#star splitscreen

[stardestroyer81]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, right?

[the-90s-music-colosseum]

let's talk about SUGAR WATER BY CIBO MATTO DIRECTED BY MICHEL GONDRY because not nearly enough of you are voting for it. its combination of lo-fi aesthetic and mind-bending dreamlike high-concept trickery is a perfect encapsulation of what makes gondry such a great music video director and great fit for for cibo matto’s whole vibe. when i first encountered it it took multiple times viewing it to wrap my brain around what i was even seeing. it's a classic one-take video and not only that it's TWO one-take tracking shots shown in splitscreen that had to be shot simultaneously because they intersect in the middle and also one of them is backwards. it’s a delightful puzzle box of a video that rewards endless re-viewings because it's full of funky lil details that had to have taken an enormous amount of coordination. is all star an iconic song? yeah obviously. does it have a better music video the thing we’re voting on here? no way in hell

Excellent writeup! That video is incredible - highly recommend that everyone here give it a good watch (or several).

Sugar Water vs All Star

[kieuecaprie]

So, after 34 hours of playing Dr. Robotnik's Ring Racers on the Deck, I think I can give a somewhat decent performance report for the handheld PC.

So, let's get the positive stuff out of the way first:

The game, while it does boot into a smaller resolution than expected, supports the Deck's standard resolution. In fact, I believe all the 16:10 resolutions are supported.

All text is clearly legible, although pretty much every piece of text in the game is large and chat is definitely readable.

The default graphics settings work well on the Deck out of the box*.

Both Windows via Proton and Linux Flatpak work.

All fields can be filled in using the Deck's default controls.

And now, the not-so-good:

The game may fail to maintain 60 FPS in most cases, oftentimes losing frames for seemingly no reason. Turning off the frame limiter and switching to Legacy GL helped.

This point becomes incredibly obvious once you start the second cup and play on Emerald Coast. After the first few turns and as you pass over the bridge, you get a good look at the rest of the map. HOWEVER, on Software, it appears that the framerate tanks heavily during this time, dropping to as low as 45. Below, I have some screenshots to explain this:

(1280x800, running Windows version via Proton, Software rendering mode, note the 44FPS next to GAMESCOPE)

Lowering the resolution, expectedly, mitigates this somewhat at the cost of the game becoming crusty.

(640x400, running Windows version via Proton, Software rendering mode, the 44 FPS has increased to be just above the 60 FPS threshold)

There is one solution for this and that's playing in Legacy GL, which enables model support among other things and resolves the above-mentioned issue:

(1280x800, running Windows version via Proton, Legacy GL rendering mode, models have negligable impact on performance, the lack of character models is just a preference.)

Of course, this introduces another issue where special stages (pardon, Sealed Stars) tend to have lag upon start-up and lag when the game state changes after claiming the emerald:

But, it's worth mentioning that: since this is an issue happening on the legacy GL renderer, this won't be fixed due to the fact that legacy GL is planned to be replaced sometime in the future.

So, both versions have their tradeoffs, personally, I kind of prefer to keep to Legacy GL simply because the framerate is more consistent across the board and the special stages have initial lag spikes at the start is a small price to pay. Here's hoping the replacement performs better.

This does give me some insight as to how I should've been playing with a different renderer when I played SRB2 and SRB2 Kart, as both of those tended to have a bit of frame issues when playing under Software.

While the game supports the default controller configurations, the controller glyphs do not represent the controller layout, instead opting for a Sega Saturn-like controller. This can be a tad confusing for people who haven't looked inside the controller settings when they see "C" when the game wants "Y" and it still trips me up when it wants me to press "Y" in Match Race's options to change item drops when it actually wanted "Left Bumper". I do sorta understand the artistic choice to go for a Saturn controller layout but it's definitely tripping me up lmao.

And with that, the performance report has concluded. I couldn't find any worst-case scenarios outside of a 16-man race and even then it ran fine and I have yet to try online and splitscreen, but as it stands, game runs good, as it should.

TL;DR - Game runs fine out of the box. Swap to Legacy GL in the video options if framedrops in courses are beginning to get you down. I have not tested online or splitscreen.

[short-and-ugly]

thing titles stuff:

Blind Follower : 7088

Cannon Fodder : 2324

Nubby Replacements (No not really, Gir) : 10356

KILL SWITCH : 2950 -> 4300~ -> 5640

Nope! Never Happened! : 33832

Stars Passed : 1199 -> 2200~ -> 2138

Invader to Intruder : 15297

Sidekicks : 1653

The Burrito... of DOOM! : 7665

Dead Weight : 32723 -> 42000~ -> 45817 Chest-Wormsters and Poultry Mishaps Carry Me Way Back

Meat-Cute... Ugly? : 6512 -> 20000~ -> 21556 Strange Intricate Rituals MRE

WHY IS THE RAIN ACID?! : 7424 -> 17000~ From Bad To Worse To Normal

Zim Changes Jobs Because Professor Membrane sees him Beat up his son : 1242 -> 4000~

At-CHOO! Curse You! : 6276 -> 50000~ More Slime Than Usual?! A Doctor’s Note Won’t Cut It Forking Paths Splitscreen

[OUT OF MEMORY] : 45000~ Past the Rose Tinted Ocular Implants There's a Faint Red Glow

RETURN OF KEEF : 843 -> 6000~

Fair Enough, I Guess! : 215 -> 3000~

Home Invader : 2984 -> 12000~

Service With A Smile : 227 -> 3000~

Smeet On Board : 8967 -> 40000~ Tiny Scientist Hostage Diplomacy Homebase Just A Smidge Bit Googoo Eyes

Ick! “Row-mance!” : 1684 -> 5000~

PROGRAMMATIC [EXECUTION] : 39590 -> 100000~ To The Point of No Return DOOM ARENA Jam/Berries Flash Drive : [TRANSCRIPT START] [ACT I: ALIGN, FINE LINE] [ACT II: BRAMBLES] [ACT III: DON’T WORRY DISAPPOINT WORRY DISAPPOINT WORRY DISAPPOINT WORRY DISAPPOINT WORRY DISAPPOINT DISAPPOINT DISAPPOINT DISAPPOINT D I S A P P O I N T D I S A P P O I N T D I [ACT IV: THORNS] [ACT V: ORDER(LESS)] [TRANSCRIPT END] : Red Alert Override Breakdown Meltdown Settle down

TOTAL ESTIMATED WORD COUNT : 423000~

TOTAL WORD COUNT BY DATE : - 10/07/2024 ; 235725 - 10/15/2024 ; 240134

[calico-heart]

10 fandoms, 10 characters, 10 tags

Basic rules: choose 10 fandoms that you are part of/support, and choose a favorite character from each of those. Then, tag ten folks!

Thanks for the tag @briar-ffxiv :3 idk how i'm supposed to pick a single favorite out of all these tho cries. Obvious fandoms are up top, but some (maybe. a little.) less common ones show up further down!

FFXIV // Alisaie Leveilluer

I think she's one of the most dynamic characters in the series, and I love love love seeing her come out of her shell as the expansions go on. Her personal arc focuses so heavily on surviving grief and learning to keep an open heart even when faced with loss over and over again, and I appreciate how well that ties into the main storyline, too.

Fallout 4 // Piper Wright

My wife <333 Piper's reckless go-gettem attitude and propensity for ruffling feathers on her quest to out the baddies really endeared me to her. Finding her soft heart under all the bravado and banter is really rewarding, and I love how committed she is to standing for her ideals, even if it means standing alone. Fo4 has such a cool setting to get immersed in overall, and I really do enjoy all the 50s/60s US tropes thrown into the mix with it.

Reth // Palia

The epitome of making objectively horrible choices for arguably noble reasons. I love this walking disaster. He made me soup. I like how most of the Palia characters have more to them than meets the eye at first meeting, and how many ways they can surprise you as you build relationships with them. But gaining the disgraced pariah Reth's trust? Becoming someone he's brave enough to ask for help from? I treasure it above all the others LOL

Gale Dekarios // Baldur's Gate 3

I'm NOT going to essay I'm NOT going to essay I'm not -- But seriously I do adore this guy's arc. I like how messy it is, even if in more subtle ways than, say, Astarion (ilu too boo.) Gale has so many "gifted kid" trademarks and strikes me as someone who's entire self worth has been based on how useful or interesting he is to others. It's hard to fault him for his ambition, when his magical prowess was the only avenue he had to make meaningful bonds up until the whole tadpole nonsense. BG3 exceeded my wildest expectations out of an RPG and continues to do so every time I pick it up.

Anders // Dragon Age II

I feel obligated to say I don't really consider myself part of the DA fandom because every time I've poked my head in I've found it to be a wretched hive of scum and villainy with the most inane batshit discourse I've ever seen in my life. But the game itself? Love the game. Love the characters. Anders broke my heart. I really enjoyed his internal turmoil and the very literal ideological battle between justice and vengeance he faced throughout the game. I'll eat that up.

Obi-Wan Kenobi // Star Wars

He's baby.

I definitely pick and choose which installations of the behemoth that is the Star Wars franchise to consider canon, and like Dragon Age I try not to actually get involved in fandom spaces. Ever. But I love Obi-Wan's story in the prequels especially, and if you've followed me very long I'm sure you know how much I like my hurt/comfort and angst, which he has in spades.

Halo 1-3, ODST, & Reach // The Arbiter

I grew up on Halo and even have a little poseable model of this guy decorating my bookshelf. Halo's a shooter game first, of course, and I spent a good chunk of my childhood rerunning levels, and playing ninjanaut with friends on splitscreen. But its lore also fell into that sort of early TES space for me, where you had enough of an idea of the world for it to capture your imagination and inspire you, without being overwhelming to keep track of. The angst. The mystique. The badass alien with a glowing sword. 10/10. My Spartan OC is called Artemis and my brother has one named Ares and yes we did slay in PvP as teenagers.

Firefly // Simon Tam

Choosing Firefly is predictable af but thats ok. It still makes me ache wishing we got to know more about the world, the characters - and maybe that unfinished homesick feeling is part of the appeal. I loved watching Simon be so out of his depth in the frontier of space, but willing to giving up everything for someone he cared about and learning to make a new place for himself with Firefly's motley crew.

Mizu // Blue Eye Samurai

I was not prepared for this show to WRECK me like it did. I thought it was going to be a run of the mill cheesy samurai anime and GOD. The thoughtful, clever storytelling and dynamic characters knocked me on my ass. I couldn't stop watching. The cast is incredible, the art style is gorgeous. Every single aspect of this show ties into this theme of being caught between two worlds, and Mizu's story is one I am not going to forget any time soon. If you haven't watched this, you're missing out.

Mal // The Dog Master

I'm not sure there's even really a FANDOM for this book. I haven't ever met anyone else who'd even heard of it, let alone read it. But a fandom can just be me, occasionally pitching it desperately to friends, right? XD The story follows several tribes, but the "main" character is Mal, who was kicked out of his tribe and survives partly by befriending a wolf and raising it. It's pretty cleverly written, with several timelines converging at unexpected moments to offer up plot twists and tie-ins that really wouldn't have been possible if it was written another way. I'm a little geeky about it just for the structural approach. But there's honestly not enough good caveman books out there, and this one has a wide cast of unique and interesting characters who feel very human.

--

I will tag @ronqueesha @bogglebabbles-main @sayonaramidnight @traveleorzea @orime-stories @silentletterwords @ellastara @rinka-fortemps @eriyu @jameswrites

And anyone else who wants to! I'd love to see your lists! But no pressure ofc <3

[acaplaya-musings]

Voiceplay-adjacent Visuals: Saddle Up

From one Thurl song to another!

This song is so old and obscure that if you google "Thurl Ravenscroft Saddle Up" or something similar, Geoff's cover and stuff about Geoff's cover are some of the first/top things to appear in the search results!

Saddle Up (sung by Thurl Ravenscroft) originally featured on a very old album (idk what year) called "Walt Disney Presents: This Was The West (The Story and The Songs by Stan Jones)". (Fun fact: Stan Jones was the original writer of Ghost Riders In The Sky!) It then later featured on the album "Walt Disney Records Archive Collection: Volume 1". This isn't a video I watch all that often (though I've listened to the cover a fair few times via my Spotify playlist), but I would've felt bad for not doing a post about it, even if it only ends up being a short one, so here we go!

Oh, and starring Layne as Slightly Tired Best Friend 😝 (or as Geoff says in the description: "Layne Stein played by Layne Stein (as only Layne Stein can)" 😁)

"Scoot over, my show's on!"

I'm assuming this is just a prop/fake TV?

Pfft

(Also a bit of a role reversal from the Aca Top 10 videos on Voiceplay's channel, where typically it's Layne being the silly one and Geoff being more of the "straight man", as opposed to here, where it's vice versa!)

Appreciation for the editing!

Layne: *moves a little further away from Geoff on the couch*

Geoff, like 6 seconds later: *moves closer to Layne on the couch* 😂😂😂

(Who needs personal space when you've known each other for 25+ years? 😋)

Time for the actual "show"/cover! Got some fun transitions and split-screen styles (and the blue flannel is kinda nice too!)

Split-screen example! (Also necklace spotted!)

"the list is long, you'll hear the names" (Layne's reaction is perfect 😆👌)

There are 6 buttons on that polo shirt, but Geoff only has one (1) of them actually done up 😝 (never change, Geoff, never change)

(Also I only just noticed that the shots of the song performance are in a different aspect ratio to the shots of Geoff and Layne on the couch!)

Different shirt, same button situation! (This one you can see the pendant of the necklace just peeking out!)

Boy this must have been fun to film 😂

I like this splitscreen! Very creative! (But also very brief!)

Geoff never does anything by half, does he? Why stick to simple stuff when you apparently have better ideas?

Oh that was a clever little added touch! 👀

Geoff: "So what did you think?" :D

Layne: "Wasn't that just you in four different shirts?"

Pfft, well what can I say; the song is a bop and a jam, and the video is just good silly fun! And of course shoutout to Layne for being involved with this one, and him and Geoff being an accurate representation of my friends and I when I show them Voiceplay/Geoff videos 😝 (I'm joking - they think Geoff and Voiceplay are really fantastic too, and why wouldn't they? 😁)

[millenniumdueled]

Shooting Star: If you could bring back one thing, what would it be? 

splitscreen multi-player!!!! i know it's not gone gone, but there aren't enough new games that allow in-person multiplayer anymore.....

[owlixx]

Kirby Spinoff/Demo Wrap Up

So, I am done with all the mainline pre-switch Kirby games! But after Robobot, I poked my head into some of the later spinoff games and played the demos of the switch games and wanted to share my thoughts on those.

Rainbow Curse

Great art style hampered by playing on gamepad

weird multiplayer that trivializes the core gameplay

I just popped in and bopped Wispy Woods

It's not...bad, but I don't have the itch to play more

Blowout Blast

I tried a level each from the sub-game and the standalone release

Pretty cute and fun, if a bit plain

Standalone game is definitely worth the upgrade with its actual levels and much longer length

The combo system and grading does stress me out a little

I wouldn't mind beating each of these sometime

Battle Royale

Booting this up with no prior knowledge is a baffling experience

I thought this game was 9 different genres before figuring it out

Seems like Blowout Blast with combat at first

Then it seems like top down Smash Bros

Only for it to end up being...a poor man's Mario Party?

Seems like this game should have either leaned into being more of a fighting game with light MOBA elements (like the tutorial also kind of made it seem with highlighted friends/enemies, revives, a mix of small and big enemies)

...or it should have leaned into being a party game and focused on variety and having game boards

I could see myself doing the story mode out of morbid curiosity but I don't think I would immensely enjoy it based on my reaction to the stupid apple collecting minigame

Star Allies

I had played this demo before multiple times, both single player and multi player

This time, what occurred to me was the absurdity of porting Return to Dream Land to Switch FIVE YEARS after releasing a near-identical game on Switch, where the biggest issue is how similar the two games are.

And both games are still 60 dollars! They are literally both games right now as part of Nintendo's special "voucher deal" where you can get two full priced games at a marginally reduced price. FIVE YEARS LATER

For context, 2018 also had such beloved games as Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Spider-Man, and God of War, all of which drop to 10-20 dollars regularly now. Hell, God of War got ported to PC starting at 50 dollars since it was SO OLD and that was over a year ago

30 fps :( Triple Deluxe really spoiled me (I am the first person to ever say that, from what I've seen)

Anyways, its just Return to Dream Land but with the friend system of Super Star (roughly) and ability mixing inspired by Squeak Squad's upgraded sword (rouhgly)

Having 4 helpers makes things too easy, maybe I'd try the story solo if I ever got this

Everyone dunks on Star Allies online so I was expecting to see what they see, and I do, but the game is still a fun Kirby game

After some research however, I am extremely tempted to purchase the game for all the extra modes

Especially Guest Star: the idea of letting you replay an entire Kirby game locked into one power, allowing for 20 something unique playthroughs each with their own best-time is so tempting and I wish every game had it

Plus, it is so cool to see DLC friends from every mainline Kirby now that I get all those references!

This game goes on sale a bit sometimes, so it is now an actual contender to purchase

Super Kirby Clash

I mean, it's not great, but it is cute enough and a decent splitscreen timekiller

I kind of wish that now they'd just patch the game to be a bit less money-grubbing

More free to play games should have flawless splitscreen

Fighters 2

Let me just say: WOW

The gameplay is not super sophisticated, but the polish and sheen are off the charts

Literally Star Allies engine but in 60 fps!

Two player roguelike story mode????

Exclusive copy abilitity?

Unique helper characters???

This game is clearly so much more than a sequel to the sub-game

Hilariously blows Fighters Deluxe out of the water in terms of...everything

Might get this if it ends up being fun splitscreen in the demo

Forgotten Land

Pretty fun demo

Only did the first level on "wild style", waiting to do the whole demo coop

30 fps :(((

Mario Odyssey was 60 fps SIX YEARS AGO

And speaking of, this game I think was expected to be "Kirby Odyssey" or "Kirby Breath of the Wild"

But it doesn't even feel like "Kirby's Mario 64" or "Kirby Ocarina of Time"

It feels more like "Kirby 3D Land"

It seems almost offensive that Kirby is a series with its identity rooted in novelty and unique gimmicks, yet the only 3D games before were a racing game, a minigame (with no copy abliities!), and a minigame collection kind of

Seems like a promising start, but I am not sure I want to drop 60 bucks just for a few more hours of this

Don't get me wrong, its cute and fun and wonderful, but it seems like "A fun Kirby game" and not "the Kirby game to end all Kirby games"

Might be tempted though if the local coop is really good

Dream Buffet

No demo for this one but I've got my eye on it

[maximuswolf]

Splitscreen Multiplayer games ?

Splitscreen Multiplayer games ? Anyone got more info about other games where you can splitscreen multiplayer ?Like 4 Player in PC-A , join another 4 Player in PC-B, so you get total 8 players.I only know these 2 games got which are Sonic all Star Transforming and Rocket League.Anyone know other games similar to these games ?Thanks. Submitted October 19, 2024 at 07:15PM by royal_steed https://ift.tt/6th7v2z via /r/gaming

[keefwho]

June 22 - 2024 Saturday

11:53pm

6.5/10

I forgot to journal yesterday and frankly I dont remember what I did. Today I woke up and took a shower and headed straight to JD's. He cooked breakfast for his whole family on the outdoor grittle and I brought a can of turkey spam to contribute. It was the largest and most delicious breakfast I've had in a long time. Unlike in the past, I didn't feel awkward or anything. I was chill. We chilled on the deck to let breakfast settle and then fought with lightsabers in the yard with his daughter. He showed me around the property and where he is going to build his house. I got to give his daughter her very late Christmas gift and then we played Star Wars Battlefront splitscreen on the Switch. Then he took me home.

At home I got to see DS's fantastic attempt at blond hair, but she needs to make more passes to get it truly blond. We watched the new Helluva Boss which was extremely lame and the next 2 episode of Smiling Friends. Then she left for a party she got invited to.

I prepared for book club and then got in VR for it. It went very well, I think I got into the groove of how to conduct book club in general even if it is rather late since we only have 1 more chapter of this book. Afterwards I took ZZ and GT to a gay furry party that we didn't really interact with, we mainly chatted together. This lowkey autistic guy joined on me for some reason and he joined in too. I got off when DS got home from the party in a bad mood.

We talked some and I had to wake her up for puzzles which we didn't get through completely before she passed out. I spent the rest of my night watching an episode of the boys. I was able to find season 2 on Dailymotion with ads.

Today I learned again that I operate well after I've been tuckered out. My social battery was drained spending time with JD's family which was a good thing. I find it easier to be myself when I'm too tired to overthink things. My heart was totally open tonight for book club and and DS and it felt good.

[theaceofskulls]

I will never not associate him with the Firefall bus. In fact here it is again:

But it's also important to note that he continues to cling onto his time at Blizzard, which was almost 20 years ago.

While he was there during Diablo 2 and had a middle management job at Vanilla WoW, I want to point at the scape of video games that have changed since then.

The fundamental landscape of MMOs have changed completely and plenty of Diablo clones have come and gone.

3 generations of consoles have gone by, seeing the end of handheld only games, the rise of online games, like 10 monetization practices dominate the landscape, the entire rise of the indie sphere to something that's a household fixture, the death of LAN, the death of splitscreen, multiple retro waves of various sorts, the shift from MMORPGs to MMO shooters/live service, and so much more.

Kern has one game since he left in 2005 and several people have squarely put his management of it as the blame for its failure. Meanwhile the only other game he's noted on has basically been called "another Star Citizen". His company doesn't even have it's own wikipedia page, sharing it with Firefall.

So whenever I hear him referred to as an ex-Blizzard dev to give him credence to whatever awful shit he's shouting on twitter, usually riding the coattails of other reactionaries, I remember that's because other than this bus

he's done nothing of note while continuing to act like he's got an insider perspective, usually to take potshots at Blizzard or some other dev who put a rainbow in their game.

this literally never stops being funny like dog they made starship troopers with the Baby's First Satire cranked up to 11 and these people are still fucking dumbfounded that the creators don't share their politics

[stardestroyer81]

The Steam banner for Pizza Tower has been something I've always wanted to redraw for Star Tower, and while my first post of 2023 attempted something similar, this time I went all-in and included as much of Star Tower's cast as I possibly could all in one stylish banner! ⭐👾✨

[3starjammies]

Lucky Star is an ideal 4 koma adaptation.

It knows how to expand upon the manga in a way that feels natural and makes the final punchline of a scene funnier. Expanding some scenes and leavings others the same as the manga also helps vary up the timing of the show so things don't start to feel too repetitive.

And it also adds a lot more to the visual element that's not in the manga, like the scene in episode 2 where it uses a splitscreen to compare how Tsukasa and Kagami, and Tsukasa and Konata, spent their vacation.

Not to mention the addition of Lucky Channel, which is the funniest part of the show. And having the characters sing karoke for the ED was a stroke of genius!

I'm only on episode 4 on this rewatch but I gotta say Lucky Star really holds up, it's great.

[half-man-half-lime]

I don't think I'll be able to remember all the changes honestly. The Coil stuff has diverted the plot to the point that this is basically fanfiction now, and they keep doubling down. (They wouldn't have seen a lot of my comments about a lot of this stuff because they recorded this a while ago, so whatever, maybe they changed their minds on some stuff since, but I doubt it)

I can feel in my bones that eventually I'm gonna be tempted again to write out these complaints on their Reddit thread as an elaborate, good-faith constructive criticism, but I'll need to remind myself that these people are beyond helping.

Maybe it's better to just let them have their podcast instead of dumping on their fun like the crazed Star Wars fan I seem to be becoming every time I listen to this show.

Scrub is with the Empire dregs now, he's who Tattletale & Regent take for later. He will later work with Vista to make the portals via (handwavey shit, this may as well be a Marvel movie the way it doesn't engage with the sci-fi mechanics and does meaningless technobabble instead)

They cut out most of the Dragon mech fights (this is a more mundane cut for time/budget thing, but honestly the trainyard fight is way, WAY too cool to remove IMO)

Dragon and Defiant make appearances and fight the Undersiders, potentially undercutting the big stuff in Arc 20 by showing up too early

Thomas Calvert is the one who advises Piggot to set up a fight with the Undersiders, as Coil he advised the Undersiders to kidnap Piggot and, if I understand correctly, as Calvert argues the heroes shouldn't even rescue Piggot because of Regent exposure? What? Or at least that she has to be dropped as Director. (More references to Piggot and Calvert being BFFs against all characterization)

No mayoral debate bombing

They want to have Calvert trigger in the Nilbog incident (meh, undercuts the weight of the murder and his ties to Cauldron), they were worried it would all be too confusing to have the flashbacks interspersed with the Dragon fight (the tension doesn't go up and down like flashbacks like these are usually used for), a splitscreen to show him splitting the timeline is "too confusing" so they go with the much more confusing scene of killing him off, showing the timeline collapse, and then showing the timeline where he kills his superior and survives... so what, it looks like he has time travel now?

Lisa gets center stage in the fight against Coil, because Taylor's arc is flat-out gone at this point. Everyone in this conflict passed around the idiot ball, from Calvert leaving evidence for Detective Weld (why is this a thing) to pick up on when PRT assets are taken to fight the Undersiders, to Coil outright threatening to release Noelle and Taylor and Lisa ignoring him.

Basically Lisa gets kidnapped and Calvert sends his mixed PRT & mercenary goons to kill all the Undersiders? Which is out of character and impractical from Coil's perspective compared to the body double manipulation where he can actually keep the Undersiders working for him?

Calvert, still trapping Taylor in the burning building (I don't think the Dinah tradeoff even happened), tries to convince Skitter that Lisa was the real villain behind the scenes all along, join me as a true hero etc., which doesn't land as a fakeout because Taylor doesn't actually believe it for a second? It's all a goddamn mess. They tried to set it up with a lot of previous scenes, it's just... what's the point though?

At least they settled on killing Coil at the midpoint. Small victories I guess.

Travelers arc is basically unchanged EXCEPT for all the changes. The Travelers kill Cody (essentially arguing his later role is irrelevant, which, IDK if I have a horse in that race, but why cut out Accord? Stop consolidating characters!) I'm forgetting some other changes but it wasn't nothing.

Sveta has replaced Matryoshka for the poor stupid audience members who won't be able to tell 2 sad ribbon Case 53s with Russian accents apart, with the knock-on effect that she gets recruited by Faultline's crew... instead of showing her appointment with Jessica Yamada! High crimes!

While we're at it, no Kevin Norton (one of the most popular interludes in the story lol), no Crusader/Theo interlude, and no Blasto (we get some Defiant and Dragon fighting the Siberian instead. But Blasto's interlude is fucking good!)

I think the Yamada scenes are supposed to be moved around so each scene takes place chronologically in time with the story, which I'm ambivalent about- it's not a bad method in theory, but showing the collective trauma and extra characterization beats of the Wards all at once is way more impactful. They didn't bring up anyone but Clockblocker, but they said they hadn't decided how to place each one yet.

When it's time to fight Noelle, we get to see how much Weld, Kid Win, and Clockblocker absolutely fucking love the Undersiders and think Skitter is super cool. Clockblocker is desperate to question and interrogate his best buddy Skitter in the van ride over! Ships ahoy! :)

Uhhh stuff is just out of order for some reason all fight? I think the Triumvirate gets cloned early for some reason, with unclear consequences as they don't really do anything and Eidolon waits to spill the beans until I guess the plot says so. More idiot ball or whatever.

Actually were the Chicago Wards even there? I'm not sure if they were cut or if they weren't brought up because there was nothing to say about them

Same question, did they actually do Lisa's backstory? I don't think they did! They wanna end the season with Dinah going home, they had all this stuff about Taylor almost keeping her and becoming more like Coil, except that internal conflict is meaningless when Taylor's entire character arc is fucking gutted. She doesn't find out about Coil until mid-Season 2, doesn't find out about Dinah until later, and her interest in saving her almost feels... unimportant? She ends season 2 asking Lisa for more info about Dinah, fade to black, instead of the gut drop of a reveal in arc 7. Why are they doing this? For pacing? Is the audience really gonna care if Dinah doesn't get saved in Season 2? All this mess just for that?

One actually positive change- showing Trickster getting captured, having him witness Noelle's death, and seeing his team decide to go home without him. I'll give them that and only that.

No mention of the PHO interlude. Not a big surprise. But I've gotta say, an actually good version of a podcast like this would be to discuss how to adapt the harder parts to a different format, which is a tertiary topic to these guys compared to butchering the plot and characters.

THEY CUT OUT THE ENTIRE EMMA FLASHBACK? What the fuck!? These people genuinely don't understand the themes of the story they're trying to adapt! They fully have no idea what concepts Worm is actually about and trying to explore, they just wanna do a dark Marvel show I guess.

Edit: oh yeah their response to my suggestion of "just do more episodes to fix the pacing" (hey, remember how arcs 15, 16, 18, and 19 are some of the longest in the whole story?) is that yeah, in an ideal Worm-as-Anime world that's the answer, not in live action, but the thing that got to me is that they said they'd personally hate to watch that version because the exposition would be long-winded and everything would be dragged out and repetitive like a Naruto filler arc. Dude what novel are you reading that you think its fans would want LESS long-winded exposition?!

Oy this one is a mess. Call it a trainwreck by how far off the rails this shit has gotten.

I might summarize after but maybe it's easier if you guys just listen to this one yourselves

(a little afraid to find out if they have responses to my comments at the end)

[no0dlru]

Star Wars Battlefront 2 EA is actually pretty sick

[stuck-in-the-ghost-zone]

the sound of a gonk droid is so comforting to me