#this is based on what helldivers 2

[halimaidmf]

It is funny that we stick to the same handful of games we've been playing for years and then are like "wait there are so many other video games in the world let's try them out" and then conclude they are bad

[ghostgirlvii]

Me realizing why I think the Helldivers OST is such a banger.

Because beside the brass section having the blast of their life (pun very much intended) compare the the usual violins and family, I was wondering why I couldn't stop bopping my head at some of the music. Then it hit me when I saw my partner bopping his head at the music when the hellpod get launched....

This is me, when I listen to the Pacific Rim OST and the music who plays when the pilots are dropped on the jaeger plays. IT'S THE SAME FUCKING VIBES! They both have amazing music that bangs and holy shit, I am about to return to my PacRim obession again!

[generallemarc]

Microsoft has just announced a price increase in "some of our new, first-party games" to $79.99 starting this holiday season

I don't know whether or not to blame Nintendo, because it honestly seems as if all of the big three were just waiting for an excuse to do this, and Nintendo just so happened to be the one to do it first. I'm seeing multiple gaming news videos predicting another video game crash, and honestly? I hope that's what happens. I hope these absolute buffoons get exactly what they have coming to them and lose tens of millions of dollars when they should've been making bank because they forgot that they're in an industry that's entirely based around leisure. Nobody needs anything related to video games unless they're a content creator based around them, which means that for 99.999% of us we can spend literally nothing on this sector and keep on living just fine. So when companies think they can just do universal price-hikes and not see a drop in sales, well, they're fucking morons.

Maybe 10 years ago this might've worked, but we now live in the age of Helldivers 2 and Palworld, of Balatro and Vampire Survivors, of Space Marine 2 and Clair Obscur Expedition 33. You want great gameplay, great story, an addictive game-breaking grindfest? The indie and double-a scene has you covered and then some. Helldivers 2 costs $40 to play and can be enjoyed without engaging with the monetization at all. Expedition 33 costs $50 and has sucked up dozens of hours of my free time on a single playthrough, which I still have not finished as I have at least 4 more superbosses to beat, each of which will require a decent amount of pattern-learning because at a certain point it really is like a Souls game where you either learn the patterns and how to dodge/parry them or you get hit by two attacks in a row and die on the spot. So yeah, the games industry is about to set itself on fire and I hope they do, because the actual valuable parts won't even get singed.

[leliwardens]

If there is any thought I'd want to beam directly into people's skulls is EA/Bioware as companies simply Do Not Give A Shit about what the fans want. I've seen several people (fairly) get upset the on the only takeaway of Veilguard's perceived under-performance is "it wasn't live-service" and even attempting to try was stupid.

Babes...they do not care.

For better or for worse, it's not even malicious it's just a numbers game. A shitty, shitty, short-sighted, soul-crushing numbers game that has plagued the video game industry as a whole for decades. It doesn't matter that two of Bioware's biggest flagship IPs are historically single player RPGs, or that there has been two massively public bombs of live-service games (Concord, Suicide Squad), or that if everyone does live-service then consumers are going to pick and choose eventually. They want Overwatch numbers, or Helldivers 2 numbers, or whatever has the biggest number they want.

Dragon Age's existing fanbase is a drop in the bucket of other consumer base they want to squeeze every last drop from to make Number Go Up. They'd throw every single long-time fan under the bus just for just half of fucking Fortnite players.

[eggedbellies]

Was writing this ask while I got the notification yes am playing helldivers 2, don't tell the democratic officer about these ideas/j

Here's another silly idea, this one bug based (not based of the bugs from the game I just had a bug idea I've been saving for ya)

Mad Scientist wants to create an army of super soldiers, but wants something with some intelligentence other then just leaving cities a shadow of its former selves and mass destruction, something they can atleast speak with and think. So they have the bright idea to combine the DNA of these alien bugs they recently aqquired, and combine it with human DNA to create a perfect being between the two

Now you volunteer for some reason to be the rest subject of the supposed "queen" bug. An injection a day in your new test area and watch yourself change by the day. Growing an abdomen behind your behind, a new set of arms on your side, skin becomes transparent as your blood becomes glowing and yellow, antenna popping out your head, and a certain size increase.

By the end of the month you've certainly become the new bug queen, taking up the size of the room, an abdomen full of eggs laying by the minute, and a belly full of eggs as well, a side effect of the human part in you. One egg comes out the abdomen, another out your front. Not to mention all the worker bugs and warrior bugs who got converted around the same time as you, spending most days taking care of you or helping breed the queen. Soon the testing chambers walls are lined with eggs.

What ever future could behold you, now that you have so many bugs under your command

honestly I coul be turned to the side of evil with the guarantee of becoming a gravid egglaying machine... it wouldn't take much...

[oopsie0503]

this makes me so mad

Ramattra mine controlling omnics has to be the single stupidest plot point I've ever seen in a work of fiction in my entire life. It's giving 'this radical extremist trying to liberate his people and create a better world for them is going to be too based. people are going to say he is so real for that.' but it's also giving 'sci-fi world where we kill evil robots like in helldiver's 2 is more profitable. make him eviler.'

Here's why it makes absolutely no sense for Rammatra to mine control omnics:

Resorting to mind control and manipulation implies that there are no sentient omnics with his same ideas and mindset. It implies that NOBODY is willing to join him and that otherwise he would be alone. This is not true. It's just not there's no chance there are zero omnics who agree with his line of thinking.

Null Sector has control of at least one omnium, and Ram is an engineer. He is able to build non-sentient bots to be canon fodder, he does not need the sentient ones. He would not let more of his people die when the job is better suited for non-thinking robots who can be mass produced. The bots the omnium produced were outdated but if they took control of the omnium they most certainly could update the blue prints to be stronger. He literally built his nemesis form dude. Imagine an army of nemesis bots. That'd be terrifying. Shit load scarier than. a couple of zombie zenyattas without the god powers.

Mind controlling omnics to send them to their deaths is so stupid. It's so against what he believes. I don't think there's ANY good reason for them to have gone this route with him! It is fucking stupid. I hate it. The 'he became too radicalized' thing is dumb . it's dumb.

(also this isn't a 'rammattra is perfect and has never ever done anything wrong in his entire life' post. but I also do not think he deserves to be the story's main villain when Talon is right there.)

a few edits: I reread some of the lore after getting questions and realized that it isn't explicitly stated what the helmets r doing. there are implications that it's a "if they won't join null sector on their own accord we will... convince them" type vibe. I'm hoping they don't go down this route and instead go with like.

the one I think would be interesting is they're uploading Omnic consciousness to a data bank so that their souls are not confined to a single body and even if they're destroyed their sentience will live on to be put into another body or something. I think that'd be cool but honestly unlikely.

[anamericangirl]

I made a metaphor a long time ago and got in a lot of trouble for it, but now I have a visual representation of how true it is.

I took this screencap to just be like "lol" to a friend, then noticed this

Look how much more activity there is in all of these niche communities. Each one of them a completely random thing but with far more people active in them.

And it's time I explain my metaphor!

Ahem.

Put 5 transgender people in a room. - One is a Warhammer 40k fan - One protests trans rights regularly and never stops talking about the LGBT - One makes coffee at a coffee shop - One is training to be an astronaut - One works at a stock brokerage company

They all have nothing in common and nothing to talk about other than the fact that they're trans, which is a shallow thing with absolutely no depth other than "My gender identity is different than my physical body" which tells you nothing about a person other than that they have a mental disorder. You can't just expect the 5 people to get along when they come from varying backgrounds just because their "identity" is all the same letter in LGBT.

But, there's a part 2.

Put 5 Warhammer 40k fans in a room. - One is a straight cis guy - One is a lesbian - One is trans - One is a gay dude - One is a straight cis girl

Now they're all immediately asking which armies they play, asking to see the miniatures they've painted, asking what they think of video games like Fire Warrior and Space Marine 2, branching off of Warhammer 40k to ask about other stuff like "Do you like Helldivers?" because of similarity in genre, and the two cis people wind up getting married a few years later and have a Warhammer themed wedding that gets frontpaged on Imgur.

So now I have factual evidence that once again everything I say that pisses my followers off is the absolute truth.

Nobody wants to be friends with someone just because they have the same sexuality or because they're trans, and anyone who does is gonna have a miserable life.

If you're a nerd at school you don't walk up to the jocks that look similar to you and ask if you can be friends, you walk up to the other nerds. Jocks band together, nerds band together, gamers band together, etc. because they're PEOPLE WITH SIMILAR INTERESTS.

When you expect people to "band together" because they have the same "identity," you're literally just promoting segregation in the exact same way as racism works.

And as someone who used to be trans, I just wanna say, before anyone says "You took those screencaps at 1am, that's not fair"

Yeah? I used to be trans and I'm nocturnal as fuck, and I work with transgender commissioners all the time who are always talking about being awake at 4am. And also, the point's moot when 3,000 frog lovers are online at 1am. Get owned.

And it's highly likely that the transgender group is just transgender activism. Which means it's a group of people bonding over activism and not "being transgender." Because gender identity is not the end all be all of who a person is even though it's treated as such. It doesn't matter if you have a group of 100 trangender people. If they don't have a common interest between them they will never be as active as 5 people who all have different gender identities and are coming together over their favorite TV show or video game.

Like I don't go looking for groups and can't bond with someone just because they are a woman. If there's a man and a woman and my hobbies and interests align more with the dude then he's the person I'm going to feel a connection with.

It is nice to be a part of women's groups sometimes, but they are women's groups based around a central topic. Not just the fact that we're all women.

Because most of the experiences people have in life aren't based on gender identity and it's sad to see people making their gender identity the epitome of who they are.

[leam1983]

2024 in Gaming

Helldivers 2: it's become a running joke with the polycule, and approval with Progressive opinions or talking points now gets at least one of the three of us to jokingly pull out their smartphone to "call their Democracy Officer to report a case of treasonous activity"...

Walt isn't any better, but he's unlocked a few rocket-propelled weapons and now feels better sitting behind myself and Sarah while pelting the enemies ahead with weaponized Freedom.

Balatro: Walt and I's new favourite casual game, wherein appearance of it being a cutesy little variant on Poker suites turns into virtual crack. I've woken up in the wee hours to Walt's face bathed in his phone's OLED screen. When I ask him what's wrong, he typically replies something to the tune of "I need four thousand Chips, babe."

Marvel Rivals: it does what Overwatch 2 don't. As in, it's fun. Me, Walt, Sarah and a few of the boys on an all-Rocket Raccon match? You betcha! Also, there's Jeff the Land Shark, and Jeff the Land Shark deserves the world. Nay, the universe.

Astro Bot: didn't finish it, but I loved what Team Asobi cooked up. It's the most genuine, heartfelt, cutesy and engaging piece of corporate PR and Engineering porn to ever exist. Every button pressed during an Astro Bot session twiddles Mark Cerny's fun bits remotely.

Elden Ring - Shadow of the Erdtree: bought it because I approve of the design ethos behind this DLC's existence, never played it because I suuck at FromSoft games. I made sure to watch some related content so I could point and laugh awkwardly if friends of mine greet me with a random cry of "BAYYYYLE!"

Worshippers of Chtulhu: Anno with a Lovecraftian twist. It's very broken, still very much in Early Access, but the promise is definitely there.

Park Beyond: Meh. Got it for cheap, I guess we're still not getting a decent heirloom to Roller Coaster Tycoon, after the Micromanagement nightmare that Planet Coaster turned out to be for me.

1000xResist: basically a Yoko Taro game not written or directed by Yoko Taro, and it's one of the deeper game-based experiences I've had in a long while. Strongly recommended.

The Cabin Factory: Spot the Difference for easily-frightened streamers who haven't played Exit 8 yet. It has an interesting narrative format and is one of the more surprising implementations of Unity Engine I've seen to date. I could've sworn this was a UE5 project! Beyond that, it's nothing special, but it's priced accordingly.

Clickolding: if Cookie Clicker had an uncanny sense of atmosphere and managed to creep you out with nothing except a sparsely-animated antagonist and a rising click counter, you'd have a sense of what this feels like. It does a very effective job at making you want to be as compliant and possible.

Daemonologie: The Salem Witch Trials in game form, or Ace Attorney if Phoenix wore a Quaker hat and had a fixation on nakey women doing odd shit in the forest. Very tense and minimalist, and very, very worthwhile.

Cryptmaster: it's basically a spruced-up oldschool MUD, with 3D black-and-white graphics and four zombified D&D character archetypes you control simultaneously, by either using your Arrow keys to move the entire party at once, or typing in the words that correspond to abilities or attacks. Very, very, very British humour is on offer, along with a script-writer that managed to predict most stupidly filthy prompts you're likely to try at any given point. It's hilarious and kludgey in just the right way, especially if you remember the nineties' MindMaze on Encarta '95.

Liar's Bar: Russian Roulette for Furries with a decent voIP chat integration. It's shallow and stupid fun, and the subject matter makes people behave in increasingly crude ways as the session goes on. If you're like me, you'll swear you played a round or two against a guy who was actually stone-dead-drunk and who actually had nothing to lose...

Silent Hill 2 Remake: finally, Silent Hill's fog doesn't feel like a performance-saving measure and actually creeps me the fuck out. It makes me feel terrible and has me contemplate not playing it, but it does make sense. Kudos to Bloober Team for finally manage to ground this one heck of a weirdo title.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle: take Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and Dial of Destiny, burn all copies, consign the masters to Disney's oubliette, thank Harrison Ford for his decades of diligent service and pass the fedora and bullwhip to Troy Baker, 'cause Machine Games and Bethesda have managed to find themselves yet another prime title to fuck Fascists up using fisticuffs or blunt weaponry. It's a great callback to Machine Games' own contribution to Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, seeing as every single level in the game has the granular detail of their version of Prague. Slap some John Williams on, add the authentic audio samples for whip cracks and punches, lifted straight out of the movies. I haven't had as much fun raiding tombs or poking through lovingly-reconstructed real places since Nolan North last lent his voice pipes to Nathan Drake.

Imagine my surprise, when the Sistine Chapel turned out to be about the size of our condo building's parking lot! That's tiny! The more you know, I guess!

Star Wars Outlaws: this is what happens when a studio really, really, really wants to give the IP due diligence, but its decades of re-iterated design docs ruin the experience. Kay Vess isn't a galactic scoundrel; she's basically every Far Cry protagonist ever, except in third-person!

The Forever Winter: all crunch, no fun. An incredibly engaging premise, but the mistaken notion that the average gamer has several three-to-four-blocks to devote to this each and every single day. Worth at least a YouTube ride-along, to see the incredible work the Art Design team's pulled together.

Disney's Epic Mickey - Rebrushed: Warren Spector's poorly-received baby and love letter to classic animation gets its just desserts on PC. It's not super complex with only two basic mechanics based off of two buttons on a controller, but it managed to use an extremely limited toolset to great effect, even throwing in what feels like a younger relative's first potential exposure to the Immersive Sim concept of looking for unmarked routes through a level. The in-between side-scrolling levels are oozing charm, and essentially feel like some part of Spector wanted to play in the same ballpark as American McGee's Alice.

If anything, it cements the idea that non-verbal instances of Mickey Mouse should never be left in the same room as a magical implement or toolset. Ever. Verbal Mickeys can push past their childlike glee and reason accordingly, but the oldschool button-eyed and non-verbal originator is not to be trusted.

STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl: Have fun losing half your health because the ARMA-esque mechanics decide that grazing damage means holy shit, you almost died! Especially, have fun getting knocked flat out on your ass by mutants - over and over and over...

To be played in subtitled Ukranian out of implicit support, and to have fun with the Slavic definition of an acting range. It's like watching the second season of Squid Game, except you get the sense that their scale goes from Nonchalant to Pants-Pissingly Terrified with very little grading in-between.

And now, for Games I didn't really get into until 2024...

Valfaris and Valfaris II: Mecha Therion: side-scrollers that do their damndest to look like they stepped straight out of the pages of Heavy Metal as of the mid-eighties. Gorgeously grotesque pixel art meets with a banging soundtrack made up of certified shredders. The lead headbangs and throws the horns when he finishes a stage!

Brütal Legend: an oldie but a goodie, previously constrained to the PS3 but now quite cozy on my Steam Deck. It's got a semi-cohesive grab-bag of mechanics, sure, but it's got even more heart, along with a pre-stroke Tim Curry voicing the villain with the gooiest of all countenances. Imagine Shere Khan, but Metal as fuck.

Katamari Damacy: Re-Roll: I barely touched the original when it came out. Having managed to grab the PC port for cheap and knowing how well it plays with a Steam Deck, the Prince of All Cosmos' ball-rolling sojourn across the surface of our planet has turned into a nightly staple for me.

Baldur's Gate 3: Yes, I know, I'm late, you've all banged Astarion sixteen times by now, but I've got time for a long-form WRPG right now. I might not have this much free time once January 10th rolls around.

The Night Cage: not a vidya, but a really nerve-wracking tabletop game that's made for quite a few fun Friday nights at La Casa de Gremlin.

On My Backlog, You'll Find...

Metaphor: Re-Fantazio: I know it's beloved by all, but it feels so "so far, so ATLUS" to me, and I still haven't gotten over P4, P3 and P5's excellent PC ports. I also have Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne to go through, so I really don't know if I have it in me to tackle something in that same vein quite so soon.

Arizona Sunshine 1 & 2: I just can't be bothered to set up my Oculus Rift 2's Link Cable. I have the games, I just don't know if and when I'll play them.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster: I'm waiting until my old cheese strats fade into the back of my mind before I tackle this one. Plus, I'm torn about Frank West not being voiced by TJ Rotolo. He doesn't just... feels like he's covered wars, y'know?

Frostpunk 2: bought it to support the devs, am just not jazzed about having to sort of network my way across several simultaneous points of origin until the depressing version of a Dieselpunk sprawl covers the map.

The Yakuza series on Amazon Prime: SEGA's trying to become the Disney of gaming, but something about Kazuma Kiryu's story (or stories) have always felt distinctly and uniquely Japanese to me. As in, it requires a specific mindset and might not be for everyone. I'm waiting for a sign, basically - maybe one to pop my collar and rent a karaoke machine so I can belt out maudlin soliloquies to lost childhood innocence while smoking half a pack of cigs between every third or fourth stanza...

The Sonic Movies: yeah, sure, I'm in my forties, but Jim Carrey's going through a career renaissance by acting out Albert Einstein on crack. Yeah, sure, it's not either of my Robotniks (the Jim Cummings or Long John Baldry versions - for the memes) - but it seems like it might still be a trilogy of adaptations worth pursuing.

Plus, hey, I gotta start catching up on that Stobotnik shit, huh?

[justalittlelilac]

Literally on a new hyper-fixation and, damnit, sometimes we can't choose so here's a lil' Simon Riley x fem!reader who's a gamer fic, because the voices wouldn't let me live 'till I wrote it. Just fluffy fluff.

Reader referred to as: She/her, his girl, his woman. Based on my own character, but took out the names. Word count: 713 She's totally not playing Helldivers 2.

Simon opened the door to his and his partner's Manchester flat to a dark living room. This was odd to him because his woman had stayed behind while he met up with the guys for a drink down at the pub. She preferred to stay in during their leaves, and he honestly couldn't blame her. Hell, he would have as well, if it wasn't for Soap dragging him out. 

Still, though, she hadn't been answering his texts, and THAT was unlike her. Preferring face-to-face communication, Simon rarely sent electronic messages. Still, when he did, he would almost always receive an immediate reply from her. He hadn't thought much about it while out, but concern filled his gut now that he was in the dark flat.

For a moment, dark thoughts filled his mind of her being taken or worse. The memory of finding his own family dead fell over him like a cold sheet of ice. At the exact moment, he heard her yell, and he barreled down the hall to the closed door of their spare room. His hand practically trembled as he threw the door open, and light filled his vision.

"Mother fucker!" Simon heard her yell as his eyes adjusted to his surroundings. Once things came into focus, he let out a sigh of relief. There she was, sitting cross-legged in a computer chair with a headset on. She had already dressed for bed in one of his large black t's and underwear. Simon cocked his head, perplexed, watching as she leaned over her keyboard, fingers clacking and her mouse flicking from side to side. "Fuck, sorry guys, I need a revive." His presence wasn't even noticed by her; she was so focused. 

Simon approached her slowly, but it still didn't help. As soon as she caught him from the corner of her eye, she jumped and threw her headset to the keyboard, rising from her chair and going into fight mode. The sound of gunfire and "Walk" from Pantera blasted from the speakers, and Simon stifled a laugh. Once she realized it was him, she clutched her chest in relief and chuckled shakily. 

"Jesus, you scared me!" She grabbed her headset to speak. "Sorry guys, one sec," she said before putting them back down. He cocked an eyebrow at her.

"What are you doing?" he asked in amusement. Her eyes flicked to the screen and then back to him, and she tucked her tousled hair behind her ears. 

"Just playing some video games," she explained. Simon could hear the voices of others on the headphones, and he tilted his head again.

"With who?" 

"Just some people I know online," she shrugged. Simon wasn't online savvy. He never really had time to delve into that sort of thing, and maybe he was too old for it now.

"What're playing?" Simon was genuinely curious. He knew his woman liked video games, but he hadn't ever seen her play nor knew what she preferred. She was an absolute nerd regarding stuff like that, and you wouldn't know unless she told you. He thought it was fucking adorable. 

"Just a shooter, nothing crazy," she shrugged again, and he again cocked an eyebrow in interest.

"Don't you do enough shooting as it is?" He asked, and she laughed. 

"It's not like that!" She chuckled as she went to sit back down. No, no, she was supposed to be relaxing, not leave war to come home and play at it. 

"Nope, think you need a break," he grunted before scooping her up against his chest and moving to carry her. She laughed out loud, only playfully struggling against him.

"No, my teammates! They need me! I can't abandon them!" She called out, arms comedically outstretched towards the computer.

"Sure they'll be fine," he replied simply.

"'Least let me mute my mic!" She demanded loudly.

"Nope," he replied with his own graveled laugh, still carrying her to the bedroom, predicting if he let her go back into that room, she'd just start playing again, knowing her. She relented and just laughed along with it. Fuck, he loved leave, used to not, but he loved his woman enough that coming home to a dark flat could mean finding laughter and not terror. He couldn't thank her enough for that.

[lillythepyromancer]

I thought i'd introduce myself, shant I?

Welcome to my blog kind stranger!

My name's Lilly, Lilliana and any other alternate spellings. You may also call me Pyro. I'm a 19 year old Software Engineering University student. I also happen to be transgender and aroace*! Im also in a commited relationship with @hxy0k! Go check out their stuff!

So uh. Whats your deal?

Im glad you ask! Im a huge nerd! (Of everything there is to gain knowledge of, I will try to know and remember It! (and fail at It but try!))...

...but I mostly like greek mythology, videogames and medieval history and architecture.

oh yeah. im also a Dungeon Master! i play Pathfinder 2e, D&D, TWDRPG, Unnoficial Hollow Knight TTRPG, Hitos (A Spanish System with no known translations that I know of) and currently I'm making my own! (based on d100s and percentiles, with so much customization its taking YEARS to make (currently its been 4 years in the making)). Other TTRPGs I want to play but I haven't yet (because getting groups together to play is management hell) include Vampire The Masquerade, Cyberpunk and LANCER!

What about talking to you?

Do it!!!!! I have heavy social anxiety and talking to people is incredibly hard. I am 100% approachable and as friendly as I can. I am just anxious constantly and making the first move is hard on my psyche.

Asks are open, DM's too.

I love talking. a lot. about anything and everything. i also listen a lot (even if im not good at conversation).

What videogames you play?

All I can get my hands on. But since you are asking so nicely...

My favorite genres of games to play are; RPGs (with amongst my favorites being the Owlcat Pathfinder games, Fallout: New Vegas, Baldur's Gate 3, Disco Elysium, Dragon's Dogma 1/DA, Cyberpunk 2077 and KOTOR 2 (I didn't play 1 when i played the second I should replay both on Steam now)), Shooters (WILDLY varied taste tho, but I really like Halo (Reach, my beloved), the whole Metro Franchise (SO ATMOSPHERIC SO COOL), Ultrakill, Helldivers 2), Stealth games (with a love for the Dishonored franchise and Metal Gear, but one of my recent likes is Mark of the Ninja!), VR games (this isn't even a genre, but I LOVE Blade and Sorcery and the The Walking Dead VR games. My favorite VR Game is Blade and Sorcery, hands down), any Game made by Valve (seriously Portal and Left 4 Dead are two of my favorite games) and arcade games! (This including ANYTHING really. I love Beat Em Ups, side-scrollers, platformers... I've spent hours playing weird obscure games using emulation tools that would be lost to time otherwise. But my favorites? Both Dungeons & Dragons SOM//TOD and Cadillacs & Dinosaurs. Honorary mention to Knights of the Round (Did you notice I like beat em ups?))

...i also have others I couldnt fit here. Im not a fighting game girlie (because im really bad at them) but I really like Soulcalibur, Street Fighter III and Guilty Gear!

Im also not a horror game aficionada but SIGNALIS has been A WORLD SHATTERING EVENT in my gaming career. BRAIN TWEAKING EXPERIENCE. Chemistry completely changed forever. Please play It. Right now. Its imperative you do, for your sake.

I also really like the first Dark Souls! I would love to say more but- I can't. Its been years and I've only played the first one. Bloodborne fucks severely tho and I will defend It forever GOSH how i love em both even if the second half of the first DS, SUCKS, SEVERELY. (Im the only person i know that hates having to run through the Duke's Archives so much i put off New Game + cycles forever to NOT go kill scaleless' ass)

I really like Indie games but since every single one I like is basically a different genre here you got a speedrun (and recomendation list!);

Celeste (my favorite Game ever, helped so much with anxiety at the time, played It when i didn't know I was transgender... That fact gets funnier with replay), Deadlight (play It once and thats it. Zombie parkour puzzle Game.), Slay the Princess (the multiple voices thing is oddly relatable), Project Zomboid (100% the BEST BEST zombie survival Game ever, love It), Webfishing, Darkest Dungeon (MY BELOVED the sequel), Noita (i like torture), Hollow Knight (even tho im not really into metroidvanias, Hollow Knight IS really fun), Terraria (player since 1.1!), Charlie Murder (not that well known and they deserve It!!), Broforce (It is. So fun), every Game made by The Behemot, Lethal Company, Phasmophobia, Rain World, Undertale and Deltarune (of course) and lastly, Inscryption (another Game that is so so good, please play It)

And well, not an Indie but... I play Minecraft. So much

WOW. Thats was a LOT of text. Anything you do on the side outside of playing games?

I write! Both for my TTRPG campaigns I DM but also stuff on the side!

Nothing's public tho, my cringy fanfiction Will stay with me to my grave. However, I am writing original material right now! A Magical Girls story which any kind of synopsis would blow up the initial mystery. I **may** share snippets of It some day. If my anxiety allows me.

I also do YouTube videos. They aren't very good but I like em. Please check It out. And leave comments! They do make my day.

And... Im also a musician! I play the piano, I'm a drummer and I sing in a choir. I'm composing some stuff on the side as well but I dont have time nor resources to record and compose as comfortably as I'd like. Maybe if I end Up being able to get something I'll post It!

And i draw. Im not good at It, but I draw! This blog should have SOME examples of OC's i draw. Some of em are NPCs in my campaigns, others are player characters, other are just characters. I love em all the same.

Anything else?

I know the Standard Galactic Alphabet. I think its neat. My favorite movie is The Princess Bride. My favorite song is... im not sure I have too many. I have two Blåhaj.

I think you are good to go! Venture into my blog as you wish!

Oh, well. I am also probably autistic. There are no doubts in my all autistic friend group about it.

*im on the aroace spectrum, demisexual and demiromantic to be precise.

[retphienix]

MAJOR shade towards a game I actually really enjoyed and am currently as of typing waiting with minor optimism for the next update which claims to be a "community focused" update based on the critiques laid at them, and I'm only like, 20% sorry- but:

Sometimes I slow down and realize that the most mundane moments in EDF are the EXACT ""Fantasy"" other games claim to be striving for and claim to be perfectly adequately accomplishing in their games.... while they nerf anything that comes close to the power fantasy and fun they claim to already provide and instead make any tool that players want to shred with near worthless because ????

Anyways to be less vague and more direct: Things in EDF are ridiculous and powerful and you are put in situations where you can use that preposterous power to shred hundreds / thousands in some cases / of enemies.

Here we see me just going "You know what, I'm gonna slap on 2 miniguns and shred explosive robots with them" and what happens?

I throw on 2 miniguns and in seconds I feel like the 300 ton steel wall that these pathetic android waves crash upon and fall to the calm waters of the pavement below.

I strafe my aim from left to right and watch an orchestra of destruction play out before me.

I look to the devs and I see a big thumbs up in my direction 👍

They wanted to provide a game that lets you feel the power fantasy of big gun do big thing and when you play said game you get that experience. We shout "E! D! F!" at each other and then no more words are needed.

Meanwhile, another game I really enjoyed and still think is a fantastic game, just one that lost itself fast as hell for seemingly no reason, Helldivers 2, has the devs regularly saying their weapons and outfits and strategems are all in service of a ""Fantasy"".

They repeat it again and again, they say "X stat was adjusted Y direction in order to improve the ""Fantasy"" of the weapon".

And what do they do?

Nerf everything that does anything, give you a heavy machine gun that bounces off enemies, provide explosives that tickle bugs, buff literal mushrooms to be bulletproof because players weren't complaining enough, give you new weapons that are just downgrades of literal day 1 equipment, nerf a popular weapon because of a crossover bug (seriously, and don't ever revert the change), nerf another popular weapon because it worked (literally just worked- not excelled- just worked- it was an adequate anti armor so it had to be nerfed), nerf popular gear instead of taking a closer look at WHY those things are popular and if perhaps enemy behavior needed nerfed instead, buff the enemies repeatedly, provide the enemies with new AI and spawning behaviors that force the bulk of the community to assimilate into the few builds/tools that still work- nerf those tools.

And then gleefully say "We're buffing stuff!" and change insignificant stats that in no way actually impact the game or allow a single new experience to be felt from having used those tools.

And why?

Why did the game start as a fun horde shooter and then a few nerfs later it's a "GRIZZLED DIE WITH A PEASHOOTER IN YOUR HANDS" thing?

Why are we constantly sold the idea that these changes are to support the ""Fantasy"" of the experience when all that's been accomplished is anything that was fun and effective now sucks eggs and enemies are more aggressive than at launch?

Why?

And how do you justify nerfing us and buffing enemies while stripping the identity from all our equipment to be in service of a ""fantasy""?

Your heavy machine guns don't even feel good.

I hope the update is good and don't regret a second I spent playing that game :)

[askagamedev]

In light of the recent controversy surrounding Sony (and, by extension, Helldivers 2), could you please explain the publisher-developer relationship that many, many people seem to misunderstand?

Despite the common myth that publishers are evil vampires who exist to make things work, publishers really do serve a legitimate purpose that makes them valuable. What publishers do is provide logistical support to the development studio. Beyond the obvious of providing funding to build the game, publishers also generally handle things like:

Providing QA support

Providing technical support/code/back end for console development

Providing tool support

Providing network/back end support

Handling game marketing

Handling the business negotiations

Handling physical media and delivery

All of these things both cost a lot of money to establish and require specialized staffing to handle. Most game studios don't want to do these things because it means the studio leadership has to step away from overseeing the game development and focus on setting up all of those logistical elements. As always, there are negotiations made in the contract between a publisher and a developer - the publisher agrees to do all these things and provide X moneys to the developer over this period of time, and the developer promises to deliver a game based on this schedule with these requirements.

One key thing to remember is that attacking your partners in public is never a good idea from a business perspective. Even if the relationship was strained behind closed doors, being anything but supportive of your partners in public will be remembered - not just by the partner who may choose not to work with you again, but also by other prospective future partners who will want to avoid getting burned in a similar fashion. The temporary internet points from players for being "on their side" just isn't worth it, especially because players are fickle and will turn on you in an instant, but potential business partners have elephant memories.

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[mr-kench]

Online Cooperative Games form such weirdly natural friendships. I’m not even talking like people you’d hang out with or anything but you just interact and get talking as if you’ve known each other your whole life and then leave not even remembering them the next day.

The most memorable moment I had like this was in Elder Scrolls Online. I was in the PVP area and I came across a raiding party and joined up we got into a casual conversation with everyone, started talking about work and finances all while tearing down a fortresses walls and slaughtering everyone inside. It was such a tonal dissonance between what was happening and what we were doing.

Another game is a cult classic game that’s been going since the ps3 era of games called PlanetSide 2. If you need to know what it is imagine Helldivers except it’s on a single planet across 3 continents and it’s three player factions fighting each other. You actually travel across the continent taking bases and outposts with the goal to dominate each continent. Really fun, really simple and I’m shocked that sort of gameplay never caught on.

However during while fighting to take the mountain base called The Crown all three factions met one was fighting from the base while my faction and an opposing faction were storming the Beaches of Normandy to climb that mountain. Everyone was getting into it myself included and bonds were formed as rag tag group formed to help each other climb just a few inches further. I heard someone yell “we won’t let those fuckers take this land!” I was an Infiltrator (basically a spy armed with a Sniper Rifle, pistol, radar gun and cloaking tech) I remember saving a group that was surrounded by sniping a few soldiers and distracting them enough for the others to mow them down. I was a squishy class meant to move solo and… Infiltrate but in that moment I became a part of the crew. We legit started taking bullets for each other as I led them to an emergency exit tunnel I scouted out. It was poorly guarded and I like to think we helped turn the tide by sneaking in a squad into the center of the enemy base. Michael Bay wishes he could direct the story that unfolded during that battle.

[jkl930]

New silly Helldivers 2 print! 🌐 (Based off that Great Gatsby meme)

Inprnt is having an end of year sitewide SALE, so treat yourself and others to some cool art!

What better way to start the new year, other than with more democracy to decorate your home??

[helldivers-2]

Would you guys ever consider adding stratagem loadouts that you can make before being deployed to avoid having to pick them individually every time?

It’s not out of the realm of possibility, but choosing your stratagems each time you deploy is a key design element to incentivize mixing things up because:

1. Trying new loadouts is incentivized.

2. Your loadout should be dynamic based on what your fellow Helldivers want to equip / have access to.

Being able to preset your load out would make these two design pillars be somewhat overwritten, but there are definitely occasions (such as retrying a mission with an identical squad) where keeping your load out the same would be a welcome quality of life change.

[jeffgerstmann]

Everybody says they're tired of live service games and they're finished but then Palworld, Helldivers 2 and Last Epoch are all massive breakout games

Yep! I think all of those games work naturally in that format, though. Actually, Palworld is maybe a weird fit since it's technically in Early Access, so it'll be getting updates either way, rather than just getting updates to better serve some kind of monetization track.

When people say they don't like Live Service games, what they're usually actually saying is that they don't like bad games and they don't like it when good games are made to feel more like a store than a game.

When all that stuff is done well and you've got the right game married to the right kind of ongoing update model and interesting (or at least unobtrusive) microtransactions you often end up having one of the biggest games in the world on your hands. This is partially why so many publishers chase after this kind of success, though hopefully they're learning that there's much more to it than just shoving a shop and a battle pass onto whatever half-assed co-op game you've got in development.

Also, as an aside here, is Last Epoch _really_ a massive breakout? I guess they've been having popularity-based server issues, so maybe I shouldn't be shocked, but I played the first couple hours of it and it seems like a totally fine free-to-play ARPG that they're selling for $35. Maybe it's just that Diablo IV players are desperate for something else at this point, but as I started filling out the slots on my character and staring at the mastery trees it didn't seem like... amazing or anything. I don't know, I'll keep poking away at it.