

Aries Hasegawa was a dreamer, emerged from a disordered familial backdrop, blossoming into a soul teeming with aspirations.

Within a residence perennially echoing with the tumultuous reverberations of parental disputes, young Aries prefer to sought solace in the world beyond. His cheerful nature allowed him to easily adapt and rendering him a beloved figure among neighbors, vendors, and chance pedestrians he greeted along the boulevards.

He was 6 years old when he encountered a street artisan, serenading the world with a timeworn guitar. The little Aries, who was busy chasing a cat, suddenly found himself utterly entranced and spellbound by the enchanting strains of the minstrel's melody.

“Marvelous!” He exclaimed with an applause, wearing a smile that radiated pure delight.

The young Aries, devoid of any spare change, extended a single stem of the flower he had plucked earlier. He recalled his mother's sage advice that every work of art, regardless of form, deserved to be honored.

The artist burst into laughter afterward. Aries remembered the artist singing a few songs just for him, and he hold those moments so dearly. He was 6 years old when he grasped the notion that a sole instrument could evoke such harmonious splendor.

Subsequently, the artist presented Aries with a luxurious token, an MP4 Player, a rarity for a child of six during that era. His eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as the artist explained that Aries could listen to music whenever he wanted through that device.

Little did anyone know that this transitory encounter would serve as a harbinger of a more propitious future for young Aries.

In the days that ensued, Aries devoted his time to the enrapturing melodies emanating from the MP4 Player. The young Aries found solace in the simple act of cocooning his ears with earphones, thus achieving a flawless silencing of the tumultuous commotion wrought by his parents, a serene sanctuary amid the storm.

Aries came to the realization that the unnamed artist, whose name remained a mystery to him, held a profound affection for what he would later identify as classical music. Aries, without fail, found himself adrift in the mellifluous waves of these compositions, his curiosity piqued by the instruments responsible for crafting such ethereal melodies. Their sonorous elegance far surpassed the rustic strumming of the artist's guitar.

It was not until his eighth year that he unveiled the enigma that the instrument of choice was, piano.

Aries was a dreamer, and on that day, he began to shape his dreams perfectly.

Undoubtedly, manifesting dreams is no easy task, particularly for an 8-year-old. Faced with unreliable parents, Aries had to put his young mind to work, seeking out ways to transform his aspirations into reality.

Fortune smiled upon Aries as his kind-hearted next-door aunt offered him the opportunity to practice at her home upon hearing the young boy's declaration of his desire to become a musician.

Unbeknownst to the woman, the utterance held a significance far transcending casual conversation. Those words were dreams, ambitions, and promises that Aries would honor.

Though it wasn't an opulent grand piano, but rather a humble keyboard, for Aries, it was more than enough.

Months turned into years, and time flowed ceaselessly. Aries embarked on his journey from ground zero, mastering his craft through self-guidance, a path not easily tread. Faced with familial strife that weighed heavily upon him, Aries' path seemed all the more arduous.

But Aries was a fighter, he would never halt until his dreams were fulfilled.

When he turned 18, Aries dared to venture further by enrolling himself with a music label named Line of Sounds.

The usually self-assured Aries, in that moment, experienced a sense of humility. Certainly, he had become much more proficient in caressing the keys of the keyboard, all thanks to the legacy bestowed upon him by his benevolent aunt.

But had his ten years of solitary practice been enough? When compared to other musicians who had been tutored by experts from a young age, Aries seemed to fall far behind. The question lingered, had his persistence thus far proved to be adequate?

In actuality, Aries' unyielding pursuit transcended adequacy.

The young man was gracefully embraced by his cherished music label, securing the position of a keyboardist, and he soon came to realize that he was the youngest keyboardist under the label's auspices.

Aries was a dreamer, a fighter, and he still is a dreamer along a fighter, because in this new chapter, his dreams and struggles expanded, becoming more formidable, yet subtly more gratifying. Alongside a cadre of fellow musicians, Aries aspired to grow and triumph together in the unfolding future.

[365days365movies]

March 7, 2021: Onward (Review)

Guess what my favorite Pixar film is now!

Yeah, it’s still Finding Nemo hands down. Not even a little bit of a question. But there is still a question. Where does this movie rank for me? And by the way, Finding Nemo is my FAVORITE Pixar film, but I don’t consider it be objectively the best.

I mean...come on. It’s Ratatouille. The hell else was I gonna say?

Ahhhhhh, SHIT, you make a good point there. Well...at least there’s only the two choices for objectively best

OH HOW GODDAMN DARE YOU

...Any more you wanna throw at me, you goddamn monsters? Huh? HUH?

...Crying, probably. Goddamn, OK, there are a LOT of good Pixar films, and this one doesn’t have a GODDAMN CHANCE against these movies. So...which ones does Onward beat, for me, anyway?

I mean, yeah, duh. I’d put all of the Cars films below Onward. Brave and The Good Dinosaur, too. All of the Toy Story films are above it, and...I think my initial assessment was correct.

And again, I like A Bug’s Life a lot! But I think that Onward’s about on this level for me in terms of favorites. Why is that? Well...let’s go through it, huh? You an check out Part One and Part Two of the Recap if you’d like, but the Review and my final opinions are down below!

Review

Cast and Acting: 9/10

OK, above everything else, I will say that Tom Holland and Chris Pratt are great in here, and they...mostly disappear into their characters. Maybe it’s because these are currently both MASSIVE names, but I never lost sight of the fat that these guys were playing Ian and Barley respectively. It’s a little odd, especially for a Pixar movie. Not as much for a Disney movie...which is an interesting point to revisit later. But they are good. And they’re also vastly surpassed, for me, by Julia Louis Dreyfus, WHO FUCKING OWNS HER ROLE! Yeah, sorry, Dreyfus is the MVP of this movie for me, and I genuinely love her and Laurel. Octavia Spencer was, of course, also good...but was also weirdly stilted in her line deliveries most of the time. I love Octavia Spencer, but she’s not a voice actress, what can I say? Still, Corey’s another of my favorite characters, so she’s not bad at it. Tracey Ullman and Mel Rodriguez are also good in here, for the record.

Plot and Writing: 9/10

You know...it’s funny. This movie doesn’t really feel like a Pixar movie, as much as it feels like a Disney movie. Not a bad thing, I promise, but it just doesn’t...feel Pixar to me. I can’t quite pinpoint the reasons for that...yet. But in terms of the plot, it’s mostly standard Disney/Pixar adventure fare, with some decent writing and good universe building behind it. However...I’ve been thinking about the ending, and it’s actually the most Pixar thing about the movie, mostly because it was, well...extremely unexpectedly good.

Yeah, I mean that. Ian’s sacrifice is NOT how I expected that to go down, and probably would’ve been different in a straight-up Disney movie. Credit to Dan Scanlon, Jason Headley, and Keith Bunin for crafting a unique and emotionally deep ending. If Pixar’s good at one thing, it’s emotionally complex endings. Coco eventually ends with Coco dying, Boo’s sort of just gone in Monster’s Inc (I know Sulley sees her again, BUT WE DON’T), Toy Story eventually ends in Woody leaving the gang with Bo Peep, and Finding Nemo...I mean, Nemo surpasses his disability, and Marlin learns to let go of his son, so...OK, maybe that’s the exception. STILL MY FAVORITE DO NOT @ ME

Directing and Cinematography: 8/10

Well...on one hand, it’s a Pixar movie. Obviously it’s got good directing (by Don Scanlon), but...I think this movie broke Pixar films for me. YEAH. I’ll explain, and understand: I’m not saying that the cinematography by Sharon Calahan and Adam Habib is bad, but it’s very Pixar formulaic. Here’s what I mean: I’m gonna put a bunch of GIFs of Pixar films up here. Look for the commonality.

THEY’RE PERFECTLY BALANCED. Which, at first glance, obviously isn’t a bad thing. But I just posted GIFs of films from SEVEN different directors! And they ALWAYS balance their characters perfectly on screen! I’d provide more proof of this, but LOOK!!!! It’s a very formulaic form of cinematography, and while it’s obviously not bad, it’s also...obvious. You want more proof? Let’s look at more unique Pixar films and directors. Brad Bird first.

Bird’s scenes feel more dynamic, more interesting, and he has a MUCH higher focus on the foreground vs. the background than these other guys. And yeah, he also centers some of his characters, because that’s find of how film works, but his films are a lot more visually complex, and they’re considered the best of the Pixar movies. OK, what about a more recent film?

A HELL of a lot of shots in Soul are unbalanced. Which is interesting, because this is Pete Docter, one of Pixar’s most prolific directors. He’s also the director of some of their most unique films, like Monster’s Inc., Up, and Inside Out. And his flair is in a lot of unique camera movements, but also interesting angles and shot composition. And maybe I’m going CRAZY with over-analysis here, because I am NOT a film student, AT FUCKING ALL...but this film made me notice this because it just feels so visually...formulaic. Not bad, just plain. And not just in terms of cinematography.

Production and Art Design: 8/10

These are Disney characters. THESE ARE DISNEY CHARACTERS. Which, I must once again stress, IS NOT A BAD THING. But it’s also not really Pixar. I mean, look at that collection of GIFs up there again. One of the things that Pixar is lauded for is its unique character designs and concepts. And, uh...this isn’t that. It’s still good...but it’s not Pixar’s usual fare. Again, not a bad thing, as they’re more than allowed to innovate, but...is a lack of innovation really innovating? Breaking formula, yeah, but pointedly not anything new. Which, sure, fine, but...it ruins something for me, I’m gonna be honest.

Now, again, IT IS NOT BAD. It’s still actually VERY good, from the lighting to the rendering, and to the unique world that’s been constructed. Well...mostly unique. It’s kind of just our world with magic. There’s definitely some uniqueness, but not enough for me in a lot of cases. I dunno, it’s weirdly low-fantasy for something that is POINTEDLY high-fantasy in origin. Which is pretty interesting, now that I’ve typed that out loud. I like the look of this movie, again...but I’d love something a little less Disney, and a little more Pixar.

Music and Editing: 9/10

Music’s good! And so is the editing, for that matter. Composed by Mychael and Jeff Danna, and edited by Catherine Apple, this aspect of the production carried over pretty well, I think. Soundtrack is definitely fitting for a fantasy film, that’s for sure. And, yeah, no problems with the editing (which, to be fair, is not the easiest category to judge for e, ESPECIALLY here). The point of is because, well...not putting it on my playlist. It’s good, but not the best music I’ve heard, this month, or from a Pixar movie. Real talk, whenever I mention Finding Nemo (I KNOW I KNOW I’LL SHUT UP ABOUT IT BUT HOLD ON), the soundtrack plays through my head with reckless abandon. Can’t really say the same for Onward.

I’m more than cool with a 86% for this one.

Look, it’s a genuine rarity for Pixar to make a bad film. Although...it’s funny, this is barely a Pixar movie for me. It mostly just doesn’t feel like a Pixar movie, potentially because it has the overarching structure of your more typical Disney fare. Which, no, certainly isn’t a bad thing, but it’s not...quite the same.

This is still a great movie, and good for families. And I should say, I’m watching this film from the standpoint of an only child, and it was still a heartwarming look at a relationship between two very different siblings. I liked it, is what I’m saying. But this is it: we’re done with animated fare now. Although, blue animated magic characters from Disney does remind me of someone...

OK, the next movie is NOT ALADDIN, I swear. I’ve definitely seen that one. But, uh...since I’m moving to live-action anyway...

March 8, 2021: The Thief of Bagdad (1940)

[kcabyap]

[💙] The light on the screen clears to reveal a fancy drawing of an anime girl that just screams high rarity - not only is the art top-notch, it has a sparkly gold border and a fully rendered background and everything. “SHE CAME HOME!” The human squeals, waving their phone. Finally, after weeks of saving up premium currency and grinding for level-up materials, their work has paid off! In the midst of their excitement, they impulsively pull the demon next to them into a tight hug - well, as tight as a one-armed hug can be, at least. “You’re the best, Levi! I totally owe you one! I thought I was done for, this was my last pull and I was starting to give up hope...” They trailed off, slowly realizing the exactly what they just did. They quickly let go - separating their hands as well - and take a step back. “Ah. Uh. I’m really really sorry I hope you don’t hate me I’ll leave now BYE!” they squeak out, turning to leave the room.

Levi's eyes widen as he watches the screen. That high quality art... that dramatic reveal... that shining gold border...! It could be nothing other than a UR!

"Yeeeeeeeeess!!" He can't help but scream with them, so caught up in the moment that even his anxieties can't stop him. His arm wraps around them in return, hugging them back tight and close, listening to their words. "Hm?" His head tilts as they trail off and let him go... at which point, he looks down at his hand, and the situation really sinks in... and his cheeks flush so brightly.

"W-Wait!" he calls out to them as they turn to leave. "I... I don't hate you... okay? Actually, what we just did... even though hugs are totally for normies... well, it felt... nice." He gives them a soft, shaky smile, trying to comfort them.

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Sanctuary-III: Demo Analysis

Hi again! I’m here to do my full Sanctuary-III analysis. (im back on my bullshit of actually structuring posts like a functioning human. holy mother of g-)

Tl;Dr: So from what I’ve gathered so far, Sanctuary-III looks like a Maliwan-inspired ship, but was actually built by a company named <SUPAMAX MFG>. I do think the ship we go on in the demo is taken from another part of the game, probably the time period when we’ve reached the Maliwan/Monastery planet of which I don’t know the name (the one we see Maya on). I understand that we can see Pandora in the demo, but it’d be easy to travel back there and simply remove the option for the monastery planet when we go to Promethea. I have a couple reasons for thinking this, so I’ll go over it when we get there.

For now, let’s get started :D

So, even though we’re going to be doing a full analysis of the demo, I did want to start with our previous sightings of the ship.

Ellie hanging onto a smaller version of the ship.

Lorelei resting her foot on a larger model

one hiding behind Zane near the car

better view below:

and a ship as we see it on the cover art:

notice I say A ship because there are definitely differences between this one and the Sanctuary-III we meet in the demo.

Most notably the colors/design, but also the back engines are missing from below the spoiler and the fins on the front are different shapes. Additionally, the one in the cover has windows that are significantly different from the demo and the engines in demo have fins coming off the tops that we don’t see here. I’ve been yelled at before that this isn’t a noticeable enough difference to think about, that the developers just decided to roll with it, but honestly I believe if the designers put that much time into ensuring the cover art has a dozen easter eggs to solve, why would they look at the ship and decide “eh, that’s good enough”? I wanna believe they’re not that laidback about this.

So I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt for now and provide a handful of theories as to what this cover art ship could be:

1. Sanctuary-II or an earlier model of Sanc-III (or both)

2. A shuttle used to move people to-and-from places Sanctuary-III is too large to access and the drop pods are too violent to hit (I’m thinking meteors/asteroids here) annnd hopefully we get to putz around space in one

3. A fully separate ship from Sanctuary-III that we’ll have to use later on in the game, either due to Sanctuary-III being destroyed, or other weird circumstances that would render it unavailable. Could possibly be used to reach Elpis?

Anyway, enough of that. Let’s get right into the thick of things with the actual ship from the demo!

This hit me right in the heart. I love that u can see Pandora in the background, too.

The actual ship! Do you see what I mean by those minor differences to the cover art ship? Moving on.

The reason I thought this ship was mainly because of the huge swaths of orange and the blue engines/bridge. I had thought it was Atlas as well at one point, but retracted both those statements when I saw the name of the manufacturer printed everywhere inside lol

It is possible it was made specifically for either of those companies. I am leaning towards Maliwan, so I’ll point out my reasons why as we move through this.

Also, check out the docking bay on the bottom there. That door leads to the large room we see Ellie in. I think the fins on the front of the ship are to hold it up when it’s landed so we can drive vehicles out the bottom. I am hoping for a scene near endgame where the ship is shielding us from huge attacks from above as we drive out of the bottom and, right as we escape, it collapses behind us. Fingers crossed.

the back of the ship. And the engines I mention you can’t see protruding out the back on the cover art.

Oh, and say hi to the CoV!

that’s where Troy’s sword gets launched from orbit

as we zoom in, we can see a whole bunch of things

to start, looks like Hyperion got some nice rebranding. I hope Blake took over tbh

a poster of moxxxi’s. I love the feather in her hat; I wonder if that means her a mordy got back together...

also im going to take the time to point out

how much I love that each Vault Hunter gets something that glows. Amara has her tattoos (and she can customize the color!), Fl4k has their eye, Moze has Iron Bear’s digistruct pack, and Zane has a cool jacket. Rock on my babies, you’re all beautiful. Oh, and the whole teleporting animation for this, I don’t know if its like a “first time” only thing or what, but I love it, I love it so much. I’m so glad we’re going to be able to see our Vault Hunters in the third person.

okay moving on

so right away you notice the guide telling you where places are, with arrows point in different directions. It’s quite hard to read at the moment, but we do see it again later. 

We all know about the quick change station and the lost-and-found, so I don’t think I ought to go over those right now. 

claptrap seems to have his own little cereal or something, not sure if that’s been sighted anywhere else, but im afraid for anyone who eats it

player quarters! holy balls im so excited for these

We can see the display cases everywhere, but there’s also a vault (not that kind) in the back left. I imagine that’s the bank. Hoooopefully we get a larger storage capacity or my mule characters are gonna have a ton of new buddies to talk to lol

better look at the cereals.

also apparently that water bottle we see in the Game of Thrones joke the twitter posted is an actual asset in the game.

While we have singular display cases for guns, it looks like items get their own display cases

it can show off rarity color and on the bottom left, you get to see exactly what you’re looking at. no more confusing grenade mods for shields in this house

a non-holographic poster for the Typhon Deleon movie. I think this is the first we’ve seen outside of Promethea. I guess Amara’s a fan.

A vault symbol rug, and the symbol spray painted onto her punching bag. I think that poster in the back is a Monty Python reference? I didn’t get quite a good look at it, we might see another one later on.

Amara has a window seat, I’m actually hoping we’ll be able to hang out in our rooms and look out the window at space. I would honestly spend so much time here. Also, regarding the bed (not pictured, that’s the window seat), I’m wondering if that will have any gameplay effects or if it's just aesthetics. I hope it’s at least bouncy...

she does have some jakobs crates holding up the plants. Don’t know if that has anything to do with her backstory or if its just to fit the aesthetic of her room.

we’re also told “again, you can modify your player quarters to how you want to play” which... I don’t know if I’m looking too deeply into that, but it seems like we’ll be able to pick and choose things like furniture or overall layout. I wonder if they’d let us cycle between the other VH’s rooms. Not sure exactly what it’s supposed to imply, but it is something to point out.

Our first look at the SUPAMAX MFG logo. “Ships made Quick”

We also get our first look at Ellie’s cargo bay. More on this later

behind the curtains to the left of here

a poster of Jack and some lootable washing machines. We’ve seen the poster before, from what I’ve heard it's a movie poster starring timothy doppleman. Which... What a legend. 

Now, I do want to point out we see this logo next to the cargo bay

this is one of the reasons I thought the ship was Atlas at first, however you can tell there’s no gap on the right of the triangle and the bottom edges don’t match. I definitely think the new Atlas logo is a delta to signify change, though, cause Rhys is a big ol nerd.

some blueprints of the ship and a bunch of reused posters from BL2 thrown in for decor purposes. There’s another poster of Typhon to the left of that, but since we’ve already seen it, fuck ‘em

We also see a buttload of Maliwan crates hanging around the ship, matching the color design of the one we saw floating around space 

here’s one of them!

a better look at the blueprints as a standalone poster. It looks like ‘Sanctuary’ was written over with something, but I can’t make out what. also checkout how the paint on top doesn’t match the paint on the cover art’s ship. Nor does the cover art have the fins coming off the engines like we see here. I actually just noticed that even the spoilers are different shapes.

Moving on before I go off on another tangent

a poster for Marcus’s shop

the new golden chest as Randy called it. I believe we’ve seen the animation already, where the guns splay upwards like a peacock or smth

a cowgirl hangin out on more Maliwan chests

Marcus’s new sign. Honestly? He’s rocking the bun.

this dude we find walking out of the store. Don’t know what his deal is, but I’m digging it.

this Amara already has 5/8 Pistol SDUs unlocked! (Also, there are 8 max SDUs) Makes me think she’s a high level character. That’ll come into play later lol

5/8 Backpack SDUS. I didn’t show it but she also had 1/8 Shotgun SDUs. Also only +3 to backpack space each. Considering Amara already has 5 unlocked, that means we get the regular 12 backpack space to start. D:

bank space only gets +2. Amara already has 2, meaning the bank can only hold 8 items without upgrades. F in chat for the big bank dreams. Max amount the bank can hold is 24. Somebody comfort me... hopefully these SDUs increase exponentially 😭

the mystery SDU. It looks like a box with a question mark on it, giving out guns and grenades. Makes me worry this is some form of loot box, but considering it can be bought with cash in-game, that’s probably a good sign. Maybe you can buy golden keys in game to open the gold chest now? Randy said no microtransactions and, while he is Randy, I want to believe him (disregarding the skins fiasco because we all knew that was coming).

since i’ve also seen speculation that it’s the upgrade for the capacity of the Lost-And-Found, I think that’s probably what this actually is.

the shooting range we can see from here. Doesn’t appear to have any targets yet, but it may be like the one in BL2 where they only appear when we enter.

more Maliwan boxes to the left of the shooting range.

Crew Quarters sign!

some very big (tm) Maliwan crates

tannis’s sign!

this NPC actually seems important, I’m wondering if she’ll give us a side quest or something

what i’m guessing is the power core to the ship. It’s in such a great place to get shot... i wonder if perhaps... we’re going to have to do that at some point...

“ain’t no place like space” I love this place.

also looks like there’s a shortcut here. You can see the planks across the pipes, the balcony, and the railing here that’s gonna be easy to get over. Excitement!

looks like a control panel right in front of the core. Yeah, there’s definitely going to be something related to it. Maybe we’ll get attacked and we have to go stabilize it. Maybe our ship will get hijacked and we’ll have to blow it up from the inside. I can’t be the only one who thinks this place is wayyy too grand to not get destroyed...

better look at that bad boy

the opening to moxxi’s bar

actual bar

i have no idea what this is, but i dig it. Also the zer0 for the O is making me go  🤔 i don’t THINK Zer0 would get involved, but then again, they are doing missions for Moxxi in Tales, so maybe the two got together to make something

this door seems different enough and detailed enough (red glowing light) to make me think we’re going to be unlocking this and going through it at some point. Then it shall glow green and make me happy instead of frustrated. the minimap, unfortunately, does not agree with me, but I want to believe. or that’s gonna bother me to no end. Maybe some sort of “we just escaped control core angel” situation, idk.

some slot machines. Ca$hTrap! and Tinx’s Hijinx. Looks like an NPC is using the latter though so idk if it will be available to use. 

scoring system. Looks like the ??x row will give us a new character skin!! hype.

the uhhh... Lava Lamp column... will give us...? ???

A devil fruit?? A grenade? wtf is that???

3 bananas gives us new colors! Crowns = head

the... Eridium...? That seems way too pink to be Eridium tbqh. It reminds me more of Seraph crystals, but maybe its a reference to the ‘Eridium’ growing out of the ground on Promethea? ...... Maybe that’s growing because Atlas/Typhon actually DID open the Vault on Promethea

uh anyway

The last column is about more crystals and then cash and then the last one... I assume the icons are Claptrap’s eye (considering the game), but the reward? i think that’s the grenade the demo player gets in the demo 

we’ve also got Loot Boxer (also taken by an NPC) and Vault Line. I’m wondering if the NPCs using the machines are just a gameplay mechanic and they’ll disappear after a certain level/event. Maybe those ones give us better loot. idk.

for Vault Line, i think that says “Knockout Prizes” but I could be wrong. More importantly, it looks like we can get legendaries from this one! First column shows a green/purple/yellow (legendary?) gun. I can’t tell what the other icons are meant to be, though. i think the next 3 are shields, then maybe class mods? or... grenade mods? i don’t know. The last one is a total blob for me, no ideas on that. Also wondering if that machine costs Eridium to play or something, 1) because of its design and 2) because the rewards seem sooo much better than Claptrap’s.

outside we see the Crew Quarters sign for the first time and, interestingly enough, a TV broadcasting the same symbol we see being broadcasted all across the CoV camps. What’s up with that?

infirmary and crew quarters signs on the wall this time

more Maliwan crap. even says it right on the tin. Why is there a pokeball on there?

a map of the ship. We see this on a bunch of monitors, even ones on Promethea, for some reason. This one is mirrored. dunno why.

more signs. Left top to bottom: “Cargo Bay” “Armory” “Infirmary”

Right top to bottom: “Engine Room” (OwO) “Crew Quarters” “Cargo Bay” “Armory” annnd nothing on the last line this bend around. when they turn the corner, you can see that it, too, says “infirmary”

Also, the Heatant and Coolant Pipes lmao

“LAB/SICK BAY” pointing to the left towards Tannis’s corner

so, here’s where we get our first glance at something very very interesting

now, the crew makes us think this is our first time visiting Promethea in the demo. But if it is, why are there Promethea civilians wandering around the ship? I believe i go over this some in an older post, but I’ll recap:

1) It could be that Sanctuary III was already in the air before the game starts and had already visited Promethea to take some Civilians off Rhys’s hands so he had less to worry about. That would mean that we’d need a shuttle or something to reach the ship in order to activate the fast travel station, which is (possibly) where the ship on the cover art could come in. Because in the borderlands universe, you need to reach a Fast Travel station first before you’re able to teleport to it and if Sanc III is flying and Lilith doesn’t have her powers, we’re stranded on Pandora. (Alternatively, the ship could come down from space, but... I kinda doubt it can without not being able to take off again. Maybe borderlands just has cooler spaceships... idk. They were able to make a caravan space capable). Unfortunately, this would mean those screencaps from the new trailer that looks like Sanctuary III being infested with wildlife would not take place on early-game Pandora/that we wouldn’t rescue the ship and claim it as our own. (We could possibly get Sanctuary III in the air in the new BL2 DLC if this is the case.) The ship getting infested then could take place above the Maliwan planet or Promethea or soon after we join the crew and we’re sent down there to clean it up as a side quest. Or there’s a time skip and the ship gets overrun and we have to fix it. Now that’d be rad... 

2) gearbox is being sneaky beaky about the demo time. We do see Maya later on, which leads me to believe this takes place after we meet her. Where does it look like she’ll be? On the Maliwan/Monastery planet. It could be possible that the devs took the ship back to Pandora and simply removed the Maliwan planet from the list of places to take our ship. That would leave Promethea as an option while also explaining why there are both Promethean citizens and Maya on board. Could also explain Lilith having her tattoos back, since we don’t know the events of the story that lead to us going to find Maya. Though, I think I have an idea... I’ll leave that for my Maya masterpost though. Lilith also says “We arrived in one piece... that’s a first” when we travel to Promethea, leading me to believe either that’s where Sanctuary-II warped and got destroyed (maybe explaining why there are Promethea Civilians with us now), possibly in the asteroid fields, also maybe due to a mechanical failure, or Sanctuary-III, when it first went to Promethea with us, got a bit damaged by the rocks floating around Promethea or some other thing like the CoV attacking, idk. What are those rocks for, anyway? ....... I gotta make a post on that, don’t I? oi oi oi...

Moving on

the front of the Infirmary

....

this kinda looks like a baby T-Rex. There are T-Rexes on the swamp planet, which we now are assuming is Promethea, aren’t there? Oh hell yeah. If the swamp planet ISN’T Promethea I’m gonna be all like [shocked pikachu face]. that outskirts area was really making me believe. 

anyway, see above lol

we also get another glimpse at the SUPAMAX logo

some lootables in the back

not sure if these are Maliwan or not.

Zed also has a machine in the back here. We haven’t seen him around yet, but odds are he’s still kicking because of this. And hopefully still friendly with the crimson raiders. Maybe Tannis locked him in a closet or something, idk.

oooo i haven’t seen this screen before

i want to know what it isssss

this also looks eerily familiar. brb, gonna go find what this reminds me of

okay, so

not sure if its exactly the same material/type of symbol, but this location, what i have dubbed the “temple” cuz i got no better name for it, does have square emblems across the floor with borders.

so, interestingly, this one has what looks like an eye with beams shooting out of it. if that description sounds familiar to you, it should, because

EYEBALL

now i got no idea if these are related aside from being in the same game, but it does interest me that they’ve both got eyeballs and streaky beams.

Oh and Tannis’s Vault symbol doesn’t have the writing (?) across the edges, but I will say, it does kinda look like cuneiform and eridian writing had a baby. Like, if you super heavily pixelate the Watcher’s name on her title card...

tbh I’ve theorized a lot about this place, but haven’t found anything I particularly like. From the place where the first Vault Atlas ever opened is (meaning its on Promethea and could explain why Tannis has that slab), the Great Vault’s holding place (where the skeleton on the ground is Typhon and his final journal) (perhaps the Great Vault is the entryway to the Eridian homeworld... that could explain why the CoV are trying to find it... might be a reason why they’re being manipulated by new aliens to find it. god please let them be the Seraphs...) uh, anyway, I also had an idea that it was someplace on the Maliwan planet, and maybe that it was in the archives area that was taken over by Maliwan and that the skeleton was of a Siren. That would explain why Maya is shown handing the book to Little Blue in the MoM. I go over that in an old post though, so moving on.

 oh, there’s also a frame of Tannis’s animation where the dinosaur she was inside stands up and clips through the table:

there’s a small room over here we don’t get to see, and I’m wondering if there’s another NPC joining us on Sanctuary-III that isn’t showcased. god I hope if its pickle he got more bearable as he got older because dear god i hated him in tps. I can’t see Athena nor Janey with a desk like that. Maybe Vaughn? Though would he really want to go back to being an accountant after everything...?

more maliwan boxes btw. looks like someone scribbled on this one lol

now we head to the bridge!!!

looks like an arcade game lol

but possibly a control mechanism for shuttles coming in???  👀 👀 👀

Crew Quarters and the SUPAMAX logo

oh yeah, and in case you were doubtful that this was a borderlands game:

“Caution: Excessive Farts Detected”

the Bridge!!!

We’ve got a holo-projector thing up front like we’ve seen Rhys use, as well as a mini one used as a digistructer during Lorelei’s hamburger quest. Most interesting, Lily has her tattoos! Definitely wondering if this takes place later on in the story or if they swapped her early game model in. either way, they’re definitely there. 

some cool art of Sanctuary III zooming away

just have to say

i love this so much

its great

okay moving on

I wish they’d be more specific. do ruins = vault? Typhon says he discovers the Vault and the Key in one fell swoop. if Typhon DID give atlas the Vault key and the location to the Vault (and we’re not just listening to an ARG for the movie or smth) then why didn’t Atlas open it immediately?! I mean, in TFTBL Cassius says Gortys is their last ditch attempt at opening a Vault! So what the heck?? I can’t believe that it would be less than 200 years from the first Vault being discovered to the Eridians abandoning everything. like vault keys take 200 years to naturally charge so there’s no reason why it wouldn’t be already charged and available (Unless its more of a cycle thing where it charges and then discharges after a while for safety’s sake??). 

And another thing, if that IS Eridium growing out of the ground on Promethea, then they totally DID open the first Vault. Or at least Typhon did. Unless there was something stopping them... like... Maybe in the temple those demon-looking-things stopped them from getting through and that’s why we find a bunch of skeletons around the place? Or maybe the Guardians got to them, or some other Eridian protection scheme. i don’t know... im so confused... brain hurt...

anyway

why the fuck does Elpis look like this

is that the light side of the moon? dear god im blind.

hhhh at least we can still see the crackening

lowkey wondering if the ship is based off of Eridian tech. I could totally see a slip-space drive being based off Lilith’s phasewalking

when we finish travelling, Lily says “We’ve arrived in one piece. that’s a first” and yeeah, i can see whyyy

rocks. rocks everywhere. tbh i think these rocks are 1) why lilith says that (we’ve either been to Promethea before in Sanc-III or Sanc-II got decimated slip jumping here) and 2) why the VH’s entry into Promethea is apparently so awful Lilith needs to ask if they’re actually still alive. also, we get to see just how much of Promethea is cities and goddamn. that’s a lot for a borderworld.

sorry for the youtube bar. 

Deck A: Hammerlock - Infirmary/Tannis - Deck B: Marcus - Moxxi Deck C: Cargo Bay

I am honestly so curious how they got this ship with that lettering on it. I guess they could’ve made it themselves, but... you gotta wonder... maybe we get the ship built on Pandora by Ellie. Or she helps us fix it up after we remove all gross rat things from it.

MAYAAAAA

better look at the Monty poster plus some other stuff, like a clock, dartboard, and a gas mask. Also if anyone knows what that says up top there, please let me know, im super curious!

Hammerlock’s quarters!

this guy has the same facial hair as Zane. I swear to god if I hear “Oh, that’s me fourth brother” im gonna lose my absolute shit

something to the far left outside of Hammerlock’s quarters we’re not allowed to see yet :(

there’s also graffiti of “Charge port here” around the ship and i think that’s hilarious. It’s like an airport

put your ports in, damn it!

Ellie!!!

More maliwan boxes to her left, btw

the actual cargo bay. remember how i said to look at the bottom of sanctuary III to find the door? I’m like 90% sure that’s it right there. Randy also says “down here we can check out the vehicles we’ve collected AND this is how/where we get access to the planets while we’re in orbit”.

Crazy Earl’s black market! dunno how he’s actually, like, connected to the black market from here, but, hey, who knows what he’s got in there.

veteran rewards, apparently drawn over one of Marcus’s machines lol

“Inter-Galactic” a little drawing of Sanc-III and another Maliwan box (you can see why I think this ship is Maliwan, right?)

Clappy and his GF... yeah...

one very big digistruct pad. listen... im praying for a space shuttle. i really am.

finally:

the drop pod

god this looks awesome. I bet we’re gonna have many a fun time in there lol

I finally get to live out my dream of being an ODST in borderlands. what badasses they are.

[aion-rsa]

How Adventures in the Forgotten Realms puts Dungeons & Dragons Flavor in Magic: The Gathering

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

This article is presented by Wizards of the Coast.

Magic: The Gathering’s new Dungeons & Dragons crossover set, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms, is finally in the wild. AFR promised to be a crossover with MTG in more than just name, but they’re two wildly different games. How could you capture the feel of a D&D campaign in a card game? The answer seems to be in the flavor: it’s not just how you play a game of Magic with AFR cards that captures D&D; it’s in how well the new set captures the vibe of a campaign with art, card names, and the variability it’s introduced to each hand of Magic: The Gathering.

The characters and the gameplay have drawn all the headlines so far. Drizzt Do’Urden, everyone’s favorite elf, or evil dragon goddess Tiamat are huge names, and big, impactful cards making splashes across the wild variety of Magic formats. And the dungeon mechanic — certain cards allow you to venture into one of three dungeons for bonus effects on the game board — is very on point for a crossover between the two games. And they’re a ton of fun to race through after an AFR draft. But they’re just the most obvious way that AFR injected D&D into a game of Magic.

Alternate art cards — cards with different art from the standard version, either completely new pictures or cards without borders that let you see more of the artist’s original composition — are exciting pulls from any pack of Magic cards. One of the things AFR introduced are rulebook style cards. The alternate art on these cards does them up to look like a page from a D&D sourcebook. They’re black and white sketches of the character, with the border and rules text background in a paper-brown that we don’t ever see otherwise on Magic cards, and the character background the color of the card’s rarity.

They look great, and pair really well with the Module lands. Each color has a special land that can be animated for a cost, and each of those special lands (and a couple of others) has an alternate art style that makes it look like a classic D&D adventure module. These combine to make the game board feel like a busy D&D tabletop in the best way possible.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", mediaId: "b939c9dc-af9c-44c5-8cfe-230d01ecbf13" }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

One of the greatest additions is in the flavor text on the spells themselves. Gameplay-wise, while You See A Pair Of Goblins is more flexible, one of its effect is similar to casting Dragon Fodder. But the name makes a world of difference. Playing You See A Pair Of Goblins feels like going on a D&D adventure. It makes the game a bit more immersive. Dragon Fodder feels utilitarian and functional by comparison.

The other beauty of these command cards is their flexibility. Every card utilizing this naming convention – from YSAPOG to Choose Your Weapon or You Hear Something On Watch or the several others – gives the player a choice, just like their DM would in a game of D&D. These modal cards make something as common as countering a spell feel like an encounter in a broad campaign. 

Magic: The Gathering has always been full of flavor. Adventures in the Forgotten Realms adds more than its share, and the result is a mash up with Dungeons & Dragons that is way more than the sum of its parts.

The post How Adventures in the Forgotten Realms puts Dungeons & Dragons Flavor in Magic: The Gathering appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/2Vz1NCv

[augustusarts]

Cider Party Progress

This is what 3 years of my artistic progress look like!

My drawing is better, my understanding of human anatomy, my colors, my shading, my rendering techniques, my understanding of space and volume, my backgrounds... Even my taste! In the first drawing, Applejack had these huge breasts and a very tight shirt, while Rarity was drunk (from non-alcoholic apple cider, yes) and bothering Fluttershy, just not the best look for a My Little Pony drawing, so I'm glad my art and my good judgement matured so much after all this time.

Do NOT use this anywhere without my explicit permission!

[denizerkli]

Miller is simply too harsh on writing. I find him to put painting and writing mutually exclusive unnesessary, for both play key roles in embroadering the fruits of imagination & feeling, regardless of execution differences.

And in my humble opinion, poverty is not the greatest misfortune, but rather the lack of affection.

The remaining article speaks volumes on my behalf.

____________________________________

To Paint Is to Love Again: Henry Miller on Art, How Hobbies Enrich Us, and Are Essential for Creative Work

“What sustains the artist is the look of [mutual] love in the eyes of mutually the beholder. Not money, not the right connections, not exhibitions, not flattering reviews.”

BY MARIA POPOVA

One particularly icy winter day not too long ago, I reluctantly retired my bike, took the subway into Manhattan, and gave up my seat to a kindly woman a few decades my senior. We struck up a conversation — an occurrence doubly delightful for its lamentable rarity on the New York City subway. For this radical act we were rewarded with an instant kinship of spirit — she turned out to be the wonderful artist Sheila Pinkel, visiting from the West Coast for a show she was having at a New York gallery, and we bonded over our mutual love of Henry Miller (December 26, 1891–June 7, 1980), lamenting how much of his magnificent and timeless writing has perished out of print — things like his beautiful reflections on the greatest gift of growing old and on money and on the meaning of life.

Right before I hopped out at my stop, Sheila mentioned one particular book that had made a strong impression early in life, but which she had been unable to find since — Miller’s 1968 lost gem To Paint Is to Love Again (public library). Naturally, I tracked down a surviving copy as soon as possible and was instantly enchanted by this rare and wonderful treasure trove of Miller’s paintings — for he was among the famous writers who were drawn to the visual arts, producing such lesser-known treats as J.R.R. Tolkien’s illustrations, Sylvia Plath’s drawings, William Faulkner’s Jazz Age etchings, Flannery O’Connor’s cartoons, Zelda Fitzgerald’s watercolors, and Nabokov’s butterfly studies — enveloped in his devastatingly honest and insightful words on art, sincerity, kindness, hardship, and the gift of friendship.

With his characteristic blend of irreverence, earnestness, and unapologetic wisdom, Miller — who began painting at the age of thirty-seven in 1928, while he was “supposed to be at work on the great American novel” but was yet to publish anything at all, bought his first watercolors and brushes in the midst of poverty, and was soon painting “morning, noon and night” — explores the eternal question of what art is and what makes one an artist.

Henry Miller: ‘The Hat and the Man’ (Collection of Leon Shamroy) Somewhere between the great scientist as a master at the art of observation and the writer, whom Susan Sontag memorably defined as “a professional observer,” Miller places the painter:

What is more intriguing than a spot on the bathroom floor which, as you sit emptying your bowels, assumes a hundred different forms, figures, shapes? Often I found myself on my knees studying a stain on the floor — studying it to detect all that was hidden at first sight. No doubt the painter, studying the face of the sitter whose portrait he is about to do, must be astonished by the things he suddenly recognizes in the familiar visage before him. Looking intently at an eye or a pair of lips, or an ear — particularly an ear, that weird appendage! — one is astounded by the metamorphoses a human countenance undergoes. What is an eye or an ear? The anatomy books will tell you one thing, or many things, but looking at an eye or ear to render it in form, texture, color yields quite another kind of knowledge. Suddenly you see — and it’s not an eye or an ear but a little universe composed of the most extraordinary elements having nothing to do with sight or hearing, with flesh, bone, muscle, cartilage.

In this art of seeing Miller finds the essential question of what a painting really is:

A picture… is a thousand different things to a thousand different people. Like a book, a piece of sculpture, or a poem. One picture speaks to you, another doesn’t… Some pictures invite you to enter, then make you a prisoner. Some pictures you race through, as if on roller skates. Some lead you out by the back door. Some weigh you down, oppress you for days and weeks on end. Others lift you up to the skies, make you weep with joy or gnash your teeth in despair.

Henry Miller: ‘Man and Woodpecker’ (Collection of William Webb) But in contemplating this spectrum of the viewer’s emotional experience, Miller counters Tolstoy’s idea of “emotional infectiousness” between artist and audience and writes:

What happens to you when you look at a painting may not be at all what the artist who painted it intended to have happen. Millions of people have stood and gazed in open-mouthed wonder at the Mona Lisa. Does anyone know what was going on in Da Vinci’s mind when he did it? If he were to come to life again and look at it with his own two eyes it is dubious, in my mind, that he would know himself precisely what it was that made him present her in this immortal fashion.

And yet the intensity of the artist’s own emotion, Miller argues, is the true lifeblood of art and of optimism about the human spirit:

To paint is to love again. It’s only when we look with eyes of love that we see as the painter sees. His is a love, moreover, which is free of possessiveness. What the painter sees he is duty-bound to share. Usually he makes us see and feel what ordinarily we ignore or are immune to. His manner of approaching the world tells us, in effect, that nothing is vile or hideous, nothing is stale, flat and unpalatable unless it be our own power of vision. To see is not merely to look. One must look-see. See into and around.

Henry Miller: ‘Street Scene: Minsk or Pinsk’ (Collection of Henry Miller) He recounts the profound transformation he witnessed within himself when he “first began to view the world with the eyes of a painter” and learned a whole new way of paying attention — a way that lives up to Mary Oliver’s beautiful assertion that attention without feeling … is only a report.” Miller writes:

The most familiar things, objects which I had gazed at all my life, now became an unending source of wonder, and with the wonder, of course, affection. A tea pot, an old hammer, or chipped cup, whatever came to hand I looked upon as if I had never seen it before. I hadn’t, of course. Do not most of us go through life blind, deaf, insensitive? Now as I studied the object’s physiognomy, its texture, its way of speaking, I entered into its life, its history, its purpose, its association with other objects, all of which only endeared it the more… Have you ever noticed that the stones one gathers at the beach are grateful when we hold them in our hands and caress them? Do they not take on a new expression? An old pot loves to be rubbed with tenderness and appreciation. So with an axe: kept in good condition, it always serves its master lovingly.

Unlike his longtime lover and lifelong friend Anaïs Nin, who believed that “if one changes internally, one should not continue to live with the same objects,” Miller extols the gladdening assurance of the old:

I have always cherished old things, used things, things marked by the passage of time and human events. I think of my own self this way, as something much handled, much knocked about, as worn and polished with use and abuse. As something serviceable, perhaps I should say. More serviceable for having had so many masters, so many wretched, glorious, haphazard experiences and encounters. Which explains, perhaps, why it is that when I start to do a head it always turns into a “self-portrait.” Even when it becomes a woman, even when it bears no resemblance to me at all. I know myself, my changing faces, my ineradicable Stone Age expression. It’s what happened to me that interests me, not resemblances. I am a worn, used creature, an object that loves to be handled, rubbed, caressed, stuffed in a coat pocket, or left to bake in the sun. Something to be used or not used, as you like.

Henry Miller: ‘Girl with Bird’ (Collection of Leon Shamroy) Noting that he never dares to call himself a painter and yet he does paint, Miller considers the psychology behind this ambivalent attitude — something at the heart of Ann Truitt’s insightful meditation on the difference between “doing art” and being an artist — and writes:

I turn to painting when I can no longer write. Painting refreshes and restores me; it enables me to forget that I am temporarily unable to write. So I paint while the reservoir replenishes itself.

This, of course, is a strategy that many celebrated creators used — Madeleine L’Engle read science to enrich her writing and Einstein, who termed his creative process “combinatory play,”, is said to have come up with his greatest physics breakthroughs during his violin breaks. But it also makes sense under more formal psychological models of how creativity works, all of which require some form of incubation period, or what Alexander Graham Bell called “unconscious cerebration” — a stage during which “no effort of a direct nature” is made toward one’s creative goal and the mind is instead allowed to perform its essential background processing.

This notion comes very much alive in Miller’s account of those early days when he first became besotted with painting and its singular way of seeing the world:

Though my mind was intensely active, for I was seeing everything in a new light, the impression I had was of painting with some other part of my being. My mind went on humming, like a wheel that continues to spin after the hand has let go, but it didn’t get frazzled and exhausted as it would after a few hours of writing. While I played, for I never looked on it as work, I whistled, hummed, danced on one foot, then the other, and talked to myself.

It was a joy to go on turning [paintings] out like a madman — perhaps because I didn’t have to prove anything, either to the world or to myself. I wasn’t hepped on becoming a painter. Not at all. I was simply wiggling out of the strait-jacket.

He draws a further contrast between painting and writing in their respective effects on the creator’s psyche:

I enjoy talking to painters more than to writers… Painters give me the impression of being less used up by their daily task than writers or musicians. Also, they use words in a more plastic way, as if conscious of their very substantial originals. When they write … they reveal a poetic touch which writers often lack. Perhaps this is due to living continuously with flesh, textures, objects, and not merely with ideas, abstractions, complexes. Often they are mimes or story tellers, and nearly always good cooks. The writer, on the other hand, is so often pale, awkward, incompetent in everything except the business of putting words together.

The disposition of the painter and the writer, Miller observes with the warm wryness of someone very much aware that he is first a writer, differs not only in their psychic state during creation but also in how each relates to their finished work:

To paint is to love again, live again, see again. To get up at the crack of dawn in order to take a peek at the water colors one did the day before, or even a few hours before, is like stealing a look at the beloved while she sleeps. The thrill is even greater if one has first to draw back the curtains. How they glow in the cold light of early dawn! … Is there any writer who rouses himself at daybreak in order to read the pages of his manuscript? Perish the thought!

And yet Miller notes that many celebrated writers were also “painters, musicians, actors, ambassadors, mathematicians,” of which he observes:

When one is an artist all mediums open up… Every artist worth his salt has his [hobby]. It’s the norm, not the exception.

Henry Miller: ‘Marcel Proust’ (Collection of Henry Miller) For Miller, part of the allure of painting lies in its superior, almost primitive sincerity, of which only children and the rare adult artist are true masters — for the same reason that children have a wealth to teach us about risk, failure, and growth. Miller writes:

For me the paintings of children belong side by side with the works of the masters… The work of a child never fails to make appeal, to claim us, because it is always honest and sincere, always imbued with the magic certitude born of the direct, spontaneous approach.

Paul Klee … had the ability to return us to the world of the child as well as to that of the poet, the mathematician, the alchemist, the seer. In the paintings of Paul Klee we are privileged to witness the miracle of the pedagogue slaying the pedagogue. He learned in order to forget, it would seem. He was a spiritual nomad endowed with the most sensitive palps… He almost never failed, and he never, never, never said too much.

Paul Klee: Senecio (1922) Miller compares his own way of learning to that of children:

We all learn as much as we wish to and no more. We learn in different ways, sometimes by not learning…. My way is by trial and error, by groping, stumbling, questioning.

Noting that very few American painters excite him at all — among the exceptions he admiringly cites Georgia O’Keeffe and Jackson Pollock — Miller condemns the toxic effect of consumerism, something he had spiritedly condemned three decades earlier, on the creative spirit:

To paint is to love again, and to love is to live to the fullest. But what kind of love, what sort of life can one hope to find in a vacuum cluttered with every conceivable gadget, every conceivable money maker, every last comfort, every useless luxury? To live and love, and to give expression to it in paint, one must also be a true believer. There must be something to worship. Where in this broad land is the Holy of Holies hidden?

The practice of any art demands more than mere savoir faire. One must not only be in love with what one does, one must also know how to make love. In love self is obliterated. Only the beloved counts. Whether the beloved be a bowl of fruit, a pastoral scene, or the interior of a bawdy house makes no difference. One must be in it and of it wholly. Before a subject can be transmuted aesthetically it must be devoured and absorbed. If it is a painting it must perspire with ecstasy.

Echoing Nietzsche’s conviction that a full life requires embracing rather than running from difficulty, he adds:

The lure of the master lies in the struggle he engenders… [In America] for everything which taxes our patience, our skill, our understanding, we have short cuts… Only the art of love, it would seem, still defies the short cut.

Decades before Lewis Hyde’s now-legendary manifesto for the gift economy and half a century before its modern-day counterpart, Amanda Palmer’s manifesto for the art of asking, Miller writes:

Certainly the surest way to kill an artist is to supply him with everything he needs. Materially he needs but little. What he never gets enough of is appreciation, encouragement, understanding. I have seen painters give away their most cherished work on the impulse of the moment, sometimes in return for a good meal, sometimes for a bit of love, sometimes for no reason at all — simply because it pleased them to do so. And I have seen these same men refuse to sell a cherished painting no matter what the sum offered. I believe that a true artist always prefers to give his work away rather than sell it. A good artist must also have a streak of insanity in him, if by insanity is meant an exaggerated inability to adapt. The individual who can adapt to this mad world of to-day is either a nobody or a sage. In the one case he is immune to art and in the other he is beyond it.

Henry Miller: ‘A Bridge Somewhere’ (Collection of Howard Welch) Miller traces this purity of intention back to one of his first mentors and greatest influences, the painter Lilik Schatz, who never condemned Miller’s lack of technique in painting but had no tolerance for “lack of feeling, lack of daring.” Miller quotes Schatz’s memorable advice:

Do anything you like, but do it with conviction!

For their sincerity and integrity of conviction, Miller held painters in high regard his whole life. He describes them as “all lovable souls, and some … possessed of a wisdom altogether uncommon.” Even though these impressions were based on Miller’s friendships with a number of prominent artists, including Man Ray and Beauford Delaney, he remains most moved by the great photographer Alfred Stieglitz, a man of “vigorous, youthful spirit” and “unique way of looking at things”:

No one had ever talked painting to me the way Stieglitz did. It wasn’t his talk alone either, but the look in his eyes which accompanied it. That he was not a painter amazed me…. If ever the artist had a friend, a spokesman, a champion defender, it was in the person of Alfred Stieglitz… He was one of the very few Americans … whose approach to a work of art inspired reverence for the artist, for his work, for art itself. Lucky for us who come under his spell that he was not a painter, that he had created for himself the role of interpreter and defender.

Miller’s deep appreciation for such champions of the artist echoes, coincidentally, what Georgia O’Keeffe — the love of Stieglitz’s life, and a legendary artist whose own career was sparked by a friend’s unflinching faith — once wrote of the only true measure of success in art. In a sentiment that Robert Krulwich would come to echo half a century later in his magnificent commencement address on the importance of “friends in low places,” Miller extols the enormous spiritual value of such supporters:

Usually the artist has two life-long companions, neither of his own choosing… — poverty and loneliness. To have a friend who understands and appreciates your work, one who never lets you down but who becomes more devoted, more reverent, as the years go by, that is a rare experience. It takes only one friend, if he is a man of faith, to work miracles.

Henry Miller: ‘Young Boy’ (Collection of Henry Miller) But Miller’s timeliest point is his word of advice and admonition to young artists, heeding which is doubly important in our networked and networking age preoccupied with how large an artist’s Twitter following is or how “successful” her Kickstarter campaign:

How distressing it is to hear young painters talking about dealers, shows, newspaper reviews, rich patrons, and so on. All that comes with time — or will never come. But first one must make friends, create them through one’s work. What sustains the artist is the look of love in the eyes of the beholder. Not money, not the right connections, not exhibitions, not flattering reviews.

Miller intuits with great poetic precision what we now know empirically about grit being more important than “genius”:

To win through by sheer force of genius is one thing; to survive and continue to create when every last door is slammed in one’s face is another. Nobody acquires genius — it is God-given. But one can acquire patience, fortitude, wisdom, understanding. Perhaps the greatest gift [is] to love what one does whether it causes a stir or not.

In yet another stroke of prescience, Miller reveals himself as an early proponent of the pay-what-you-wish model of funding creative endeavor — the model that makes Brain Pickings possible — and adds:

Who knows what is good for man in this life? Poverty is one of the misfortunes people seem to dread even more than sickness… But is it so dreadful? For me this seemingly bleak period was a most instructive one, because not being able to write for money I had to turn to something else to keep going. It could have been shining shoes; it happened to be water colors. To make water colors for money never gave me the least qualm. I set no price on my labors. Whatever the buyer chose to offer, whatever he thought he could afford, no matter how ridiculous the sum, I said yes… I earned just enough to keep my head above water. It was like writing songs and getting paid to whistle them.

Henry Miller: ‘Clown’ (Collection of Hoki Miller)

Having written about the beautiful osmosis of giving and receiving nearly three decades earlier, Miller closes with a wonderfully touching personal anecdote — the kind found in Charles Bukowski’s beautiful letter of gratitude to his first patron. Illustrating the mutually ennobling effects of this kindness economy, Miller recounts one such early friendly spirit to whom he owes his creative destiny:

All this good fortune — of being able to work like a dog in happy poverty — was the result of a chance encounter with Attilio Bowinkel who ran an art shop in Westwood Village. One day I entered his shop to buy two tubes of paint. I asked for the cheapest water colors he had. When he asked me if that was all I needed I told him frankly that that was all I could afford at the moment. Whereupon the good Mr. Bowinkel put me a few discreet but pertinent queries. I answered briefly and truthfully. Then he said, and I shall never forget it: “Choose what you like … paper, paints, brushes, whatever you need. It’s a gift.” A few days later he came to the Green House to inspect my work. I blushed when I showed him what I had on hand. He didn’t say whether they were good or bad but on leaving he took a few with him, and the next day, on passing his shop, I noticed two of them in the window, beautifully framed. They were sold that very day, to Arthur Freed of M.G.M., a collector of modern European paintings… In Attilio Bowinkel I found a friend and a saviour.

[asfeedin]

Acer ConceptD 7 Review: Unbeatable Performance, But $3,000 Is Steep

If I told you I was going to drop $3,000 on a laptop, I doubt the next words out of your mouth would be, “Is it an Acer?” But here we are, as Acer punches its way through the $3K ceiling and lands on desks with the heaviest of expectations. I haven’t reviewed a laptop this expensive since 2013: Can the Acer ConceptD 7 possibly be worth the outlay?

The ConceptD family, which was initially announced a year ago, is an unabashed moon-shot line of high-end systems built for content creators. The computer is designed to push boundaries. Some models of the ConceptD include a novel, hinge-mounted LCD called the Ezel, which lets the screen jut out over the keyboard for easier stylus interaction. (Some of these systems cost as much as $5,000 too.) However, the ConceptD 7, reviewed here, is a more traditional laptop. In fact, it doesn’t even have a touchscreen.

The all-white system immediately cuts a striking appearance. Built from aluminum and covered with a matte ceramic coating, the chassis feels sturdy and svelte, though the LCD is a touch on the wobbly side. Corner bevels add just a touch of stylish sophistication to the good-looking machine.

Photograph: Acer 

Specs nearly all peg the needle at the highest of the high end and reflect the state of the art in laptop tech. The ninth-generation Intel Core i7 is backed up with 32GB of RAM and a 1 terabyte SSD. Powering graphics is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080, the current top of the line in mobile video processing.

The big selling point here, however, is the screen itself, a 15.6-incher with 3,840 x 2,160 pixels of resolution. Specs don’t really do the screen justice, and it’s legitimately one of the most impressive displays I’ve ever encountered. While it’s not the brightest screen on the market, it’s so vivid and lifelike that for a moment I thought the default background—a smear of oil paints on a dark canvas—was a 3D reality. If things like 100 percent Adobe RGB gamut, Pantone validated color fidelity, and color accuracy of Delta E <2 mean anything to you, then good, because the ConceptD 7 has all of them.

The ConceptD 7 is designed to surpass expectations of performance, and it does so without hesitation. Scores on graphics-heavy tests—including the Cinebench 3D modeling/animation benchmark and a variety of gaming and VR tests—were all at or near record-breaking highs when compared to previous systems I’ve reviewed. It’s not quite the barnburner at general applications (think Microsoft Office), and in fact its benchmarks in this segment were fairly average. Of course, you’re not buying this machine if you want to crunch spreadsheets, you’re buying it because you’re a video editor or a digital artist of some kind. And here, the ConceptD shines.

Photograph: Acer

At 23mm thick and 4.8 pounds, it’s big for a machine with a 15.6-inch screen, though not overbearingly so. Some of that extra girth has clearly gone into giving the ConceptD a fantastic keyboard, a rarity in these days of systems that seek slimness over everything. The trackpad is small but fully usable, and its near-five-hour battery life is at least borderline acceptable considering its high-end specs.

Under load the system’s fan can get a little overbearing, but beefy speakers help to drown out the whirring. Overall, the machine is a pleasure to use: zippy, stable, responsive, and easy on the fingertips.

The only real problem then is the price tag. It’s just very, very difficult to swallow an outlay of this magnitude, no matter how pretty the screen is or how lifelike its video renders are. Yes, there are other laptops that come close to hitting this price tag—like the wild HP Omen X 2S—but these tend to be over-the-top gaming rigs with all the stops pulled out. The Acer ConceptD 7 is a pretty and powerful performer that has real work in mind instead of videogames… but unless you absolutely have to have that inspiring display, it’s bound to be a tough sell.

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Tags: 3000, 7, acer, computers, ConceptD, Gear, Laptops, notebooks, PCs, Performance, Review, reviews, Steep, Unbeatable

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[techcodex1]

Fortnite 5.2 Update Brings Double Barrel Shotgun and More

Fortnite Battle Royale got the new 5.20 update on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, and iOS. Servers for the game were taken offline while update 5.20 was implemented. The new update brings several smaller additions and changes including the Double Barrel Shotgun and a new limited time mode called Steady Storm.

One of the major additions in Battle Royale 5.20 update is the new Double Barrel Shotgun. This deadly gun is most useful at a very close range with its high burst damage that quickly drops off the further you get.

The 5.20 update also throws a new limited time mode called Steady Storm,  “This Storm waits for no player and there are no safe zones”. It rids the map of any circles and instead slowly moves the storm without any pause. The storm does 10 damage per second and matches last 15 minutes. Here is the full patch note for Fortnite v5.20 update, check out below –

Fortnite Update v5.20 Patch Notes (Battle Royale)

General

The remaining time left in the Item Shop and Event Store will now appear correctly in Battle Royale and in Save the World.

Certain interactions will now interrupt reloading.

Bug Fixes

Reset to Default will now properly reset keys to the default values.

Changing input options will show a confirmation message if replacing a current input bind.

Audio for automatic weapons no longer cuts out after tapping the fire button and then immediately pressing and holding the fire button.

Fixed an issue that could cause multiple selection boxes to appear when using a controller.

Reduced memory usage of internal object reference search systems. This will help prevent out of memory crashes.

Non-English audio device names in the audio settings menu will now display correctly.

Players using voice chat will no longer join the wrong channels when rapidly switching parties, join the wrong voice channels, or be unable to send or receive voice chat in most cases.

The mouse cursor lock state in windowed mode will now function properly. Alt-tabbing will return mouse lock status.

The ‘Sprint Cancels Reload’ option will now function properly with “Sprint by Default” enabled.

Fixed some display issues with the interaction between the display resolution, 3D resolution, and video quality settings in the Options screen.

The keyboard ‘key’ hotkey background has been updated to increase legibility.

Party system is now more responsive to errors related to connection loss when sending certain party messages like kicking and promoting. Should reduce issues with managing party.

Battle Royale

Limited Time Mode: Steady Storm

Summary: Steady Storm has one constantly moving storm closing in on the island. Stay ahead of it and take down the other players to earn a Victory Royale!

Mode Details

One Storm that closes in over the course of 15 minutes.

There are no safe zone circles. Keep an eye on the map to predict where the Storm will close in.

The Storm does 10 damage per second.

Profile Stats (K/D & Wins) and Challenges are tracked in this mode.

Weapons + Items

Double Barrel Shotgun added.

Available in Epic and Legendary variants.

Can be found from floor loot, chests, Supply Drops, and Vending Machines.

Delivers high burst damage at very close range but damage falls off heavily at distance.

Fires 10 pellets like other Shotguns, has a larger spread, lower critical damage multiplier (1.25x), and a 2 second cooldown time when swapping weapons.

Epic Variant

Up to 143 base damage per shot at extreme close range.

Legendary Variant

Up to 150 base damage per shot at extreme close range.

Vending Machine rebalance.

Vending Machines spawn more often, cost less, and have an increased chance to spawn at a higher rarity.

Common Vending Machine

Spawn chance reduced from 7.27% to 6.67%.

Material cost reduced from 100 to 75.

Uncommon Vending Machine

Spawn chance increased from 14.55% to 20%.

Material cost reduced from 200 to 150.

Rare Vending Machine

Spawn chance increased from 14.55% to 20%.

Material cost reduced from 300 to 225.

Epic Vending Machine

Spawn chance increased from 5.45% to 18.67%.

Material cost reduced from 400 to 300.

Legendary Vending Machine

Spawn chance increased from 3.64% to 8%.

Material cost reduced from 500 to 375.

Chance for no Vending Machine to spawn at a location reduced from 54.67% to 26.66%

Reduced Remote Explosives drop count and max stack size.

Drop count reduced from 4 to 3.

Max stack size reduced from 10 to 6.

Added a higher accuracy penalty to jumping and sprinting for Dual Pistols, Submachine Guns, and Hunting Rifles.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue that would sometimes cause the storm in phase 6 to do 1 less damage than intended.

Fixed replication issues caused by interacting with a Guided Missile.

Gameplay

The weapon fire position now more closely follows the actual player position when crouching and un-crouching.

Shooting while leaving the crouched stance will no longer fire bullets from full standing height until the animation is complete.

Crouch does not interrupt emotes anymore and is disabled when emoting.

Bug Fixes

Certain player models will no longer obstruct camera angles or block crosshairs on slopes.

Fixed an issue where a wall would become invisible when destroyed on a client, but would still have some health on the server.

The camera will no longer instantly transition when attempting to aim certain weapons while in midair.

Trap selection will no longer unintentionally cycle when switching to available traps.

Fixed an unintentional camera adjustment when entering and exiting targeting while transitioning in and out of crouch.

Visual effects will now properly play when a vehicle impacts an environment prop.

Fixed reliability issues when using a rocket launcher to boost shopping carts or the ATK.

Fixed an occasional failure of glider deploying after exiting a Rift.

Switching weapons after an emote will now play the correct weapon switch animation.

Slurp Juice will no longer continue to heal or provide shields after being knocked down.

Player placed map markers will no longer appear to jitter on the minimap or in the world.

Performance

Significant GPU optimization on Switch. Moved to the high-end forward renderer. This increases dynamic resolution by 10% in expensive scenes.

Optimized the way explosives modify buildings to lighten the load on dedicated servers.

Building props have more efficient network usage when taking damage.

Melee animation trails now use significantly less network traffic.

Optimized C4 network usage, the impact sound no longer broadcasts to players outside a certain range. It now only plays for players that are close enough to the impact.

Audio

Added new equip sounds to grenades.

Add the ability to honk while driving the ATK.

Lowered the volume of impact sounds when harvesting vehicles.

Added audio effects for when spectating squadmates leave the match.

In the Locker menu, glider audio will fade out when it’s unselected.

Bug Fixes

Thermal Scoped Assault Rifle scope-in sounds are no longer hard-panned to the left on Switch.

Audio for the rocket incoming sound will now properly play during close range fights.

Ambient audio loops will no longer stack on each other and play at once. This was creating a sound phasing issue that sounded similar to a “fighter jet”.

Footsteps will no longer sound uneven for players outside your field of view.

Players will no longer hear ‘ghost footsteps’ after eliminating an enemy.

UI

The Challenges menu can now be opened in-game.

Additionally, Daily and Suggested Challenges have been added to the in-game map screen.

Modified the Battle Royale Challenges screen to display the remaining challenge bundle unlock time as a countdown once it is less than 13 hours away.

Show off your skills in the elimination feed when you land a trick in All Terrain Karts.

Bug Fixes

Fixed an issue with the buttons at the top of the Outfit style selection screen overlapping with the draggable window title bar area.

Eliminations at Haunted Hills Challenge will now display as hard.

Players who have unlocked the ability to select color styles for the Carbide and Omega Outfits will no longer randomly become locked out of that option.

The ‘Toggle Favorite’ option no longer shows when selecting styles.

The Build Bar no longer stays active if it was active on the warmup island.

Quest updates and vehicle key hints no longer overlap on the HUD.

Punctuation in the Challenge descriptions has been corrected.

Fixed clipping on the Item Return screen for systems with aggressive Safe Zone settings.

Changing setting while inside the Battle Bus will no longer bring up the full HUD earlier than intended.

The HUD will now show the vehicle currently being driven rather than the one that was driven last.

Art + Animation

Updated the effect of lighting on character models.

Added equip and holding animations for all grenades.

Bug Fixes

The size of the Soccer ball in the juggling emote has been fixed.

Leaning while on All Terrain Karts no longer cancels emotes.

Player models will no longer appear twisted while controlling the Guided Missile.

Replay System

Bug Fixes

Cameras no longer get stuck in a bad state while following the Battle Bus.

Rapidly skipping through a replay on non-desktop platforms no longer causes a crash.

The players remaining counter for the 50v50 LTM now appears properly when viewing replays.

The damage numbers toggle in replays now works properly.

Damage numbers now properly appear on the final elimination during replays.

Player list on the Map screen now works correctly using a gamepad.

Health and shield bars on map screen player list now display correctly.

Mobile

Customizable fire mode selection screen added to mix and match fire modes.

Added FPS (frames per second) mode setting for mobile devices.

Added another individual quickbar button to the HUD layout tool.

Added mobile Elimination Feed.

Separated Quickbar buttons are more visible in the HUD Layout tool.

Harvest tool will now alternate between itself and the previously selected item when tapped.

Bug Fixes

Completed or expired Challenges are now cleared while navigating between Challenges.

Ramps will no longer be built through other ramps.

Shooting when interacting with objects no longer occurs.

Fixed inconsistency with mobile low power mode support.

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[game-refraction]

Game Review: Injustice 2 (Xbox One)

  While NetherRealm Studios is mostly known for its Mortal Kombat franchise, It has dabbled in the realm of DC Comics with Mortal Kombat vs DC and 2013’s Injustice: God’s Among Us. While the DC flavored entries don’t quite get as violent or brutal as Mortal Kombat, they do feature a great cast of characters, solid gameplay, fun special moves and one hell of a story. Injustice 2 is a huge upgrade from the first entry and a feature-stuffed fighting game like nothing before it. In a world where Superman would kill, what chance does a mere mortal like Batman have? Well, quite a bit actually, and he is not alone.

Injustice 2 is as polished as games get with its slick interface, wonderful animations, and a giant heaping of cosmetic goods to kit out your hero or villain with some fancy gauntlets or a flashy new cape. It’s fairly forgiving to button mashing newcomers and has deep mechanics to satisfy the genre faithful. I’ve never been one to deep dive into the complexities of analyzing frames of a certain move to determine the best and fastest way to win, I tend to button mash my way to victory, and I think I am fairly good at it.

As far as sequels go, Injustice 2 is a continuation of the story told in the prior game; Superman has been captured and Batman attempts to track down the remaining members of Kal El’s Regime. This follow-up is a story about how Brainiac attempts to conquer the Earth, and whether or not Batman will require the help of Superman to stop him. The story is told through a 5-8 hour campaign that has you body swapping through the majority of the 29 characters with only a few of them not being playable here, but you will still encounter nearly all of them at various points in the narrative. There were some moments where I was partially confused as to why certain characters were on a particular side, given how the first game ended, but as it may include events from the comic series of the same name, which I am a few volumes behind, it may be somewhat essential reading to fully know what has transpired in the gap between games.

The events of the first Injustice game painted a much darker tone than what Injustice 2 aims to do this time around, instead opting to follow a more cliched route of warring factions having to unite to take down a common foe. If you’ve played through the previous Injustice or even just Mortal Kombat X, then you at least have an idea on how the story mode plays out. One of the differences here is the choose your own adventure style approach when you are paired with another character. There are a few moments when you’ll need to choose your fighter and after some custom dialogue for that choice, you’ll then battle as that fighter and continue. This opens up variations on the fight that you’ll need to replay the story mode to see the alternative ways that battle could have gone down, and this same choice is given to you near the end to select one last fighter from the other.  The game also alerts you after the credits roll that if you complete all variations to the story that a bonus chapter will be unlocked.

To compliment the story mode is your typical Arcade mode, which Injustice 2 has labeled as the Battle Simulator, this can be found in the bottom right corner of the Multiverse menu. The Battle Simulator contains a variety of fights with varying difficulties that will give you a character ending and several rewards upon completion. The Multiverse itself is a battle mode with unique gameplay objectives across a variety of different planets in the Multiverse. These objectives will vary on the fight as will the degree of difficulty in their challenge. This mode will also reward players with equipment items that are exclusive to this mode. Each planet that is displayed on the select screen will have a timer that counts down to when another planet, complete with its own unique challenges, will take its place. The Multiverse is very similar to that of Mortal Kombat’s Living Towers and should keep players invested for as long as NetherRealms can make it fresh and original.

While the game still maintains a lot of what made the first Injustice such a blast to play, the game feels faster, tighter and more confident than ever before. There is even a noticeable upgrade in its gameplay from even the previous Mortal Kombat X. I found characters to be more responsive, animations more fluid, and even returning favorites feel like entirely new characters. The Clash system has also returned where you can wager chunks of your special meter in order to regain some health back to your character, should you win that wager, that is. The special meter can also be used to boost your special moves, perform mid-air recoveries, and activate rolls. The flashy super moves that look to be this game’s fatalities are quite enjoyable and feature some pretty interesting feats; flying around the sun to heat vision your opponent back down to earth or racing through time to slam someone into the side of a dinosaur are just a small sample of what the game offers. While a few of the supers are lacking, the large majority of them are well thought out.

The biggest change in Injustice 2 to that of its first entry, is the addition of equipment for your characters. You can unlock and equip new capes, body armor, gauntlets, and more. These items will have individual stats that will look to make your fighter more formidable. Your custom creation can then be taken online to see who simply has the better Batman, Supergirl, or whoever you main as. The stats of said items won’t be included when you take your character to the Ranked Matches but the new looks the items bring you will still be present.

Unlocking items, however; is the biggest failing of the game and looks to make it as hard as possible to unlock items for the characters you actually want to outfit. As you battle and win your matches, you will be granted loot caches called Mother Boxes. These luck driven rewards are completely random in what you get; varying rarities of gear, new moves for your characters, or color shaders and alternative outfits. The main problem with this method of rewards is that you are never guaranteed rewards for characters you favor, meaning you could open 15 boxes and never once see a reward for Supergirl, who is my favorite of the cast. There are also Source Crystals which can be bought with real money and can be used to unlock new skins and shaders.

The number of modes for online play is fairly disappointing as Versus and King of the Hill are the only offerings so far, with a variation on King of the Hill called Hot Seat, that while available, is too similar a mode to say there are three distinct game modes available at launch. I’ve played a few hours of the game online in each of the modes present and there were noticeable lag spikes present in about half the matches played. While this could have been first-week growing pains, it’s still present in the rounds I played today. Apart from combat with friends and random players online are a few other modes that may or not get much play depending on your use for them. These are the practice and tutorial modes, but these are nothing in the way of actually training you to be a better fighter. I found the tutorial mode rather dense and not really that helpful.

Injustice 2 is a gorgeous fighter with some of the most impressive facial animations I’ve seen in something not already pre-rendered. The real-time efforts made by NetherRealm Studios sometimes creeps into the uncanny valley, but the subtle glances and smirks offered up by the majority of the roster are absolutely stunning. Seeing Harley mouth “Cheeky Monkey” or chewing gum is a work of art. I was especially impressed with the slanted jaw sarcasm of Poison Ivy and the visual wit of Black Canary, both of which are beautifully animated.

About the only elements of the game that fail to live to up to the overall high-quality bar are some of the background elements to locations that are quickly skipped by during the game’s many cutscenes. The actual locations you battle in are packed full of tiny details, bursts of fan service, and interactive elements like throwing drunk bar patrons or tossing a pan filled with hot coals. The variety in the interactive function that each level has is only enhanced by the fact that you can also strike enemies so hard that you’ll transition to other environments and then back again, making each battlefield that much bigger and more varied.

Injustice 2 brings as much quality to its visuals as it does to its audio with a wonderful host of talent to breath life into some of DC’s most iconic characters. The legendary Kevin Conroy is back as the Dark Knight and is the undisputed voice of the Caped Crusader. Tara Strong delivers yet another amazing performance as Harley Quinn and has in many ways become the most well-known voice for the character. I also found it rather amusing that the Scarecrow, a villain who thrives on fear is voiced by another man who is well known for the same feat; Robert Englund, Freddy Krueger himself. There are several other actors that have some great moments, but there was one is particular that failed to impress me at all; Steve Blum as Hal Jordan. I just didn’t see him as a good fit at all and stands out as one of the worst performances of that character I’ve seen in some time.

NetherRealm has produced its finest fighting game with Injustice 2, surpassing any of its Mortal Kombat games by leaps and bounds. With its well told and enjoyable campaign and a fun, if a bit too random of a loot system, there is much to like here and with the upcoming 10 DLC characters like Starfire, Red Hood and even an appearance by Subzero himself, Injustice 2 should keep players busy for quite some time. To miss this title is an injustice upon itself.

Injustice 2 was reviewed and played via a purchased retail copy for Xbox One.

      Game Review: Injustice 2 (Xbox One) was originally published on Game-Refraction

[aion-rsa]

Best Horror Anime To Watch on Crunchyroll

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One of the best things about October is how every content provider gets infected with Halloween madness and succumbs to horror-centric programming. Some networks even curate a full 31 days of scary content to prove just how gung ho they are about this spooky holiday. At this point you’ve likely already made a checklist for all of the big horror films that are on the horizon and all of the older classics that you need to catch up on. However, if you’re still starved for even more horror-based content, then look no further than Crunchyroll and their catalogue of frightening anime. 

Whether you’re a committed member of the anime streaming service or you’ve never checked out the site before, it’s likely that the service will have something that catches your eye. It can sometimes be rather overwhelming to sift through a whole collection of anime, especially when you have no idea what’s supposed to be good or not, let alone a series that’s actually scary. In order to make your Halloween a little less frightening, we’ve streamlined a list of some of Crunchyroll’s most notable anime series—both in terms of horror shows that go straight for the jugular as well as lighter fare that centers around a supernatural premise—to make the experience as easy as possible for you.

Yamishibai: Japanese Ghost Stories 

How Many Episodes: 72

Sub Only

Yamishibai has steadily been trucking along for over six seasons and it’s turned into one of the more traditional horror anime staples in Japan. The series gets its inspiration from classic urban legends and ghost stories from Asian culture and distills them into brief four-minute bursts of horror. A lot of Yamishibai’s charm comes from its creepy atmosphere and short stories, but the anime’s quality wildly fluctuates over the show’s six seasons. Some episodes are more uncomfortable or strange than terrifying, and the show’s low production values may deter some viewers, but it’s a great source to learn about all kinds of creepy new stories.

Kagewani

How Many Episodes: 13

Sub Only

Kagewani looks at a desperate video blogger who attempts to find success by faking the appearance of cryptids and monsters in his videos. Before he knows it, there are real monsters that are loose on the city and a growing epidemic begins to sweep the community. This hapless blogger, Sousuke, attempts to eliminate these creatures, but the mystery he’s put himself in continues to deepen. Kagewani is easy viewing with its short seven-minute episodes and even though the art style leaves plenty to be desired, it features creative monsters designs and a mystery that holds up until the end. Dedicated fans can also check out the show’s sequel series, Kagewani: Shou.

Angels of Death

How Many Episodes: 12

Sub and Dub

Angels of Deathis a boiled down psychological horror title that throws its characters and audience into a high concept premise. A young girl named Rachel wakes up in the basement of an abandoned building and has no idea how she got there. It’s not long until she encounters Zack, a man who’s completely covered in bandages and has a penchant for waving a sickle around. Angels of Death explores the unconventional friendship between these two as they try to figure out where they are and how to get out. The prison that Rachel and Zack find themselves trapped in is full of unusual horror-friendly characters and the series understands how to make this action-packed mystery engrossing rather than draw out the adventure and withhold answers.

GeGeGe no Kitaro (Kitaro of the Graveyard) (2018) 

How Many Episodes: 97 (and still running)

Sub Only

GeGeGe no Kitaro is an anime series that’s actually been around since the 1960s, but every decade has featured some fresh attempt at remaking the series. 2018’s rendition of GeGeGe no Kitaro seems to have learned much from its predecessors and feels like the most polished execution of the anime yet. The series focuses on a number of yokai that are determined to keep the world safe from the more dangerous spirits that are out there. Each episode features a “yokai of the week” that must be handled, but a larger serialized story also courses in the background. GeGeGe no Kitaro has a wide cast of weird, enjoyable characters and even though it skews younger, it still manages to surprise. The basic premise behind the series may sound played out, but incredible art design and addictive storytelling help keep this anime on top.

Another

How Many Episodes: 12

Sub Only

Anothertells an unnerving mystery that sees class 3-3 in a middle school turn into a hotbed for supernatural activity after a popular girl passes away in the ’70s. Now in the present, a new transfer student enters class 3-3 and he’s the only one that’s able to see Misaki, the girl who passed away over 20 years ago. Mysteries continue to grow and this transfer student forms an unexpected alliance with the mysterious Misaki to figure out what evil forces have ahold of their school. Another plays up the mystery and suspense angle over pure horror, but it still knows when to turn up the blood and guts when it’s appropriate. Another benefits from a concise 12-episode story and even though the series’ central mystery changes in some major ways in the second half of the season, it’s always engrossing. You truly want to see Kouichi, the transfer student, find some peace and hopefully be able to give Masaki’s soul some rest, too.

Parasyte: The Maxim

How Many Episodes: 24

Sub and Dub

Parasyte: The Maxim hits the ground running and is bonkers from its very first frame. The series revolves around a number of alien parasites that have landed on Earth and start possessing hosts. Shinichi Izumi is a mild-mannered high school student whose life drastically changes when one of these parasites possesses his right hand. This sets Shinichi on a dangerous journey to wipe out the other parasites that have landed on Earth, as well as figure out how to work alongside his new alien host, and if there’s a way to rid himself of this threat. Parasyte: The Maximoperates like a superhero series at times as Shinichi acclimates to the new strength and powers that his parasite gives him. The series also navigates tricky moral territory as Shinichi, who’s now a human-alien hybrid, must fight against the aliens that are now part of his biology (think Tokyo Ghoul, but with aliens instead of vampire demons). 

The path that Shinichi finds himself on gives the anime a strong narrative drive, but honestly, this is just a beautiful show to watch in motion. The fluid, bewildering effects that Shinichi’s parasitic hand puts to use are ridiculous and it’s just crazy to watch a boy partner up with an alien version of his hand for an entire series. H.P. Lovecraft would give this madness his full stamp of approval.

Junji Ito Collection

How Many Episodes: 12

Sub and Dub

If Yamishibai is the tame horror anthology that you can watch before going to bed, then Junji Ito Collection is pure nightmare fuel. This is not a series that should be watched with the lights turned off or even with a large amount of shade in the room. The series adapts some of the most disturbing stories from renowned horror manga artist, Junji Ito. Junji Ito Collection packs two sordid stories into each episode and the subject matter ranges from supernatural curses, to deranged killers, to some of the most extreme body horror you’ll ever see in an anime (can David Cronenberg please take on a live-action adaptation of “Honored Ancestors”?). Ito conjures up unbelievable ideas that are truly a rarity for horror and stories like “Greased,” “Long Dreams,” “Slug Girl,” and “Blood-Bubble Bushes” are all behemoths of horror.

Unfortunately, not all of the Ito stories that the anime chooses to adapt are winners, but the series’ unsettling art design still helps the weaker tales carry a strong punch. With any justice a second season of this will soon be announced to terrify anime fans well into 2019.

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Erased

How Many Episodes: 12 

Sub Only

Erased is a tight psychological thriller that feels like what would happen if David Fincher had written and directed Back to the Future. The anime centers around the pursuit of a child killer who’s been on the loose for decades while someone else has wrongfully taken the blame. This compelling serial killer mystery also throws in supernatural elements with how the central character experiences a phenomenon known as “Revival” that sends him back in time a few minutes to prevent incidents. The 29 year-old suddenly finds himself sent back 19 years and in his 10 year-old self with the opportunity to stop and catch the child murderer before his initial crimes take place. It’s an incredible mix of genres with a villain that’s genuinely scary and phenomenal characters that you want to see survive. Erased is only 12 episodes and not a single one is wasted as this mystery plays out and goes to dark places.

The Promised Neverland

How Many Episodes: 12 

Sub Only

The Promised Neverland is the kind of anime that M. Night Shyamalan would absolutely fall in love with. It’s a masterstroke of storytelling and it builds tension in amazing ways as it keeps the characters and the audience in the dark about so much. It makes all of the series’ payoffs become absolutely incredible. The anime is set in a dystopic vision of 2045 within an orphanage where an 11 year-old named Emma and dozens of other young children are given a cushy existence at the cost of never leaving the grounds and venturing to the outside world. Emma and company soon learn of the horrific truth of the world and the real reason that they’re being kept at this orphanage. It’s truly chilling and The Promised Neverland tells a gripping story where these children have no one to trust and are in way over their heads. A second season of The Promised Neverland is set to hit in 2021, so it’s the perfect time to jump into this series.

Death Note

How Many Episodes: 37

Sub and Dub

Death Note is a series that’s turned into a colossal hit and even though various live-action versions of it exist, there are none that compare to what the anime accomplishes. Death Note succeeds in taking something as outlandish as a magical killing notebook and an apple loving devil shinigami and tie it with a hard-boiled cat and mouse crime saga. Light Yagami’s plummet into darkness and L’s pursuit to apprehend him and keep the blast radius from increasing is really great stuff. It digs into the inherently scary nature of what misdirected rage can make people do. It’s such a different take on a serial killer and the anime remains unpredictable until the end, even though it takes a major turn after the halfway point that isn’t for everyone.

Other horror-centric or monster-based anime titles to check out on Crunchyroll when you’ve scared yourself stiff off of everything else: Jin Roh, The Laughing Salesman NEW, The Garden of Sinners, Interviews With Monster Girls, and Attack on Titan

The post Best Horror Anime To Watch on Crunchyroll appeared first on Den of Geek.

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