#sony you cannot fuck this up

[t1koy-roll]

Gaslighting myself into thinking that these two become good friends after The Spot

[pbnmj]

actually you know what the mcu was absolutely evil for introducing spider-man and immediately making him follow iron man around and then ALSO using him as a prop to make iron man look cooler meanwhile peter barely gets a faithful story of his own IN HIS OWN MOVIES

[almondwolfberry]

FUCK THE GAME AWARDS HERES ACTUAL GOOD GAMES TO PLAY

BOMB RUSH CYBERFUNK

GOD TIER ART, GOD TIER MUSIC, GOOD STORY, FUN GAMEPLAY. ITS TONY HAWKS PRO SKATER MEETS JET SET RADIO BUT ACTUALLY GOOD GHOSTPIA: SEASON ONE

I CANNOT GAS THIS SHIT UP ENOUGH. ITS A VN ABOUT DEAD PEOPLE REKINDLING THEIR FRIENDSHIP AND TRYING TO ESCAPE A LITERAL GHOST TOWN. THE CHARACTERS ARE WRITTEN FANTASTICALLY, ITS SIMULTANEOUSLY FUCKED UP AND HEARTWARMING, AND DID I MENTION ITS INSANELY GAY??? VOLCANO PRINCESS

ITS PRINCESS MAKER WITHOUT THE KID DIDDLING. YOU RAISE YOUR DAUGHTER IN THIS MEDIEVAL FANTASY WORLD AND HAVE TO RAISE HER TO BECOME WHATEVER CAREER PATH YOU CHOOSE. YOU CAN BE A KNIGHT, YOU CAN BE A PAINTER, YOU CAN THIEF, YOU CAN BECOME SATAN???? ITS ALSO SUPER GAY, AND YOU CAN MARRY 2 GIRLS AT ONCE NICKELODEON ALL STAR BRAWL 2

HOLY FUCKING SHIT WHAT A MASSIVE UPGRADE FROM THE FIRST GAME. THE VISUALS ARE FANTASTIC, THE MUSIC IS FANTASTIC. ROMAN CANCELS AND EX MOVES ARE SICK AS FUCK IN A PLATFORM FIGHTER. NETCODE IS DAMN NEAR FLAWLESS, AND WITH A BULKY SINGLE PLAYER. EASILY ONE OF THE BET IN THE GENRE HANDS DOWN VIVIDLOPE

ITS A CUTE PUZZLE PLATFORMER ESQUE KINDA GAME WHERE YOU HAVE TO CHANGE AS MANY TILES AS POSSIBLE TO YOUR COLOR. IT OOZES ITS Y2K AESTHETIC AND ITS NOT AFRAID TO GET BRUTALLY PUNISHING

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST THE GAME OF THE YEAR EVERY YEAR SERIAL EXPERIMENTS LAIN FOR THE SONY PLAYSTATION

[fave-fight]

ROUND 1, MATCH 9

NO MAGIC, POWERS, OR WEAPONS

Utatane Piko:

“Wow a vocaloid with an actual last name what a shocker *AHEM* Was made by Sony (yes morbius-releasing Sony made a vocaloid), was unfortunately released RIGHT NEXT TO two other way more popular vocaloids, ended up becoming half-obscure and more people know about him now that he's been discontinued. Yippee 💥”

“literally the most pathetic a boy can get discontinued (he is literally already losing) stuck in v2 forever and has no eng voicebank still assigned meme by fandom silly another vocaloid was meant to be his counterpart but they got split due to their original company going bankrupt sony hates him (yes hes owned by sony) sony please revive our baby boy :[”

“Imagine if a discontinued computer program won, just imagine, that would b cool”

“He deserves to win because he sadly probably won't ever get a voice update, and the little babyman deserves at least something good to happen to him.”

“Discontinued robot man. Let him kill.”

“ROBOT SWAG!! very skrunkly, looks really fucking tired in his official v2 art, dicontinued please give them some justice he has a beautiful voice :(”

Jonathan Sims:

“It would be really funny if he and Jonah Magnus both got in so John could literally strange his boss to death. That would be so much fun. He should lose to everyone else tho bc he is doomed by the narrative to always take the L”

“Listen. Listen this is a fistfight, im not sure if his all knowing fear god bullshit powers will work here. If he can’t smite people. If he can’t Know things about them and scare them to death. If it’s just a fistfight of pure ability. He is going to get beat up so badly but I think he’ll live. Jon’s sturdy. He had a rib taken out. Was kidnapped and forcibly moisturised by an evil ringmaster puppet. He is… the fandom interpretation is that he’s skinny. Thin. His boyfriend is the strong one. Jonathan Sims would probably lose in a fistfight -he’s Just A Guy without the antichrist shit- but it would be so fucking funny. He might win. He might lose. It’s 2:18 AM here and I cannot sleep.”

“He has an endless supply of disdain and is so willing to use it Especially if there's Martin He HATES Martin Martin can do no good Let me tell you, that Martin... Wait, where'd you go?”

[tobiasdrake]

Are you officially gone from TV Tropes? Haven't seen you on any of the forum threads for a while now.

I pop in from time to time to lurk on some threads, but I'm not actively following things there the way I used to. I've been focusing a lot on Tumblr lately.

But I've always had less online time in general lately, as these last couple months have involved a substantial amount of adulting.

I'm finding I enjoy the format of Tumblr a lot better than internet forums. There's less pressure to respond to people here. I can shoot opinions out into the wild and people can take or leave them as they will, and then everyone just moves on.

In a forum, everybody's in one room vying to duke it out with whoever spoke last. Everything has to be such a debate. Everybody's always competing to prove how smart they are and how right their position on whether Batman can beat up Superman is.

And I just. I don't have the mental space for that anymore. I haven't for years. I'm in my late thirties now; I don't want to fistfight someone in the Denny's parking lot over Spider-Man movies.

And I'm also just so tired of long, drawn-out arguments with people who clearly aren't reading what I'm saying, and just respond to the general idea of my point that they've heard from others. Then make me out to be the bad guy because they've made it into an argument and dragged it out for pages on end.

"Ugggh, there goes Drake answering questions and clarifying misinterpretations of what he was saying again. Why does he always have to drone on and on about this every time people keep pushing the topic back onto him? Why won't he just drop the topic we keep responding to him about?"

TvTropes is an echo chamber governed by mob consensus. They like to say that they're just... pro-positivity towards media. "We are a website for celebrating media," is the pitch. Threads that exist purely to complain about a piece of media are forbidden and the general belief is that if a fan and a critic are arguing, the critic is always wrong.

But that's a lie, because the forum has plenty of complaining threads. The Sonyverse thread exists purely so everyone can shit on the Sonyverse and talk about how dumb Sony is for ever thinking these films could work. And also conspiracy theories about Venom's success being fake.

In actuality, TvTropes is governed by mob rule. The community has an opinion consensus about a piece of media, and if you disagree with the consensus then you're wrong. You're not supposed to talk shit about the MCU in the MCU thread but you're also not supposed to defend the Sonyverse in the Sonyverse thread, and either of these positions will incite the furious mob. It's an echo chamber.

For a long time now, it's become my policy on TvTropes to just say my piece and then fuck off and not respond to whoever gets uppity about it. Just fire off an opinion and then bail. Because I don't want to fistfight you in the Denny's parking lot, and if I actually respond to questions being asked then I put a target on my back.

And that's just. Not any fun for me. I didn't like the movie. Seven pages of screeching at me about it isn't going to make me like the movie. That's kind of the thing about media discourse? Even if you have the facts on your side, you're never going to change someone's mind by vanquishing them in the Arena of Logic.

No one has ever gone, "Oh, you're right, Black Widow's death technically does not qualify as Women in Refrigerators because she had agency in it. The scene is therefore good now. My qualms have been quelled and I will now defend this movie with my life." At the end of the day, we're just using words to describe how the thing made us feel. You might outmaneuver my words in a clash of verbal blades. But my feelings live on. You cannot slay them in semantic jousting.

And I've long given up on trying.

This is where Debate Bros will say "Well, my goal isn't to convince YOU but to convince ALL OF THE PEOPLE WATCHING US," as if sharing opinions on whether Batman can beat up Superman carries the same cultural gravitas as a Presidential Debate.

I use media discourse the way other people use fanfic. To express the feelings and ideas that are burning in my brain and need an outlet, need to go somewhere. On TvTropes, that always has to turn into a fight, because everyone in a forum environment has to have opinions about everyone else's opinions and we're all expected to civilly scream at each other until the mob consensus has been formed and the Official TvTropes Opinion is reached.

But on Tumblr, I can just throw my opinions out into the wild. And if people like them, they'll get Notes and maybe even start doing numbers. And if people don't, then they'll just be left to the void of forgotten statements. Either way, I can move on with my life after saying it, you can move on with your life after reading it or not read it at all, and we can all just go do something else.

That's basically how I try to use TvT these days, but on Tumblr that's actually the culture. It's what's expected. And so I find myself drawn more and more to the calming void of Tumblr over the combative civility of TvTropes.

[cuprohastes]

Things that Kids Today just Don't Understand...

... but actually, they do because they don't live in a vacuum, but we all like entertaining lists:

The sound the digital camera makes is an old school camera shutter! ... which everyone kind of knows, but the reason it's there is that when digital cameras started to be a thing that normal people could afford, it was hard to tell if your camera had actually taken a picture without audio feedback. And also because people immediately started being creepy and taking upskirt shots of random women or kids or whatever and 'beep' tells you nothing: It could be someone's digital watch. But if you hear a shutter... you'd know your spongebob panties are now on some dude's Sony Mavica. And so specifically for a while all cameras had to make a clear audio sound.

The save icon is actually a thing called a floppy disk! Again. Not exactly news. But it's a 1.44mb 3.5" disk. as opposed to a 5.25" floppy which was large and therefore held less data. Somehow. Up until fairly recently - the last 5 years or so - the Nuclear launch computers used an eight inch floppy*. Partly because some institutions are adverse to swapping out tech that's got a really specific use case and has been customised wit e.g. EMP shielding, and partly because you cannot hack a computer that's so detached from the outside world that the only way to make it work is to get a sheet of plastic covered in magnetised rust and make the computer deep throat it. I mean you can but it's really annoying. @foone probably has a how to guide or at least thoughts on floppies. *Eight Inch Floppy is not an actual porn movie. I'm as surprised as you are.

Until 1991 all cats were orange. That's why Garfield was an orange cat, because that's the only sort anyone had ever seen, and you only saw other colours in animation because that's the only way you could show that. Not actually true but I felt like I had to throw in some outrageous bullshit.

Duvet Quilts only happened in the 1980s. Previously beds were made with layers of sheets and blankets and eiderdowns. Then in the late 1970s/80s, "Continental Quilts" got introduced from Scandanavia. These were originally invented as a way for children to deal with the complexities of bed making but proved so useful and popular that they are a staple of European bedding. Also probably in the US but since they decided a quilt was a sheet of stitched patterns, they just fucked up the naming again, so I have no idea what y'all call these things or if you're smart enough to be using them in the states where water freezes.

Laundry used to be an all day event. Before household washing machines and delicious forbidden gushers laundry pods, to wash clothing you'd have to grate a block of soap or if you were a profligate wastrel, buy laundry flakes, boil water in a huge cauldron, dump your clothes in and beat it all with a big stick, just take the mild chemical burns and skin damage from steam, then wring out your clothes on a mangle which would occasionally deglove your fingers or crush a toddler, then hang it all up and hope that the pollution wouldn't turn it all grey. You'd have to separate your clothes by colour, and fabric. If you washed wool wrong, your ancestors would drag you screaming into the netherworld. It was such an amazing faff that people used to make a living doing it for their neighbours. It was such an amazing faff that if you were in the klondike gold rush it was easier to ship your clothes off to get them cleaned and then have the brought back on the supply ships. With the invention of cheap washing machines and detergent that can work as low temps, and fast dyes... you just throw everything in, whang in a laundry pod and go do something else. This freed women up (Fantastic, hilarious TED talk) to investigate this whole 'education' and 'being treated like a human being' thing.

Ok, thundermuffins: Don't forget when you reblog I will derive satisfaction and age backwards by 12.4 seconds if you add your opinion. Comments are not only OK but absolutely encouraged.

Remember: this thing ain't monetised. I just like chatting to all y'all.

[mlarayoukai]

I've had a few people ask me (at least 5 different people) about ps vita hacking, so here's some quick tips:

Japanese vitas are cheaper and available in way more colors. They are region free and have options for other languages in the settings. The only thing is the o and x buttons are swapped, but when hacking there's an options to swap the buttons back. I got my pink and white Japanese vita for $165 in total, you could honestly get a white or black one for decently cheaper, about $100-140, used

To start off there's 2 vita models; the "fat" original release with an oled screen and partial metal casing, and the battery is about 3 hours, and uses a proprietary charger. The other model, the slim, has an lcd screen with all plastic casing but the battery is about 4-6 hours and is thinner, and uses a universal micro USB charger. It really is up to preference but I prefer the slim

I don't have a specific guide because I did it months ago so you'll have to go looking for a guide yourself

I'll say right off the bat don't bother downloading emulaters for Nintendo games. They usually don't run well. If you are hacking a vita you definitely have many other options to play them so don't even bother. The ds emulater on the vita SEEMS cool but you probably won't be using it often

The vita can easily run ps, ps2, psp games but again, you'll have to find tutorials yourself. This being said if you play psp games on the vita the aspect ratio is fucked and will look a little bit blurry. Ps and ps2 games will use the back touch pad for the l2 and r2 buttons

Don't don't have to buy anything special BUT if you want storage that isn't the memorystick, you'll have to buy a micro SD card converter, usually around $10. Hacking will give you an option to use sd cards

There are some homebrew games but most are incomplete and honestly nothing to write home(brew) about

That's it

Personal recommendations for games:

Disgaea 3: it's also available on ps3, but has not been ported to anything since then. The vita port is the definitive edition and is my favorite in the series. Disgaea 1, 2, 4, and spin offs are also available on vita. While 3 is my favorite, 4 is the best in the series, but it available on modern consoles and pc

Ys 8: a superb game I don't hear many people talk about. Also available on modern consoles on pc. Ys origin and ys memories of celceta are also available on vita, and several other ys games are available on other Sony consoles, so you can play most ys games on your vita

Katamari touch: probably my favorite katamari, but it's only 2 hours long. Vita exclusive

There's a bunch of indie games also available

Other games such has persona and danganronpa are also available on vita, but I haven't played those

In general, there's probably only a dozen exclusives worth playing

To end this I think owning a vita is worth wild, especially hacking it. As of right now you cannot officially play psp or vita games, and probably won't ever be able to play the vita exclusives. By owning and hacking a vita, you have about 15 years of sony games on one console. I personally love not giving Sony a single cent for playing their games

[hello-nichya-here]

What are your thoughts on MJ's daughter supporting Israel and trying to distance herself from her dad? Girl won't even defend him

Jesus fucking Christ, are you guys coordinating these asks? This is the third time one of you asked me it, I'm legit impressed.

Let's get the easy, and horrible part out of the way first: nobody on the fucking planet has any excuse to support Israel. You can hate Hamas and the goverments of countries like Iran without excusing the literal genocide of civilians in Palestine, because yes, that's what Israel is doing right now.

Paris Jackson (and everyone else, famous or not, that is still pretending Israel isn't commiting all kinds of crimes against humanity right now) should have known better and needs to get her shit together.

Now, onto the messy part:

Although Paris has recently said "it's not her role/place" to defend her dad, lets not forget the other things she said on that same controversial statement:

1 - She fully believes her father is innocent and called the "documentary" Leaving Neverland pure lies.

2 - She believes that everything that could be said about her father's innocence has been said already and she'd have nothing new to add to the conversation.

3 - Her cousin Taj has become basically the leader of the family's campain to clear Michael's name and has been doing an amazing job.

4 - She's not as patient as her father was to deal with that kind of stuff and she has been focusing more on trying to recover from her mental health issues.

That last one is important, specially when we remember that Paris has claimed to have been sexually abused in school (which left her with PTSD), and that she has struggled with addiction, paranoia and a freaking suicide attempt.

It would not be surprising to me if having to listen to allegations of childhood sexual abuse is extremelly triggering for her - especially since the person being accused of being the abuser is her late father, who was murdered by his doctor when she was just 10-years-old, and she was treated like a stupid child in denial everytime she tried to point out the things being said about him were not true.

Considering she has continued to praise her father over the years, both with small things like posting a family picture on Father's day this year and big things like saying he was a super accepting man that was totally cool with her not being straight, and DID defend him publically every now and then, like, once again, calling "Leaving Neverland" pure lies when it came out, I'd say she's not really trying to distance herself from her dad or imply she's starting to think he might have been guilty. I think she just genuinely cannot fucking stand having to act as his lawyer only to have every word she says ignored, no matter how much evidence she offers to back it up.

(And before anyone brings up the fact that Taj was also a victim of sexual abuse in his childhood and has is still speaking out in support of his uncle, including of how he helped him deal with his trauma, keep in mind that people cope differently and heal at different paces).

Do I think she could have phrased some things better? Yes.

If either of my parents were accused of something horrible and a bunch of people kept insisting they were guilty despite all evidence poiting to the contrary, would I interact with said celebrities? No, and it is extremelly disappointing whenever Paris does that...

... But then again, Michael was at war with his record label, Sony, for years and was convinced they were not only sabotaging his career but also trying to murder him, yet he still was ready to go on a final tour that was going to make them A LOT of money. Like father, like daughter.

Honestly, I would not blame the entire Jackson family if they just made one last big documentary to try and clear Michael's name, then, regardless of how it was taken, packed all their shit and moved to a remote island, far away from the spotlight and never spoke to any journalist or had any social media presence again. They've been getting screwed over and surrounded by awful people in the industry, the media, and amongst other celebrities since the goddamn sixties, it's a miracle anyone of them is still trying to "play the game" or explain themselves.

[blindrapture]

I have been in full-on Recluse Mode lately. in the interest of communicating a little more, let me share with you what games I have been playing lately:

MyHouse.wad (finally! had been meaning to play this for years. I have gotten the default ending and might maybe try to look for more branches of the maze when I feel up to facing all those monsters again.)

FAITH: The Unholy Trinity (fuck, finally, someone made a good horror game. I have gotten the best ending in chapters 1 and 2 and have made it to the final boss of 3.)

I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (ah! wow! this is not my kind of horror game. it's honestly a kinda average adventure game but one that has subject matter that makes me feel gross and depressed and not want to play it. which probably means other people will like it a lot more than me, as I am coming to terms with the fact my tastes *are* weird.)

Who's Lila? (oh wow... I was so curious about this one but it's *also* a kinda average adventure game? albeit with a Mario Party minigame permanently attached to the screen that you have to keep playing. the Easy Mode just gives you a lot more time to do that, which is a sign that the developers were simply unable to balance it properly and had to give you a bandaid solution. I may have to just watch some YouTuber play this one, as the story *probably* gets good!)

Cyberpunk 2077 (I found a surprisingly cheap PS4 at a local pawn shop and picked this game up with it. the PS4 is good for watching blu-rays, even more convenient than a dedicated player. for gaming it is *comically* bad. I may have a bias against PlayStation, the fucking failure of a brand whose first-party properties have serious "AI-generated corporate brand" vibes.... but I thought I was just being stupid! but no! the PS4 cannot game. the controller feels like cheap plastic, and the console itself has a cooling fan with the volume of a jet engine and it will *shake my entire bedroom* if I want to play any game, any game at all. even doom 2016, which it should be more than capable of running. the *menus* on doom 2016 push the PS4's fans into overdrive, there is no refuge. in cyberpunk I can at least pause the game every 30 seconds and wait 20 seconds for the fans to go silent, before unpausing and playing for another 30 seconds. ....it's fucking awful. gaming with a permanent headache, my whole body assaulted with noise and vibrations. .......but uh, Cyberpunk itself honestly seems like fun. I don't really give the slightest shit about the aesthetic, but to my surprise they buried a perfectly good game under there. can't say the same about Sony and any perfectly good gaming consoles, though. the PS2 was the last competent console they released, and that's the one I have a *grudge* against, because It killed the Dreamcast. for what!! for decades of garbage consoles afterwards?? get a damn Xbox. or, when you want to actually play games for real and stop fucking around with these childish insecure "GAMING FOR ADULTS" aesthetics, just get a fucking Nintendo, like god intended. mic dropped.)

Doom 2, in QuestZDoom. (in VR. I have the first three Dooms just.. permanently installed on my quest 2, along with Half-Life. this is admittedly still one of the coolest things ever, that I can just play these games in VR whenever I want. anyway, I have never actually played through Doom 2. never done it. never even tried to. so my first playthrough is in VR. I average about 10 maps a day, on the easiest difficulty because I have no shame. I did not know just how troll-y Doom 2 was. I also did not know everyone was just *wrong* about the city levels, I'd always heard the city levels sucked! but no! they're the best part!! I had a blast with the city levels!! god I LOVE mazes!!!)

oh yeah, also, Starfield. (I managed to find a mod that forces the game to not use 4k textures, and that actually solved most of my performance issues. it still stops to load every now and then, but it hasn't crashed to desktop in a long time now. so I went and finished a quest. I do *kinda like* Starfield, I like the promise of freedom, and I automatically love anything that's first-person. I wouldn't mind actually *playing through* Starfield. I already like it more than any Fallout game-- that's just a bias, I find mass media's fixation on Wasteland Post-Apocalyptica to be boring as hell, to the point of ruining whatever good there is to find in the media itself. but it is not as good as Skyrim. maybe it could *compete* with other Bethesda games if it.. was actually optimized properly? but then it wouldn't be a Bethesda game.)

and yeah, I think that's it.

will get back to you when I play more video games.

[seerofmike]

mike 2023 year in review

whats up, this is something i started last year where i decided at the end of the year i would talk about 7 movies + 7 viddy games i enjoyed this year (the movies will be 2023 releases, the games will be all over the place). this is so i can look back on the future on the things i enjoyed this year but since im posting it publicly most of these will be written as recommendations i guess

also i did not have a lot of money to see movies this year so most of these will be IP movies :( sawi. also also 2023 was a mega good year for gaming. or so i've heard. most of the big 2023 games this year either came out on consoles i don't own (nintendo + sony releases), are next-gen only as far as xbox goes or unable to run on my dinky little laptop (AW2, the finals, re4, etc) or are just games in genres i dont really give a shit about (bg3, starfield, sea of stars). significant 2023 games i did play this year were dave the diver and dredge but not enough to be on the list. maybe next year hehe

anyways without further ado. my top 7 movies and top 7 games this year, in alternating (movie/game/move/game/etc) AND alphabetical order:

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

yeah you knew this shit was going on here. i saw this movie 8(eight) times in theaters. the first two times were because of the audio issues with the first cut but the rest was because the movie fucked babeeeeey. you don't need me to tell you how good this was

The Cosmic Wheel Sisterhood (2023)

ok listen before i recommend this game i have to be mean to make a point first. if you know anything about me you know i think tarot is stupid as fuck and i think witchy nonsense is. well. just that. nonsense. it makes me roll my eyes especially the particular brand of like. r/WitchesVersusPatriarchy stuff. man i just dont like any sort of spiritualism or religious stuff. with that being said this game fucks tremendously and i cannot recommend it enough

you get to design your own tarot deck and each card will be unique and have meanings based on the templates you're given. you can then use these cards to tell your friends' fortunes. except it goes way deeper than that but i dont want to spoil the twist for you. also it kind of becomes a different game midway through but i like management games so its fine. anyways good game and very repayable with all the card designs you can make and fortunes you can read. art style is also very nice.

(more under da cut)

Barbie

man i know a lot of people dont like this movie after the hype wore off because its Baby's First Feminism. and that's fine. i don't really think it was trying to achieve some uber deep commentary. but the set design and costuming was great and you could tell the actors and crew were having so much fucking fun and as someone who wants to go into movies i will always like movies where the people making them are having fun.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog (2023)

i like the visual novel where everyone dresses in a funny costume and sonic fucking dies ok. it was so cute and had very good characterization for people i didnt think would ever be in the focus of a game again like espio ........go play the murder of sonic thee hedge

Bottoms

this one is probably my 2nd favorite movie of the year tbh. i need more absurdist gay comedies. i wish i could go on about how hilarious this movie is but i dont wanna give away all jokes but anyways go watch the lesbian incel movie and have a good time

Potionomics (2022)

if i had a nickel for every gay witch game i played this year with significant card and management mechanics and appealing art i'd have two nickels. which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

anyways potionomics is absolutely my favorite game that i've played this year. it's not all that similar to cosmic wheel sisterhood despite the basic concept and some gameplay elements. CWS is more like a visual novel. potionomics is a fucking nightmare and i love it SO much.

you brew potions and then sell them by haggling with customers using cards. customers can haggle back and it can get VERY difficult. everything you do takes up limited time slots such as gathering ingredients and brewing potions and visiting your friends and btw you can visit your friends and all of the characters are incredibly charming and i had trouble picking which one to romance. (roxanne my beloved <3) (also the white haired character in the screenshot above is a nonbinary goblin :) ) (this game has CAT PIRATES)

the game also rewards you with befriending the characters and gives you cards the deeper your relationships become and new gameplay mechanics open themselves up to you until the last couple stretches of the game. it's very fun, very stressful, but very rewarding once you figure out how to maximize your profits and use up your time slots effectively. i had a fucking blast.

also the animation is so good. literally the best animation on this sort of stylized 3d model in a game i've ever seen. PLEASE play potionomics.

Guardians of the Galaxy 3

god man. i just love the guardians so much. tbh this is my least favorite movie of the trilogy but all three of them are easily better than nearly every other marvel movie regardless. i love nebula and rocket so much and seeing small moments between them like her choking up when she hears he's okay fucking Gets To Me. i loved me asshole mercenaries who become a found family and try to be good people.

Prey (2017)

prey is not my favorite game this year nor my favorite survival sim but the first five or so hours of this game were the most engrossed i was in a game this year. towards the middle and ending portions it starts to lose me a little bit (the game is still good!) but the beginning was absolutely the best part.

being trapped in space with aliens that can mimic items in your surroundings leaves you extremely paranoid, and combing through the station finding recordings and notes and evidence of the lives of the people who were once there, knowing that most of them are probably dead--while monsters lurk around the corner ready to fuck your shit up--was deeply engrossing. i wish i could erase my brain and experience those first hours again being terrified of everything that moved before i got a shotgun and figured out how to win fights pretty regularly lol

Killers of the Flower Moon

if you're gonna watch a 3 hour movie this year about atrocities committed in the past i'd recommend this one over The Other One tbh. i found it deeply engaging and thought lily gladstone gave a great performance that easily outshone leo. the events of the movie are deeply harrowing and i think there is definitely some discussion to be had about how the movie centers on the white men despite scorses's intentions but the technical work was great and i think it really does a good job of showing just how deep this shit went in the community as opposed to being 'just a couple of bad whites' or w/e other narrative people will try to spin.

Psycholonials (2021)

im gonna go ahead and say right now i don't really recommend this game unless you are familiar with andrew hussie and HS/their other work. i think the game was fine but tbh it probably would not have been on my list if it was made by anyone else. that's not to say it's bad, just like. nothing mind blowing.

that being said i did very much enjoy this game in the sense that, as someone who DOES know a thing or two about andrew hussie, the way they feel about their work (especially HS in the years afterward), it was interesting seeing them make a game about starting a cult by accident, with all the gender fuckery and feelings of paranoia about being cancelled and how out of control its become feeling like a little glimpse into them. watching how manic and obsessive the protag gets with several years of Hussie Context(tm) makes this way more interesting than the game itself if im being fully honest.

if the game truly sucked it wouldn't be on here but do take my word for it that you'd probably appreciate it way more if you were a HS fan LMAO

Skinamarink (2022)

ok so technically skinamarink came out in 2022 BUT it got a theatrical release in january 2023 which is when *i* saw it so i'm counting it as a 2023 movie. anyways skinamarink is simultaneously very scary and also boring as shit and i could never actually recommend this movie to anyone but the fact that it was made at all and made a PROFIT is outstanding to me and i'm obsessed with it as an aspiring filmmaker. an hour and fourty minutes of staring at a dark corner to build atmosphere. fuck yeah

Venba (2023)

this one's very short but i found it very compelling despite how short it was. it almost felt TOO short but i like it for what it is. as the son (and grandson) of mexican immigrants who often regretted migrating for cultural and language reasons this really connected with me and the cooking puzzles were fun but i really wisht here was more of them. it's less about the puzzles though and more about the narrative and i thought it was really smart to make the throughline food. very good game. buy it.

TMNT: Mutant Mayhem

look at my fucking sons. everyone say thank you spider verse for changing the animation industry. i love how the boys' VAs were just goofing off and having fun and bouncing off each other it was great

This War of Mine (2014)

this one is a survival management game where you have to scavenge for materials somewhere in war-torn eastern europe with some stealth mechanics. some of your characters die very easy and some characters have 'negative' traits like being unable to sneak out or fight or drink up all your alcohol and it's not like the best in its genre but i did spend a ton of time in it. i still need to finish like a single scenario and not a custom game LMAO

[the-scungles-of-crungles]

🐊Rating every crocodile emoji🐊

Fair warning, I am incredibly biased and cannot bring myself to be mean to any of these

Apple: I was going to say 10/10 for detail, but it's smooth... Why is it smooth... 6/10...

Google noto color emoji: A bit strange, but has charm. 8/10

Samsung: 9/10. I like it. Of course, I use a samsung device so idk

Microsoft: Not much to say about it. I don't hate it, though. 8/10

Whatsapp: ... Hehe. Hehehehehe. Funny little guy. Could use some teeth though. 8/10

Twitter: 10/10. TEN OUT OF TEN. What is UP??? Small little thing??? Oh my god... I love it so much...

Facebook: Very realistic. I do feel like you should be able to see its other legs a bit at this angle, but idk. 8/10

Microsoft teams: You can't tell, but it's animated. Just the microsoft one with some shading. Looks less like a crocodile and more like a normal lizard. 8/10. He's fine.

Skype: Looks a bit insane, which adds to the appeal. Legs seem a little off, but I still like it. 9/10.

Twitter emoji stickers: 10/10 again, I love this little lad with my entire soul. They really know how to make a good gator.

Joypixels: I appreciate the stripes on the tail. They definitely looked at real picture for this one. Still a bit smooth, but the way it looks at me like a dog waiting to be pet is a plus. 9/10, seems friendly.

Toss face... (What the fuck is toss face?): Simple, but gets the point across efficiently. I appreciate it. 9/10

Sony playstation: FUCKING TINY??? 9/10

Noto emoji font: Why is he wearing boots? Looks good in them though. 9/10

Openmoji: Well, it sure is there. 8/10, I don't hate it.

Emojidex: Idk what to say about it. Not bad though. Clearly traced off of a photo. 8/10

Messenger: I like its weird fnaf eyes. 10/10, it grew on me since I first saw it. Which was earlier today.

Lg: Extremely smooth. So horrendously smooth it circles back around to being likeable again. Looks like a pickle. 10/10, purely for pickle factor. I can smell the pickle juice from here.

Htc: 7/10 idk

Mozilla: That is two men in a crocodile costume. 6/10, point deducted for being associated with firefox because I'm petty.

... And that's it. Thank you for reading.

[dancewithlou]

the shit that pissed me off the most is the comparison between louis and the other band members like imagine being louis, sitting in the meeting and your own team is like “well we wanted a rolling stone cover for you but guess what harry styles already has it sorry 😞” like this shit makes my blood boil

No for real not to mention when they said ‘Harry and Niall are the first route of competition’ like NO everyone in the industry is competition. They don’t view him as a solo artist they still compare him to the other band members! They are just as bad as everyone else and so incredibly incompetent (we already knew that) and they’ve basically just made blatantly obvious to Louis’ entire fanbase how bad they are.

I could NEVER imagine seeing someone doesn’t get radio play and going ‘okay cool so we’ll just give up then yeh?’ Like what the actual fuck?!? NO you get off your arse and you get to work on how you can promote the man in other ways so you don’t fumble the bag like previous labels have done. Louis potential is being wasted with them just like it was wasted with Sony, they constantly underestimate him and compare him and make comments like ‘oh his music is ‘too indie’ to be on radio’ like NO actually it’s not I know there’s so much more to this that they cannot say clearly cause why would they keep spewing out this dumb bullshit but they’re really not benefiting Louis or the fanbase.

Like if they wanted to drain a fanbase and tire them out THIS is exactly how it’s done.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Controllers

Dear game developers:

I would like to flag up with the increasingly problematic issue of PC ports. Or rather, you being somewhat shit at them.

Now, please understand. I am not giving console players shit here. I think that “console gamer vs PC gamer” bullshit is ... well, just that; bullshit. People have ways they prefer to play. It’s just that a lot of people who play video games (or at least those of them who make playing video games a shorthand for their personality) have taken so much shit that they need to feel superior somewhere, and that’s the hill they’ve chosen to die on. Now, I don’t like that part of it very much, for one simple reason:

I CANNOT USE A CONSOLE.

Now, part of this is about money. I mean, given the economic mess we’re living in, fair enough. I have a perfectly good PC; why should I spend that much money on another method of playing games? Especially ones that won’t let me have chat from friends or an episode of something on the second monitor. I love my Gilmore, as I loved Morrigan, Leandra, Frankenbox, all the way down to Crudpuppy twenty or so years ago. Why would I want or need anything else?

Thing is ... it’s not just about money. If it was, I would have worked around it, because I really want to play Horizon: Forbidden West and Guerilla is notoriously slow at PC ports for those games. Still, if it means as good a PC port as Horizon: Zero Dawn was, I’ll happily wait. Because that’s the other reason why I cannot use a console instead of will not:

I. AM. FUCKING. DISABLED.

Console controllers are heavier than they were when I was younger. Rumble packs and so many buttons and thumb-sticks and I don’t even know half the time. They are heavy, and they require a certain two-hand grip to hold. Because I have fibromyalgia, I cannot maintain that two-handed grip for long, especially when I am having to hold something that weighs much of anything. I’d probably struggle with the old lightweight NES controllers that came with my first and only console (yes, I am that old). The new ones? Not a chance in hell.

You know what this also means? It means that, if you throw out a PC port and say you ‘recommend’ using a controller because you haven’t really bothered working out a K&M configuration that works to any great degree, I cannot play it. Because it’s not the console itself; it’s that I physically cannot use the controller.

Do you know how many games I picked up the demos to and had to uninstall without touching because they recommended a controller and I tried to use keyboard and mouse anyway and it was a fucking nightmare? I own a copy of CODE VEIN thanks to my bestie and I can’t play it because BANDAI NAMCO fucked up the PC port to the point where no matter what you do with your keybinds, you need to use right-shift for one particular element of combat. Which is ridiculous because the whole point of console gaming that combat-heavy is left hand on keyboard (mostly for WASD) and right hand for mouse, and how the fuck are you supposed to take your hands off either of those to press right-shift mid-combat? Left hand? Even if it didn’t take your hands of the movement keys in the middle of combat, it’s not just right-shift you’re pressing; it’s right-shift plus a thing on the left side of the keyboard. Right hand? It’s left mouse key to attack; taking your hands off the mouse mid combat is just as bad as the alternative.

I know some games are built for controllers. I mean, I don’t like it, but if you want to lose the PC market, that’s your business. I can respect a company saying, “We tried a PC port for this but could not get it right so it’s console only”. (It’s better than being trapped in console exclusivity by Sony or Microsoft wanting money, anyway.) However, what I do not have any time for are games that throw half-assed PC ports at people and go, “Well, it’s fine if you use a controller”. Some of us can’t. So ignoring the K&M option on your PC port is garbage.

Please do better, or stop teasing people like me and then torturing us with a janky, unintuitive nonsense of a PC port where the keyboard and mouse are concerned. Or at least think for five seconds before you hard-lock an entirely unintuitive keybind.

Regards,

A disabled PC gamer who just had to uninstall the Lost In Play demo because fuck that noise, frankly

[alarrytale]

i think a lot of things went wrong with bbg:

1) i think if louis + band had actually not communicated about it being not real and louis actually tried to play a dad for the first two years, then they could have easily ended it by latest 2017 with a paternity test. because they were communicating and all of these "theories" are wild and A LOT of people are aware of this "conspiracy" I believe this is why they cannot end it smoothly because they know we are gonna go "i told you so" and then it's gonna be another hot cup of worms.

2) at the same time I also think his personal losses affect him mentally to be putting his energy into this and that's why it didn't happen immediately?

3) do you think the contract has an end date? at this point I'm afraid it doesn't have an end date and they keep renewing it of some sort.

4) i am a quarantine larrie but i have heard many many times that there were seedings of it ending in 2016 and 2018 and even at the time around early 2020? but after I have joined the fandom i haven't seen any such signs of the bg ending. it has just amplified.

5) altho at the same time i do feel there have been contrasting changes to bg then vs bg now, louis is more involved and the clarks are not followers hungry as they used to be? B's instagram is also bare minimum (just a couple pics of F and i don't follow her so idk what goes onto her stories but i think she doesn't post a lot of F; ofc cause she has her life and she's not a mother)

6) in the past couple years i have actually sat back and thought if im sane about it or not or if louis was actually the father but then immediately i recognise that nope, above anything I know that woman was not pregnant aka no baby came out of her vagina and it's all bullshit. ofc they are other proofs of him not being a father but this tops them all. and it's also laughable how the sisters don't have any other pics of F apart from the christmas stunts.

7) louis can make sony money too, if they just fucking LET HIM. i don't understand why all cruelty is imposed upon him. maybe get harry engaged to some blonde for 2 years (and make him SELL IT? 2 years can do. they did with OW) as an exchange to bg getting ended. who the fuck cares??? as long as it's not bg 2.0 and HS is fully straight and in love with a WOMAN and engaged (maybe bring on the baby rumours too to feed the het fans BUT I WANT THE KID GONE)

8) at this point im just hoping they'll end it before he turns 10 but then ill be in excruciating pain to think that this sweet boy had to endure ten years of this torture just because he's 🌈 and in relationship with mr styles? this is tortuous.

9) maybe they can end it and louis can dip of the face of the earth for a year and then come back with lt3 and be the next big thing. i am manifesting for bbg to get over before july 2025.

10) truth to be told, i am losing hope but at the same time im optimistic that it'll end someday (hopefully soon) and they don't wait for hs downfall (just because he's on his peak rn) idfc. i hate it for louis and freddie, too. the child has no agency, he didn't sign up for this and he'll grow up with a lot of trauma if he's exposed to it anymore (2 years and he'll be 10? what another 2? and he'll most probably be on the internet? this is horrifying)

Hi, anon 💚

I think bg was something so horrible and traumatic to Louis (and the rest of the band) that the only thing he really considered was fighting back with everything he had. H and L had tried to position themselves to get more freedom within their closets, and this was undring everything they'd worked for. So it was important for him to show those who sees him for who he is, and sees and support his relationship with H, that it was not real. It's not who he is. He didn’t have a choice when it came to participating, but he could restist, resist and resist as much as possible. If he hadn't, and he played willingly along to really sell it, he'd be miserable, H would be miserable and larries would have left the fandom in droves. He'd have no fans to launch his solo career with. He'd have no support.

I don't know when it will end, it doesn’t seem like it's ending anytime soon, but then again bg could end at any time. It doesn’t need seeding. But if it ends, there's nothing stopping us larries from being very vocal about it and the larry rumours coming back again. L would be halfway out of the closet and dragging H along with him. So i think it will last until they're allowed to come out. I don't know when that will be.

[whatyourusherthinks]

Madame Web Review

Did anyone ask for this movie? Like I know the whole joke of these Sony Spiderman spin-offs is that they are all extremely unnecessary, but who thought a Madame Web movie would be a good idea? She exists just to be exposition in the comics. Also, Dakota Johnson already kinda looks Jessica Drew from the comics so why not make a Spiderwoman movie? Is it because Across the Spiderverse had the hot black Jessica Drew? It's probably because Across the Spiderverse had the hot black Jessica Drew.

By the way, I looked up Madame Web on Google to refresh my memory about the movie, and the first search recommendation is 'What is the point of Madame Web?'.

What's The Movie About?

Cassie Web is an ambulance driver who gains the ability to see the future. She sees that three teenage girls she briefly crossed paths with are going to be murdered by evil Spiderman, and reluctantly tries to protect them.

What I Like.

If you've seen the trailer, you'd know there's a sequence that takes place in a subway. While it looks stupid in the trailer, the actual sequence is tense. The timeline-web thing they use to show Web's powers looks kinda cool, and there's a bit bit where they disrupt the evil Spiderman's wallcrawling with a defibrillator that I thought was clever. The plot isn't terrible which is impressive considering previous Sonyman movies and that they are dealing with future-sight. Even the tribe of spider people don't completely derail the narrative. Adam Scott plays Ben Wyatt Parker, and he's like the only truly nice character in the whole movie. It also wrapped up less than two hours.

What I Didn't Like.

All the acting in this movie sucks. (Goddamn it two movies with Sydney Sweeney in one week cannot be good for my brain.) I'm not sure it's entirely the actors' fault, since Web is written to be a massive bitch the entire movie and all the kids are stupid as fuck, but everyone is incredibly stiff and wooden. The script and dialogue is horrendous. The movie opens with the the birth of the main character, which I also think is also the origin of her powers but honestly the exposition is so sloppy she could have just randomly gotten them after almost dying. Also we flash back to the exact same opening scenes later in the movie. We get "emotional" moments that are oddly placed and are completely unearned. (Yeah, Web will make a great foster mom, especially after she kidnapped all the girls, forced them to hide in the woods, and left them there with no food.) The effects are laughably bad. All of the costumes look fake as shit, it makes Green Lantern look halfway decent. Speaking of which, you might assume watching the trailer that the three girls would become Spiderwomen in the movie. But they don't. All of the shots in the trailer are visions Web gets that don't even happen. The editing in the movie is piss poor as well. Violent car crashes probably shouldn't make me laugh as much as they do in this movie. There are several car chases that they cut super fast and give weird angles to try and hide that the driver was clearly taking it super casual day of filming. The ADR in this movie is shockingly bad. At one point they don't even try to hide that evil Spiderman's lines have been changed after the fact. It looks like an old Godzilla movie. The camera work was nausea inducing, because it keeps spinning around characters and the cuts are quick and nonsensical. I also keep nodding off during the climax, but that may have been because I watched this at 3 in the morning.

Final Summation.

This movie isn't good, obviously. I think everyone has learned that any Sony Spiderman movie that doesn't have Verse in the title is gonna suck, so you don't need me to tell you this. But I was honestly surprised that this wasn't the worst movie I've seen this week. I sort of wish I could get upset and act like this is the worse thing to happen on Valentine's Day since the Massacre, but no. It's just a dumb movie.

Happy Single's Awareness Day everyone.

[6ad6ro]

it annoys me that there's suddenly a "final fantasy vii rebirth didn't sell well enough/failed" conversation happening. no matter how amazing the game was gonna be, it was guaranteed to sell way worse than the original. if you look at all the elements: it's a part two, not just a sequel, across console generations. unlike with remake, everyone now knows that the older games/dlc/movie are almost mandatory, which is a LOT to ask of new fans. it costs $10 more. it's exclusive to ps5, an overpriced and hard to find console with like no games and that nobody wants. a console that sony just had announced is "on it's way out" (that isn't what they said but it's how it was taken). and unlike remake that came out mid pandemic when there weren't a ton of good games, rebirth showed up right after one of the best years in the history of gaming.

i simply cannot fathom why square or anyone else would set the expectations as high, regardless of how well it's reviewing. and combine that with how the statement is based on digital-only japan-only sales, and the whole conversation becomes all the more stupid. hey wanna know which final fantasy sold more than twice as well as even remake? final fantasy 13, a terrible game that almost everybody hated (13-2 sold less than half as well as 13 btw). first week of sales ≠ game quality. i have zero issues with people complaining about the game itself, i loved most of it but it has flaws for sure. but idk why ANYBODY is bothering to bring up this dumbass corporate shit. the only thing that can come of this is square decides to cancel the 3rd part, or lower the budget like crazy. which would both be incredibly stupid and shortsighted. this whole concept is something that obviously will sell way better over time than how it sells in the first fucking week. so i hope people stop bringin this shit up.