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destiny-smasher · 1 year ago

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Stuff From 2023!

List of things of note I experienced in 2023! A few things didn't technically release in 2023, I'm sure, but yea. Will contain my 'Top 10 Games I Played in 2023' as well.

Firstly, something I played a lot of this year in bursts but doesn't quite crack my Top 10 is Vampire Survivors. Very addicting, did some very fun goofy shit that had me laughing and engaged in a lizard brain way. Appreciated the many Castlevania references and jokes, too.

A couple of games I played every weekend for a few hours across many weeks this year were Project Zomboid and Roots of Pacha, both in a group 4. We had lots of fun with those two, and I think they're both great co-op time-sink games. Zomboid is a zombie survival sim that has way more attention to detail than its graphics may imply. It's still in early access but the depth to its is honestly pretty dang impressive. Pacha iterates on the Stardew Valley formula in a ton of small but deliberate, thoughtful ways that make for a nice twist on that Harvest Moon style game.

REMAKES

There were so many great remakes this year, on top of just amazing games in general, I can't fit them all into my Top 10. So here's a segment dedicated to most of the remakes I loved this year.

The remake of Super Mario RPG was such a surprise, and turned out very damn well. That game, turns out, is very near and dear to my heart and I did not fully appreciate that until this remake was revealed. It comes just shy of cracking my Top 10 list and that's honestly only because I finished Mother 3 finally right at the tail end of the year. This game manages to still feel weirdly fresh even today just due to how fucking strange it is, and the remake speeds up the pacing a bit while also adding in some new mechanics and a chunk of new post-game content. Everything was handled so well. This is like the new gold standard of complete one-to-one remakes of sprite-based games imo. I will admit the artstyle is a bit 'off' in some ways but I think it's very clean looking and captures that 90's CGI spirit really well, all things considered. And the music, OOF, so damn good.

The remake of Dead Space I don't have much to talk about, but it's very well produced. It's remade so well, in fact, that it felt like my memories of the original, even though I know it's not an exact recreation. Very well done and still holds up as a great horror action game with these improvements.

The remaster of Metroid Prime is so impressive it feels like a remake, even if the game is identical to the original aside from presentation and some control changes. It's an iconic classic, and yet I have no patience to do the Chozo Artifact stuff, so I actually did not roll credits on this version BUT still thoroughly enjoyed reliving the game with a very nice new coat of paint. It makes me excited to see what Prime 4 will look like on, I expect, more powerful hardware.

SHOWS/MOVIES

The year started strong with a TV adaptation of The Last of Us. While I've come to have conflicted feelings with the franchise at large, mainly due to its leading boss man, I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of this series. Very well done adaptation that picked and chose what to keep and what to change and honestly makes for a better story as a whole if you ask me, while not really replacing the game's tactile interactive tensions. Cannot wait to see what they do with Part 2 tbqh. I loved that game more than the original but also felt it was worse as an overall game/experience/narrative. But a fresh take on that same plot could potentially address a lot of the issues I had with Part 2, while simultaneously not really 'replacing' it, either.

The Bear. If you haven't seen it, it's just. Very good television. Two seasons in and it's sitting up there chasing Mr. Robot and Better Call Saul as one of the best live action series I've ever seen. Season 2 did such a great job of giving us deeper dives on the various characters and building toward an organic and rewarding conclusion that still leaves room for another season to theoretically wrap things up. Nothing too crazy with this show, it's super down to earth, and it owns that very well with editing and pacing that varies per episode, kind of in line with the different character perspectives.

Super Mario Bros.: The Movie had me worried for a while, mainly due to the animation studio and casting. And while I'm still not 100% sold on this celebrity casting, I will admit it didn't weight the experience down -- even if it's still the second weakest element by far. The weakest element is the writing. It's not, like, offense -- it's loyal to the source material and works, it functions. But it's not doing anything beyond pushing us from set piece to set piece. If anything, the movie is a bit too short for all of the stuff it's cramming in. But on the upside, there is a lot of amazingly rendered visuals and music to take in. A real treat for fans of the franchise, and the most loyal gaming adaptation in movie form, I would say.

Across the Spiderverse is in essence the first half of a two part film. That makes it kind of difficult to talk about, especially when it's also a sequel, and the production sounds like it was marred with bad management and crunch. But the results they came up with actually met my hopes and expectations for a sequel, and that is saying something, as I had very high expectations. I completely adore this film's stupendous sense of style, editing, framing, writing, and the way it's making meta-commentary on multiple levels on top of just being an effective narrative on its own. This is animated storytelling running at full capacity in my opinion, and in general just film doing all of the kinds of things film can do. So it's no wonder that there's still a rub -- this is the first half of the story they planned. The editing, animation, framing, effects, acting, action sequences, music, writing, theming, just Farore's sake, this is SUCH a damn banger of a film and one of the best movies I've ever seen, which, again, is kind of insane given the circumstances. I can only hope they don't fuck up the conclusion.

Scott Pilgrim Takes Off was quite the surprise announcement, and as it turns out, quite the surprise adaptation. I won't spoil much but I will say that by the end of the first episode, it becomes very apparent that this series is no mere by-the-books adaptation, and does something unique and edifying, even if it still maintains a certain surface-level depth I wish the franchise would push beyond. Either way, I enjoyed it way more than I expected to going in, and I think it makes for a great companion to the rest of the series. The animation style was super fun, as well, with some great action sequences.

But Blue Eye Samurai sucker-punched me, having released before I'd even known about it. This show is something else, something unlike any other animated show I've seen besides Arcane. And it's not like it's mimicking Arcane, it's just the closest I can think to compare it to: a quality, thoughtfully framed, thoughtfully written, made-for-adults animated series. It tows the line between fantasy and realism in a refreshing way, its protagonist is great, its cast is compelling, its plot goes to some neat places, and things just feel very well thought-out and well-executed. Slap this in second place behind Arcane as the TV series I am the most excited to see more of in the future, just ahead of The Bear.

Something I did near the end of the year was watch The Hunger Games movies, back to back over the course of like, a week. Have not read the books but man, watching these sure made me interested in doing so at some point. I totally get why people were so enamored with this franchise, and honestly, I think its themes and messages are more relevant now than they were when this franchise was at the peak of its popularity. The films certainly have glaring issues for my tastes but yea, I managed to really enjoy them as a whole despite my lack of mainstream sensibilities. Looking forward to reading the books eventually.

Another thing my wife shared with me was 花ざかりの君たちへ (often called 'Hana-Kimi' for short). Specifically, the 2007 version, as, uh, apparently there are multiple adaptations of this. It was a live action Japanese drama about a high schooler who was born female but transfers into an all-boys school, identifying as a boy while she is there. There's more to it than that, and I won't say it handles everything the best (it's from the mid 2000's) or concludes things in quite the way I'd have preferred. Not to mention it's kind of weird seeing many tropes I'm used to seeing in anime rendered by physical, real actors. BUT it was overall a really sweet, adorable, funny, heartfelt, and reached for pro-queer expression in a time and place when that wasn't mainstream yet (and honestly kinda still isn't depending on who you ask).

Good Omens Season 3 also dropped this year. I actually don't have much to say partly because I think a big element of it is just not knowing what to expect going into it! But it was also very good, very fun, pretty damn gay, I really enjoyed it and am crossing my fingers hard they get to wrap it up the way they want.

All right! Onto my personal top 10 GOTYs.

TOP 11 GAMES

(I played and finished in 2023)

11) Mother 3

The one entry on this list that did not actually come out this year -- in fact, it's never technically released outside of Japan. Originally release in 2007 on the Game Boy Advance, this quirky RPG has developed quite the reputation. I started playing the fan translation back in like 2020, and only got around to finally finishing it this year. While that likely did tarnish the experience a bit for me, so does the final third or so -- it kind of drags on a bit, and any old school format RPG that requires grinding to progress can become a bit of a chore.

Thankfully, Mother 3 did earn its hallowed reputation in my eyes now that I have experienced it. I totally get the passion for this game now, and I am a convert. It makes me want to finally finish Mother 2, aka Earthbound. But here's the biggest thing about Mother 3 I weirdly did not expect going in, yet smashed my face in like a hammer by the time I finished it:

without Mother 3, there is no way Undertale/deltarune would exist.

The DNA for Toby Fox's works is achingly obvious in its relation to this game, specifically. I won't spoil anything and I won't go into my long list of evidence like an Ace Attorney case, but trust me, there is ample evidence to make this claim.

And that also means that Mother 3 stands on its own merits as doing things that RPGs just plain were not doing in 2007, and in some ways still aren't today. Aside from some pacing issues further in, the characters in your party aren't as developed as much as I'd like. BUT the overall narrative it tells, especially in those opening chapters, have a rare kind of earnest, human magic to them that most games just don't let themselves fall into. And it concludes in ways I did not expect and yet offered clarity as to why it is so beloved, and how Toby Fox was so inspired to put his own mark on the gaming landscape.

I owe a great deal to Undertale, personally, and as such, I also owe a great deal to Mother 3. You don't need to have played others in the series to enjoy it, you'll just be missing some referential stuff here and there. It's quite playable and unique by today's standards and I strongly recommend it if you want an RPG that is heartfelt, funny, fun mechanically, and has some simple but hard-hitting things to say about the world we live in, and what we are doing to ourselves and that world.

10) Super Mario Bros. Wonder

What can be said that hasn't been said already? Nintendo knocked it out the park with this one. This was everything I've wanted in a 2D Mario for like 15 years. The only thing 'missing' from it is playable Rosalina, but hey, we finally got Daisy in a mainline Mario game, so I'll take it. After a decade or so of dragging their feet with low-effort but enjoyable 2D games, Super Mario Wonder finally, at long last, captures what makes Nintendo games great and with their best foot forward. They haven't done 2D Mario this well since World on the SNES in 1991. And they have never put this level of production into a 2D game since... ever?

This is one of the all-time best 2D platformers out there, and for once it finally feels like 2D Mario is running on all cylinders as a big budget passion project kind of game. You love to see it.

9) Scarlet Hollow

This game isn't technically finished yet, as it is episodic, and its developers wanted to release Slay the Princess in the interim, but that doesn't stop its quality from being good enough to make my list. This game is doing the kinds of things visual novels should be doing, the kinds of things I wish to do in a sense with my own visual novel development.

It's a horror themed experience but balances the high tension with actual real stakes very well against mostly down-to-earth conversations, with lots of great tricks and touches of presentation you don't typically see in indie visual novels, along with a fantastic art style, charming characters (my favorite character has turned out to be the one I immediately disliked at first, and that's rare for me), and meaningful choices.

I can't wait to see how this one wraps up but even as it stands it's one of the best things I experienced in 2023.

8) Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Redeemed

I will admit I skipped Xenoblade Chronicles 2 after giving it an honest go in like, 2019 or so. A few hours in and i couldn't stomach it, the tonal whiplash from Xenoblade 1 (one of the best RPGs I've ever played) was too much for me. But then Xenoblade 3 came out last year, and is also one of the best RPGs I've ever played, even better than the original for my tastes.

But I wasn't prepared for the DLC to drop a whole ass side-game on us, a self-contained prequel to 3 that serves as narrative cohesion to tie the whole trilogy together with a bow on top, complete with perfectly tuned fanservice (and not the sexy kind, although grown-up Rex and Shulk, well, yes) that really respects its fanbase for investing hundreds of hours in this franchise.

Matthew is easily one of my all-time fav RPG main characters, probably the favorite RPG main character when I think of it (as main characters specifically go, anyway), and his game is a fraction of the length of many RPGs out there. But as usual, the entire cast had their charms, the story was nicely paced, the gameplay and overall length was just about damn perfect for what I could want from the genre.

As an expansion to a pre-existing game, this is one of the top 3 best expansions/DLCs I've ever played. When taken as a side story to an overarching trilogy, I'm not even 100% in on the lore and I still enjoyed the hell out of it, it's just the kind of thing that hits a tone of 'damn, video games are a fucking unique medium that we can do specific narrative things with across years of telling a story.'

I don't know where Monolith Soft is going next, though the ending certainly offers some intriguing teasing, but I suspect I will be there day one to see it, and am looking forward to it.

7) Pikmin 4

Given the long wait (10 years!) one might understand fan concern over the state of Pikmin 4. Turns out, that extra time was spent making this game fucking good. It's not the largest, most impressive, most complex, most inspiring, most 'anything' game I played this year, and yet I can't help saying that this is a damned good video game. It really nailed what it set out to do as a sequel, incorporating just the right ideas to spice up the formula while bringing things back to how Pikmin 2 was, and improving on the series in basically every way -- including stuff to do!

This is easily the most Pikmin game... in a Pikmin game. I still haven't 100%'d it. Without giving away any details, I'll just say that when a game rolls credits and you're only like, halfway through its content, and it just keeps going, that's just kind of wild. It would've felt like a great game even then, but the breadth and depth it ends up going to in order to keep giving you ways to engage with its wonderfully detailed world and addictive mechanics, I love it.

I just want more of it. Give me DLC with more Dandori content, the formula and feel just works so well at this point.

6) Sea of Stars

How the hell I forgot to include this one on my list initially is boggling. Easily one of the best indie games I've ever experienced. The writing is nothing to, well, write home about, but it's not bad. And in fact the story has a lot of great things going on, from an interesting world to a very potent arc with the leading support character (who, let's face it, is kind of more the main character than your two main characters).

The game's art and music are phenomenal, capturing the essence of 90's era RPGs but clearly doing things not capable back then. Made even sweeter, the game is a prequel to the studio's prior work, The Messenger, which I also played and adored in tandem, kind of going back and forth between the two once I was partway into Sea of Stars. The way this RPG repurposes songs from Messenger as well as all kinds of seemingly superfluous elements but makes it feel cohesive is pretty great.

The game also trims a lot of the fat you'd find in older RPGs, as well as lets you customize your experience in a modern way using collectibles you can toggle on and off to grant all kinds of effects, like increasing or decreasing the difficulty in various ways.

The homage paid to classics like Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG is clear but it's not at all copy-cat-ing, instead wearing those inspirations proudly on its sleeves and forging its own path with its own ideas. A fantastic collection of party members, a wonderful world, amazing presentation, and environments and pacing that help it stand apart from the genre that inspired it. I wish we got to know the leads better, there is a lack of character growth in many ways, but that's me grasping at straws to critique, it's just a fantastic experience and the studio should be very proud of what they've accomplished.

5) Hi-Fi Rush

This is gonna be a running trend from here on out, but on any other year, Hi-Fi Rush would've been my GOTY, easy. From this point on, we're talking measures of inches rather than miles in terms of my love for these games.

Hi-Fi Rush finally delivered on something I have waited like 20 years for: a rhythm action adventure where playing the game in sync with the music felt fucking cool and gave me emotional resonance in a way only this medium can. The humor was charmng. The visual aesthetic is almost peak 'my taste.' The music was groovy with a few tracks I did not see coming but loved seeing how they were incorporated. The story was surprisingly fun! The characters were fantastic, I loved the entire main crew in a way I rarely ever do and would jump at the chance to spend more time with (and hey, there's a whole bunch of post-game I have yet to do, so I intend to in 2024).

The only real thing I could reasonably ask for from this game is a way to play as those other party members in post-game content or new-game plus or something. And who knows, maybe we get that some day. Even if we don't, what they came up with here is the next best thing besides. And what we got is one the most video-gamey video games I have ever played, a real classic and one I think will go down as one of my all-time favs. A passion project given meaningful time, budget, and creatives to bring it to life.

Had this game offered multiple playable characters, a bit more development in its story, and maybe a stronger climax, it'd be higher. I still love it to death and want more games like it regardless.

Hi-Fi Rush is exactly what kind of game we could have gotten more of if the Internet hadn't pushed gaming into a 'live service' direction. It is literally the spirit of a PS2/GameCube game given modern form. And either way, we did get it, at least, in that form, and it fucking rocks.

4) Resident Evil 4 (Remake)

This year was big for remakes and remasters, but one stands tall above the rest, if you ask me. The original RE4 has stood as my fav in the franchise, the one that got me into the franchise, the one that got me into M-rated games in the first place. Lots of nostalgia, but it's held up surprisingly well over the years despite some limitations of the time (mainly the controls) and some older-fashioned sensibilities ("with ballistics, too~").

But Capcom fucking nailed it with this reimagining. Like Final Fantasy VII: Remake, this game is not a remaster, or a one-to-one recreation. It is a brand new game, built from the ground up, reimagining the original entirely, complete with new mechanics and story. But unlike with FF7, this is also shockingly authentic and loyal to the original at the same time. It remixes elements from the original game, maintains most of the original's map design, adds in new stuff, removes some of the more goofy shit -- and even 90% of what feels 'removed' is revealed to be repurposed for the Ada side story DLC.

It looks great, it sounds great, the adjustments to characters and story are improvements across the board, (except for Hunnigan, RIP) the gameplay is improved in intensity and feel and action and replayability. And yet despite all of this, it balances that campy tone of the original just enough to still evoke what I loved about the original's tone. And it doesn't outright replace the original game, either. The two are now like different recipes of the same sandwich or something. There's reasons to revisit the original, though for me this has now replaced the remake of RE2 as my fav in the franchise.

I really don't know where they go from here but I will look forward to it, and regardless, they fucking nailed this one.

3) Street Fighter 6

Two Capcom games, back-to-back? They had a fucking good year in my eyes. The interesting thing about this particular entry is that unlike the others on this list, I will be continuing to play this one for hours and hours into 2024, especially with more fighters still planned. And in another year, this would've easily been my GOTY.

After all, Street Fighter 6 is the single-best traditional fighting game I think I've ever played. And while fighting games are my overall personal favorite genre, I'm more of a Smash player who also loves the hell out of Street Fighter and then dabbles in Tekken and whatever else releases. Street Fighter has always been one of my go-to top multiplayer games since I got into the franchise with SF4 in 2010. While I did enjoy SF5 well enough, it just didn't keep me hungry to come back for more like 4 did. SF6 has fixed that problem by way of a multitude of changes.

It has easily the most fun single player mode I've seen any fighting game have. Like, yea, The Subspace Emmisary (and even then, I don't love that mode like other folks do, I kinda think it's... fine?) but tbqh World Tour is just better in most every way. You get to build your own fighter, earn and mix and match different costumes and individual character special moves with each fighter's fight style. You get to just hang out with the SF characters, get to know them as people, their hobbies, their fears, their insecurities, their passions besides just beating the shit out of each other. On top of this, the realistic art style shift (a by-product of the RE Engine) seals the deal on what Street Fighter 6 is aiming to do: humanize its cast.

Is it still wacky as fuck? Is it still comical and weird and goofy? Hell yes, it is. Is the story mode deep in its narrative? Not in the slightest. But it's still stepping confidently in a direction fighting games should be trying to, not being too self-serious, but also being earnest.

And I haven't even touched on the mechanics! The Drive System alone is a brilliant addition that adds a sort of 'stamina' system that works so well to add an extra layer of decision making and tension. The game's not perfectly balance imo but for how much is here it is surprisingly damn well balanced, especially given they have insisted on not pushing out a single balance patch since it launched in June. For most any other competitive game, that would be like suicide for the scene, but the game seems to be thriving and selling extremely well for the franchise. And it's earned it.

I will absolutely be continuing my warrior's journey into 2024 and I can't wait to see what else Capcom has in store for this game.

2) Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Out of every game I played in 2023, Tears of the Kingdom is easily the most technically impressive. From a design standpoint, from a 'how in the hell is the Switch doing all of this without exploding' standpoint. From a 'holy hell how is there this much stuff in a single player game' standpoint. From a 'oh my goddesses that stupid batshit idea I had 100% worked because it actually did make sense' standpoint.

Where Breath of the Wild opened our minds as to what an open world game could be -- fully designed like one giant interconnected 'level' -- Tears of the Kingdom replied in much the way I expected: it pulled a Super Mario Galaxy 2. What I mean by that is that this is a direct sequel, building directly off the foundation of the original. You know. Like video game sequels almost always used to. And which many very successful ones still absolutely do.

But Tears of the Kingdom somehow managed to wow me all over again by adding to that open world's verticality in insane ways -- the Depths alone are probably my favorite 'mechanic' from any Zelda game ever besides the time loop of Majora's Mask (and what that did for the story and gameplay). But beyond the scale of the world basically doubling and then some (floating islands and caves on top of Depths), I was curious how this game could stand tall after Elden Ring, which is easily in my top 10 favorite games of all time at this point. Elden Ring was Fromsoft's reply to BOTW. And yet Tears of the Kingdom still managed to have something new to say in spite of that very strong reply.

Tears of the Kingdom opened the door to let players essentially create their own mechanics. By removing the abilities Link had to engage with the world before, and replacing them with a brand new toolset that includes abilities you just... don't see games give you, because they'd be 'overpowered,' TOTK designs its massive world in ways that invite you to use those 'overpowered' abilities however you see fit.

Being able to interact with the world and objects in this way, being able to fuse them together to create all kinds of effects, or new methods of transportation, even interacting with things not just spacially but in respect to time, it's nuts and fun and I've already poured like 130 hours with still so much I haven't done. And that's the thing: this game wasn't designed to be 100%'d. It was designed to just... be experienced, as much or as little as you want. And games on this level of scale/budget just do not have the guts to let so, so much 'content' be missed out on. And this game does.

It's a technical achievement and while I had my doubts with how strangely little Nintendo had to show, I am very glad that the experience itself manages to breathe new life into one of my all-time favorite games while improving on it in so many ways. It won't convert you if you didn't love the original -- this is a Super Mario Galaxy 2 style sequel, after all. But it's essentially replaced the original in ways I didn't think would be possible.

The story? Oof. Uh, not so much the story, let's ignore that part. That's what Nintendo wants you to usually do, anyway. But everything else, just. Din-damn.

It expands upon the first game's already fairly open-ended nature in an exponential way that I suspect developers will spend years to come trying to pin down, much like how they've spend the past 6 or 7 years trying to replicate BOTW's open world design.

For much of this year, I thought this was personal GOTY. And for many it will be, because it's just an extremely impressive video game.

Number 1...?

Going into this list, I kept telling myself, 'man, on any other year, this would be my GOTY. And if you know me personally you likely have already figured out what my GOTY is by omission. But the more I've thought about it, the more I've realized just how close these top 5 games are, it really is like centimeters instead of inches, and they each -- well, every game I've mentioned here, beyond the Top 10, as well -- offered something edifying that I was very satisfied with.

And no, it's not Baldur's Gate 3. While I have spent hours playing it in co-op and a little bit solo, that game's just not really for me, exactly. Like, I can enjoy it, and I have massive respect for the dev team and what they accomplished with it. But I don't much care for D&D, and the game just didn't do very much for me personally, I lack the motivation to finish it. Remove Karlach from the game and I have next to nothing to really attach myself to, personally. I definitely get why it's many people's favorite game of 2023, though, and I do think it's a bit of a wakeup call for what can be accomplished by just making a GAME instead of struggling to contort it into a service etc.

Street Fighter 6 is fucking fantastic but it could still use some more actual fighters and incentives to keep playing besides monetizing its players in weird ways. I love it, and it will be the game from 2023 I end up playing the most (it already is, I think). But if it ended as it is, I would be very satisfied.

Hi-Fi Rush is oozing with originality and style and I adore it to death, and when I finished it, I was very satisfied.

Resident Evil 4 kept me addicted for over 100 hours, had an amazing DLC expansion, oozes replaybility in the specific ways I like for a single player action game (rogue-likes besides). I am extremely satisfied by it.

Tears of the Kingdom is so massive and fun to just explore that I know I will continue to play more in the months to come. Will I ever revisit it entirely? I'm actually not sure! That massive length does lend some repetition, even if it's the kind I find therapeutic and satisfying.

And that's what made me realize something. My personal GOTY did not just satisfy me. It made me hungry. It filled me up in a way I didn't think was possible and yet I still hunger for more, because I enjoyed it that fucking much. I played through it twice and still hunger for more. I know I will play it a third time eventually, but mainly I just have not been to remove from my brain the particular ways it made me feel, ways that only a video game can. Nothing about it felt like it needed to be overlooked.

SF6 and RE4 had dubious monetization, TOTK had a story I found to be like 90% boring and it still maintains many of the flaws of the original. And Hi-Fi Rush, while amazing, just didn't scratch the particular itch this game did for me.

1) Lies of P

If you told me that Lies of P was a game developed by some sub-division of FromSoft, I'd believe you. Which is to say I would also believe that it was made by people who wanted to break free from some of the shackles of the now infamous 'soulslike' genre.

A narrative that actually makes sense by the end? Opening up options for the player without requiring specific stat levels? Encounters and boss fights that feel ravenously challenging without just feeling like cheap bullshit? Music that crosses borders beyond 'angry chorus, angrier orchestra'?

Lies of P doesn't quite eclipse Elden Ring, but that's an absolutely unfair comparison given the utter scope and scale and variety that game packs. But Lies of P improves at the FromSoft formula in specific ways, while making concessions in others, and as a result it's just an experience that seeped into my brain like no other game this year, not even Tears of the Kingdom, despite that I put half the hours into this one.

I love all of the games I have mentioned here, you could honestly swap around the order of this top 5 and I could mentally meander a way to justify why, no, actually, this one was my favorite game of 2023. In a year so awful for the people who make games, yet so amazing for games themselves, Lies of P is exactly the kind of game I needed. I needed someone to show me that you can make something directly inspired by someone else's work, yet fine tune it in all the right ways to make it stand just as tall in terms of quality and design. Lies of P made me feel things in ways only a handful of games ever do -- and I would actually count Hi-Fi Rush among those in a regard.

But Lies of P also told a story I found compelling. It had mystery, tension, buildup, it started off seeming like it would do the vague FromSoft schtick only to 100% come together, make sense, be rewarding, and offer a 'true ending' that I got on the first playthrough, organically, without looking things up, because it just... felt right. Not only is the game adapting FromSoft's formula into something its own, it's also doing that with the story of Pinocchio. The gameplay and the story congeal together not in the 'perfect' way that it does with games like Celeste or Undertale, but rather in a more... messy way, like a puppet aching to become a real boy.

The game is full of loss, in its world and for you as the player, who will die many times. But unlike much of FromSoft's catalogue, I never once felt like I died because of bullshit. Was I trolled? Sure, the game definitely 'trolls' you in classic FromSoft fashion, lulling you into a sense of security only to sweep you off your feet. But unlike how FromSoft does it, these circumstances can always be avoided if you're cautious. And if you're not? Hey, 'We got you! We gooottt youuu, haha' and you lose a couple minutes of progress, rather than like fifteen minutes and also an entire level's worth of souls because oh right, this section you just got through is kind of bullshit cheap.

Don't get me wrong, I love Dark Souls. But the thing is, Lies of P takes the parts I love about Dark Souls, admits it can't pull off quite the intricate web of level design, but then throws away everything I do not like about Dark Souls, improves on the things I already liked, and then pushes me to meet it on its level.

The satisfaction of being a boss you spend an hour, two hours on, cannot be understated. It's a feeling unlike any other, and one only this medium can provide. And Lies of P kept me motivated, like Sekiro before it, to keep improving, keep growing, keep trying. And unlike Sekiro, it gave me so many more tools to play with, to learn, to balance in an arsenal with intent. Enemies have elemental weaknesses if I so choose to exploit them, the moveset of one weapon's handle can be applied to a completely different blade, my robotic arm can leverage things in a pinch, or be the backbone to dealing with a boss. Mastery is rewarded with practice. A vicious boss that annihilates you in five seconds can be defeated without a single scratch if you practice enough. Mastery, creativity, quick thinking, and reacting are all rewarded here.

I am more than the hands pulling the strings, I am more than a puppet, I am human. And games like this can only be made by humans, who get that specific itch that only video games that challenge us can scratch. It's not an itch everyone has, but that's why it's my GOTY and not yours, innit?

With its unique setting, its wonderful music, its cozy hub area, its narrative that offers just enough to make me care, but not so much that I am bored or feel misled, its amazing boss designs, and its wonderfully tactile and engaging combat, Lies of P is a game I just can't stop feeling something about whenever I am reminded of it.

It epitomizes so much -- not all, but much -- of what I love about what video games can do, what adaptations can do, and much like how Toby Fox was inspired by Mother 3, what people can do when they are inspired by someone else's work.

As far as I can tell, this is developer Round8's debut game, and just. Holy hell, what a way to come out swinging. I haven't seen a debut game hit this hard since, I don't know, Bastion.

Close your eyes. Come to me. Feel all right.

I did, and I do, and given what you teased at the end of this game, I have extremely high hopes of what you come up with next. And in a landscape where things feel more difficult to get excited for with each passing year, much less new IP, it's so damn refreshing to have both Hi-Fi Rush and this game standing out as signals that, hey, some folks are still willing to invest bigger budgets into new games, new ideas.

Again, a battle of centimeters here and at this point I should wrap this up and go to bed.

But yea, Lies of P reminded me of what makes me, specifically, human, in a very particular way that only it has. And I honestly think out of all of single player games of 2023, I think it will actively stand out in my heart the most in the years to come.

#GOTY 2023 #goty #video games #gaming #Mother 3 #scarlet hollow #super mario wonder #future redeemed #Pikmin 4 #Hi-Fi Rush #re4 remake #TOTK #LOZ TOTK #Tears of the Kingdom #Lies of P #long post #Sea of Stars

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inconsideratekidney · 2 months ago

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11/20/24

goooooood mornin',

i am feeling good today in general. i've been feeling better ever since i got dressed. i put pants on that i haven't worn in like 3 weeks and reached into my pocket and found my airpods! i am very happy. they are charging up now and i am so ready to go back to wireless listening.... the wired ones were good and all, reliable and didn't need to be charged, but man i missed not having a wire in the way of literally everything i do. the microphone on the wired ones is 100% better tho.... i was struggling to sign while wearing them connected to my laptop, but the mic was just so much better than my airpods. oh shwell. i need new headphones, i should've asked for christmas, but i said i didn't want anything like usual. i want a new laptop and a new pair of headphones.

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should i buy the sims 3? genuine question... i hear it's the best of the series for its open world concept, its general relationships, family, and the wants are actually context based and not random. the sims 4 is lovely and is by far the most aesthetic or pleasing to look at version of sims and of worlds. the building is also the best out of all 4. i like my sims 4, so i think i will obviously keep it, but will always be curious about playing the older versions, especially when so many ppl think its the best one *shrug*.

also the fact that the sims 2 has turn-ons and turn-offs is absolutely hilarious to me. so funny. and like star signs... im dead.

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how is that mighty fine air of ours. it's so airy and full of air. honestly i always forget it exists, it really does just sit there. i love the air. it's so mysterious and gets loud all of a sudden and then dissipates. so cool. i guess that's more the wind, but i love both.

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it's been 6 months since my uncle passed and 3 years since my friend from hs took his life.....times are weird. i don't feel much about it, which feels wrong, only because it was my uncle and i was closest with him. i guess i just don't like to think about things that make me upset! crazy... i was thinking about it tho during class yesterday. i totally blanked out and stared into the computer screen in front of me for about 3 minutes. that was weird...

i'm nervous to go home for thanksgiving. so many things happening..... hopefully my family is happy, but i know it'll be weird without my uncle. very weird.

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my uncle was 56 years old, wasn't married before passing, and never had any kids. he had a lovely girlfriend, so many friends and loved ones, and had many pets in his life. he was always a class clown, in school and after graduating when working as a teacher. everyone who knew him loved him. he was loud and opinionated and loved to make jokes and get people laughing. he was fun to be around because he always wanted to do something, he goofed around and would occasionally make fun of you...but you still enjoyed it...most of the time. he loved people with all of his heart and wanted the best for anyone and everyone around him.

his heart may have been the very thing that worked very hard in his life, maybe too hard. along with all of the fun times being the life of the party, he drank and smoke heavily throughout his life. he had heart problems that he didn't tell anyone about. he would work hard and do things for others, but silently suffer through them. we wouldn't have known that he was suffering as much as he did if he didn't want to burden us and bring attention to himself. in some ways, you could still argue it was a bit selfish how we all care for each other and he didn't let us know, so now we have to deal with the outcome of it. there are many perspectives, but this one is one of the harshest and realest. i won't go into the harshest one, because it's something i don't like to condemn him of, and he doesn't deserve that right now.

whatever actually happened specifically, we don't know, so there's also no reason to beat ourselves up over not knowing. i know my family struggles with that... anyway, i miss him and hope to see him in heaven one day. may God rest his soul.

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i don't mean to be so depressing, but it's my real life and i feel like it's important to talk about. i will be there for my loved ones and make sure to pay attention to people even when they piss me off. i hope everyone is doing alright and that i don't miss too many signs of depression or the like in any of my friends and close ones. i know my family's depressed rn so *shrug*.

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i may end it here for lack of anything better or more to say lol. i wish to get on a more tuesday tuesday tuesday schedule, but life happens and i forgert.

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hope everyone has a lovely day and see you all next time on the inconsideratekidney show...

i hated that..

ok bye :p

kD ⭐

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carnelianwings · 2 years ago

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Harvestella Review

For a game I meant to just spend the afternoon on, I ended up playing all afternoon, followed it up with a 4 hour impromptu stream, and now it’s 1 am. So to me, it’s been a fantastic game so far. Definitely not a game you want to rush, as I discovered after dying no less than 4 times in the first 2 chapters alone, but if you take it at a casual pace and don’t actually push your character harder than the game wants you to, you’ll be fine. (I’ll come back to this point later.) Also I should note that I jumped into this game blind knowing that it’s a full game and a farm sim/rpg hybrid and zero knowledge of the staff credits (especially the composer rofl).

Doing a proper detailed review based on the 8 hours I’ve spent playing this today, tucking this behind a cut because good god this got long lol.

tl;dr: Unexpectedly fun, worth trying at least the demo if you’ve played (and enjoyed) Sakuna of Rice and Ruin (it’s very similar in concept and execution except you’re growing more than just rice and it’s a full fledged 3D action RPG instead of 2D beat ‘em up), OST is amazing, it’s just that $60 price tag that’s a little YMMV. Based on the 8 hours I’ve played today, easily an 8/10

Starting with the cons - the biggest one here is the price tag. For the type of game it is, I’m not entirely sure it’s worth the $60 release day price tag. Definitely get it on sale when it happens; it’s definitely worth it at a lower price. At its current price, though, it’s a massive YMMV. I’ll give it some more time to see how the story pans out to decide whether or not it’s worth the price tag - I’ve spent enough years of my life playing Tales to know just because the opening plays all the tropes straight doesn’t mean the rest of the story will too.

Speaking of Tales - despite this being a SqEnix title complete with the Final Fantasy style character designs and look, there’s definitely a few things that scream Tales and Star Ocean in here. Time will tell whether or not how much of those “Hmmmm this doesn’t feel like FF but definitely feels like Tales/SO” vibes pan out.

The biggest win (actually there’s 2) for the game is definitely the OST though. If you loved any of Go Shiina’s contributions to Tales OSTs over the years (especially his contributions to Zestiria/Berseria’s) definitely give the OST a listen. It’s fantastic, it’s amazing, even though it’s not a Tales OST I actually want a copy of it. If this is what we get from Go Shiina parting ways with Bamco Tales Studio, then I’m not going to complain too hard.

The other big win (which I think has been spread around the internet at this point), is the fact you can choose to play as a male, female, or non-binary character. I’m honestly impressed they included this as an option, now all I’m wondering is if the post-game romance options also let me romance any character of any gender, because 8 hours in and I have to say - I kind of have a crush on Aria, and I would be very sad if I can’t romance her post-game just because I opted to play as the female MC. Also just saying I made my female MC with blue hair and eyes before I even saw Aria, so I swear we’re red/blue compatible and just ... let me date her and make her happy *sobs*

Combat is a little “meh” for now, but there’s signs it’ll get better as you unlock new Jobs and gain levels. Despite people saying there’s no dodge/evasion in combat, there is, but it’s a skill you have to learn off of melee classes ... which, if you’ve been around Tales long enough, will sound really familiar. I can definitely say if you’ve played Tales those same skills will help you get pretty far, and being able to equip 3 Jobs with you when you go out exploring and swap between them gives you a lot of flexibility ... kinda like Ludger actually. My biggest gripe is that there’s no healer for now, so you’re really reliant on early foraging for food and whatever you can farm for HP recovery - but at least you can eat food while you’re in combat and whatever you use on yourself also applies to your other party members so you’re not burning through all of your food stores before you get around to renovating the kitchen and you can cook food for better buffs/HP recovery instead of stuffing your face with whatever random herbs/veggies/fruits you’ve foraged/grown. The AI is decent, but you can’t really adjust what they do in combat or their strategy but at least they won’t go half-cocked on what’s essentially a Giganto Monster and get one-shot. It’s a little annoying though if you’re playing as a Mage because this means you have to be the one to open combat and the monsters aggro on you once you get into (casting) range so it’s a little annoying.

As for the farming sim part, it’s pretty standard farm sim, straight out of the f2p microtransaction mobile game playbook. That said, this is a full game so you don’t have to wait for onerous timers to grow your crops, the farming itself is more plant/water/wander off and do your questing/monster smacking/materials gathering and come back to harvest the next day kind of deal. Having played Sakuna of Rice and Ruin (and loved it) I was hoping this would be how it got implemented so I’m satisfied with how that turned out - plus this also scratches that “I want to play a farm sim” itch I get once in a while that leads me to downloading some terrible f2p microtransaction mobile game to play for all of a month before I hit the paywall of “wait 1+ day(s) for thing” and get fed up with it.

As for the general side quests - I highly recommend you do them as they pop up, as they really help you with earning money and gaining exp for leveling. They also show up at the right time for your level/story progress, so it’s definitely a good way to supplement you with what you need to tackle the main story. Plus you get to learn more about the NPCs in the town, and everything seems to point in the general direction of “You really should get to know everyone in town Because This Might Be Plot Important Later”. Oh, and that’s also where I’m getting a lot of the Tales/SO vibes - for all that the overall game world looks bright and shiny and happy, there’s definitely undercurrents of “This is actually a Crapsack World” that wouldn’t be out of place at all in a Tales game, with a few NPCs you encounter that wouldn’t be out of place in an SO game for both aesthetic and world building information they’re dropping. Also they encourage you to enter the various dungeons multiple times, which is a good thing, since that also helps break up the leveling monotony and it doesn’t feel like you’re just grinding monsters for exp.

Overall, it’s a pretty fun game, the characters are engaging, the plot is interesting thus far (even if it’s pretty standard JRPG storytelling) and as a casual-ish game it’s fun. Maybe not worth the $60, but definitely worth getting if you see it on sale.

#anzu says a thing #harvestella #review #no really don't rush the beginning unless you want to end up broke with no money

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lueurjun · 4 years ago

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𝖱𝖮𝖠𝖣 𝖳𝖮 𝖥𝖠𝖬𝖤. 𝗌𝗂𝗆 𝗃𝖺𝖾𝗒𝗎𝗇

“=⌕ sim jaeyun x gn!reader.

⌗ SUMMARY — becoming a tiktoker was never apart of the plan, but here you are, 4 million followers and a love for pranking your boyfriend.

. . ⇢ LUEURJUN’S NOTES — this is supposed to be gender neutral but if i slipped up at any point then i do sincerely apologise. this probably won’t be written the best, i was kinda sick and had a moment of inspiration. this is super fluffy and cheesy, so brace yourself.

₊❏❜ WARNING ⋮ uh tears of joy?? i guess.

2021 @lueurjun.

THE 30TH APRIL 2020 was the day that your life changed in ways that you used to believe only happened in movies.

Honestly, setting up your phone and telling your devilishly handsome, yet so pure, so innocent boyfriend that you wanted to have a child—whether that be adoption plans or getting pregnant—it was a small prank you decided to pull and film for your group chat. You never had any intentions of uploading it onto the internet, until Jay, one of your closest friends, suggested that you posted it to Tiktok.

Jake was cool with it, having not expected it to blow up as much as it did. Nobody had expected for you to get over 2 million views and over 600k likes on your first video. Nor did you expect the heaps of requests in your comment section of different pranks to pull on your boyfriend. And that’s where it began.

That one video was a rabbit hole into what quickly became your career.

Now, with over 4 million followers, you have created your own little fan base, who have grown to love you, your boyfriend and even your friends that occasionally end up in your videos.

ii.

The light in the kitchen flickered once as you set up your phone against a bunch of cookbooks that your parents had yet to read. Mentally, you made a note to ask one of your family members to change the bulb when they returned home. Focusing on your phone, which was now recording, you put your thumbs up and turned towards the door.

“JAEYUN!” Your voice echoed through the quiet home, bouncing off every wall until it met your boyfriend’s ears. Brief shuffling could be heard followed by the padding of feet across the floor boards. He was only in the next room, so it didn’t take long for him to appear right before your eyes.

The first thing your eyes set on was the crinkles in his shirt, suggesting that he had been laying down. His dark hair was hidden beneath a black hat, which he had placed on his head backwards. He was dressed so simple, but you still managed to fall in love once again at the sight of him. You often wondered how you had managed to bag someone like Jake, he was the epitome of perfection and you couldn’t really see why he would want to be with you. Jake never let these thoughts ponder in your mind for too long, since he was always quick to prove to you that you’re everything to him.

Secretly eyeing the camera, you put on a pout and fiddle with the hem of his shirt. Immediately, the alarm bells go off in Jake’s mind. You’re never normally this quiet and it’s rare to see you pout. He frowns a little, eyebrows knitting together as concern washes over his face. Using his index finger and his thumb, he lifts your chin and gently rubs the skin just below your lip.

“What’s the matter?”

“I just- don’t get mad,” you begin, forcing yourself to sound sad. “But I just think you could’ve been a little bit nicer to me today.”

He had been nothing but an angel to you all day, and you felt horrendous for making him think otherwise, but alas, Tiktok had spoken and they wanted you to do this prank. So, as bad as you felt, it wouldn’t cause much harm.

“Did I do something to upset you?” He looks genuinely hurt by his own actions and guilt immediately tugs at your heart strings.

You shrug and avert your gaze downwards, focusing on the tiled floor beneath your feet. This was partly to stop yourself from giving in too quickly, you’d always been a sucker for Jake’s puppy dog eyes and you knew if you looked into them any longer, you would stop the prank.

Jake cocks his head to the side and steps closer to you, nuzzling his nose against the side of your head. You feel his breath fan over your ear and you swear your heart stops beating for a second. His fingers trail over your waist and he plants the softest kiss to the side of your head.

“I just feel like you’ve been a little mean to me today,” you continue. And he nods his head in understanding, though you know he doesn’t understand at all. Jake doesn’t know what he’s done wrong, but if you think he hasn’t been nice to you then he’s not going to argue.

“I’m sorry, can you tell me what I did to make you feel this way?”

You lean your head against his chest and bite your lip, it’s hard to contain your smile. With his sweet response mixed with the scent of his cologne fogging up your brain, you have a hard time holding onto your act and he quickly notices.

“Is this a prank?” He asks, pulling away from you.

You let the giggles slip from your mouth and nod towards the phone, that you had done your best to hide. Jake turns, his hand still on your waist, and he looks for the camera. Once his eyes land on his figure, he throws his head back and a breathy laugh falls from his lips.

“I should’ve known.”

Yes, yes he should’ve but you still made up for it with plenty of kisses.

iii.

Picking Jake up from football practice had become a ritual.

You didn’t need to be asked anymore, you’re just always there waiting for him and he loves that. The excited smile on his face whenever he sees you patiently sitting behind the wheel never gets old. Picking him up, as sad as it sounds, has become your drive to get through Tuesdays. They’re not your favourite day of the week, but knowing you get to see a smiley, yet sweaty, Sim Jaeyun at the end of the day gives you more than enough motivation.

Just like any other Tuesday, you’re waiting. You like to get there early and so, you have about fifteen more minutes until you see your favourite boy walking through the gate. Music plays softly in the background as you lean back and scroll through your comment sections—people are so sweet, though you do get a bitter taste in your mouth when you see people fawning over your boyfriend like he’s a piece of cake.

You ignore the thirst comments and look through the requests. Not many catch your eye, until you come across a particular one and a smirk appears on your face.

Fifteen minutes turns into twenty and finally you see your worn out boyfriend heading towards your car. As tired as he never fails to smile and pick up his pace. He pulls open the door and slips inside. You reach over and greet him with a chaste kiss before pulling away.

“How was practice?”

“Exhausting. Can we take a nap together when we get to your place?” He asks whilst adjusting his seatbelt.

A nap sounds amazing, and you waste no time in nodding your head. “Before we go, I went shopping today. I picked you up a few things, let me show you.”

He melts then and there. Reaching back, you grab one of the bags and aggressively tug it towards you, making sure you hit Jake on the side of the head. He hisses and turns to look at you.

You don’t even apologize.

“No this isn’t it,” you mumble to yourself.

You grip the bag and throw it back where you got it from, once again making sure to slap your boyfriend with it. He stares at you, annoyed with your aggressiveness, though you don’t look back at him and instead, you hit him a third time with a new bag but you instantly regret it. You ended up attacking him with the new pair of shoes you treated yourself to and you can tell this one pained him.

Quickly giving up on the prank, you drop the bag and reach over to rub the back of his head. “I’m sorry! I really didn’t mean to hit you that hard.”

He whips his head towards you, looking at you as though you had just murdered an entire family in front of him. “What? So you meant to hit me?”

You drop your hand and retreat back to your seat, attempting to look innocent. Jake then finds your phone, which is pointing right at him and he sees that it’s recording. You feel guilty, having not meant to hurt him so hard, you can’t meet his eye. You are about to start driving again, when you feel an impact on your arm and a yelp parts from your mouth.

Jake sits beside you, a smile on his face and a bag clutched in his hand. You scowl and he only grins wider.

“Now we’re even.”

Oh, he is evil.

iv.

On the 10th May 2021, you hit 5 million followers.

It was a shock, you rarely kept track of your follower count because you weren’t really in it for that ( though you are grateful for every single person that supports you ) so, you really hadn’t been expecting to hit such a huge milestone. In fact, you were so unexpectant, that you were sleeping at the time.

“BABY!” Your eyes flew open as the bed shook. Jake had jumped on the bed, plastering kisses all over your face. “You hit 5 mill!”

Disoriented, you blink. “Pardon?”

Jake chuckles at your sleepy state, even with messy hair and puffy eyes, he thinks you look so attractive. His dark eyes trail over your features as he uses his thumb to rub underneath your eye, almost like he was trying to wipe away your sleepiness.

“You hit 5 million followers, you did it.” His voice is softer this time, quieter but still filled with enthusiasm. You gape at him, and he laughs.

“I did?” You ask, pointing to yourself.

He nods. “You did.”

The realisation crashes down at you at once and suddenly, you feel your nose sting as tears form in your eyes. Your fingers curl around the fabric of your boyfriend’s shirt whilst the other hand comes up to cover your mouth. Stray tears drop down onto your skin. You can’t believe it. 5 million people followed you. They like your content.

Jake coos at the tears that leak from your eyes like a waterfall. He’s quick to wipe them away, before he presses a kiss to your wet cheek. He’s proud and he’s filled with pride, his baby got 5 million followers and he couldn’t wait to brag to everyone about how talented and cool you are. That’s his favourite thing to do. Jake loves to brag about you.

You sniffle and press your hands against his cheeks. Gently, you rub your nose against his own. “We did it. It’s your account just as much as it is mine, I wouldn’t have got this far without you. After all, you’re my main prank victim. So, we did it. We hit 5 million together.”

You weren’t taking all of the credit, Jake was just as involved as you and he deserves the praise. You had done this together.

“You do know Jay is never going to let you forget that he was the one who suggested uploading it to TikTok...right?”

You laugh, nodding your head. “Yep. I know he’s gloating in the group chat, right now.”

And he was. Jay was so proud of you and Jake, but most of all, he was proud of himself because without him, you would have never uploaded that first video. So, you let him have his moment.

“To millions more!” Jake cheers as he lifts the pizza in his hand, the two of you had decided to celebrate with a victorious take away and a movie marathon.

“To millions more,” you repeat softly.

Whether you had 0 followers or 5 million, as long as Sim Jaeyun was by your side, you didn’t mind.

#enhypen #enhypen scenarios #enhypen imagines #enhypen x reader #enhypen x gender neutral reader #sim jaeyun #sim jake #jake enhypen #jake scenarios #jake x reader #sim jake imagines #jaeyun x reader #jaeyun fluff #jake fluff #sim jake scenarios

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maxismatchccworld · 5 years ago

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Welcome back to our latest - and last! - Deep Dive into the gameplay of The Sims 4 Nifty Knitting Stuff Pack. I’ve really enjoyed sharing the designs and development of this pack with you, and I hope to continue doing these sorts of posts in the future. It’s been a super cool experience, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these! In today’s post I’ll talk about the feature that is core to everything in this pack, Knitting! Once again, I have to remind you that we’re still in active development on the pack and so some things may change between now and the final game. Now, let’s talk about some nifty knits!

READ IT I PROMISE YOU GONNA LIKE IT!

In order to start knitting, you’ll need to purchase a Yarn Basket from the Build/Buy catalog. You probably remember voting on these baskets a while back. This was the winning design, presented to you now in all its colorful glory! Don’t like color? That’s okay, because we included a solid black and white variant.

We have one more knitting basket coming too! Remember this one?

The basket acts as the crafting catalyst(neat term, huh?) similar to the Easel or Woodworking Bench in The Sims 4 base game. But unlike those examples, the Yarn Basket is meant to live in a Sim’s inventory so that they can take their knitting anywhere they want to go. Knitting itself is relatively straightforward: click on the Yarn Basket in your inventory, OR, with the basket in your inventory, click on the chair you want to sit in while knitting (perhaps a rocking chair?) and select the Knit interaction. Your projects are saved to your Sim, so you can pause your progress at any time and resume later, and even juggle multiple projects at once. Starting a project costs a small amount of Simoleons for the cost of yarn, but nothing too outrageous.

(Children can knit too!) As a Sim levels up their knitting skill they’ll have access to new patterns. They’ll start with knitting socks and beanies, but as they grow more skilled they can tackle more challenging projects like sweaters and toys for kids. But if you only want to specialize in one thing - perhaps knitted mailbox cozies? - that's fine too! Just keep knitting anything and everything, and you’ll be level 10 before you know it. Speaking of knitting skill, sometimes your skill is reflected in your knitted work, or rather your lack of skill. Knitting projects can fail, and when they fail they can get weird. But it’s all subjective, and maybe you’ll end up accidentally knitting the cutest derpy companion, or the perfectly itchy sweater. No mistakes, only happy accidents!

(Just own it.) One of the niftiest parts of the knitting skill is unlocking the ability to Teach to Knit, where Sims sit down together and have a knitting pow-wow. We wanted this to feel special, so we got a really sweet animation for it (Thanks Haeju!). Now that you can infect other Sims with the knitting bug, no yarn ball will be safe!

(The knitting needles aren’t finished on the Teach To Knit interaction yet, but trust me it's SUPER CUTE.) So, what can you do with all these knitting projects? Lots of stuff! Not only can knitted objects be listed on Plopsy, but you can also Donate them to charity. If you want to surprise a loved one, try Gifting a knitted object too. If you want to destroy all traces of your knitted failures, you can Frog the object and start again! If it's a particularly nice Sweater that you made, consider Adding it to Wardrobe to make it available in Create-A-Sim to all family members.

(Everyone appreciates a nice gift!) We want Sims to be able to knit something for their whole family. Not only will Sims be able to knit Toddler Onesies, but Baby Onesies as well. So put your little grubworm in a handmade knitted outfit. I’m sure they’d thank us if they could! (And if they didn’t like it I’m sure they’d be polite about it.)

(Here’s a sneak peek at some of the concept art for new clothing for the littlest of Sims!) It also felt like a good idea to add an Aspiration to tie this passion for knitting all together. So if you want to master the fuzzy art of knitting, consider signing your Sim up for the Lord(or Lady) of the Knits Aspiration. With yarn running through your veins, there will be no knitting mountain too hard to conquer! Master the Aspiration and you’ll be rewarded with the Sacred Knitting Knowledge trait. What does it do? Lots of stuff! What does it unlock? Something special! Am I being vague? I am! Come on guys, I can’t share all the secrets quite yet.

As I’ve mentioned previously, we’re trying to get as much cross-pack functionality for knitting as we can. Cats can play with Yarn Baskets and Yarn Balls, there will be new Club rules for Knitting, new class electives at University, and knitting counts for Emotional Control, just to name a few. I’m hoping Knitting feels nice and snug alongside our other gameplay systems. Now let's have a chat with our lead Object Modeler, Beth Mohler! Conor: Can you tell us a little bit about what an Object Modeler does on The Sims 4? Beth: As an object modeler I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to make objects work in The Sims 4. This is actually a very involved process, and somewhat different from the wonderful work our environment team does. We work with designers, concept artists, engineers, animators, vfx artists (basically everyone!) to make sure that Sims can use an object properly in an animation, or that all of our objects will work with each other. Once we understand the design for a new object, we will create a rig, a block model (a very generic version of the object used to help us make more of the same object in the future), and a footprint (tells us where the object can go and how Sims move around it). Once those are tested by animators and other disciplines we can model the final version, create UVs, and add textures. We also hook up and test everything in the game to make sure it all looks good. There is a lot to think about when it comes to making objects because we know players can find so many interesting ways to place and use them in game. That makes it a very fun challenge to make them work with everything else we’ve built before. Conor: What feature are you most excited to work on in Nifty Knitting Stuff? Beth: I’d say I am most excited to work on the rocking chairs! I love that we are bringing them to the game and can’t wait to see them in some cozy living rooms or on porches. Conor: What are some of the challenges you are facing working on this pack? Beth: One of the biggest challenges is ensuring that the knitting itself looks good and is fun to watch! This is a challenge given that it needs to work for everything you can create. Figuring this out takes a lot of iteration between modeling, animation, engineering, design, and art direction so that we come to a conclusion that will work the best given our time and technical constraints. Another interesting “challenge” is the fact that I crochet as a hobby myself! When you are knowledgeable about something (yarn!) in real life, working on it in the game it can sometimes be hard to separate the things you know and may expect in reality from what is possible or best within a video game. I have to make sure to keep a balance and to conceptualize how we can best convert the knitting experience into The Sims 4. As someone who also generally enjoys interior design and architecture, this is actually one of my favorite challenges and one of the things I love about working on objects in The Sims 4. Conor: What is your favorite feature you have ever worked on in The Sims 4? Beth: I think it has to be a tie between the mini fridge or the robotics table in Discover University. That pack was the first time I got to really take an entire feature from start to finish. I’ve been with Maxis for a while, but I’m relatively new to The Sims 4. Both of these objects had some complex features we wanted that required a lot of iteration. I learned a ton about the technical aspects of our game during the process as well. I’ve also worked on a few very cool things between then and now, but those can’t be shared yet ; ) As a fan of The Sims since the very beginning I am so happy to be able to share a little about what I do on a daily basis on The Sims 4 with you! I haven’t been on The Sims 4 for quite as long overall, but some of you may also recognize me from my time on Sims Mobile where I shared some of our workflows on Twitter for making a juice bar. Thanks! Conor: You shared a screenshot of the In-Progress Rocking Chair in our Rocking Chair Deep Dive. Can you share an updated screenshot now that the Rocking Chair is further along? Beth: I would love to! I hope everyone has been enjoying seeing the progress on this object so far! Here it is a little further along. This program allows us to set the rules for the object materials, footprint size and rig it should use, as well as all the color variants and swatch colors you see in the catalog.

Thanks Beth! By the way, Beth is on Twitter @SimGuruBeth, so be sure to Follow her! And thanks to all of you Simmers for following this pack’s development, this has been a really fun project in a very crazy time. A big thank you to my Stuff Pack teammates, and especially SimGuruSarah who edited my inane ramblings and wrangled the miscellaneous bits for these posts. While this concludes my design Deep Dives, we still have more forum posts with development insights on the way! Keep checking the Community Stuff Pack forum and we’ll have more fun stuff to show off in the weeks to come. Until next time, SimGuruConor

Source: The Sims Forum

#s4cc #s4mm #ts4cc #ts4mm #maxis match #thesims4 #S4 news

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inkabelledesigns · 4 years ago

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BATIM Sims: Studio Quartet

Alright, I’ve been overdue to share some of the individual shots from my Sims gallery, so today, I’m gonna start you off with the Studio Quartet household. This household consists of Jack Fain, Norman Polk, Shawn Flynn, and Grant Cohen. I’m gonna outline them in the order they were made below.

A reminder that if you ever want to play with my households in your game, look me up at KatAlystDesigns on the Sims 4 Gallery. Tag me with your misadventures if you do, I’d love to see what you do with them! ^^

Norman Polk:

Norman was the hardest to find an aspiration for, so because these are for my AU, Kraken’s Labyrinth, I decided, the heck with it, let this man just enjoy the beach. His traits focused on his sense of humor and confidence. I’ll admit, I debated giving him Insider instead of Foodie, but the description made it sound too pretentious, which Norman is absolutely not, so we went the headcanon route. I think he looks really handsome in checkers. Definitely a simple dresser, but it’s classy and gets the job dobe. For my AU, he’s an anglerfish, I gave him a tail that lights up a little at the spots. It feels like a decent fit.

Shawn Flynn:

Shawn is one of the first times I pulled up a real person to reference for a Sim. I was on call with some friends, and they were curious to see what would happen if I used Jacksepticeye as my base, so I looked to him and Mythicality (one of my favorite cosplayers for Shawn) for this. Honestly, it was a fun challenge! He definitely needs the cool hat, how can you not have the cool hat? I’ll admit, the green hair is probably a stretch for the time period, but I’m going with the headcanon of ‘Jack has a kid that likes to paint, and sometimes he comes to work with paint in his hair.” He had colored hair before it was cool. XD One of my favorite details are his pants. I’m pretty sure they’re from the Get Famous pack as a part of the makeup artist attire, but I don’t care, it would be a cool way to have paintbrushes on the go. I may just give them to my persona. XD

Jack Fain:

Now we’re getting into familiar territory. Jack and Grant are some of the few BATIM characters you’ve seen my drawn designs for, even if it was eons ago. XD Jack over here is very much headcanon territory, and with the recent information we got on him, I may be moving some things around. I imagine he and Sammy both have fabulous hair, and he also really loves good food. My Jack loves baking, especially baklava and other Greek/Middle Eastern dishes. I can see him bringing in some great treats for holiday parties, Henry loves his food over in Searching the Depths. He notably has a very large nose, because I’m cruel to him with that whole “working in the sewers” thing, and because I like a good schnoz now and again. That, and while searchers don’t have much of a face, they do have noses, and I felt that was important to keep for him.

Grant Cohen:

He has some great hair like Will Ryan, but that’s about all they have in common. I’ll admit, my Grant is very much so a fandom Grant: shy, nervous, incredibly skittish, easy to manipulate, etc. So much like Norman (and everyone else for that matter) he deserves a vacation. My Grant takes his visual cues from Maurice from Beauty and the Beast. He’s a very proper fellow, but also very nice and down to Earth. Putting him in a household with these three gives him a nice support network, and I’m glad I did that. He needs it. ^^’’

It’s funny, I actually made a more Depths-centric Grant Sim last night, and I didn’t think to look at this Sim while I did it, so the two have very different traits. I’ll have to share him with you later. For now though, have some shenanigans!

Some of these might be familiar to you from the last livestream I hosted, and some are not because they’re from more recently. XD Norman was a little glitchy in the water on Sunday, but that’s okay, so long as no one drowns I’m good. But the sleeping in the pool? I was not expecting that. X’’’D Like all four of them just went and slept in the pool, I didn’t know merfolk could do that before this point!

So yeah, those are my adventures in the Sims 4 with the Studio Quartet. I don’t play with this household often, but I do like them. They were fun to design, and the varied personalities make for some interesting interactions.

#sims 4 #batim sims 4 #bendy sims #bendy sims 4 #sims 4 gallery #sims mermaids #norman polk #shawn flynn #Jack Fain #grant cohen

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anxiousgaming · 3 years ago

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I’ve spent the past few days with anxiety. Thankfully this isn’t something I have to battle on a day-to-day basis, but when it hits me it hits and it takes a while to get over it. Sometimes weeks.

I’ve been playing games since I got my Sinclair Spectrum 48k as a kid. I played Monty Mole and Jet Set Willy and a game where all you did was bomb a city as thoroughly as you could. I’ve had periods in my life where I didn’t play much, and other periods when I’ve played a lot.

Years ago when I went through the worst anxiety phase of my life I played a lot of Rayman Legends (great game!) with my kid and noticed that it aggravated my anxiety severely. I had to put the controller down. And if you can’t play Rayman, then what CAN you play?

So, since then I’ve been mentally ranking games from the anxiety perspective and I figured that today was the perfect day to start something new with that.

I’ll be talking about games here. The games I play. The games I’ve played. The games I’ve seen others play. The games I want to play.

I’m playing Pokémon Snap at the moment. This is the perfect game for the anxious. And so what better than to name a list of games that I’d recommend to you if you’re like me and have times when shooting things that are trying to kill you is just out of the question. If you have anxiety and need something calming to play that doesn’t aggravate your anxiety and maybe help ease your mind, and not get that blood pumping.

Later we’ll get to the blood pumping lists! ;)

Best Games to Play while Anxious

(No combat, no necessary timed occurrences, no stress)

Eastshade - You play a painter traveling through a foreign (magical) country. You meet the inhabitants, find out about your history and paint the perfect paintings. It’s a beautiful game, short and sweet. (PC/PS4/XBOX)

Animal Crossing - You make a character, move to a deserted island, help built it up the way you like it, get cute/fun/strange villagers, fish, chase butterflies, find seashells or just laze by the ocean, listening to the waves. The only aggravating thing about this game are the menus, which I decided were a part of the zen, as you sometimes go through dialogue again and again your mind relaxes at the repetition (unless this annoys you quite severely) and actually served to calm my mind. (Nintendo Switch)

Sims 4 - The popular life simulator is one of my go to games when I have anxiety. You can do like I do and just sit there building and furnishing houses. Or you can make sims, make them as anxious as you are, or make sure they have the perfect life. You can play the collector, or if you would rather decorate homes? Be what you like, but be ready to pay for a lot of extra content as the base game is rather skimpish. (PC/PS4/Xbox)

Pokémon Snap - Nintendo is good at tranquility games and this has to be one of the better games I’ve played to put my mind at ease. All you do is sit and take photographs of beautiful Pokémon’s that dance and run and fly and swim around you. The game is stunningly beautiful and again, as Nintendo is very fond of clunky menus, for me they serve as a way to slow down. I pick off every notification after every shoot, even the online one that ALWAYS changes and then I’m ready for the next shoot. I have a few things I’d like to see done better, but those are small things and beside the point here. (Nintendo Switch)

Stardew Valley - Games like Stardew Valley are a treasure for the anxious. You basically play someone who has inherited a farm and suddenly has to rebuilt it. You grow crops, talk to townies, take care of animals and collect things. There is a mine where you take out a sword, but the combat there is easy, made even more easy on the mind by the games pixilation, and though I’m sure it’s necessary for advancement in the game it’s not something you need to focus on too much and would only aggravate my anxiety when I would be almost unable to play because my mind was just too unfocused. And you can play with others, if thats your jam, keep a farm with your friends. Have them go down the mines. (Though I’m not sure how that works). It helped make me calm. (Nintendo Switch/PC/PS4/XBOX)

This will be a growing list. Those were the first games that came to mind. And of course they are easy going games, collectors, farming and fishing often in beautiful environment with cutesy beings mucking about. I can't think of many fighting games that keep the mind calm.

So, what can you expect from this space? Games. I’ll try to focus on the anxiety aspect as I think it’s great to find something that might ease the mind, calm the red-zoned brain. I’m not an expert, just someone who suffers from it from time to time. But I’ll also talk about other games - maybe even review a few - I’ll give them an anxiety score and maybe a general score, or maybe not. We’ll see where this leads us.

What are your favourite mind-calming games? I'd love to hear about them.

#Games #gaming #gamer #anxiety #anxious #anxious gaming #stardew valley #pokemon snap #animal crossing #sims 4 #eastshade #anxiously

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blisseysim · 4 years ago

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2, 4, 8, 9 and 18

thank you so much for the ask, angel!! 💖💕

2. How long have you been playing sims?

Hmmm, officially, since 2009. I believe when the Sims 3 first came out, I had to wait until Christmas to get the game... and for a while I only had the base game and eventually, the pets expansion pack because it was all I could get with my allowance. 😂 unofficially, I had a friend in the second or third grade who’s older sister had the Sims 2, so we would go and play around in CAS for aaaaages.

4. How would you describe your gameplay?

This is kinda tricky ~ mostly casual, though I do enjoy legacy style challenges (Not So Berry, Lepacy, etc.) because sometimes I struggle to branch out and do different things with my sims, which makes me bored. I’m a big family player though! I just love to see how genetics translate over generations. I do *sometimes* dive into story-based gameplay but I get a bit insecure about my writing so it’s usually all in my head. :D

8. What is your favourite thing about the Sims?

The possibilities. There are so many things that you can do in the game (especially Sims 3), that I believe you could try and play the same storyline a bunch of times and it would never turn out quite the same because the game is so vast and unpredictable lol! Something else is that I love to see how other people play. It constantly inspires me! I haven’t actually touched the game in a few weeks to give my queue some time to catch up but I was browsing through @melien’s blog today and just had to go play for a bit. :’)

9. What is your least favourite thing about the Sims?

I think it’s that sometimes, things really don’t translate from game to game. Like for example, I know a lot of people have love for the Sims 2 because of the lore and story building, and we did get that in the Sims 3 as well, which I adore, but it just kind of fell off in the Sims 4. Sometimes storylines aren’t consistent. Sometimes items or gameplay that was fantastic in one game doesn’t get added to the newer instalment, and I always wonder if it’s an oversight or if it was too difficult to add or if the developers just didn’t bother. On a much lighter note: the fact that toddlers like to park themselves right at the top of the stairs so that they can’t be picked up sometimes hahaha.

18. What’s your favourite Sims Challenge?

I love a classic 100 baby challenge - I had gotten very far on my old computer some years ago, and I can still picture my heiress clear as day. I had a ton of fun with it. I’ve also successfully completed Not So Berry in the Sims 4, and I’ve gotten some of the way through with it in the Sims 3. Something that I’ve really wanted to try out is the Lepacy challenge, but I know it would be difficult with World Adventures because my game doesn’t like to travel around. I’ve also played the asylum challenge in the Sims 3 and 4 a few times but it’s been a while. I’m pretty much up for any challenge though!

Thanks so much for the questions, I had a lot of fun answering them!! 🥰

#ask #I tried not to be super rambly because I know I can go on forever but this is so fun ^^

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cloud-side-gaming · 3 years ago

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Cloud’s Chronic Chapter 18

I’m new to tumbrl, so I’ll start with my latest gaming blog. Which I wrote a few days ago and post on a gaming site. I’ll add old chapters here too. Then the new ones going forward. I do most my gaming on PS5 & PS4

Pretty late with this chapter. I spent pretty much a solid month playing and loving Returnal. I got to 97% of the way to platinuming the game and my game crashed. I had to turn console off to get it to do something. Then when it came back on the save file had corrupted. For some reason the cloud save was corrupted too. Maybe it overwrote. This was the most gutting and annoying save corruption I’ve had.

I managed to do a perfect run on my first run after the tutorial run. Biomes 1-3 and then 4-6 in one smooth run and completed the game again. Then it took weeks and weeks of replaying through the 2/3 biomes I needed all collectibles for to get the respective last trophies. I think the last one I needed was in the desert biome and was an ultra rare room that has one chance to spawn per run. I think it took 70 runs to unlock.

Then finally after that massive grind and pretty much earning the platinum twice over I got one of my favourite platinums in my collection. It’s a good job I liked the game so much.

After that I chilled out a bit and then got the beautiful Ratchet and Clank Rift Apart. It’s truly gorgeous and one of my fave platform games I’ve played on PS along with Astros. I’ve played about half way through so far. I need to go back and finish it as I put it on hold to complete a milestone I was close to.

I decided to make FFVII Remake my 100th platinum as it’s a special milestone and FFVII is a special game to me. One I grew up playing as a school kid and the one that got me hooked on RPGs and JRPGs. Also one of the only games to make me emotional.

Firstly though as FFVII intermission has just come out. I decided to enjoy Yuffie’s DLC first. I loved the story and the fact that it was based in the same time frame as the main game. Parallel to the main story. Yuffie was really fun to play as in combat with a great ranged and close range mix. Can’t wait to play as her in Remake part 2. Another great addition was the mini game Fort Condor. A simple yet addictive strategy battle game. With different troops and board set ups. I really hope they bring that mini game to part 2 also.

The other real hard part was the pride and joy fight in the battle sim. Where you take on 4 summons back to back and then the ultimate weapon. The hardest fight is Bahamut who also calls a summon for a hand and hits you with a one hit kill move every few mins. Only reprieve or a mana barrier could save you. Somehow I passed that on my first attempt. Thanks to some luck and a recommended set up. At 40 mins long, I’m glad it didn’t take a lot of try’s. As a reward you get a necklace that lets you start with a limit break. That was super useful in the last few chapters. I popped a few easy plats to get to 99 after that. Then got the platinum and 100 milestone earlier today.

The last few days I started Hades. Omg what an amazing, beautiful hand drawn and addictive game. I can see why it got so many GOTY’s on the switch. I fell in love with it the first day I played it. After 14 attempts I finally made my first successful escape / run on my third day playing it. This will be my chill out game and one I play along with a few others if I can get off it. I really want to get this platinum and spend a lot of time with it. I bought the PS4 version with free PS5 upgrade. So once I have the 5 plat. I’ll go back to it sometime and earn the PS4 plat.

The game is a brilliant Rouge-like. You have 6 weapons you eventually earn. I favoured the bow at first and really enjoyed the range and safety it provided. As you go through the rooms you get given boons by the Greek Gods Zeus, Poseidon etc etc. That Biff your attack, special, cast (spell) and more. Each one is noticeably different and fun. Also you can get Duo boons that combine the power of two gods for very powerful effect. Like lightening on top of a water pushback.

The game is difficult but as you make your runs you get permanent upgrades to work on that make each run a little easier. Like extra health, extra lives etc etc. There is also a god mode. A 20% damage reduction that increases 2% every death to a cap of 80%. Now Ive completed my first run. I might start using god mode to make the grind a bit easier.

As you meet more characters and give them gifts they give you keepsakes. Another powerful bonus to help you along. Which you can level also. The character interacts and the way the game adds story slowly each run is a master stroke in rouge like story telling. This game really is a joy. I look forward to playing more and learning more.

As I’m writing this Ghosts of Tsushima Director’s Cut is minutes from release. I stopped playing it only a few hours in for last years GTTSC. So this is the perfect time to restart and get into one of last years best games in its ultimate form on PS5

Another great few weeks or months of gaming are ahead. Have a good one all.

#gaming #blog post #PS5 #PS4 #ffvii remake #Hades #ghost of tsushima #Returnal #Clouds Chronical #Gamer

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wirewitchviolet · 4 years ago

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We really need 1:1 time passage in games.

I play a lot of games. I particularly play a whole lot of RPGs, strategy things, survival games, and these all tend to be games that try to create an extra sense of immersion with hunger, thirst, and a day night cycle. And WOW do they ever end up doing the exact opposite with the implementation!

Like, let’s just start with food. If I am playing a survival game, and I choose not to eat for a while, my little hunger meter will bottom out, and I will start taking damage then eventually die. This tends to take like, one real life hour/in-game day, give or take to kick in, and then death comes within like, maybe 5 minutes if they’re generous? And I stave this off by... usually finding, killing, cooking, and eating, 2 entire turkeys per real hour/in-game day.

So... what the hell is any of that!?

So we have hunger, and we’re representing it as this slowly draining meter you have to keep an eye on. Already, that’s just weird. In my experience, you can go an entire day, not eating a damn thing, and not feel a thing out of the ordinary. But when you do actually get hungry, it can be overwhelming and impossible to ignore (have you eaten yet today by the way? My meal schedule’s gotten totally weird). Nothing about that makes sense to simulate as a slowly lowering bar. If you want realism, you have absolutely no onscreen hunger meter, and then like every 4-24 hours or so you have some incredibly distracting hunger indicator kick in and stay kicked in. Like, activate rumble packs and leave’em going at a steady pulse sort of annoying. And it gets worse when you’re actually preparing food.

Also feeling hungry is not an early indicator that you are going to suddenly die of starvation, or even that you’re anywhere near that point. I had dinner 6 hours ago, I’m a little hungry now. It varies a lot, but actually starving to death can take upwards of going TWO WHOLE MONTHS without any food at all. Like if we’re representing that as a meter, “hungry” kicks in when it drops to 99% full. Starvation is not a particularly common cause of death. If you’re dying of starvation, either someone is intentionally starving you to death, or some horrific catastrophe has just wiped out completely absolutely every potential food source in an area you somehow cannot wander your way out of even if you have months to do so. Relevant real world fact- Any time you see stuff about people dying of starvation, that’s never “farming just is not a thing that works in this area,” it’s “some malicious tyrant is actively preventing these people from accessing food in a deliberate effort to cause them to starve.” It’s really not actually a concern in any sort of survival story, unless we’re going real long term.

Meanwhile, have game designers ever actually, like, eaten food? Like I said, 2 whole turkeys per real hour/game day seems to be the going standard and like... have you had a turkey? I live in America, there is this tradition on Thanksgiving to go get a turkey, spend a day cooking it, and serving it as part of a meal served to one’s whole extended family. You’ve got that one turkey (granted, generally with a lot of side dishes) feeding like... a dozen people, easily. And at the end of the day, you’ve only MAYBE collectively made your way through like half a breast. You carve up a bunch more and send everyone home with a ton of leftovers. Then you’ve still got this giant mountain of turkey left, and you’re eating it for like the next week until you’re completely sick of turkey and throw the rest out, with plenty of meat entirely uneaten on the bird. Or hey, do you eat hamburgers? You know how the standard for a really kinda too big to responsibly be ordering it hamburger is “a quarter-pounder?” Which refers to the 0.25 lbs. of meat on the bun? Just quickly googling “beef weight” and copying the preview text from the oddly named first hit, on beef2live.com... “An average beef animal weighs about 1200 pounds and has a hanging hot carcass weight (HCW) of about 750 pounds.“ I can’t honestly say I know what “hanging hot carcass weight” is and I kinda doing want to, but I’m assuming that’s how much you have to work with after stripping out all the bones and organs and such. Multiply that by 4 to get how many oversized burgers you get out of one “beef animal” (why does it not say cow? I’m growing increasingly unsettled)- 3000 burgers. Give or take. You go smack that one Mnecraft cow with your sword, you should be fine for like 5 years. At least assuming we’re not simulating food spoilage. And if we are, HEY THAT TAKES SIGNIFICANTLY LONGER THAN ONE DAY, 2 IF YOU SALT IT!

And I mean, on top of that, we’ve got this whole standard I keep citing of 1 real world hour/1 in-game day. That kinda seems to be one of the more common standards for the passage of time video games use. That or 1 minute=1 hour. And I... really don’t understand why we have these scales?

Like, the earliest example of a day/night cycle in a game is Dragon Quest 3, where 1 steps on the over world map=12 minutes passing, or 120 steps=1 day. That’s a weird scale I’m having to use, but that’s because as the most traditional of JRPGs, DQ3′s sense of both time AND space are super abstracted and walking a short distance across the world map is this super compressed and simplified conveyance of a big long epic journey through the untamed wilderness. The first games I can think of offhand to really do it as a real time elapsed ratio thing are like... The Sims and GTA 3? Let me look at each of those in turn in a bit here.

So, The Sims has to pass days pretty quick, because that’s like, the whole idea. We’re watching this little household drama unfold in a compressed time scale... but the scale is really messed up? Like, we start off pretty simple. Sims work their shifts of like 9-5 on the in-game clock, need an appropriate amount of sleep... but then MOST things have timing based off having animations play at a reasonable pace, which is to say, 1 to 1 time, not 1 to 60. It takes like 3 in-game minutes for a Sim to get up out of a chair, several more minutes to walk to the kitchen and even start cooking, altogether just getting up, making a meal, cleaning up, and sitting back down is going to end up being this hours long affair, most of that being travel time from one room to another. It’s weird, and practically speaking you end up having them eat one meal, use the toilet once, and take a shower once per in game day, because less than that problems occur, and more than that, it’s a huge pain. And forget conversations. Those are like 12 hour commitments.

And then we have GTA3, where 1 real minute=1 in game hour... and this isn’t tied to anything in-game at all really. You don’t eat, you don’t sleep, nothing really has business hours to deal with, the whole day/night cycle is just there to give you a nice cycling change of scenery... and also again, breaks immersion, because the animation speed is 1:1. According to a video I just watched, walking end to end across the map of GTA3 takes a full 48 in-game hours (121 in GTA5). And I mean... there’s races, and high speed chases, and all this other stuff that according to the in-game clock are at such slow speeds you can barely tell anything’s moving. It’s weird and arbitrary! And also unnecessary! Like, I’m pretty sure I sank at least 80 hours into my first playthrough of GTA3. I definitely spent enough time cruising around any given island that if time passed in a 1:1 ratio, I’d still see what everything looked like at every time of day. And hell if you rigged it up to a real world clock I could plan around that, do all the cool missions right at sundown.

But I mean, also, there’s these things called movies and TV shows? You may have heard of them, because it’s where games get a whole bunch of terms they use all the time. Like camera, and scene. So the thing there is, when, say, a movie switches to a new scene, they’ll often arbitrarily jump the day/night cycle ahead by several in-movie hours, or even days, so the lighting is appropriate to what’s going to happen in that scene. You can actually just... do that in games, too. It’s OK. Nobody’s going to stop you or say it’s breaking immersion. I talk to this guy to start this mission at what’s clearly noon, then we fade to back, and I come back out onto the street late at night so I can do this daring nighttime raid. That’s.. OK. You can do that. Honest. No need to have the sun doing crazy fast laps in the background.

Anyway, other games since have all copied that time scale, because blindly copying things from GTA3 was kinda... how people made games for a good stretch of time (and yeah yeah yeah, Elder Scrolls was probably already doing it, whatever... hell so was Robinson’s Requiem I’m pretty sure, and Drakken I know was paced something like that). But anyway, we mixed that sort of time scale with Survival Gameplay and we’re just kinda mashing these problems together. We’re doing everything in this one to one time scale, but the in-game clock is running at like 60 times that, and our already ridiculous food intake needs are downright absurd, and suddenly we’re destroying absolutely all life on sight to sate our ever-present ravenous hunger (and possibly never sleeping).

And like... survival games don’t actually need that? Like the interesting bits of the angle are finding sources of things like clean water and shelter so you don’t die of exposure once the sun’s down and stuff. And these are things you really just need to do once and you’re set. You could... basically set up a whole game, running in real time, where these are early potential fail states. Get some kind of shelter set up within the first 5 hours or so, sleep to advance straight to the next day after pulling that off, then you have like 3 days total to find drinkable water, and... honestly at that point we’re talking like a good 45 minutes of gameplay and you could really end it there, or start your last goal. But instead, no, we’re making some kinda crude axe/bow and killing everything to eat.

Not only is it not realistic, not only does it take me out of the experience by checking the math, the whole affair feels kinda like I’m being put through someone’s weird hyper-masculine cargo cult fantasy of what it would have been like if they grew up Hunting With Dad and like.... OK people who actually do that still kill like one animal, then drag it home, throw it in a big fridge, and eat it for quite a long time, or sell it, or leave it to rot because they’re just really into ending the lives of innocent creatures and don’t want weird gamey meat at all.

So yeah, just let time be time, and don’t ever actually make me eat if we’re trying for some kind of gritty realism thing. I really don’t get hungry nearly that often and fill up quick.

#game design #survival

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thesims4blogger · 5 years ago

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The Sims 4 Nifty Knitting: Knitting Deep Dive

SimGuruConnor has released a forum post providing details on The Sims 4 Nifty Knitting!

Welcome back to our latest – and last! – Deep Dive into the gameplay of The Sims 4 Nifty Knitting Stuff Pack. I’ve really enjoyed sharing the designs and development of this pack with you, and I hope to continue doing these sorts of posts in the future. It’s been a super cool experience, and I hope you’ve enjoyed reading these!

In today’s post I’ll talk about the feature that is core to everything in this pack, Knitting! Once again, I have to remind you that we’re still in active development on the pack and so some things may change between now and the final game.

Now, let’s talk about some nifty knits!

We have one more knitting basket coming too! Remember this one?

Your projects are saved to your Sim, so you can pause your progress at any time and resume later, and even juggle multiple projects at once. Starting a project costs a small amount of Simoleons for the cost of yarn, but nothing too outrageous.

(Children can knit too!)

As a Sim levels up their knitting skill they’ll have access to new patterns. They’ll start with knitting socks and beanies, but as they grow more skilled they can tackle more challenging projects like sweaters and toys for kids. But if you only want to specialize in one thing – perhaps knitted mailbox cozies? – that’s fine too! Just keep knitting anything and everything, and you’ll be level 10 before you know it.

Speaking of knitting skill, sometimes your skill is reflected in your knitted work, or rather your lack of skill. Knitting projects can fail, and when they fail they can get weird. But it’s all subjective, and maybe you’ll end up accidentally knitting the cutest derpy companion, or the perfectly itchy sweater. No mistakes, only happy accidents!

(Just own it.)

One of the niftiest parts of the knitting skill is unlocking the ability to Teach to Knit, where Sims sit down together and have a knitting pow-wow. We wanted this to feel special, so we got a really sweet animation for it (Thanks Haeju!). Now that you can infect other Sims with the knitting bug, no yarn ball will be safe!

(The knitting needles aren’t finished on the Teach To Knit interaction yet, but trust me it’s SUPER CUTE.)

So, what can you do with all these knitting projects? Lots of stuff!

Not only can knitted objects be listed on Plopsy, but you can also Donate them to charity. If you want to surprise a loved one, try Gifting a knitted object too. If you want to destroy all traces of your knitted failures, you can Frog the object and start again! If it’s a particularly nice Sweater that you made, consider Adding it to Wardrobe to make it available in Create-A-Sim to all family members.

(Everyone appreciates a nice gift!)

We want Sims to be able to knit something for their whole family. Not only will Sims be able to knit Toddler Onesies, but Baby Onesies as well. So put your little grubworm in a handmade knitted outfit. I’m sure they’d thank us if they could! (And if they didn’t like it I’m sure they’d be polite about it.)

(Here’s a sneak peek at some of the concept art for new clothing for the littlest of Sims!)

It also felt like a good idea to add an Aspiration to tie this passion for knitting all together. So if you want to master the fuzzy art of knitting, consider signing your Sim up for the Lord(or Lady) of the Knits Aspiration. With yarn running through your veins, there will be no knitting mountain too hard to conquer! Master the Aspiration and you’ll be rewarded with the Sacred Knitting Knowledge trait. What does it do? Lots of stuff! What does it unlock? Something special! Am I being vague? I am! Come on guys, I can’t share all the secrets quite yet.

Now let’s have a chat with our lead Object Modeler, Beth Mohler!

Conor: Can you tell us a little bit about what an Object Modeler does on The Sims 4?

Beth: As an object modeler I spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to make objects work in The Sims 4. This is actually a very involved process, and somewhat different from the wonderful work our environment team does. We work with designers, concept artists, engineers, animators, vfx artists (basically everyone!) to make sure that Sims can use an object properly in an animation, or that all of our objects will work with each other. Once we understand the design for a new object, we will create a rig, a block model (a very generic version of the object used to help us make more of the same object in the future), and a footprint (tells us where the object can go and how Sims move around it). Once those are tested by animators and other disciplines we can model the final version, create UVs, and add textures. We also hook up and test everything in the game to make sure it all looks good. There is a lot to think about when it comes to making objects because we know players can find so many interesting ways to place and use them in game. That makes it a very fun challenge to make them work with everything else we’ve built before.

Conor: What feature are you most excited to work on in Nifty Knitting Stuff?

Beth: I’d say I am most excited to work on the rocking chairs! I love that we are bringing them to the game and can’t wait to see them in some cozy living rooms or on porches.

Conor: What are some of the challenges you are facing working on this pack?

Beth: One of the biggest challenges is ensuring that the knitting itself looks good and is fun to watch! This is a challenge given that it needs to work for everything you can create. Figuring this out takes a lot of iteration between modeling, animation, engineering, design, and art direction so that we come to a conclusion that will work the best given our time and technical constraints.

Another interesting “challenge” is the fact that I crochet as a hobby myself! When you are knowledgeable about something (yarn!) in real life, working on it in the game it can sometimes be hard to separate the things you know and may expect in reality from what is possible or best within a video game. I have to make sure to keep a balance and to conceptualize how we can best convert the knitting experience into The Sims 4. As someone who also generally enjoys interior design and architecture, this is actually one of my favorite challenges and one of the things I love about working on objects in The Sims 4.

Conor: What is your favorite feature you have ever worked on in The Sims 4?

Beth: I think it has to be a tie between the mini fridge or the robotics table in Discover University. That pack was the first time I got to really take an entire feature from start to finish. I’ve been with Maxis for a while, but I’m relatively new to The Sims 4. Both of these objects had some complex features we wanted that required a lot of iteration. I learned a ton about the technical aspects of our game during the process as well. I’ve also worked on a few very cool things between then and now, but those can’t be shared yet ; )

As a fan of The Sims since the very beginning I am so happy to be able to share a little about what I do on a daily basis on The Sims 4 with you! I haven’t been on The Sims 4 for quite as long overall, but some of you may also recognize me from my time on Sims Mobile where I shared some of our workflows on Twitter for making a juice bar. Thanks!

Conor: You shared a screenshot of the In-Progress Rocking Chair in our Rocking Chair Deep Dive. Can you share an updated screenshot now that the Rocking Chair is further along?

Beth: I would love to! I hope everyone has been enjoying seeing the progress on this object so far! Here it is a little further along. This program allows us to set the rules for the object materials, footprint size and rig it should use, as well as all the color variants and swatch colors you see in the catalog.

While this concludes my design Deep Dives, we still have more forum posts with development insights on the way! Keep checking the Community Stuff Pack forum and we’ll have more fun stuff to show off in the weeks to come.

Until next time, SimGuruConor

#news #ts4 #sims 4 #the sims 4 #stuff pack

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philthepegacornfics · 4 years ago

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Limits Part 4

Sam Wilson x Sibling!Reader, Peter Parker x Reader

Word Count: 4.6k+

Trigger Warnings: Possible swearing

A/N: This is the final part to this series! I’m so excited because I’ve actually finished something! Thank you so much to everyone who’s read this. For this final part, I haven’t edited at all... So don’t judge to harshly. Feedback is always appreciated!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rolling myself into my first class for the day, I see Peter sitting where he was yesterday. Ned sat behind him. It sounded like they were having a conversation about Star Wars. MJ sat next to Ned reading a book. I took my place by the door, next to Peter.

Peter stopped talking to Ned to turn towards me. He gave me a bright smile while some pink dusted his cheeks. “Hey, (Y/n)! How was getting your casts off?”

“It was great!” I beamed. “I started physical therapy right after, and it felt so good to move my legs. Though I am pretty sore today.”

“That’s great!” Peter exclaimed before furrowing his eyebrows, “Er.. uh… Not great that you are sore, but great that you’re able to do physical therapy already.”

“Cool leg braces!” Ned said pointing down at my legs.

“Thank you! They’re pretty advanced. They’re supposed to help my legs heal quicker.”

“Wicked,” Ned murmured, pondering to himself.

I could see in Ned’s eyes that he had a lot of questions. Before he could ask, Mr. Harrington walked up in front of us. “(Y/n), Peter, I spoke with Principal Morita. Peter will be excused from detention as long as he is helping you with classes.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Harrington. I definitely plan on doing everything I can to get caught up on classes,” I reassured him of his decision on pairing Peter and I up.

Just then, the late bell rang. Mr. Harrington looked over the class before speaking loudly to everyone about today’s topic.

I immediately start taking notes. Trying to hang onto every word that Mr. Harrington was saying. With being so far behind, I didn’t want to miss anything else. It wasn’t long into the discussion that I felt someone’s eyes on me.

I looked over at Peter who had a tight grip on his pen. He was looking straight ahead at the white board. Redness covered his cheeks and spread to the tips of his ears. His small freckles stood out.

I made a mental note to ask him later what got him so frazzled. Continuing to look around the room to see if I can see anyone staring at me, I turned in my seat. Ned looked up at me with my movement and gave me a small wave. I nodded with a smile. MJ was still reading her book. Everyone else in the room was focused on different things. Whether it was taking notes, or whispering to the person next to them.

I furrowed my eyebrows and focused back up to the front and went back to taking notes. “I must’ve made it up,” I told myself.

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

“I think we finally got you caught up on our chemistry homework,” Peter said, putting his copy of the textbook down.

“Finally!” I cheered.

“What do you want to work on next? Math?”

“Actually, can we take a break? I’m pooped.”

Peter chuckled and nodded his head. “What do you want to do instead?”

“It’s been three days. I’d like to get to know you better,” I said leaning back in my chair. My hands playing with the pen I was writing with.

“What do you want to know?”

“Yesterday in Chemistry, you looked very flustered. What was that about?”

Peter’s cheeks dusted pink, “Oh, um… it was nothing.”

“Sure looked like something,” I giggled.

“I um, thought of um, something embarrassing.”

“What’s that?”

“Sorry, you have to at least be a level three friend to know.”

“One, I’m offended. Two, what are we? The Sims?”

Peter just laughed at that.

“So, then just tell me about yourself if you won’t tell me that.”

“That’s a very broad topic.”

“Well, what do you do when you’re not at school?”

"I used to be part of the debate team. And, as you know, I play trumpet. I used to be in marching band.”

“Used to?” I questioned.

“I, um,” Peter scratched the back of his head, “I sorta quit so I could spend more time for this internship that I had. But that fell through.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.”

“It’s okay, my own fault really. Now I just practice for the next Decathlon. And Ned and I are building the Death Star out of Legos.”

“Sounds like you pass the time.”

“Yeah. What do you do?” he asked.

“Well, I-” Suddenly the pen I was playing with flew out of my hands and landed on the table. I leaned forward quickly to grab it. Peter did the same, but he was quicker. My hand landed on top of his.

My head snapped up to look at him. His deep brown eyes met mine. My cheeks felt warm as I retracted my hand. He cleared his throat and held the pen up for me to grab it. I took it thankfully and gave a shy smile.

“I, um, I,” I stuttered, “I mostly do physical therapy and watch movies with my friend, Wanda.”

“That makes sense,” Peter nodded his head.

“Kind of speaking of physical therapy, I want to stretch my legs. Would you help me with that?”

“You can stand?” he asked in bewilderment.

I chuckled. “Don’t tell our gym coach, but yeah. I can walk a little too. It’s very exhausting though. And I can only do so with my braces on.”

“That’s awesome!”

“So will you help me?”

Peter nodded and stood up from his seat opposite of the table from me. I rolled my wheelchair slightly away from the table so there would be room for both of us. Planting my feet on the ground, I took his arm and stood up.

Unlike with Tony helping me pull my weight, Peter didn’t strain at all. It was as if I weighed nothing to him. Feeling his arm muscles through his shirt, I knew that my earlier assumption of him being physically fit was correct.

“Did you want to take a few steps too?” Peter asked.

“Maybe a couple.”

He walked by my side, keeping his arm out for me while I shuffled forward. After we were a couple of yards away from my wheelchair, I had Peter help me turn around.

“I want to walk back on my own,” I declared as a wave of confidence washed over me.

“Are you sure? I can help you get-”

“I can do it,” I scoffed.

“Okay…”

I let go of Peter’s arm and started shuffling my way back. I made it halfway to my chair when my legs started to wobble and burn. Losing my balance, I started to stumble forward. Before I could fall, Peter caught me in his arms. Pulling my back against his chest.

My heartbeat started racing as butterflies erupted in my stomach. I turn my head to look back at him. He was already looking down at me.

“Careful,” he muttered. His breath fanned across my face because of our close proximity.

Heat radiated off of my face as I stared up into his brown eyes. Pink that was dusted across his cheeks slowly became red. What was only a second, felt like an eternity as both of our eyes glanced down at each other’s lips.

“Okay, you two. It’s time to go,” the school librarian said, interrupting Peter and I.

Peter cleared his throat and shifted so I was able to grab on to his arm and he walked me back to my chair.

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

Talking to Sam became rare since the Soviet Accords took place and he became a criminal. He would call occasionally to check on me, to see how I was doing. So, when my phone rang in the middle of the night with an unknown number, excitement coursed through my veins.

“Hello?” I answered cautiously, in case it wasn’t him.

“Hey (Y/n/n), how’s it going?” Sam spoke on the other end.

“Sam!” I cheered quietly so if anyone was outside my room, they wouldn’t be able to hear me.

He chuckled on the other end.

“I’m doing pretty well,” I answered. “Having my casts off has been really nice. Tony made me leg braces that have been helping me with my healing progress. Though, I still get tired after walking a short distance.”

“That’s good. I’m glad Tony’s treating you right.”

“You know he’s not a bad guy, right? He’s just a little mixed up, ya know?”

“I know that. It’s just hard when you’re fighting against him.”

“I’m sorry, Sam. I hope this clears up soon. I miss you,” I sighed.

“I miss you too… So, tell me how school’s been treating you.”

“It’s been pretty good. I made some friends and the teachers have been understanding and have given me time to make up work. One of the friend’s I’ve made, Peter, has been helping me catch up.”

“Oh, so a boy is helping you?”

“It’s not like that!” I squeaked. “Mr. Harrington asked him to help me catch up. Then we ended up having a lot of classes together, so he was kind enough to help me with those too.”

“If he tries anything, just know I’m not afraid to-”

“Sam,” I scolded. “We’re not like that.”

“I know, but-”

“But, nothing. He doesn’t even like me,” I said disheartenedly. “He asked a girl named Liz to the homecoming dance.”

“So he asked this Liz girl before he asked you?”

“Yeah,” I sighed heavily.

“I’m going to kick his ass,” Sam said sternly.

“What why?”

“Because he hurt my little (Y/n/n),” he stated matter-of-factly.

“He didn’t hurt me-”

“Yes he did. I can hear it in your voice.”

“What does it matter? Also do you want him to like me or not?”

“I want him to like you, it only makes sense that he would. I just don’t want him to get any funny ideas,” he explained.

I couldn’t help but laugh at Sam’s logic.

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

Peter had a decathlon meeting after school, so we decided to skip studying for the day. When I got home, Tony informed everyone that the press was here for something that he was announcing.

“What’s the news?” Rhodey asked.

“We’re announcing our newest Avenger,” Tony clapped his hands together before rubbing them.

“Shouldn’t you have talked to me about this?” I asked. “I don’t know if I’m ready-”

“Though announcing the existence of ‘The Avatar’ would be exciting,” Tony cut me off, “I was talking about our friend, Spider-Man.”

“The kid?” Rhodey questioned.

“Based on his voice and mannerisms, he’s only about (Y/n)’s age,” Vision supplied.

“Who are we talking about?” I asked.

“The friendly neighborhood Spider-Man of Queens,” Tony stated matter-of-factly.

“Oh, the one all my classmates are talking about? Who saved them in DC and took down Liz’s dad?”

“Who’s Liz?” it was Tony’s turn to ask.

“Adrian Toomes’s daughter. Ya know, The Vulture.” I stated matter-of-factly back at him.

Tony blinked slowly at me before saying, “Yes that Spider-Man.”

Rhodey chuckled at Tony’s dumbfoundedness. “Does this Spider-Man have a regular name other than Spider-Man?” he quizzed.

“Yes and no,” Tony answered.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“Secret identity, I would presume,” Vision chimed in.

“Exactly,” Tony said, pointing at him. “I’ll introduce him to all of you later. For now he’s going to remain as Spider-Man to all of you.”

Suddenly Tony’s phone pinged. He quickly read the notification before turning his attention back to us. “He’s here. Who’s ready to meet him?”

Rhodey rolled his eyes and started to shuffle away. Vision walked away and phased through a wall in the direction of his room. That left Tony and I. He looked at me expectantly.

“Let me go change first,” I sighed before rolling myself away and towards my own room.

After changing my clothes and putting my braces back on, I rolled my way to the front of the building towards the press conference room.

Knowing the building decently well, I wasn’t fully paying attention to where I was going. Instead I was admiring the scenery outside of the large windows.

Suddenly a familiar male voice spoke up in front of me, “(Y/n)?”

I look up to see Peter in front of me near Tony and Happy. Behind them was a metal Spider-Man suit. My eyes dart between the three men and the spider suit. Trying to figure out why Peter was here of all places.

“What’re… what are you doing here?” he stuttered. His cheeks were a bright red.

“What are you doing here?” I questioned back, my own cheeks heating up.

“Well, I um… re-remember the internship I told you about that I lost?”

I nodded my head.

“This is it. It’s with Mr. Stark,” he explained.

“How do you two know each other?” Tony asked, gesturing between Peter and I.

“School,” we answered at the same time.

“Wait, (Y/n), is this the Peter you told me about?”

The heat from my cheeks spread to the tip of my ears as I nodded, answering Tony’s question.

“So your Peter is my Peter,” Tony concluded. “Oh, that is funny. What are the odds of that?” he smirked.

“Uhh, what’s going on?” Peter asked.

“Yeah, Tony. What is going on?” I folded my arms in front of my chest.

“What was I saying before, Peter? Oh yeah, your room would be between Vision’s and (Y/n)’s room,” Tony said, ignoring our question.

Peter’s eyes went wide. “You live here?”

“You’re Spider-Man?” I asked with my eyes just as wide.

“Yes, and yes,” Tony answered for us. He turned his attention back towards Peter, “So, what do you say, kid? Be an Avenger?”

Peter looked between me, Tony, Happy (who took a few steps away from us, not wanting to be caught in the conversation), and the suit before answering with, “No.”

“No? What do you mean ‘no’?” Tony asked while both him and Happy looked dumbfounded.

“I think it’d be good to sit back and be, ya know, a friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.”

Tony’s face quickly recovered from looking flabbergasted to looking proud of him.

“Okay… okay,” he said, patting Peter on the shoulder. “Happy will take you home.”

“Actually,” I piped up, “we didn’t get to study today. Would it be okay if he stayed awhile?”

“You have physical therapy,” Tony objected.

“We can do both,” I shrugged.

“Okay, he can stay. But, doors open at all times.” Tony pointed between the two of us.

My eyes widened before my gaze shifted to my lap. My face burned more than it did earlier.

I played with my hands as Peter replied weakly with, “Yes, Mr. Stark.”

I turned my chair around and started rolling back the way I came saying, “Let’s go Peter.”

“Right,” he said, taking a few steps before pausing. I stopped rolling and looked back at him. He started scratching the back of his neck. “Did you… um… did you want me to push you? I know that your arms kind of get tired after a while. You can just direct me where to go.”

I gave him a small smile and nodded. He moved behind me and we started going again. We only made it a few feet before Peter paused again. I turned around to look at him to see why we stopped. He was looking back at Tony.

“This was a test, right, Mr. Stark?” Peter called out.

“Yes, and you passed. Good job, kid. Flying colours.” Tony gave a thumbs up.

Peter turned back around looking satisfied and started pushing me again. I directed him back the way I had just come, back to my bedroom.

“What are we doing here?” he asked, looking around my plain room.

“Sorry, it’s not much to see,” I giggled at his actions. “We moved in not too long ago, and I’ve been too busy and a little preoccupied to decorate.”

Peter looked at my legs and nodded his head in understanding.

“As to why we’re here, my school stuff was in my bag,” I pointed to my backpack in the corner. “I also needed to change for physical therapy.”

“Oh, did you need me to step out? Because I can step out,” he blushed.

“It’s okay, I have a bathroom,” I nodded my head in the direction of the closed door.

“That’s awesome!”

“Yeah, it’s pretty nice. Now, make yourself comfortable while I go change.” I smiled at him.

I could feel Peter’s eyes on me as I made my way to the bathroom door. I reached up and opened it with ease, thanks to practice. Rolling in, I pushed it shut. A small thud echoed in the bathroom from me shutting it too quickly. I grimaced at the noise.

My bathroom had a walk in closet attached to it, so thankfully I didn’t have to gather things with Peter watching me. He would want to help me because that was his nature, but the thought of him going through my underwear drawer to get my swimsuit made me blush.

In front of my dresser I stood up and pulled out two of my swimsuits from the top drawer. The first one was a one piece swimsuit that was a solid (f/c). The second was a two piece that I rarely wore because it showed my mid-drift. It had a (f/c) floral design on it.

I nibbled on my bottom lip, trying to decide. Butterflies erupted in my stomach thinking about Peter seeing me in these. I decided on the one with the floral pattern when a wave of confidence washed over me.

After changing, I opened the door with some struggle. It was easier to open doors when they opened outward, not inward.

Peter had taken a seat on my bed and was typing into his phone. Anxiety rippled in my chest and I quickly spoke, “You can’t tell people I live here.”

“Oh, I’m not. Ned was just asking me-” his words cut off as he looked up at me. His whole face immediately turned red. “Wow, I mean, I uh,” he cleared his throat. “Ned was asking me about what I wanted to with the Death Star we constructed.”

My face burned from Peter’s reaction to seeing me. “You built a Death Star?” I squeaked.

He scratched the back on his neck before standing up. “Yeah, out of Legos.”

“Cool.”

“Yup.”

Both of us stared at each other in an awkward silence. Just nodding our heads in agreement. After a few moments, Peter cleared his throat again, “Why… why are you wearing a swimsuit?”

“Part of my therapy is to be in a pool.”

A silent “Oh,” came from his lips as he nodded in understanding.

“So, um… Let’s head to the pool, yeah?”

“Right!” He quickly moved and grabbed my backpack for me. He stepped behind me and hung it on the handles to my wheelchair before pushing me as I directed him to the pool area.

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

“So…” Peter started, closing the textbook that was in his lap. He was seated on a bench beside the indoor pool, watching me walk laps in it. “You live here?”

I popped the “P” when I answered with a, “Yup.”

“How did that come about?”

I sighed debating on how I wanted to answer. “If I tell you, I’m trusting you not to tell anyone. You can’t tell anyone, okay?”

“And, I’m trusting you to not tell anyone that I’m Spider-Man,” he countered. “So, we’ll be even.”

“I have powers,” I explained. “As far as I know, I was born with them.”

“What kind of powers?”

“Well… I’m sure that you’ve heard the rumors of my existence. I can control the four elements.”

Peter’s eyes widened as he looked at me, “You mean, you’re ‘The Avatar’?”

A small giggle escaped my throat as I nodded my head.

“I didn’t think you were real! That’s so cool!”

“It is pretty cool, huh?” I smiled at him.

“Way cool! Wait… What happened to your legs then?”

“I wasn’t lying when I said a building fell on top of me during an Avengers squabble. I just left out the part that I was involved in it. We were in Lagos at the time-”

“The fight that caused the Soviet Accords?”

I nodded my head. “Before the famous explosion that Wanda tried to stop, there was an explosion in the building I was in. The ceiling collapsed. Thankfully, with my powers, I was able to stop the rubble before it killed me.”

His eyes glimmered as he looked mystified by my recount of the story. After a moment, he snapped out of it. “Can you show me?”

“Show you?”

“Your powers! Can you show me your powers?”

I pretended to think for a moment about it before splashing water in Peter’s direction. He flinched and held up the textbook that was in his lap to protect his face. Before any of the water could hit him, I held up my hand and stopped the water in its tracks.

After realizing that he didn’t get wet, Peter carefully peeked out from behind the text book. His jaw dropped while he stared at the water droplets floating in the air.

“Wow, (Y/n), this is amazing!” he exclaimed, poking one of the balls of water.

I beamed proudly as I made the water fly back towards me and into the pool. “Your turn!” I clapped my hands.

“My turn?”

“Yeah! Show me what you got!”

“Okay… give me a second,” he said while taking off his socks and shoes. Once he was done with that task, he stood up and asked, “Are you ready?”

I nodded my head excitedly.

Peter swung his arms a bit before suddenly doing a backflip. He landed perfectly on his feet, no wobbling in any direction.

I raised my eyebrows at him. “While impressive, that’s not what I was expecting.”

“What do you mean?”

“Like, cool, you can do a backflip. But, there are people without powers who can do that too. Show me something only you can do!”

He nodded his head in understanding. He swung his arms again before jumping up into the air. Both of his hands touched the ceiling, and he stuck to it. Using his strength, he pulled the rest of his body weight up. Once his feet got to the ceiling, he started crawling around effortlessly.

My jaw dropped. Not only did he just jump several feet into the air, he was crawling around upside down. I brought my hands together and started clapping. “Wow, Peter! You’re incredible!”

His face lit up and he smiled down at me, his cheeks slightly pink.

Suddenly an idea popped into my head, “You want to play a game?”

“What kind of game?”

“Kind of like Marco Polo. I have my eyes closed, and you move around the room. I’ll splash water in your direction when I hear you, and you have to dodge!”

“I don’t know… I don’t really want to get wet.”

“Are you saying you don’t think you can win?”

“I can’t really win if there is no objective for me to do.”

I thought for a moment about what he said, and smiled. “How about I only have three shots. If I miss all three, you win. If I get you, I win.”

“And what’s the prize?”

“The loser has to do whatever the winner wants them to do. Either answer a question truthfully or do a favour.”

Peter was silent in thought as he made his way off the ceiling and to the edge of the pool. “Let’s do it!”

“Okay!” I cheered, closing my eyes. “I’ll give you ten seconds to move around wherever you want to start out in the room.”

After counting to ten, I listened intently for Peter’s movements. We stayed in silence for several minutes. Suddenly I heard his foot scrape against the cement of the floor to my left. Not wasting a moment, I sent a bunch of water in that direction.

I could hear the water hit the wall, indicating that I missed Peter. Thinking quick, I sent the water to the ceiling above where I heard him. There was no noise from the boy as the water splashed against the ceiling.

I let out a small curse. I only had one more shot of getting him before I lost. I took a deep breath and settled the water of the pool so it wasn’t making any noise. A few more minutes passed without any noise from Peter. Kneading my bottom lip between my teeth, I started to get nervous.

“Ah-choo!” Peter sneezed from above me and to my right. Sending a bunch of water that direction, I could tell I hit him based on how the water moved and the gasp that escaped his lips.

I cheered as I opened my eyes, just in time to see Peter fall into the deeper end of the pool. I couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled out of my chest when he broke the surface, shaking his head.

“I win!”

“Because you cheated,” he whined.

“I did not cheat!”

“You only got me because I sneezed!”

“That’s not cheating!”

Peter swam over to where I was standing in the middle of the pool. He stopped and stood merely a few inches from me.

“I’ll let you win because I’m such a good sport.”

“Oh, how kind of you,” I rolled my eyes. “Letting me win after I won fair and square.”

“You did not, cheater.”

Exasperated, I stuck my tongue out at him. He just laughed.

“So, Miss Winner, what do you want me to do?” he asked teasingly.

“I want you to answer a question!”

“Oh?” he raised an eyebrow.

“I asked you this before, but you said we weren’t close enough. Now you have to answer it!”

His eyes darted up to the ceiling as he tried to recall what question I was talking about.

“When you got flustered in Chemistry that one day, what were you thinking about?” I reminded him.

“Oh, that question…” Peter scratched the back of his neck while his face turned red again.

“Yes that one, now tell me.”

“I don’t remember.”

“Liar!” I pushed against his chest, but he didn’t move. “You obviously remember, so tell me. You have to!”

He looked down at me. His eyes darted between mine and my lips. His tongue poked out and licked his lips. “You really want to know what I was thinking about?”

“Yes!” I threw my hands into the air.

Peter’s right hand reached out and cupped my cheek. He ducked his head down. My breath hitched in my throat. His lips grazed against mine as he whispered, “This.”

Closing the rest of the distance, his soft lips pressed firmly against mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling my body closer. The kiss tasted of a mixture of mint and chlorine from the pool.

Peter pulled away. His eyes looking deep into mine. My eyes fluttered shut as I leaned towards him, going in for another kiss.

Suddenly Tony’s voice boomed over the intercoms, “Finally!”

Peter and I jumped away from each other and looked around the room.

“Mr. Stark?” he called out.

“Over the intercoms, kid.”

“What do you mean, ‘finally’?” I asked.

“I knew you two would be perfect for each other! You know how hard it was to get both of you in all of the same classes?”

“You did that?” Peter and I asked at the same time.

“Of course I did!”

“What the hell, Tony?” I yelled.

“Don’t curse at me when it worked,” he said back. “Now Peter, before you kiss her again, ask her on a real date.”

“Yes, Mr. Stark!” Peter turned to me. His whole face to the tips of his ears were red. Freckles stood out against his bright coloured face. “(Y/n), would you like to go out on a date with me sometime?”

Though Tony just pissed me off, I couldn’t help but smile at Peter. “I’d love to.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Taglist: @galcalirwin @frontmanash @dontdowhatisayandnobodygetshurt @aneclecticwriter

#sam wilson x sibling!reader #sam wilson x reader #peter parker x reader #spiderman x reader #avengers x reader #The Avengers #marvel

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mydearjonah · 5 years ago

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The Magnus Archives & MBTI Part 1 -- Jon & Martin

Hello. When I was a depressed 19-year old, I hyperfixated on the Meyers-Briggs personality typing system in an effort to solve all of my interpersonal problems.(1) It didn’t work, but ever since then I have been cursed both with deep, useless knowledge and searing, useless opinions. In the hopes that sharing my terrible burden with others will allow me to one day find the rest I so desire, I would like to introduce you today to what is, as far as I can tell, the first dedicated MBTI typing post in this fandom.(2)

The hyperfixation ran deep, so I am trying to make this as intelligible as possible. If you so desire it, this is a great general resource for typing. If you have opinions or thoughts, PLEASE share them. Much like a fear avatar slurps up people’s trauma, I am sustained in part by healthy, albeit occasionally heated, debates over MBTI types. You should have seen the time I typed Kanye West on Reddit.(3)

Jonathan Sims -- INTP Confidence Level: 90% Certainly (at the very least): IxTx

It is easy and tempting to type Jon Sims as an INTJ. After all, he certainly fits many of the stereotypes: bookish, awkward, out of touch with his feelings and his environment, with a tendency to come off as overly critical. I am not saying that this typing is necessarily wrong, but I do not think that it should be taken for granted.

Jon is clearly an introvert and a thinker (IxTx). It is tempting to type him as an intuitive as well, but I caution against this and suspect that it is an example of intuitive bias. Certainly I do not believe that he has the kinetic knowledge and energy of an ISTP – he hasn’t done a single damn thing in this entire podcast to make me think that he has any higher-level grasp of Extroverted Sensing (Se), the function an ISTP uses most confidently to interact with the outer world – but, if INTJ is in consideration, ISTJ should not be written off.

ISTJs and INTJs use the same auxiliary function, Extroverted Thinking (Te), to interact with their environments. Te is often characterized as being cold, clinical, unfeeling, and pragmatic: essentially, how Jon comes off in the early series, especially S1. The difference between them is their dominant function, or their primary way of existing and processing information. ISTJs are led by Introverted Sensing (Si), which is best conceived of as a “web” (haha) of past experiences and sensory details that a user can access when making decisions. INTJs are led by Introverted Intuition (Ni), which is a largely unconscious and abstract style of pattern-sensing which feeds a user insights about the world around them. For Jon, I think that fair arguments could be made either way for dom Si or dom Ni. Does Jon rely more on what has come before (ISTJ) or what may come next (INTJ) to guide his thinking? It could be either, in my opinion, and it is especially difficult to tell because the Beholding itself is an EXTREMELY Ni domain. As the series progresses, Jon’s choices and behavior are colored so thoroughly by his patron that it is difficult to separate evidence of natural Ni intuition from plain old Beholding intuition.

So, with this in mind, why have I typed him as an INTP of all things? It all comes down to the INTP’s inferior function, Extroverted Feeling (Fe). Your inferior function is the thing that you use but aren’t very good at – it tends to be what gets you into trouble. Fe is best understood as a natural awareness of other people’s emotions as well as the privileging of group values over individual values, so inferior Fe users tend to be sensitive to other people but not super great at actually interacting with them. It is tempting to type Jon as an IxTJ because he comes off like a high Te user at first, but it’s pretty well-established at this point that he’s projecting that persona due to his insecurities. This, in my opinion, is classic inferior Fe. He knows that there is a broader group expectation for his behavior in his new position, but he is (a) too out of his depth to project it naturally and (b) not savvy enough to find a middle ground so he overcompensates and comes off like an asshole. So many of his interpersonal problems stem from this same issue. He clearly cares deeply about group values, other people, and their opinions of him but he struggles to read social situations well and is then caustic as a defense mechanism.(4) So much of his emotional growth has been about him being softer and kinder, even as he grows more monstrous, and to trust others, especially Martin… that’s an inferior Fe narrative.

Once you’ve nailed INTP as his type because of the inferior Fe, I think that everything else falls into place. INTPs lead with Introverted Thinking (Ti), which is a logic-based, internal system of categorization, and they interact with the external world through Extroverted Intuition (Ne), which is a creative, abstract, “idea machine” approach to environmental analysis. In essence, INTPs are logical, systems thinkers (Ti) who basically try out new ideas by throwing them at the wall and seeing if they stick (Ne). I think that describes Jon far more accurately than the IxTJ approach, which tends to be far more reserved and calculated.

Martin Blackwood -- ISFJ Confidence Level: 70% Certainly (at the very least): IxFx

I have found Martin to be a particularly challenging character to type. After a great deal of thinking, and some helpful input from @twinliches, I have gone with ISFJ.

Martin is an introvert whose primary mode of interaction with the external world is through Extroverted Feeling (Fe). He cares primarily about the group and is sensitive to its dynamic, he has a good read on other people’s emotions, and he is able to easily maneuver through interpersonal situations to his own benefit and the benefit of those he cares about. But what is this Fe working conjunction with? As a prominent Fe user and an introvert, Martin’s only two options are to have dominant Introverted Sensing (Si), which would make him an ISFJ, or dominant Introverted Intuition (Ni), which would make him an INFJ. So, does Martin rely on a “web” (badumtssh) of past experiences to connect with others (Si), or is he using a more unconscious, forward-thinking intuition to do so (Ni)?

It is extremely tempting to type Martin as an INFJ, but, honestly, I think that do so is an example of intuitive bias. His actual choices – how he moves through the world and comes to conclusions, the way that he relates to others, the things that he fears – strike me far more as dominant Si than dominant Ni. Although he may not always broadcast it, Martin is shrewd and observant when it comes to interpersonal relations, and his grounded, real-world knowledge of how people are acting, how similar situations have played out in the past, and what details others are missing is what allows him to so consistently outmaneuver the big bads. A Ni user may come to similar conclusions, but they just don’t get there in the same way. Martin is also invested in maintaining social harmony by providing a sense of stability, which is a classic ISFJ move. INFJs are more likely to promote social harmony by using their Ni insights and Fe people skills to actively influence group dynamics for what they believe is the better. Martin doesn’t really ever do that – instead, he works to make sure that everyone is taken care of, whether that means bringing them tea, dragging them out to lunch or for drinks, or sacrificing himself to the Lonely so Peter leaves Jon alone.

I anticipate that one potential criticism of my Martin typing will be in regard to the inferior function. ISFJs and INFJs have different inferior functions: ISFJs have inferior Extroverted Intuition (Ne), which means they can struggle with open-endedness and have a tendency to catastrophize, and INFJs have inferior Extroverted Sensing (Se), which means they struggle with being in touch with their physical environment and can overindulge in sensory activities. People with inferior Se often have difficult relationships with their physical forms, and Martin’s canon and fanon body image issues certainly fit the bill. But inferior Se users are not the only ones who struggle with their bodies, and, overall, I don’t think the INFJ’s broader function stacking fits Martin as well as ISFJ does. Plus, I think there is just as much, if not more, evidence for manifestations of inferior Ne from Martin.

To wrap it all up, here is my final Martin take: Martin is an ISFJ who, if he knows anything about the MBTI, thinks that he is an INFJ. He was probably accurately typed on whatever popular test he took, but he read some anti-Sensor bullshit that included a hackneyed portrayal of Si, thought “I’m not boring and conservative… I can’t actually be an ISFJ! I must be an INFJ.” For a time, he even has “INFJ” in his Twitter bio. Sometimes he wonders if he’s mistyped because he doesn’t totally relate to the stray descriptions of Ni-Se that he comes across… but he figures that, if he is, he’s probably actually an INFP. He really likes their whole aesthetic… artsy, sensitive, caring, intuitive, and his favorite poets are INFPs. What he’s really vibing with here is their Si-Ne, which he can relate to… because as an ISFJ, he also uses those same functions! If post-series Martin is alive (and living happily with his husband, Jonathan Blackwood-Sims, of course), I bet that his increased self-knowledge and confidence will allow him to solidly write “ISFJ” in that online bio. I want that for him. And for all of you ISFJs out there, too!

On a personal note, I also really love ISFJ Martin/INTP Jon in the context of the ship. ISFJs and INTPs use the same functions, just in a different order! They can connect by sharing their Ti and Si thoughts and insights. Jon can help Martin develop his Ne, and Martin can (and already has!!) help Jon develop his poor inferior Fe by giving him an example of a much stronger, far healthier one. It is just *chef’s kiss*

Up next: Jonahlias, Peter, and Gertrude!

(1) The actual answer to my interpersonal problems was therapy and life experience. Who knew!

(2) If I’m wrong, let me know. We all know how useless the Tumblr search function is, and I also couldn’t find anything indexed on Google besides the Personality Database.

(3) Kanye West is an ESTP, btw.

(4) I’m not saying that Fi users don’t do this, but I think you tend to see more & genuinely meant “I don’t give a fuck” from them because they’re operating a little more on their own wavelength. I’m not sure if Jon knows himself as well as a Fi user, even an inferior Fi user, does.

#the magnus archives #tma #martin blackwood #jonathan sims #jonmartin #my stuff #my boy #martin #mbti stuff #intp #isfj

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