#the other option was to save up for a ps5

[keydav]

Really feeling that Baldur's Gate 3 FOMO tonight, especially where Astarion is concerned 😩😩

I was literally looking at Gaming PCs online, even though I shouldn't get one right now. Though I didn't even think about places having a Labor Day sale! I think what I'm gonna do, is try to save up as much as I can the next few months, and then take a look on Black Friday, cause the deals might be good enough I could swing one then. I've been wanting to get a desktop computer for a while, since my laptop is over 10 years old and essentially doesn't function anymore, and this has just made that desire that much more acute lol

[jennsterjay]

Right after the events of Across The Spiderverse, Miles Morales convinces Miles G. Morales that he really is from another universe and has to get back to his dad before The Spot wrecks havoc on his New York. Miles then asks Miles G. if he can help him infiltrate Earth-42's Alchemax so he can use the collider to get home.

Miles G., who's been waiting to infiltrate Alchemax for intel for a few weeks now, agrees to help him one one condition: he has to do things his way. Miles G. assembles his small team of Ganke M. Lee (his guy in the chair) and Gwen V. Stacy (the powerhouse known as Gwenom). After Gwen and Miles G. help fix Miles' suit, Ganke upgrades it with new visual tech to scan enemy stats and more. With Ganke on communications and surveillance, Miles, Miles G., and Gwen go on a few missions in the city so Miles can familiarize himself with the area.

Afterwards the four go to WcDonald's and come up with a plan for infiltrating Alchemax. With Ganke on comms, Gwen as extra muscle on standby, and with Miles G. on stealth and infiltration, there's only one option left for Miles...The Distraction X'D

----

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After Miles solos most of the guards in the surrounding area, he meets up with Miles G. and Gwen in the collider room and they activate it to open a portal back to Earth-1610B. With cheers, dap-ups, and heartfelt goodbyes, Miles Morales takes the portal back home to save his dad :)

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Other Notes: This was so fun to make lmao, let me know if there's something that's unreadable (I mostly used my own handwriting). I'm still normal about this movie XD. Also I've been playing Spider-Man: Miles Morales on PS4 and a bit of Spiderman-2 on PS5 (shout-out to my friend Fen <3). Also the guards are loosely based on the ones from the PS4 game XD. Also shoutout to the Miles G, clawcode, and milesganke nation, and all you spiderverse fans out there. Can't wait for the next movie and hope you enjoy XD

[ellieabbyy]

How do you get your captures so high quality mine always end up pixilated

i do a few different things!

- rotating the view to vertical means you can get better close ups usually

- turning down the brightness and manually customizing the spotlights, i usually use two - one that’s super close to the face, and one that is further away to brighten the rest of the photo up

- pictures taken in dark places always turn out better, you get a lot more detail and there’s way more flexibility with the lighting

- there’s weird tricks you can do like making ellie stand close to a wall and then it lets you zoom in a lot closer than it normally would. this can be tricky though since she can also disappear if you go too far

- making sure that fidelity mode is switched on in settings instead of performance so that you get better quality picture

- turning off the grain filter in both display setting as well as setting it to zero in photomode settings

- a lot of it is from editing in lightroom, by sharpening the image a ton and then softening it with other settings it can make lower pixel shots look a lot smoother and more HD. here’s one of my edits next to what i started with:

system stuff:

- changing the image save format on your ps5. it seems counterintuitive but you deselect the HDR option and it switches it from jpeg to png

- lastly if you get an external hard drive you can export photomodes to it and you get the biggest size available. this is what i started doing recently and it’s definitely the best way but i’m too lazy to do it often lol. so unless it’s one i want really high quality i usually just take them from the app.

i am probably forgetting stuff but i hope this helps! 🩷

[satoshi-mochida]

Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road Worldwide Beta Test Demo for PS5, PS4, and PC launches July 18 - Gematsu

The Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road Worldwide Beta Test Demo will launch for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC via Steam��on July 18 at 4:00 a.m. PT / 7:00 a.m. ET, developer LEVEL-5 announced.

The demo launched first for Switch on March 28 and ended distribution on June 28.

The Worldwide Beta Test Demo includes the following contents:

Single-Player Matches – Team Selection / Difficulty Selection

Online Competition – Random Matches / Private Matches / Team Selection / Character Progression / Save Function (no transfer to the main game)

Story Mode – Chapter 1 / Save Function Available (no carryover to the main game and no cross-save support)

Supported languages include English, Japanese, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese.

The PlayStation and PC release of the demo also comes with the following updates:

Adjustments for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and Steam Versions

4K support, HDR support, high frame rate support, and more.

ON / OFF setting for HQ Mode.

Changes to the title screen for certain platforms.

Additional Storyline and Gameplay Features

You will be able to experience the continuation of the main story, picking up from where Briar / Sakurazaki kicks the football.

As a new feature, the Football Chest gimmick will change based on your story progression.

Parameters Updated to the Final Release Version’s Specifications

The Training Gauge, initially planned for the final release version, will be implemented in this update ahead of time.

Improvements to Focus Squabbles

Pressing the L2 button during combat will bring up icons showing the enemies’ Rock Paper Scissors hands.

Additionally, this display will remain on the screen for a short period of time after releasing the button.

The Recovery button will flash when you’re in a pinch.

Tutorials have been added to better explain the Rock Paper Scissors and Recovery features.

The player’s cooldowns have been decreased, effectively speeding up the pace of combat.

Implementation of Training Effects

To increase motivation for Focus Squabbles, “Training Effects” originally intended to appear partway through the story will now be displayed at the start of combat.

Gradual Changes in the Focus Squabble System

With the addition of new story content, you will experience the Focus Squabble System evolving to resemble football more closely as the story progresses.

Cats Are Pettable

You will be able to pet cats. By doing so, you may gain an increase in Training parameters or obtain items.

Improvements to Football Chests

An arrow indicating the direction of the kick has been implemented for more accurate aiming.

Items dropped from Football Chests can be picked up from a more forgiving distance.

Addition of Equipment and Outfits

You will be able to obtain equipment usable in Story Mode.

You can customize the appearance of your character by equipping different outfits.

Camera Sensitivity Settings

The default camera sensitivity will be slightly increased, and the speed can be adjusted in the Options.

Improvements to the Map

A full-screen map display for close-up areas will be added.

An option to rotate the Minimap will be added, and can be turned ON/OFF in the Options.

Adjustments to the Quest Marker

The sorting priority of the UI above characters will be improved.

A marker for quest items will be displayed onscreen.

Other Bugs and UI Changes

Minor bugs and UI changes will also be addressed.

Visit the official website for the Worldwide Beta Test Demo here.

Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road is due out for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, PC via Steam, iOS, and Android in 2024.

Watch a new trailer below.

Trailer #6

English

Japanese

Traditional Chinese

Simplified Chinese

[vounoura]

I'm doing ittttt! I did look at Photopea and wow you were soooo right it hatteesss firefox. So I did the free trial of adobe photography and played around with it. I feel like the picture quality isn't as crisp as yours, but I'm taking recordings off my ps5. I'm running into the issue that my file sizes are too big, and the only thing I can think of is just making the picture size smaller. Is there another way to decrease file size without sacrificing picture clarity?

I've so so appreciated your time! <3

explanation under cut for length. a little image heavy.

note: I can't give specific advice for adobe photography, bc I've never worked with it. I'll give you what I know re: working w/ photopea and photoshop 2020 - I am by no means an expert at this, and you can probably find additional help from other posters who've been at this longer than me with better knowledge of photoshop. but I'll give you what I can!

for the first question: The quality of your gifs is first and foremost really dictated by the quality of your video - the better it is, the better your gifs can be, at the expense of your filesize. But the quality looks 100% fine from here.

The 'crisp' quality on my gifs is just sharpening - I'm not sure what it would be on that particular program, but on both photoshop/pea it's called 'smart sharpening' and it helps significantly.

On photopea:

Get your gif cropped and resized. See here for tumblr's gif size rules; these are really important and your gifs should always follow these. The reason is that if your gifs are too small / large for how they're being posted (one in the same line, two in the same line, 3+ in the same line, etc) they'll be automatically resized, which wrecks your quality. This is always the first step before anything else. Yours is 540px, so good to go.

Select all frames and go here:

and on photoshop, the process is a little more involved:

get your gif cropped and resized. Again, always the first step.

convert to video timeline

select all layers, convert to smart object

smart sharpen (can't sharpen without converting to a smart object)

convert frames > flatten frames into clips

delete smart layer

convert to frame animation

make frames from layers

do your colouring

export > save for web (legacy) for final results

you resize first before smart sharpening bc doing it the other way around destroys the effect of the sharpening.

I can't remember the exact number I used to do on photopea other than I would sharpen twice, on photoshop it's usually smart sharpen @ 355% and that's enough for most gifs, though some (a couple from the Lucanis romance set) took sharpening well enough to do another @ 110% (and some games like my ffxiv sets need lower sharpening); how much kind of depends on the exact game and your own preferences (some people like more, some like less). Sharpening will greatly improve the look of your gifs significantly (as in it's an unskippable step significantly) but is a big filesize hog; I think the lack of quality you're seeing is just bc it's unsharpened.

In terms of actually getting the filesize down without sacrificing quality you have a few options;

generally I don't worry about filesize until after I finish my colouring and sharpening, since those will have significant effects on it. Sometimes due to the way I tend to push shadows really dark a gif is actually larger before colouring than after. ofc if your gif is like 20mb to start you're going to have to trim, but.

The less frames your gif plays, the less its filesize is straight up. If you have extra frames to play with you can remove some off the front and/or back. If not, then:

Related to that, a trick I do with long gifs is to remove every other frame; works really well for video games, but probably not for things like tv shows or cartoons. This takes off half the frames without sacrificing the actual length of the gif or the movement, and the only adjustment I have to make is adjusting how fast it plays. This alone can take a gif from way over to way under and/or let me gif longer movements than I otherwise would; lots (most I think, actually) from the lucanis romance set used this to get them under 10mb. I also check for dead frames (sometimes w/ video games and their captures, you get an extra frame with no movement; this makes your gif choppy). you can take a 300 frame gif to 150 w/ this. I've only done this on photoshop, but it'd probably work with photopea too.

The less colour and movement your gif has to render in general, the lower the filesize. for example, compare these two:

The first was an absolute PITA to get under 10mb bc it's a lot of detail, colour, and movement. The second has significantly less colour and barely any movement, and took barely anything to get under the size limit (and can be way longer in total animation length than the first).

5. your filters and colouring can significantly affect your filesize; how much depends on the colouring, which is dependent on your preferences. I personally tend to have really bold colours combined with very striking shadows bc that's what I like; more colour means bigger files, but lots of black (or white) helps bring down the filesize. again, comes back to the idea that the less your gif has to render the smaller it is.

6. the smaller your length and width, the smaller your filesize is just straight up. a 268px gif will always be able to handle more movement and length than a 540px, and ditto w/ a 177px. You can't touch the width, but you can touch the height; you can remove some of this to take off a little bit if necessary, though unless you're removing large chunks generally the difference in filesize will be fairly minor. The only caveat to this is if you're working with 268/177px gifs, bc all of those in a line need to have the same vertical height or they'll be automatically resized. for single 540px ones tho it's an easy trick.

7. If necessary, you can sometimes add some black (or white, depending on the colour of the gif) gradient at varying strengths and layer opacities as a pseudo-vignette to take away some extra colour, which helps. If I do this it's only in the corners or sides. ex:

(bottom corners have black added in both)

you can also do this with strong colour vignettes. I usually add faint ones to a lot of gifs for extra colour and interest (ie. all of the ones in the lucanis romance set have a light red vignette added), but it can be as light or strong as your personal taste dictates. if it's strong enough to remove some detail, it may help; really faint ones like I do just to add extra colour add to it.

8. play with your dithering settings when you export; bc most of my stuff is video games, I almost never touch this but in an emergency you can consider it. See here for an in-depth explanation on what each option does.

too long, didn't read:

as a general rule, your filesize is going to be dictated by a couple major things; the number of frames you have, the size of your gif, the level of colour and detail, and the amount of movement. adjusting these will affect your size.

height/width, number of frames, and the level of detail are some of the biggest factors.

dark/black (or white) backgrounds, static backgrounds, black and white gifs / limited colour gifs, or gifs with a lot of deep black shadows are generally smaller or help to make them smaller. general rule: the less you have to animate (colour, detail, movement, etc), the smaller the gif.

[auncyen]

I finished the metaphor refantazio demo today and by 'finished' I mean I got to the point of the dungeon where the demo automatically cuts off rather than doing the full three days. (Note: there is a whole prologue, then the three days, so if you're familiar with Persona and going "three days isn't that much" no it's a LONG ass demo. Like a fool, I did not make a separate save to explore other options once the prologue ended and more gameplay options opened up.)

My verdict: I don't think I'm buying this game for ps4, and it's not tempting enough to make me buy a ps5. If I get a ps5 for other games, I will come back and see, but like...more and more I question the point of new consoles because does graphical advancement really mean much anymore? Metaphor has flashy UI and neat transitions and all but there's an annoying amount of lag on the ps4 (don't think it'll put off anyone who's invested in the game, but when you're on the fence, well) and then you get to actual scenes and there are awkward transitions (where'd that hostage come from) and basically like. I don't feel like the actual cutscenes always look good. Which is not what I expected here.

Character-wise, I'm curious what Louis' deal is, I liked the bounty hunter who pops up later, and I like the MC being given more of a voice and character of his own, but I'm also not really invested in any of the main characters yet. Like, I'd love to see MC possibly go from "I have to become King to stop Louis and save my friend (and then I'll give up the throne to him)"/just having this default assumption that winning the throne is necessary but he's not actually going to be king, this is all for his friend, to "hey, actually. I want to save my friend, I'm winning this throne for both of us, but I want to rule to try fulfilling my ideals." But like I also wouldn't be totally surprised if he doesn't get to do that...probably depends on if there are branching paths/multiple endings or whatnot.

Combat: so while I got to the end of the demo in dungeon in one day (I spent the other two days doing attribute-raising stuff and the like), it was a genuine challenge and near the end I was passing up stuff because it had enemies nearby just because I really wanted to see where the demo ended and was worried about running out of MP lol. The battles are generally a cakewalk if you can stun the enemy before beginning, but depending on their toughness you might not always be able to do that and you can very easily be headed toward a game over if you accidentally allow an ambush (I LET MYSELF DO THIS WITH A HUMAN AND TWO MORE ENEMIES, AT LEAST ONE OF WHICH COULD INFLICT AILMENTS. WHOOPS.) So while I'm sure people will still be able to one-day rush dungeons once they're experienced with the game, I was definitely feeling the strain toward the end of the demo. And also just whapping enemies without entering battle is fun. But yeah I just don't know if story & characters would hold me for however long the game is and I feel it'd be more fun with less lag, so...wait and see the reviews and if a ps5 ever gets more tempting.

[paleopinesofficial]

PALEO PINES FAQs

What consoles are you on

We are available on Steam, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch.

How can I support the development of Paleo Pines?

We are so excited you want to get more involved! The best way you can support us is to follow us on social media @PaleoPines or grab the game on any of the platforms available!

Will the game have co-op/multiplayer?

Paleo Pines is a single-player experience! We’re definitely keeping them in the back of our minds, but it won’t be part of this release.

Will the game be in real-time? Will I lose my dinosaurs if I don’t play for a while?

In Paleo Pines, dinos will only run away if you neglect them during active gameplay, so please be nice to your dino friends!

Is there any promotional content?

Not yet, but we hope there will be!

Will the game have mod support?

Currently it is not in our plans to include mod support for the game.

Will Paleo Pines be available in other languages?

Paleo Pines will be available in English, German, French, Italian, Korean, Spanish, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Russian, Japanese, and Brazilian Portuguese.

Is this game identical on all platforms, including the Switch version having an in-game achievement system?

Currently platform-specific features/meta features are only supported on a per-platform basis. Specifically, there is* not* an in-game achievement system for Switch.

Are there any bonuses for having save data from a different video game?

There are no bonuses for other game saves at present.

How will taming work?

A collection of cheeky dinosaurs roam the wild areas waiting to become your friends, as well as ranch helpers. Get their attention by mimicking their calls with your flute, then seal the deal with a tasty treat and trustworthy nose boop! Then gain their trust by creating cozy pens and learning what keeps them happy. Dinos might leave your island if they’re not happy - don’t worry though, you can always find them again and regain their trust!

Will Paleo Pines be free?

Paleo Pines is a premium game experience. We haven’t announced a price yet but will as soon as we can!

Will Paleo Pines have dating elements or relationships with the NPCs?

We are not currently planning on adding dating elements to the game. However, you can complete questlines for the NPCs and affect a positive change in their lives!

Will Paleo Pines also be available on Mac?

In the current plans, Paleo Pines will not be available on Mac.

Are there plans for early access?

There will not be early access, but we have a free demo on Steam!

Will there be seasonal changes in the game?

There are three seasons in the game which can affect the weather, available crops, and dino migration patterns. Triassea is a time of new crops and new life, where pleasantly cloudy days are broken up by occasional light and pleasant rainfall. Jurrasos is a hotter, more tropical time of year. It is rarely cloudy, and never stormy, perfect for beach picnics! Cretumnus is the blustery time of year, normally cloudy with rain showing up a bit more frequently.

What do you think the appropriate age to be able to play Paleo Pines will be?

We want to have the game accessible to as many people who want to play it as possible. We will try to keep the controls simple and intuitive to make sure everyone has a playing experience that is fun whilst still giving you lots of options and things to do in the game.

Will we have to build up the ranch from scratch?

You start with a simple ranch and a little bit of land, and as the game progresses you can turn the neglected land into a beautiful and friendly home.

What will be customizable in game?

Paleo Pines is a place where you can express your individuality and creativity; no two ranches are the same! You can use decor to build a romantic garden, give your ranch a cozy woodland vibe, or go full-on-farmer with rows and rows of tilled soil. You can decide where to grow produce, or which spaces to dedicate to your dinos, including how big and what shape you want their pens to be. Your dinos can move around freely, so feel free to make communal areas too! Furthermore, you can customize your character as you like with a variety of features, curate a colorful collection of clothing and change your style using the wardrobe!

Will dinosaurs be adjusted if their depictions are drastically updated?

We love the latest science as it unfolds. Natalia, our paleontology adviser, is a key part in keeping us in the loop. If something exciting is revealed, we'll try to incorporate it if possible!

Can dinos at the ranch get sick?

The dinos cannot get sick, but if you forget to feed and take care of them, they might decide to leave your ranch.

Are dino genders fixed or randomised?

Most dinos do not have genders, except what you choose to imagine. However, some of the NPCs have their own trusty steeds who at times are referred to by their gendered pronouns.

Will the dinos come in different colors/patterns?

Yes! Each dino will have a pool of colours, and some dinos will have multiple patterns. These different colors/patterns will be spawned procedurally or under certain conditions!

Can my dinosaurs die? What happens if I forget to feed them?

Dinos will never die or kill each other. If you do neglect your dino, it will simply leave your ranch.

Why was Lucky chosen as the main dino?

We wish we had a better answer other than it's always been Lucky and we've never for a second considered another dino as she has always just felt perfectly right. She is an embodiment of what Paleo Pines is all about - friendship and exploration. Even after years of developing the game, we still feel happy when we look at her and that's the emotion that we hope is shared by others when they play!

Do the dinosaurs have varying personalities or all pretty much the same depending on their species?

There are a few different personality types, and any species can have them. But the species themselves have got bags of personality in their animations!

Is there a limit to how many dinos the player can have on their ranch?

You can have as many dinos on your ranch that you are able to keep happy! But keeping a dino happy in the long term requires a dreamstone, and there are a finite number of dreamstones in the game.

Will there be a chance of random mutation?

Since there is no breeding in the game, dinos will not mutate. However, there are various combinations of dino patterns and colors, some that are more rare than others.

Can we name our dinos?

Yes! All dinos can be named and renamed, except Lucky.

How will the dinos sound? Realistic or more cute?

It’s going to be more cute than realistic or terrifying. For example, large dinos have big low honks and small dinos might have chirps or trills. We’re also designing for melody to be important in the game, which will tie in to the sound design of the dinos.

What is Pippin’s Gender?

Pippin is a non-binary character who uses they/them pronouns. It has always been our vision for Paleo Pines to have a diverse, inclusive community with characters that may reflect any player’s identity or orientation.

Which game engine is the team using?

We are developing in the Unity game engine.

Will there be controller support?

Absolutely! Actually, this is how a lot of us are testing the game already.

What program do you use for 3D modelling?

We use Blender for our 3D work.

Is there anything permanently missable, even rewards for fulfilling specific conditions?

Nothing aside from cases where this is desirable. For example: Granny comes to your ranch the day after you receive your farming tools.If you haven't used the tools yet, she will give you a farming tutorial, and give you seeds. If you have already used them, she comments on how you seem to know what you're doing, and gives you seeds. Either way you get seeds. But you can only see one of the two possible dialogues - the other is missable.

[mariska]

nobody asked but i am Making A Post About It Anyways Because I Asked Myself If She Wanted An Update And They Said Yeah I Want An Update Thanks For Asking, Me. and i said No Problem, Me.

a lil update on my new baldur's gate 3 dark urge drow character Zore (pronounced 'Zor-ah' i always feel the need to include that alongside her name lol) that i made a post about the other day!

so i had mentioned previously that i'd had a specific like, purple/blue/pink kinda general color scheme in mind when i was first making her in the character creation screen pre-gameplay and that, because i can't play on a fancier more modern type of TV that has those super hd/more detailed color/resolution etc. type of options, the way colors look on the 10+ yr old regular flatscreen Living Room Family TV are pretty different than how everything looks in screenshots i take on my ps5 and then save to my camera roll or any other non-ps5 device. and because of that, Zore's skin tone (which i had attempted to make like a light blue with a lil bit of a grey undertone) just looked completely grey in pics i've been taking of her even though on my screen it was much closer to that blue tint i wanted her to have.

anyways i used one of those magic mirrors in my camp to go back into the character creator and made some tiny tweaks to try and fix that with.....Limited Success? she is still showing up pretty grey in certain environment lighting especially in screenshots, on my tv screen shes like undeniably light purple or lavender, but. frank sinatra voice Thats Life ! comparison of how her skin tones looked in screenshots before and after adding more purple:

this was the original one (Wisteria Tone 4), looked like much more of a subtle blue/purple overlay on my tv than how grey it is in the screenshots,

this is the newer color i ended up going with (Violet Tone 1), obviously shows so much more of that exact kinda blue/purple/slight grey undertone in screenshots that i was going for originally and looks like a brighter blue/purple on my tv....idk why she's still kinda showing up as mostly grey in so many of the actual gameplay screenshots i've been taking of her but i think its probably just certain areas of the map with bright daytime lighting that wash the non-grey colors out or something, its annoying. LOL. especially since i think the newer violet tone rly compliments the pinks i used for her hair and eyes and makes those pop a lil more and its very pretty, maybe once i get to a spot in-game without the light of 1000 suns hitting her directly she'll actually look purple/blue in more of my screenshots of her fnsjsgssgsgshshsf

one more 'character creator' screen view of her followed by an in-game pic (i think u can def see the blue and purple tones better than all my other pics of her in this one thankfully so thats why i feel like its probably just a bright lighting issue that sometimes turns her completely grey lol)

got to the area of the map where u recruit Karlach before i stopped playing last night (which i have been going back and forth feeling hesitant about whether i wanted to recruit her to my camp and/or party at all because she is my absolute fav companion and in my main save file shes my character's girlfriend so i KNOW.....that she has the sweetest most compassion filled heart of gold......and i KNOW my girl Zore will make so many decisions and actions that Karlach will absolutely not be approving of 😭 but i rly didnt want to leave any of the main act 1 companions behind so i'm just crossing my fingers that maybe if i have her stay behind at the camp most of the time she won't get so disappointed in me that she'll just leave all together 😭😭😭😭😭😭) and took a million screenshots of the whole introduction scene bcus i love Karlach so very much, so. please enjoy these two silly pics i edited of that scene as well

also accidentally took a pic of this dead npc floating in the air while Zore took his brain tadpole out for herself and it cracks me up so much, i was trying to take pics of Zore but the scene kept switching characters too fast it makes me giggle every time i see it

Rise.....

[beatthegame]

I just beat Red Dead Redemption 2! Originally released on the PS4 but played on a PS5. Published by Rockstar Games, who would be best known for bringing the Grand Theft Auto series to life. Amongst many other hits throughout the years. Red Dead Redemption is simply considered the "spaghetti western grand theft auto". And of course the first Red Dead Redemption would be a hit. But after a few years of putting out constant bangers in the video game market. Rockstar may have dropped their magnum opus with Read Dead Redemption 2. Allow me to share my thoughts...

In a nutshell: Yeah, it's the spaghetti western version of Grand Theft Auto. But that's such an understatement. Red Dead Redemption 2 is an epic tale following a group of outlaws on the run. Fighting for survival, pulling off heists and scams while running from the law and surviving in America during the cusp of the industrial revolution. It's a colorful group of misfits led by the flamboyant Dutch Van Der Linde. At first you control Arthur Morgan. Dutch's wingman, for lack of a better word. But the game pulls you through just about every Western movie trope in existence. Immersed in several unique experiences and insane characters only Rockstar can come up with. Whether you like to shoot up cowboys, rob banks and trains, go horseback riding or go out hunting and fishing in the wilderness? This game has it all!

The Good: Fuck! This game is GOOD. In all caps! Visually stunning in so many ways. I previously thought Zelda: Breath of the Wild had some of the most gorgeous open world visuals in gaming. But Read Dead Redemption 2 is on another level. The whole game plays like a cutscene. The stellar graphics and environment details are impeccable. I wish I could post more than 10 screenshots  but you're better off playing the game yourself. Pretty graphics are one benefit. But when you mix that with a solid gameplay experience with seamless load times. This game is just a joy to play. But this isn't a typical cowboy game. You have a lot of options going on. And it's all executed in the best way possible. From gunfights, to horse racing, to stealth missions, to gambling. You can hunt, fish, pick plants and herbs to cook and camp. You have the freedom to do it all in the most aesthetically pleasing way possible by today's technological standards. Personally, I enjoyed the Texas Hold Em and Domino mini-games BETTER than a lot of the solo release games out there. Complete with shit-talking banter that cowboys make up during poker games. I will most likely keep playing RDR2 just for the hold 'em simulator. It's better than that shitty World Series of Poker game. But I digress... Although this is based in a fictional world, there were a lot of American historical elements that made it feel authentic, without it feeling too goofy like Saints Row or Fallout 76. Yes, this game is fantastic! But now, let's get a little bit nasty...

The Bad: I'm struggling to find the faults in this game. Like, I can't exactly call this game perfect? But it's pretty damn close. There were times where I found my self struggling with the controls. Seamlessly transitioning from a horse chase, to a physical brawl, to a shootout could be jarring from one point to another. Especially during a panic situation. But it was mostly balanced throughout. Allowing to start at certain save points alleviated some of the frustration. Although some players would consider that nerfed gameplay? Also, I heard from other folks complaining about the consistent traveling between missions? Which is admittedly HUGE distances at times. It feels like a horseback simulator. But you have options between fast travel, or riding along a brief horse & carraige cutscene, or ramble on in "theatrical mode" which enables cool camera angles while you travel the wilderness. I like it because it allows ample time for smoke/snack breaks between missions. The scenery is gorgeous and worth just sitting back and appreciating the atmosphere. I'm sure there are dudes out there who couldn't care less about ambiance and need that constant dopamine drip. But don't get it twisted. You'll frequently have run ins with rival bandits, or law enforcement, or a pack of wolves, or cocaine bear when you'd least expect it. So you're always on alert. Take that as a good or bad thing? But there's honestly not a whole lot of bad to play with in this game. Except for Micah. He's BAD! LOL! Fuck that guy. But every story needs a good villain, right?

Overall: Red Dead Redemption 2 is a masterpiece. It's a culmination of all the great things about prevous Grand Theft Auto games plus everything that was great about the prevous Red Dead Redemption games multiplied by a thousand. I also appreciate a game that keeps the party going after you beat the game. Replay value is important these days. And you definetly get your money's worth with RDR2. With a robust online mode, along with the countless side quests this game has to offer. Beating the story mode was just the tip of the iceberg. I'll still be playing this game in between all the other titles I encounter. This is a virtual world I don't mind coming back to. And that says a lot. This game is Sunset Riders on crack. This game is like a Sergio Leone wet dream. By far, the best western game ever. Believe the hype. Red Dead Redemption 2 rules!

S-Class

[1000punks]

i know these are low quality but i play bg3 on a ps5, not pc. all i have is shitty phone photos of my tav. hahah

lore dump under the cut, if you want to miss it, nbd.

this is Festé, my non-binary tiefling ranger.

they used to have long hair but chopped it off because of the Troubles (act 3). in the canon-matrix i have created for them (hahahah) they keep their hair long but usually done up in a braid. kind of plain, to be honest. if it were an option in bg3 i would have had them in long anime girl hair. this picrew is closer to the vision i originally had for them:

(i also have fanart of them i drew but i can't find it rip)

they are one of my retired 5e characters and their backstory is a little chaotic, lots of retcons and parallel timelines because my dm never lets us have an easy game. basically, there was this sorceress that it took us five (oog) years to get a party together and beat, because people kept either leaving, moving or their pc died in game. it was a homebrew, so a lot of wacky things happened.

they're non-binary- mostly because they cannot really be bothered with gender when there's a weapon to wield and a potential friend in distress.

on that note, it was actually everyone around them who starting referring to them with neutral pronouns. they just... never made a definitive claim of being one gender or another. one pc in a former campaign (a centaur barbarian named Basios) once referred to them as "my non-descript friend!" and that was hilarious, and it also stuck.

it's canon based on past 5e campaigns that they don't like elves. they have a secret hate-on for elves. so maybe a certain pale elf has something to do with that- we may never know.

they have a husband and an adopted kid in one of those timelines.

i recently resurrected them to play through the netherdeep campaign with a new group.

i'm inserting their adventures in baldur's gate as what they were up to before they met their husband.

their husband is a lawful evil wizard named Mordren who loves living in a cave and murdering people who enter the cave.

Festé was the only other person besides him to walk out of that cave alive, uwu.

in bg3 canon (my save file), they're an Astarion truther and definitely have carried the "i can fix him" torch for a long time.

they're a bit of a happy dumbass, and they don't talk a lot.

it's hard to get them riled up, as it were. they're a relatively calm, accepting and objective person.

the only thing they're really scared of is losing someone they've made a connection with.

they have had a lot of lovers but they're not the type to make a big deal of it. everyone was someone they loved fully and in a respectable way.

they're the character that is most like me, in a way. i played them really honestly in bg3 to how i would respond to a lot of the dialogue. so in a sense, not a lot of role play was going on in their run.

after the events of baldur's gate, they'll probably go on to have some more small adventures before the big encounter with the sorceress i mentioned. i would say during the events of the bg3 they'd be roughly 26-27, and they were 32-33 during the sorceress campaign.

[mushroom32x]

Physical PS4/PS5 copies of Re-Sparked are being sent out because they finished manufacturing first; Switch copies come early July apparently. I am at the mercy of LRG expecting the cassette soundtrack, plush, and Switch game together so hopefully I won't be waiting too long in July.... (Knocking on wood as I type). Anyways, ahead of the digital version some footage has appeared here. The uploader said the colors are a bit off because of the PS5's recording.

More impressions under the cut:

Lovely little animated intro that sums up the collection nicely: fast, colorful, and full of action. Thankfully from what I saw all the games appear to look and sound just as they did, no off-sounding instruments or graphical oddities that didn't previously exist. Edit: Some say the sound is a bit muffled? It reminds me a bit of how it would sound playing it on my actual console… or enabling the low pass filter in an emulator. Maybe it was unintentional?

However, the games are slightly edited to remove stuff like "Licensed by Nintendo" from the SNES game title screen, skip past copyright/Konami logo when starting up (although it shows up for the SNES game so maybe the player just skipped past it in the other two games?), and the options appear to only let you modify the difficulty. You used to be able to change the controls and hear the sound test too. Not exactly sure why you cannot remap the controls anymore but the collection relegated all the game's music into a single area to listen, so the sound test options were omitted for redundancy. (The options screen sure looks a lot lonelier without all the other stuff present lol.) There is credits for everyone involved in this collection and it even includes those who worked on the intro animation!

As for the menus, for each game is a boss rush mode, rewinding, and overlay with several configurations for the visuals and load/saving your game. Sparkster on the SNES has a "boost mode" which appears to reduce/eliminate the game's slowdown which is very present if played on an actual console. Screen size options include Full, Native (320×224 Sega, 256 x 224 Nintendo), Native 2X, Stretch, and 4:3. You can use a variety of borders (or leave it all black) and enable a CRT scanline filter. You can change the game's region and language for main menus (English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, and Japanese.) Though, I haven't seen word of a Japanese release for this collection... would be silly to have to make Japan users have to go through extra hoops to play this game.

The boss rush simply has you face every boss in order for each of the respective games. It tracks the total time and bosses defeated then gives you an overall rank. Though, I didn't see any difficulty options for this, like playing it on Crazy Hard or something. It loads a state just as each boss begins with a score of 0 and 0 lives, so dying ends the rush.

The museum is filled with lovely artwork, some which I haven't seen before. There are magazine adverts, box art, design documents/artwork, and art/videos regarding the animated intro. I thought the video section was going to include the game's commercials too but that was wishful thinking on my part. Their scan of the SNES box art is leagues better than mine ha ha. The sound test has all the soundtracks and main menu music accounted for in one tidy area.

I am glad this collection exists and I can't wait to play these games another 1000 times. 😛

[drowning-in-cabbages]

Watched the new genshin trailer and I have to say I'm a bit concerned.

It feels like it should be act 3, not act 2.

I would say spoilers, but it's not the quest, only the trailer.

The trailer only teased one new playable character, but had the cowgirl lady in full view, which made me think she was going to be playable.

They keep talking about some mystery the Pyro Archon is keeping secret, yet in act 1, explaining whatever issue was going on in Natlan felt rushed.

Capitano feels like a forced good guy now.

I was really disappointed in how they treated him in act 1. In the 5.0 trailer, he was a big deal, but he showed up for like 5 mins in the quest then dipped. It was wasted potential.

And now, in this trailer, he's just standing around and talking, which makes me think he's not going to get as big of a role as it makes it seem.

And, to go back to my previous point, with the big battle at the end, it feels like they're rushing the end of the quest, like we skipped a whole quest.

I have lost faith in Genshin. I don't think anything after Sumeru is good. It all feels too rushed, or is trying to be Sumeru but failing.

Sumeru did everything great. It introduced the main issue and the Archon's problems early on. Second act teased Scaramouche as well as his reasons for doing what he's doing, but it blended so well. Third act was phenomenal with how it wrapped everything up.

Fontaine did things right at the beginning but fell short with everything after. I wasn't invested in Furina's problems fast enough. They waited too long, and the entire prison section was boring as hell, I forgot about it afterwards.

Genshin relies too much on its optional character quests to get me invested in the character's stories after Sumeru. Arlecchino didn't even feel like a high ranking Fatui Harbinger because she didn't do anything but talk to other people.

And now, I see those same issues with Natlan. Capitano doesn't feel powerful because he showed up and got his ass kicked by the Pyro Archon despite being number 1 of the fatui harbingers.

Then he just dips. Barely even showed up for 10 minutes and was gone only to appear at the end for a minute or two despite being teased in the trailer as a big deal.

And Natlan's issues didn't feel like they were at the forefront of the quest and were only dumped on the player at the very end after we save Kachina.

I'm not confident in this writing choice, and if Hoyo doesn't get their act together, I'm quitting genshin all together. I'm already missing Kinich because I don't feel any motivation to play.

Star Rail makes me want to play. Star Rail's story is incredible, and I care about the characters, including the four stars who get massive amounts of time to shine.

I'm just gonna wait til WuWa comes out on ps5 because at this point that seems like the better choice.

[mercy-mercie-mercymorn]

TAVS.

bg3 spoilers ahead!

aurora (gold dragonborn cleric of mielikki) grew up in the woods, far away from the city. she likes animals and once spent three days chasing a unicorn, just to see what it did. on a diplomatic trip to stop logging that was infringing on a grove once considered sacred to mielikki, she got abducted. pokey sticks and fire breath quickly proved to be the best way to make her way through her new life. on the way she fell head over heels for the two dumbasses who got fucked by the Hells. so they decided to start saving people, hunting things. and now it's wyll and wyll's wife aurora and aurora's wife karlach's family business. yay hell polycule!

(aurora is the reason i call wyll my wife. he's just. my wife <3)

kassandra (seladrine drow warlock) has never been to the underdark. she has a cousin there, on her mom's side, maybe? she grew up in baldur's gate and made a career for herself as a shrewd businesswoman (she makes jewelry; that's how she got warlockéd). using people's impressions of drow against them is like her primary skill and it works surprisingly often despite the fact that she is 5'3" on a good day and has the face of a disney princess. she also has the animal skills of one. aurora is steve irwin, kassandra is cinderella. karlach and kassandra were instant besties, which evolved in the sapphic tradition of "surely she doesn't mean it like that haha" until kassandra just straight up said she wanted to make out with karlach.

(i haven't finished her playthrough yet because i'm afraid teehee)

winter (avariel [mod, winged elf] bard) is your manic pixie dream girl. i stole her name and most of her appearance from Winter The Lunar Chronicles because i am a silly little criminal. winter has never met a problem she could not make marvel-esque quips at, much to shadowheart's eternal chagrin. desperately wants karlach to teach her that silly tiktok dance she's always doin So Bad. her adventure is a very strange change of pace for her because she was previously a tavern waitress/occasional entertainer when there was literally no other option. as such, she does not know how to use weapons really at all and makes everyone else protect her (insert pleading face emoji). anyways, she's the golden retriever gf to shart's black cat gf.

(her wings get in the way of every cutscene but i still love her)

marie (human durge paladin) is like if tinkaton was a person. she hates the murderhobo ps5 in her brain and loves weird little guys (gale). voted most likely to cry at dog food commercials. i really haven't played much of her, so i haven't decided on much backstory for her.

(i just think she's a little funny)

the one that only sort of counts.

cynthia (tiefling wild magic sorcerer) is literally just my OC who got isekaid to faerun. the only people who know this are the """dream guardian""", the gods, and the three dipshits and their lame goddess. she's there to cause problems and live up to her old nickname: Godkiller. her fake persona, Lady Cynthia Tav, is from a little town on the coast and enjoys the finer things in life. her most fervent desire is to have a spray bottle so she can get astarion to stop that (at any given moment, "that" ranges from mild horniness to wanting to violently murder people). she is beginning to understand what it was like for her brother to raise her.

(don't have many pics of her, but she's the most frequent subject of my drawings)

there's a bunch of more in my notebook that i doodle in while playing

[satoshi-mochida]

Planet Coaster 2 announced for PS5, Xbox Series, and PC - Gematsu

Frontier Developments has announced coaster park management simulation game sequel Planet Coaster 2 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC (Steam). It will launch this fall.

Here is an overview of the game, via Frontier Developments.

About

Dive into the thrilling world of Planet Coaster 2! Construct the theme park of your dreams with an intuitive piece-by-piece building system, as you meticulously craft and customize every aspect of your park like never before, down to the smallest detail. From towering rollercoasters to spectacular twisting water slides, let your imagination reach new heights to delight and thrill your guests. In Planet Coaster 2, take your park to the next level by adding incredible water attractions that will truly make a splash. From meandering lazy rivers to adrenaline-pumping wave pools, looping flumes to exhilarating water coasters, you’ll have everything you need to create the ultimate coaster and water park paradise. Discover a vast array of exciting new rides, themes, and scenery pieces to make your amusement park truly unique. Whether you’re aiming for a mysterious mythological land or a dazzling deep-sea world, there’s something for every aspiring park manager to explore with extensive new customization options. Get ready to embark on the coaster park adventure of a lifetime. Create, manage, and share your experience with Planet Coaster 2. Are you ready to make a splash?

Key Features

The Ultimate Coaster and Water Park Simulation

Build the Theme Park of Your Dreams – Shape your terrain, make use of the enhanced and improved building tools to lay paths and scenery, and populate your creation with glistening swimming pools and thrilling rides.

Combine Water and Coaster Rides – Discover an exciting array of new rides, along with returning favourites, and all new water coasters too!

Create an Unforgettable Experience – Surprise and amaze your guests with exciting animatronics shows using the new event sequencer tool.

Push the Boundaries of Creativity

Design Epic Coasters and Rides – Build your very own magnificent rollercoasters, twisting water flumes and jaw-dropping rides piece-by-piece to create the ultimate experience for your thrill-seeking guests.

Encounter Exciting Themes – Along with the original Planet Coaster theme, discover four distinct new themes to give life to your park, whether it is the majestic Mythology Theme, the sunny Resort Theme, the vibrant Aquatic Theme, or the rustic Viking Theme.

Customize Everything – Unleash your creativity with enhanced customization tools! Choose the color of each individual piece, add and scale up or down scenery and objects to your rides, and build the most incredible themed creations you’ve ever imagined.

Master Management

Discover the Secret to Success – Find the balance between managing your budget, building the right amenities in the right place, and populating your park with thrilling rides to open the perfect park for your guests!

Remember, Safety First – Take care of your guests’ health and well-being with shade coverage, sunscreen, and employing lifeguards and mechanics to make sure no one gets hurt, whether it be by waiting in a sun-soaked queue or overestimating their swimming abilities.

Guarantee Guest Satisfaction – Understanding the wants and needs of your guests has never been easier, read your guests’ opinions on your park by simply selecting them, and understand all the wider parks needs with just a click thanks to the new heat map tool.

Share the Ride

Build With Friends – Jump one-at-a-time into a shared save to build a park with your friends or players around the world across platforms! Save your progress to allow your fellow thrill-seekers to build upon your changes. Race to the top of the leaderboards in Franchise Mode, or explore your creativity together in Sandbox Mode.

Share Your Creations – Upload your blueprints or full parks into the game for other players to delight in and download your favourite creations. Everything will be available directly from the in-game menu or online on the Frontier Workshop.

Visit Other Parks – Explore parks built by other coaster managers in first person: experience their coasters, rides, slides and pools and get soaked in the fun!

Watch the announcement trailer below. View the first screenshots at the gallery.

Announce Trailer

[ya-kiri]

THIS CANNOT CONTINUE!!🤬

I don't normally get ranty but I wanted to bring it up barely anyone seems to be bringing it up. The way Konami handled the physical release of the Switch version of MGS Master Collection Vol. 1 is incorrigible and abysmal. There is nothing on the cartridge, how can they keep getting away with their antics? It's just a digital download with extra steps!!

They might as well just save more money by making it a code in a box than spending money on producing cartridges with nothing on them. To make it worse, PlayAsia can't save us this time because the Asia version is the same. A special kind of incompetence indeed for Konami. For crying out loud the .Hack Last Recode collection on Switch from Bandai Namco has four games, 3 of which are PS2 games, and it's all on one cart, to give an example. And you know they're not gonna rectify this cuz it's already set in stone and they have two other console versions (PS5 and XBOX) that don't have this issue. Jeez it's like they saw what Capcom was doing with their collections in the early days of the Switch and said "hold my pachinko machine."

​ There is no respect or effort being given. To them the Switch version is the runt of the litter, an acceptable loss because they think they'll make most of their profits off the other console versions. To Konami, Metal Gear is not a cherished and renowned series, in their money-grubbing eyes it's a popular brand to be sold and so, they think people will buy anything with MGS plastered on it even if it's half-assed, that's the obvious and harsh reality of it. They want a quick profit and take us for a couple of chumps and suckers. Unfortunately, there are a small few I've seen who have said they're okay with it as long as they have the case and cartridge, instead of demanding better.

Think about it. The last physical releases they've done have been for Classic Castlevania and Symphony of the Night but not the Advance collection. My guess is because Classic Castlevania and Castlevania Symphony of the Night are the most recognized, marketable and profitable, and that's why the Advance games got nothing. Hopefully this ages poorly in the future, but for now that's what it seems.

"Why not just buy it on PS5 or XBOX?"

 The problem isn't a lack of alternative console options. The issue is how BS this practice is and how blatant the lack of effort is when compared to what the competition has done as of late. How can you sell a PHYSICAL game cart with NO games on it? You may as well not have a physical option. Also, not everyone has a PS5 or XBOX and it's not right to be screwed over for your choice of console, especially if it's not because of technical limitations, but instead it's because of the lack of effort and care by the company. That's the bottom line. Konami is pulling a Konami again.

I hope the upcoming Snake Eater remake is good because if it isn't it's obvious why that happened. Konami sees a profitable entry, not an acclaimed, classic title that left a deep impression on gaming and players. Again, I hope this ages poorly and I'm proven wrong.

UPDATE(7/8/23)

If Konami couldn't get any more scummier, they omitted having to download the games in the Amazon descriptions. So people are going to fooled into buying the Switch version thinking all the games are on the cartridge.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!???🤬🤬

[vindicia]

hiya if you have a spare minute could you maybe do a quick summary on the process you use to make gaming gifs? 😭 i cant seem to get the capturing and frame rates right when im trying to make them and yours are so smooth and pretty and some of my fave!! no pressure at all if you dont have the time or dont want to then please feel free to just ignore this!!! 🧡

hey hey! first of, thank you so much!! i'll quickly walk you through my process!

Making gaming gifs - from PS5 (or PS4)

I'm not sure what platform you're on, I'll be showing you how I capture footage on my Playstation 5 (PS4 is kind of similar!) and how I transfer it to Photoshop on my PC - after that I'd refer you to one of the many gif tutorials on this website!

This first section is about capturing footage on PS5. If you're on a different platform, I'm not sure what the best way of recording is, on PC i usually use the built-in xbox game bar screen recorder (windows button + alt + R). I'll be telling you step-by-step what I do from gameplay to a finished gif, so whatever you already know you can just skip.

Firstly, take a look at the settings on your PS5. Specifically, the Captures & Broadcast settings. Mine are like this:

(Click to enlarge images!) If you have a 4k tv, you can also record games in 4k - I do not, I make do with 1080p, which is fine imo! (this specific method on PS4 will give you 720p footage, which is still ok but gifs won't be as crisp)

To record on your Playstation, use the share button:

On both PS4 and PS5 you can choose to save the last seconds/minutes as a video (depending on your settings), on PS5 you can also start a recording using this button. I usually press this right at the beginning of a cutscene, and then again when it ends, to perfectly fit a cutscene in one video file. After doing this, go to the Media Gallery on your home screen:

If you're not familiar with it, this where you will find all your clips and screenshots! At this point, make sure to have a USB drive with plenty of space, because that's what we're using to transfer the files to PC. You can also upload clips straight to youtube for example, but it does diminish the video quality quite a bit in my experience. Once you find the footage you want to transfer, click 'Select Multiple':

And then select all the clips/screenshots you want, and then press '...' and then 'Copy to USB Drive':

Then your PS5 will copy the selected files to your USB drive! This allows you to get your footage in the best possible quality.

As long as the game your record is running at 60fps, you should be getting 60fps clips as well. Once you insert the USB drive in your PC, you can start importing files into Photoshop using File -> Import -> Video Frames to Layers to import every frame as a layer. From here the process is the same as importing any other video file (TV, movie, etc.)

Then, select the part of the video you want to make a gif of by adjusting the sliders:

and press OK. For the smoothest gif, do not tick 'Limit To Every ... Frames', because that will make Photoshop skip frames.

After this, you can do all your coloring and such - plenty of tutorials on that on Tumblr and I'm also always urging people to try out the many options for themselves - but the last part I want to touch on for you is the framerates. After inserting this video file, the Frame Animation framerate is 0,02 seconds per frame:

Generally when you make a gif, you end up sharpening it using the Timeline and saving it. What I usually do is save the gif (File -> (Export ->) Save For Web), then open in again in Photoshop, and change the framerate there. The nicest looking framerate depends on the footage, and, of course your own taste. This is my gif right after sharpening and saving (this is 0,03s per frame):

This is a high framerate, which looks okay for this gif because there isn't a lot of movement. For 60fps footage like this, I recommend setting the framerate to 0,04s, so open the gif again and change it on every frame by pressing the option I highlighted below, and pressing 'Other':

And then set the frame delay to 0,04s. That's the setting I usually use, while for 30fps footage I set the delay to 0,05s. But, again, it might depend on the footage which looks best. This is the same gif with a 0,04s frame delay:

To illustrate the point of it depending on footage even more, I'll show you a gif with more movement with frame delays of 0,03s and 0,04s respectively, which hopefully shows you the difference quite clearly (I have to add to this that the speeds tend to look quite different on mobile and PC. 0,03s delay looks fine to me on PC, but way too fast on mobile):

That is basically it for my process. As for your specific problems, if you use this capture method and the same options in Photoshop, you should be getting a pretty smooth gif. I hope there is some info in here that helps, if you have any other questions I'd be happy to help, but I think the most important things are using high framerate footage, importing these into Photoshop as layers and saving them for web correctly! 💗