#the indie game is only i think €3 ? on sale so it's fine

[mishkakagehishka]

I still love the way i have to convince myself to spend money with full-on mental essays

[wayfayrr]

do you think the self-aware boys could be aware of other games you play on the console? this is kind of a silly thought but i got age of calamity when it came out and didn't play much because i was really bad at it. i've been playing totk recently but some self-aware au posts reminded me that i have age of calamity so i popped it back in to try out again (i'm still not great at it). and i just imagined tears getting jealous haha sorry hon i swear i didn't mean anything by it

(not me who plays a ton of indie games on my switch - guys I'm so sorry I just like the silly sushi game)

So as for them being aware of other games, they start off as not knowing much, just knowing that they're there. but after a while they can see the hours played! think the switch timer that shows how much you've played or maybe steam library style, I'm not entirely sure yet

as for your other point - I think their jealousy really depends on what game you're playing, how long you're playing for kinda a mix on the two!

other zelda games could have little/no jealousy or they could actually end up causing a literal fight if those two links met. I actually really need to draw out a relationship chart! cause I've been planning a self aware links meet and I've been stewing over this for a good while <3

say for legend? yeah, he's not going to be jealous of himself - that would be a waste of energy Sky would be a little petty if your totk playtime is higher than his but he gets along well with tears - to the point he'd be willing to share you with him (the same goes for wild/ possibly wars) Twilight wants to work with others - not all of them mind you but time, wild and wind? given the chance he will go out of his way to work with them rather than not and he is the ONLY one who does this - this is not 100% reciprocated with all of those links. (and his allies depend on what console you're on) the others are opportunistic with allies but they don't go out of their way like he does.

other series games? yeah no get them OUT of here they aren't sharing you with them.

in your case though anon?

I think tears would be more than fine with you playing aoc!! he's a little bitter over the fact (in his head) you might prefer the version of him that didn't die but no don't worry he's not that offended Calamity on the other hand? he's going to be a smug little shit. He had more than a bit of an inferiority complex when it comes to the others - aoc kinda flopped compared to other games (4mil copies to totks 20mil (totk sold half of aocs total sales in japan in THREE DAYS)) if you have more hours with him than with wild/tears then he will become more of an ass and get whiny about having your attention on him when he gets out. I also like to hc him as having really bad anxiety which leads to a really clingy yan

[gorematchala]

I still havent played it yet but I bought Sophstar on sale, which I felt kinda bad about cuz the game is only $12 and I got it for 2 so like, I hope they get the full payout from nintendo somehow but I just dont have any money a heem heem. But its a Brazilian indie shmup that looks really cool. It has a teleport mechanic and I think 9 different ships which is way more than usual. Typical shmup fare is 3 ships with standard, wide, and narrow shots. These ones seem to get real weird with it though so I'm excited to try that out once I get better at Danmaku Unlimited 3 and can finally take a break from practicing that shit, cuz that game requires your attention. Which is fine cuz its very fun

[thoughts-on-bangtan]

Hi! I hope you’ll answer this question bc it bothers me quite a lot.. https://www.quora.com/What-does-it-mean-now-that-BTS-are-partial-owners-of-Big-Hit-Entertainment do you think it is true what the second person (Christine Herman) said? After reading this, i started to wonder…what if BTS does really have only profit in mind while doing new projects these days? Maybe they don’t really care anymore about creative and meaningful lyrics and sound? With Butter and PTD…all this generic music sung in English. Of course they say “we wanted to make fans feel good”, “butter and ptd represent who we are” and all these things fans want to hear but.. do you really think it’s true? moreover, don’t get me wrong, i don’t find product placement in their reality shows as something terrible, i believe this is a normal thing, however, nowadays the members really film ads and do marketing a lot. so yeah, for some reason i began to question their integrity dhsjjss i hope you will understand from where my concerns come from and won’t find this ask stupid sjdjjdjd

After reading that persons answer I can immediately tell you that I basically don't agree with an overwhelming majority of what she said (even more so since a lot of it just makes her sound like a manti that hates the company and basically would want them to make music for free or something). Generally I don’t agree with most of the opinions this person holds, and also Quora really isn’t a good source for info or good opinions, most of it is written by mantis, haters, and toxic shippers with an agenda so most ARMY will tell you to stay as far away from that website as possible.

Anyway, her focus in that answer was on money, since BTS are shareholders (and how that’s a conflict of interest despite other artists doing the exact thing but no one really cares or ever thinks about it), but what she failed to consider and note was that Big Hit Music, so BTS' label, isn't part of HYBE in the sense that shareholding has no baring on it since BHM is private. So while BTS profit off of HYBE doing well, and have a small percentage of a voice as shareholders, that has nothing to do with BHM in the classical sense, even if BHM's earnings reflect well on HYBE numbers and the shareholder money. 

BHM was made private to ensure their artistry would remain untouched, that was the whole point of that.

Even if they weren't HYBE shareholders, take Namjoon as example. He has more than 170 KOMCA credits, is among the top 3 Korean artists with the most credits and is also the youngest of them all. It is said that his earnings from that alone can sustain his family for 3 generations over. Look at Hobi and Chicken Noodle Soup, that song was a hit and he paid the original creator of that song 2 million dollars upfront and earned a lot back due to how successful it was. Same goes for Hope World which, again, was and is still immensely successful. Look at Yoongi and his work both as prod. SUGA, featuring artist SUGA, and as Agust D, as well as the credits he holds for his work on BTS songs (giving him as well a total of over 100 KOMCA credits, just like Hobi). Bangtan have worked and continue to work extremely hard for their music, put their heart and souls into it, and it shows even if their style changed as they grew older and more mature.

Yes, money is a major motivator, but looking at the above paragraph, do you really peg the members as these corrupt money hungry sellouts with no music related integrity? Who would need to sign major deals and would throw away their passion to just release empty shells of music for the sole reason of money? Am I naive enough to believe that they don't care about money? Of course not, we live in a capitalist society and even if BTS wouldn't care about money anymore at this point, HYBE very much does, and yet still I can't find it in me to agree with any of what was said in that answer that person wrote.

More below the cut:

And that point about how Hyundai cars were sold out because of BTS, isn't that the point why literally any company ever hires celebrities to advertise and endorse their product? And sure, again, I'm certain they earned a lot on these deals, they aren't the first or last or only ones in the history of ever to do so. Besides, look at JK and what he's done for small companies, or Tae who wore a brooch made my a small creator at the airport which catapulted that creator into the eyes of millions of ARMYs enough so that they could move to a proper studio and earn money with their work. Or the modern hanboks JK wore which led to the brand being able to move into actual stores in malls because of their sudden new popularity and demand. Or him wearing a bracelet that helps whales with a percentage of the money from the sales of said bracelet. And for all of that JK and Tae didn't earn any money at all. JK himself said that he's more conscious of the brand he wears now because he wants to help smaller businesses in these trying times, not because they pay him to do so (especially since they would never be able to afford that), but because he's aware of the influence he has and how he can use it to help others. Sound very much like a capitalistic villain, right?

As for the product placement bit, have you been on YouTube recently? Have you noticed that many, if not most, YouTube videos by “bigger” creators (and by that I mean even people who are around the 100k subscriber mark) begin with them thanking whoever sponsored that particular video and give you a scripted minute to two minute long ad before getting into the actual topic of the video? And In The SOOP featuring Chilsung Cider, FILA clothes and the random mention of how good Samsung phones are isn’t much different from it, though really, if you’re not someone interested in fashion much, would you really notice or care that they wore FILA? It’s just...clothes? If it weren’t a BTS related show, would you even notice it much? And it’s not even like they mentioned those brands every five minutes or anything, just a few times, which sure sounded a bit out of place at times, but personally I thought it was easy to look past. That’s just how things work nowadays and it’s odd for people to behave like somehow BTS are the first and only ones to use product placements despite literally every movie and show doing it in subtle and less so manners.

The answer by that person you sent also mentioned the Hyundai song for their car IONIQ and, unsurprisingly, that person wrote it off as just some commercial jingle but I’d actually disagree with that. Not to sound like a Hyundai and Samsung stan, which I am neither of, but I actually think those two knew best how to utilize the artist they have spent millions on signing a deal with. Hyundai didn’t just write them off as pretty faces with a millions strong fan army behind them and that’s it, they remembered that they are musicians so they gave them a song and made a whole music video for it as well. And say what you will, it is a good song. Then, just a few days ago, Samsung stepped up their game and we were given Over The Horizon Prod by SUGA of BTS. For those who aren’t Samsung users, Over The Horizon is their signature ringtone and basically their company sound, and over the years different artists were asked to make their own version of it. And this time they reached out to Yoongi and asked if he’d like to do it as well. It’s kind of a big deal. Sure, Butter is used in one of their commercials much the way Dynamite was last year, but that’s beside the point. Would that person make the same claim about Imagine Dragons whose song Believer is also part of the ads for the new Samsung phones? I have my doubts.

Furthermore, and I don't want this to come across as mean toward you but, I think it is uncalled for to question their artistic integrity based on a total of 3 (three) English songs when last year alone we received 50+ songs, most of which were in Korean, among them the entirety of BE which was, according to the members, the album they were most involved in ever when it comes to both music and everything around it.

You can dislike their English songs, that’s more than fine, they have a very extensive discography you can listen to instead, but questioning their integrity based on them doing something that most, if not every, artist on their level does (as in sign ad deals with brands etc) is a bit much if you ask me. Does that mean indie artists whose songs get picked up for commercials (or for Netflix shows or movies) and thus it catapults them into the mainstream are also just money hungry people with no integrity and ones who don’t care about their music? Or is that, again, just a standard Bangtan is held to (as in that their integrity is questioned based on everything, even the most trivial/normal things) that only applies to them and no one else?

In the recent Weverse Magazine article about how Permission to Dance came to be there is a lot of talk about not only that song but also Butter and Dynamite, among the things being discussed and talked about they mentioned how the original lyrics for Butter were much more materialistic but that the members didn't like that so they asked for that to be changed. Likewise the original lyrics for Permission to Dance, as you'd expect from the penmanship of Ed Sheeran, were much more romantic, almost proposal like, which wasn't what the members wanted either so it was, again, adjusted in a way that would fit what they, as well as the A&R team, wanted. While you may not like these songs, they still had a say in them to a certain degree, could say yes or no and ask for adjustments. Why else would PTD take eight months?

While they might outsource their English songs, their main focus, so their Korean (as well as Japanese) discography is still centered around them, their lyrics, their songs, their sound. Of course you’ll also find outside producers and some lyricists on those as well, because that’s how music works these days, as in collaboratively, that doesn’t change anything at large. Their integrity is still very much there, their hearts are still in it, what other reason would any of them have to say that they want to continue for a long time, for Yoongi to say they want to figure out how to make their career last as long as possible, for JK to say that he wants to sing forever?

Admin 2 also wanted me to add that in their opinion, to a certain degree (though not fully of course), their English songs are like a way to laugh at and expose how shallow the English-centric music industry is. As in, while they made music in Korean with deep and meaningful lyrics, the US industry didn’t care but once they switched to easy to listen to sound with easy to understand English lyrics, they suddenly paid attention, are played on the radio, and even received a Grammy nomination which they wouldn’t have gotten for a Korean song ( A1: regardless how much Black Swan or Spring Day really would’ve deserved it...). 

[jackiekashian]

Dork Forest 2011-2020 Cheat Sheet

The votes are in for 2020! 

This is a list of Episode Numbers - Guest Name - Dorkdom.  I take votes for faves of the year and then add a couple for variety of topics that I really thought were fun. ALL THE EPS have something for someone and are great but here is a starter list if you’re thinking to start listening to TDF and are not a numerologist completest.

Note: show’s been going since 2006 but I’ve only been surveying since 2011.  The show is on all the platforms. Pandora, Spotify, YouTube. Start here if you like: www.dorkforest.com . Standup info and other podcast is at www.jackiekashian.com

2020 TDF EP 562 - Guy Branum - Mitford Sisters TDF EP 568 - Maria Bamford - Canadian Reality Shows TDF EP 599 - Jen Kirkman - Hallmark Christmas Movies TDF EP 565 - Darla Kashian – COOKING TDF EP 598 - Russ Kashian - Hallmark Christmas Movies TDF EP 549 - Tig Notaro – Veganism TDF EP 581 - Jenny Yang - Comfort Food TDF EP 591 - Amber Preston - Church Cookbooks TDF EP 574 - Ron Funches - Call of Duty and Animal Crossing TDF EP 577 - Barbara Holiday - Escape Rooms TDF EP 558 - Sarah Mowrey - Fleetwood Mac TDF EP566 - Matt Kirshen/Myq Kaplan - Advice Columns  TDF EP 595 - Kristin Key - Mad Libs TDF EP 576 - Robert Jenkins - Guns and Safety TDF EP 588 - Sofiya Alexandra - Wheel of Time books TDF EP 570- Jim Woster – Columbo TDF EP 573 - Robert Hurt - Babylon 5  TDF EP 550 - Danielle Perez - Mariah Carey TDF EP 583 - Dar Vendegna  - PIckleball  TDF SPOILER 3 - Andy & Jackie - Rise of Skywalker 

 2019 TDF EP 523 Lydia Popovich Dolly Parton TDF EP 511 Auggie Smith Dead Comedians TDF EP 535 Christopher Titus Prince TDF EP 530 Phil Kashian Hitchhiking TDF EP 532 Brian Posehn Heavy Metal TDF EP 549 Tig Notaro Veganism SP1 Endgame Spoiler Dork Out TDF EP 503 Wynter Spears Public Restrooms TDF EP 524 Sara Benincasa Frederick Law Olmstead TDF EP 529 Caitlin Gill Murder She Wrote TDF EP 545 Mary Becquet Chinese Ghosts Vampires TDF EP 525 Matt Oswalt Taking Pictures TDF EP 510 Gary Anthony Williams Birds TDF EP 531 Robert Hurt DS9 TDF EP 547 Thom Tran The Flash TDF EP 540 Brian Jacobovitz Cthulu RPGs TDF EP 515 Judith Stephen CosPlay TDF EP 528 Justin Hermann Heroscape TDF EP 538 Dave Ross Zelda and LINK TDF EP 544 Sharon Houston Netflix British Reality Shows TDF EP 505 Kat Burdick Next Generation TDF EP 509 Michelle Biloon NYT Crossowords

2018  TDF EP 487 Amy Miller - Dolly Parton TDF EP 471 Emma Arnold - BEES TDF EP 499 - Erin Foley - Hallmark Christmas Movies TDF EP 481 - Cheryl Jones - Maritime History TDF EP 471 - Andy Ashcraft - GenCon TDF EP 482 - Nato Green - Union Organizing TDF EP 473 - Tamra Brown - Tiki Bars TDF EP 493 - Nina Manni - Air and Hotel Points TDF EP 446 - Carlos Delgado - Great British Bakeoff TDF EP 495 - Alice Wetterlund - Sharks TDF EP 487 - Mark Waid - Superman TDF EP 454 - Open Mike Eagle - Wrestling  TDF EP 457 - Jean Grea - Ikea  TDF EP 447 - Gariana Abeyta - All Genres have Great Movies

2017 TDF EP 390 - Phil Kashian - LOTR and MY BROTHER TDF EP 422 - Steve Agee  - John Hughes Movies. Weird Science TDF EP 426 - Sara Schaefer - Cross Stitch  TDF EP 431 - Jenny Jaffe - Planners. Calendars. Stickers. All the things. TDF EP 405 - Rebecca Sugar - Musicals  TDF EP 438 - Jen Briney - freaking CONGRESS TDF EP 423 - Karen Rontowski - Moth Man TDF EP 401 - Jason Hatrick - Scuba diving  TDF EP 429 - Kyle Clark - Halloween Theme Parks TDF EP 417 - Nat Towsen - Speed Racer TDF EP 402 - Tyler Hinman - Escape Rooms TDF EP 428 - Solomon Georgio - Black Sitcoms TDF EP 403 - Hal Lublin - Saturday Night Live TDF EP 408 - Al Madrigal - Jack Reacher NOVELS TDF EP 435 - Wyatt Gray - HP Lovecraft TDF EP 442 - Doug Stanhope - getting naked and Leisure Suits TDF EP 404 - Julie Dixson Jackson - Geneology  TDF EP 427 - Lisa Allard – Quilting

2016 TDF EP 336 Jim Stewart Allen - Oregon Trail  TDF EP 383 Jenny Chalikian – Xena TDF EP 387 Caitlin Gill - Roald Dahl  TDF EP 358 Wil Anderson - Cricket TDF EP 359 Heather Simmons - Alice in Wonderland. TDF EP 340 Barbara Holm - Buffy the Vampire Slayer TDF EP 380 Beverly D’Angelo - things that Change your Life - Music, Places TDF EP 366 Karen Rontowski - Tarot Cards TDF EP 373 Stu Goldsmith - Boardgames with a STORY  TDF EP 364 Maria Bamford LIVE at JFL Montreal (Bandcamp)  2016 I really liked: TDF EP 385 Jenny Zigrino - Authentic Historical Costuming  TDF EP 347 Riley Silverman - The Potato. Mostly Frozen.  TDF EP 355 Ivan Van Norman/Andy Ashcraft - Zombies & pen/paper games TDF EP 341 Cathy Ladman - Knitting  TDF EP 349 Moon Zappa - The BIG questions TDF EP 368 Martha Kelly - Law and Order SVU TDF EP 367 Phil Johnson - Pirates TDF EP 362 Rory Scovel - Golf (quietly clap) TDF EP 339 Sovereign Syre - Spanish Invasion of Florida.  TDF EP 348 Dash Kwiatkowski - Superman TDF EP 338 TJ Chambers - Chess TDF EP 379 Michelle Thaller – SPACE! LIVE DC Drafthouse (Bandcamp)

2015 TDF EP 303 Matt Saxe – all Vice Presidents. TDF EP 298 Jason Klamm – Vice Presidents and Lego! TDF EP 312 Greg Proops at LA Podfest – 70s Movies TDF EP 320 Wil Wheaton – BEER and Boardgames TDF EP 287 Michelle McNamara – Robert Durst and more True Crime TDF EP 294 Retta – Purses. Handbags TDF EP 323 Chez Amanda – Xfiles. Finally. TDF EP 310 David Koechner – History dork! TDF EP 268 Tammy Pescatelli – Thrift stores and Vampires TDF EP 279 Brian Kiley – Presidential Biographic Minutia TDF EP 285 Ian Abramson – McDonald’s Land TDF EP 316 Breanna Conley – Old time Photo Booth collecting 2015 another 12 that I picked: TDF EP 329 Robert Hurt – Space Ships TDF EP 321 Ryan Stout – Injustice. AS USUAL. TDF EP 324 Suzy Soro – Ghosts. TDF EP 313 Danielle Radford – great “bad” movies TDF EP 305 Murray Valeriano & Monty Franklin – Surfin. TDF EP 269 Christian Brown, Roselle Hurley and Andy Ashcraft - LARPing TDF EP 271 Bridget Everett - Barry Manilow, Richard Simmons & Rudy TDF EP 273 Sean Crespo – DUNE TDF EP 284 Brian Upton - history and aesthetics of gaming TDF EP 293 Live at Bridgetown Branum, Kilgariff and Preston (Bandcamp) TDF EP 300 Amy Shira Teitel – SPACE TDF EP 325 Gail Carriger Live in SF – Anglophile. (Bandcamp)

2014 TDF EP 259 – Laraine Newman - Dubstep TDF EP 245 – Brittnee Braun - Cosplay TDF EP 249 – Brian Regan – Line Mentality TDF EP 215 – Robert Hack – Doctor Who TDF EP 264 – Joseph Scrimshaw – Star War Prequels TDF EP 227 – Emily Gordon – Breakfast around the world TDF EP 239 – Rhea Butcher – Back to the Future Movies TDF EP 260 – Jimmy Pardo – Chicago (the band) TDF EP210 – Corey Olsen – Tolkien TDF EP 258 – Emily Heller – ESM & HS Debate

2013 TDF EP 177 - Greg Proops - Ancient History TDF EP 172 – Janeane/Bamford - Beading/SuzeOrman TDF EP198 – Live Podfest w Kilgariff/Bamford/Anthony/Valeriano - Salad TDF EP 189 – Moshe Kasher - Religion TDF EP 199 – Michelle McNamara - True Crime TDF EP 203 – Ryan Stout - Traffic Court

TDF EP 150 – Gina Yashere - Ghosts/Elevators TDF EP 151 – Craig Shoemaker - Wizard of Oz TDF EP 207 –  Matt Mira - James Bond TDF EP 167 – David Huntsberger - Horses TDF EP 200 –  Andy Peters/Mike Schmidt - Wrestling TDF EP 190 –  Cameron Esposito - Lesbians TDF EP 202 –  Matt Weinhold/Dana Gould/ Shawn Sheridan - Halloween

2012 TDF EP 129 – Live with Michelle McNamara (True Crime) TDF EP 111 – Jim Gaffigan (obscure news personality) TDF EP 117 – Corey Olsen (TolkienProf) TDF EP 142 – Live with Retta, Rajskub, Kilmartin and Scovel TDF EP 94 – Mary Jo Pehl (reading and writing and more reading) TDF EP 133 – Kira Soltonovich (Korean Spas) TDF EP 113 – Jesse Schell and Andy Ashcraft (oh. Video Games) TDF EP 98 – Henry Phillips and Mike Phirman (Guitar Comedy and Music) TDF EP 139 – Joel Hodgson (ventriloquism) TDF EP 93 – Live with Ernie Cline (the 80s and Ready Player One) TDF EP 102 – Dan Telfer (Dinosaurs and science in general) TDF EP 108 – Al Madrigal (Sales and Cartoons) TDF EP 148 – Guy Branum - Canada TDF EP 95 – Live with Kevin Eastman (ninja turtles) TDF EP 97 – Rose Abdoo and John Matta (tiny tiny ART! And The Thing) TDF EP 99 – Asterios Kokkinos (Pokemon) TDF EP 100 – PF Wilson – (history of the various football leagues)  TDF EP 103 – Live with Andy Kindler (“indie” comic books) TDF EP 104 – Merrill Markoe (I feel like we talked dogs mostly)  TDF EP 110 – Patrick Brady (animation)   TDF EP 120 – Erin Foley (NY Giants) TDF EP 121 – Tom Franck (Art) TDF EP 130 – Lois McMaster Bujold (I dork out AT her. She talks writing) TDF EP 138 – Michael Everson (coding fonts for obscure languages)

2011 # 55 Greg Proops – Making Baseball interesting            # 67 Hardwick/Palascak – Harry Potter                       # 37 Karen Kilgariff  - Sandra Bullock                          # 16 Dana Gould – Planet of the Apes                         # 48 Aisha Tyler – girl on girl fandom                          # 24 Jen Kirkman/ Karen Rontowksi – ghosts/UFO                 # 49 Dana/James - HOLLYWOOD                                # 40 April/Vargus – TRIP TO MIDDLE EAST                                                   # 3 Madigan/Kilmartin – the KENNEDY’S  #42 Maile Flanagan/Yuri Lowenthal - Animation #50 Michelle McNamara – True Crime #30 Ed Brubaker / Kermet Apio – Comics #14 Thrilling Adventure Hour – so many things Origin Story – #69 Andy Origin Story - #71 Maria #73 Rich Sommer – Mad Men and Boardgames #77 Matt Weinhold/Ken Daly – Horror Movies #82 Chad Daniels/David Huntsberger – just hilarious #80 Bengt Washburn – Fine art #51 Andrew Solmssen - IT #28 Eric Drysdale - VIEWMASTER #58 Bees – uh, BEES #63 Perfume – and, PERFUME #44 Jim Coughlin – A4 Paper #91 Trains!    

NOTE Premium eps w/o iTunes:  Here’s how to download albums from Bandcamp:

1.    Download the .zip file from Bandcamp. 2.    Unzip the file to your Music folder. 3.    Rescan your Music folder. 4.    Open the music app and listen to your tunes.

[lemonadeflashbang]

[SteamWorld: Dig] Thoughts / Review

As part of Nintendo’s big indie sale, I picked up nearly two dozen games- including SteamWorld. Since this is a personal tumblr just as much as it is a business one,  I figured I’d blog about some of my indie gaming thoughts more generally. This is the first game I played from my now gigantic catalog of indie games. It’s currently on sale for something like $2.50 and the whole game is maybe 4-5 hours long, so it’s pretty low investment.

Basic overview for those of you who know nothing about it: You play as a robot, digging his way through a gigantic vertical mine using your pickaxe. Your goal is to collect treasure and reach the bottom of the mine. You have to manage a small bag size and an oil lamp, which slowly burns out over time leaving you with less and less light and making navigation more and more dangerous.

Something kind of neat about the game is that you carve your own path downwards- so your tunnel and someone else’s may look quite different. It keeps the mine feeling like its’ “yours” throughout the entire game. The gameplay loop is simple, but I found it a little frustrating. After you run out of oil, you need to recover more by either killing enemies, or heading to the surface. Similarly, you’ll need to empty out your bag by wandering up to the surface too. Your lantern starts with 3 bars, which equates to 3 minutes of light- and your light will be slowly shrinking the entire time. After 3 minutes, you’re in darkness and will probably need to shoot back up. The mine isn’t procedurally generated though, so really you’re just backtracking forwards and back a lot during the early parts of the game. You can’t fast travel to base without finding or purchasing a teleporter- and teleporters require a rarer resource to drop. So you’re stuck kind of pacing back and forth for a significant part of the game. You make some progress, fill your bag, then shoot back up- all in a few minutes. Moving through the mines itself can be interesting. You mostly return to the surface via wall jumping, so you’re encouraged to make long, vertical stretches in order to return. At the same time, you can’t pick while jumping and you want to be able to get all the treasure you can- so there’s some incentive to have wider sections as well. There are some obstacles and traps hidden in the dirt that you have to kind of puzzle your way around, which can be nice. They slowly become more common and hazardous as you progress, but it’s easy to feel like the game’s kind of “empty” at the start with very little reason to care about digging left instead of right.

There are numerous little power ups and upgrades your character gets along the way. More power ups than there are hours of playtime. The upgrades are fairly basic. Your pickaxe doing extra damage to terrain is something like 6 or 7 of these upgrades, and the other upgrades aren’t really more inventive than that. Additionally, for whatever reason, you’re probably not going to be able to purchase all of the upgrades. There’s just only so many resources- and you’ll probably need to collect basically all of it for that to be feasible. Which doesn’t really make sense to me. Why should I need to basically 100% the game so I can get the last “watering tank” upgrade unlock? It’s not really useful or interesting at that point. One of the things the system does do really well though is tie unlocks to total cash returned. It guarantees that there’s always an upgrade to buy in the shop (until you max your town’s “level”) so you always have something to work towards. I love it. The power ups are more willing to change things up, but I think they highlight a bit of a problem with the core game. The very first power up you get is the run power, and with it the run jump. Cool! You’re way more mobile in wide open spaces! Except there are basically none of these in the mines. It doesn’t get much more open in the mines than the screenshot above, and you need 3 “tiles” worth of space to run. It leaves a lot of these power ups making you feel like nothing’s changed. Where they are used in little caves and dungeons tucked away in the mine. These are short little platforming challenges, many of which can be completed in a minute or so (but the larger dungeons being a fair bit longer) where your platforming abilities are used- and they feel great! But it’s disconnected from the rest of the gameplay. All of the upgrades you purchase aren’t really about platforming- and you don’t have the space to do it for 95% of the game’s runtime. It’s all about slapping rocks with your pick and then scrambling back to base to refill your resources in order to do it again.

And while the platforming sections are fun, and they are the best parts of the game- they’re not particularly tight for platformers. There is no “Coyote Time” in the game, which means the second you’re a pixel off the block you’ll fall. That makes precision platforming a little harder- just due to our reaction times you can miss what looks like a good jump, and you’ll have to start “predicting” out a fraction of a second to make some of the harder jumps. Additionally there’s no snapping to walls for wall jumping, and you can just kind of turn off of them pretty easily. The constant upgrades also don’t really make the core gameplay feel better. Your progression basically just starts slowing the deeper you get as terrain gets tougher. Instead of two hits, now it takes four- that kind of thing. Is buying eight different kinds of pickaxe in order to make quick progress through the mines particularly fun? Especially when they’re 90% dirt that you have to chip through to move everywhere? I’m not really convinced. Towards the end of the game you’re forced to revisit some prior areas for a short objective- and you shred through the terrain with your upgraded tooling. And it really puts into perspective how much of the game’s length is effectively padded by forcing you to hit every single block four times to move one tile. I plan on playing the second one next and seeing if they tackled the parts I wasn’t a fan of. What I’d like to see for the series going forward: -More Power ups and Upgrades that affect how you traverse the mines, since that’s the core game mechanic. -More obstacles that are digging based- like the falling boulders at the start. Lots of the enemies / obstacles are based on the looser platforming sections of the gameplay, which is fine but that’s not what you do most of the game. -More polished platforming for the cave/dungeon sections, and more of them. -Is there an opportunity for procedural generation here? You’d have to change your upgrades and rewards design, but I’m thinking something like Spelunky, where you progress through and then upgrade yourself / the town / whatever with your findings. Just a musing, definitely not a necessary change. -More gameplay around the lamp. If they’re going to keep this lamp system in place, it needs to be something you can more actively manage. The game should either be designed around short dungeon scoops (which is where I think procedural generation could come in) or have more mechanics surrounding managing or working around your lamp. As it is, if it gets dark you have to just kind of crawl all the way back up the mine and frankly doing that in the dark isn’t much fun. As for a recommendation- the game is short but it’s pretty and has a nice charm to it. If you’re a fan of the aesthetic, want something that’s not super tough, like seeing numbers get bigger and like some platforming but aren’t very hardcore about it, then there’s definitely fun to be had here. Pick it up on sale and enjoy it for an afternoon.

[japanessie]

MY FIRST STORY & Saitama Super Arena capacity

I received this question on Twitter regarding the attendance at MFS TamaAri Tour Final. I think it would be interesting to share with my readers especially for those who might aspire to enter the showbiz.

Disclaimer: Answers were based on my personal observations as a longtime music fan. Also, I used ONE OK ROCK as a comparison because that's what my readers are familiar with. Peace everyone 😊

Question:

So I just read that MFS TamaAri was 18000 tickets? Normally I know the venue has a much larger capacity, so why is that? Are they taking it safely? And do you know what’s more important to secure bigger venues? Is it to sold out or the number of tickets you had there? Just trying to understand if this was necessary to get to Tokyo Dome. It just kinda makes me sad because they deserve so much!

I always just assumed that it’s 37000, didn’t know there was two modes, any idea on what’s the difference and why they went with arena mode instead of stadium.

------------------------------

MFS held an “arena" tour NOT “stadium" tour

First of all, from the start, MFS had declared their Kobe World Hall & Saitama Super Arena dates as “ARENA Tour". They never said “stadium". So, it only made sense that they booked Saitama Super Arena in its arena mode.

Based on MFS' proposed seating plan, they were honest from the start that they were NOT aiming for >30000 capacity. Just look at how small the space they allocated for standing spectators. The rest were all seated. They were pretty realistic about their crowd attracting capability & current limitations. They knew they were not OOR who could easily dedicate the entire floor area for standing spectators.

-----------------------------------------------------

Saitama Super Arena was designed to be mechanically multi-sized to suit multiple purposes

Look at the “Stadium vs Arena” diagrams from the venue's official website.

Saitama Super Arena does have TWO modes i.e "stadium" and "arena". It is a multi-purpose venue which means it can be used for concerts, sports events, exhibitions, death memorials (if you want) etc. Thus, to serve the different functions, it was designed in such a manner.

What is meant with max capacity of 37000 pax is the entire fixed seats taken up PLUS the maximum additional seating that the floor area can take, which is more suited for sports events where a smaller space for the athletes/performers is needed e.g. boxing, wrestling etc. For sports such as soccer or baseball, the floor area obviously will not be used for seatings.

Stadium vs Arena configuration

Stadium = the full length space with seats all around facing the centre. 

Arena = the space is partially blocked off reducing the seats & floor area.

Stadium Mode

Let's look at a typical concert stage end side configuration.

1. A chunk of the space is already taken up by the stage. Meaning the seated area behind the stage is already unusable for the spectators. Then, some artists have a runway or even multiple runways extending into the floor area. To my eyes, at least 1/4 or even 1/3 of the space is already reduced. Then, when you put designated seats on the arena floor, the number of people will be reduced even more because chairs take up more floor space per person than a free-standing area.

Arena Mode

How about centre stage configuration to maximize the viewing?

Here is an example of a centre stage from KOBUKURO LIVE TOUR 2015 at Saitama Super Arena. Even with this configuration and a more packed crowd than MY FIRST STORY, this only packed in 21000 spectators.

http://music.emtg.jp/liveReport/20150806213e27519

For safety reason, you can’t pack in more people than the officially declared maximum capacity

I'm not sure how the Law is in Japan or what legal obligations that the management of Saitama Super Arena needs to comply. However, generally, it concerns evacuating people safely and quickly in the case of fire or any disaster.

--------------------------------------------------

However, it looked like MFS didn't quite reach the number they were originally aiming for.

Got to be honest, there was a big block of unused seats at the end of the arena. The staff covered it with a huge piece of cloth. There was also some rather generous spaces around the floor seating area. They are not yet at OOR level who can easily attract >30000 crowd. But overall, it was good enough and not disastrous like the Shanghai show (unwise choice of venue that one... sorry my boys).

Photo by Taka Tallman

The difference of the Final outcome compared to the Original plan based on the official photo.

Why was it announced as "Sold Out"?

1. Logistics reason.

They needed to finalize the layout of the seatings and the number of chairs they actually needed. If they kept the ticket sales open to the performance day, it would be difficult for the staff to arrange the overall seated / standing areas. Notice how they often announced on-the-day tickets (toujitsuken) for their free standing Livehouse shows but not for Halls and Arenas. It's easy to squeeze in free standing audience as long as it is safe enough.

2. They very likely had already reached the sales target to cover the cost of the concert.

If you already sold out the quantity you needed to make profits, then it's not a lie to declare it that way. "Yeah, we sold out!". MFS is blessed to be an indie band because the money they earn mainly goes to them. Well, looking at the luxuries MFS members pampered themselves with (a huge rehearsal studio, holidays abroad, head-to-toe designer fashion etc), these guys made A LOT.

Despite playing to smaller crowds and playing less shows per year, MFS members are able to live comfortably at a more leisurely pace. Compare that to the major-label-and-talent-agency-tied OOR who certainly sell more in quantity but is being worked to death by their management with every Tour to make $$$!

3. In showbiz, image is everything.

Notice how once an actor won an Oscar, his publicity promo will always attach the term “Oscar winner (insert name)" with almost every appearance? Because it gives “value" to his name! Even if you only got nominated, being known as “Oscar-nominated actor" elevates your status.

It's the same with music artists. Saying “the band held a Sold-Out show at (insert a place)" gives “value" to your resume. The general public rarely ask the numbers or even question it.

Not only MFS, even OOR plays the same publicity game. For example, their Nagisaen show has always been hailed as attracting >100000 people. What is being downplayed is it was >100000 people over TWO days. Meaning >50000 pax per day and many of them actually went to BOTH days. But still, saying >100000 sounds better and it's not like they're lying. It's technically correct. So MFS saying, “Thank you. We sold out!" is technically true if they had passed their profit threshold. Anything extra is a bonus 😊.

Why still went for such a huge venue even though their fanbase still has not reached that level?

Just a basic management strategy no matter what field you’re in. Once you set a big target, you need to measure your achievement from time to time. They want to do Tokyo Dome. So, they need to see how far they can reach and what to plan to achieve it. With the Nippon Budokan, they knew that they could do 12000 pax. With Makuhari Messe and Yokohama Arena, they knew that 18000 figure was in their hands. With Saitama Super Arena, they very likely wanted to see if they could reach more than 20000. Now that MFS knew 20000 is a figure they need to still work on, they can plan from now what to do next. My prediction, there is a HUGE chance that the Tokyo Dome show would be fully or mostly seated.

What’s more important to secure bigger venues? Is it to be sold out or the number of tickets?

Strictly from the economic point of view, the number of tickets you can sell is more important. You'd want to earn enough to recoup your investment first & foremost. The venues don't care if your event is sold out or not. They just want their money. Being “sold out" is more for the artist's image.

Every artist has their own sales threshold of what they can call “sold out". MFS put limited standing tickets from the start which means they have a lower “sold out" threshold compared to a bigger band like OOR who allocates a lot more standing tickets.

The bigger your name, the higher the stake. I still remember when the late King of Pop Michael Jackson was deemed a failure for selling “only" around 45000 tickets for a stadium concert in the UK back in the late 90s.

So, was MFS playing it safe with Saitama Super Arena?

Nope. 

On the contrary, they were daring themselves to take the risk in order to know where they are at. But hey, ANY indie artist in the world would KILL to have 18000 people per night. It’s awesome that MFS could reach that number as an independent band.

------------------------------------------------------

My 2 cents

Why did MFS struggle a bit to fill up Saitama Super Arena?

To me it still boils down to one thing. Their archrival ONE OK ROCK.

This had been the first time ever that MFS was doing a major Tour head to head against OOR. They even had a few clashing dates!

* (Remember that Summer Sonic Tokyo (MFS) vs Osaka (OOR) incident? A small crowd in Tokyo vs a packed crowd in Osaka?）

OOR by Julen Photo

For the most part, getting the majority of their fans from OOR fandom has been a huge blessing for MFS. But we must take note that many of them still keep OOR as their main band and thus, are more likely to spend their money on the OOR Tour instead. Not to mention that OOR ticket & merch prices are higher.

MFS hardcore fans are still way smaller and probably will never top OOR, which is fine to me (seriously, I don’t want MFS to compromise their music like OOR did 😑 ). However, I do believe that the day will come when MFS can attract 30000 crowd in one show but it will take more time for that to happen.

But comparing it to OOR, it wasn’t too bad even though it is still a long way to go :-)

Someday MFS will be able to pack in fully standing crowds on the floor 😃 !

What MFS needs to do?

1. Keep on with their current strategy of reaching out and expanding to fans outside of the OOR crowd. Keep on collaborating, guys!

2. I personally hope that the little darling Hiroki can continue being careful with anything that comes out of his mouth so as not to make another faux pas e.g that misunderstood MC at Summer Sonic (OOR fans accused him of jealousy towards Taka again because of it... oops 🙈), that "kiddy tantrum" at Storyteller Tour Osaka (your warped sense of humour may not necessarily work outside of your band & crew, Hiro 😑). Watching him in the later part of 2019, I do feel Hiro had learned a bit from it all though.

3. Continue strengthening the bond with the existing fans. It’s important to cherish their loyalty. I had talked before about the benefit of keeping your core fans. Thankfully, MFS is doing it right in this area. Bringing awareness to ALS, dedicating their songs to special selected fans and helping in realizing their dreams. After all, support is a two-way street.

4. Connecting with the younger crowd like they did during the ALONE era with the “university tour” might be a good idea too 🤔. I still remember photos of the members walking through the crowd among the stalls at students’ fairs 😃. That was an exciting time 😊

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So, what do you all think 😃?

[dazombi3fari3]

Hey doll hey!!! How’s your day/night going? Great I hope. I had a pretty good day … but it’s night now here in Florida and I am starting to hurt pretty badly…. I think I over did it today.

I noticed that I haven’t done any Monthly Beauty Favorites so I thought I’d start a new series for this blog… hope you like it.

Before we start I just wanted to shade with you what I made for dinner tonight! I am so proud of myself. I’ve never made Salmon on my own… I always just order it from a restaurant… but with the national quarantine and all the sit down restaurants being closed I’ve had to step out of my  comfort zone and teach myself to cook things I normally would order out! so …. here it is …

Honey lemon Salmon and garlic butter and corn white rice. This dish was so sublime that I don’t think I’ll ever order Salmon when we go out to eat again!

Not all categories will have a high end and drugstore entry. Please Note that I am not sponsored by or affiliated with any of the products or companies that I mention in this blog post. * Warning this will be a long post … just grab a snack, something to drink and settle in … I promise you wont be sorry for reading this post….. Well … Without further ado …let’s get into my April 2020 Beauty Favorites.

Favorite Beauty Store:

Beautylish has got to be my all time favorite place to shop for all things beauty!! 

I’ve been shopping at Beautylish for well over 5 years. Their customer service is of the highest quality. Their shipping rate is a flat rate of $5 on all orders (in the US it’s $5 on all orders under $35 anything above $35 is free shipping). The only downside is that they are unable to ship to P.O. boxes. They offer flex payments on orders of $100 or more where you pay a down payment and then they spread the rest of the bill over  3 to 4 payments depending how much the bill comes to. The down payment amount also depends on the amount spent… For example: I just placed an order for $102. I paid $37 as the down payment and the rest was split into 3 equal payments to be due on the 1st of each month. The due date depends on the date of purchase. I tend to pay my flex payments off faster than the allotted time, but it’s great to know I have the 3 months just in case I need them. Beautylish also ships international the the following countries: Australia, Austria, Bahrain, Belgium,Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Germany, Hong Kong, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malaysia, Malta, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, UAE, U.K., and U.S. Beautylish carries the following brands:

A

Aethera Beauty

Allies of Skin

Alphabet Bags

Anastasia Beverly Hills

Anna Sui

Ardell

Artis

ARTISAN&ARTIST

B

beautyblender

Beautylish Presents

BeautySoClean

BECCA Cosmetics

belif

Benefit Cosmetics

Benjabelle

Billy B

Bioderma

bkr

boscia

Briogeo

Brush Works

Bumble and bumble.

BY TERRY

C

Caudalie

Charlotte Tilbury

Chemist Confessions

CHIKUHODO

Clean Apothecary

COOLA

COVER | FX

D

Danessa Myricks Beauty

Dominique Cosmetics

Dr. Barbara Sturm

DUO

E

Eau Thermale Avène

Embryolisse

EVE LOM

Evian

F

Farmacy

G

Glamcor

Good Molecules

H

Hampton Sun

Herbalore

HoliFrog

Hourglass

I

ILIA

Indie Lee

Inglot Cosmetics

IT Cosmetics

J

Jeffree Star Cosmetics

JILL STUART Beauty

Jo Malone London

Jouer Cosmetics

JUNO & Co.

K

Kevyn Aucoin

Kjaer Weis

Klorane

Koh Gen Do

KOYUDO

L

La Mer

LASHES IN A BOX

Lilly Lashes

LINA CHOO

Lit Cosmetics

Lixirskin

Lord Jones

Lucas’ Papaw Remedies

M

MAHALO Skin Care

Make-Up Atelier

Max & Me

May Lindstrom

Mila Moursi

Miss Fame Beauty

Moon Juice

MYKITCO.

N

Natasha Denona

Naturally Serious

Nomad Noé

Nudestix

O

Omorovicza

Oribe

P

Pai Skincare

Parian Spirit

Paw Palette

Peter Thomas Roth

Q

Quintessence Paris

R

R+Co

Rae Morris

Raincry

RCMA Makeup

ReFa

Rene Furterer

rms beauty

S

SACHAJUAN

Saint Jane Beauty

Seche

Sisley-Paris

Skin Inc Supplement Bar

Skindinavia

Slip

Smith & Cult

Smith Cosmetics

Sol de Janeiro

Sonia G.

St. Tropez

Stila

Sugarpill Cosmetics

Sulwhasoo

Sunday Riley

Surratt Beauty

Susanne Kaufmann

Suwada

T

T3

Takahashi Hiroko

Taos AER

TEMPTU

The Beauty Chef

The Brush Guard

The Ordinary.

The Sacred Ritual

TOM FORD

Too Faced

TRIA Beauty

Tweezerman

U

U Beauty

Uma

UNITS

V

VDL

Velour Lashes

Vintner’s Daughter

Viseart

Vital Proteins

Vueset

W

Wayne Goss

Z

ZIIP

Z•Palette

I truly love to shop with them because the take time to package my purchases with care, it never takes more than a week to get my packages (except for now, it’s taking about 2-3 weeks because of the Corona Virus), and they have a great return policy: Their website states that their return policy is: If you are less than completely satisfied with your purchase, you may return your order within 60 days (from the delivery date) for a refund. We regret that we are unable to cover return shipping costs or refund the original shipping and duties charges unless the return was due to our error. Products must be returned in new or gently used condition. If your product arrived either damaged or defective, please contact us right away. Sets/bundles are sold as-is and products cannot be substituted, customized, and/or returned individually.

I’ve never had any issues with their services, in fact there was 1 time around 3 years ago that I ordered something from the brand It Cosmetics and the wrong item was delivered to me, I contact them straight away and they sent me out the product I had originally ordered that same day and as a way to apologize for the mistake they even allowed me to keep the product that I had received in error.

  Favorite Amazon Beauty Finds:

Pixnor 5″3″ Stainless Steel Makeup Palette with Spatula Tool $6.99 on Amazon: I am so happy I purchased this!!  I use to apply foundation to the back of my hand and then bonce my sponge off my hand … what I found is that this would cause waste of product because some of the foundation would sink into my skin and I would have to use more foundation… now I just apply a few pumps onto the palette and there is zero waste. I also love the spatula because I can use it to scrape moisturizers out of the jar without having to use my fingers. I also use the spatula to mix dew drops into my foundation and now I don’t have a big mess on my hands. 

Segbeauty 5.4oz/160ml Continuous Spray Plastic Squirt Bottle With A Fine Mist $14.99 on Amazon: This bottle is a curly hair girls dream!! It provides just the right amount of moisture without over-wetting your hair. It has a 360 degree sprayer and it’s perfect for re-wetting hair in the morning to restyle and freshen up curls. This bottle has changed my hair game for the better.

Every Drop Beauty Spatula $5.89 on Amazon. I’ve always hated the thought that there was still product in the bottom and sides of my products after I’ve run out. I started cutting plastic tubes open to get every last drop on product out but with bottles you just can’t do that. I came across this little baby when I was just browsing the beauty tools section of Amazon one day and thought OH! PERFECT!!! This spatula gets all the way to the bottom, the sides, and even the shoulders of bottles! I now have zero waste with my beauty products. I love this item so much that I have ordered it’s baby sister product the Every Drop Lip Spatula for $5.49 I ordered 2 one for lipsticks and lip glosses and one for concealers and other small wand items. This has truly helped me not waste my money by allowing me to get every last drop of product out of their containers.

Favorite Makeup Tool:

Face Halo Makeup Remover Pads: $17.60 for a 3 pack on Amazon. This little puppy is the perfect accompaniment to my vastly growing Eco-friendly arsenal. I find that I do not use as much of my Bioderma now because I am not using it to take off my makeup before I use it as my first cleanse…. 1 round is enough to completely remove all of my makeup from my face, neck, and ear lobes! You just soak it with warm water and remove your makeup… and it does remove 100% of my makeup, including lash glue! I just simply wash it after every use and it dries quickly too. I highly recommend this if you are looking for a way to reduce your carbon foot print on the planet!

Favorite Makeover Product: 

Schwarzkopf Keratin Permanent Hair Color Cream in the shade 4.6 Intense Cocoa $9.97 on Amazon (but Amazon only allows you to purchase 1 so I ordered 3 more from Walgreens.com buy 2 get 1 free for the same price). This was the first time I used this product and I’ve gotta tell ya … This has got to be the BEST boxed hair color on the market. It has Anti-Breakage Technology called K·BOND-PLEX technology (that repairs inner hair structure) and a Pre-Color Serum (that leaves your hair looking healthy and strong, with less hair breakage). It also doesn’t have that harsh hair dye smell to it. In fact my hair smelled so good that it was like I had just simply washed my hair. The conditioner it comes with left my hair so smooth and soft and fluffy. I believe they use the same technology as Olaplex does because my hair felt as if I had just done an Olaplex treatment to it. This will definitely be a product I repurchase again and again. 

Favorite Candle:

Bath and Body Works Vanilla Bean Noel 3 Wick Candle: This sadly is my last Vanilla Bean Noel candle… I purchase this scent every year at Christmas time … I stock up when they have their holiday sale and typically purchase 20 of them… it’s just the best scent ever

Favorite Body Care Item:

Nivea Essentially Enriched Body Lotion with Almond Oil $5 at Walmart for 16.9 Fluid Ounces: I use to use Bath and Body Works body creams but with my Fibromyalgia I tend to get very sensitive itchy skin and have noticed that the Bath and Body Works creams would aggravate my already sensitive skin … So on a whim I picked this up a few months ago. Firstly a little of this goes a long way. It’s very creamy and very hydrating and has a soft Almond scent to it. It sinks in quickly and doesn’t leave me body feeling greasy. I’m pleasantly surprised at how wonderful this product is.

Favorite Hair Care Item:

Olaplex No 6 Bond Smoother $28 for 3.3 fluid ounces at Sephora and No 7 Bonding Oil $28 for 1 fluid ounces at Sephora: These two products work together you add a few drops of the oil into the smoother and mix it together. I use this once about ever few days to revive my curls… since I don’t wash my hair everyday I need something to help my curls revive. I typically only wash my hair 1 time a week since I don’t put any hair products into my hair. This not only smells amazing, it leaves my hair soft and replenished and defines my curls when they start to go a bit frizzy. A little bit goes along way I only use a quarter sized amount of the smoother and about 5 drops of the oil. This is another item that has seriously upped my curly girl hair game.

Favorite Movie : (I know this isn’t beauty related, but I take my movie time to do my spa treatments … so I included it as a favorite.)

Synopsis: When Cecilia’s abusive ex takes his own life and leaves her his fortune, she suspects his death was a hoax. As a series of coincidences turn lethal, Cecilia works to prove that she is being hunted by someone nobody can see. This was a very well thought out movie with lots of twists and turns. Highly Recomend.

Favorite Spa Day Item:

Revolution Skincare x Jake-Jamie Avocado Face Mask $11 for 1.6 ounces at Ulta: This mask is amazingly moisturizing. I use it once a week and my skin feels heavenly afterwards.

Favorite Skincare Item: 

I tried a ton of skincare in the month of April and there were several things that I loved but I would have to say that my all time favorite item(s) are as follows:

My 2 whole face (including eyes) serum routine: #1. Good Molecules Super Peptide Serum $12 for 1 fluid ounce through Beautylish (it’s also sold on the Good Molecules website) and it’s function is to target fine lines, wrinkles, and dullness. #2. Good Molecules Hyaluronic Acid Serum $6 for 1 fluid ounce through Beautylish (it’s also sold on the Good Molecules website) and it’s function is to replenish your skin’s moisture by drawing moisture into the skin for deep hydration.  My skin has never looks this good since I was in my teens. Both these serums are light weight and sink into the skin quickly and you only need 1/2 a dropper for your full face and neck … I also use whatever is left on my hands to rub into my hands as sort of a treat for my hands.

La Roche-Posay Anthelios Ultra Light Face Sunscreen Fluid Broad Spectrum SPF 60: $29.99 for 1.7 fluid ounces and I purchase mine through Amazon. Ever since I starting using this sunscreen I have decluttered all other facial sunscreens. This is the perfect consistency for me. It’s light weight and hydrating. It sinks into the skin amazingly fast. It doesn’t interfere with my makeup application and it doesn’t have that sunscreen scent. BONUS: It’s a 60+ sunscreen which is the ideal level of protection for the face. 

  Favorite Face Primer: 

Tarte Timeless Smoothing Primer $39 for .5 ounces at Ulta and Sephora: I typically switch up my face primers every day or two but the one that I use everyday is this one. It just fills in my pores so well that I reach for it time and time again over all of my pore primers.

Favorite High End Foundation:

Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Foundation $44 for 1 fluid ounce through Beautylish (but can also be purchased through Sephora and the Charlotte Tilbury website). As I said in my haul of this item this is such a beautiful foundation. I just can’t stop looking at my face anytime I’m wearing it. This full coverage foundation leaves my skin looking youthful and flawless. It plays well with dew drops mixed in and plays well with any primer. I will always have this foundation in my collections.

Favorite Drug Store Foundation: 

Believe Beauty Skin Finish Foundation: $5 for .85 fluid ounces only at Dollar General Stores. This foundation surprised me I truly didn’t believe that this was going to be a good foundation, however it is a FANTASTIC foundation and is  is a medium to full coverage. This is a semi-dewy foundation. What I mean is it’s just dewy enough to give you that youthful look without being to extreme. It lasts all day and doesn’t break down. I hope they never stop making this foundation!

Favorite High End BB/CC/Tinted Moisturizer: 

Tarte Maracuja Tinted Moisturizer $29 for 1 fluid ounce of product at Ulta. This is a super dewy product but not in a greasy sort of way. It’s light coverage and sets with powder nicely. This is such a beautiful product.. so much so that I purchased a back up just in case they pull it off the shelves. I find that it’s best to apply this one with your fingers since it’s such light coverage that using a sponge with soak it all up and using a brush will leave it looking streaky.

Favorite Concealer:

NYX Born to Glow Radiant Concealer $9 for .14 fluid ounces at Ulta. This is such a beautiful concealer! It doesn’t settle into my fine lines as long as I set it straight away upon application. It doesn’t crack throughout the day. A little tiny bit is all you need. It’s full coverage without being super thick. It gives an amazing glow to the under eye that can still be seen even after you set it with powder. I’d probably go out on a limb and say this may be my favorite concealer all year.

Favorite Cream Bronzer/Contour: I wont be having 2 categories for this one… mainly because I don’t have a drug store option for this category as of yet, I have since purchased a drug store option today.

Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Contour Wand in the shade 2 Medium/Dark $38 for .41 fluid ounces purchased through Beautylish (but can be purchased at Sephora and the Charlotte Tilbury website). I can’t believe I am saying that this is my favorite!! I have loved the Chanel Soleil De Chanel cream bronzer for so long that I didn’t think anything would ever replace it! Sad to say the Chanel bronzer was discontinued and a new cream bronzer replaced it … it looks more hydrating than the one I have so I’m keen to try it however … let’s talk Hollywood Contour Wand shall we!? This is the first cream contour product I’ve ever tried (bronze to me didn’t seem as scary as cream contour did). It is easy to use, easy to blend in, and gives the skin a natural looking contour. This is a light weight very pigmented product. You don’t get much product for the price tag, however a very little goes a very long way. I use 1 squeeze ever 2 days (it’s a sponge tipped applicator so the product stays in the sponge… I just squeeze 1 time and have enough product left over on the sponge that the next day I just have to dot what remains over the perimeter of my face. Unlike the Chanel bronzer this product doesn’t disrupt my foundation underneath. I love this product so much that I place an order today for a back up. 

Favorite Matte Bronzer/Contour:

Mac Bronzing Powder in the shade matte bronze: $30 for .35 ounces of product. I’ve had this compact for probably way too long because it’s starting to get hard pan, so I scraped the hard pan off … the powder works fine. The picture of the hand on the left is without flash and the one on the right is with flash. It’s just the perfect everyday natural looking bronzer. You can’t over do it with this bronzer since it’s so light of coverage. I always love my look when I’m wearing this one.

Favorite Glowy Bronzer :

Tarte Limited Edition Park Ave Princess Waterproof Face & Body Bronzer $34 for .55 ounces of product at Ulta. I do love a good glowy bronzer and this one does not disappoint! It’s the perfect shade, has just the right amount of glow without having shimmer to it … it’s just this glow from within! I just love how my skin looks with this bronzer on.

Favorite Dewy Primer: 

Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Flawless Filter in the shade #3 Light/Medium $44 for 1.01 fluid ounces on the Beautylish website (can also be purchased from Sephora or the Charlotte Tilbury website). Ever since getting this product in I have not been able to put it down! It’s freaking amazing!!! AMAZING! It has just enough of a tint that this could be worn alone for “No Makeup” makeup days and has the perfect amount of glow without having any shimmer to it. 1 swipe per zone is all you need of this primer. It’s not sticky or greasy and it does hold foundation nicely.

Favorite Cream Highlighter: 

Charlotte Tilbury Hollywood Beauty Light Wand $39 for .41 fluid ounces on the Beautylish website (can also be purchased from Sephora or the Charlotte Tilbury website). I have tried many cream highlighters and hate every single one, until this one came into my life! This highlighter is just magical! It doesn’t disrupt the foundation under neither, it melts into the skin seamlessly, and it has no glitter to it… just a natrual looking glow. The glow can still be seen even after setting it with powder! I haven’t been able to stop using it because I’m so in love with it.

Favorite High End Face Powder:

Too Faced Born This Way Ethereal Setting Powder in the shade Translucent $33 for .53 ounces of product at Ulta and Sephora. This powder has the most beautiful finish ever! It give a slight glow to the skin without looking like glitter or shimmer. This one has taken the place of my beloved Laura Mercier Loose Setting Powder in my heart. I just never want to be without it!!! It doesn’t take much of this powder to set the full face either. I tap 3 shakes into the cap and that sets my full face! It even looks amazing under the eyes.

Favorite Drug Store Face Powder:

Believe Beauty Matte Blur Loose Powder in the shade Translucent $5 for .14 ounces of product sold only at Dollar General. This is such a light weight powder that sets the face flawlessly. It is matte but doesn’t leave the face looking cakey or dry. It even looks good under the eyes. I have repurchased this 2 time since discovering it and I have 2 back ups.

Favorite High End Finishing and Touch Up Setting Powder:

Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish Setting Powder $45 for .28 ounces of product on the Beautylish website (can also be purchased at Sephora and on the Charlotte Tilbury website). This gives the prettiest soft focus to the face and doesn’t change the look of your makeup when you touch up with it. I find on days that I wear this one as a finishing powder I don’t have to touch up at all. I don’t quiet like this one as a setting powder, just as a finishing powder and touch up powder and sad to say I have hit pan … this is the most expensive pressed powder I own but it’s so worth it and I will definitely be repurchasing it when I’ve finished it.

Favorite Drug Store Finishing and Touch Up Setting Powder:

JCat Beauty AquaSurance Compact Foundation $13.99 for .31 ounces of product at Ulta. This is a spot on dupe for the Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Finish Setting Powder. It’s basically a fuller coverage version and I can use it to set my set as well and I never have to touch up at all when I use this powder.

Favorite Powder Highlighter: 

Benefit Boxed Highlighter in the shade Cookie $30 for .28 ounces of product at Ulta and Sephora. OH BABY! This highlighter is so pretty and little is all you need. This is a beaming highlighter so definitely not for low maintenance makeup day but add this to your full glam look and watch out…. it’s the perfect highlighter to be noticed in.

Favorite Blush:

Tarte 12-HR Amazonian Clay Blush in the shade Captivating $29 for .2 ounce of product at Ulta and Sephora. This is the best just pinched shade I’ve ever owned. I wore it a ton in April and for good reason. It goes with everything from “No Makeup” makeup looks to full on glam looks. It lasts all day and is probably my all time favorite blush shade.

Favorite Lip Combo:

L’Oreal Rouge Signature Lightweight Matte Lip Stain ($5.99 at Ulta) in the shade 448 I-Tease (a soft taupey pink matte) a few dots of Makeup Geek Creme Stain ($11.99 on their website) in the shade Jitterbug (an intense coral matte) a touch of NARS Lip Gloss ($24 on the NARS website) in the shade Stripe Tease  (Sheer champagne nude). This makes the perfect shade for every look. I’ve worn this only for the past few days of April but I can already tell it will be worn a ton in the month of May.

Favorite Powder to Set My Under Eyes:

Laura Mercier Secret Brightening Powder $28 for .14 ounces of product at Ulta and Sephora. This just leaves the under eyes looking flawless and it sets every concealer I own except the Dermablend concealer (that concealer is just too heavy and took emollient that nothing really sets it and I would return it but I lost the uni-carton it came in so Ulta wont take it back). I wish this came in a larger jar because I just know I will be repurchasing this over and over. It gives this soft focus glow to the under eye area that isn’t shimmery or glittery … just a sort of glow from within look.

Favorite Brow Pencil:

Benefit Precisely My Brow Pencil $24 at Ulta and Sephora for .27 ounces of product. I have purchased this pencil 2 time since discovering it and I have 1 back up. This is just the most effortless brow product ever. I almost never have a bad brow day when I use this pencil. It’s a definite recommend in my book.

Favorite Brow Gel: 

Believe Beauty Eyebrow Styling Gel $4 for .2 ounces of product sold only at Dollar General. Even though it’s only got .2 ounces of product this brow gel lasts a long time. You only need 1 pass of the wand to fully set your brow. It is never crunchy and never goes flaky. The picture is of my back ups … this sucker goes fast at the store so I pick up 2 or 3 every time I go to Dollar General so I never run out. I adore this one so much that I never reach for my other brow gels.

Favorite High End Eye Shadow Palette: 

Too Faced Born This Way The Natural Nudes Eyeshadow Palette $45. It has 8 matte shades and 8 shimmer shades and you get .48 total ounces of product and is sold at Ulta and Sephora. Some of my all time favorite looks this past month have come from this palette! I just adore it so much. Too Faced really hit it out of the park with this one.

Favorite Drug Store Eye Shadow Palette: (I have 3, 1 is a bit more pricier, 1 is mid-ranged and the other is super inexpensive)

ColourPop Bare Necessities 30 Pan Eyeshadow Palette $34 on the ColourPop website. I have created so many beautiful neutral eye looks with this palette! With 30 shades I never get bored of this one.

  Believe Beauty Eyeshadow Palette  in the color story: Nearly Nude $5 only sold at Dollar General. It’s just simple an amazing palette. I was highly impressed with this one. I got a few looks out of it and it’s the perfect size for travel.

  Catrice Basic Bae Eyeshadow Palette $14.99 at Ulta. This was the first thing I ever tried from Catrice and I was super impressed! The shadows are super pigmented and blend like a dream.

Favorite Eye Liner:

Charlotte Tilbury The Classic Powder Eye Pencil in the shade Audrey $22 on the Beautylish website (but can also be purchased at Sephora and on the Charlotte Tilbury website). Now this one was a surprise to me. I hated this pencil when I first tried it…. I could never get it to work… Well I finally figured it out and I am in love. It gives such a effortless look to the eyes when I use it. This will be a repurchase when I run out.

Favorite Mascara: 

Milani Dangerous Lengths 3D Mascara regularly $9.99 nut currently on sale for $7.49 at Ulta. This is another item that surprised me but ever since I’ve been conditioning my lashes with the Jamaican Black Castor Oil my lashes have been looking so nice and combined with the mascara I just fell in love…. I can’t believe I have a favorite mascara and it’s, for the first time in years, not the L’Oreal voluminous Carbon Black!!! This just gives a nice fluffy airy look to the lashes.

Favorite Inner Corner Highlight:

Hikari Creme Pigment in the shade Honey Dew $15 on their website. I have been using this for a few years now but I just can’t seem to stay away. It just give the prettiest lilt to the inner corners.

Favorite Setting Spray: (I have 2 this month)

ColourPop Hyaluronic Acid Setting Mist $12 for 3.72 fluid ounces of product at Ulta and on the ColourPop website. This setting spray smells like the beach and leaves the skin looking dewy and healthy. It holds your makeup fairly well … I don’t really need a setting spray that will hold my makeup on until the wee hours of the morning, I just need a spray that will take down the powderiness of freshly applied makeup.  I’ve been using this bottle for 2 months and I’m almost out of it. This makes me sad because it’s sold out everywhere. I think this may just be my favorite setting spray of the year.

Belif Aqua Bomb Mist $34 for 2 2.02 fluid ounces of product on the Beautylish website (but can also be purchased at Ulta and Sephora). This one adds tons of hydration to the skin and I love it as a touch up spray too. Lately I have been using it in combination with the other setting spray just to add a bit more hydration to my under eye area. 

Favorite Find of the Year So Far: 

HonHey Portable Hand Held Rechargeable Fan. $13 on Amazon. I purchased this back in the beginning of March but it has quickly become my favorite beauty extra! It helps me dry my setting spray and lash glue. It also helps keep me cooler when the hot lights of my makeup table start to make me over heat. It has a great charge life as well. 

Well … We have reached the end dolls. Thank you ever so much for hanging in there with this post …. I know it was a long one … but this is the flagship post of this series and I thought I should be as thorough as possible with at least the first in the series… Now that’s not to say I wont have heaps of favorites in any given month, but I may just have a few favorites in other months too.

Well that’s all for now dolls. I hope you enjoy the rest of your day/night and that your spirits are high and your health is good! Remember dolls, Save a spoon for a bit of lipstick.

XOXO

April 2020 Beauty Favorites Hey doll hey!!! How's your day/night going? Great I hope. I had a pretty good day ...

[thefreshfinds]

RaneRaps:

We all are one & the same.

One that goes through a series of different situations or outcomes yet it ties back to us.

In light of this, RaneRaps seems to just get it.

With a pocket full of sunshine he's able to take the world by storm.

Besides using upliftment as a mean of connecting with his audience, RaneRaps also digs deep into himself & relays his own experiences through an expansive vocal range.

Notably his sound has an influx of gospel melodies, soul & funk.

He fills your plate with a food for thought & hypersonic flows that gnaw at your ear-chords.

For this reason, RaneRap's music will go to great lengths for an all around positive change.

Etching his truth so that others can see the bigger picture, RaneRaps uses imagery & vocal tones to deliver the raw & real "without completely surrounding the listener in desolation or despair." As a teen, RaneRaps spent hours playing MMORPGs (Final Fantasy XI) online & so one day as he grew impatient with the process of starting the game, Thus, RaneRaps wanted to make a story for a name & added "Rane" as the first part of his stage name because it really captured his skill level. "With the combination of 1) the hype surrounding FFXI & 2) AOL dial-up taking more than a full day to download all the updates I needed to play," RaneRaps says "Naturally, I chose the first name to come to mind. I didn't end up as Lil' Inkjet, AOL Boi 2002, DAREfailedUS or any other name that just wouldn't have my type of pizzaz. And with that, I brought my URL self into the IRL realm of rap, keeping Rane & adding Raps."

Though he says that music is life , RaneRaps creates it for himself (first), cathartic purposes & the world at-large. "I'm all about positivity, love & sobering truth - even if my truth comes at the cost of a song NOT being upbeat or extremely light-hearted. That being said, I think my secret sauce is finding ways to speak on the worst evils of my life." he adds.

 He'd like for authenticity to become normalized again in the current era of hip-hop because there are more people who can relate to life & not the street life. He finds it better to speak on being flawed than whatever the template heroic tale seems to be these days. "I'm a middle class Black male who grew up in a household with both parents and have two siblings. Fortunately, I didn't have to struggle much growing up and as a result of my parent's preparedness for my future - I was able to realize opportunities that some of my peers could not." he goes on to say "I've never been afraid to acknowledge my privilege, make songs about the life I live, lived & what I know. I hope that those like me understand you don't have to become a created player built on a fake thug life to gain a fanbase, nor do you need to brand yourself as a saint. It's an easy fact to get - just be yourself & you'll be fine but there's a lot of willful ignorance perpetuating stereotypes & smoke in mirrors. It can only be a net positive when everyone tells their story."

Similarly he's moved by artist who are fearless in doing so (& even when his first introduction to hip-hop was Will Smith's album Big Willie Style it helped RaneRaps learn how to make music that's designed to celebrate life & get people moving.) According to the star, A Tribe Called Quest got him hooked more into hip-hop. "I woke up in the wee-hours of the morning to their Scenario (Remix) playing on MTV. I couldn't remember the name of the song for the life of me but I searched Busta Rhymes "the charcoal chicken" & went deep into the rabbit hole of New York rap," RaneRaps proclaims "To this day, I still have the mix CD of ATCQ, Gang Starr, Eric B., Rakim & even Drake's So Far Gone." Rane says that these MC's helped him to understand different cadences & styles of rap. Yet he couldn't envision RaneRaps until he discovered Outkast. "I absorbed all of their country funk twist. The messages in their songs, the vocal inflections, the atypical beats an song structure spoke to me & I felt validated in wanting to be myself, whatever that may be."

Nowadays (as in 2014 to now), RaneRaps finds inspiration from artists who carry their own energy & are openly themselves. He says that he's written gospel songs after bingeing Robb Banks' 2phoneshawty mixtape, wrote one of his favorite songs, "Broken Window Theory" after singing along to Lil Peep, & he's still learning how to create narratives from his realities from the likes of Maxo Kream, Dave East, Nipsey Hussle & Anderson.Paak but out of everyone he's ever heard, RaneRaps would love to work with Duckwrth! "Our sounds & aesthetic are very similar & to be from LA with this sort of musical direction has proven quite rare in the year that I've moved back." RaneRaps adds. "Duckwrth's message fits my brand - truth-seeking & positive. So, a collaboration would be highly beneficial for us both, even with a difference in the size of our fan bases. Honestly, I've always wanted to open for the guy & set up his show with my wild stage performance. I think we would make one hell of a duo on the concert circuit!"

Overall expect RaneRaps to make his mark in the next 5 years. He's going to brand "RapSoulFunk" as his signature sound, release a 2 full-length albums with my producer, Hirsh, a mixtape of soulful jams from before & after discovering his "sound", tour with a live-band that supports him & use his earnings to invest in other income streams & environmental education programs for inner-city youth.

After all, It's always intentional that he's out to be the best.

Rane Raps: "For any upcoming artist out there sign up for a monthly subscription to Indepreneur.io & start collecting the data to run your career. Everyone says "You don't need a label these days." but then what? Drop that hit song & you're set right? Not at all. The Facebook pixel has changed my life & I can wake up any day of the week & know 1) how to gain new fans of my music at the push of a button, 2) sell tickets to shows from my own website without handing away percentages to other platforms / venues, 3) run sales promotions that can generate LARGE profits, etc. The music business is AT LEAST 70% of where your time will go as an indie, so if you learn it, you just need decent at best music & you can get the ball rolling for yourself. Getting ahead of the competition is MUCH easier than you think!"

By: Natalee Gilbert

Fun Facts:

A word of advice that stuck with him was "Don't Suck." Through this advice, RaneRaps was able to develop an unapologetic quality control for himself & became obsessed with chasing the feeling of "YES, THIS IS THE ONE!". One he felt could replicate that. After that he started to release music regularly & stood firmly in his art.

Link(s):

1. Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/raneraps

2. Instagram: @raneraps

3. YouTube + Spotify: Search "RaneRaps"​

[operationrainfall]

As both oprainfall’s resident indie nerd and Nintendo fanboy, it fell upon me to cover the Indie Direct. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect, cause sometimes the cup runneth over for indie fans, and sometimes it doesn’t. Thankfully, it veritably overflowed today, with nearly 20 games announced for a variety of genres. It was both old games coming to the Nintendo Switch, as well as entirely new and exclusive games. There’s a lot to cover, and a lot of reasons to be excited. So I’ll give a brief snippet of each title covered, in the order they were revealed, as well as release info. Buckle up, boys and girls.

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First up was an announcement that made me smile and groan at the same time. Creepy milk commercial aside, Cuphead is officially heading to the Nintendo Switch on April 18th. The reason I’m groaning is cause I already bought this on Steam, but would much prefer it on Switch. So I guess Studio MDHR gets my money twice. You can pre-purchase the game as of today, though it officially launches on April 18th, bringing beautifully animated chaos to your system.

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Next up is Overland, a squad focused, turn-based apocalyptic strategy game. It looks like it has elements of tactical RPGs and a bit of Oregon Trail ethos, where you can’t save everyone. Since it’s set in such a dangerous climate, it shouldn’t surprise you that the farther west you go, the weirder things get. This randomly generated adventure is heading to the Switch this Fall.

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I’m very happy that My Friend Pedro is finally heading to the Switch this June. I’m even more surprised that they announced it was a console exclusive, since the last time I demoed it, I could have sworn it was also headed to PS4 and PC. Regardless, if you love frenetic, coordinated violence on a comical scale and talking bananas, you’ll love this one.

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I got to play Neo Cab at E3 last year, and I’m glad to hear it’s coming out soon. This visually distinct game involves trying to reunite with your best friend in a future ruled by a dystopian megacorporation. You’re the last human driver in city overrun by automation, and your job is to drive folks around while staying calm and unveiling the mysteries of the city. Neo Cab is out later this Summer.

When I heard this next game was about dog racing, I almost skipped it. But then I saw that The Red Lantern is narrative driven and has an interesting overall style. Developed by Timberline Studio, in the game you’ll engage in the Iditarod, fight the wilderness, tend your dogs, mend wounds and hunt to survive. Fend off bear attacks and get to your destination alive. Oh and if you like gyro controls, The Red Lantern has those as well. This unique adventure is out later this year.

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I don’t normally think of top down when I think of survival horror, but Darkwood looks to be a strange and eerie adventure. In this title you’ll craft weapons, explore hideouts and hunker down at night while praying for the sun as monsters hunt you. Darkwood is also procedurally generated, so every time will be different. If that sounds like your cup of tea, it’s out this May.

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Personally, I adore the style of Katana Zero. It has lush pixelated charm and lots of action. You play as Dragon the assassin. Armed with precognition, you will manipulate time and leave no witnesses. One hit and you’re dead though, but thankfully the game rewinds levels when you lose. And on the random side of things, in between missions you’ll talk with a therapist to get over your demons. Katana Zero is out April 18, though you can pre-purchase it today.

I admit I have yet to play any game published by Double Fine (though I do own a couple). But I’ve played many from Bandai Namco, and that’s relevant since this next game is by both. RAD is a top down adventure game where your primary power is the skill to mutate into horrid beasts to fight other horrid beasts. Sounds like my sort of game, so perhaps this will be the first Double Fine title I end up playing. RAD is out later this Summer.

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If you had told me earlier today a game with a mix of post apocalyptic mayhem and pinball was gonna intrigue me, I would have called you a filthy liar. Well, now I know better, as Creature in the Well seems to mix both effortlessly. It features 8 dungeons, top down action adventure, pinball ricochet mechanics and lots of crazy. A giant creature has trapped your town in a sandstorm, so you have to slay it with over 15 weapons, each with different quirks. This fascinating looking title is out later this Summer.

I’m super excited that they announced that Bloodroots is out this Summer. Not only was this game a blast at PAX West, but it’s really a one of a kind action game. Everything in the environment is your weapon, which is good since one hit and you’re a gonner. Play as anti-hero Mr. Wolf on his mysterious quest for revenge. Can’t wait til I get my hands on this.

Pine gave me all sorts of Redwall vibes. This open world, 3rd person action adventure game adapts to your choices and features lots of strange creatures. Explore miles of terrain and engage with 5 factions of anthropomorphic animal men, including Moose and Gator. Scavenge, barter, harvest and craft this August.

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Vlambeer got a lot of love, showing off 2 ports and one entirely new title. Super Crate Box is one of the ports out today. It features fast paced, multiplayer matches, which are exclusive to this version. Nuclear Throne is also out today, offering post apocalyptic fun solo or with a buddy. Lastly, the new title is Vlambeer Arcade, which features a growing catalog of bite sized games, including Ultra Bugs first. Think Space Invaders, except you use enemy DNA to customize your ship. Vlambeer Arcade is out later this year.

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If you like 2D fun in the ocean, you’ll love Swimsanity! It features 1-4 player bouts with humans or bots. This multiplayer underwater shooter has more than 150 challenges, 8 game modes and 5 worlds. Choose classic or motion control and enjoy matchmaking and in-game voice chat. Out later this Summer.

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When I think indie on Switch, I always think of Inti Creates. Today they announced the sequel to the wonderful Blaster Master Zero, Blaster Master Zero II. It features the Gaia-Sophia tank, a new blast counter mechanic, travelling across the galaxy to different planets and planetoids, new items and even a broad new cast of characters. Best of all, Blaster Master Zero II is out RIGHT NOW. I’ll wait while you go buy it.

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The strangest reveal today was Stranger Things 3: The Game. Not a lot of details were announced for this isometric adventure game, other than local co-op, puzzle solving, and 12 playable characters. What I can say definitively is it releases July 4th which is also the same day that the 3rd season hits Netflix. Count me excited.

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They saved the best for almost last. At first I thought it was just talking about new content for Crypt of the Necrodancer, but surprise! It’s actually a brand new game in that universe called Cadence of Hyrule. Team up with Link and Zelda and fight off the hordes of Gannon and friends. This wonderfully exuberant looking game (which I’m sure will be a console exclusive) is out Spring 2019.

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The last thing to cover today is that there will be a sale for other indies already on Switch later today. Whew, talk about a ton of new reasons to be excited. Thanks for joining oprainfall for your coverage and stay tuned for more info about these games in the near future!

Nintendo’s Indie Direct Recap, Including Cuphead and Cadence of Hyrule As both oprainfall's resident indie nerd and Nintendo fanboy, it fell upon me to cover the Indie Direct.

[final-fantasy-7-remake-inow]

Best PC mods for Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade - Pro Game Guides

💾 ►►► DOWNLOAD FILE 🔥🔥🔥 Log in. Top Bottom. Hide Images. Gaming Forum. Gaming Hangouts. EtcetEra Forum. EtcetEra Hangouts. Trending Threads. Latest threads. Open new ticket Watched. Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Intergrade steam page up. Thread starter Lashley Start date Jun 16, Forums Discussion Gaming Forum. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. You should upgrade or use an alternative browser. Prev 1 … Go to page. First Prev 17 of 18 Go to page. Giveaways View all 1 threadmarks Reader mode Recent threadmarks 5 gifts from Kromis. Nikokuno Unshakable Resolve Member. Jul 22, Shona said:. Here's what I did for my game. It's almost completely eliminated stutters for me so far on my setup Ti, Ryzen 7 X 8-Core at 3. I don't think I'm forgetting any steps, but make sure to look over the mods' pages if you run into any issues. I'm just following what was mentioned on them. I'm by no means smart about this stuff lmao. EDIT 2: Restarted my game and it's fine now Click to expand Oct 27, 15, Nikokuno said:. Game doesn't load, running seemingly Green state, info in my Steam show i'm playing but nothing on screen. Did you make sure to tell Steam to run it in DX11? JoanneAlley Member. Jun 9, Dust said:. Alexandros said:. SunshinePuppies said:. Even on EGS that has to mean something. RubberStamp said:. There is no proof of this being true. I don't believe we get platform based sales breakdowns for large games. So saying that a small indie game performed worse on EGS when it was available on steam so a AAA game that was exclusive to the store did bad as well is disingenuous. FF7 has been in the top sellers list of EGS for a while. So there is no reason to assume that it did extremely poorly there unless someone has some actual figures to say otherwise. Really wish you could move the camera further away from the character. You can barely get it away from them. Last edited: Jun 19, Jun 24, 1, California. Game is running so much better now. Polyh3dron Prophet of Regret Banned. Oct 25, 6, Haven't installed any mods though. Shinobido Heart Member. Dec 23, 5, After switching to DX11, the game runs relatively smooth, still some micro stutters in certain areas. Most likely to load assets, but it's small enough to make me barely notice. Probably G-Sync helps too. Just add -d3d11 to the games launch options on Steam. Theiea Member. Oct 27, What size is it on Ps5? Jinroh Member. Oct 28, 1, Lausanne, Switzerland. Why does DX12 always suck so much? Altezein Member. Mar 21, 2, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Theiea said:. Chance Hale Member. Oct 26, 9, Colorado. The motorcycle section legitimately looked like cg, game looks so much better than the ps4 version. Kromeo Member. Oct 27, 13, I played up to sector 7 slums and it seems to run fine, not noticed any stutters. The controls feel a bit different, it's more difficult getting Cloud to line up with switches and stuff lol. Prelude Member. Oct 25, 1, Jinroh said:. Oct 26, 3, Denmark. So I got a gameplay question, because I feel like I'm either reading this wrong, or very, very right. The bonus accessory, the Seraphic Earrings, say that they can revive a character that gets KO'd, but unlike the ones you can buy, they don't break on use. Does that mean "once per battle" or does it really mean "immunity to Game Over"? The latter is what it says to me, but that can't be right, can it? Galaxea Member. Oct 25, 1, Orlando, FL. This games hdr mode is excellent and it looks way worse without it. Kuro Member. Oct 25, 12, McNum said:. Kuro said:. It probably only activates once per battle but you don't have to worry about buying another after like the Revival Earrings. I think that item is just some packed in DLC to make the game easier if you want. Mocha Joe Member. Jun 2, 3, While it could go up tomorrow or this week, seems unlikely. Did way better than I thought it would but man, Square Enix just missing out on tapping into the potential of the PC market. DeadlyVenom Member. Apr 3, 1, Oct 25, 1, Boise, Idaho. JoanneAlley said:. I swear there's a cheatengine table out there that fixes this but i can't find it. Galactic Specter Member. Oct 28, 4, I've been having fun playing this game for the first time on Steam but it's a bummer knowing the next chapter is gonna be another 2 years late port following PS5 exclusivity and EGS exclusivity. Sambumbia-PR Member. Dec 23, Last edited: Jun 20, Duxxy3 Member. Oct 27, 16, USA. Oct 26, 18, Duxxy3 said:. I would like to say the sooner DX12 dies the better, but who knows if DX13 will be even worse. Maybe DirectX versions will be like versions of windows. Where every other version is good. May 31, 1. Woah I can't even quote the above post. This is what I got from google translate in simplified Chinese: "I had a great time playing the game on Steam for the first time, but it's a shame to know that the next chapter will be another 2-year delayed port following the PS5 exclusive and EGS exclusive. Capcom and Bandai have yet to release any games on EGS". Finaika Member. Dec 11, 7, DX12 is fine, developers implemtations are the issue. As Dictator and other DF members discussed before many developers just do things old way and DX12 doesn't like that. So basically devs are not implementing DX12 as it's meant to be implemented and that causes issues. Dec 4, Anyone know if ffviihook prevents you from getting Steam achievements? Finaika said:. Arsene no Kiseki Member. Oct 25, 4, Canada. Mahonay Member. Oct 25, 31, Pencils Vania. Arsene no Kiseki said:. It doesn't. Oct 25, 4, FinFunnels Banned. Oct 27, 5, Seattle. Ever since I switched textures to Low and set FPS cap to , the game has been running significantly better for me. Before switching the settings, the chapter 1 boss fight was a slideshow at times. But now I'm consistently staying above 60 FPS and the stutters are occuring way less frequently usually occurs during cutscene transitions, sometimes when entering new "rooms" during gameplay. Oct 27, 2, Seattle, WA. Earvin Infinity said:. Koklusz Member. So I've managed to mostly get rid of the stutters on my ti as evidenced by the video below: Max settings except NPC density at 7, p in game but renders at p internally and upscales using 15 tap Lanczos, looks perfectly sharp on my TV when view from couch pretty much PS5 performance mode settings. After some tweaking, I don't have any stutter. The slums is nice and smooth. Feels great when the game is smooth, but fuck square for such a shit-tier port. This is their flagship franchise, should have been a S-tier port. Oct 25, 2, United Kingdom. Mecha Meister said:. Thankfully the development team finally patched the performance issues I mentioned last year, it's not flawless but I would argue that performance is similar to that of the 1. Edit: Here's a discussion about it on the Steam forum, some people are still reporting stutter issues. Stutter is fixed and now the game plays fine. I don't know if they removed Denuvo or not, but at least it's a good time to play it for those who had problems in previous versions. Nov 8, 8, It's really unfortunate, especially since this isn't their first foray into PC games, FFXV was developed by a different studio but they really meant business with the PC version, that game did have problems of its own though. Linus Member. Oct 29, 13, Wasn't horizon pretty bad at launch? Linus said:. FF15 PC version had a lot of options that were exclusive to PC which is nice, but I don't think it was a particularly good port. The game was basically broken for over a year, because an update broke something and the game became such a stuttery mess that people were downgrading their versions just to play. It was worse than FF7R's stutters, because it was constant. They patched it eventually, but even as is, the game just doesn't really run all that well. I replayed it a few weeks ago on an RTX and the performance is just wildly inconsistent, spent way too much time in the grpahics menu trying to find good settings to make the game stable in all areas. I don't know what they did, but they've actually broken the game, it stutters like crazy on the latest version. I forgot to post in this thread that I managed to get the game to run a lot smoother on my i7 K before my motherboard bit the dust, I rolled back to the 1. Before updating the game, the stuttering was so bad that I reinstalled Windows wondering if something had gone wrong with my installation. I downgraded the game and it ran so much better. That's how I knew something was seriously wrong. Then when I downgraded the game it was like I installed new hardware with how much smoother the game ran. Even on my new Ryzen 5 CPU the new version has a lot more stuttering This is without Special K , and the older version runs so much smoother. This game had so much potential, it's a shame they have seemingly ceased development of it, especially after they broke fucking game on PC. Apologies for my language. Please, Square Enix. I beg you release a new patch and fix the latest PC version of the game. Edit - I've expanded my post. Alvis Saw the truth behind the copied door Member. Oct 25, 8, It no longer looks like it's running at sub-native resolution. I also disabled the film grain and motion blur. The problem with TAA disabled is the hair In motion, it looks like it's vibrating lol. GhostTrick Member. Oct 25, 10, Alvis said:. GhostTrick said:. Sambumbia-PR said:. I guess I could try that. Koklusz said:. If the image is too blurry to you, you're better off using sharpening via drivers or reshade. Last edited: Jun 21, MaLDo Member. Sinah Member. Jun 2, You must log in or register to reply here.

[fostersffff]

I went to PAX East again this year, and while I still have a day and a half left, the Expo Hall had way fewer exhibitors than usual this year (for obvious reasons), so I think I’ve checked out everything I was interested in. Here’s a little roundup of my impressions:

Eiyuden Chronicles Rising

A new entry in the sub-genre of “kickstarter game tie-in”, this is a Metroidvania prequel to the Suikoden-like Eiyuden Chronicles. It feels a little primitive, mechanically-speaking, based on what I played, but I also only had access to one character. Maybe some characters you unlock further down the line will be more fleshed out but as is, it’s probably worth the $15 it’s going to cost.

TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge

I was hesitant about getting excited for this on account of the fact that it’s being made by Tribute, who made the beloved-but-mechanically blah Scott Pilgrim game. Thankfully, this feel significantly better than that did- not quite to the level of Street of Rage 4, but very solid. Lots of juggling off wall bounces, different types of attacks, and I believe the ability to restand downed enemies.

Evil West

Surprisingly, I think this was the most impressive game I played. I didn’t realize that this is the first time the game has actually been playable, and uh… it’s really fucking good. Third-person shooter that’s taking a lot of its combat cues from NuDOOM with a very cool Mystical Wild West aesthetic. The exhibitors even recommended playing with a controller and it felt fine, so I’ll probably wind up picking this up on console (although the aim assist was a little intense for this).

Phantom Brigade

I was looking forward to trying this one for years and… well, was kinda disappointed. The concept of planning out a turn having a rough idea of how enemies will move is very cool, but in the demo time I had the UI felt clunky. Additionally, this is definitely a consequence of getting back into anime and Gundam specifically, but realistic military tacticool mecha is kinda boring to me nowadays.

Cursed to Golf

A golf-based platformer, in that you platform your way through an environment via golfing. The tutorial seemed kind of boring, but once I got into the game proper and realized it wasn’t just a weird, watered-down 2D golf game I had a lot of fun.

The Last Hero of Nostalgaia

Meme Souls. It’s funny that your character is Atari 2600 stick figure, but otherwise it’s just indie Meme Souls.

Writer’s Block

BOOKWORM ADVENTURES IS FUCKING BACK, BAYBEE! WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG FOR SOMEONE TO RIP OFF BOOKWORM ADVENTURES?It does iterate a bit on Bookworm Adventures, placing way more emphasis on using certain letters than just making super long words, but it’s BOOKWORM ADVENTURES!!!

Princess Farmer

A very fun little Match 3 puzzle game that was very obviously made by a gay woman/women based on the aesthetic and writing. It actually came out at the end of last month, so I bought it once I got access to the internet. Maybe a bit expensive at $15- $10 definitely feels like the sweet spot for this kind of game- but if it ever goes on sale I’d heartily recommend this one.

Rusted Moss

Platformer shooter with mouse aiming and a grappling hook. Incredibly cool, with a demo out now on Steam, but definitely pretty early along. Hoping this eventually makes it to consoles.

Cuisineer

Diablo! But with a cute aesthetic! I thought this was going to be half cooking simulator or restaurant management, but if it is, I didn’t get to that part of it. Not much else to say about it, unfortunately.

Dumpy & Bumpy

Box puzzles! You like box puzzles? It’s box puzzles! You don’t like box puzzles? Not for you!

Swapette Showdown

Panel de Pon/Tetris Attack/Pokemon Puzzle League! You like those things? It’s those things! You don’t like those things? Not for you!

Demon Throttle

The really neat vertical shoot ‘em up I will literally never play because Devolver Digital seems utterly committed to this $30, physical-only gimmick.

Cult of the Lamb

The really neat dungeon crawler and town builder I can’t yet play because Devolver Digital set up one station that appears to be for press only.

[onyx-archer]

My Idea for the Future of Comic Books.

I've been telling people in my personal life that like comics (and few that at least like to hear about weird ideas I have) that the current release method for comics is slowly killing the industry, among other things. I've put a lot of thought into how to fix the problem, and while I'm no expert, I think it comes down to a number of factors. All of it will be under the cut, as to not overwhelm you if you don’t want to read it. Keep in mind that this more or less entirely pertains to the Big Two (Marvel and DC), but can be applied to all but the smallest publishers really.

All of the issues I can see with the industry are as follows:

1. Limited Distribution: The Direct Market makes it harder for people to get into comics. Be it because of the hobby's requirement to go to a hobbyist store of some kind, or hope that they can find a copy on Amazon. Digital stuff does help a little, but that leads into the next problem.

2. Digital Prices/Digital Marketshare: From what little we as a community know about digital sales, thanks to a few bits of info that can be gleamed from smaller, indie creators, we know that there isn't a super huge digital market for comics yet. This would probably improve if the publishers stopped charging print cover prices for digital books, but that probably won't happen any time soon. Of course, digital markets come with the advent of piracy, but it's not like that was entirely avoidable thanks to scanning groups.

3. The Release Format: I'm gonna say something a little controversial here: single issues aren't really worth the price at this point. I say this because of how story arcs for comics these days are typically written; stories are very rarely self contained single issue affairs anymore. This also plays into the comics only being available for purchase through extremely limited channels, whereas you can sell a graphic novel or a trade paperback in more easily accessible markets than hobbyist stores like Comic Book stores. The single issues also tend to sit unsold because it's easy to over ship them, which is evident in basically every comic book store in North America.

4. Marketing: This issue is mostly aimed at Marvel, but can be applied universally. A big issue Marvel has is that they launch books with little fanfare, only to cancel them 6 issues in because of low sales. The books basically just get axed because they aren't marketed properly to potential fans. Tent pole titles like Spider-Man get marketed, sure, but for every Spider-Man or Thor, there's a character with a smaller fanbase that's getting snubbed because the big books hog all of the marketing budget, making it harder for them to gain any sizable fan traction.

I could also throw overall quality of storytelling/writing, but that's more of subjective issue in most cases. After all, just because I don't like the writing of recent Spider-Man material doesn't mean nobody does. I could also throw in my problems with people in the comics industry being shitheads on social media, but that’s not important right now.

Anyway, my solution idea attempts to address the 4 big problems. It's basically as follows:

1. Changing Formats: This here's probably going to get me the most flack, but I don't really care. What I'm suggesting is a complete overhaul of the format of comics into something a little more enticing, and potentially profitable: graphic novels. Now, the industry already releases trade collections, but I think given the fact that most comic story lines are written for trade collections already, we might as well just get graphic novels instead. This has a number of benefits, but I'll get into that more as we go. One I’ll bring up now though is that Graphic Novels, over all, have a better shelf life than individual floppies.

2. Dial Back The Number of Releases: A big issue some smaller titles have right now is the lack of marketing, and this suggestion is a pretty reasonable way to limit the issue. What I'm suggesting is, along with the change in format, a company like Marvel only releases, at most, 4 things a week. Preferably, 2-3 books, but 4 is still within reason as far as I'm concerned. This, combined with a format change, will cut down on the ugly look of a pile of unsold issues, and can be stored more efficiently. It will also allow for a more efficient marketing, and less clutter on shelves, and if all companies adopted the practice, less competing for a reader’s attention.

3. Quarterly Release Schedule: Something that would be a byproduct of going to a graphic novel format would come with a release drawback, but at the same time, it would make each release easier to justify purchasing. If I only had to buy Spider-Man 4 times a year, for 20-25 bucks a pop, I'd be happy. Of course, to make sure you don't misunderstand, each volume would have to guarantee a conclusion to the story being told by the time the last page is turned. Sure, an ongoing subplot that ties stories together is fine, but it would make things easier to recommend to fresh eyes, as a more complete feeling story is more satisfying, and is easier to keep up with and/or remember.

4. Writer Rotation: This is a simple thing, but it's basically necessary to ensure a release schedule of graphic novels. The benefit of superhero material is that writers go from project to project with enough frequency, barring a few notable exceptions, so this would be a huge boon for a format change. The ideal number of writers is 2, but it can work with 3 or 4, but no more than 4. This would require a bit of teamwork on the part of the two writers, but it would allow for a more efficient output, giving each writer a window of 3 or so months to draft subsequent releases. I would also have at least 2 different main artists on board, just to make the process less daunting for a single main artist. This would come with the caviate that a writer can only remain on the book for, at most, 4-5 years at a time, to prevent burnout and/or creative stagnation. (I probably explained this poorly, but hopefully this one made sense)

5. A Variety Title: Something to keep things a little less stale, I’m proposing that each week, there’s what’s effectively an anthology/variety type book. It would, hypothetically, be similar to something like Weekly Shonen Jump, only it’d be under specific brandings. Marvel is easily the one company that I can point to an example of: Amazing Fantasy, Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, Tales of Suspense, etc. Basically, these would be weekly titles that focus on a subset of Marvel’s characters for a number of purposes.

Short, self contained oneshot stories to help with the less frequent main title releases. 

Test new solo titles for unproven characters before committing to a larger book.

For the sake of showcasing newer writers to the public to gauge reactions before handing them the keys to a bigger title.

The big thing is that these would be released monthly, and wouldn’t count towards the previously mentioned release of only 3-4 books a week. They would also be sold cheaper, and individual stories could be sold cheaply in a digital format.

6. Ship To Non-Specialty Stores: A benefit of a format change would be a wider set of options for the release of books on a more frequent basis. Book stores, or other retailers that have book sections (like Walmart) wouldn’t have a problem with stocking the stories in their book sections, allowing for more eyes to be on the comics. This would have to come with the caveat of either having a rating system like video games in a easily visible place, or simply limiting the more mature stuff to Amazon and more specialist stores. Still, it allows for more potential readers to find the books easier.

7. Lower the Digital Market Price: This one is a harder pill to swallow, but realistically, this would have to be done. Heck, this idea alone can ignore all of the previous ones, and that alone would probably boost digital sales. Most people buy digital goods because it’s marginally cheaper in some cases, and they don’t have to go anywhere. The cheaper price is usually the result of not needing to print actual copies of a product, but comics have failed to grasp this concept. I think it’s a no-brainer if you change the format, but it’s obviously something the current format needs to do too.

So yeah, that’s some shit I probably put way too much thought into, but those are just some ideas I have when it comes to fixing American Comics. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

[closetofanxiety]

New Jersey Death (match) Trip

I’m sorry this is long. If you’re reading on a mobile device, I know Tumblr makes you scroll through the whole thing instead of respecting their own html cut. 

Let’s just get this out of the way: I’m not reviewing the matches from Game Changer Wrestling’s Tournament of Survival 3. I haven’t watched enough death matches to qualify even as a mildly informed observer, and you know what? They kind of run together. It’s hard to distinguish one from the other, when you’re seeing one after the other.

When the first light tube spot happened on Saturday night, with a loud POP that could be heard everywhere in the building, the crowd erupted. By the time the hundredth light tube spot happened (not an exaggeration!), late into the show, no one in the crowd reacted at all. At some point, you just become numb.

I will say that, for sheer “Oh my God” spectacle, it’s hard to beat this kind of wrestling. I posted a bunch of short clips to my Instagram story, and friends who care not a whit about wrestling were messaging me all night about them. “What is that?” “Where are you?” “That looks insane,” etc. And when you’re standing a few feet away, the brutality is mesmerizing and almost artistic, like Artaud’s idea of the theater of cruelty, but for real.

On the other hand, all the criticisms I’ve heard of death match wrestling were on display: the comparison to the numbing effect of pornography seemed apt, as did the common complaint about guys who are theoretically trying to kill each other calmly waiting while their opponent sets up the next ridiculous spot. During one match (Ciclope vs. Alex Colon? I don’t know. They genuinely run together, especially in a tournament), one guy was setting up panes of glass on two chairs, but they kept slipping off, so THE REF started helping him out, while his opponent just waited on the turnbuckle for the suplex. Tell me that’s somehow less of an “exposing the business” scenario than an intergender match.

So, the matches were fine if you like death matches. Ciclope won, and good for him. What follows are my disjointed recollections of my first - and presumably last - experience at a death match tournament, lazily organized by chronology.

Saturday, June 2, 5:15 p.m.

I arrive at “the historic Starland Ballroom,” which turns out to be a grim loading dock of a building in an industrial park. The parking lot is practically full, and I am arriving 15 minutes after the scheduled bell time, thanks to traffic jams in Meriden, Fairfield County, and New York City. Let me say this: if I never drive across the George Washington Bridge again, it will be too soon.

Luckily, I have not missed anything. Doors were supposed to open at 4 p.m., but there is still a line of people snaking around the side of the building. We’re not just on Indie Time, we’re on Death Match Indie Time.

The crowd is about what you’d expect, with a uniform of black T-shirts and baggy shorts and a general commitment to ill health, although there are more women here than at most wrestling shows I’ve been to. I may be the only person here who has a favorite book. I see three different TSOL t-shirts, which somehow makes sense. I am surprised at the number of WWE shirts I see. I briefly thought about wearing a Kevin Owens shirt, but feared I’d be mocked and derided; within minutes of arriving, I see a huge guy with sleeve tattoos wearing the same shirt. There are more WWE shirts here than CZW shirts, in fact, which I guess is not surprising, given the enmity that exists between the established New Jersey promotion and the GCW upstarts. There are, in fact, more T-shirts here that say “CZW is Pussy” [sic] than CZW shirts.

There are people tailgating in the parking lot, and fragrant drafts of marijuana smoke drift by. A burly guy in an orange T-shirt that says SECURITY waddles up to me and tells me I can’t bring my shoulder bag inside the venue.

“I understand, safety first at the death match tournament,” I say. He nods, either not getting the joke or deciding whether I need to be restrained in a chokehold.

5:35 p.m.

I’m through the doors. There are metal detectors and bored-looking bouncers in orange shirts, because this is a crummy rock club. A guy in front of me with neck tattoos is told he has to take his bottle of prescription medication back to his car. A woman is arguing about a bag search.

There’s a small table set up just behind the metal detectors. It’s hard to know who might be part of the GCW staff. A guy in a black T-shirt and baseball cap is yelling at a woman, possibly about people getting in with bogus tickets.

“I know every name on every ticket sold,” he tells her. Then, to me, he says, “What’s your name?” as I hold out my crumpled printout.

I tell him, and he says “You’re good.” I don’t feel good, but I go in anyway.

The venue is absolutely packed. There’s a ring set up in the middle, and a VIP seating section on what must be the stage for all the shitty bands that play here. There are rows of chairs on all four sides of the ring, and all of them are occupied. Behind the chairs, in standing room areas, crowds of people jostle for position.

My ticket theoretically entitles me to a seat in the third row. Pathetically, I hold my ticket up to a person working at the GCW t-shirt table and inquire about getting a seat.

“Sorry, bro, first come, first served,” I am told. I could have saved $15 and bought a general admission pass, I ruefully reflect.

It’s standing in the back, near the t-shirts and the barbecue vendor, that I notice the long bar is empty. This is a shame, as I am extremely thirsty and would pay at least $10 for a bottle of water. It turns out the venue decided not to serve alcohol tonight, which is the first good decision anyone has made all day.

I wander around, noticing merch tables and the Nick Gage-mocked treats for sale. No one has any water. The treat woman, God bless her, points me to a small bar in the back of the room where the venue is selling pizza, Red Bull, and bottles of water. I buy two and want to sob in gratitude.

“Yo, we’re starting soon!” a voice announces over the PA. It is now 40 minutes after the announced bell time.

5:45 p.m.

A man in black shorts and a baseball cap bounds into the ring. The crowd erupts in cheers. It is the same guy who knew every ticket buyer’s name. This must be a GCW owner.

“Yo, look at all these mothafuckin’ shot callers in this place!” he yells, and the crowd roars its approval. Are GCW fans shot callers? Am I now, by extension, a shot caller? I feel briefly stirred, until I reflect that a genuine shot caller would be allowed to bring his shoulder bag into the venue.

The guy tells us that regular ring announcer is sick tonight. “He’s in the bathroom, shitting and puking,” the guy says, and the crowd cheers, as if excited by any bodily function. Instead, there’s another ring announcer, who is dressed like a frat guy at a golf course and sounds like the world’s most convincing Joel Gertner impersonator. I mean, he really, really sounds like Gertner. It was uncanny, and throughout the night, it was weird to hear that voice and see it coming out of a guy who incels would characterize as a “Chad,” instead of a tubby, hairy Long Islander with a leopard-print neck brace.

We’re ready to go. The music starts. It’s Nick Gage’s music. The crowd goes insane. I am watching from the small bar at the back of the room. I have two bottles of water and a cupcake. I wanted the “MDK” variety (red velvet with cream cheese frosting), but the woman told me they all melted, so I get the “Ultraviolent,” which is just a vanilla cupcake with buttercream frosting. It’s a little soggier than I’d like, but it hits the spot. I am eating a cupcake and watching men rake pizza cutters across each other’s faces. This is Roman decadence. Our society is doomed.

The matches come and go. Shlak is here; people on Woke Wrestling Twitter hate Shlak and regard him as a Nazi, but I don’t know exactly what the source of that grievance is. He was recently shot in the leg, as he posted on Twitter, along with the motto, “I welcome death.” He gets a big welcome here. In his match, Markus Crane - who is introduced by Not Joel Gertner as “The Devil’s Big Red Dick” - repeatedly does horrible things to the leg where Shlak was recently shot. Eventually the referee stops the match and awards the win to Crane, which results in bloodthirsty disapproval from the crowd.

As this is going on, I notice a man watching the show at the bar, with his 8 or 9 year old son. I briefly think about calling the police, but instead I pay $3 for a slice of pizza that I saw delivered in a box and have another water. Between matches, members of the ring crew use huge industrial brooms to sweep all the broken glass out of the ring, because, safety first at the death match tournament.

7:30 p.m.

It’s intermission now. I don’t know who’s winning. I go over to Takayuki Ueki, the Big Japan wrestler who lost to Nick Gage in the first round. He seems nice. I buy a Big Japan yearbook from him and get him to sign it. Some other guys are selling loads of wrestling magazines from Japan. I buy one with a Minoru Suzuki cover and one with a Naito cover. I am a gormless tourist. “Got any joshi magazines?” I ask. The guy looks at me like I just asked him to make me a casserole. He does not have any joshi magazines.

I buy a Tournament of Survival shirt with all the participants, because I want to remember one of my most questionable decisions as an adult. Now I have a shirt with someone who may or may not be a Nazi. I will not wear this on first dates.

The show starts up again. I’m standing closer to the ring now. During one of the matches, I get hit with broken glass from one of the light tubes, a spot happening about 15 feet away. I decide to go back to my spot in the bar at the back of the room. I have another water.

Nick Gage comes out to wrestle Ciclope. A guy tries to start a “U-S-A!” chant and is immediately drowned in a sea of booing. I’m oddly relieved that the death match crowd in 2018 has no time for jingoism. After 10 minutes of brutalizing each other with glass, pizza cutters, light tubes, a fishing pole (don’t ask), and whatever else, Ciclope beats Gage with a schoolboy, which is hilarious. To me, anyway. The crowd is infuriated. Nick Gage was infuriated, and suplexed the ref through a pane of glass. Well, Nicholas, perhaps you shouldn’t lose matches to routine roll-up pins, hmm?

Joey Janela comes out. He’s wrestling the resurgent PCO in a non-tournament match. This is my first glimpse of the new look PCO, who I have vague memories of from childhood, during his goofy Not-the-Mounties stint in the WWF as one of the Quebecers. Pierre Carl Ouellet, Indie Darling, is one of the weirder and better wrestling stories of 2018. It would be like the Ding Dongs coming out of retirement to win the PWG tag team championships with a dizzying routine of high spots.

Janela and PCO start with a lockup and go into chain wrestling, and it’s like listening to jazz after hours of black metal. It’s so different and refreshing. Eventually they start breaking out the Home Depot supplies, of course, and since part of Indie PCO’s gimmick is that he has a gross, welt-covered chest, there are lots of chop spots involving that. But this is a good match overall. A solid 3.5/5 and my favorite of the night.

9:00 p.m.

It’s time for the main event: Ciclope vs. Miedo Extremo. It’s a death match. Ciclope wins. I scoot out early so I can exit the crammed parking lot and get on the road to my hotel, which is in Neptune. I have a full day ahead of me tomorrow at Asbury Park, where I plan to visit some weird places for a newspaper column I write. It’s also, unbeknownst to me, the day of the Asbury Park Pride parade, so the town is quite full, which explains why I paid $250 for two nights at a Red Roof Inn. I may be the only person in the state who, in about 12 hours, was a death match spectator, Catholic Mass attender, and inadvertent Pride parade viewer. What a day. What a weekend.

[openamenta]

Top New Games: Fall 3425

The poll is closed, the votes are in, and we here at @indiegamehawk are proud to present the final results for best new indie games, nominated and chosen by our followers!

We begin with...

#4: Parents Beware

A cute, occasionally sickeningly sweet, mostly-idle game with surprising amounts of story progression, Parents Beware lets you play as the monsters under toddlers’ beds. Your mission is to scare them and collect their screams -- but it quickly becomes apparent that the real force multipliers in this game come from having your monsters adopt the tots, and train them up to be little monsters themselves!

Mod Spacebar says: “The concept is super cute, but the ending felt a little rushed. I’m seeing people suggesting that they’re planning to release a longer paid version if this goes over well -- and I’m tempted to buy it if they do, except I’m frustrated with that as a business practice. :$”

Mod Kitten says: “Not only is the soundtrack amazingly easy on the ears to have going for hours at a time, the game itself is super easy on my CPU. Not one of those idle games that drains your battery! It’s from a southern-hemisphere team; I’m calling now that there’s a big popularity bump when northern-spring brings baby games back in.”

Where to get it: Free download here.

#3: Pocket Witch

A new competitor in the hyper-popular augmented-reality-lite genre (see “Subway Duels” and “Feud,” if you’ve been living under a rock), Pocket Witch lets you use your everything to collect orbs and artifacts from various real-life locations, and duel nearby people for control of the orb generators.

Mod Kitten says: “Augmented-reality-lite is always a tough genre for indie games -- you need a lot of player saturation before it really works -- but Pocket Witch stands out from the crowd with its puzzle components and fantastic character customization. I’ve got my fingers crossed that this one makes the cut.”

Mod Maelstrom says: “Just stay off the public chat. And turn on parental controls if you give it to your kid. I went on once and there was a whole kerfuffle about this faked-up screenshot with red hair. It was super gross and people were yelling. I wouldn’t want my two-year-old stumbling on that, you know?”

Where to get it: Get a code from the generator here and send it to your everything for a bonus 2,000 mana orbs to start with.

#2: Long Way Off

Controversial but atmospheric, this subway-hopper has nearly a book’s worth of content ... if you can get to it. The challenges there are less in the gameplay (it’s your bog-standard subway-hopper clone) and more in making the right choices in the intricate narrative -- oh, and getting through all the super-edgy jump-scares and gross-outs. Look out for the tentacle ending...

Mod Maelstrom says: “It’s an all-green game, and it shows. The game balance is wildly out of whack -- grindy between levels three and five, and then by level eight you’ve bought everything in the store -- and the tech support is nil. But it shows in a good way, too. If you can think of it more as a vehicle for finely crafted cutscenes, it really does deliver.”

Mod Kitten says: “I got so much playtime out of this one. Like, we’re talking at least a hundred hours overall. The bad endings aren’t even frustrating, because they all unlock such great content. Might have finished it sooner if I could play anywhere my family could see, but you can’t have everything.”

Where to get it: 10 ni at their website here (or wait until there’s a 20% off sale, they happen pretty often).

#1: Legions of Lava

Our top game of the season is Legions of Lava, the too-cool-to-be-true laugh-a-minute parody of classic fantasy adventure games ... that somehow manages to be a pretty breathtaking fantasy adventure game itself. Play as a Judge, a Creeper, or the pictured Duelyst (we admit it, it’s our favorite); you’ll get NPC companions of the other two classes.

Mod Maelstrom says: “Normally I can’t stand it when you have NPC followers who keep demanding you go off on side missions to help them instead of progressing the main quest, but these were actually really compelling. My biggest complaint is that you’d have to play the entire game twice over to experience all three of them, and the replay value isn’t quite good enough to justify that.”

Mod Spacebar says: “The genre shift is from parody to playing-it-straight is a little jarring, and in a professional game I’d expect to see that cleaned up a lot. It’s actually kind of endearing here, though, especially since both genres are executed so well. I look forward to seeing their future work.”

Where to get it: Buy it here, and pay the extra 15 ni for the bonus content -- it’s worth it, we swear.

[lianordin]

Playdate’s tiny handheld with a crank is big on charm

It’s a hilariously silly, yet strangely compelling proposition. So much so, that within 24 hours of its announcement on May 22nd, over 70,000 people signed up to be on the waitlist for Playdate (Today, there are over 110,000). In the weeks and months since then, more than 8,000 developers have also registered their interest in making content for the unique device.

Designed in collaboration with Teenage Engineering, a design group known mostly for its portable synthesizers, the Playdate had morphed from a Game & Watch homage into a unique gaming console that lived between worlds. “We didn’t want it to be too cool, but we didn’t want it to be too goofy,” said Cabel Sasser, Panic’s co-founder. The same goes for the device’s intriguing retro-yet-modern appeal. The Playdate’s black-and-white screen might scream old-school, but the device itself is outfitted with a modern ARM-compatible processor from STMicroelectronics, WiFi, Bluetooth, 2GB of flash storage, 16MB of RAM, and a rechargeable battery. The Playdate is definitely not just some Gameboy clone.

“There’s a real sweet spot in the middle of all of it that’s really challenging to calibrate,” Sasser said. This is especially the case for a relatively small company which has zero experience in making its own hardware. Sasser and his cohorts had to learn, through extensive trial and error, to figure all of it out for the better part of seven years, while running a software company at the same time.

Now, the company is finally ready to share it with the world. This weekend, at PAX West, the company will be showing off the Playdate to the public for the very first time. There will be many samples for people to play with. It will be, in essence, the product’s first real-world stress test. The team at Panic is, understandably, nervous about it.

“Yes, I’m a little scared,” joked Greg Maletic, Panic’s Director of Special Projects who’s also the project lead for Playdate. “Like gosh, is this going to last 32 hours of cranking? We’re definitely looking to make sure it does.”

But Maletic showed no qualms in letting me play around with a late prototype of the hardware when I visited Panic’s offices earlier this month. It’s smaller than I expected. At roughly 3-inches square, the Playdate has the feel of a novelty calculator that was barely larger than a stack of Post-it notes. It’s certainly smaller (and lighter! It’s only 86 grams) than any other gaming handheld I’ve ever held. To be honest, I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing.

Yet, despite the initial skepticism, a smile spread across my face the more I played around with it. It’s a charming little device, with its tiny 2.7-inch black and white display and its marigold yellow finish. Next to that aforementioned display is a tiny menu button and a speaker, while the USB-C port and a headphone jack are underneath. Sure, the Playdate is small, but after playing around with it for a while, I didn’t mind its size at all. The D-pad felt clicky enough, as did the A and B buttons on the right. It handled perfectly fine in my hands.

Of course, I was especially keen to try out the crank. By default, it comes in a closed position, with the metal part of the crank resting on the Playdate’s right side. To access it, I flipped it open, pulling the bottom part of the crank upwards 180 degrees to reveal a small rotating yellow handle. Then, I was free to rotate the crank backward or forward as much as I wanted, similar to how you would reel in or out a fishing rod. It was pretty fun to rotate through the Playdate’s menu simply by spinning the crank around.

As for how it feels, well, that depended on which prototype I was allowed to play with. In one model, it ground a little as I spun it around. In another, it felt a lot smoother. At one point while I was playing with one particular model, Maletic noticed that the crank continued to spin even after I let go of it, which he said should not happen. Obviously, the movement and motion of the crank still needs some finetuning.

But what surprised me the most about the Playdate was its black and white display. It’s not at all like the e-ink screen you’d find on your Kindle. Instead, it’s a Sharp Memory LCD, which is surprisingly crisp and clear, with a high pixel density that looks great even under bright sunlight. It’s a display that’s not used a lot in consumer electronics, with the exception of early Pebble watches. In a bit of trivia, Sasser said to me he heard from someone at Sharp that it’s also common in coffee makers in Japanese 7-Elevens.

Perhaps one of the reasons it’s rarely used is that it’s surprisingly expensive, partly because it’s not mass-produced in a way a lot of other electronic screens are. “It’s ludicrous, actually,” Sasser said. “We could’ve used an OLED screen, full color, and it would’ve been cheaper than this. I think that’s a hard thing for people to grasp.”

“But there’s also some really unique properties of the screen that we hope to take advantage of,” he continued. “One is that it can hold an image with very low power… we have dreams of when your Playdate is sleeping on your desk, it shows a clock or other cool things.” “If we’re going to try to sell this thing in a universe where, you know, we all have the latest gadgets with the high-res screens, it made sense for us to do something a little bit different,” Sasser said. “If it just felt like a different version of your phone, it wouldn’t be that interesting.”

The real test, of course, was to actually play a game on it. I played Crankin’s Time Travel Adventure, which was designed by Keita Takahashi, the man behind Katamari Damacy. As you might expect from Takahashi’s history, the game is, well, a little wacky.

The premise here is that you’re a character named Crankin, and you’re late to your first date with Crankette. You then have to run to meet her, but you inevitably end up late and she’s not too pleased. The game then pushes you to the next day and you start over, but now there are obstacles and enemies, such as flying butterflies, blocking your path, and you need to avoid them or you’ll fail your objective. The obstacles become more difficult with each subsequent level.

The only controller in this game is the Playdate’s crank, which is used to control the flow of time. Spin it forward, and time moves forward; spin it backward, and Crankin goes backward too. The trick, however, is that those aforementioned obstacles exist outside the flow of time, and you need to position Crankin in the right spot to avoid those enemies. If at some point Crankin bends down to smell flowers, for example, you need to make sure he does so exactly when bees fly overhead.

At first, it seems like a relatively easy game, but the difficulty ramps up considerably, with precision timing becoming increasingly important as time goes on. Let’s just say that I didn’t make it past level five. The only real complaint I had is that I thought the text on the screen was far too small to read, which Maletic admitted is an issue they’re currently working on.

Speaking of games, that’s another area that sets the Playdate apart. Included with the cost of the device ($149) is a season’s worth of games; one delivered every Monday for the duration of 12 weeks. Aside from Takahashi, Panic has signed up other indie designers such as Zach Gage and Shaun Inman to participate in its inaugural season. You’ll eventually be able to sideload other games too, but Panic liked the idea of you getting a new game every week as a surprise.

“For a long time, we were thinking it would be cool to play a season’s worth of black and white games, and then maybe at the end, you can like unscrew the back and there’s like a tiny color screen,” laughed Sasser, admitting in the end that it was a crazy idea. The season of games concept, however, was a lot more achievable.

Unfortunately, Panic isn’t ready to talk about battery life, as the Playdate isn’t close enough to production just yet. For now, it’s just hoping to show people how it looks and works, and events like PAX West are one way to do that. Right now, pre-orders are slated for later this year, with the product expected to ship in early 2020. If you’re interested in ordering one yourself, you can go to Playdate’s website to get on a mailing list so you’ll be one of the first to know when it’s for sale.

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