#the only shit talking I recall is about Gen V

[all-about-the-tea-parties]

Eqwene dies in Wheel of Time lmao!!

So you deserved that. I saw you shit talking a good friend of mine and you took her words way out of content. Stop trying to cause drama. Hahaha deal!!!!

A) whatever shit talking I did… I truly did not intend it, so like, sorry to your friend

B) this is not cool to do to ppl

C) you’re also TOO LATE! HAHAHAHA my DAD spoiled most of this series for me ALREADY

[regrettablemeasure]

Cyberpunk 2077 non-spoiler review

Anyways here’s my writeup about my least favorite parts of 2077 for people who are interested in seeing if it’s for them. Both going to talk about content as well as gameplay. This is for PC version, too, because I know last gen consoles are suffering terribly rn and I wouldn’t recommend the game if you’re not going to be playing on PC. At least not until it’s on sale or the issues have been resolved. It really, really shouldn’t have been released on last gen consoles at all in my opinion - or at least should’ve been released on consoles LATER.

If you like Saints Row, GTA, Mass Effect, Shadowrun, or the Cyberpunk genre in general - I definitely think this is something you might want to take a peek at! I wasn’t anticipating the game until about a month or two before release - so maybe that’s why I’m having a blast - but It’s one of my favorite stories from the past decade as far as sci-fi goes. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it, and It’s really impressed me. I can’t even go into detail about all the things I LOVE because I really want folks to experience it themselves. Just know there’s a very intricately detailed world, all the characters are memorable and insanely well realized and complex, and the story is great fun. Also made me cry like 5 times. It’s become one of my FAVORITE games very quickly.

I’d also recommend Neon Arcade if you want someone who’s been covering the game for quite a while, including the technical and game industry aspect. He does well to go into some detail and even though he’s a fan, I’ve found him to be largely unbiased. I’m not going to go into industry politics here because I feel that’s up for everyone to decide on their own terms.

No spoilers, things to keep in mind, content warnings, etc. below!

CONTENT WARNINGS and issues with plot/story

this setting is dark. very dark. if you struggle stomaching things like dystopian landscapes, body horror, physical, mental and sexual abuse, corporate and gang violence, abuse of children, harsh language, and concepts that mess with the perception of reality - this game might not be for you. It’s a very mature setting, and I don’t mean that in the Adult Swim kind of way. I mean it in the ‘oh shit, it went there’ way. In my opinion I haven’t run across anything in it that was handled distastefully when it dipped into the depressing, but dark and gritty isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and I wanted to give a disclaimer.

The game’s universe in advertising and working for the lower class also exploits sex/sex work quite a bit. This is part of the lore itself because in this universe everyone’s become desensitized to sex and violence to the point that marketing embraces it and makes it ridiculous. I feel it’s very obvious that it doesn’t condone this message and is instead a commentary on consumerism - but people still might be uncomfortable seeing a lot of suggestive stuff all over the place regardless. 

Women in game are naked more often than men - even though there is nudity for both. This is likely a mix of appealing to the Gamer Boy demographic (even though the story does NOT actually), or the fact that media is way more cool with seeing naked women than seeing full frontal nudity on men. They probably had to tone some of it down to avoid going above an M rating. 

The story is amazing, but sometimes it dumps a lot onto you at once. It’s one of those sci-fi stories that you have to really be following the names, faces, and concepts continually to get it all down. There’s a lot of betrayal, background players, etc. I think by the mid-way point I’d mostly had it, but It’s pretty dense. However it’s still amazing. You might just need two playthroughs before every tiny detail clicks - because there’s a LOT of details. 

Honestly I think it would help to read up on the lore first so you’re not going ‘what’ constantly. But people have seemed to manage fine without that also! Neon Arcade has a really nice series of videos (like 2 or 3) that get you up to speed with the universe. It also helps you decide if the tone is right for you. 

I think the main story should’ve been longer, also. I don’t mind a 20 hr story, especially in a massive RPG, but It feels like they really struggled to cram as much into that time frame as possible. It skirts the edge of being nice and concise, snappy, and tight - and needing just a few more moments to take a breath and wait a second. This is helped if you do a lot of side quests.

The straight male romance option, River, is INCREDIBLY well written but he doesn’t tie into the main plot in any way whatsoever. It’s very strange and feels like they either ran out of time with him, or slapped together a romance with him at the last second. All the other romances at least know what’s going on with V’s story - meanwhile River has no idea, and you can never tell him. He’s an amazing guy though and I highly recommend his questline. He appears in ACT 2.

In general I’d say not to bother with the romances. There are only 4 total, and while the romancible characters on their own are really well written, the romances themselves are just kinda meh. One romance you don’t even meet until act 3. I don’t think they should’ve been included in the game at all, because they definitely don’t feel as fleshed out as everything else. 

CDPR also sometimes forget that women players or gay men exist. Panam and Judy have a lot more content than River and Kerry for example. I don’t think this is intentional, they just have a large fanbase of dudebros. It only shows in the romance content and the nudity thing though.

Johnny, Takemura, and Claire should’ve been romances and I will fight to the death on that. 

There are gay and trans characters in the game and their stories don’t revolve around their sexualities. It’s very Fallout: New Vegas in it’s approach to characters: IE. you’re going to love them. All of them. 

V’s gender isn’t locked to their body type or their genitals- but to to their voice. I don’t think it’s the best solution they could’ve used but given how the game is heavily voice acted I assume that was what they had to work with. 

Some of the romances are locked to both cis voices AND body types (not genitals if I recall but body shapes). That’s disappointing but I assume it was because of scripted scene issues and/or ignorance on the dev’s part considering the LGBT NPCS are so AMAZINGLY done. There’s no homophobic or transphobic language in the game - though there are gendered curse words and insults if that bothers you. 

Some characters MAY suffer from ‘bilingual people don’t talk like that’ syndrome. But it can be hard to say for sure given that translators exist in this universe and the way they operate aren’t fully described. It’s only momentarily distracting, not enough to take away from how charming the NPCs are.

The endings are really good don’t get me wrong but I want fix it fic :(. All of the endings out of like 6 (?) in the game are bittersweet. 

Both gender V’s are very good but female V’s voice acting is out of this world. If you don’t know what voice to go with/are neutral I’d highly recommend female V. Male V is charming and good but he feels much more monotone compared to female V. 

V has their own personality. To some this won’t be a detractor - but a lot of people thought they’d be making absolutely everything from the ground up. V is more of a commander shepard or geralt than a skyrim or d&d pc, if that makes sense. You can customize and influence them to a HUGE degree, some aspects of V will always be the same.

Streetkid is the most boring background - at least for it’s introduction/prologue.

GAMEPLAY/TECHNICAL

If you can run your game on ultra, don’t. It actually looks best with a mix of high and medium settings. Unless you have a beast that has ray-tracing - then by all means use ray tracing and see how absolutely insanely good it looks.

There are color blind modes for the UI, but not for some of the AI/Netrunning segments in cutscenes. Idk how much this will effect folks with colorblindness but those segments are thankfully short. 

There was an issue with braindances being an epilepsy trigger because for some reason they decided to mirror the flashing pattern after real epilepsy tests - probably because it ‘looks cool’. I don’t have epilepsy but it even hurt my eyes and gave me a headache. Massive oversight and really goddamn weird. Thankfully this was fixed.

There is no driving AI. Like at all. If you leave your car in the street the traffic is just going to pile up behind it. It’s one of the very few immersion breaking things I’ve encountered.

Sometimes when an NPC is driving with you in the car, they’ll drive on the curb and/or run into people. It’s kind of funny but can occasionally result in something weird. Feels very GTA  - but nothing excruciating. 

The camera angle feels a little too low in first person mode when driving on cars. You get used to it though. 

The police in this game feel slapped on and I hope they improve it. Right now if you commit a crime, you can never tell what will actually trigger it. And if you just run away a few blocks the police forget about it. 

Bikes are just way more fun to ride than the cars are. 

You CANNOT respec your character after you make them. Ever. it sucks. Go in with an idea ahead of time what you wanna do - it’s better than being a jack of all trades.

as of now you also CANNOT change their appearance after you exit the character creator. This, also, sucks. Make sure you REALLY like your V or you’re gonna be replaying the openings over and over like I did. 

Photomode on PC is the N key. Had to look it up. The mode itself is great though

Shooting and Mele fighting feel pretty standard. I don’t have a lot of shooter experience besides Bethesda games so anything feels better than that to me. So far I’ve enjoyed stealth and mele the best, but that’s just my own taste! The combat and driving aren’t groundbreaking by any means, but they’re still very fun. I look forward to running at people with swords or mantis blades, and zipping around the city on a motorcycle to see the sights. The story, lore, and interesting quests and characters are the real draw here.

I haven’t encountered any game breaking bugs in 80-ish hours of play time. One or two T-poses, a few overlays not loading or floating objects - but nothing terrible. Again, my experience is with Bethesda games. This is all usually fixed by either opening your inventory and closing it again, or exiting out and reloading your save. 

The C button is mapped for crouching AND skipping dialogue by default. That’s terrible. Change it in the settings to be HOLDING C skips dialogue and you’ll be gucci.

There’s apparently a crafting system. I have never been inclined to touch it. But I also play on easy like a pleb so IDK how it all scales otherwise.

The mirror reflections can be a little bit weird, at least on my end. They always end up a teeny bit grainy despite my computer being able to run everything on Ultra Max. You can still get good screens out of it though!

So many people text me to sell me cars and I want them to stop. Please. also the texting menu is abysmal. The rest is ok tho

It’s pretty clear when you’re going to go into a ‘cutscene’. all cutscenes are rendered in-engine BUT you often will be talking to other characters at a specific angle or setting. The game locks you into this usually by having you sit down. It works for me - after all we do a lot of sitting- but it IS very obvious that it’s a way for the game to get you in the frame it wants to display.

That’s all I can think of rn! If you’re interested but wanted to get a slightly better idea of whats going on, I hope this helps. I’m really enjoying it and despite my issues it’s exceeding my expectations. I’m going to be thinking about and replaying this game for quite a while. 

[one-soul-two-brothers]

one-soul-two-brothers’ ultimate fic recs: j2 non au edition (part V)

why I chose these: J2 non au are my absolute favorite fics to read Happy endings are a requirement A fic doesn’t have to have sex to be good (but it doesn’t hurt) They have all been thoroughly vetted (aka I’ve read them all at least twice, and will definitely be reading them all again) (Also, someone sent me a message awhile ago about preferring first time fics, so I thought I’d start indicating on these recs the type of relationship the boys are in)

ENJOY!

best SHORT & SWEET

title: Would You Like Coffee With Your Crisis? rating: teen word count: 1500 relationship: first time summary: Coffee. Coffee would make everything better. OK, it wouldn’t get the person laying in his bed out of his bed and his apartment, but it might help with his head at least. While the coffee was dripping Jensen tried to decide what his next move should be. It seemed that his next move consisted only of staring at his phone laying on the kitchen counter. Not all that helpful really. He knew what he wanted to do. He wanted to call Jared. Jared had been in that group that went out last night. That much he remembered. Maybe he would know who Jensen wound up leaving with. But he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear Jared laughing at him - and boy would he laugh. But then again, Jared had become his go-to person of late and he needed advice. Badly. anna’s notes: So hilarious and so fucking adorable.

title: Tasting the Pillow With My Grin rating: teen word count: 870 relationship: newly established summary: Laundry day's kind of pain in the ass. Jared's got red socks. Red fucking socks. And no matter what, no matter where they've been spending their nights or even if they didn't spend any nights together that week- one of his fucking socks ends up in Jensen's laundry.

title: The Silence rating: explicit word count: 1800 relationship: first time summary: After confessing what he has secretly wanted for three years, he didn't expect the silence. anna’s notes: Three years after they meet, Jared finally tells Jensen that he loves him.

title: Without Words rating: explicit word count: 1200 relationship: established summary: The relationship between Jared and Jensen is a special one. They don't need words to communicate; they only need each other. No one else even comes close. As predicted, two steps past the threshold, you look up, straight into my eyes. A smile breaks out on your lips, even as you continue talking. You’re trying not to get distracted, but I know, as I pull a weird face, that you’ll fail.

title: For the Fans rating: explicit word count: 1200 relationship: established summary: Prompt: So Erik Kripke and the other writers decided to make a fan-week or something like that, with all the fans OTPs and of course there has to be wincest. In the closet Jensen/Jared, and then not in the closet anymore Jensen/Jared. 

best AMNESIA

title: Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends rating: explicit word count: 21k relationship: established & first time summary: In 2009, Jensen wakes up in Vancouver with a gorgeous, naked boyfriend and no memory of the past seven years of his life. anna’s notes: THIS. IS. THE. BEST. Perfect blend of humor, angst, schmoop, and sex.

title: Never Forget rating: mature word count: 7200 relationship: established/re-established summary: In 2015 Jared is facing divorce and still pining for Jensen. He remembers the early days when they were in a passionate relationship, recalls how much he loved Jensen until the powers that be tore them apart. When Jared has an accident on set Jensen stays by his bedside and when Jared wakes up he believes it is still 2006 and that the two of them were still in a relationship. How will Jensen react? And can the two of them reconcile what they had then with what they have now?

best KINK

title: Show Me Your Teeth rating: explicit word count: 2000 relationship: established summary: Jensen has a thing about Jared's teeth: how they look, how they feel, and especially how Jared uses them to mark him up. anna’s notes: I don’t know why I love this so goddamn much, but I do. So you should go read it right now and then we can love it together.

title: Pink (Is Not Just a Color for Girls) rating: explicit word count: 6100 relationship: established summary: Jared buys a pair of pink panties. Jensen likes them a lot.

title: Perspiration rating: explicit word count: 2300 relationship: first time summary: It's not weird that Jensen's noticed how much Jared sweats. You'd have to be crazy not to notice it. Okay?

best WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS

title: Trying to Get to You rating: explicit word count: 3300 relationship: first time summary: One night in Vegas changes everything. excerpt: Jensen knocks his forehead against the bar top and moans. “How could I have just left like that? Jared must think that I don’t want him. How could I let him think that?” “Did you ever say that you didn’t want him?” Steve asks. Jensen looks up at him with one eye and watches him take another shot of Patron. “Well, no. But running out of the room and getting on a plane to Vegas right after he kissed me for the first time was probably a bad sign.” The bartender refills the shot glass with a raised eyebrow and passes it over to Jensen without a word. anna’s notes: Eeeeeeeeee LOVE IT.

title: Wedded Blitz rating: explicit word count: 32k relationship: first time summary: If anyone had told Jared Padalecki that his bachelor party would start out with big red balls and end on a road trip with Keanu Reeves, he would have thought they were insane, but that’s exactly what happened, more or less, in a nutshell. Serves him right for getting freakin’-frostbitten-they-were-so-cold feet on the eve of his wedding rehearsal. He was supposed to be marrying Gen; Genevieve Cortese, that is. His fiancée. But all he could do was obsess about Jen; Jensen Ackles, that is. Best friend. Co-star. Dude. Something-that-couldn’t-possibly-be-love of his life. Except Jensen was happy, and Jensen was marrying Danneel in a few months, and Jensen wasn’t a fool like Jared was, picking now of all times to fixate on the past, to relive all those memories of them making out, in glorious detail, even if they had been drunk at the time. Or times, rather. There had been a lot of times. It just freaking figured that at some point during the three days before the wedding, between the big red balls and the Keanu Reeves Road Trip, that Jared lost Jensen. Like literally. Now suddenly the clock was ticking, he had a best friend to find, a wedding to get to and get through, and a goddamn mystery to solve in the midst of all the madness. Saying ‘I do’ should never be this complicated. Or this easy. Wedded bliss? He so did not sign up for this! anna’s notes: You’ve probably seen this floating around on other rec lists, and if you haven’t read it yet, GO DO IT NOW. I...just...holy shit, this is fucking great.

For all my other ultimate fic recs (j2 non-au, j2 au, and wincest), go here.