#the game in the dream controlled a bit differently and the camera was zoomed out a lot more (bc of some of the larger player characters)

[nexus-nebulae]

just woke up from a dream where i was playing a video game where every time you jumped, you would swap to a different character, and it was one of those kinds of like. sonic and mario at the olympics type crossover games. so it was dozens of completely different characters you could swap to at complete random. each character had their own physics as well so you'd have to adjust as the character's handling changes. and i only remember playing as shadow the hedgehog for a little bit and then jumping and the next guy i was playing as was a lego game character but i noticed he had the same voice actor as sonic and i thought that was kinda funny

[derekscorner]

Witchy Timed Ramblings

I dont even know where to begin

Bayonetta 3 was such a mixed experience. One that was ultimately proven to be negative and frustrating by the time I was done. I know many, both casual and shipper alike, have issues with the Cereza-Luka ending but that proved to be lower on my list of complaints.

I hated Demon Slave as a mechanic. It was fine at first but the game did it’s damnedest to make you use it around every corner which angered me greatly. I still ignored it when I could in favor of normal combat but that option wasn’t as readily available as you’d expect.

And yes, I know ignoring that core new gimmick will make the game more frustrating. When I say I was frustrated it was for things I couldn’t seemingly help.

The things that proved the most frustrating was camera, the abundance of mini-game bosses, and Jeanne’s levels. Camera itself worked perfectly fine and was zoomed out a bit too far at times at it’s worst. The issue I had camera wise was enemies. It felt like I got hit out of eye-shot more far too often...which made no sense given how the camera operated fine.

Between that random sniping and being forced to use the clunky Demon Slave system I felt like I died a lot or was just annoyed by what I was doing. I want to play Bayonetta not a demon that’s far slower and limited in moveset and I definitely dont want to control this demon when Bayonetta herself can’t move only to get sniped off screen.

I am by no means a good Bayonetta or action game player. I get mad at Bayo 1 & 2 as well but I at least realize my deaths in those games are my own fault. The only thing that feels unfair in those earlier titles is Bayo 1′s sudden QTE segments.

And while many hated Bayo 2′s umbran climax mechanic they could still choose to play without it since they could use the magic meter for torture attacks instead. It didn’t really impact a desire to ignore it since both mechanics used the same meter for different gameplay gimmicks.

In other words Bayonetta 3 forced me to do things that I did not find fun in the slightest. My deaths or damage didn’t feel like my own fault.

Mini-games Galore

Then there was the Jeanne missions and the over abundant mini-game boss battles or mission segments.

Jeanne’s missions aren’t overly offensive just not fun. It felt like the director got drunk, binged Totally Spies, and threw Jeanne into that fever dream. I already have to swap between Viola and Bayonetta during missions so I do not know why Jeanne couldn’t have proper missions. She’s so fun to play when unlocked in older titles.

Luckily she only had four missions so it was a disappointment at best. The thing that ground my gears nearly as much as the Demon Slave gimmick was the number of gimmicky events in Bayonetta’s story.

Nearly every boss was some sort of mini-game event. They ranged from painful to boring. The worst one by far, Sin Gomorrah, was used twice. I can’t begin to describe to you how painfully slow those Gomorrah battles are.

The only one that moderately fine for me was Baal. I suck at rhythm games, dislike them even, but this was amusing at least. Baal’s humanoid appearance and personality got me to enjoy it despite how bad I am at such games.

The moment demonic hands reach up from hell with glow sticks I actually laughed. That’s the kind of silliness I’d expect from Bayonetta. Despite that I wouldn’t want to play it too often but it was a welcome moment in a set that didn’t hit with me.

I spent more time playing something besides Bayonetta herself I felt. When I did get to play Bayonetta I felt some levels went on far too long. Worlds were too big at times as well. (I hated the Egypt world with a passion, forty fucking minutes...)

World Maps

Finally, the most mixed aspect for me was the maps. I do honestly feel that missions go on far too long but it was something I both liked and hated.

I grew up on adventure titles so I’m 25yrs hardwired to explore a level. One reason I loved Sonic Adventure 1 more than 2 was due to the existence of a hub world.

In that sense I love the island of Thule and left sadden I get so little time on it. I wanted to see more of the Umbra and Lumen history there. I also love the feel and aesthetics of Gunnigap. (or however it’s spelled)

I initially loved finding things in the levels but it gets tiring quickly. The very fact that Bayonetta, a game about hack n slash combat, needs a marker button to remind you of where you’re supposed to go feels wrong.

The sheer scale of it all makes my complaints about the camera prior feel contradictory but that’s just how mixed it made me feel. I think the levels just went on a tad too long with too many nooks to look into.

I will end this small section on a random note; Thule really made me want to know the Lumen/Umbran history there. Did they visit other worlds? Did they just watch? Did they leave due to the war? So many fun questions!

Resolution

I suppose I should wrap this up. It became far longer than I expected due to Viola and Lore. (I had to break this up into three posts linked below)

Ultimately the game proved frustrating to play and unless I can skip the mini-game boss battles I wont touch the game again.

My only other impressions weren’t even complaints. Like the graphical style. It doesn’t suck yet everyone either appears slimy or rubbery for some reason.

Or fairies. They were thrown in so randomly and then used as excuse to give Luka and Viola devil triggers. It’s not even offensive it’s just fucking there...at least the Bayonetta Origins seems interesting thanks to the introduction of Fairies and their “twilight magic”.

I’m not interested in Bayonetta 4 with Viola there. I’d like a proper game about her with her actual mother and father but not what they’ve done here. Hell, I’d be more game for a title that focus’ on Jeanne.

Imagine a remake of Bayonetta 1 or a game similar but now Jeanne’s the star etc. The Multiverse is there so do something actually interesting...anyway I’m tired. Bye now~

============

For the rest of the Witchy Timez Ramblings go here: https://derekscorner.tumblr.com/tagged/Witchy-Timed

[demon-bfoty]

checked out a good few demos yesterday on stream, all from the next fest on steam! just some short thoughts

Radio the Universe

extremely rad. amazing 2d pixel graphics going on, lots of cool techno cybery stuff. can probably call it dark souls-y loosely for the combat, but has its own flow. once i got to grips with the controls, none of the combats were particularly hard but they were fun! the vibes are immaculate. I am extremely excited for this now

Luckily, My Arm Is A Shotgun

very simple game and short demo. isometric angle, 8 way movement/aiming, and your arm is a shotgun. go around the island, shoot enemies, find gears to repair your boat. super simple but fun! will likely pick this up based on the demo.

Bakeborough

top down action rpg where you play as a muffin and you can put different organs in yourself for stats. demo left me a bit disappointed really. i was excited after following the game for a while on tiktok, but the demo wasnt engaging really at all. i think it has potential though, the bones of an interesting game are there, but they'll need to work on most aspects (let me remap. fix hitboxes!!!!). might just be a bad demo, will still keep an eye on it.

Interior Worlds

Extremely my shit. Load into the creepy/moody level with nothing more than your DSLR camera, and do photography of interesting or spooky stuff. No jumpscares or combat or anything, just explore and vibe. extremely good for my tastes. love to exist in a space. And if youre into photography, it will even let you upload and share photos with friends in full release! maybe even more camera options than zoom and focus!

Planet of Lana

A lovely lovely puzzle platformer, playing it reminded me of stuff like Another World or Limbo. Gorgeous looking scifi world, you and your lil lemur gremlin thing go to the right and do some puzzles. Will be excited to see how the story unfolds, as it seems like it could be interesting! just was enamored with the aesthetics. bright and lush world.

Super Auto Battlemon

you know Super Auto Pets? You know Slay the Spire? You know Pokemon? ok. mash all three together, and you got Super Auto Battlemon. But really, it is an auto-battler with the map system popularized by StS. You get mons and line em up like SAP, they fight the other mons. There are too many numbers and stats and stuff that it feels like a min-maxer dream, but a bit much for me. but cute designs and i can see an appeal! I'd try it again after some more updates I think, see how it feels down the line.

that's it for now! if i can I'll be checking out more next stream

[metalgearkong]

Final Fantasy VII Remake - Review (PS4)

4/30/20

Developed by Square-Enix, released April 2020

Final Fantasy VII was the very first 3D polygonal entry in the Final Fantasy series released back in 1997. To this day, Final Fantasy VII is arguably the most influential and beloved JRPG of all time. When I was growing up I wasn’t a big fan of JRPGs yet. However my best friend(s)s for many year(s) were, and I experienced a lot of Final Fantasy (and other JRPGs) via osmosis. I played and completed the original Final Fantasy VII about 5 years ago, finally seeing what all the hype was about. The Final Fantasy VII remake was one of those highly anticipated titles that we thought would be a miracle if it saw the light of day, let alone being as good as it turned out. Finally, 5 years after the world got a taste of the teaser trailer we finally have the “final” product.

The reason I say “final” is because this is only part 1 of what I’m guessing will be 3 parts, extending and fleshing out everything about the original game in full current-gen presentation. Part 1 only covers the events of Midgar, about 5-6 hours of the original game (out of at least 40) and I finished the remake at about 34 hours. The developers at Square-Enix did a fantastic job making this remake feel like it still had a beginning, middle, and end, despite it covering such little territory from the original. Almost everything that extends the time, including dungeons, character development, side quests, and extra bosses was mostly executed very well.  Only a handful of times did I feel like some of the mini-games and side quests were annoying or a waste of time (don’t even get me started on the giant robotic hand crane puzzle). 

I had a tumultuous relationship with this remake to say the least, and my largest contention with the remake is the combat. I seem to be almost alone on this opinion, but hear me out. The combat could best be compared to Kingdom Hearts, only here, you can switch to different party members, controlling them directly. Also when using the in-game mini menu during a fight, the game will pause the combat allowing you to decide what to do with barely any frames passing by. Despite this remake’s tactical nature, whenever I had to fight more than 3 or so enemies at a time, battles would often turn into a frustrating muddle of a brawl. For example, locking-on has to be done manually, and then done manually again once that enemy is destroyed. Sometimes opponents can remove the lock-on by going invisible, digging below the ground, etc, and having to find a new enemy and manually lock-on again was annoying. 

Tips I Wish I Knew...

Use Cloud’s “Punisher” mode whenever facing opponents with physical close-range attacks and counter often

Customize shortcuts for each party member in the Main Menu and make item usage, spell usage, and special ability usage uniform between all characters

Immediately click the right stick to lock-on to ANY enemy so at least you can start working on them

Take control of a healing or long-distance ally when facing multiple or difficult foes in order to see the battlefield better

Only attack a bit at a time so you have the best chance to stop, dodge, or block if an enemy begins their attack

Use the Multiply Materia (I forgot what it’s called) on a supportive spell such as shields or healing

The camera added to the frustration as well. Instead of phasing through physical objects allowing you to fully see the battle, the camera gets caught up on walls and objects. This leads the camera to “zooming in” and me losing sight of my character and the enemies. Any fight in an arena smaller than a gymnasium has this problem. By far the largest frustration I had with the combat was the cheapness of it. For example, if you begin a combo of normal attacks, there’s no way to interrupt your own animations in order to do something different, such as blocking or dodging. It seemed like the enemies were much quicker at attacking, and would smack you with a high damage attack with no way to avoid it. The game strives for a semi-hack ‘n' slash genre of combat, but the mechanics are far and away not responsive enough for the player to actually react to what they need to react to.

Casting a spell, using an item, or executing a special ability have long durations as well, meaning you can easily be cancelled by an enemy attack or at the very least take damage while an animation is playing out. I get that this is a strategic live-combat JRPG, but it lead me to so much frustration and rage I had to move the difficulty down to Easy because Normal just seemed to cheap. It’s a shame because the entire rest of the game is so damned good, I don’t know how the ball was dropped so hard on the combat system. Again, this seems to be my opinion alone because I haven’t heard this criticism anywhere else, which adds to the feeling of frustration for me because it makes me feel “not good enough” despite being a lifelong and daily gamer. 

Not enough can be said about the character development and everything having to do with the narrative. Cloud, Tifa, and Barret have been iconic leads for over two decades, but compared to the ramke, they may as well have been cardboard cutouts. Every single cinematic is filled with amazing animation and cinematography, the likes I never expected to see. Characters look fantastic, sure, but the way they work off each other’s personalities and motives breathes new life into what was already considered a terrific game in terms of story. I like how Tifa has her reasons to hate Shinra, but is the most apprehensive about Avalanche’s terrorist actions. Barret comes off as a big meat head, but over time you see that he believes in every word he says. The music is also astounding as we not only hear familiar tracks, but many of the songs get several different remixes. Aerith’s theme in particular gets the most use and its variations make the biggest impacts, transforming what is normally background music into well defined leitmotifs used at all the right moments during the story.

Final Fantasy VII remake (part 1) is a dazzling, emotional, hugely impressive product. This is the the remake fans have only been dreaming about for many many years and I think it mostly pays off well. Virtually every aspect of this adaptation, including characters, music, locations, tone, enemies, and certain mechanics have been painstakingly recreated and reinvigorated to a successful degree that makes it all worth the wait. However, I am not a fan of the combat system and its such a strange thing to get wrong compared to how much of the game is so masterfully created. The additions to the story and lore (few that there are) also lead to unnecessary sections of the game, especially near the end, and has rightfully gotten a mixed reaction from fans of the original. I am desperately curious how the developers will sparse out the rest of the story in these remakes, beings there’s so much left to see and tell, but hope the combat system receives some polish and alterations before the end.

7/10

[luckbeabugaboo]

Prompt 68 w/ adrienette ❤️❤️

Hey, @emergencybitch​ thank you so much for the request! I hope you like it!I’m SO sorry for being so slow! work ate me alive. So! I have this prompt in my inbox twice, actually, so I decided to write two different takes. This is the first one and the next one will be rolling out soon!

October 9th(running late) entry in my “kiss a day” challenge (requests open). 

68. A Hoarse Whisper “Kiss Me” (Adrienette) 

It was weird having her on the set, sitting in her designated chair beside the photographer. He could feel her eyes on him at all times, scrutinizing the fabric, the lighting, the posing. She must have had a vision, like any artist, and wasn’t quite satisfied with the way it was panning out. Being who she was, she didn’t speak up and express just how frustrated she was. It was beginning to make him feel more than a little bit guilty. 

“Good, good. Lean against the counter. You own this place, you own this moment, you own everyone looking at this photograph. Sexy. Domineering. Yes! Yes!” Vincent seemed plenty pleased with the direction of the shoot. “Tilt the chin up, no. Up, up, up! Yes!”

Resting his elbows against the counter, Adrien let his eyes steal Marinette’s way. She was chewing at the end of a pen, her eyebrows knit together. Blue eyes widened when they caught his glance and she immediately tried to soften the hard edges of her expression. Her focus didn’t stay on his eyes, it dipped down to study his outfit again. He could see her picking it apart in a way that seemed odd after how proud she had been when Gabriel signed her on for a contract. She had poured so much love into these pieces, so why did she look so unhappy to see them come alive?

Adrien pushed himself from the counter and shook his head. Immediately getting a verbal reprevanding from Vincent. “We are not done!”

“Hold on just a minute.” He put up a hand, watching his photographer deflate like a balloon and huff some frustrated words in Italian. “Sorry, Vincent. I promise we can pick back up in just a moment.”

The cameraman waved his hand in an irritated kind of defeat and then moved to plug his camera into his laptop for editing of the shots they’d already taken. This shoot was supposed to have six looks and they were currently only on the second. 

“Is… Is everything okay, Adrien?” Marinette shifted in her chair. “Is the sizing wrong? Are you uncomfortable?”

His hand extended to her and he tried to give her a soothing sort of smile. “Come with me?”

There wasn’t too much hesitancy in her movements as she placed her hand into his, but her eyes were more honest. He hated to see her so out of her element in a place where she had every right to be the most brilliant smile in the room. 

Vincent mumbled something about timing and professionalism, but Adrien ignored the jab and tugged Marinette with him towards his dressing room. Out of the bright lighting and fancy set pieces, out of the place that she couldn’t handle and into a controlled environment where she could recharge and express her thoughts without fear of push back. He was trying to take the scary feeling of something new and replace it with the familiarity and warmth she had designed these outfits in.

This was her crowning moment. Her designs were being featured in the September issue of Vogue, splashed across three pages with an in depth interview on her process and vision. She deserved to feel accomplished and in control of her art. He knew a thing or two about feeling stifled by the fashion industry and she was far too incredible for him to watch her be squandered by the pressures of loud photographers and busy sets. 

The door clicked shut and her eyes turned to him, pleading and petrified. It didn’t take more than a second after the latch sounded before she began to pour her troubles onto him. “I-I… I can’t do this, Adrien. Everything’s so much. It’s all so…” Her hand pulled from his so she could tangle her fingers into her hair, holding her head like it might burst at any given second. “The lighting is washing out all the intricate color work. He isn’t zooming the shots to compliment the detail stitching. This is only the second outfit and I’m already convinced he doesn’t understand the purpose of this collection. And the woman who interviewed me, Adrien. You know the first thing she asked me? ‘You’re Adrien Agreste’s girlfriend, right? How does it feel networking so well that you find yourself at the top of your game at such a young age?’ What… What kind of piece are they even trying to write?” 

Tears were welling up in her eyes and a whole day of trying to hold them in meant the dam stood no chance. Squeezing them shut, she caused plenty of smears to her carefully applied liner and shadow. He could see her crumbling and his instinct guided him to provide her with a sturdy pillar to lean on. His arms wrapped around her tightly and he settled his chin atop her head. The way she trembled as sobs finally broke free did nothing to deter him and he didn’t care if tears dampened the fabric of his shirt. 

“Marinette, if you don’t like the lighting, tell him. If you don’t like the photos, reject them. You are the focal point. You are the visionary. I’m so proud of you. Of everything you’ve accomplished, and done so because of your skill, nothing else.” Adrien felt a smile forming as she wrapped her arms around him, fingers hooking around the back of his suspenders. “You came here looking incredible in a one of a kind suit, designed for you, by you, sewn by hand, and you stole everyone’s focus. As you should, you look stunning in red. Any ugly prying question is asked out of envy and will only make the interviewer look cruel. It won’t make the final cut, Anna Wintour is no fool.”

“I’m just so afraid to ruin it. I’ve dreamed of this moment since I was small and now that I’m here I’m terrified that my clumsy and scatterbrained personality are going to be my own ruining. I came in here and sobbed and now my hair and makeup are ruined. If I go out there and demand a reshoot then over and hour of work is ruined…” Marinette’s voice cracked. “Ohmygodyourshirtisprobablyruined!”

“Sssssssh, it’s going to be just fine.” Scooping her up in his arms, Adrien set Marinette down on the vanity counter. “Any reshoots were inevitable. If you weren’t happy with the result then it’s no doubt that the editors also wouldn’t be.”

He took a single step back to assess the damages without having to cause her to let go of him. There was a small wet spot on the pastel green organza covering his shoulder, but it would dry and be just fine. Her makeup was smeared and running, but that was nothing he couldn’t fix. Her hair just needed a little more spray to set in place. Nothing was irreversible. She was still breathtaking, she was still going to make a historic fashion debut, and he was still so happy to be lucky enough to be a part of it.

Marinette’s hold moved to the front of his sparkly suspenders, holding with the same intensity but giving him the room to collect some things from the vanity and begin cleaning up the smoky edges of her eye liner. Some micellar water and cotton pads were the first step. A few brush strokes saved her eye shadow, and some Marc Jacobs waterproof was all she needed to reinvigorate the wings liner she had before. 

“Adrien.” She whispered through slightly parted lips as he finished reapplying her mascara. 

“Yes?” He set down the mascara tube and turned his focus entirely to her. 

Her grasp on his suspenders tightened. “Kiss me.”

“Anything for you, Bugaboo.” Leaning in, he let his lips brush over hers. It was going to mean more makeup removing because well, her lipstick was definitely not kiss proof, but he was okay with that. They were about to make history, they could afford a little extra time in the dressing room.

[gertlushgaming]

Amberial Dreams Preview (Steam Early Access)

  For our Amberial Dreams Preview we Roll, bounce, and discover a new galaxy in an open-ended platformer for all skill levels, from relaxed to pure madness. Make your own levels in a rich editor, share them, and play with friends!

Amberial Dreams Preview Pros:

- Decent graphics. - Download size. - Steam achievements. - Full controller support. - Graphics settings - fullscreen, v-sync, and resolution. - Accessibility settings - slow motion and Invincibility. - Physics platformer gameplay. - Opening tutorial section. It can be skipped. - The game is you play as a ball and go around levels solving puzzles, using the physics and avoiding the many obstacles. - Hand-drawn animated cutscenes. - The main hub is huge and you are free to roam it, you can change avatars, select a level, interact with characters and replay cutscenes. - Beautiful soothing soundtrack. - A fully Voiced story plays as you go through the game. - They are going for a magical atmosphere. - Four avatars to choose from in the hub that changes the color of your sphere. - Every level is timed with the best shown on top of the level in the hub. - End of a level breakdown showing your time and Collectibles. - Very simple controls. - Accessible. - Online leaderboards for each level. - You can replay levels. - Handy restart button. - The game gets quite addictive. - Excellent shading and lighting work. - Unlock new levels based on Collectibles and clearing time. - Has a Journey and Pixel Junk Eden vibe. - Collect Moons to unlock arcade cabinet games where you play different versions of the game from pinball to a side scroller where you avoid the obstacles that drop. - The game can mix it up by having you collect yellow orbs to open up the door. - The library houses your stats and death counter. - Open up new areas within the hub to advance the story. - As you progress the game will introduce new mechanics and will always open it up with a tutorial. Amberial Dreams Preview Cons: - The tutorial is very basic. - Minimal graphics settings. - The mouse cursor keeps popping up even when using the controller. - Slow starter. - Very hard when it comes to precise movements or tight spaces. - No camera control to like zoom in and out. - Takes a bit of getting used to. - Cannot always skip or fast-forward cutscenes. Related Post: Last Beat Enhanced Review (PlayStation 4) Amberial Dreams: Official website. Developer: Lumorama Publisher: Lumorama Store Links - Steam Early Access Read the full article

[elenajohansenauthor]

Fictober18, Day 24: “You know this. You know this to be true.”

OCs: Shannon and Noah

Project: Untitled paranormal romance for Fictober18/NaNoWriMo, now tagged #spookyromancenovel on my blog

Potential Triggers: none

Word Count: 2,026

About: Shannon dreams about a tornado.

In the dream, I knew I was dreaming. It doesn’t happen often, but I can never control it, no matter how much I read up on lucid dreaming. I am trapped inside of it, a prisoner who cannot wake.

Even when I’m dreaming about something good, I hate that loss of agency, that cold isolation.

We’re children again, me and Noah. I’m on the side roof of my house, the one that projects over the door to the yard, the one I can climb down to from the hallway window. Noah’s on the side roof of his house, a mere four feet away. Our houses are mirrors.

We would have been friends anyway, but having a secret place where we could hang out and talk, feeling separate from everything? That’s irresistible to a certain type of child. Like me. Like Noah.

It didn’t matter that we were plainly visible from the street, or that anyone in our families could find us by walking to the end of the hallway and looking out the window. We didn’t have a tree house to hide it. This was good enough.

I’m listening to the kid versions of us talk, hovering bodiless somewhere in the air above the backyard. The words are all things we said, or things we probably would say, but nothing matches up, making the conversation gibberish.

“My parents want me to take violin lessons.”

“I found a five dollar bill I forgot I had. Do you want to get ice cream after school tomorrow?”

“Fractions are so easy, why are we still practicing them?”

I wanted to merge with my younger self, to flow into her body and make her understand how precious this time was, this friendship. Had I known that, then? Had I ever appreciated Noah enough?

A boom of thunder rolled through the dream, though the sky was bright and cloudless. Both kids climbed through their respective windows in eerie synchronization, and my awareness followed little Shannon inside, a few yards behind her, as flawlessly as a movie camera.

She flew through the open door to her bedroom, our bedroom, and it looked almost the same as I remembered it. If there was symbolic significance in the differences, I had no time to divine it, because she went to the window and I slid into place beside her, both of us leaning out to look at a swirl of distant chaos.

A tornado, moving closer.

We were transfixed. Despite knowing this was a dream, that I was in no danger, I trembled, my invisible hands gripping the windowsill as if the frame would anchor me, as if the house was too solid to break into a thousand pieces when the twister hit. And it would. It was heading straight for us.

My younger self was staring, too, but she didn’t seem afraid, only excited. Then she smiled, and I refocused on the tornado, growing ever larger as it approached.

Inside the whirling winds, I saw chunks of dirt and grass, snapped tree branches, broken boards, bits of garbage. My gaze zoomed in uncannily on each object even as it flew by, too quick to track for more than a second.

When the gargoyles appeared from the heart of the tornado, screaming and clawing through the air, I shrieked and woke up.

I couldn’t move, not even my eyes. I stared uselessly at a random spot on my nightstand, unable to see the time on the clock except for the vague green flow it cast on the wood. The noise that came from my throat was sharp, harsh, a scream I couldn’t consciously put breath and power into. My breath wheezed in panic, a shallow inhale followed by that involuntary keening. I couldn’t stop it.

The door to my room burst open, a secondary crash telling me it had bounced back off my bookshelves. “Shannon? What’s wrong?”

Noah was home, Noah had heard me cry out. Half of me flooded with love while the other cringed in mortal embarrassment.

He and I had been friends since we were six, but never the sleepover kind of friends—our parents were too strict about gender roles for that, even before we hit puberty and ran the risk of doing things other than sleeping. My mother wouldn’t even let my female friends see me in pajamas, so I had never been to a slumber party at all. “Sleep is a private activity,” she always said, “and so are the clothes that go with it.”

I’d been in Noah’s bedroom at times, and he’d been in mine. That sort of thing was unavoidable.

But he’d never been in this bedroom. And certainly never while I was in bed myself.

I was absolutely never going to be able to remember this without cringing. He came in now? Like this? Because I had a bad dream?

I didn’t answer—I still couldn’t. I was paralyzed with leftover terror.

“Shannon? Can you hear me?” He knelt beside me, filling the narrow space between the mattress and the wall. I could only see his left shoulder and arm, his hand as it approached my face.

When he touched my cheek tentatively, he leaned down to peer into my eyes. The shock of how cold his touch was broke my locked muscles free in a shiver, and I pressed my eyes shut and tucked my head, hiding my face from him as I broke into wrenching sobs. I’d had nightmares before, but I’d never experienced sleep paralysis from them—was that even the right term? Was there a name for what I’d just experienced? Because it was more horrifying than the dream itself. I wept as much in relief as in terror. Nothing like that had ever happened to me, so I was scared, but I was also pathetically grateful that it was over.

Noah made equally pathetic comforting noises, starting sentences to leave them hanging unfinished when I didn’t respond. I’d always been careful to hide my tears from him, after the first time he’d ever seen me cry. We were only seven, and one of the older neighborhood kids had been teasing me, working me up into frustrated fury. I don’t remember what he said, but I clearly recall the powerless rage I felt at not being listened to when I defended myself—trying to outsmart the bully had only made him meaner. I gave up and ran home in defeat, but Noah was in his front yard playing alone, and he’d had no idea what to say to the wailing monster who was his best friend. He’d tried, I remember that. But he had had no practice at it, and apparently didn’t have the instinct for it.

After that, I cried alone, to spare him the pain of not being able to help me.

I wanted to talk. I wanted to tell him to leave, not to see me like this, but the words couldn’t make it past the sobbing. I couldn’t find breath for anything else. After a few minutes, I think, he did leave, and I curled tighter under the covers and kept crying.

“Here, Shannon.”

He came back. He was pulling back the covers and wrapping me snugly in one of the blankets he’d stopped using to sleep. I was too shocked and tired and confused to protest as he handled me, gently but with obvious strength.

I ended up a blanket burrito sitting on his lap as he rested his back against the headboard. He held me firmly, my skin insulated from his by a layer of soft, fuzzy fleece. He’d even pulled a fold over my hair to form a hood, protecting my head where it rested on his shoulder.

“I’m terrible at this part of being a friend,” he whispered. “You know this, you know it’s true. So don’t argue. But you’re scaring me, Shannon. So when you can talk, please tell me what’s happening, because I don’t know, and that means I don’t know what to do.”

I gripped the front of his shirt in one hand, wrinkling the fabric over his single-beating heart. He managed to reassure me and put pressure on me at the same time. He was right—he sucked at this. But he cared, and that meant more.

I cried myself close to exhaustion, until I had to switch from sobbing to deep, deliberate breathing just to keep from passing out. When Noah heard the change, he shifted me slightly in his arms, sitting me up higher while pulling me closer. It was a strange feeling, to be this close to anyone at all—I so rarely had. It was an even stranger one to be against a body with no give to it. I was one of those cats, sleeping in the lap of a sun-warmed Buddha statue. Only it was the middle of the night, and even with the blanket, I was already deeply cold.

I wouldn’t tell him, though. He’d hate that he couldn’t even get that part right, and it wasn’t his fault.

At this point, it was definitely mine, for not having found a way to cure him yet.

In broken, coughing sentences, I told him about the dream, and about the paralysis when I woke. He made appropriate comments of sympathy and shared terror in the right places—he was better at this than he gave himself credit for.

But then he asked something that surprised me. “I don’t want to make this about me if it’s not, but do you think the stress is getting to you? Because this happened the same night we talked about Orlando’s proposal—do you think that’s what scared you?”

We hadn’t talked much about it, actually. I’d laid it out for Noah, and once he’d gotten over the initial shock and anger, as I had, he’d said he’d think about it. As I had. Then we’d dropped the subject and watched a movie together, though I’d fallen asleep before the end.

Damn. Noah must have carried me in here and tucked me in. Maybe that’s why he felt comfortable barging in when he heard me in distress.

“It could be,” I answered after some thought. “I want to pretend like it’s just one more thing, another step in the big quest or something.” I’d never played a role-playing game in my life, but that didn’t mean I hadn’t heard the jargon. “But everything else I’ve done for you, I’ve done on my own. Whatever Orlando wants to do, we’ll both be involved, and who knows who else? Can I trust him, will I trust them? I don’t even know his plan, and I already think I won’t like it.”

Noah considered that for a while. “I don’t like it, either, but it might be necessary. And there’s not really any harm in hearing him out, is there?”

“Aside from putting ideas in my head and possibly adding to my burden of guilt if I fail because I didn’t listen to him?” My flippant tone stung Noah—he shifted and turned his face away. Not that I could see it clearly, he hadn’t turned the lamp on. “No,” I said more evenly. “There’s no harm hearing him out. I’ll call him in the morning.”

“And you’ll take me with you this time when you go see him?”

“Yes.”

“I’m glad you got there and back safe, and proud of you for being able to, and still pissed as hell you did it.”

I smiled and curled closer, pulling the blanket tightly beneath my chin. “Yeah, I know.”

“Think you’ll be able to get back to sleep?”

And miss out on this extra time with Noah, this unusual intimacy? “Probably not. But it’s my day off, so I can take a nap later. Did you hunt already, or do you still need to? Because we could watch another movie, or something.”

He chuckled. “Will I like it more than the last one?”

“I’m thinking superheroes, so probably.”

“You’ve got a deal.”

[alexteltevskiy]

On a roll no. 6

If spending a Sunday afternoon stumbling half-aimlessly through an urban industrial neighborhood devoid of all lifeforms sounds like fun, you’ve come to the right place. Ladies & Gentlemen, I present to you the latest installment of my On a Roll series, aptly named Pedestrians Not Included.

All puns aside, I did have a legit reason to be out and about: the other day I scored a Canon Z135 point and shoot camera at the local thrift store. Originally non-functioning, the mechanics inside were stuck due to disuse and copious amounts of sugary pop spilled all over the lens assembly a decade and a half ago. A quick CLA brought it back to life.

Grabbing a chilled roll of Fuji Superia 200 out of my fridge, I hopped into my car on a Sunday afternoon and drove downtown. I decided on a location for my photowalk the way I always do - by taking a random exit on the highway, when the feeling strikes.

Having just recently used a Contax TVS II, a premium compact zoom camera, my hopes weren’t very high for the IQ performance. The sharpness of that lens was a big, big letdown. I’ve almost just about given up on expecting sharp imagery from zoom P&S cameras. After examining the negs from this camera, I’m glad I haven't given up all hope.

On paper, the specs appeared decent - 10 elements in 9 groups. But what really set this lens apart at a glance was the deep amber of the coating, liberally applied to all visible lens elements. This was “some premium stuff”, it whispered.

The construction felt abnormally solid as well, all around. This was no Contax TVS II, mind you. But it has a metal faceplate, controls approximately where you’d expect them and a comfy little rubber grip formation. Viewfinder is average. It’s quick to turn on and retract. Sigh, but it doesn’t remember flash settings.

As far as durability goes - the particular camera that I’d scavenged has seen some action in its previous life. But, apart from that pop drink lens freeze, it’s been durable enough to withstand and persevere.

Packed with features, it’s got all sorts of modes and settings. Exposure compensation, servo focusing, etc. Some even come with date backs (mine didn’t, unfortunately) and a unique caption system that imprints a phrase to the image. My favorite feature - the spot metering mode. My most vilified feature - the crazy hard to close battery door.

PS: Sorry for the scratch running through most of the roll - it wasn’t my fault. It was the squeegee’s, which has since been retired.

Long story short, it’s an awesome performer. The lens blew my mind when I examined the negatives. Brilliantly sharp across most of the zoom range. Doesn’t flare much. Medium contrast. Somewhat soft corners but nothing like the Contax TVS II. Feels very confident at 38, 50, 70 - the focal lengths I use the most. Very little distortion. The biggest shortcoming of this lens (if you call it that) is the truckload of vignetting that manifests itself in every shot. I, actually, rather like this imperfection, otherwise I wouldn't bother with film. Want perfection? Shoot an a7r III with Art glass.

This actually leads me to another idea that I’ve been entertaining for a while... Just how much overrated some of the premium compacts are. 5%-10% more image quality for 1000% more money. That’s bad economics, blown out of proportion by social media. Sure, they have other features too, and are usually more compact (hence the name), but that still doesn't stop the fact that 1) their shots look virtually the same as ones from these cheap $5 cameras under normal conditions and 2) all of them will brick out and die eventually as compact cameras are generally unrepairable. But that’s a can of worms I’ll open up some other time.

By this point you’re probably looking at me (figuratively) and thinking, how did this turn into a camera review? Well, I was just thinking the same thing. Maybe it’s because I just really like this camera AND I WASN’T EXPECTING IT. But enough about the tool, let’s look at the subject matter...

... that was shot on a 24 exp. roll of Fujicolor Superia 200. For the record, I won’t be using Superia 200 or 400 anymore. Maybe a little Pro 400H here and there, and obviously the E-6 stuff. But no more cheap-o consumer film. The emulsion just doesn't sit well with me, my computer, my scanner and my software. The tones are miles off, the base is slippery and causes issues with my scanner. Not to mention that the film base is ever so slightly thinner and flimsier than comparable Kodak stock. Fuji really cheaps out on this one. No more. Gold 200 and Ultramax 400 all the way.

The city was a joy to walk around that day. Most of the areas I passed through were completely silent, with nary a human or automobile in sight. It’s Sunday, after all.

All the smokestacks were plugged up, bridges dormant and general machinery dreaming away in a gentle hum, getting some well deserved rest before the next work week starts.

The late afternoon sun casting longish, inky shadows over cars, buildings and lampposts. Like a spotlight at a theater during intermission, bathing the stage, props standing, actors on a smoke break outside.

It may sound counterintuitive, but for me, the city is especially fun at this time. A surreal feeling at times, it shows a completely different side when you’re all alone on the streets of its more industrial areas.

You take it all in at your own leisurely pace, where neither pesky pedestrians nor tenacious truck compete with your camera for the scenery. It’s like a real-life video game where you’ve entered a couple of cheats to stop the missions and just walk around the level and admire the designers’ handiwork.

Speaking of handiwork... I’ll quiet down for a bit and let the photos do the talking. 

And with that stop sign, we’ve reached the end of the roll. Hope you had as much fun reading it as I had writing it. It really is a great camera, especially considering the steal it goes for these days, completely slipping by the radar of most film fanatics. Fanatics that are so busy obsessing over which kidney to sell to afford a Contax T3 that they (in my mind) forget the nature of 35mm film photography instead of just going out and taking photos.

Until next time!

[gigdiyf118-blog]

How to Explain Download GTA gtadownload.org to a Five-Year-Old

Grand Theft Auto V Game description

For me, Grand Theft Auto V ’s extraordinary scope is summed happy throughout a couple favourite moments. One is from the mid-game mission by which I hurried a smooth in another level, fought the crew, hijacked the thing, and parachuted dazed then observed that crash in the sea to escape death on the palm of earnings military fighter jets. Another time, whilst travel in in the off-road buggy, I got distracted in something that seemed like a path up one of the San Andreas mountains. Turns out it was a route, next I committed 15 minutes respect on the meeting, wherever I almost ran on the faction of hikers. “Typical!” one of them yelled in myself, like he nearly gets run over by a rogue ATV on top of a hill each time he goes on a hike.

I could go on like this for ages. GTA V has an loads of like moments, big and tiny, that make San Andreas – the municipality of Los Santos and its surrounding areas – feel like a living earth in which everything can take place. It both gives you tremendous autonomy to check out a astonishingly well-realised globe also requests a story that’s gripping, kicking, and darkly comic. It is a step familiar with narrative sophistication to the collections, and there’s no physical part of the gameplay that hasn’t been increased over Grand Theft Auto IV. It’s immediately noticeable the cover practice becomes other reliable and the auto-aim less touchy. The vehicles handle less like the tires are made from butter with fix better to the road, though their exaggerated handling still leaves plenty of area for spectacular wipeouts. With at long past, Rockstar has completely slain one of the most persistent demons, mission checkpointing, assuring that you never have to do a long, tedious take six when you repeatedly fail a vision ever again.

Grand Theft Auto V can be the intelligent, wickedly comic, and bitingly relevant commentary about contemporary, post-economic crisis America. Anything about it drips satire: it pulls into the Millennial generation, celebrities, the extreme right, the further abandon, the interior rank, the media... Nothing is sound by Rockstar’s sharp tongue, including modern video games. One prominent supporting character spends largely involving their moment here the room shouting sexual threats at public on the headset whilst playing a first-person shooter called Righteous Slaughter (“Rated PG – pretty much the same as the final game.”) It is not specifically subtle – he actually has the word “Entitled” tattooed on the throat, and also the in-game radio and Television outright piss-takes don’t go much to the imagination – but it is often very weird, and a bit provocative with it. Grand Theft Auto’s San Andreas is a fantasy, but the points that satirises – greed, corruption, hypocrisy, the insult of nation – become all very real. If GTA IV was there a targeted murder on the American dream, GTA V takes point at the contemporary American reality. The attention to depth that assumes doing the world feel successful and believable is also what makes the satire so biting.

GTA 5 ’s plot happily works at the boundaries of plausibility, sending anyone not permitted to be carried dirt bikes along the highest of trains, hijack military jets, and do absurd shootouts with reports of policemen, although its three principal individuals are what store this relatable perhaps at the most great. The well-written and proceeded relationship between them provides the biggest laughs and most affecting minutes, with the way which their links with a single another polished and my opinion of them changed over the story granted the story its energy. They think that people – albeit extraordinarily f***ed-up people.

Michael is a retired con person with his 40s, filling out throughout the inside because he drinks beside the pond within their Vinewood mansion with a layabout son, air-headed daughter, serially unfaithful wife, and very expensive therapist – most of which hate him. Franklin is a kid from downtown Los Santos who laments the gang-banger stereotype even as he’s reluctantly seduced by the scene of an better score. And then there’s Trevor, a hazardous career criminal that times in the desert selling drugs with killing rednecks; a psychopath whose bloodthirsty lunacy is fuelled by a mix of methamphetamine with a badly messed-up childhood.

The assignment flit concerning their own special articles and a overarching plotline which affects Get GTA Gratis gtadownload.org all three, and it’s a thanks to GTA V’s versatility and collective quality that each individual gets his share of standout vision. As their arcs developed I considered quite differently on each one of them by different periods – they’re not solely the models that they are.

This three-character structure reaches for exceptional walking and vast make in the storyline, but it also allows Rockstar to compartmentalise different aspects of Grand Theft Auto’s personality. In doing so, it sidesteps some of the troubling disconnect that took place when Niko Bellic abruptly changed between anti-violent philosophising and sociopathic killing sprees in GTA IV. Here, many of Michael’s missions circle about his relations along with his earlier, Franklin is usually on call for vehicular madness, and maximum murderous rampages are give to Trevor. Each has a particular ability suited to help his abilities – Franklin could to help slow down time while driving, for example – which presents them a unique touch. Narratively, it’s effective – even off-mission I found myself participating in quality, work like a mid-life-crisis gentleman with rage issues like Michael, a thrill-seeker as Franklin, along with a maniac as Trevor. The first thing I did when Franklin finally made the right dollars was buy him the awesome car, because I experience like that’s exactly what he’d want.

Trevor feels a like a bit of a get-out-of-jail-free cards for Rockstar, presenting the opening for all the preposterous tricks and brutal behaviour that normally could not fit into with GTA V’s narrative ambitions. I found the violent insanity a miniature overblown and boring at first. Because get-out clauses go, although, it’s pretty actual, and Trevor’s over-the-top missions are most of GTA V’s action-packed highlights. The a successful way of answering a setback that’s commonplace in open-world games: the anxiety between the story the authors are trying to direct, with the history you make yourself inside its approach and its world. GTA V accommodates both, masterfully, allowing not to challenge the other.

The concrete action of control between them too offers a window into their personal goes with patterns, weeding out their personalities in a way that feels organic and original. Accept a integrity then the camera zooms out over the San Andreas map, closing fund now by wherever they eventually be. Michael might be at home watching TV when you plunge here next to him, before speeding next to the motorway blasting ‘80s attacks, or using a cigarette in the golf club; Franklin can become moving away from a strip club, eating a case of snacks at home, or arguing with his ex-girlfriend; there’s an excellent chance that Trevor could be gone out half naked on the beach encircled by over bodies or, one memorable occasion, down in a stolen police helicopter.

It could be virtually everything, as there is a bewildering assortment of affairs to do from the different San Andreas – tennis, yoga, hiking, run on beach and also by land, flying planes, golfing, cycling, diving, hunting, and more. The objective remain a great intelligent leader to both San Andreas’ locations and activities, touring people across the road and increasing your taste for free exploration of it all. The way that we’re presented near San Andreas never feels artificial – the chart is finally open on the beginning, for example – which says to the sense that the a real place, somewhere you can get to know. If GTA IV’s Liberty City feels like a living city, San Andreas feels like a living world. I appreciate people walking the dogs together the beach in the country since I jet-skied past, arguing for the street beyond a movie theater with Los Santos, and camped – with covering and all – immediately at Support Chiliad, before pushing up next lasting a hike in the morning. It’s astounding.

The ambience changes dramatically counting at where you are, very. Trevor’s dusty trailer out during nowhere in Blaine County feels like a new planet from downtown Los Santos or Vespucci Beach. That wasn’t until once I hurried a flat from the urban and in the hill I lived cycling around a few hours or that the full scale of it became evident. That drives the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 further than they have any suited near, and it seems incredible. The biggest bounce with class as Grand Theft Auto IV is the person animation, but the world is also much more expansive, described, and populous. The price we buy of which lives occasional framerate dips and grain pop-in, i found became more prominent the longer I played, yet certainly not significantly taken away by my personal experience. For this kind of a huge and flexible world it is also remarkably bug-free – I experienced just three small difficulties in the 35 times I spent on our head playthrough, none which caused everyone to help break down a quest.

San Andreas’s extraordinary logic of site is heightened by the fact that much of it isn’t on the drawing. There’s so much going on that it’s simple learn things organically, rather than spend your life following a mission marker. I when grab a traveling jet from the airport for the hell of it, then parachuted on the top of the tallest form in Los Santos. (I then accidentally jumped off the highest then decrease near my own death, forgetting that I’d already worked with the parachute, however I generally leave to hurt off.) Out driving in the country, I stretched across a man to a mobile phone post with womens’ underwear. I tracked down criminals who randomly swipe bags on the road, and happened across gunbattles between police and other miscreants, occasions to add a sense that it world isn’t completely uneventful if I wasn’t here to help disrupt normalcy. I purchased an expensive mountain bicycle with cycled around in the hills, appreciating the look on. These little moments can be get on your cell phone camera – which, brilliantly, can also take selfies. I have many bites of Trevor make their unhinged description of an look dressed in their underpants over a pile.

The legend which GTA V tells through the quest takes full benefit of all this diversity beyond need and score (nevertheless the motivation and run is still very enjoyable). It’s cause a lot of good moments. It allowed us racing Michael’s lazy blob of a daughter across Vespucci Beach in one of many misguided efforts in father-son bonding, operating a winter scope to look for somebody from a helicopter before chasing them across the city on the ground, torching a meth lab, towing cars for Franklin’s crack-addict cousin to help stop him from shed his task, getting into a feature from the sea in the wetsuit and flippers, piloting a sea, posing as a structure worker, doing yoga, escaping on plane skis, failing many occasion to arrive a flat burdened with drugs at a hangar elsewhere in the sweet… this goes about with by. The days of a similar cycle of “transport here, learn that guy, throw this person” are after us. Also missions that might otherwise be formulaic are filled with novelty with excitement by the possibility to play them since several different perspectives – in a shootout, Trevor can occur exciting RPGs from a rooftop when Michael and Franklin line the enemy on the ground.

It is the heists – multi-stage, huge-scale affairs that function as the story’s climactic peaks – that will event Grand Theft Auto V on their many serious and completed. Usually there’s a choice between a more involved, stealthier option that will (hopefully) attract less temperature, along with a great all-out option that will be less tense although more explosively chaotic – and what crew to take along with you on the job. All of GTA V’s missions are replayable at any time, letting you relive favourite seconds before try off another line. They have optional objectives in the vein of Assassin’s Creed’s synchronisation challenges, but crucially, these are invisible the first time you participate in a mission, so they don’t distract people by fix things your way.

Sometimes your own way won’t are the means that this designers require you to do something, and while GTA 5 is usually great in bending near you when that happens, there were a couple of instances exactly where it wasn’t make for my private type of chaos. Overtake a car you’re not supposed to overtake and it will burn in limit of visitors as if in special. Despite the establishment of fresh stealth mechanics, enemies will miraculously go with people when the mission dictates that they must. Kill someone before you’re supposed to, and that’s sometimes Mission Failed. Most likely the scripting is adequate to be invisible, yet once it’s not, you really perceive it – if only because usually the so smooth.

As always, some of the wittiest record shows standing on the in-game radio which acts behind all of the exploration and chaos. “There’s nothing new profitable, more masculine, new American than a big pile of money,” blasts one of the in-game ads. “We learn periods are challenging, however they don’t have to be tough for you. Still received several liquidity in your home? Are you nuts?” The audio selection is also typically excellent, leading to most of those serendipitous times where you’re take down with the right music comes by. During a heist, when the radio isn’t blaring the background, a vibrant soundtrack seriously builds tension.

The satire is helped with integration of advanced life to the game world. Every character circles around the smartphone – it’s used to trade stocks, call up friends to meet way up and send emails. There’s a great Facebook spoof, Life Invader, on the in-game Interne, with the slogan “Where Your Individual Information Becomes A Marketplace Report (That You can Offer)”. You’ll hear ads for preposterous parodic TV shows that you can actually guard next to your own TELEVISION at home, optionally whilst having a toke. It might not be realistic, but it definitely feels authentic.

It is value mentioning that when that occurs to sex, drugs, with violence, GTA V pushes boundaries much further than ever before or. If the morality controls were concerned with Hot Chocolate, there’s a lot here that will provoke moral hysteria. It’s deliciously subversive, and tightly language in cheek... but one time or double, it drives the borders of style, too. There’s one particular world, a torture place in which you have no choice yet to actively participate, i learned so troubling that we got trouble playing this; yet couched with apparent criticism on the US government’s way out to pain post 9/11, it is a shocking moment that will attract justified controversy. This gives to mind Name of Job: Modern Warfare 2’s No Russian mission, except worse, and with no option to bypass over that. Some other stuff, like the ever-present prostitution and wide strip-club minigames, feels like it is there because this could be rather than because it say anything to say.

There is nothing in San Andreas, while, that doesn’t serve Rockstar’s intent with establishing a exaggerated projection of The usa that’s saturated with crime, violence and sleaze. There are no clear person with GTA V. Everyone you experience is a sociopath, narcissist, criminal, lunatic, sadist, cheat, liar, layabout, or several combination of those. A gentleman whom pays good income to eliminate Los Santos’ worst examples of corporate greed is participating in the stock market near the help whilst he does it. In a world like this, it’s not testing for you to ensure why violence is so usually the first option. All the pieces fit.

Verdict

GTA 5 is not only a preposterously enjoyable video game, but also the sharp and sharp-tongued satire of modern America. This represents a sophistication of the lot that GTA IV transported on the counter several years ago. The technically more accomplished in every conceivable way, although it is also tremendously serious with its just. No extra planet into video games comes near that now magnitude or opportunity, then there is sharp intelligence behind its wisdom of humour and surprise for mayhem. This identifies a compelling, unstable, and provocative story without ever allowing that be in the way of your personal self-directed adventures in San Andreas. It is one of the very best movie games ever get. Notice: That assessment exclusively defends the single-player part of GTA V , since it launched without any multiplayer mode.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #295

Top Ten Favourite Things About Kinect (R.I.P.)

So after consciously decoupling Kinect from the Xbox One, then removing the console’s dedicated Kinect port, and then refusing to give out Kinect adaptors for free, Microsoft has finally bitten the motion-sensing bullet and ceased production of Kinect entirely. I can’t say I’m surprised, although I am disappointed.

I really liked Kinect, especially at first. I mean, we were all blown away by that ridiculous launch video, with the kid scanning in his skateboard and the girl designing dresses and stuff like that. But even when the realities of the technology hit home, I still felt like there was a ton of possibility there, and the fact that it was never realised is frustrating in a lot of ways.

Despite hanging around the neck of the Xbox One like an unpopular albatross, Kinect 2.0 never really felt supported by Microsoft. All the gesture-based TV bollocks was unwieldy and unnecessary, and the few dedicated Kinect games this generation really just amounted to a spruced-up Kinect Sports and some dancing titles. This despite the fact that making the camera mandatory, and dedicating processing power to its use, was certainly a large factor in making the PS4 – cheaper and more powerful – look like a much better deal for a lot of people. I quite frankly assumed that given the peripheral’s apparent place at the centre of the Xbox One ideal, we could expect triple-A revolutionary experiences using the device. But none materialised, perhaps because none were really possible. Most people just want to sit and play with a controller.

So we come to the end of an era, one that is disappointing but which was not altogether disastrous. Kinect had its moments, was fun while it lasted, but does not feel like it is being taken from us too soon. There are other things to play, and thankfully most of them can be played sitting down. But in the meantime, to celebrate Kinect and its (ahem) legacy, here are ten things that I really enjoyed about it, or I thought were genuinely successful.

“Xbox On”: by far the most-used feature of my Kinect is its impressive voice recognition. Turning the console on with your voice, jumping to games, increasing the volume… voice commands were genuinely useful and – most of the time – worked incredibly well. Having to say “Hey Cortana” instead of “Xbox” is a pain in the arse, mind, and it’s debatable whether it’s worth all that money and effort for Kinect when a simple mic could probably manage it, but all the same, this was a feature that worked.

Skype: being able to call up anyone from your sofa and video chat to them is the stuff of our Demolition Man dreams. Skype integration worked really well, especially coupled with voice commands, although the intelligent camera – that panned and zoomed as you moved about – wasn’t ideal for when you have toddlers nipping in and out.

Kinect Sports: undoubtedly the game that best showcased what Kinect could do. It was fun, it was accessible, and it served as a really good workout, too. It also underscored some of Kinect’s limitations, but the team at Rare worked around them to great effect. Not quite as good as Wii Sports, but still a great game.

“Can you tell me how to get…”: how to get to Kinect Sesame Street TV. Back in the golden days of me working at CITV and scoring some great blags, I was sent a copy of this game. I tried playing it with Emilia, but she was far too young; nowadays, both my kids would probably really enjoy it. Working as interactive episodes of Sesame Street, you could take part in little games, chat to the characters, or just watch classic clips (Emilia mostly did the latter). It was an inspired and gentle use of the tech, and a great game for the very young.

Dance, baby: outside of Kinect Sports, the best application of the Kinect technology was in dancing games like Dance Central. This made tons of sense, and actually worked. It’s kind of a shame, actually, that we’ll have to go back to some form of controllers for dancing games in the future.

Hello!: the facial recognition from Kinect was mostly very good, and the auto sign-in feature was handy too. It was supposed to be totally seamless, recongising different people, knowing who was holding the controller, etc. But whilst it was fun when Kinect spotted your wife walking past and decided she could join the game, in reality it was slightly fuzzy, and not quite as accurate as signing in with a controller.

Kinect Adventures!: this might not be high on anyone else’s list, but I for one really enjoyed the free game that came bundled with the original Kinect hardware. Ostensibly a summer camp-style jaunt through nature taking the form of various mini-games, like Kinect Sports it was designed around the strengths and limitations of the tech, and as such was great fun. Plus I loved the aesthetic, with stitched-on badges to win.  

Googly Eyes, etc: the Xbox Design Lab was a fun collection of free mini-games and time-wasters designed around Kinect – making simple models, taking simple photos, etc. It was fun to tinker with, and a nice little “add-on” from Microsoft that showcased different aspects of the technology.

Leaning into other games: Kinect really worked best with simple bodily functions (steady) like jumping or dancing; as such, it was difficult to incorporate into “traditional” game designs. But I liked it when they tried, and one of the most successful is using Kinect to lean round corners. I found this useful during Tomb Raider on the Xbox One. Also fun: shouting squad commands in Mass Effect 3, although playing games late at night when the family sleeps upstairs means you usually want to be fairly quiet.

Dance Solo: Kinect Star Wars is, let’s be honest, shit. But it’s fantastic, wonderful, hilarious, entertaining shit. Even the bits that don’t really work – the combat, especially – somehow manage to slide anarchically into “so bad it’s good” territory, but really it’s the fact that someone, somewhere, thought it was a good idea to make a Star Wars dancing game where Han Solo gets jiggy in the Mos Eisley cantina. I mean, come on; that’s art.

Incidentally, I know it’s Halloween next week, and I often try to do something creepy or kooky, but I felt talking about Kinect is really talking about a horror show featuring something dead but not yet buried, and so it’ll have to suffice.

[drdanwrites]

Magical Office Episode 1 : Introductions

MY MY! I must say I’ve become very popular since my mystery post about my new series. Anyway here is my Office x Fantastic Beasts crossover. Things you need to understand before you read this. As The Office is done in a documentary style, I’d decided to write this fan fiction as a script. Meaning the actions will be in italics and the person who is speaking will have their name in bold. Hopefully this makes sense and reads okay for you guys. This first episode is just going to be an introductory episode to all my characters and for you to get a feel for the style. There are a couple of made of characters that are based on different characters in The Office, but only one person knows who is who ;). Also please note that I am fully aware that Newt is from the 1920′s/30′s and cameras were not invented...for the sake of the fanfiction, let's bring Newt to the 20th century ;)! Thanks to you wonderful people. Once again thank you to my bestie @fantasticnewtimagines for all the loving support!! Enjoy! <3 

Camera zooms in on you. You stand at the entrance of a corridor of office rooms. There are people walking around and you try to flag someone done, but they are all too entranced with what they are doing and they don't notice. You look into the camera.

Y/N: I'm new, I'm just trying to find Newt Scamander?

The camera motions to the first office. The door has claw marks running down it and is scorched in the corner. You walk over to it, awkwardly thanking the camera man as you scoot past him. You hesitantly knock on the door. Behind the door, rustling can be heard and a loud bang. As you open the door to find out what happened to the person within, a little black creature scurries out and runs past the camera. A man in a long blue coat follows and collides with you.

Newt: Bugger! He's escaped again.

Y/N: Are you Newt? I'm Y/N, I'm here to work as your assistant? Minister Parkinson hired me last week?

(Newt scratches his head trying to remember. Suddenly he looks over into the camera and his eyes continue to look back as you speak. Uneasy about their presence.)

Newt: Oh those bloody cameras.

(Newt looks at the camera. A voice is heard from behind the camera man.)

Director: Come on Newt we talked about this.

- NEWT INTERVIEW-

Director: It's just a documentary for the wizarding world. You know, to show people the inner lives of the average Ministry worker.

(Newt fidgets with his bow tie and accidently undoes it from nerves.)

Newt: I-I-I'm not sure how comfortable I am with all this.

(He continues to try and retie his bow, but keeps fumbling over his fingers and he keeps trying to make eye contact with the camera.)

Director: Don't sweat it Mr. Scamander. Just pretend like the camera isn't even here. We'll take you in to ask questions every now and then but otherwise, just go about as your normal Scamander self.

(Finally Newt proceeds to get a hold of himself and begins to redo his tie and completes the task.)

Director: Don't sweat it Mr. Scamander. Why don't you just give us a brief introduction.

(The camera goes in and out of focus while it tries to capture Newt's face. He blinks rapidly to try and gain confidence as he looks shyly into the camera.)

Newt: Hi...ummm...I'm Newton Artemis Fido Scamander... not sure why I gave you my full name... people just call me Newt. I work in the department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. I recently just joined the ugh...umm...beasts division. I've been with the ministry for 5 years now. My family is very involved in the ministry, so naturally I joined on. Need to keep up with the family. Unfortunately, Magizoology isn't a glamorous ministry job.

( Newt sits in his chair visibly uncomfortable. He tries various positions but ends up settling into his normal position of having his leg cross over his other knee.)

Newt: The minister feels I'm kind of a lose cannon.

( Newt runs a hand nervously through his hair, his wand in his hand.) Therefore he thinks I have a need for an assistant. So I do believe my day will be sent getting her acquainted with the office.

- END OF NEWT INTERVIEW -

(Newt looks back from the camera to you and taps his lips with his wand. )

Newt: Yes, yes Y/N. Minister Parkinson did say you would be starting today. It's a pleasure to meet you. I hope I won't make your job too difficult. I know I can be a bit eccentric.

( The camera focuses on your face.)

Y/N: Eccentric doesn't bother me in the least, Mr. Scamander.

Newt: Oh, please call me Newt. Let me introduce you to the others in our little corridor here.

(Newt begins to walk to you and the camera follows behind. As you come up to the door across the hall from Newt's, you see crazy designs and odd thumping of what sounded like music. Newt knocked on the door, there is no answer so Newt slowly opens the door. In the middle of a room is an older fatter man wearing a baseball cap backwards with a t-shirt with basketball shorts that are too big and are halfway down his legs, boxers exposed. He turns while dancing and sees Newt and you standing in the doorway. He quickly dances over to his boom box and turns down the music. The camera pans over to you and Newt. Newt gives the camera an expressionless stare as if to say he has no words for how embarrassing this is. You just keeps blinking, hoping that as some point your mind will etch this out of your memory).

Robert Biggleswade: Newt! What's cracking my homie.

(He sees your blank stare at him and shakes your hand.)

Robert Biggleswade: I'm Robert Biggleswade.

Newt: Yes, Yes sorry Biggleswade, this is Y/N Y/L. She's my new assistanct.

( Newt shakes his head and squints his eyes trying to unsee everything that just happened.)

Robert Biggleswade: I'm in the Muggle Liasion Department. I get the shiz done!

- Robert Biggleswade Interview -

Robert Biggleswade: Yeah dude, I'm totally hip with all the muggle slang. I've been in this position for nearly 30 years. I eat, sleep, dream and brush my teeth with muggle studies. Check it, one day I found these old brick things and I put them in this here brink player (He holds up a VCR) and I watched all these moving images that tell really rad stories. So when I saw these I was like listen homie, I don't play no games and I decided to step up my game and live the muggle lifestyle. Fo sho.

- End of Robert Biggleswade -

(The camera focuses on Newt and you as he closes the door and begins to walk with you to the next door.)

Y/N: Is, is he alright?

Newt: Yeah, he found a muggle movie viewing device and watched a lot of movies from the 80's and 90's. He's kinda gone a little overboard with it. He's an odd one.

Y/N: Umm yeah that's a bit of an under statement and he represents wizards when he talks to muggles?

Newt: They don't send him out on jobs anymore. I think the only reason he's still here is they feel bad and because he's been here so long, they just figure if they give him odd jobs now and again it keeps him content.

(You two reach the next door. The outside of the door is enchanted with falling rose petals and flowers. Newt pushes them away from him as he knocks and opens the door. The room is filled with girly decorations and the sounds of chitter chatter. A woman sits at her desk chatting away on the phone.)

Bridget Kent: That's what I'm saying though, it's so ridiculous they'd have to believe it. Ummm that's what I'm trying to tell you. Just do it and let me know what they say. (She gets off the phone and looks up and Newt and you. She excitedly gets up from her desk and comes to meet you both.)

Newt:Bridget Kent, this is Y/N Y/L. She's just starting today as my assistant. Bridget here works for the Muggle-worthy excuse committee.

(Bridget grabs yours hands and jumps up and down.)

Bridget Kent: Oh my God, I am so excited to have another girl here to talk to. Oh my God, it gets crazy boring with all these guys. No offense Newt. Oh my God, I swear we are going to be like best friends...

)As Bridget carries on, you just politely smile and try to take in all of her energy. Newt smirks next to you, hiding it under his hand.)

- Bridget Kent Interview

Bridget Kent: I love my job cause it's like I get to tell all these stories and make people believe it. Like say there's a big like magical outbreak and you're like oh my God, we can't have these muggles think we're all wizards and stuff so we have to explain it and stuff. I get to be like oh well just tell them blah blah blah. I'm like a really amazing story teller. I love making up stuff and talking.... I mea--

-END OF BRIDGET KENT INTERVIEW-

Y/N: You did that on purpose.

Newt: I have no idea what you're talking about.

(The camera catches you smiling and shaking your head at Newt for allowing Bridget to talk up a storm about the latest muggle excuse she was working on and hugging you with promises of the greatest friendship the ministry will ever see. You both continue walking down the hall to a larger room of two desks. A younger man sits at one desk. He looks very normal and well groomed. The other desk doesn't seem to have an owner. Newt walks up to the man behind his desk and shakes hand. You follow and so the same.)

Rodger Skye: Hi Newt. Is this the new assistant?

Newt: Yes this is Y/N Y/L. This is her first day. Brought her around to Bridget and Biggleswade already.

Rodger Skye: And you're still here. Well that's a miracle.

Y/N: Wow… sorry you're very… well… normal… I guess I'm kind of waiting for something crazy to happen.

RODGER SKYE INTERVIEW

Rodger Skye: (He sits relaxed in the chair seemingly exhausted from what is his life.) What do you guys want from me? I work for the International Magical Office of Law department. Nothing special. Mostly my job is babysitting the corridor. My office mate is like a toddler so I mostly just watch after her. (The camera can see the sinking realization that life kind of got away from him as he whispers,) I don't get paid enough...

-END OF RODGER SKYE INTERVIEW-

(Newt nods his head over to the open desk.)

Newt: How is Claire today?

(Rodger lets out a sigh of annoyance and runs over to her desk. He grunts as he leans over the chair and pulls up a sleeping Claire Manchester. She is asleep with her mouth open and sunglasses over her eyes.)

Rodger Skye: She got bored so she but some fire whiskey in her tea. I think she ended up drinking the whole bottle.

(The camera captures a empty bottle of fire whiskey next to her desk. Rodger gets her situated in the chair and props her head with her arm on the desk.)

Y/N: What's with the glasses?

Rodger Skye: It's an idea I got from one of Biggleswade's Muggle Movies. I know Minister Parkinson is coming by today, so I just figure he'll think she's just hung-over like usual.

-CLAIRE MANCHESTER INTERVIEW -

( Claire sits in the chair, motionless. Her head is pointed to the camera. The camera zooms into the glare of her sunglasses to reveal Rodger in the background. As the camera zooms back out of Claire's face, a charm is muttered in the background and Claire's mouth begins to move but Rodger's voice comes out, higher pitched and with a bad Irish accent.)

Rodger Skye as Claire Manchester: Ello thar laddies, I'm Claire Manchester from Belfast. I work in the Ludicrous Patent Office. Hardy Hardy Ha.

(The camera turns around as Rodger put her wand down.)

Rodger Skye: What? Is that all you need from her?

( The camera nodds in agreement and Rodger puts a charm on Claire's body and carries her out of the interview room.)

- END OF CLAIRE MANCHESTER INTERVIEW -

Newt:You wouldn't of happen to seen Niffler around here at some point? He took off when Y/N came in this morning.

Rodger Skye: Have you tried Milton's office? You know Niffler loves his ministry awards. Has she met Milton yet?

( There is a crash and the camera flashes to Milton Leighton's office. It is in mass disaster as Niffler runs around trying to take cover from Milton's wand fires.)

Milton Leighton: I've got you know you little runt!

(Newt runs in with you and automatically summons Niffler with the accio charm. Niffler comes out from his hiding spot and slams into Newt's chest as he shoves Niffler in his coat's inner pocket.)

Milton Leighton: NEWT! That's the 3rd time this week that little pest has wreak havoc on my office! Next I take him to the Pest Advisory Board.

Newt: Oh come on Milton, he's just a little curious... and you know he loves your shiny awards.

- MILTON LEIGHTON INTERVIEW -

Milton Leighton: Yes, I have a lot of awards. I work hard here. I don't waste my time like half of my ridiculous co-workers. I've been working here for 15 years in the Improper Use of Magic division. Soon I will be the best Auror the wizarding world has ever seen. I was top of my class at Hogwarts and I even went to extra classes to excel past every student there ever was or will be. I am best friends with the Minister and therefore it's only a matter of time before I'm out of the rejects office and into an Auror's office.

-END OF MILTON LEIGHTON INTERVIEW -

(As Newt and Milton continue to argue, you try to use your assistant skills and diffuse the situation. The camera moves from this scene to see Minister Parkinson walking in. He looks at the camera and makes a face that says 'what is going on here?'. The camera doesn't answer him so he instead walks over to the group and gets involved.)

Minister Parkinson: Alright, Alright you two, what is it this time?

Milton Leighton: ( His demeanor changes drastically and he smiles at Parkinson.) Minister, how are you this morning? It is just brilliant to see you gracing us with your presence.

Minister Parkinson: Okay okay Milton, get to the point. Why are we having a bit of a spat here?

Milton Leighton: Newt's niffler got lost again! Just look at my office.

Minister Parkinson: Awww come now Milton. He's just a cute little guy! Just charm your office clean, what's wrong with your wand, man!

Milton Leighton:(Milton seems defeated.) Yes sir. (He retreats back to his office and shuts the door.)

Minister Parkinson: Well I'm going to go make my rounds. Nice to see you survived your first encounter with Newt's mishaps, Ms. Y/L.

(Minister Parkinson nods to both of them and walks off down the hallway. Newt and you turn to each other and chuckle at all the crazy characters you had encountered. The camera follows you both into his office. He shows you to your desk and you begin to get comfortable. The camera zooms in on Newt, who for once isn't paying attention to the camera. Instead he is staring at you, with a small thoughtful smile peering on his face.)

-NEWT'S INTERVIEW-

Newt:(His head is tilted down slightly and he rubs his forehead with a single finger as a playful smile spreads across his face.) I think she's going to make a great addition to the office.

(The camera quickly flashes back to Newt starring at you as he quickly realizes how creepy he's being and automatically sits down as his own desk and begins working. The camera pans out to see Newt working and reading papers as you begin to unpack your box of belongings.)

-END OF NEWT'S INTERVIEW-

-End of First Episode-

Thank you so much for reading. I’m sorry if this seems rushed, but I wanted to get out the first episode and make sure I introduce all my characters so we can get to the story!! I look forward to hearing your responses for this episode and the series as a whole. Thanks everyone! xx 

Peace. Love. Chicken Grease.

[infernalmachette]

Pit Stop Week 5

Go crazy (ahaahahaaaahaaa) go stupid (ahahahahaaahaaaa) 

This week we did a pecha kucha presentation, further coding for testing out making keys for doors happen. As for my personal development of the game the most significantly impactful part of it involved our write ups for our game mechanics. The mechanics write up in paticular really helped me with conceptualizing how it’s going to work and what I want to do with it. Anyway here’s a bunch of that mess. (its long so I’m cutting here

Game Mechanics Write Up

Game opens to menu, click to navigate three options:     - Play (starts game     - Levels (allows player to revisit levels)     - Options (contains sound + visuals levels)

Play  

- Movements are WASD and arrow keys. - Camera tracks player movement through maze - Player default state is circle (no special actions) - player movement has colour radius which bounces off and paints the  walls

If player collects square shape: - piece of correlating poem appears in text box pop up over the player - camera tracks up to accommodate the text box - maze background turn into square variant - player head converts to square and goes red - player “shape splash” changes to red square variant - can push through one cracked wall (as opposed to regular walls, with shift +     WASD/Arrows)

If player collects triangular shape: - maze background turns into triangular variant - player head converts to triangle and goes blue - player “shape splash” changes to blue triangle variant - can turn one wall around (with click to select and scroll to rotate)

After triangle/square action - player reverts to circle - camera tracks back down to player - maze reverts back to circle variant - splash radius reverts back to circle variant

Camera utility allows player to take image of maze appearance by clicking button (shown in bottom left hand corner, unobstructive)  

Possible combinations of square and triangle state? These don’t affect the player’s powerups. But if you happen to collect both before using the first power it stacks. Player is a mix of the triangle and square, resulting in a different shape, maybe diamond.

This also brings us to further power ups. Depending on the amount of time I have other possibilities are relatively endless. Shape could be used in connection with meaning, so a crescent could be connected to a passage about the moon?  Possibly use shape forms and power ups to “set dress” the environment. All of this is speculative and dependant on how hard I personally work

Win State

Player reaches center of labyrinth. Camera view zooms out to show fully completed maze with player in center

Note: possibly should make maze modular and create a random generation AI (let a boy dream)

But most likely will create image based mazes (eg. heart shape) that act as different levels

Advantage of natural generation is infinite play

Disadvantage near impossible at this stage for me Advantage of planned maze is creative control

Disadvantage a bit more boring

Notably though planning the maze will give me more control over the story, narrative. So this could more smoothly present something linear which will be to my advantage. At the end of the day will likely be set mazes done in levels to allow for more modular parts of the story, but not the daunting level of AI modulation.

Other Menus

Levels - Navigate via clicking the levels. Possibly will require more than one page depending on my progress but unlikely. If however this is a requirement pages will be navigated with arrow buttons

Options - Navigated via clicking. Will include ways for player to change the sound and music settings and developer info. Sound and music both have sliders (click and drag) and off buttons (click).

All of this is subject to change of course and I will likely have changed my mind by tomorrow

Pechakucha 

Here's like a couple of my slides I guess 

Anyway that was week 5 

[apkrich-blog]

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App Download Version 4.80 Last Updated March 6, 2019 Apk Size 62 MB Offered By Social Quantum Ltd Category Strategy Content Rating Rated for 3+ Support Android Version Android 4.3 and up Installs 50,000,000+ Play Store Available

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[backslashn]

Cultist Simulator, Day 1

6:51 PM - 1 Jun 2018

Trying out Cultist Simulator.

First impressions: - mysterious and obscure, which is exactly what I hoped for - font size is way too small ☹️ — can zoom, but it zooms the whole playfield - music is great and eerie - no fan of timers, but waiting to see if they're important

Also very much not a fan of Unity's default config dialog (it's always been bad). I want to remap some keys, but have to quit and restart the game to do so 😑

Oh, these aren't actually the controls for the game 😟

Okay, seems key remapping will come later: https://steamcommunity.com/app/718670/discussions/0/1697174779850943755/

Right, back to the game then. I guess for now I'll have to manage as best I can with the interface issues. (At least, unlike The Final Station, the text size isn't preventing me from playing the game)

Oh, and the other first impression of Cultist Simulator: - the writing is sinister and delicious, of course!

7:31 PM - 1 Jun 2018

Further impressions: - icon overload! I have to keep clicking on everything to remember what all these icons mean! Labels—or mouseover text if you must—would help me a lot here. - lots and lots of waiting for timers. There's no auto-pause when a timer finishes :-/ - terribly confused why a bunch of timers finish up and then start all over again.

Amusingly the tiny cards have labels, just these big things don't.

Having zoomed in—in order to be able to read the text— various UIs now pop up with their buttons clipped off the bottom of the screen 😐 Also there's a horrible shadowy vignette hanging over the top part of the window, so I can't pan down to use the whole window area 😑

7:37 PM - 1 Jun 2018

I like the freeform UI in general, but it's got rather a lot of fiddly bits. Like tentacles.

As the number of cards multiplies, I keep moving them around to try and keep things in an order that makes sense to me.

But then the game snaps them off elsewhere according to its own labyrinthine logic, often panning the camera away as it does so. Infuriating.

I have dealt with the vignette for the moment by placing my two Dread cards beneath it. There they wait, enshadowed, as their own counters tick down to an obscure, ominous ending…

8:11 PM - 1 Jun 2018

There are seventeen different timers on my screen right now. Only twelve of them are indicated unless I mouseover some of the cards. But even those twelve are overwhelming: I can't keep track of which ones are where and how far down they are.

The font for the numeric counters: extreme differences in stress render the figures a little indistinct; the spacing is odd. The figures are constantly animating too. I can't read the counters at a glance, but have to pause the game and fixate briefly on each one.

Only five of the seventeen timers have a graphical indication: a line slowly encircles the icon. Its radius is too large to glimpse out of the corner of my eye; nor does it change in appearance as the timers nears its end:

Again I have to fixate on each, on its top left corner, to see if it's nearly done. This continuous scanning and fixation is tiring.

8:31 PM - 1 Jun 2018

My cult has abducted its first prisoner. Only time will tell if they will end up as a new follower, or a new victim.

8:35 PM - 1 Jun 2018

One aspect (pun!) of the self-restarting timers now makes sense to me: if the thing opened up an empty slot, then the current timer is how long I have to fill the slot; the subsequent timer is it using whatever I put into it.

Interestingly, if the card that you slot in has its own timer, it is paused while it is in the slot. If the time-to-fill-the-slot is long, you could use this to prolong a card's life, taking it back out for some other use before the time-to-fill expires.

8:54 PM - 1 Jun 2018

Something's shadow has passed over my desk… was it the moon?

8:57 PM - 1 Jun 2018

Few people in the city attract so much interest without a clear cause. Perhaps it's the way you style your hair?

9:00 PM - 1 Jun 2018

I have sent my disciple on an expedition. Perhaps she can uncover useful secrets.

9:05 PM - 1 Jun 2018

Something strange and glorious has just occurred!

10:56 PM - 1 Jun 2018

I now have four followers and two minions. I've sent one of the latter, a hulking fellow, after the investigator that has been dogging my steps and amassing evidence. Let's hope he can capture or subdue them.

But I struggle with the mysteries of my cult; I want to deepen the faith of my followers, yet I still haven't found the right rituals…

Back to the timers: yeah, I think they mostly work. I'd still prefer turn-based, but now that I kinda get how they function, it makes sense. I'd still prefer them to be more at-a-glance parseable, but you can't have everything.

11:03 PM - 1 Jun 2018

Cultist Simulator is in essence a cooking game: I have five ovens, titled Work, Dream, Study, Explore, and Talk. Then there's numerous customers: Time demands money, and other customers demanding more exotic recipes come and go.

If I put the right ingredients into the Work oven, I get money out the other side. So I repeat the same few recipes continuously to feed Time. I put varying recipes into the other ovens to generate new ingredients or discover new recipes.

My primary ingredients are money, health, passion, and reason. Passion and Reason are herbs whose leaves enhance recipes, but take time to grow back. Funds I can spend as long as I have them. Health is key to many things, but always comes with a risk of hurting myself.

11:17 PM - 1 Jun 2018

We have captured the Hunter that dogged our trail, but another has arisen to take her place. I would send my minion after him, but he's busy on another errand. And I'll have to pay him again, before long.

Meanwhile my Work alternates between a day job and my real passion: painting. My wild imagination and notoriety means my paintings earn me quite a lot of money! But I barely have time to squeeze them in between leaving the office and arriving the next morning.

Literally: I have 0.3 seconds left on the day job's timer to put it into the Work box again, or I'll get demoted and end up with less money and some negative side-effects.

11:22 PM - 1 Jun 2018

Whoa: my latest painting sold for six funds. SIX FUNDS! That's the Cultist Simulator equivalent of like ten million pounds!

Meanwhile the day job pays a measly two, and takes twice as long to do so! I should quit and devote my working hours to the brush and palette.

12:17 AM - 2 Jun 2018

My first expedition ended ignominiously: my followers searched and searched for a hidden door, but couldn't find it. I didn't understand how expeditions worked, so kept throwing funds at it thinking that would help.

It didn't: turns out I was just paying for my followers to have a lovely long holiday at a swanky hotel. Well, that's my guess anyway: nobody keeps receipts in this cult. It's financial madness.

My second expedition ended in tragedy: one of the two followers sent on it was killed by the guardians of whatever-the-place-was. Oops.

1:40 AM - 2 Jun 2018

My latest expedition was technically successful: we reached the treasure. We just also happened to collect a small curse as we went by. Ahem.

2:25 AM - 2 Jun 2018

By far the most annoying bit of Cultist Simulator is how obstacles to an expedition are completely random.

That expedition I failed cause we didn't find a hidden door? I went back there again with the right team for finding a hidden door: but it's a different obstacle now 😠

And because failing expeditions tends to cause followers to die and/or curses to spring up, guess what's going to happen!

And skills that followers have also appear to be random, so basically need strong skills across the board to do any expeditions. Or dumb luck. Frustrating.

I'm also getting a billion short-lived cards that say they can be helpful in rituals for summoning minions—but how do you learn new rituals? Absolutely no clue, after many hours of play. Weird cliffs difficulty due to obscured knowledge.

I'm surviving just fine. Pouring my followers into the expedition grindstone. But not really making any headway on advancement. Don't know how to learn new rituals. Don't know how to advance my followers beyond Believer status. (Not asking for hints—just expressing frustration)

Oh wait, I'm wrong about the expedition obstacles being randomised: I was getting two different locations mixed up. 😔

5:47 AM - 2 Jun 2018

Well, I've now figured out how to advance my followers. Also how to compensate for shortcomings in their skills in the meantime. I've learnt how to approach an unknown expedition with minimal risk. I've learnt how to translate books in dead languages.

Overall I'm doing a whole lot better now than I was a few hours ago. But I've been playing all night, so I certainly ought to be doing better! I think Cultist Simulator is the first game that I've done an all-nighter on since Civilization IV.

The story continues in Day 2.

[zanmanxp]

15 great ways to Repurpose your Android Phone

STOP ! dont sell that Android device !

A new year and yet another craving to own the latest and greatest android phone that new number of 8 or 9 or 10 making your existing device outdated.

zip zap zoom – you bought the new phone and your current phone is too dear to be sold off.

Here is what you do with it >

1. Use it as a dedicated camcorder

Whatever you’re recording — a wedding, a kid’s soccer game, a music video or your sure-to-win-the-film-fest indie movie — nothing beats multiple cameras. When it comes time to edit, you can mix footage from different angles and positions to create much more interesting video.

Needless to say, your old Android can make a great second camera. Even older, lower-end phones can usually capture at least 1,920×1,080-pixel video at 30 frames per second. Clear out as much storage as possible to make room for new footage and you’re good to go.

2. Use it as a video doorbell

No baby? Consider putting your Android on door duty instead. No, the phone itself doesn’t go outside; you’ll need to install either an outdoor Wi-Fi webcam or a smart doorbell. Then your phone can serve as a full-time video monitor, one that lives on, say, a coffee table or nightstand.

For example, the Canary Flex is a versatile, security-minded webcam that can go just about anywhere — including outside. Alternately, check out video doorbells like the August Doorbell Cam, DoorBird Video Door Station, Ring Video Doorbell and SkyBell Video Doorbell.

3. Create a dedicated VR headset

Get ready for a surprise. That old Android phone of yours? Virtual-reality powerhouse! It’s true: A smartphone can serve up some terrific VR experiences. All you need is a headset and some apps.

Even more surprising: a headset won’t cost you much. Amazon, for example, offers dozens of universally compatible VR goggles priced in the $20-to-$35 range (AU$26-AU$46, £15-£27). Look for a model that lets you adjust focal width and length, the better to accommodate less-than-perfect vision. I also recommend choosing one that comes with a Bluetooth gamepad, the better to control games and access menus.

As for the apps, hit the Google Play Store and search for “VR” or “Google Cardboard ($15.00 at Google Store).” Both will reveal a wealth of games and other experiences that are compatible with nearly any Android and VR headset.

4. DIY Google Home

Don’t want to spend $129 for Google’s voice-powered smart speaker? That’s understandable, especially when you can put together something similar for a lot less. Unless it’s really old, your old phone can listen for and respond to voice commands, same as a Google Home. So all you need is a speaker to round out the equation.

What kind of speaker? And what kinds of things can you do with a phone-brain that you can’t do with an actual Home? Find out in “Turn a spare Android phone into a Google Home.”

5. Reframe it as a full-time video conferencing station

Set up your old Android device with the app for your video-chatting platform of choice — Skype, Hangouts Meet, Google Duo or whatever the case may be — then drop it into a dock on your desk or conference room table. Say “hocus pocus” for good measure, and ta-da: You’ve just created a permanent access point for virtual face-to-face communications.

Just think: With enough old phones and tablets, you can create an entire house- or office-wide video conferencing system. Sign each device into its own unique account, with the name of the room as its username, and seeing someone across the building will never be more than a couple quick taps away.

6. Convert it into a digital photo frame.

Ah, memories. Snag an inexpensive stand, plug your device into its charger and turn it into a cloud-connected photo frame for your home or office.

If you use Google Photos, just open up the app, tap on any photo in your main library or within a specific album and then tap the three-dot menu icon in the upper-right corner of the screen and select “Slideshow.” The app will cycle through your photos and give you plenty of memories to reflect upon whilst relaxing or taking care of business.

7. Use it as a dedicated e-reader

Want a distraction-free reading environment for your next business trip or public transit commute? Load up your old Android device with only the apps you need for reading — Google Play Books, Amazon Kindle, Nook or whatever tickles your text-ingesting fancy.

You can even borrow books from your local library: Check with your nearest branch for information on how to do it or download the free OverDrive app, which is used by a variety of libraries, schools and institutions.

Be sure to disable notifications from Gmail and other noisy apps — heck, even switch the device into airplane mode once you’ve downloaded the content you need — and you’ve got the equivalent of a dedicated e-reader without all the usual phone or tablet temptations.

8. Make it a mounted command center for your car

Save yourself the hassle of futzing around with your current phone in your car by turning your old device into an always-available in-car command center.

Find a decent car dock and mount the device somewhere safe. Be sure to plug it into your car’s power port and connect it to the stereo (via Bluetooth or a 3.5mm headphone jack). Then, either use your primary phone as a hotspot to keep it online or go the economical route and download any necessary music and directions before you hit the road, while you’re still connected to Wi-Fi.

Grab the Android Auto app for a simplified interface with large buttons and extra voice commands, and that’s it: Your newly repurposed companion is ready to roll.

9. Convert it into a gaming device for your downtime

Put down the briefcase and summon your inner Pac-Man: Silly as it may seem, your old Android device is a mini-arcade just waiting to be called into action. (Hey, we all need the occasional break from working, right?)

To complete your device’s Game-Boy-like transformation, just surf the Play Store for some games — you can even find emulators for console-level systems, if (ahem) you know where to look — and then level up by grabbing one of Moga’s universal Android game controllers, available for $25 and up.

10. Turn it into your personal testing ground

Android is a tinkerer’s dream. It typically doesn’t take too much sorcery to root, or gain system-level access to, an Android device — and once you’ve done that, you open up a whole new world of possibilities. You can install powerful root-only applications and even replace your device’s entire operating system with a custom ROM full of fresh features and advanced customization potential.

Anytime you start poking around under the hood, though, you risk screwing something up. And when the device in question is your primary phone or tablet, that can be a daunting gamble to take (especially since rooting a device usually violates its warranty).

That’s where an old phone or tablet can come into play. Put on your hacker’s hat and do a Google search for “root [your device name]” and then “[your device name] ROM.” There’s a huge community of Android enthusiasts out there, and you’ll almost certainly find some helpful user-generated guides to get yourself started.

11. Gym device

Your old smartphone can be used as an ideal gym device. Reformat the device to remove unnecessary apps, take out the SIM card, and don’t log into Facebook or Twitter via WiFi, and you’ll avoid any unnecessary notifications that could interrupt your workout.

Then take your pick of the countless fitness-tracking apps out there and boot it up — or just pack it full of music and use it as an MP3 player when out and about or on the treadmill.

Bonus: Pair it with a cheap fitness tracker or smartwatch for extra functionality.

12. TV remote control

Check if your smartphone has an infrared emitter — because if it does, you could use it as a TV remote. With the various TV remote apps out there, it should easily work with most TVs and top boxes.

13. Wi-Fi extender

If you’re plagued by weak Wi-Fi, you can boost the signal throughout your house by installing an app like fqrouter2, which will pick up the signal and repeat it. It will require rooting the device to work.

14. Robot brain

So, we’ve established that Android smartphones are computers. You know what else is technically a computer? A robot. And yes, with a bit of work you can turn your Android smartphone into a functional robot brain.

There are multiple examples of smartphones being used to power robots. Take the Cubestormer 3, which can solve a Rubik’s Cube in 3.253 seconds and is built out of Lego. Or the Smartbot, which is programmable and can navigate, hear and “see.” Or you can build one yourself, using around $30-worth (£20-worth) of kit.

15. Dashcam

Here’s another automotive possibility: a dashcam.

Mount your Android to your car dashboard, camera facing the round, and you’ve got yourself a DIY dashcam, something that can be invaluable in accidents and for insurance claims. There are plenty of apps out there that will complete the transformation.

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[lorrainecparker]

Canon Compact Zoom Lens Review: 18-80mm and 70-200mm

When I started this career I was told to never ever, under no circumstances, use a camera’s autofocus. Just do not use it. Back then, this was more than a suggestion; it was a hard and fast rule. Professionals pull their own focus. Well, it seems the times have changed. Large sensor cameras are much more common and Canon’s autofocus has come a very long way. So I ask myself, do Canon’s two new Compact Zoom lenses make sense for me and my next shoot?

Canon jumped into the Compact-Zoom game to fulfill a much-needed niche of good and relatively affordable cinema zoom lenses.  Think of the Canon 18-80mm and 70-200mm Compact Zooms as borrowing from the best of both worlds: DSLR and Cinema. As a shooter Canon gives you Image Stabilization and Autofocus, usually found on DSLR Lenses, with a Zoom Rocker and dedicated Focus, Zoom, and Aperture Rings which come from the world of cinema/broadcast glass. To many, these two lenses perfectly straddle the two worlds well.

Aperture Ring

If you are moving up from DSLR lenses to the Compact Zooms then the addition of a smooth aperture ring on both the 18-80mm and the 70-200mm should feel great. A smooth iris is critical to nail your exposure. You can also control the iris with the camera if you prefer.

Rocker Zoom

The rocker zoom is the by far one of the best features found on both the 18-80mm and the 70-200mm lenses. If you happen to be shooting on a smaller camera, like a Sony Mirrorless or Canon DSLR, the rocker zoom becomes your new handle.  The only problem, the cable connection from the Rocker Zoom to the Lens is in the absolute worst place. For me, the connection rested right on my wrist to the extent the contact became uncomfortable. When Canon sent me the two lenses and a C300 Mark II to test they included a Zacuto Right Angle Adapter which helps a little, but just a little.

3 Step Image Stabilization

A, B, or C? To be honest, I find it hard to tell which setting does what or stabilizes how much. I kept the lenses on “A” because it was enough image stabilization to satisfy my needs. Between the two lenses, I felt like the Image Stabilization was a touch better on the 70-200mm which makes sense to me, it is the longer lens. The 18-80mm Image Stabilization is good enough to mitigate most hand-held bumps and float. Will your footage look like it was shot on a tripod? Well, no, but it will have that floating kind of feel which I like at times.

Parfocal

Both these lenses are Parfocal. Snap-in and dial in your focus; pull out and grab your shot. If you ever worked with a 2/3 inch News Camera then you will be accustomed to this feature. If you are one of those shooters who only ever shoots with a Mirrorless or DSLR then I hope you learn to love a parfocal lens. It is a great feature if you are shooting solo. I’m glad to see both these lenses are parfocal and I hope to see Canon release more parfocal lenses in the future.

The Autofocus

This feature alone makes these lenses worth their price and worth the compromises you have to make with the T4.4 aperture to have the revolutionary dual-pixel autofocus feature. Straight up, are these lenses, both the 18-80mm and 70-200mm, worth every inch of compromise to give you great autofocus capability that you will grow to use on nearly every shoot if you use these lenses? Abso-fu*#@ing-lutely. In many ways, the lenses have me wanting to shoot with Canon’s newest camera, the C200, and the ever-present documentary camera, the C300. I even consider the C700 a much more viable investment after using Canon’s Dual-Pixel autofocus. That is just how good Canon’s Dual-Pixel autofocus is to me, and it should be. I am shooting by myself, without an assistant, for most of my shoots and really good features, like Canon’s Dual-Pixel autofocus, is exactly the kind of feature I would lean on pretty heavily.

The Practicality

On a Canon C300 Mark II these lenses are a dream to operate and I can imagine these lenses work just as well on any Canon camera with its dual pixel autofocus feature. When shooting as a solo operator you can keep your subjects in focus and still capture interesting and creative shots. You can combine the large sensor look, and its shallow depth of field, with the famous Canon color while keeping your crew footprint extremely small. If you are going to fly your Canon C300 Mark II on a Ronin then the 18-80mm is going to be your best friend.

Recently, I had a shoot where the camera provided was the original Canon C300 Mark I, not II, and the lenses were straight up DSLR. No Dual-Pixel autofocus. No 15 stops of dynamic range. No Image Stabilizer. But I still had a great Canon camera to operate. Going from a C300 Mark II and the new Canon Compact Zooms to the original C300 with still photo lenses reminded me just how far Canon has come with their camera and lens features. It is nearly a night and day difference when talking about making my work better. The Dual-Pixel autofocus and image stabilizer on the 18-80mm and 70-200mm are life savers for a solo shooter.

Compact Lenses on Other Cameras

To me, these lenses are really only practical on a Canon Cinema camera, like the C200, C300 Mark II, and C700. I did not try these lenses on a C100 Mark II, but I am sure they work well on that camera as well.  On a Blackmagic Design URSA Mini Pro the number one feature, autofocus, is absolutely absent when using either the 18-80mm or the 70-200mm.  Also,  Blackmagic URSA Mini shooters… you will not be able to control the aperture for either the 18-80mm or 70-200mm Compact Zooms from the lovely LCD touchscreen. This is not a problem. I mean having actual aperture rings are never a real problem. I just want you all to know so you are not surprised if you take out this combo for a shoot.

The Problems

Let’s talk about the absolute worst place to put a zoom power connection. Seriously, this power connection is the worst. It is so bad Canon sends the Zacuto Right End Extension Cable with the review kit to ease the pain, but the connection is still in the way. When shooting hand-held the cable rested on my right wrist. After a few minutes shooting my wrist began to become uncomfortable. To me, this one design mistake is a big oversight by Canon and could steer some shooters away from shooting hand-held.

The focus ring has a continuous spin. From my understanding, this continuous spin, much like a DSLR Zoom lens, is necessary for the autofocus to work as well as it does.  I am willing to forgive Canon for this little problem for a couple reasons. One, I am unlikely to use an 18-80mm or 70-200mm Compact Zoom with any type of follow focus system. Two, I think we all have come to accept this type of continuous spin on some lenses and, well, we are used to it. If you want cinema style focus and to use a follow focus system then check out the many cinema zoom lenses Canon also offers.

The Rocker zoom is an extra $475. The 18-80mm is priced around $5,000. Adding an additional $475 just for the rocker zoom feels like we are getting nickeled and dimed. Now, I do not know what it costs Canon to make these lenses, but these lenses do feel a little pricey at first. Would I consider these lenses expensive? Not really. If you are looking for all-around lenses that will work with Canon’s Dual-Pixel autofocus then their price is offset by the features.

The 18-80mm does not feel quite wide enough. Two more mm’s on the wide end of this lens could go a really long way for most shooters. The 18-80mm lens too a little getting used to because I am so used to Canon’s 16-35. Now, the 70-200mm felt just right because of I have used that focal length often.

T4.4. It is not a sexy number. But, Canon made sure both the 18-80mm and the 70-200mm Compact Zoom had the same T4.4 aperture. Then again, T4.4 does not inspire shooters. It just does not. When talking about compromises one will have to come to grips with these two lenses the T4.4 aperture is the biggest compromise. It is especially poignant when we see Angenieux and Sigma come out with F1.9 cinema zoom lenses. On the 70-200mm I did not miss F2.8; not even a tiny bit. When shooting inside on the 18-80mm I did fight with the T4.4 aperture but mainly for stylistic reasons. Again, you will have to weigh the compromises and benefits of these lenses if you want to use them.

The Compact Zoom Specific Uses

I see these two Canon Cinema lenses fitting best in the world of documentary filmmaking and industrials. Why do you ask? What is great about the 18-80mm and 70-200mm Cinema zooms causes a ton of compromises I think will be a bit of a dealbreaker for some professionals. The lack of a shallow depth of field, the lenses only cover a Super 35mm frame and not a Full-Frame sensor, and how well the lenses control flare are all reasons why, and even wrongly, many will turn away from these lenses and to vintage or higher end glass. Then just as many will turn to these lenses because of their blend of DSLR and Cinema features as well as the autofocus.  I mean these lenses have me seeing the upside of shooting with the C200, C300, or C700.

The End Result

If you are cool with making compromises on the depth of field and range then these are the lenses for you. If you are looking for all of your images to be crisp and in focus then these lenses are for you. If you are looking for a way to make solo shooting easier for you then these lenses are for you. If you are looking for character and flare and razor thin depth of field then look to some different lenses. All in all the 18-80mm and 70-200mm Compact Zoom will find a niche in your lens bag and a niche in your documentary heart.

Canon 18-80mm Compact Zoom

18-80mm zoom range (4.4x ratio)

Constant aperture of T4.4, equivalent to F/4.0

Minimum focus distance: 1.6′ / 0.5 m

Three Step Optical Image Stabilization

Manual smooth iris

Auto Focus / Manual Focus (no hard stops)

Powered through lens mount or connector – This works with Sony Cameras too

Filter: 77 mm thread for screw-in front filters

Weight: 2.6 lb / 1.2 kg

Length: 7.2” / 182.3 mm

Servo handgrip

Back focus adjustment

Super 35mm sensor coverage

Canon 70-200mm Compact Zoom

Covers Super 35 Sensor Size

Suitable for 4K, HDR Image Capture

Widely Used 70-200mm Focal-Range

Parfocal to Maintain Focus While Zooming

Constant T4.4 Across Entire Zoom Range

Optional EF 1.4x III & EF 2x Extenders

Color-Matches Other Canon Cine Lenses

Click-Less Iris Control

9-Blade Iris for Smooth Bokeh

Optional Servo-Grip Controller

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