#to think that this rant started because i saw a game trailer lol...

[ladsofsorrow24]

there are like... two types of story that comes out of "sad man having a midlife crisis finds a girl who motivates him to be a better person" trope

you either get the girl being awestruck with him just because he's the first decent guy she ever met

or it'll just be humiliation fest for him when he met everyone associated with her

personally i prefer the latter

because the former is just the "straight male wish fulfillment" trope play straight, which not only sounds pretty boring but also something i can't really enjoy or relate to

the romantic undertones doesn't help either

[lumslittleland]

Not Been Well Recently - Sorry (Covid x3)

I apologise for not having been active for quite a long time.

I have been struggling with ill health, work and personal life problems for quite some time. My new medication is taking quite some getting used to, and it's efficiency depends entirely on how and what I do, eat, breathe and sleep.

It works wonders, but it's like a master lock on a bloody safe to get it to work just right, and I'm finding it difficult because I've never had 'tightly wound and intricate' issues to deal with before - like food allergies or asthma, or shit that needs extreme care. So I'm not that good at being patient, or meticulous.

Then I've had Covid about 3 times, with the full blown rash, and everything that comes with it, and I'm starting to wonder if I've got it longterm now as it's caused me to have a few seizures and eating problems and (what might be, but prob isn't) early signs of mild skin cancer, so my GP has asked me to be part of a research program for Covid.

At this rate, I feel so ill I frequently wonder whether life is worth living - and yet nobody seems to understand as they just get up in the morning and 'feel good.' Even on a shit day, there's plenty they can do. I'm stuck like this for life, and it interferes so much with everything it makes living nearly unbearable.

Sorry for this little self-absorbed rant.

I had to get it out in the open, because sometimes I feel like I am struggling alone... and then there's this major dickhead on this game pretending to have cancer to get attention, when in facts he's alienated everyone from him because of his hateful behaviour, and normally I would just ignore that because I just haven't got the time or energy to be bothered about some twat on the internet lol.

But apparently he's now asking for gifts and money, and someone close to me died from cancer, and it kind of makes me angry to make light of a subject like that...

Anyway my Twitter username has changed, and I'm going to be posting updates on there more frequently than on here, because it's just easier.

So if you want to give it a follow, I'll be posting updates on my fanfiction and any fan arts that people gift me. I wanted to run a full Stobotnik Tumblr on here, and maybe when I have more time I will do. But for now, I just want to sleep, get better and do the absolute bare minimum...

I've also deleted a lot of my comments on the new Sonic trailer, as I realise that there's more to it than what I previously saw, and I think that's because I didn't fully grow up with the Sonic franchise.

There's still a lot I hate about it, and possibly even when I see the full film will still hate about it.

But as I don't want to ruin it for you guys, I've started afresh. Have fun xxx

[mrszeoxin]

Cafe Enchante Review

This game is one that honestly I just saw on the Nintendo eShop and it looked so cute I had to play it. I didn’t know too much going in, just the game summary and trailer. So I know the MC inherits a cafe from a relative and it’s actually a magical cafe (kind of like Coffee Talk?). But in excited to play, using this as a pallet cleanser from BUSTAFELLOWS, plus just as a cozy game since it’s cold out and I wanted something cozy to play.

I’m going to play in the recommended play order which I’m pretty sure is also the order of their main chapters are in the common route. Speaking of, I loved the common route, but it is wayyy longer than the individual ones. Which I always think it’s a bummer when common route is longer than individual ones.

Canus

Oh my! I loved Canus so freaking much! I was really excited that he was first on the list as he definitely was who I was most curious about going into the game the first time. I think the concept of a headless love interest is so unique and fun, it definitely had me questioning how his route would look or work. Then on top of that he’s such a sweetie and such and kind and good hearted character. I really can’t think of a single thing I disliked about him.

He’s definitely the warm-hearted stoic type so if you like those characters and wanted a fun and magical twist then Canus is the perfect guy for you.

I love how they changed the color of his flame to represent different emotions, and found it impressive how well they could communicate how he was feeling without a head. It was really impressive and super creative. On top of that, I loved his story and world, it was all so unique and fun. He is from the world of fairies which is so cute, and a lot is based on western fairy lore which is unique for an otome game. On top of that some aspects of this route reminded me of Sailor Moon R, which since I loved that as a kid, being reminded of that made it feel extra special.

Overall I love Canus a lot, and while I’m definitely interested in the other guys, I really wonder if they’ll be able to pass Canus as my favorite because I just love this guy so much!

Rindo

I decided to play him second because I honestly wanted to just get his route over with. I’m sure he’s a great guy but realistic age gaps weird me out way more than impossible ones. Also his “chapter” is second, and I’m basically following that original chapter order. But honestly I wasn’t very excited going into his route, and maybe that’s not fair, but he’s just the least interesting and his age gap weirds me out the most (some people like age gaps and probably would like him because of that, but personally I like it when they are either close to my age or so crazy older because they are immortal it doesn’t even matter lol).

Okay rant time. I started this review in January, but the first episode of Rindo’s route made me so upset I literally stoped playing for three months 😭. So spoilers ahead.

I really didn’t like this route. I already wasn’t a Rindo fan, and then add the main conflict for his route and I was UPSET. I had a feeling since the main route that Kuu was a nonhuman, to me that much was obvious. HOWEVER, I was not expecting Kuu to be dating Akira, and to be Rindo’s sister 😭. That reveal at the end of episode one literally made me stop playing because I was so upset. It took a lot to come back to this game after that.

But I forced myself to come back and finish Rindo’s route, and oh boy, it just kept getting worse. I think it is really cruel and unethical to keep Kuu alive. It was a totally selfish act, and while the game does address that, it still made me very upset and uncomfortable. They then parallel this with Rindo and MC, when MC forces Rindo to become nonhuman. It made me so upset. It was like “no consent the dating sim”. I’m not usually a stickler for that stuff, but it actually made me very upset. I know it’s fictional and it’s meant to be a good story, but I just hated it. It made me miserable and uncomfortable. It made me not like MC, and it really soured my view on the game. This is like if you were unconscious but had expressed not wanting a certain treatment prior, and then your significant other forces it on you knowing your against it. It’s just so messed up, and I know it’s addressed as being messed up, but I just couldn’t vibe with it. Not to mention Rindo got even uglier when he became nonhuman which is so stupid 😭. I’m just glad it’s over, and I’m sorry for being a hater, but I had to say it.

Ignis

Now see I’m excited to play Ignis’ route. He reminds me of Kyo from Fruits Basket, who I had such a big crush on growing up. So because of that I’m super excited to play his route. Plus he’s just really funny, and seems really sweet. He’s also closest to MC’s age which is nice. So because of all these things I’m really excited to play his route next. I really hope I like it more than Rindo’s 😩.

As expected I really loved Ignis’ route. He’s such a big softie, and he’s so cute. I laughed, I cried, I felt so much as I played. Now I won’t lie, this route has some disturbing and gorey parts. But I love Ignis so much, and this route was really compelling. It had so much intrigue and things that built on one another. I just really liked the story, it really had me at the edge of my seat the whole time. Also we got so much Kororo content, which I absolutely adored! I just really liked this route, so far it’s my favorite 🥹 it’s just so good I really can’t put it into words. 💕💕💕

Il

I’m super excited for Il’s route. His appearance isn’t what I’m usually drawn to, but his character design is so unique, and similar to Canus I don’t think I’ve ever seen a character like him. Not to mention his obsession with otome games is so endearing and he’s such a cutie. So overall I have been really excited to get to play his route.

Oh my lord. This route actually destroyed me. First off, I just want to say, I love Il, like I love him so much, he’s so precious, and he deserves the world. I enjoyed this route, it was so good, but it absolutely destroyed me emotionally. I was screaming, I was crying, I was ugly sobbing, I was laughing, I was squealing. I felt so much while playing this route, which feels extra fitting since it has a focus on emotions.

I will say, the assistant thing didn’t surprise me, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. But wow. I just don’t even know what to say. I wanted to actually slap MC in the face at the climax/ending of chapter two, because honestly, how dare she?! But honestly this route was extremely good, and Il might be my favorite 😅. Don’t get me wrong I still loved Canus and Ignis, in fact Ignis is still a close second in my heart. But oml, Il’s story just really hit me, and even though I don’t usually like characters that look like him, this was truly such an exception. He’s so beautiful, and so kind, and so pure, with so much potential! I’m just upset we couldn’t see more of their lives together.

One thing that stood out to me though, was how similar Il’s route was to Shiraishi’s route in Collar X Malice. I feel like their backgrounds and stories have a lot of similarities. The difference being that they have very different personalities. But I would say their backgrounds are very similar, and they are both very pure and deserve so much better. But I am curious if anyone else noticed how similar these two are, because once I started to notice it, I just saw so many similarities between the two.

But overall, I really did love Il’s route, and I really do love him. Out of all of their routes, his makes me the most upset that this game doesn’t have a sequel/fan disk. Because I just want to see more fluff with Il and MC, to just be happy and domestic with each other. I think I deserve it after crying so much lol.

Misyr

So Misyr is last since he’s locked until you play all other routes at least once. He’s the main guy/poster boy for the game, and the prologues heavily hint about his route. Honestly, I don’t hold anything against Misyr, he has a lot of great lines and seems like a very caring guy. I love his relationship with Il in particular. But for whatever reason I just wasn’t super excited for his route. Maybe it’s because most poster boys/true routes aren’t my favorite? Or maybe it’s just because I was just drawn so much to Canus, Ignis, and Il, that I wasn’t as excited. Honestly, I’m not completely sure. But I’m going to play it, and I’m hoping I’m pleasantly surprised. However, I am now worried his route might also be depressing and dark after seeing how the others have been, and based on what we see in the main story and prologue. But I guess we’ll see, and I’ll be back once I’ve finished.

So I feel very conflicted. On one hand I do like Misyr as a character, and the overall plot was very interesting and had me constantly wondering what was going to happen. However, I really don’t tend to like “true” ending routes, and unfortunately his route did a lot of that “true” ending stuff I just don’t like. Mainly, the fact that my poor baby boy Il had to go through all that suffering AGAIN. Like oml can’t he catch a freaking break 😭. But also the ending was pretty sad, and yet it also kind of felt like a cop out? Like I just feel all over the place. I didn’t hate him, or the route, but I just couldn’t find it as enjoyable as other routes. And even though it was definitely sad and heartbreaking, it didn’t emotionally impact me as much as Il’s route. So I think unfortunately Misyr is just another victim of the poster boy and true ending syndrome. Where the writers want to tie every previous story together, and spends so much time on the plot and other characters, you don’t really have time to focus on their romance. Which personally makes their unyielding love less believable. This is definitely a personal preference thing, and so I think if you like when all endings are tied together you’d probably like it more. Also if Misyr was your #1 pick you’ll probably also like it more. But for me I just don’t think it was a great fit.

Overall

Playing this game was such a journey. As I mentioned before I started playing this in January then had to take multiple months off before finishing it in April. I thought this was just going to be a cute cozy supernatural dating sim, that has a unique cast of characters. Which to be fair, the music, sound effects, voice acting, the CGs and artwork, it was all so stunning. It was an amazing game and there are so many things I really loved about it.

However, this game can get pretty dark and depressing, which I wasn’t really expecting. I think if I knew that going into the game I could have managed my expectations more, but because I didn’t it was a huge shock and definitely took a toll on me. So I wish someone had warned me 😅.

Overall, I did really like this game. It’s probably one of my favorite switch otome games I’ve played since Collar X Malice. So I would definitely recommend it. I was kind of sad to see it doesn’t seem to have an active fandom, like I couldn’t find many fanfic or fan art of the game, which made me sad. As far as rankings go I think my favorite, in order from most to least liked would be; Il, Ignis, Canus, Mystr, then Rindo. Which honestly going into the game I thought Mystr or Ignis was going to be my favorite, so Il was definitely a pleasant surprise. But I really enjoyed all the routes, except for Rindo’s, personally.

So that’s my thoughts! I’ll be graduating this week, so if I get some free time before getting a job, I’m planning on playing Cupid’s Parasite, next since I’ve heard that’s one is like a rom-com. And I definitely want a fun light hearted game after all this crying.

[underwhelmingalchemist]

I can't think of any TV series I know you watch right now, so consider this a free one for the ask game. Any TV series you want to do the ask game about at all

Oh fuck yeah. I was going to ask you about The Magicians btw, but someone beat me to it lol

Let's talk about *spins a large wheel labeled with my hyperfixations and special interests written on it in my mind* The Falcon and the Winter Soldier

Favorite Character: I'm picking two because in this series I can't choose. Bucky and Sam are both gems and precious and I love them so so much

Funniest Character: Not a character really but I love the banter between Sam and Bucky. I also love writing it on my own

Best-Looking Character: Sam Fucking Wilson. He is so attractive that it's not fair. Is it a prerequisite that in order to be part of the Cap brigade you have to be one of the most attractive people alive? Fuck

Three Favorite Ships: I don't have a lot of ships for this show just because there aren't a lot of leads, so I'm just going to say SamBucky because A) banter B) chemistry C) did you see them rolling through that field? And the knee thing?? There is no heterosexual explanation for that. Also I like the angst that comes from Bucky pining after Steve, a man who abandoned him, because I like inflicting emotional trauma on my favorite characters

Least Favorite Character: I was going to copy/paste the Jurgen Leitner rant and replace him with John Walker, because that perfectly sums up how I feel about that smug bastard, but it was too long. Watching him get the shit kicked out of him was an amazing feeling, and I hope if they include him in the MCU going forward, he has many brutal ass-beatings in the future. FUCK I hate him. Second place goes to Raynor. Hate her, but her face doesn't provoke the same visceral reaction that Walker's does

Least Favorite Ship: Bucky/Zemo. People really looked at one character who psychologically destroyed the other in the most malicious possible way and went "Yeah I'll ship that." I mean, ship whatever you want, fiction is not reality, etc. etc., but it's on my blacklisted tag list for a reason

Reason Why I Watch It: I'm mentally ill and imprinted on Bucky Barnes like a baby duckling the second I saw him slide across a highway and dig his metal fingers into the pavement, and then they introduced the dynamic he had with Sam and I was just absolutely smitten. SamBucky my beloved. Let them kiss

Why I Started Watching It: I mean, I was hyped about Bucky being in the show, and then that trailer came out with that knee thing and just *gay screaming*

Thanks for the ask!

Find the game here

[kookie-doughs]

Beta Tester

Kozume Kenma X Reader

-YN LN is a popular mangaka

Chapter 16: Stage

Seeing you running towards him made Kenma frown.

"Kenma!" You waved. "Thank you for not leaving yet!"

Ignoring you he continued to walk towards the direction of the stage.

You pouted and crossed your arms. "You know... As sorry as I am for that kiss I really don't regret it."

Jogging up in front of him with a shit eating grin, you positioned yourself in front of him where he'd have no choice but to look at you while you looked at him. His ears were slightly red without a doubt but who were you kidding yours were too.

Kenma cleared his throat, "Good for you then. Now get out of the way so I could get out of here. "

"And honestly I liked that kiss." You continued determined to see him flustered again. "Your lips were soft and I bet my ass you're a great kisser. I rate you 10/10 would do it again."

With a glare he looked at you straight in the eyes, "So do it pussy." Then went ahead before you could see the red settling on his face.

"I- Wh- Excuse me- Wh- Huh? K-Ken- Kenma!!" You squeaked as you chased after him.

"I said what I said."

You finally caught up to him when he was about to climb the stairs towards the stage. Luckily(?) you also have to go up with him.

"Ehh... Where's the flustered Kenma? I wanted to see you all blushy and panicked. You looked so adorable. I don't want hot daddy Dom Kenma. I want cute baby sub Kenma..."

As he was halfway up the stairs your height gap grew and he was way over you. He just looked down on you, leaning closer the gap barely existent he smirked.

"Too bad." Then turned away.

There were a handful of people who saw the scene. Which made you more embarrassed. Holy shit you acted all alpha online only to be dominated by a hermit named Kozume Kenma.

Boy were you happy. You'd happily submit to him.

"Let us all welcome the two people who made the game possible! YN LN and Kozume Kenma!!"

You might be confused why you two were the ones going and why you were introduced like that.

As you are the creator of Puri-Puri you of course are the reason why this game existed.

But Kenma came here as he's the biggest investor, the face of the game and no one else wanted to go. So yeah...

As you two came up the stage you were just wishing the blush from the scene a few moments ago. The cameras flashed and claps were heard.

"Shit the media is here..." You mumbled.

"Your surprised, why?" Kenma gave you an amused and disappointed look. No idea how he managed to do that but he did.

"Shut the fuck up. I just got a feeling the questions won't be about the game thanks to the media."

"So you do think sometimes..."

"You want me to hit you?"

A clearing of throat behind you stopped your argument. It was Akaashi handing you both microphones to be clipped on you [I'm sorry I dont know what they're called] .

"Good luck, don't do and say anything stupid. And remember this is the release of PPM's demo." He reminded and got off the stage.

"Good evening to you all! I hope you've been having a great time!" I started.

"We'd like to thank you again for attending the release of PPM's demo."

"Now of course the game is yet to be played but from the trailer that was shown, I hope you had enjoyed it since the game is going to be much better than the trailer!"

"I'm sure you all must've questions as well. That's why Me and your idi-- dear author will answer."

"You definitely were about to call me idiot." You frowned at him.

He smirked and shrugged. "I have not a slightest idea what you mean."

"You're the worst."

Ignoring you... Again. He motioned at one of the reporters to probably ask their question.

"Ms. LN, as the initial plot of the Puri-Puri Magika is about [REDACTED], and the trailer we saw have quite a large difference from one another only having the universe in similarty. Is it just the universe of the similar one to the manga? "

"Of course the plot would be different. It disappoints me quite a bit that none of you realized how they're connected aside from the universe. Well, I don't really want to spoil you but if you actually read the Manga and saw the trailer," You gave a proud smirk. "Everyone that was a fan of PPM in the team were ecstatic. They were all just-" You mimicked a mind blown. "They were so excited about the game and a those."

"Thank you Ms. LN."

"Next please."

"Mr. Kozume," the next one called. "You were neither a fan of YN, nor PPM, why did you decide to not only beta test the game but sponsor and invest big sum of money on the game."

"We--"

"No wait ! I want to answer some of those questions!" You cut off cackling. "The one about him investing and him beta testing! It's actually an annoying and Hella funny story."

"No I was a--"

"Shut up you'll probably lie."

"Shut up." Kenma now had his ears red. "Don't you--"

"He was the biggest asshole back then!"

"Stop talking."

"He fucking beta tested despite not knowing shit about PPM because it was the biggest game. And he just banwagoned  on it like a bitch he was."

"I did not. I had some clues about you Manga."

"You did not know shit about PPM cut yo bullshit. You didn't even know who the MC was!"

"Shut up."

"That's why he beta tested! Now the reason why he invested is really hilarious!"

"I really hate this story..."

"This was the reason why Kenma became Bae too! We didn't know shit about how to contact Kenma, we only had his email address and his social media. Keep that in mind. "

"So since he didn't know shit about PPM he really couldn't care about the plot and just looked for bugs and shit. He wasn't even aware of the bugs in the plot since he didn't know which what was supposed to be part of the plot and not. This bitch ass decided there wasn't any bugs anymore so we went with that. But then we had to play it and saw a shit ton of bugs."

"I said there were some bugs don't make me seems so stupid."

"You didn't even inform us about the glitch at the time skip part! That could've ruined the entire thing! Anywayz, so we had to code the game again. So we emailed him that there were way too many bugs other than what he told us so the next testing would be later. But the asshole never replied. And since I was the one entasked to guide this bitch ass, I  had to flood his email! And he didn't respond! Not once! It had been DAYS! I send him at least 20 emails everyday! I have up on the 3-4th day and DMed him on Twitter."

"I really hate this part."

"No. No. This is the best part. Do y'all remember that one trending #KodzuGone started by Tenma? It's because, this asshole never responded to our emails so I DMed him all the shit important shit in the emails. Then this bitch fucking blocked me! I fucking rante to Tenma and he canceled Kenma like he deserved to! I was panicking about it since Mr. Suzumiya told me that Kenma could be a potential investor if he wanted. And I needed cash... "

"Do not call me that publicly. You are disgusting."

"He went full sugar daddy on me!" You cackled. "His entire squad had betrayed him! They were canceling him so he just fucking slid into my DMs apologizing about the shit he did and I told him, bitch I'm coming over there and see you play this fucking game or I will not stop this canceling and make it worse. So he was forced to telll me his address and I'm not sure if yall saw the live but it was hot shit. The next day he bought all the copies of PPM at this one store and gave them to me and then he invested shit ton of money on my on going works, bought me a new tablet, paid my Keiji bills, and many other shit. Yall would die to have him as sugar daddy I'm telling you. Ya don't even have to give him sugar for the treats. "

"That was the biggest mistake I made."

"Awwe, but thanks to that we're closer than ever. "

"Exactly my point."

"Thank you for answering Ms. LN."

"I hate you so much." Kenma sighed pinching the bridge of his nose.

"No you don't. Admit it you love me."

"I really don't. Next question please."

"A-Ah, my initial question was actually answered in the previous question. It about your live. Now my question is, Ms LN and Mr. Kozume, is your relationship really a platonic one or a romantic one? "

"Okay, babe," You chuckled. "my man won't even let me breathe the same air he does. Ya think we're dating?"

"Well your right."

"What?"

"Excuse me?"

"Huh?! " You exclaimed a little louder than you thought since the mic made a loud noise.

"The relationship we have is both platonic and romantic. As labels aren't placed we share a romantic relationship." Kenma smirked.

You looked at him and the crowd with a clear eminent blush. "I-I I- Wh-"

Pulling you closer to him and turning around so the crowd won't see you both. He lowered the mic to prevent them from hearing.

"I wanted to see you all blushy and panicked . You look adorable." He whispered to your ear before facing the crowd again who were now going crazy over what Kenma had just confirmed.

"Y-You're an asshole..."

"Yeah, an asshole who..." lowering his mic again he leaned to your ear. "Still has your favorite onsie at his place. You really shouldn't have left it at my place. I'm so tempted to burn it."

"You leave my onsie alone! I will drown your consoles."

"With that threat, you're suddenly stripped of your house visit privileges."

"W-Why would you say we're dating?!"

"I didn't. I just said we both share a romantic and platonic relationship with no labels. I technically didn't lie too."

"Why did you do this?"

"Aside from wanting to see you all flustered? I'm probably drunk." Kenma smiled and turned to the crowd again. "Next question please."

Previous | Masterlist | Next

I'm sorry lately there's been to many words and less pictures it's just that... Idk

Lol I'm sorry this was supposed to be smau but there's been too many words

Ooc Kenma is shit so I made him drunk

-kookie-doughs

Taglist?

@gayer-than-the-gayest-gay @synx-ed @normalisthenewnorm @0majuh0 @leachann @nikanikabitch @almondeupeach @immxnty @mer-majesty @yamayoomi @simpingoveranime-men @lostmarimoismyhubby @mariishat @just-snog-already

[pan0ramy]

re8 thought dump because YE

i feel like this was almost inevitable but idk where else to talk about resident evil village so i’m just going to rant about it here!!! i have,,,, a lot of thoughts on this game after being so excited for it for so long

obviously, massive spoilers if you haven’t finished the game. i feel like i have thoughts on pretty much everything so please please please stay clear of this post if you’re trying to stay blind

otherwise, let me just rant about this game for a bit - mainly the story and characters - because i have Thoughts™

(also i feel like it goes without saying but this will be probably be quite long, so. strap in, ig)

okay SO. the whole intro was pretty interesting - even though we’d seen bits of it in trailers, it was still pretty unnerving and felt like it came out of nowhere. but the first thing that really stood out was the first village section with the hordes of lycans; i didn’t expect this game to start freaking me out so quickly but JESUS my blood pressure went up fast. 

there’s so many of them coming at you at once, and not only have you just lost half your damn hand, you’re not really used to the gunplay at that point AND you don’t have that many weapons at your disposal. so it’s basically just “hey we’re throwing you into this ring of death, good luck surviving!” which... now that i think about it, that really sums up the whole game lol

but for the most part, the early parts of the game are what we saw in the demos, so there’s nothing too new - it was nice getting to see the scene with all four lords and mother miranda, though. i wasn’t sure how the whole chase scene with the lycans would work - i thought heisenberg’s area was going to be some sort of mine, and that the chase would take place there - but it didn’t, and it was interesting regardless of it being so short. 

but the castle. THE CASTLE. 

i would be lying through my teeth if i said i wasn’t excited for dimitrescu like everybody else; i’m firmly in the camp of people who both meme about how attractive she is, and then also the people who legitimately find her attractive, soooo i kinda had high expectations going in? 

and sure, the castle section is only part of the game, but if there’s anything that makes me nervous most, it’s stalker enemies. resi 2 remake was actually pretty tough for me to get through because of how anxiety-inducing mr x was, and even though i don’t feel like she was as present as mr x was, lady d was still great! there were a good few times where you could hear her walking around and you just knew she was searching for you, which was really damn cool.

also, i know capcom had a lot of hype to live up to with lady dimitrescu, but goddamn they did such a great job with her. she’s so imposing but badass and just... really damn cool? like i honestly found myself being excited for her to show up rather than being scared. i just think she’s neat! I MEAN LOOK AT HER.

(also yes i know the whole internet has talked about how attractive she is, but can we just. appreciate that for a second???? she’s gorgeous and yall can’t tell me otherwise. like. bro ik the pronunciation is wrong but the way she says dimitrescu made me GASP i love this powerful vampire woman)

if anything, though, i... actually felt really bad that her story ended up the way it did. i mean, think about it: you break into her house, kill the three people she’s grown to consider her daughters, rob her shit, and then kill her? she technically goes through the same kind of parental grief that ethan does, in a way, which is a really interesting parallel. grief seems to be a theme that capcom really pushed for this game, and it works. 

also, her boss fight design is badass. she’s literally a dragon, how is that not incredible

so the castle was great, where could the game go from here? oh, i don’t know, how about gOOD OLD FASIONED FUCKING TRAUMA.

jesus christ the dollhouse GOT TO ME.

i’m pretty used to horror in general; i love horror games, movies, books, you name it. i’ve gone to horror movies where people have ran out because of fear all while i’ve sat there giggling the whole time. but the dollhouse? that dollhouse is FUCKED. i can’t remember the last time i watched someone play through a horror game and was so... on edge the whole time. the fact that they keep you waiting for so long with nothing happening just... makes the atmosphere incredibly uncomfortable, and then when shit does start going down, it goes down fast. in other words, jesus fucking christ that baby will haunt my nightmares until the end of time

basically capcom managed to make the n*zi baby joke from south park: the stick of truth legitimately terrifying, and i was glad to see donna die. moving on.

moreau’s section is the one i... actually don’t have as many thoughts on. it’s cool, sure, and the whole idea of him turning into a fish when he hits water is neat - it’s definitely a good callback to re4 - but idk, it didn’t really scare me that much. i can see it scaring those with a fear of water or the ocean, for sure, but eh. i thought the designs were cool, but i kinda tuned out a little here.

heisenberg, though, was anything but. the entire time leading up to village’s release, this guy has fascinated me for some reason. i don’t know if it’s because he’s the most normal-looking of the four lords, or the fact that he has telekinesis, or his amazing voice acting (seriously i know some people have shit on his VA but oh my god i adore it) or what, but this guy stood out to me from day one. i even went into the game expecting him not to die tbh. but no, he does, and his fight is pretty damn cool all things considered. only in a resident evil game could you have a mech fight and have it not feel out of place lol

also this line ^^^ legitimately made me laugh so hard i almost choked on my water. THE FACT HE TURNS AROUND AND APOLOGISES SO MEEKLY its fucking hilarious to me

but anyway.

similar to alcina, though, i was left with one big question about heisenberg - what did mother miranda do to him to get him to join her impromptu familly? he said himself to ethan that he didn’t want to join, so what did miranda do that didn’t give him a choice? did he have a family at some point? is he grieving too? what did miranda take from him? i can only hope this gets answered in the dlc, because it’s by far one of my biggest questions surrounding all of this. i may very well have missed it somewhere, and at least we know he has his telekinesis abilities thanks to miranda, but it’s a question that’ll definitely be on my mind going forward.

at this point, though, the story REALLY gets insane. it’s really nice how village decided to just continue on straight from what 7 did, and i’m very glad that everyone’s theories about chris being a werewolf were wrong - it’s a really nice spanner to throw in the works. if anything, the whole revelation of mother miranda disguising herself as mia the whole time since rose’s birth was really cool, and ethan being Mold™ the entire time was pretty neat too - it made a lot of things both in 7 and village make more sense.

what i’m still digesting, though, is the ending.

...man, capcom, you put poor ethan through all of that and then you have the balls to actually kill him? i mean shit, you made us think he was dead for a whole 20 minutes but then nope! he’s alive! but then nope! he’s dead again! i did see someone point out that at least ethan got to go out on his own terms, but dammit i would’ve at least liked for him to get to see mia one last time. i think it would’ve softened the blow a little more. but i guess that ties into the whole grief theming this game has going for it, and like i said, i probably just need some more time to digest it. 

i don’t dislike the ending, it’s just a very big culture shock - it’s definitely a ballsy move, and i really respect capcom for going all out the way they did. they really held back on nothing in terms of this game’s story and i absolutely love it. it was so, so worth the wait in that regard. 

and tbh that’s kinda how i feel about the whole game in general; it was super super good, very much worth the wait, and i absolutely cannot wait to see where resident evil goes from here. i have a gut feeling this’ll end up being one of my absolute favourites in the series, which i know is very high praise, but i really do love it that much. i wasn’t disappointed with much in this game, if anything at all. it’s just a super fucking good video game man idk what else to say at this point

[fonulyn]

I saw someone the other day here on good ol' tungle complain (before the show came out, mind you) that Claire wasn't going to be in the show enough and wasn't gonna play an integral role, and like. I can understand why that thought is upsetting, bc the girl is a badass and deserves more screentime for sure, but like not only did they end up being wrong (our girl kicked ass, played a huge role in the plot, and was just generally amazing) but they had like, blamed Leon a little bit for it? As tho it was his fault the writers don't give three shits about the female protagonists in the franchise (who, if I remember correctly, only one of which gets an actual entire game to herself? The rest, to my knowledge, are POV swapping games, which are fine but like. Come on Capcom)??? It was v weird and caused me to unfollow them bc they were already disappointed by the show, they blamed Leon, and they acted like, surprised? I don't know about you, but I'm never surprised by franchises like this when they put one of their main female characters on/in the promotional to garner attention and then she's actually only in it for five seconds. That's just misogyny (which I'm not excusing or saying is okay, obvs, but don't push blame onto the other main character, just bc he's the main character? Leon didn't choose to push Claire out of the spotlight, and honestly I don't even think he did. Like he got more screentime then her, yeah, but I think this is as close as we were gonna get to a fair split amount of time between the two, with capcom's history of "women? What women? Oh you mean convenient plot devices?"), so don't hate on people who love Leon, and don't hate on the character himself. Like what the what? As a Leon lover (he is my favorite, I love him sm), I am pissed that we never get to see Claire in anything, that we hardly ever saw Jill after RE3, and that all female protags are secondary to their male counterparts. It's bullshit, frankly, but taking it out on other fans and the other characters in the franchise is. Not good, and will just isolate you further from the fandom. Don't know if this is a hot take or not lol and I'm not trying to like be mean or start a fight with anyone, I just needed to rant about this bc it was bothering me and I figured you would kinda get where I was coming from? Also I love your rants, you are v knowledgeable lol

okay so... i saw some of that going around too. and it doesn't really make sense to me for multiple reasons. first of all, some people already decided that ID would suck even before it came out, they decided Claire would get no screen time and decided they'd ruin her character and... all of that before they'd seen more than the trailers? and I just don't get it, why not give it a chance before judging it?

i do understand that people want Claire to have a big role and want her to get the chance to shine. i want that, too! she absolutely deserves that! and I get being scared of what would become of it! i was nervous beforehand that they'd take the characters (both of them) into a direction that I'd find disappointing. when I pressed play on the first episode I was terrified as much as excited, because there was no way of knowing before seeing it.

but i do think it's important to press play and watch for yourself before condemning the entire thing.

and as for blaming Leon for Claire allegedly not having a large enough part in it? it... makes zero sense. it's not like they're living breathing people who have an actual say in what happens? :'D overall I find it weird how readily people jump to attack other characters to defend their own favorites. I don't understand this whole shooting down others to lift your own fave. there are ways to appreciate a character without hating on everyone else.

(that is not to say you're not allowed to hate on characters! of course you can hate characters! but like. you don't need to hate whoever you deem a "rival" just because. it's not a competition.)

and yeah, there is a long history of misleading promotion where a character is advertised as a main character and then sidelined to only appear for a bit. and it was a possibility. but it didn't happen, and I for one am happy about it. (what I am disappointed in, is that they made it seem like Leon and Claire would work together, while they did that for like two and a half minutes. but well. can't win them all)

(tangentially, they did something a bit similar to Chris in re8 too, the promotions relied super heavily on him but from what i understood (without having actually played the game, so correct me if i'm wrong!) he was a playable character for a very small portion of the game. so. they used him and his fanbase for promotion a little misleadingly. so yeah it is a real concern that could've happened)

like you said, Leon might've gotten more screentime if you only count the minutes. but Claire was an integral part of the story, she was fighting for the things she believes in, she got to be fierce (that headbutt is like the highlight of the movie :'D) and it wouldn't have been the same without her.

yeah it is bullshit how Capcom just threw Jill aside, and are tragically underusing a lot of their female characters. and I'm not trying to excuse that. but I do think they have a general problem with forgetting all of their characters except for Chris and Leon, who have gotten to be in most things (even tho to be fair they're not getting a fully consistent storyline either but. they do get screentime?). they create the most wonderful characters and then forget all about them, and it sucks.

but that's a problem with the people who make these movies and games. not the characters in said movies and games. so taking your own disappointment out on other characters and their fans is just... counter productive at best. it just leads to anger and resentment and the absolutely pointless fandom wars no one benefits from. i, for one, am too old for that bullshit.

so yeah, I get what you're coming from. it is so frustrating to see the unfounded hate. and tbh I've seen Leon get quite a bit of it. but that just comes with the territory I guess. he is popular, and some people react badly to it. which doesn't make sense to me, personally, but hey it is what it is.

I know it's easier said than done, but try to focus on the good! we got new content, Leon and Claire both got to be important parts in the story, they both kicked ass and looked amazing doing it! for the most part they both felt very in character, and I have high hopes we might get more in the form of season 2! :3

also, I'm glad you're enjoying my ramblings :'D I have a lot of thoughts but I usually get carried away rambling and I'm never sure how much sense i make, lol.

[wildlyminiaturesandwich]

The Sims 4 Moschino Stuff - Early Access Build/Buy Review

Huge thank you to the EA Game Changer Program for providing me with the opportunity to play Moschino Stuff early!

Ever since I saw the trailer for Moschino Stuff, I knew the Build/Buy content was going to be the part of this pack that I was the most excited for and interested in and for the most part I absolutely love a lot of it. But, like CAS, Build/Buy is not without it’s issues.

As always, if you have any questions about the pack, feel free to send me an ask!

See a preview of all the new Build/Buy items here

👗The Buy

I pretty much love all of the Buy Mode objects. The couches come in some very cool patterns as well as solids, the funky pop art mirror is fun, and I love that the end table is much lower than most end tables we have so it sits nice and flush at the same height as the couches and coffee table.

But my favourite things are probably, as always, the decorative stuff. More specifically the LiBEARian (the books with the bear book ends, get it!), the Simsational Style Stack (the magazine pile) and the Amp Stack (they’re all in the pics above). Even though the Amp Stack is purely decorative, it looks very cool sitting next to a guitar and adds a lot of character to any musician’s house!

I also really like the Repurposed Gear Chest (the trunk with stickers on it) that’s essentially a coffee table and looks very cool and retro, and the Tastefully Empty Bookcase which... is not empty at all? lol I do wish the bookcase came in different heights and widths as well, but at least this time it’s a short one, unlike the bookcases that came with Seasons and StrangerVille that I love but never get to use because they’re too tall for short walls.

Something that’s bothered me pretty much since base game released is that there’s no consistent colour palette for all build/buy objects. I get that each pack has specific themes and there might be colours that fit that theme better than others but I would love to see a consistent palette used throughout every pack — say like black and white obviously, 5 different wood tones, 5 solid neutrals and 5 solid “standard” colours (blue, red, yellow etc) — and have every single item that gets added to the game made in those colours, then if a new pack has specific colours for it’s theme they can be added on top of the standard palette. I like the colour palette that was chosen for the items in this pack but I found it really hard to find anything from other packs that matched it. It bothers me so much that nothing ever matches from pack to pack, half the time objects in the same pack don’t even match! And even now that the 350 new swatches were added to base game doors... they still don’t match anything else!

Sorry, I know I’m ranting and this has very little to do with Moschino Stuff but it just really bothers me that nothing ever matches because whenever I build I spend hours trying to find a floor to match the trim around the bottom of the wall I’ve chosen, then none of the doors match the floor and trim so I have to change it all, then none of the windows match the doors, floor and trim, and on and on until I’ve completely forgotten what I originally wanted the build to look like!

I really like the new frames we got for photos too, and the fact that they can now be placed on tables BUT I’ve had a couple of issues with them. First of all, it’s not possible to turn the frames placed on tables using the alt key, so you can only turn them in 45 degree increments and I hate that. I like to have all my photo frames slightly askew at different angles and it bothers me that these ones can only be places either facing straight forwards or angled by 45 degrees.

The second issue I have with the frames is actually more of a technical one but I’m not entirely sure if it’s the frames themselves, the photos, or the photography skill; I haven’t been able to work that out yet. When I have a sim take photos using the new tripod and camera everything is fine, but the second I exit out of the photography UI my FPS drops drastically.

I thought it was just my computer being stupid at first, until other Game Changers started reporting the same issue. I suspect it might be the photos and frames — specifically the new collage frame — because as soon as I remove the frames from the lot, the FPS goes back to normal. My game normally runs at a steady 60 FPS at all times but as you can see here, it drops down to 8-12 whenever there are framed photos on the lot and shoots back up when I delete them.

NOTE: This was with my game 100% CC and Mod free.

All of the new photography gear is so cool too! The fact that most of the items (like the tripod, camera, and tape markers) can be picked up in your sims inventory is so handy; your sim can just grab their equipment and head out into the world to take photos of other sims, landscapes, pets, and themselves literally anywhere they can plop the tripod down! And the backdrops have some really cool backgrounds for you to take photos in front of... or maybe... some other... uses 😈

👗The Build

I think the thing most people were looking forward to in this pack were the beautiful windows and doors; I’m definitely one of those people lol They are definitely gorgeous but as seems to happen every single time we get new windows and doors, the selection is limit in many different ways.

Every single colourway for both the windows and the doors is either white, black, red, or some combination of those colours. There are no colourways that match any of the other colours used on the furniture for the set (like blue, pink and yellow) and absolutely zero wood or neutral tones.

There are also no other heights for both the door and window other than for the shortest wall height, which absolutely baffles me because they’re clearly a set made to be used in lofts and converted warehouse type builds... builds that are generally made with either the medium or tallest wall height. They also didn’t bother to make single tile versions of any of the windows and doors, or even a closed version for the smaller window!

But what’s even more baffling (at least to me) is the way the door was made. I literally spent a full 30 minutes just sitting here in front of my computer, staring at this door, trying to figure out what could possibly have been going through the head of whoever made it when they decided that not only would it be shorter on one side, therefore also shorter than the windows, but also that it wouldn’t take up the full two tiles it was allocated and therefore wouldn’t sit flush up against the windows it was made to go with!

I saw a tweet by one of the Gurus that basically said “It’s the right height on the outside, just flip it around” but... that still leaves you with one side shorter than the windows, it’s just now on the other side, and there’s still gaps at the side! Why you would go to all the trouble to make the windows fit beautifully together like that and then not make the door exactly the same height and width! It bothers me way more than it probably should but I just don’t understand!

On the plus side, there are some base game doors that fit in with the windows (kind of) that I will probably use instead of the Moschino door... at least until someone makes a build add-on for them anyway lol

👗The Verdict

Overall, while I have issues with some of the build/buy stuff, this is where this pack makes up for the lack of CAS stuff in my opinion and what would make me want to fork over the $10 for the pack. To be completely honest, I’d pay $10 just for the LiBEARian though 🤣

All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own. I am not paid by EA to “hype” their games; I am given the opportunity to review their games early in exchange for an honest review.

Click here for my Create-A-Sim Review

Gameplay Review coming soon

[riddlerosehearts]

lilmizzkrazie

replied to your post

“why are people on twitter suddenly bringing back the old “lillie is a...”

waddahell?? that's a interesting but weird theory

omg were you not active in the pokemon fandom when sun and moon got announced?? i’ll try to explain it the best i can for you what it is and why people on twitter are bringing it up again, then!

so, lillie’s design actually does look pretty similar to a nihilego when you look at them side by side with lillie’s original outfit. note their color schemes and the shape of lillie’s hat and dress, for example.

in-game, it’s heavily implied that the reason for this is because lusamine, due to her obsession with nihilego, makes lillie dress up to resemble one. that’s also the pretty explicitly shown reason for it in the pokespe manga. but of course this wasn’t something we knew before the game was out. we did, however, know from a description on the official site that nihilego (as also stated in its dex entries) is said to move in a way that resembles a little girl. so, the idea that this mysterious, plot-important girl named lillie could actually be an ultra beast became super popular back then. a common idea i remember people had was that ultra beasts could change form between human and beast.

...and after that the trailer for lusamine came out and it showed pheromosa in it, and someone made this image:

and people began to go “okay, what if lillie and lusamine are connected and they’re both ultra beasts?” and i even remember people saying that gladion = buzzwole because of their color schemes and the spiky parts of gladion’s jacket

 ...as well as guzma = xurkitree and hala = guzzlord, lol. some also had the thought that ultra beasts just WERE humans with shapeshifting abilities since all we knew was that they’re not technically pokemon, iirc.

i remember at the time i thought the idea was interesting but i wasn’t sure how it’d make sense, and THEN when i was actually playing the game i ended up thinking “wow, this story is actually really great as it is, i don’t think it needs a twist like everybody somehow being an ultra beast and i kinda hope they don’t do that” and then, of course, they didn’t! it’s possible that maybe it was an idea they had and scrapped, but we’ll probably never know now.

now onto why people are bringing it up on twitter again: as far as i can tell it seems to be because of the new movie coming out, and the new mythical that will be released with it. i haven’t been keeping up with the news about the movie as much, so i can’t explain this one as well, but basically...

the new mythical is only revealed as a silhouette at the moment and because it seems to bear some resemblances to the new character coco, who lives in the jungle like tarzan, people are starting to theorize that the new mythical IS coco. personally i think he was probably just raised by the mythical so he wants to make himself look more like it, similar to the scene in disney’s tarzan where tarzan puts mud all over himself because he wishes he looked more like a gorilla, but anyway lol... people have been saying this reminds them of the lillie = nihilego theory, how they’re mad that nothing ever came of it, and that it should’ve been canon in sumo.

and what actually prompted this post tbh is because i saw some tweets saying that the reason gamefreak didn’t make that theory canon is because “they didn’t think the fans were smart enough to figure out a twist like that so they gave us a dumb, shallow plot instead!!” which... makes me mad for several reasons i won’t elaborate on because i don’t want this to turn into a rant post about why sun & moon deserves more credit, lol. but basically i don’t like this theory and also don’t like the similar “n is a zoroark” theory dkdfsgdf, i’m honestly not sure why everybody seems to want characters to secretly be pokemon so badly.

granted i DO think something like that could be cool in a different game--and i’ve even heard rumors about XY being originally planned to have a plot involving some characters being aliens that sounds super interesting to me--but i really just think sun & moon are great as they are!

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

u guys know how crystalisks change color depending on element?

ohhh yeah

tl;dr: i went off on crystalisks for a while, started talking about vault monsters/guardians and siren tattoos, bloodwing, krieg, the elemental hierarchy, the bandits that got mutated by the vault key piece, the eridian ruins powering up, the moon [elpis] being teleported in that new vid we got with steve and claptrap, i rant about eleseer and technologically created pocket dimensions (heyo), and also there’s commander lily spoilers in here so be warned

i talked about a lot of things. i promise i linked them all together. somehow.

so we got the normal crystalisks that do explosive stuff

got Blue (the aptly named big blue crystalisk) that deals shock damage

(we also see a few more in hayter’s folly)

got Rouge the red one that deals fire damage

I’m honestly surprised we haven’t seen any green crystalisks since they’re pretty common in the caustic caverns.

anyway the reason im bringing this up now is because a very very long time ago (jesus christ, 2017) i had a theory that crystalisks were kinda like pets to the Eridians, like guard dogs of the ruins in the caustic caverns. which could explain why they were friendly (iirc Blue was even playing fetch with Booth) until Dahl started mining them

mostly cause of the guardian ruins everywhere

also, they show up in the Vault of the Warrior, as well. which is curious.

the other reason im bringing this up now is because im wondering if their crystals have any relation whatsoever to the purple crystals we see sprouting out of the ground in bl3.

they hang out in the ground when not active, mimicking said crystals, and there are yellow crystals sprouting out of the ground in bl2 that, when meleed, produce the same crystals crystalisks do when they die. (tho now im wondering if we’ve just been senselessly murdering crystalisk babies :|)

bonus: we know threshers are native to elpis, not pandora, and their blood is green. Crystalisk blood is blue, which could possibly hint at the fact they’re an alien species to Pandora. AFAIK rakk, skag, bullymong, stalker, and spiderant blood is all red. and so is bandit blood. (unless they’ve been huffing Eridium sludge like Zarpedon. then it glows purple i guess.)

anyway

you guys know how vault monsters change color based on element?

just recently fought this bad boy so i have a plethora of pictures

(this one is cryo)

(slag/base- which you know, makes sense. gotta slag em before u can swap guns)

(this one is shock)

nasty boy

also, interesting to note: we never got ‘explosive’ as an element with the sentinel and in bl3, explosive was taken out of the element list

you know how Siren tattoos also change color based on element?

sorry i would show amara’s green/corrosive tattoos BUT this was the leaked clip that i had on hand

ohhhh yeah.

now we know Siren tattoos are blue when using their base powers. according to amara, this blue means electricity is the ‘base’ element for sirens (which just plain isn’t true given what we’ve seen with maya and lilith, unless they show that further in bl3 where lilith uses phasewalk without her tattoos going red... which I’m guessing will not happen lol)

which has me like 🤔

we know in the original borderlands the vault key is blue for the vault of the destroyer

in all it’s technological glory

then it changes to purple in bl2. and apparently, we even get red in bl3.

so i know what you’re thinking “well blue must be the base element then” but imma posit that it’s actually not

We know the sentinel, when it comes out of the Vault, the first element it is is ‘purple’ (aka slag/eridium i guess, since slag isn’t in TPS). which, as we said above, makes sense.

we know the Warrior was a biological weapon built/modified by the Eridians for... some reason. It was under complete control of whoever opened the Vault. (the warrior actually has 2 elements afaik, the slag tail/wings and the fire)

I wanna say we were SUPPOSED to open the Vault of the Warrior first. Then open the Vault of the Destroyer and annihilate it with our new cool biological weapon

so then the order would be purple -> blue -> uhhh something something

oh and Siren tattoos appear to always be purple when interacting with Eridium stuff

like when Lily touches the vault key in the Vault of the Warrior, her tattoos glow purple

when Lilith is being mind controlled by Jack/the collar/charging Eridium her tattoos are purple

etc etc

also MAJOR COMMANDER LILY SPOILERS BELOW

her tattoos glow purple during the final cutscene i believe. bonus i’m pretty sure the vault map was glowing white when inside hector. it was still purple on the outside tho soooo take that as you will. i had a picture but i removed it because i didn’t wanna spoil anything for anyone. the whispy bits do remind me of angel’s wings

SPOILERS ARE DONE

dunno if any of this is important but i will say

when u fight a badass skag that’s been charged by an element and is implied to be the result of eridium runoff aka slag? mmm that’s the good shit.

Bloodwing?? her base color is purple. but jack is able to change her element based on outside stimuli (and, again, explosive isn’t actually seen as an element, just a joke... a really... fucked up... joke...)

we also know a lot of the bandits were mutated by the vault key (piece?) in sledge’s mine. might help explain burning psychos (the ones that are literally on fire). 

also maybe the eridian ruins are starting to give off ‘radiation’. you know how the original Eridian Ruins in BL1 were like white/blueish and then all the ones we find in BL2 are purple-ish? maybe they started charging up once the first Vault was opened and that allowed more and more bandits to start getting 

borderlands 1

vs

borderlands 2

(sorry for the shitty screencap, i hope it’s clear enough)

oh also maybe krieg’s ability to breathe fire and light himself on fire since he was a hyperion experiment. dunno if they did slag testing on him or not but... all things considered... it’s a probably maybe. wasn’t his assassin’s assassin the woman in the ECHO logs you find around the WEP?

also Terry the thresher? probably mutated like hell from living in those Vault ruins. might explain the size. also threshers being from the moon might just give them the fire/wormhole abilities inherently. since apparently the moon is some top secret eridian base that can see the future. im not even surprised. also you know. terry drops e-tech stuff upon decimation.

anyway i think Pandora is a lot older than Elpis and that’s why Elpis appears super fucking high-tech compared to Pandora’s ruins.

I mean look at the above then look down here

which makes sense, you’d make the planet before you make the moon yeah?

so elpis was probably put in place to watch over Pandora, maybe the Destroyer and the Warrior’s fight or maybe even to predict the future of that fight. maybe the eridians got paranoid and were like ‘fuck this’ and vanished because they were told they couldn’t win.

i do go into that whole theory of ‘zarpedon saw what the twins are about to do in bl3 and jack ain’t shit’ in an older post of mine so i won’t go into it here, but that’s another option as to why the eridians just booked it the hell outta dodge

bonus: in tycho’s ribs, some of the glowy lights are not actually purple, they’re red-ish

which has me thinking about the glowing red Vault Map we see in the Dev trailer. wonder if that’s going to lead up to elpis

oh! and speaking of elpis

yeah i don’t think that’s just an aesthetic thing cause holy shit

we’re all going to die!

yeah i actually have no idea what’s happening to the moon here

but im going to take a wild guess and draw your attention to that one scene with lilith

when she uhhh teleports in using her firehawk powers

we see it again when tyreen teleports in bandits on promethea

and they look

really

darn

familiar

im not saying we’re gonna teleport the moon but hOLY SHIT would that be F*CKING AWESOME

we also know ‘the moon is the key’ as shown on the cover art sooooo

it’s entirely possible?

which brings me to another point i made a while ago when the booth intro got leaked and i was talking about the ‘vault’ ‘not-vault’ area and decided it was on pandora because of the moon, but made a joke that maybe it wasn’t because i guess we could just move the moon.

what if it actually wasn’t lmao

nah im just playing, i’m pretty sure those are Rakk flying around there, but HEY it’d be cool!

also it’s pretty fucked up what’s happening on elpis considering it looks like it’s being bathed in fire... sucks for everyone on concordia but hey, if it means getting rid of pickle, im game.

OH GOD DAMN IT HE WAS ON SANCTUARY WITH TINA FUC-

anyway.

i wanna move the moon

oh also im still not convinced eleseer isn’t found by going thru a wormhole/alternate dimension/pocket rip/whatever

like, you know how to fight the Sentinel you go inside that giant purple crystal that looks like/is probably eridium? and the arena is WAYYY bigger than it ought to be? and it looks like the outside is made out of glowing graph paper and sick guy fieri flames that’s probably supposed to imply some sort of technological feeling?

oh and it does the “lilith just yeeted u to bloodshot stronghold- just kidding’ effect! which... y’know. my only gripe with that is it actually does appear to be somewhere inside eleseer given if u look at the ceiling it does look to be the same sky you see outside eleseer... but where the fck is eleseer... is it in another dimension inside the moon? bc i still refuse to believe the entire moon is being supported by that area... wouldn’t you see the crust?? somewhere? and it being in another dimension would help explain the whole ‘yeah you’re exactly where you were five seconds ago... but also you’re not because you’re in this arena and it’s clipping except it’s not so even though the sky looks the same because you’re in the same exactly spot you were in 5 seconds ago, you’re actually not (but you are)’. because what the fuck my scrub brain can’t comprehend that!

but god i wanna know if the eridians were harnessing the power of eridium and learned how to create pocket dimensions using their technology and fuckin DID IT the mad lads. i mean isn’t that what Vaults are? just little rips in this dimension. it’s the good shit.

also i wanna know why the Destroyer seemed to have pockets of slag/eridium on it’s tentacles when he’s supposed to be the VILLAIN tm of bl1 and also the eridians. might help explain why eridium only starts appearing after you off that physical rendition of him. also [see that one post i made about the crystals being corpses].

wow.

yeah.

i just spent a straight 2 hours doing nothing but typing this post. i should really go to bed. imma go do that

tomorrow i wanna talk about the seraph vendor. cause i can.

[momestuck]

Let’s read Hiveswap Friendsim - volume 5

Eight friends carefully placed in glass jars, and our protagonist is on to their next conquest. So who do we have today?

This time, we have Polypa with olive blood - compare with Nepeta - and Zebruh with indigo blood, the first time we have a repeated blood colour in the game so far, same as Equius.

Going off their looks, I think Polypa is gonna be a Fighting type, and Zebruh is probably some kinda chef...

Polypa

Polypa’s another creation of Ayshah U. Farah. Come to think of it, Ayshah Ufarah would work as a troll name...

We’re walking through the city, and we find a bunch of people fleeing a night market. And then we meet... this person!

I’ve definitely heard this BGM somewhere else in the Homestuck soundtrack... think this is a slightly different mix though. I can’t remember which track off the top of my head ><

Anyway, yellow eyes... two circles... not sure of significance. The major cult/secret organisation we know about in Homestuck canon is that of the Signless/Sufferer (see: ancestors), so that’s something.

She asks us to pretend to be on a date with her.

So her typing quirk is... a markdown list?

We get the choice of playing along or ‘letting the purrbeast out of the bag’, and well... I’m definitely down for troll black bloc shenanigans here.

We ask a few questions, and we learn the commotion is because a highblood troll was killed... and our new friend was the assassin! She’s not got a problem with defying the ‘natural order’. I like her already.

Polypa changes out of her disguise - which includes a filled in notch on her horn, as well as the fake blood colour - and her chatbox changes colour accordingly.

She asks us to pick a hideout. Well, we have a number of friends with hives... but no, it’s either to hide in an apartment or get ‘soft serve grubcream’ and a movie.

The movie sounds amusing, let’s do that one first.

We find a troll mall. Unlike an Earth mall, it’s fully automated.

...’grubcream’ was our idea, though!

Sadly there doesn’t seem to be any background drawn for the mall. There is one for the movie theatre though...

Not having to watch trailers? Wow, that makes up for all the dystopian elements of this world. When do we move?

Polypa, it turns out, has opinions on movies (and she’s read the book). The movie features a Jadeblood in the standard ‘female love interest’ role, in a love triangle with a blue- and bronzeblood, and consequently a bunch of hemospectrum class stuff. Sadly we don’t get a massively long troll movie title joke.

Polypa drops that she used to run a relationship advice blog. But a bunch of trolls broke into her hive, killed her lusus, and left her for dead... she was saved by ‘some teal’ who...

Will we meet this katana-wielding nerd?

Someone tells us off for talking in the theatre and that we should get a room if we want to be all pale. (For those not familiar with Homestuck, ‘pale’ relationships between moirails are non-reproductive relationships, involving emotional support and checking the other’s violent impulses.) We get to see a papping...

So, trolls will go on moirail dates, I guess.

Outside the theatre, Polypa starts freaking out over her partner in crime who was caught by the authorities.

So what do we do when a troll starts freaking out? We play moirail...

And she’s into it and accepts us as her future assassin partner! ...as bait, but still.

So that’s the good end. Now the other routes.

If we don’t play along at first...

...she bugs out.

If we hide in an apartment building (do some trolls not have hives?)... ah, that’s answered. Apparently lowblood trolls get a rental market from ‘hivestems’.

Accordingly, she’s happy to break into one of the apartments. We kick in a door...

This time, unfortunately, we get the news that her contact has been culled sooner. Polypa explains a little about assassin work on Alternia...

Apparently the troll she killed was a seadweller - so a properly high highblood. To kill him, she had to go to some lengths...

The protagonist, needy asshole that they are, takes the opportunity to make an overture as partner. She’s like... lolno

Unfortunately, we can’t finish this discussion, because the occupants of the apartment return. There’s a cute meta joke...

Why is it so bad? Because the guy who lives here is friends with...

...a subjugglator. (If you haven’t read Homestuck, that’s a purple-blooded troll, highest among all land trolls, follower of the Insane Clown Posse-themed religion, and generally very powerful and violent.)

We get away, and it’s mentioned that the subjugglator is the burgundyblood troll’s matesprit, but Polypa’s had about enough of our bullshit plans.

And that’s that. “At least your ass didn’t kill her”, indeed!

I think there may be some kind of John Wick joke here with Polypa? I don’t know, but I wish we could have gotten more time with her.

Zebruh

Now, Zebruh. Zebruh is written by Cee L. Kyle.

We go to the ‘larger, more McMansion-style hives’ part of the city.

The music involves... a xylophone I think? This guy’s quirk seems to be emojis representing the different quadrants associated with what he’s saying. First hearts for a kind comment, then diamonds for an offer to help us.

Auspisticism - a three-way relationship in which a troll third troll mediates conflicts between two other trolls. Though why it’s relevant here I’m not sure.

Then he insults us, and it’s spades. I feel like an Oblivion NPC.

He goes back to hearts to ask us what colour our blood is. Is he gonna keep cycling quadrants constantly? We get our first choice: lie and say it’s a high blood colour, or tell the truth.

Let’s see what happens if we tell the truth...

We get hearts again, and he starts leaning into hitting on us.

Again, I don’t really understand how this is spades. And this...

Wouldn’t this be hearts? I thought I understood quadrants but I guess not!

He invites us back to his hive (diamonds), and we learn that apparently the day is ‘flushed affirmation day’, during which a lot of trolls go about with their matesprits.

This guy's really horny huh. We misunderstand, and remark that we’d be happy to share, and he’s like... yeah I’m totally poly.

I find it interesting how blood caste in this world is taking on a similar role to gender in ours - ‘one dick poly’ and all that.

And this guy’s basically a troll Nice Guy(TM)/chaser fuck.

Like did a trans woman write this? wow lol

This is pretty on the nose lol.

We meet Zebruh’s lusus, which is... a zebra.

As we explore his hive, we see most of the ‘guests’ have been made to work to keep the mansion clean. But oh, this is just how ethical he is...

We get the choice of staying in Zebruh’s little slave colony, ahem, “sanctuary from the harsh injustices of the outside world”... or going out on a date with him. Frankly, neither option seems hugely appealing! But let’s stay in for now.

Noticing that spades come out pretty much whenever he negs us. And maybe clubs come out when he says something reassuring after the neg? No quadrant marker for straight up boasting:

They’ve done a very good job of making this guy skincrawlingly awful.

Anyway our decision hardly mattered, and we’re going out anyway.

We ask him what he’s about and we get some stuttering about ‘social justice and oppression and stuff’ follow by a ‘get on my level’ neg. Yeah... this is razor sharp lol.

Then he hits on us and we have to get him to explain quadrants.

We tell him we just want to be friends. Of course, he’s still very pushy.

Even the narrator comments on how hypocritical he’s being.

We get word of a culling, and Zebruh gets ready to leave. The protagonist has enough of a backbone to object to him not telling anyone...

And then, omfg...

And after we escape...

So yeah, “actually one of the most incisive critiques of scene-leftism comes from the homestuck tie in visual novel...” guess it’s a matter of Know Your Audience, huh.

And then he hits on us again.

The narrator manages to keep saying no, extolling the benefits of friendship...

So I guess that’s how we gain a matesprit matesprit “friend”. We also promise to be an ally for lowblood rights, which is to say, ourselves.

Eeesh. I wonder how much Polypa charges to take out a hit on this guy?

And in the background, the drones are busy culling the lowblood concert. Yeah.

On the nose, sure, but I think this was pretty fucking on point.

Unfortunately, we still have more branches to explore.

First, if we pretend to be a highblood around Zebruh.

“I only want to fuck people I have social power over.” (And yes, that is how heterosexuality works...)

What if we actually ask to go out?

If we ask to go out, he decides he’d rather stay in. I see how it is.

So I’m not sure they’re going to just put us in a rape scene, but they’re definitely making it look like it at this point.

That is, of course, the point he wanted to make.

Ha. That’s a pretty good metaphor, considering the trident is the symbol of the ruling class...

The danger of being quite this on the nose is that those targeted by the critique can shrug and say ‘well I’m not that bad...’

Anyway, we get concerned about one of the ‘guests’, who is clearly sick.

And before long...

A__ and E___ saw some of this text and both of them went ‘eurrgggh’ and shuddered, so this is pretty apt lol.

Honestly I’m only screenshotting about half of this. Honestly they should have led with this guy... this is pointed in a way most of the others aren’t.

Then he starts blaming us for denying the agency of the malnourished troll we saw earlier, and ranting about how he’s oppressed for not getting his quadrants filled. Maybe we can add incel to the list.

So if you’ve read far enough into Homestuck, you’d have met Kankri, who represents a similar critique... but rather misses the mark, and tends to read in a ‘punching down’ rather than ‘punching up’ way, I think. This, however, is spot on.

Oof.

The zebra kicks us out in the end.

So yeah. Huh. Frankly I’m happier with this outcome than the one where we have to be “friends” with Zebruh. Pretty sure this ending’s coming either way!

I would have liked a bit more time with Polypa, but Zebruh is extremely on point, so respect for this episode for that. (And tbh I’m getting some anxiety about whether, and to what degree, I might be a person like Zebruh. But that’s not for this blog.)

[msbeccieboo]

Arrow 7x06 character brain dump

Wherein I attempt to collate my thoughts on the characters, in approximate order of the number of fucks I give about them at this point haha!

Felicity

Where to start?  Our Queen is KILLING it (almost literally for a minute there...phew!) this season and this episode continues to impress, damn she is taking everything down this year and I am living for it!  She is still managing to straddle being the light-emitting cupcake with bad bitch burning the world to the ground in that perfect Felicity way she has about her.  I was so impressed with her approach to the Anatoly situation; he is a wanted criminal and Bratva Pakhan...he can look out for himself just fine DIGGLE *through gritted teeth*!  She got the job done, Anatoly came out relatively unscathed (after she had already rescued him btw), and she still took the time to check up on him.  She is taking on the world to protect William and free Oliver and will do whatever it takes to do so and I love that.  I am still surprisingly really enjoying her working with BS, cos let’s face it, her other ‘friends’ are shit this year.  Felicity is arguably the most forgiving person in this show due to her enormous heart and capacity for empathy that few seem to share at the minute, so if BS stands any chance of ‘redemption’, Felicity will be leading the charge.  Would she have pulled the trigger on Diaz?  Not sure.  Do I wish she had?  Oooooh it would have been interesting!!  And her face when she hears Oliver is being released???  The relief, the happiness, the tear...uggghh Emily is so so good this year!!  I could go on and on about how awesome Felicity was this episode, but I won’t cos wow this is gonna be a long one haha!  

Bonus mention for Future Felicity...the fern!!...Oliver’s (tennis)balls!!...sending Will to Lian Yu to get Roy to shoot Oliver’s (tennis)balls??....Slight overkill for a dead woman.  100% sure she is still alive in the future timeline!  Oh and NOT EVIL...duh, it’s Felicity!!

Oliver

I LOVED Oliver’s conversations with BS in this episode (who knew that would ever be a thing I'd enjoy?!).  Much as I am enjoying BS this year, it’s still hilarious to see the shade (finally) directed at Fake Laurel.  Oliver tells her she’s not E1 Laurel, she’s not a real lawyer, she’s responsible to Diaz being loose...STAY AWAY FROM MY WIFE!!  Much as we all know Felicity can take care of herself, especially this year, I will never tire of Protective!Oliver, he loves her soooo much!  I think he’s in for a shock when he’s released (released in more ways than one hopefully 😉😉), as to the new dynamics outside, and the fierce new wife he now has!  I am super interested to see Oliver’s take on criminals and the justice system once he is out...he has developed a real empathy for the inmates over the last few episodes, and he looked so pleased, and dare I add grateful, at the investigation into the facility that BS arranged and how it would benefit the people still in Slabside.

In other news, this week Detective Queen investigates a murder and rats out the wrong inmate...oh STAN!!  We been knew!

Flash Forward Oliver...where is he??  Is he ‘dead’ too?  I think they could be trying to let us think this too, as no-one is asking about him AT ALL, and Felicity supposedly went dark?  Maybe they’re up teaching together in the big vigilante school in the sky....suuuure!

Black Siren

I think Boss Beth has achieved the unthinkable this year and made me care about, and actually be interested in Black Siren!  I don’t want to hate characters for the sake of hating them, but Laurel (and BS) was truly unlikeable and horribly written under MG’s watch.  She will never be my favourite, but look at her in third place as to characters I wanted to write about after this episode (Diggle who?)!  I wasn’t really on board with the redemption arc they seem to be crafting for her; I thought previously that she played far better as a campy villain-type....however, they are handling her so well this season that I find myself rooting for her more often than I am shouting at the TV at her!  She had the best breakthrough near the end of the episode when she told Oliver that she isn’t their LL, and isn’t trying to be E1 LL anymore, she is doing this for herself, but I guess that doesn’t mean her motives are entirely self-serving or not for the greater good.  She wants to try and be a ‘hero’, but keeps reverting back to old ways...so let her be the new Malcolm, I’m cool with that!

I think the biggest reason I’m enjoying BS is her relationship with Felicity...write a strong connection to Felicity and people will pay attention; she’s the heart of the show for most of us.  Is BS best mates with Felicity now?  No, but she is the only one who has been there for her consistently this whole season because they have a common goal of taking down the Lizard; Felicity to protect her family and save the city, and BS as revenge for last season and to avenge Quentin...and that puts her on my good list.  Once Lizard Boy is out of the picture (clearly it isn’t over, we saw the trailer for next week), who knows what their relationship will be like, but I’m betting Felicity won’t just forget about people who are ultimately trying to do good, despite their past (Oliver anyone?!)

Now I need to stop gushing about BS cos it goes against everything I once believed in....

Diggle

Diggle doesn’t get a gif; he doesn’t deserve one.  I’m getting to a point whereby I will stop caring at all about him; I’m sure (I hope) that the writers are intentionally writing him this way as part of his story arc or some crap but seriously, it’s not working...STOP IT!  Dig, it seems, struggles with keeping women in boxes (not like Anatoly was this episode)...Felicity and Lyla are pure and good and heaven forbid they should ever cross the line he has drawn for them.  Enough, this is the man who killed his own brother to keep his family safe, who followed and encouraged Oliver in nearly all of his less than brilliant decisions over the years, but Felicity asks for some not-entirely-squeaky-clean help and it’s game over??...fuck off!  He actually had the audacity in this episode to say that Felicity cut him out?  He is not of sound mind, or of this Earth, for sure lol!

I love John Diggle, I want him back please.

Anatoly

Oh Uncle Anatoly!  I think we’ve seen the last of him for the foreseeable future now haven’t we?  His parting gift of (rather happily) likening Felicity to Bratva!Oliver, and handing her a gun to kill Diaz with was....sweet??...in his own special way!

Future people 

I loved Roy and Dinah lamenting over how old they were haha!  Future Will continues to be Felicity’s biggest fan, even though she ‘abandoned’ him.  Thea is totally dead isn’t she?

NTA

Rene didn’t feature too much this week...I don’t mind that, I like him this year in small doses, and he continues (ish) to be one of the few people there for Felicity this year.  He has a total hard-on for the new GA still which is cute.

Dinah seems to have softened a bit with regards to Felicity and BS, and I awwwed at her stopping BS from killing the judge and kind of calling her a hero (even though she killed Vince..still a bit odd tbh).

I could literally list every extra rando inmate in with Oliver, thugs that beat up Anatoly, the box Anatoly was locked in, Lizard, Lizard’s socks...before I get to the lack of shits given about Curtis.  They missed his bday....bitch please!!  And then he tries to take credit for everyone working together at the end....errr no, that was what Felicity was trying to do since 7x01, only you all bailed on her, dickhead!

Sorry to end on a rant, but I really did enjoy this episode....really really!!

[retphienix]

Well.

That’s that. I’ll make a final quick post but what even is there to say?

Skyrim ends on the limpest noodle of an ending it can. A bethesda tradition- though miles lesser than even Oblivions cutscene ending.

What an ‘okay’ game. A game I truly still don’t understand the intense popularity of. Like, this is a game that often comes up in discussions of Bethesda making their titles more streamlined or ‘mainstream’ or ‘easy’ and honestly, yeah, it’s plenty of that. And I don’t really see anything wrong with that- not my preferred flavor- but also not something I’d remotely push away because it increases accessibility and CAN BE A GOOD THING IN GENERAL.

But this... I just don’t really like this. It’s funny that the point I had stopped at years and years ago was right after capturing the dragon in Whiterun- because that’s like 10 minutes from beating the game and I just stopped because my interest was zero and some new exploits for grinding levels quickly were found that removed the last pittance of enjoyment I was having.

I was harsh on the game back then, and I can’t help but say at least half of that spite was justified. Today though? It’s okay.

It’s purely, entirely, 100%, okay.

It won’t let me role play because the customization limits me in every way that would allow me to better enjoy my character (no custom spells, no athletics or acrobatics, no real reason to do anything but use a bow, and some innovations that should have come to this title way back in 2011 such as buffing weapons with spells aren’t here either which is weird).

It won’t let me role play because every character you could ever have an opinion about is essential so you can’t decide “My character would NEVER take this, they’d take matters into their own hands and kill one to save a hundred”.

It won’t let me enjoy the world because it’s aesthetics are BORING AS HECK and the politics are just laughably annoying. Seriously “Race superiority as a character trait for an entire race of people” isn’t interesting or fun, it’s racism, a boring and easily written trait which I’m gonna hate and you making so many of these racists essential is you telling me that you’re crappy writing is more important than me role playing in your role playing game. I’m not saying “Don’t include that” so much as “Let me DO something about it other than sit there smiling while I listen to your crap writing”.

Dragons are the innovation of this title compared to Oblivion (well, that and removing all fantasy aesthetics for brown and white colors) and they suck. They suck entirely. They aren’t fun to fight. They are the final boss and you saw how it goes- just stand in place waiting on their bulletsponge health bar to go down. Dragons. Suck. In. Skyrim. They are ‘okay’ aesthetically, though I prefer more fantastical interpretations, but they just suck in every other way. Being the only part of the story that matters? Sucks. Gameplay? Sucks. Loot being pretty much just ‘scales and bones to make the strongest armor for yourself and that’s it which in itself makes it so a smith character can be fully equipped a couple hours after starting the game’? Sucks. It’s not fun or interesting.

Music? Sucks. Say whatever you like. I hated the viking chant from the first trailer and every time I turn on the game I despise it, and the other music is just boring.

I’m ranting. The game’s okay. There’s a lot of fun here for the first few hours. Exploring caves is fun for a little bit- but then it quickly becomes a chore. Looting is fun for a little bit, then it becomes pointless. Leveling stuff is fun for a little bit then you realize there aren’t any interesting spells and no custom spells so all you’re doing is leveling attack stats and picking perks that literally just raise your damage, how interesting.

There’s good. Some quests are really well done- heck- Dragonborn was a riling good time throughout with interesting enemies, aesthetics, and questlines! THAT WAS FUN! Fighting a Giant at level 4? FUN! The first time you absorb a dragon soul and everyone cheers? FUN! Heck- that first encounter with a giant spider? FUN!!!!

But then you’re exploring the umpteenth dwarf ruin, or feeling your brain melt as you face yet more falkner, or ask yourself if you want to just use the dragon comman shout on this random encounter dragon so you can walk away and not fight it for pointless loot, or you start asking yourself why spells like candelight or items like torches even have time limits when so many of the locations you enter are dark and drab to the point of inducing a headache, or you get dragged into another quest telling you to care about the Empire vs Ulfric quest which I CAN’T CARE ABOUT FOR THE LIFE OF ME, or any number of things.

But then you see a troll, light them on fire, and it feels good a moment again.

It’s a mixed bag. I don’t hate it nearly as much as I did before, but yeah, still not remotely my jam.

There’s plenty I didn’t do. Version I played can’t support mods so there was none of that- which I’d argue isn’t the point, but also I’d argue ‘good mods make a game better and only exist because of the community so in a way good mods SHOULD be considered a part of the game’ so I don’t know. Irrelevant for me anyway since I couldn’t use em. Didn’t make a house though I know that’s a feature somewhere, I’ll look up a video and feel like I did it myself, it’s fine. I didn’t bother maxing out blacksmithing like I did years back, which means I didn’t bother making dragon armor, but it didn’t seem to matter and I’ve done that before anyway. Didn’t do a lot of things- but most of those things would entail repeating the exact boring complaints I’ve had just to do em- like grinding resources for a house, or clearing more caves for some of the guilds.

Heck, guilds, didn’t do most of them because they don’t interest me as much in this game. Didn’t do thieves because I was burnt out on Riften by the time it became a real option despite that being one of my favorites in Oblivion. Same with Dark Brotherhood. Maybe I’ll revisit to do them but I gotta be real- I’m burnt out on Skyrim’s bland everything, I probably won’t.

But yeah. This was a very negative take away so let me recolor that as best I can.

Skyrim was okay. I had a lot of fun that I didn’t expect to have. I really like my character Senn’Rawg despite the fact this game didn’t let me role play and craft her at all- I would like to revisit her in another game that better lets me, you know, be a person instead of a boring “yes man / no please die” protag. I had a lot of fun. And I had a lot of not so fun times. And now I’m done. I’ll toss a quick post just because but yeah, this wasn’t as painful a revisit as I thought it’d be. I’ve been saying things like that a lot lately- I think it’s because my view on games has grown with me to the point where now I really honestly do look for what the game has to offer despite any flaws, as opposed to seeing flaws and giving up seeing anything good. Too bad my writing didn’t give off that impression in this wrap up, lol.

[xtremedespair3d]

My Lukewarm History with Pixelbuster/Nitomatta

Yesterday, independent gaming journalist Pixelbuster, or Nitomatta, has been under controversy for taking advantage of small gaming news site Final Weapon for getting review copies of games and don’t review them all, basically getting the games he’s supposed to review for free. He’s been fired from Final Weapon and put his journalist career to an end.

This post is copied and pasted from a thread I made yesterday, so think of it as a complete and more accessible guide to my rant about Pixelbuster/Nitomatta with a few changes from the thread. This post isn't about what happened to Pixel and owning games for free, since people talked about him, I decided to take an opportunity to rant with my own perspective about why do I dislike the guy.

I never liked Pixel the moment we started talking a little bit more and even brought me to his server in 2018. There are times that he contradicted me on certain things and seeing his tweets really drove me insane a lot in 2019 to the point that I had to mute him. 

I also never understood why did Pixel make me a mod on his server. I mean, I appreciate it but at the same time I need to understand what am I worth to him. But then I kind of abuse the power of being a mod by deleting people's negative comments I don't like. Not to mention I seriously rant and vent A LOT in his server which almost nobody didn't really care about comforting me at all, but at the same time I always thought I might be getting everyone on their nerves. And speaking of his server (which is now deleted lol), that's one of the worst servers I've ever been, the people in there are so bland, talk shit on a couple of things a lot, and they share all kinds of porn I wasn't a huge fan of the Western art style of. To top it all off with sharing NSFW content on his server, he's absolutely okay with having people share furry porn but not loli/shota porn because it would make some people uncomfortable. Like, really? Come on. Sure, you don't really have to like loli/shota porn, but still, learn to have more balls on bearing that shit, especially if whether or not you're those "Fiction = Reality" purists (Which I hate these kinds of people). 

Lastly, at one time, I left his server because I was getting tired of it, then I came back for a little bit to take a quick peek to see what has changed after announcing I was leaving, and then I left again.

Then Pixelbuster DM'd me on Discord saying to please come back to the server, I was getting bored anyways so I decided to return (along to the RPG Site Discord server where we first met and the one server I despise to death). Now I regret returning to his bland ass server. After returning to his server, Pixel told me "Thank you, I promise you we will help you" probably about my problems I constantly talk about. Then I constantly rant and vent on his server a lot and he and his friends continued to do NOTHING to help me. I also felt sorry for talking ill of him and a bit of his server, but afterwards, I took back my apology as I still loathe him and his server.

The only thing I'll admire Pixel for is that some of his viral clips get retweeted by Japanese people, particularly artists and most recently, I saw a tweet of a RE3 mod video where he was retweeted by bkub, the creator of Pop Team Epic.

For a while I’ve always wanted to randomly tweet that Pixelbuster is a clown, he’s a total piece of shit, and with all this scandal, I finally took the opportunity to say it, but not because of what he did with Final Weapon, because I never liked him. I never liked Pixel at all, part of me feels like he deserves the hate he's getting, and I wish to completely disassociate with me for good. Also, he hates Yumi. He likes all Senran Kagura girls except Yumi. Like, seriously? Fuck Pixel.

The most baffling things he's ever said is that he would get better from his mental health issues and negativity. I'm really sorry but I seriously can't help but laugh so hard at it because he seriously can't help himself on the way he is. His behavior and his opinions are the major reasons why do I despise Pixel to death, he's just absolutely destructive on a lot of things media related. Sure, you could say that most of his opinions attacking large corporates like Disney and such are valid, but it's just the way he expresses them and everything are something I seriously couldn't take him seriously for. That's why I muted him on Twitter this year, I couldn't stand a word he said and it drove me insane a lot last year. I know I already said that but I must stress that out.

What are the things that he contradicted me? Well...

On the RPG Site Discord, the time we were watching the Sega panel from Tokyo Game Show and there was a segment that featured the mobile game called Kotodaman, which they were talking about a Kemono Friends collab. I randomly said that I recognized the game from watching VTuber Noja Loli Ojisan Nekomasu, and he said "I don't care." In retrospect, that sounded very forced. (The thing about the Kotodaman and the Kemono Friends collab was around the same time Tatsuki got fired by Kadokawa when Kemono Friends turned out so successful.)

The time he shared a later Captain Marvel trailer and said that he's finally sold on it, I told him most trailer are fine and he told me "No."

The time when the One Punch Man fighter game was announced, I simply said that it probably was to capitalize on season 2 and he said "No one gives a shit about season 2." I mean, sure but you didn't need to tell me that. Hell, you didn't even HAVE to force your opinions saying that you don't care, can't you just simply learn to ignore, you fucking idiot?

Let's not even get started on the time Pixel banned BlindedOtaku (Who I really despise because he's annoying) from his after some internal drama on his server on December 30th 2018. I wouldn't like to get into details because I can't remember what exactly happened nor I care. The last thing I remember about the drama is that I brought BlindedOtaku to the server after being kicked because he told me so and elaborate on his account on what happened. Then Pixel banned him for good and told me "You tried."

What's the point of this post? The point of this thread is just pretty much ranting about my history with Pixel as "friends," even though I've always had a distance with him and to show off that I wholeheartedly don't recommend you talking to him for the faint of heart, especially after this whole drama happened.

I would say that he can be a very difficult person to talk with, but he's not, the last time I had a relatively normal conversation with him is that if he gets the laggy cutscenes in the PC port of Persona 4 Golden, which he told me it only affects laptop users (Well shit).

Now, here comes the ultimate question: Should Pixelbuster be cancelled?

Well, I'm an edgy person so I would say yes, but at the same time, I don't condone cancel culture and he should own up to his mistakes, so absolutely not. I don't like Pixel for what he is regardless of the drama, I probably won't redeem myself on liking him more, but for the faint of heart, I don't want him to be cancelled. I heard that he's admitted his mistakes so it's something. Even if he were to own up to his mistakes and apologize, he’s now been fired from Final Weapon, if shit goes a little too far outside of Final Weapon, then his career as a journalist has indeed been ruined. To reiterate, no, Pixelbuster should not be cancelled. (At this point he’s probably indeed cancelled.)

I was feeling tempted to talk about Pixelbuster since he's still present on Discord, I would probably talk to him about the situation, but because I need to keep my word about why do I dislike him, I decided to block him on Discord once and for all. I doubt I'd want to talk to him ever again. I was genuinely feeling soft on wanting to comfort the guy and I feel absolutely disgusted and I want to drill my head to suck all the blood from my brain for thinking that.

My biggest gripe with Pixel is that once I become a successful creator, when I make some despicable stories or say some dumb shit, he'd put me on the vein of MatPat and Disney, that’s how despicable he is. I’m sorry if I may sound egotistical and biased because I hate people’s opinions and stuff, but he’s one of the many things that turned me into the kind of person I am right now, an egotistical dude who has a deep hatred for literally anyone’s opinions, criticims, everything else, even small complaints, because I’m easy to get my thoughts dictated and I always disagree and refuse to believe anyone by (occasionally) insult and fight back directly at them.

A few hours ago, he had returned to Twitter only to make a TwitLonger about his statement, I probably wouldn’t care to read the whole thing, but the most important parts is that he’s gone off the face of the internet for good and he’s getting a proper job now. I wish I could have tell him some final words for him, but I can’t even bother.

And there you go, that’s the end of my experience with Pixelbuster. Totally unrelated to the review copy drama, but I wanted to tell everyone how unlikeable he’s always been. And with that said, I’m finally free! I’m finally free from being associated with this scumbag (even though we probably hadn’t interacted much but I’ve always seen his activities that seriously drove me insane), he, his Discord server and the people on it, everything can go to hell with him.

P.S. What’s with the Nitocris thumbnail? Well, Nitocris was his waifu, he’s always had Nitocris images as his profile pictures, but recently he had a new icon of a commission of his OC. That makes me think his love for Nitocris has ceased.

Check out my Carrd.

[microsuedemouse]

Yes mom please tell us your favourite Canadian David Headcanons Like I, the mere European, have no clue about Canada at all but I'd gladly embrace all of your Headcanons 😄😄

oh boy okay you asked for it pal

(for the record: you may consider all of this as canon to Run Away Home, and I will tag it as such, but you may also adopt these for your own use if you wish! lmk though, I’d love to know which ones y’all like!)

in RAH I’ve been headcanoning David as coming from Hamilton for simplicity’s sake - it’s where I live. let’s go deeper: when I was six my town and in fact the whole county of Flamborough was amalgamated into the city of Hamilton. much of Flamborough remains relatively rural. so:

David’s mom lives in a nice suburb somewhere and he grew up there on the edge between urban and rural areas, knowing people from both (okay so this is just my life shut up)

His grandmother and grandfather, though, owned a small farm out in the more rural area and he spent a lot of time there as a kid, especially in the summers.

he went to college at Mohawk and got an apartment in the city… this is truly just my RAH-specific background but here we are so why not share

He loves Hamilton’s art community and its nature and parks and many many waterfalls

He LOVES to go camping wherever he can, with a special fondness for Banff and Algonquin

like 80% of us, he got his first job at Tim Hortons. Unlike 80% of us, he did not utterly hate it and can even still eat the food.

he grew up watching a lot of American TV/consuming American media, like the rest of us, but he also loved the fundamental Canadian stuff - Fred Penner’s Place and Crazy Quilt and Mr. Dressup and Big Comfy Couch were all major childhood staples alongside things like Mr. Rogers. Like all of us, he cried when Mr. Dressup passed away and still has weird random memories of Nanalan’ that he doesn’t think he could explain if he tried. He owned all of Fred Penner’s albums as a kid and will still buy new ones, and see him live any chance he gets, because Fred Penner is a national treasure. (He has tried teaching Fred Penner songs at camp, but for some reason the kids never seem to be into it.)

when he outgrew little-kids’ TV he still watched a lot of Teletoon and Family Channel stuff. He’s seen all of 6Teen.

his coffee order is a double double (two creams, two sugars).

he unironically dresses like a Canadian pretty often - flannels and the good ol’ Canadian tuxedo (denim jacket worn with jeans) are totally normal to his wardrobe.

he learned to drive a tractor before a car.

Gwen is surprised and delighted when he tells her he’s been drinking since he was nineteen, and then she’s disappointed when he points out that’s legal drinking age in Ontario.

he normally drinks ciders (not especially Canadian but just my hc lol), but he does like a good Caesar or Canadian whiskey (he just calls it rye).

also: he learned how to open two capped bottles with each other’s necks (no bottle opener) at a bush party once. he likes that this information shocks Gwen and decides not to tell her that he ended up there because he absolutely misunderstood what a ‘bush party’ entailed.

(admittedly all of these drinking headcanons come out of a fic I started and haven’t gotten around to finishing. idk when I will so I’ll go ahead and share here)

he doesn’t love winter but it takes at least 40 cm (~16 in) of snow and/or a windchill of -30°C (-22°F) or lower to stop him from going about his day.

as I noted in that other post, he loves Letterkenny because it’s just so damn accurate - he’s known so many people like the characters in the show! It’s definitely cruder than he’d like and he’d die of embarrassment if the campers or someone found out how much he loves it, but it’s just so funny. (what he doesn’t realise is that no one at Camp Campbell would be able to make full sense of the show.)

he also loves a good Rick Mercer Rant

he’s enjoyed his fair share of Corner Gas, and some Trailer Park Boys, too.

He loves Murdoch Mysteries and got a kick out of Republic of Doyle as well.

He’s read all of the Anne of Green Gables books and grew up watching the cartoon often. He still gets emotional when he thinks too much about Anne and Gilbert.

Canadian music, MY DUDES. He loves the Barenaked Ladies, Great Big Sea and anything involving Alan Doyle, the Arkells (he’s from Hamilton, it’s basically required), Lights, Alanis Morissette, The Tragically Hip, I could go on….

like literally the rest of the country, he watched the televised final concert of the Hip - it was in August 2016, so he was still at camp and had to watch an online stream that wavered in quality, and then he watched a recording again when he got back home - and cried his eyes out at the end.

He’s been to every province at least briefly, but never to the territories - they’re next on his travel list. Canada is huge and beautiful and he wants to see as much of it as he can!

he speaks pretty decent conversational French, but gets really nervous when he messes up or forgets a word, and the more nervous he is the worse he gets. it snowballs and often ends in him panicking.

he’s a very, very bad skater and absolutely useless at hockey. he’s okay at lacrosse and downhill skiing. he can handle cross-country skiing or snowshoeing pretty well, though!

and he spent every winter tobogganing down local hills. okay, he still spends every winter tobogganing down local hills, even after it was outlawed. no one pays attention to that law.

he LOVES maple syrup. and maple taffy. and maple cookies. and everything else maple. he and his mom have been tapping the trees on her property every year for as long as he can remember.

he wouldn’t tell you he cares much about sports, but if you insult the Leafs, the Blue Jays, the Argos, the Habs, or the Ti-Cats, he gets suddenly and irrationally defensive. he barely follows the games so he doesn’t even know why he gets so defensive.

(if pushed, Ti-Cats over Argos, and Leafs over Habs, even though being a Leafs fan is outrageously depressing.)

He would probably take a bullet for Wayne Gretzky. Again, he doesn’t know why. He just would.

On the note of Gretzky: you know the little cheers that kids add to the lyrics of ‘Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer’? After the line “you’ll go down in history,” many American kids add “like George Washington!” Like other Canadian kids, David says, “like Wayne Gretzky!”

He has been known to compulsively start singing “Don’t you put it in your mouth” when trying to stop campers from putting shit in their mouths.

He has also been known to remind kids to “stay alert, stay safe!”

He also still wants a house hippo. Damn it. We all still want a house hippo…

in general he makes a lot of references to Canadian ads that we all remember vividly but no one outside of the country knows about. “MoooOOOM, Aidan cut me in HALF again!”

if presented with enough rocks he will just start building inukshuks. sometimes he does this at camp and the kids wonder what the fuck these weird rock structures are.

his wallet is still full of Canadian Tire money. they have points cards now. and yet he can still never get rid of the Canadian Tire money. it is eternal

he has a rim roller on his keychain. once Max asked what it was and David only sighed deeply. “another free coffee…” he said distantly

he, like most of us, has a very love-hate relationship with Toronto.

he calls it T.O. or T-dot, usually.

one time he was talking to an American who goes to Toronto sometimes for business, and they made a passing comment about Union Station. David’s eye began to twitch.

He learned to drop his ‘eh’s while in the states when he was still a camper, because other campers used to make jokes about it sometimes. they slide right back into his vocabulary the moment he gets home.

he still pronounces ‘roof’ in a way that strikes the kids as weird, and still uses Canadian spellings most of the time - colour instead of color, grey instead of gray, etc.

the boy loves ketchup chips. and all-dressed chips. and poutine. and back bacon. and aero bars, and kinder eggs, and actual smarties. I could go on.

I just scrolled up and saw how long this list has gotten so I… I will stop. but oh my god, I could go on forever, probably. Canadian David is good shit. I will be your Canadian David consultant if you want.

[simnovels-blog]

EA RANT

Ok so I was reading reblogs and comments under a post that someone created in appreciation for the new Cats and Dogs expansion and calling out people who are crying they aren’t getting what they want. First of all I want to say that I agree that simple hate for something will never get you very far. EA won’t listen to you if you scream in capital letters that you want a different expansion or if you want horses in your game. They will just laugh at you as they cash in their millions in november.

BUT, I do agree with the core of what these people are trying to say. I think it’s better though to form a well thought, well written opinion which explains exactly why Cats & Dogs and the Sims 4 in general is such a disappointment so that everyone, even the die hard Sims 4 fans, understands what these ‘hating’ players are going through. So I decided to post a rant about EA and the direction they took with Sims 4, which will forever make me sad and disappointed and this is why (I’ll add a read more button but please do read more):

First of all: I am 25 years old now. When The Sims was released I was eight and I can still remember very well the first time I played the game at my friend’s house. She was so kind to lend me her disk set so that my dad could copy it (yes, very oldskool, back in the day copying disks wasn’t a crime yet lol). And so i had my very first Sims game and I fell in love with it immediately. From then on, I patiently waited for every christmas, birthday and the Dutch holiday Sinterklaas to ask for new expansions and I played them more than any other game we had. All the way up to Sims 3 Into the Future. Sims was and is my childhood, my teenhood and now even my tweenhood (are those real words? lol). So you can imagine how excited I was when Sims 4 was announced!

Sims 4 looked amazing in the first trailers. I didn’t care for the change in art style. Cartoony would be fine with me because this was going to be a new Sims and it was going to give us even more than what Sims 3 already offered. EA’s campaign focused greatly on the new improved CAS and their emotion system. The way they presented it made it look really cool. It actually seemed like you could knead your sim in any way possible and those emotions felt like a true enrichment to storytellers. As a storyteller, these teasers and trailers and gameplay trailers made me incredibly excited!

I was lucky enough to be asked to review The Sims 4 by my current employer back then a gaming website called XGN.nl (right now it’s just a clickbait SEO mania there but when I worked there back in 2014 they did produce some quality). This meant I received a copy of The Sims 4 for free. This is when I was first encountered with how EA deceived us with their trailers. Every company does this of course, but I had to say it was a great disappointment to try out the new CAS and bump into very strict limits when it came to kneading your sim. The sliders were basically still there, just hidden behind a different mechanic that also didn’t work very well yet (they patched it later). Second of all, the emotion system was completely dominating the game, meaning that sims were ALWAYS feeling a certain emotion. They were never ‘neutral’. Another ridiculous element they added was the sudden change of moods whenever your sim walked into a room with a sculpture or painting that was created in a certain mood. Did your sim’s father die 5 minutes ago? No worries, just take a look at a playful painting and you’re all good again. This was not the emotional system they promoted. This was a mechanic that was way too flexible and not realistic at all even on a cartoony level. It completely destroyed the possibility to make beautiful screenshots and stories of your sims without having to use posepacks and this was exactly what I loved doing.

Of course there were also the other restrictions like the lack of toddlers, swimming pools, dishwashers, pregnancy leave… the super tiny neighborhoods with fixed lots and those horrible loading screens… It was definitely a step back from Sims 3. They did announce they would prioritize performance over content this time, but it seemed to me that they weren’t given the appropriate budget for this game. Even back in 2014 it should’ve been possible to create at least an open neighborhood with lots you could move around to your desire and still imrpove performance compared to Sims 3. Of course that would mean the development cost would be higher so this is where I start my actual rant. I’m pretty sure EA didn’t give them the money they needed to create a proper sequel. EA is notorious for being a cashgrab company and they saw more profit in a low cost model that would attract the new generation who grew up with mobile games and NOT with the older Sims games. They saw money in those teens and younger kids who weren’t in the possession of an up-to-date gaming pc and therefore were used to playing stuff like candy crush on their phone. And of course, they were right. This was a huge group of people it turned out and they considered Sims 4 a success.

But what about their old player base? What about me? What about everyone else that was like me? We had been looking forward to a sequel for five years already. This was no sequel. This was a different game made for different players who never experienced the enormous and free worlds of Sims 3. On top of that, this wasn’t a game for creative people either. They took away create a style, they took away toddlers (thank god they fixed that one though), they made the baby stuck to a crib, they added loading screens, sims would look vastly out of place now if CC’d, everything a creative person loves to do, to direct their game and have all the freedom to create any kind of picture they desire was taken away.

In the beginning I still had hope. I thought: expansions are going to turn this game into something great just like they did with the other series. But even here EA decided to take the cash-grab route instead. Instead of releasing expansions with a decent amount of content they went for the modern way of DLC: add only one or two extra things per DLC. Comparing expansions of The Sims 4 to expansions of The Sims 3 and simply calculating the amount of hours of gameplay each expansion gives if you try out everything once showed how TS4 expansions are only a fraction of what TS3 had to offer. Again: their arguments were about keeping the performance good enough for even low-end laptops. But seriously my phone could probably run TS4 without any lag. This day and age it IS possible to create way more than what they do with the TS4 and still have a decent performance even on an outdated PC. So this had to be a matter of budget. I don’t blame the developers. They get their money from EA. I blame EA for not giving the developers enough money to make a worthy sequel or to make worthy expansion packs. And it’s not just with Sims 4 btw. They completely ruined the Mass Effect series as well with that monstrosity they call Mass Effect Andromeda. If you google a bit about what happened there, you can see how bad management, a low budget and a deadline pushed way too early by EA messed up the entire development of that game. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing is happening behind the screens of the Sims 4, but we just don’t know about it.

The worst thing is, at least here in Europe, Sims 4 isn’t any cheaper than Sims 3. Even though the development cost was clearly a lot lower and even though they give us a lot less content, the base game and its expansion packs still cost the same amount as a Sims 3 expansion. You pay 40 euros for Get to Work, which gives you only 3 new careers. This is the same amount you pay for Ambition, which adds so much more. I don’t even want to speak about the Vampires game pack which is the prominent example of how EA decided to cut previous expansions into thousands of little pieces and then sell them for a high price each to get more money.

This finally brings me to the newly announced Cats & Dogs expansion. Again, at least half was cut off the content we had previously gotten in pets expansions and the only new thing they added was a vet career. To make it even worse, cats and dogs won’t be controllable so when the crappy AI abandons you and fucks one of them up, you are basically screwed since you can’t control them to fix the issue. We will have to see about this when it is actually released, but it’s perfectly possible your pet will get stuck in your house somewhere and die of starvation simply because you can’t get to it in any way. Besides this possible issue, it’s another restraint for creators. A lot of stories including pets can’t be made now since the pets can’t be directed into a desirable action or position. I can’t imagine every storyteller is patient enough to wait until the pet performs the desired action by themselves. Back in Sims 2 pet’s weren’t controllable either, but at least they had a cheat so you had the option of you really wanted to. Now they announced they won’t even give us that cheat. This isn’t because they don’t want to give us a cheat, it’s most probably because they never developed the possibility of controlling a pet to begin with. Again, I suspect this was a budget issue. If they wanted to make pets controllable, with their given budget they probably had to cut down on other stuff like autonomous AI. Again, EA decided to go cash grab instead of giving us more options and more freedom to create whatever we want with this game.

They have derailed from a sandbox game into a more RPG/mobile game kind of feel. I just can’t understand why they did that. Did they underestimate the size of their creative playerbase? Did they underestimate how restrictive some of their choices would be? I don’t think so. I think they simply didn’t care. They care about money, that’s what EA is famous for. They have been given ‘awards’ for being the worst gaming company  plenty of times already. Sims 4 is one of the shining bright examples as to why they deserve those awards.

One can only hope that one day a different developer with a less money greedy publisher will pick up Sims where the third series left off and make their own version of The Sims. This already happened with for example Cities Skylines and Planet Coaster, who are succesors of Sim City and Rollercoaster Tycoon created by different companies. But as long as there’s no announcement about such a thing, all I can really do is be sad about what Sims 4 never was and never will be.