#turns out replacing all of the mechanics in my demo with new ones is in fact a lot of work | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

email-core · 9 months ago

Text

jon's top 5 games of 2023

5. Fire Emblem Engage (Intelligent Systems)

Okay, so the story doesn't make any sense and half the characters are extremely annoying. The previous entry, Three Houses, was much better on both counts. But the turn-based tactical combat is much more varied (and difficult) than Three Houses, and the callbacks to earlier games were fun. I tracked down some of the older games to play after I finished Engage, which got me invested as a fan of the whole series.

4. Tchia (Awaceb)

I played at least 80 hours of Tears of the Kingdom, but the whole time I felt a persistent frustration with the finicky mechanics and repetitive quests. Tchia is another open-world game that is much lighter on mechanics, but still manages to fill its wide spaces with interesting tasks and secrets. Fast-travel is limited, but the player's ability to take the form of a bird, fish, or deer makes moving around feel smooth and easy. It's also made by a small studio based out of New Caledonia, and you can feel their love for their land. The story is a bit confusing but dramatic and sweet.

3. Anemoiapolis Chapter 1 (Andrew Quist)

I bought the demo for this game back in 2021, and wasn't disappointed by the atmosphere and vibes it evoked. It's full of all sorts of liminal spaces - indoor water park, dead mall, abandoned office building - that make you feel like you're in a childhood nightmare. This year's full release added more locations and gameplay mechanics, as well as a slightly silly ending that teases the next chapter. Very impressive work by - as far as I can tell - a solo developer. I look forward to Quist's next game.

2. Baldur's Gate 3 (Larian)

Baldur's Gate 3 is probably *the* RPG of the decade, with the combination of Larian's technical ability and the dense setting of the Forgotten Realms. The character interactions and romances feel like the next step up from Dragon Age, while the turn-based combat is a faithful recreation of Dungeons and Dragons 5e. The game is huge and impossible to explore in a single playthrough. However, I did feel it drag a bit towards the end. I'm definitely going to play it at least two more times, though.

1. Blasphemous 2 (The Game Kitchen)

It's my sleepover and I get to pick the movie. Blasphemous 2 is smaller than BG3 in every way, and yet on average I enjoyed it more. Like its prequel, it looks like a Metroidvania but plays like a Soulslike. Visually it is very similar to Blasphemous 1, but Blasphemous 1 was already beautiful with its Catholicism-inspired pixel graphics. Blasphemous 2 adds new and satisfying game mechanics, replacing some of the more annoying ones. Killing a boss gives the same feeling of victory as any Dark Souls game, and finding a secret feels like clicking a puzzle piece into place.

Honourable Mentions:

Resident Evil 4

My House

Dredge

#game of the year #game awards #tchia #fire emblem engage #blasphemous #blasphemous 2 #baldur's gate 3 #2023 #anemoiapolis #gaming #video games #hot takes

1 note · View note

entropy-game-dev · 4 years ago

Text

Getting organised in 2021

Huh, me? No I mean you! You!

I'm sure many people are looking ahead to 2021, and, with the new year comes renewals of goals, habits, motivation and so forth. I'm not really about that, but I thought now would be an apt time to talk about what I've learnt over the past 2 years regarding project management and keeping motivated.

Now, I want to preface this blog with my thoughts about the whole "productivity" thing. I make a huge, HUGE distinction between being productive at work and productive on your hobbies. The idea of productivity in the workplace can be used in a manipulative fashion, where one may work themselves to mental and physical exhaustion for the benefit of someone else. Considering most people reading this will probably be on a fixed wage (rather than commission-based), does it really make sense to push oneself harder without getting any immediate, tangible benefit from it?

So that’s my rant for the blog, I promise! Anyway, on the other hand we have productivity on your hobbies, which is a completely different matter. You get out exactly 100% of what you put into your hobby, and it'll benefit you in multiple ways. I don't think I need to sell this to you, as I'm sure most people, myself included, would love to be more productive on their own personal projects. In this blog, I'm going to be talking exclusively about this sort of productivity and how to improve it in a couple of different ways. Again, this is all stuff I've personally tried and tested, so while I am confident this approach will work for me, it may not necessarily work for you. But, you won't know until you try!! So if you're convinced and want to get motivated, read on!

I first want to talk about one's mindset, and then dive into the tools I use. The latter will provide a bit more context for the former, and in the end, the most powerful tool you have is your brain, so use it!

Training your brain

So, the biggest problem I find myself, and other people have, is how to tackle a project and starting a work session. One I start, I find it easy to get into the zone (and this comes back to the choice of tools that augment my workflow), so getting started and knowing what I'm doing is the main thing I have to tackle.

On the broadest level, I work with a general plan that has been written up previously. This contains all the key points from start to finish, without worrying too much about the detail at this stage. There is some skill involved in identifying what constitutes a "key" point, but this all comes down to practice. For reference, if I estimate something will take a week or two to finish, that's a task. If something will take longer than that, it's more than likely several tasks, and rolling it up into one task will probably cause some decision paralysis. Anything smaller and your list will get too clogged up, and again, decision paralysis. Right, so that's your high level plan done. Cool, but not really going to help you on a day-to-day basis as this will be something to refer to between tasks.

Ok, so now you have a list of chronological tasks. Take the first one and start it. Oh, you don't know where to start? Don't worry, I'm with you. It's important to recognise the mental signs related to approaching a task. If I find myself hesitating or not looking forward to a particular task, it often means I haven't defined it well enough. That means breaking the task down into individual steps, until you're comfortable saying "yep, I can do this right now" with each dot point. Again, it'll take some practice (depending on your hobby) to visualise and write down each step, but it is definitely something that you get used to, and will save you so much time umming and aahing with your program of choice open, but not actually getting any work done. If you are finding that happens more often than not, it breaks your workflow and you can't get into the zone!

A few more general tips. It helps to be consistent with your work. Try to dedicate a regular time to your hobby and you'll find it a lot easier to get into the working mindset and the zone. Allow yourself some days off, but don't use the excuse of "not being motivated enough" as a reason to take time off. What would be better is, if you can't force yourself to, say, program, work on the art, or the sound, or design. But do it consistently!

Be accountable as well. This means involving others as much as you can - as an example, say you want to discuss a design aspect with a friend and you'll find extra motivation to work on that aspect, and get it ready for someone else to read over. Just having that knowledge of another person looking at your work will bring it to a new level, trust me! You can also be held accountable to people you don't know! Part of the reason why I started this blog and my Twitter account was because I always have in the back of my mind while working, that it'll eventually make its way to my blog.

Finally, if your hobby has one, make use of the community where possible - get involved and see if there are ready made templates or resources you can use. I know people like to do things without help, and I absolutely respect that, but I find that people have often gone through the same struggles as you, and will provide ways to make your life easier!

Tools of the trade

Ok so I've used a lot of different software and systems in my time, and by process of natural selection the ones that I still use today are the ones that have been most helpful for me! Here's a short list with both the specific thing I use, and in brackets, what I use it for. If you already use something similar that fill a similar role, then my suggestion is to stick with what you know:

ClickUp (Project management, checklists): This is where I keep a list of all my major tasks. You can have checklists nested in checklists which is amazing for planning, and can organise things into broad categories, and tons more. Any good project management software like Trello etc. should support this.

Google Drive (Cloud storage of other assets, easy sharing, MS office replacement): I use this to store anything that isn't code related, and to work on things simultaneously with other people. While this game is a mostly solo effort, I absolutely discuss and show a ton of stuff to my more experienced friends, who in turn provide very helpful feedback. It's much nicer and more organised than sending files through a messaging app or (heaven forbid) emails!

Bitbucket (Source control, cloud storage of code): If you code, you need this. I don't care how small your project is! Actually, smaller projects are better to learn from! Github is definitely used the most for source control, so if you like that more, use it!

Google Keep (Note taking, brain dumps): Ever had a genius idea right before bed? Same, and I use Google Keep to keep track of them. I could use Clickup in this instance but I find the app to be a bit clunky compared to Keep.

Notepad++ (Rapid notes, copypasting error messages): Notepad ++ is what I use mainly for copypasting error messages to look at later, but I also use it when I need to break down a sub-task down, or make a note to do something later without interrupting my flow. The fact that Notepad++ specificaly can have multiple tabs and will save your tabs automatically without you having to manually save it is amazing.

Good 'ol pen and paper (Scratchpad): For those REALLY hard problems that can't be solved in my head, I turn to pen and paper to get my thoughts organised. While I could use something like Notepad++, I find that being able to write and draw anywhere on the paper, and link things up with lines helps immensely to get a clear idea of things.

Summing up

Right, so, that's about it from me. If you have any questions or want me to elaborate on something I've mentioned here, feel free to leave a comment or an ask. In any case, I hope you’re feeling more motivated now, and all the best for your personal projects in 2021!

P.S. I've know I’ve been a bit quiet lately because I'm working on designing the five factions present in the demo - I can't reveal much lore about them (as those will be in logs you'll find in-game), but I will be showing off some more designs and gameplay mechanics in the near future, so look forward to it!

#game #videogame #devblog #gamedev #scifi #spacegame #dungeon crawler #rpg #entropy #gamemaker #programming #pixel art #robot #indiedev

33 notes · View notes

floribus-reginae · 4 years ago

Text

His steps came to a stop, yet Sesshomaru did not turn to look at Rin right away. He felt conflicted. A part of him thought he should just keep walking and ignore her plea. It warned him that doing otherwise would lead to unpleasant consequences, maybe to a conversation he did not want to have.

Against his better judgment, he half-turned to rest his gaze on Rin. Or who he struggled to recognize as Rin, anyway. It was still a bit frightening how quickly humans aged and changed. There was almost nothing left of the child he had gotten used to trusting by his side for so long, many years ago.

For daiyoukai like himself, time simply flew at a different pace. What humans called a week was but a second to him. A year felt little more than mere days. That was why some youkai slept for thousands of years. How they were capable of holding grudges for centuries, or mourn for even longer.

If for anybody else Rin’s growth had been natural and regular, for the man who had granted her new life and brought her to this village it was like she had been swapped with an unfamiliar girl overnight. It was a feeling which had started almost as soon as Rin entered puberty, and it had made him uncomfortable. His visits had been rarer, and shorter. Would he even consider himself used to her before she died of old age?

He didn’t like it. Her growth was like a clear embodiment of her mortality. It reminded him, with each time he gazed upon her, that soon she would be too old and too far gone for even Tenseiga to bring back. Soon he’d have nothing to even come back to, and perhaps in an unconscious mechanism of self-preservation, Sesshomaru was seeking to detach himself emotionally. Trying to let her go, before any hurt could be felt.

And what he dreaded the most was that she might have caught on to that.

His eye contact with hers was emotionless, his voice spoke matter-of-factly. “You know I cannot stay.”

He didn’t need to point behind her. He was sure she was aware of the wary looks the villagers still directed at him whenever he came by. Even as years passed, he was feared and respected as a dangerous threat to their lives. It didn’t bother him. This was how things were meant to be. @roleplay-abiogenesis2

•*¨*•♫♪♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ The young lady was already foreseeing that response from him, nevertheless, his utterance perforated her gentle quintessence like a poniard, acrimonious & pernicious. Rin knew the western land’s Lord well & his unbreakable personality, a sealed countenance that seldom bestowed any kind of emotion. The prince was a stoic being & difficult to interpret, even for the brunette who was looking at her precious Lord with a crestfallen face. Her hopes had entirely petered out.

❝H-Hai.❞ Uttered in a whisper, looking down. His visits were increasingly meagre, brisk. Despite his essentially unaltered posture, Rin was noticing more & more inconstancies in his demeanour. His departure, even if uninterrupted, was affecting her. Why would he neglect her? She couldn’t attain a plausible answer. With an exhale, she faced him again with a smile, attempting to camouflage her disquietude & the vulnerabilities, all the morose sentiments that were travelling inside her. Coffee-coloured cores locked themselves in Sesshoumaru’s ambers as if they ache to read, decipher what was going in his thoughts. Would he always be an enclosed and indecipherable Codex? Who would have the privilege of surveying the pages of his thoughts & decode the conundrum that was his kernel?

❝Demo, I feel like you’re trying to ignore me.❞ Stated, using her typical honeyed timbre. Neglecting the glances of some inhabitants, she sat cautiously on the river’s bank. Even after so long, the demon’s ubiquity still instilled suspicion, & of course respect. The demoiselle was one of the few people capable of being in his presence without feeling intimidated. She & Sesshoumaru had a story together, ventures that she frequently told the juveniles, trying to enforce the etiquette that humans & demons could coexist in friendship. These adventures had ended as soon as Sesshoumaru had decided to leave her in the village with Kaede. They granted her the opportunity to live with her own species, grow as normally as possible, mature & self-discover in a natural way. At first, her unification with the other children was complicated because they looked at her with repugnance, however, this feeling was promptly replaced by curiosity, excite in the adventures she had spent with her dear Lord.

Relations were enhanced over time, leading the tender young woman to make acquaintances with humans & half-demons. Throughout the years Rin recognised that she & Sesshoumaru were from completely parallel realms. Not only because he was a demon, but also due to his social prestige. He was an inheritor to one of the most prominent empires of the feudal era while she was merely a human belonging to the peasant class. Despite the colossal disparities between them, Rin wanted to be part of his world even if it was only partially. Regardless of the companions, the harmony, she felt something was missing in her life, something that nobody could replace…

❝You don’t visit me as frequently as you used to. I feel like something is going on.❞ Confessed, looking up to gaze at him. During adolescence, her friends began to evolve emotionally, developing more profound affections for each other, or individuals from other settlements. It was throughout this period that Rin was confronted with some emotional things that she didn’t know until then. Her closest companions started dating, courting, and some married. Many were those who sought & still attempt to conquer the young woman’s awareness with sweetness & gifts but without success. For some mysterious reason, her feelings were blocked & couldn’t get beyond friendship. For a long time, she lived in obscurity, doubting herself, until later something awakened in her.

❛When you are troubled, or anxious, or sad or any other time feel free to call me…❜

❛I will come to you immediately. Even if we are far apart if you call my name I will absolutely come flying to you.❜

❛Our hearts are tied together…You can examine your heart at your own pace.❜ - Inuyasha cd drama.

The maiden had never forgotten such messages, so she wasn’t understanding what was occurring. Was he also experiencing some kind of metamorphosis? Had she done something to agitate him? Why after saying those words he wanted to leave? leave everything behind. She had been left in the village to grow up, studying her core, her feelings & then deciding whether she wanted to be with him or not. Even before she knew, she had already made a decision. She craved to be with Lord Sesshoumaru, that was her strongest eagerness. ❝Did I do something wrong Sesshoumaru-sama?❞ Rin missed him & Jaken. Nothing would be like before, she was no longer a child even though she still had some naiveté. ❝I’m sorry if I did something that upset you.❞ Apologized in advance.

#•*¨*•♫♪♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸❤Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ (follow the butterfly - queue!)#I'm sorry this turned up huged lolol

7 notes · View notes

psychcomposer · 3 years ago

Text

Alright, I have too many feelings about a video game that’s going to come out in a month that I really just need to get out. It’s been over a decade and one of my favorite games, The World Ends With You, is finally getting a sequel. I’ve been brooding on the trailers for months, and I just finished the demo, so it is time to put down my capital T Thoughts on Neo: The World Ends With You.

As a warning, this will be entirely too long. But I’m not about to keep this bound up any longer.

TWEWY is my favorite title for the Nintendo DS. It is a JRPG starring Neku Sakuraba, an aggressively antisocial teen living in the Tokyo district of Shibuya. He is suddenly pulled into a test of survival called The Reaper’s Game, where he is forced to join forces with a partner in order to survive a week of lethal objectives in a sub-planar version of Shibuya. I love the story, its such an honest and interesting take on learning to get outside of your comfort zone. But more than that, it is a game that does so much to put a modern twist on every piece of your typical JRPG. You control two characters at once, Neku with the touch screen and his partner with the control pad, forcing you to split your attention and giving mechanic weight to the idea that Neku can’t survive alone. Armor and weapons are replaced with clothes and outfits, with a character’s ability to wear them restricted not by class but by a character’s bravery. The music list is filled with punk, alt-rock and hip-hop that are a stark contrast to the symphonic tracks of other titles. Battles aren’t random impediments, but fun diversions that sport a robust reward system that encourages players to push their limits.

But even more than that, the most modern thing I appreciate about TWEWY has to be the characters. Neku, Shiki, Beat, and Rhyme all feel like believable teens that grew up in the 2000′s. They bicker, clash, and banter like teens struggling to survive and make sense of their situation. One of my favorite little gimicks of the story is just how many nicknames there are for every character. Almost everyone has earned a few nicknames. One of my favorite examples is Sho Minamimoto. He’s a reaper with an obsession with math, often infusing his speech with mathematical jargon or expressions, and seems to enjoy erecting “art installations”, which most people can only decipher as towers of trash. Over the course of the story, he gets called Pi-face, the Grim Heaper, and another nickname I can’t even mention because of spoilers. It’s just... such a nice little human touch, these kids throwing crafted insults at a human enforcer of their doom that could almost certainly tear them apart.

I’m getting into this to try to give a sense of why I enjoy TWEWY so much, why it has such a unique place in my heart. Its a game I’ve 100% completed several times over, a task that’s no easy feat with the sheer amount of collectibles and post-game objectives. Unfortunately, for the last year or two, I’ve been kind of dreading this sequel.

Neo:TWEWY has been... a long time coming. Way back in 2007 they had a whole website counting down to some sort of announcement, with the music slowly building in intensity. I remember following it with bated breath, until it finally hit zero! And we got... An ios port of the game. Talk about a let-down. To be fair, apparently it is a solid port, even managing to re-work the old battle system, one that required a second screen to work properly, into one that only needed one. But what that really offered to someone like me was the hint of a sequel, a single image of a new character being shown. They kept flirting with the idea of bringing the series back. The main cast even featured in a Kingdom Hearts game, of all things, even if they didn’t really do a whole lot. But these acknowledgments grew sparser and sparser.

A few years ago, they released a switch port of the game. Not only that, it included an epilogue! They were finally getting a sequel rolling! Of course I bought that game, beat it yet again, and fought my way to the new content and the hint of the new story ahead.

It was... Well. I found it disappointing.

The gameplay was competent, even if it was clear that the epilogue itself really hadn’t had too much put into it. One new character, new enemies just being reskins of old ones. It wasn’t meant to be dlc itself or anything, it was just there to herald a return to the series. That wasn’t what bugged me. What bugged me was the writing. It was heart-wrenching. It just didn’t feel right. It just felt flat compared to the story I’d enjoyed so many times. But what really killed my excitement was the new character, Coco.

Now, odd personality quirks are not too unusual among the ensemble of TWEWY. Pi-face is just one of the characters that is so infused with a particular theme that it shows in how they express themselves. It’s part of the charm of them, discovering the personalities that live in this dark underworld of Shibuya. But Coco... she talks like the most stereotypical young teenager possible. unironic lols, totez (yes, spelt exactly like that, in a speech format), OMG’s, and just, like, likes everywhere! It felt like someone who knew they needed to make a quirky character but had no idea how to write one well, and just made the most stereotypical caricature possible. I hated seeing that. It embodied every fear I had about the sequel being just a cynical project, pushed forward after so many years by people who just didn’t understand what made the original great. That mild dread was so persistent that even the release of the first few trailers couldn’t really get me excited for the game. Neo:TWEWY was shifting into 3d from the original 2.5d, with all the problems that could cause. What I could see of the story felt so much more like a generic fantasy tale with some modern buildings than the story I had grown through my teenage years with. And, well... Just look the original Neku and the new one they showed off.

Look at this. Look at one of the most vibrant, eye-catching character designs on the market for any JRPG in history, one that manages to mix purple and orange with striking lights and darks. And then look at the teenager edgelord bullshit they did with him. It’s atrocious. I hate it. He’s just another guy in a black outfit and just too much fucking cool guy protagonist power to not have the story be about him at this point. And look, I know that there’s Story LoreTM, I know that there could be some twist that explains this, I know that him being such a denial of his old self could be the entire fucking point. But let me tell you, when I saw this, I felt years of shifting, misplaced unease coalesce into a hard lump of dread.

And... Even... So... I did the stupidest thing I could have possibly done and preordered the game anyway. Don’t look at me like that, nostalgia is a hell of a drug.

But you know what? The damnedest thing happened. They released a demo for the new game a month before its release. And I played it, and... I enjoyed it.

Did you see that coming? I certainly didn’t. Welcome to the roller coaster.

Right off the bat, the writing soothed a lot of the fears I had. It felt right at home, like being plopped between to teens exchanging banter. One of the first exchanges is Rindo and Fret, his best friend, trying to meet up. Fret wants Rindo to meet him at someplace called Wunafo, an area Rindo is clueless about. After some annoyed texting, it turns out Fret is actually referring to 104, a local landmark of a building. Fret insists that its a stylish improvement on the name. Rindo only gives him some grief about it..

I’m not doing the scene justice, or I could just be really desperate for half-decent writing, but I can’t deny that it quickly put a smile on my face. I am almost sure I’ve had this conversation before in years past myself. And beyond that, this game boasts voice acting that brings out a ton of personality in the large cast they are introducing (besides Rindo, which is a shame because he’s the protagonist... hopefully he gets over his apathetic teenager shtick eventually). Not everything is voiced, but it conveys so much appeal and personality, and even when the character’s aren’t voiced there is a conversation screen that occasionally breaks out some stylish layouts to convey mood and temperment and clearly draw from the style that made the original game pop so much.

The battles, of course, have been completely revamped. TWEWY had you control two characters, one of which you could customize by equipping up to 6 different pins that all used different motions and unleashed different attacks. Now you control up to four characters, but each one can only use one pin. But even so, it feels very genuine to its roots. An effective build in TWEWY was usually one that let you stagger an opponent so you can unload a bunch of attacks on them, and in Neo:TWEWY the game actively pushes you to folllow up attacks with characters in succession. It would be easy for this to devolve into a mash-fest, but even with the little time I had with the game it introduced a wrinkle in that- an attack that unleashed a single powerful blow, but couldn’t just be unleashed at the end of the previous combo. It needed to be charged for a while, long enough for the combo timer to deplete. So now an effective combo requires thinking ahead, and even after that you’re paying attention to enemies to dodge out of the way when they strike back. It’s entirely possible this system will flop in the late game, but so far it is robust enough for me to think that it will be one that could make me look forward to battles.

The music hasn’t impressed me so far, besides the tracks that have made the transition from the original. But I remember those strange tracks needing some time before I appreciated them too.

Finally, the story has hooked me. I don’t think that needs much more explanation. I want to see more of these characters and see the changes that have been made to the world in what I assume is years after Neku’s game. And to address the elephant in the room, Neku has not made his appearance in what is available in the demo. Odds are I will probably hate whatever they do with him. But there is enough happening in the space around it that I’m interested in exploring, and a bruised apple can still taste sweet.

Almost all of this, of course, is mostly just saying that Neo:TWEWY is not doomed to fail. There is still plenty of room for things to go wrong later on. There are entire systems I haven’t really seen in game, like shops, pin evolution, clothing and food (Though it looks like they have changed the food system significantly, which I approve of). The things that unnerved me so much in the trickle of information after this game’s announcement could still be enough to turn this sour. But I’m smiling as I’m strapping myself in for this ride now, one I’ve waited quite a long time for. Whatever’s coming, I’m excited.

#long post #TWEWY #Neo:TWEWY #The World Ends With You #Neo: The World Ends With You #Sorry for the length but #look this isn't even all the thoughts I have on this upcoming game #but I'm not sure if any of my followers even care about these games sooo #the original examination of the new stuff and a sequel compare/contrast kind of got lost when I got into my history with this series #but I like how this turned out #even if its just for me

4 notes · View notes

peace-coast-island · 4 years ago

Text

Diary of a Junebug

Getting lost at the Floating Petal Garden

Who would've thought that getting lost in a tangle of bushes, flowers, and vines would feel so freeing? Being surrounded by a mix of earthy and vibrant colors, organic shapes, and faint floral scents - it feels like I'm transported to another world! There's something about all this greenery that makes me feel calm, like it's okay to shut yourself out from whatever's bothering you and get lost in nature for a little bit. Interestingly enough, that was one of our purposes of visiting the garden.

I'm back in the Golden City with Ginko, who brought along some friends who dropped by to visit. I haven't heard from Storm in a while since Jamie disbanded the entourage. It's a shame that he joined right before things slowed down and everyone was leaving - if he came along a year earlier, then his music career would've definitely taken off by now.

Storm's an aspiring singer-songwriter. He's been singing in choirs and performing in bands for as long as he can remember. At first glance though he comes across as bumbling and well-meaning, not always the brightest bulb of the bunch, but he's a total sweetheart that you can't stay annoyed at him for too long. Not to mention that he's got a hell of a voice, a smooth baritone that contrasts with his fast paced chatter. Like I said, he could easily make it as a singer but he just hasn't had his lucky break yet.

The decision to leave the small and sleepy Midwestern town he spent his whole life in to LA was an impulse one. Basically all his friends have moved on - some have married, many are successful - and he was just getting by, working at a diner and performing occasional gigs there. He was a frequent guest at a best friend's house, even long after his friend moved out, and over time he realized that maybe he should be spending his time doing his own thing rather than barging in on other people's lives.

So he moved to LA, but quickly realized that the fast paced city life wasn't for him. Storm was about to call it quits when Jamie discovered him at a cafe and invited him to the entourage after he gave her a demo tape. They both knew from the start that Storm wasn't "commercial" material, but he had potential and is passionate about what he creates, which was enough for Jamie to give him a chance.

While Storm was able to nail a recording contract with Lawrence Sardar, outside of his EPs selling fairly well, he wasn't getting the reception he hoped he would. Being more of a performer than a recording artist, Storm felt kinda let down. Then the entourage disbanded and Storm lost interest in recording, though Lawrence told him that he's free to come to the studio whenever he feels like it.

Then a few months ago Storm decided to move in with his cousin Buddy in Airy to help him run the gas station/auto shop after the owner retired. I've met Buddy a handful of times through Holly and Sam and he's a big sweetheart like Storm. He tends to run his mouth off a bit and poke into other people's businesses but he means well and just wants to be a part of things.

Plus he's the reason why the shop's been so successful - he's a good mechanic who also provides excellent customer service as well as doesn't overcharge or make people spend more than they have to. Businessmen hate him, but customers love him - and despite what his detractors says, there's no denying that Buddy's a big reason why Airy's still standing strong when other small towns in the area have been declining. The day Buddy Nephele retires from the shop will be a sad day for all in Airy.

Storm's been enjoying living in Airy and working at the shop. He's also quite good with cars too so he's been a great deal of help for Buddy. Aside from singing in the community choir and a few gigs here and there for town events, his singing career has taken a backseat - but not for long. Thanks to Ginko and Benji, Storm will be performing at the Golden City Nightclub twice a month as a replacement for one of their regular performers. If things go well, he might be a regular there, which is exciting! The commute's a bit long - two and a half hours by train - but it's a good start. And if it becomes a regular thing, then he and Benji will work something out to make the commute easier.

So the trip to the Floating Petal Garden serves as a celebration for Storm. He's so excited about it as well as nervous - his first performance being less than two weeks from today. With Ginko living in Golden City and now Storm performing at the nightclub, it looks like we have more excuses to drop by Golden City!

Another reason for the trip was to de-stress and get away for a bit. Storm wanted to invite Buddy along because he's been going through a rough time. Buddy had an older brother who's nothing like him and Storm - a big name engineer who's always busy so he barely had time to visit family. Braden visited a couple weeks ago - Buddy hadn't seen him in over a decade, Storm not since he was a kid - but had to cut his visit short because of work. The work emergency ended up resolving early so Braden went back to Airy, only to die in a car accident on the way there.

According to Sam and Storm, Buddy idolized Braden. He also felt inferior to him and the two noticed right away how withdrawn Buddy was when Braden came to visit. Buddy was pretty bummed out when Braden had to leave, so a few days later Braden called Storm to tell him that he was coming back and wanted to surprise Buddy. But then the accident happened so instead of planning for a fishing trip, Buddy had to plan for a funeral.

Buddy's still his sweet old self but I can tell that he's been trying to keep it together and get through the day. It's odd not seeing him chattering about, keeping us up to date about what's happening in town and making us laugh with funny stories involving his misadventures at the shop. Storm's doing his best to help while giving Buddy space to process everything - that's all we can really do for him right now. It wasn't easy for everyone to convince Buddy to take a couple days off - Sam and some of the others are currently taking shifts at the gas station while the garage is closed - but he relented after some prodding.

I think him being here has helped a little. I mean we didn't expect him to feel better immediately but at least as the day went on he was able to enjoy himself a bit. Sometimes all you can really do is take it one day at a time, hoping that things will turn up for you. Knowing Buddy, I'm sure he'll get back on his feet eventually - I just wish there's more we can do to help him.

Getting lost in the garden is like being transported into a storybook, a whimsical, fairy tale like one where everything looks soft and ethereal. Meadows of soft grass with colorful petals poking out, straight out of a painting. Jungles of wavy vines wrapped around towering trees carrying delicate blossoms. Numerous winding trails surrounded by unusual flowers that can't help but draw your attention with its clashing colors and wavy, organic shapes, all looking like a mismatch that somehow comes together - like an imperfect mosaic.

I think my favorite place is the Great Crimson Way, a lovely trail surrounded by lovely rose blossoms. Like the name says, they're a hybrid of roses and cherry blossoms. There's a beautiful fountain at the center where people go to make wishes. There's something so peaceful about it, just looking at the petals floating in the water makes me feel reassured, like somehow, everything will be all right. There's a lot about the world that makes no sense but seeing these petals hanging around feels grounding - like it's telling me to hang on and soon the hard times will pass.

Buddy seemed to be taken in by the fountain too. I wonder if he's thinking the same regarding the floating petals. He did seem a bit more like himself after that as not too long afterwards he inserted his two cents here and there while Storm talked about town happenings. Sometimes Storm would try to prod him a bit more, only for Buddy to be miles away - he tries, but Ginko and I would remind him not to push too much.

This isn't a knock on Storm and Buddy but they tend to overstep a little bit. I'll admit it can be a nuisance sometimes with them trying to get into everyone's businesses but it's hard to stay too mad at them when they have good intentions, even when they make a mess out of it. While they do need to work on boundaries - which they both are making an effort on - it's good to have friends like them because sometimes you need to be thrown off the deep end.

Another favorite spot is the Stained Glass Grove. The plants over there literally look like stained glass! Translucent, colorful petals with intricate designs - we were lucky to come across this place when the sun was shining just right. The whole place lit up like a light show! We tried taking pics and while they came out good, it just doesn't do it justice. Turns out stained glass flowers are difficult to care for because of the amount of sunlight it needs. The spot where the Stained Glass Grove is perfect because that's where the sun shines the brightest for most of the day as constant sunlight is important for healthy flowers.

After navigating the Sweetie Honey Hills - which was full of fragrant flowers known for their honey-vanilla nectar - we stopped by the cafe. There, we ran into Leif, Kiki, Diva, and Lucky. So we had lunch together and bought some flowers from Leif. On our way out we came across a cute little tea shop so we stocked up on tea. I bought a bunch of new and unfamiliar flavors so I'm looking forward to trying them out!

The Sweetie Honey Hills is nice to look at, though the scent was starting to get a little overpowering so we didn't stay too long. We did harvest some nectar - a small jar costs about 5000 bells - so we each got one jar for ourselves. I like the flavor of honey-vanilla, though I've never cooked or baked with it before. I heard that the nectar's expensive, plus it's better to buy fresh so it's a super good deal!

Orange Blossom River is a lovely place full of bright, vibrant colors and fresh, citrus fragrances. We traveled by boat with Storm taking the sail while Ginko helped with navigation. The water's so crystal clear that you can see everything, from the colorful koi swimming around to the rocks and seaweed scattered about. It looks so unreal that I half expected to be transported to another world when we stepped into the boat.

From there, we traveled to Marigold Meadows, where we watched the sunset. It's a fitting stop as it's a popular place to watch the sun rise and set. Paired with the various yellows and oranges of the marigolds, it's absolutely perfect! The moment the sky turned a lovely red orange, the meadow seemed like it came to life. It was a magical moment when a rainbow popped up and all at once I felt at peace - we all did. It was a funny feeling, like a friendly and familiar presence snuck up on us, whispering to us that all is well.

Ginko was the one who brought it up first, saying that she felt like Manaka was right there beside her. Buddy then said that he could've sworn his brother was standing nearby for a moment. Storm said the same about his dad and I for mine. I haven't thought about him in years since he's been gone for a long time so I'll admit I'm still a bit shaken up. I still don't know how I feel about it, yet I feel like that's how I'm supposed to feel about it?

If you're feeling lost, uncertain, stuck, or in need of something new and different, I'd highly recommend exploring the Floating Petal Garden.

#animal crossing #animal crossing pocket camp #Diary of a Junebug #headcanon ramble

2 notes · View notes

slade-neko · 4 years ago

Text

My Thoughts on Super Smash Bros

Just something I wanted to write up since Smash Bros is one of my favorite game series and kinda got me into video games. (WARNING: Its fairly long...)

Super Smash Bros. (N64 & Melee)

Super Smash Bros. was my first 3D game. Got it one year for Christmas when I was a little kid with a Nintendo 64. That game introduced me to video games. Before that I had only played Super Mario Bros. and Duck Hunt on my parents’ NES console. I wasn’t hooked on video games until I got my hands on a Nintendo 64. “Whoa! The graphics are so 3D!” It also introduced me to so many major Nintendo characters I did not know about like Link, Samus, Fox, and Kirby. It was the best gateway a kid could ask for to “get into” video games. Inevitably I ended up getting a Gamecube with Super Smash Bros. Melee as my first game on it too. Melee was great just like reliving that original feeling all over again. What made these games even more special was unlocking the characters. In a time before internet, you had no clue who was in the game and how to unlock them. The excitement of seeing that “Challenger Approaching” screen was like nothing else. A lot of your information came from questionable sources of kids at school. Rumors with no real answers (until you get an official guide book.) No internet leaks or spoilers. Those were good times!

One word I would use to describe the overall feel I got from Smash 64 and Melee would be Classic!

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

Years later, Super Smash Bros. Brawl came out. I’m not sure why, but I really got into that game. It was probably due to the timing and circumstances. The longest wait between Smash games being Melee to Brawl was 7 years and that brought a lot of desire for a new Smash game for me. Also the memories of being a kid playing this with my friends after school on weekends, big sleepovers, using the game’s crappy wi-fi connection, good times! I also did not understand the game’s mechanics as a kid and why people hated them, so I couldn’t complain about that. The art style of the game wasn’t necessarily my favorite, but it worked well for that game. It went from the bright vivid colors of Melee to a more dull, colorless, gritty style. Best example is Ocarina of Time Link being swapped over to Twilight Princess. Oh, and the game really picked up as a lot of fun when I began modding it. Turns out Wii’s were very easy to Homebrew and Brawl was fairly easy to mod. That brought out a HUGE replay value of installing new mods, making my own mods, and all sorts of endless possibilities with the game. Getting Project M (a fan mod for Brawl that reworked the entire game more competitively) really opened my eyes to the competitive side of Smash and showed me why normal Brawl was so bad.

One word I would use to describe the overall feel I got from Brawl from its art style, orchestrated full choir theme, to its fantastic Subspace Emissary cutscenes would be Epic!

Super Smash Bros. 4

Smash eventually died down for another 6 years until Super Smash Bros. 4 came out. Man, Smash 4 was exciting because “Hey, new Smash game!”, but seeing it in full... it was honestly very weird. The 3DS version launching first felt like a big demo... at 240 pixels... wow. (I hated 3DS for taking wonderful games like Smash, Monster Hunter, the N64 Zelda remakes and dragging them into a low resolution, portable Hell!) That aside, I forcibly played the 3DS version until the Wii U one came out. Then the true game began and well it still wasn’t the Smash I was hoping for. It was fun, some cool new characters, but some more cuts too. Questionable new game mechanics among other things that made gameplay pretty un-fun. Hearing about how the 3DS version dragged down the Wii U version was quite disheartening too like Ice Climbers getting cut because they simply would not work on 3DS and the two games just HAD to be the same was stupid. The 3DS was a horrible anchor weighing down the game. Oh, and I don’t think they had a very clear direction with the art style of this game... The Zelda characters are still Twilight Princess designs, but are now bright and vivid? It just looks weird and out of place for them. Ganondorf looks exceptionally ugly because of that.

One word I would use to describe the overall feel I got from Smash 4 from its theme music and the whole game’s aesthetic feels very Sporty.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Not long after and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate came out of the dark to save the day. Ultimate is really amazing. They took the crappy Smash 4 and cut its chains from the 3DS so it could soar above and beyond. A lot of it is Smash 4 assets ported over from the Wii U to a better console, the Switch. They somehow got EVERY single character back with a ton of new ones, almost every stage, so much amazing music, and well it truly is deserving of the Ultimate title in terms of content!

So the game is pretty great and has A LOT of content, but its still not without issues (at least for me.) This is me being overly critical with the game and my MELEE FANBOY BULLSH*T opinions coming through, but there are quite a few things I don’t like about this game. The theme music (albeit catchy) is super sappy anime bullcrap music. I don’t mean that in a negative way, despite how I worded it, IT is very sappy anime music about the forces of good fighting evil together. The World of Light mode isn’t a lot of fun at least for me it wasn’t. It wasn’t Subspace Emissary, which I know its wasn’t meant to replace it. I had the most fun with Adventure mode in Melee and would’ve preferred to have a little mode similar to that instead. Spirits are seriously just the stickers from Brawl. I frequently call them that unintentionally when playing the game. Doing Spirit Board battles is nowhere near as fun as doing nicely planned out battles like Melee’s Event Matches (nothing can top Event Match 51!) Spirit Battles are typically just jokes that can be beaten in less than a minute. Also no trophies... I understand why they chose not to because of how much work they require, but it still doesn’t mean I can’t miss them. The gameplay is definitely an improvement over Smash 4, but I still crave that fast paced action Melee/ Project M had. Heavier gravity, harder to recover, quicker to KO, L-Canceling, hit-stun and proper combo potential are all things that made faster, higher speed action. I’m not super big into the competitive scene, but even I think the faster pace of Melee-style gameplay is far more fun to play and watch.

Then there’s issues created because the devs are pushing too much into the competitive side of the game such as picking stages first then characters second, not having the game remember my character when returning from a match, having to make new rulesets just to change a few options. I’m pretty sure these are all things competitive people want that help out in tourney situations and stuff, but I don’t like them for normal matches. These are small issues in the long run, but I am bothered by them every time I play and I don’t see them ever changing that. All they need is a few new options to fix this. Toggle an option for stage select or character select first, a quick customizable ruleset option and have saved rulesets separately, and the option to remember your fighter. Heck they could even go a step further have it remember your preferred color to each character saved to your name data like how Smash 4 3DS did (that was a cool feature!)

The one word I would use to describe Smash Ultimate is HYPE! Nothing builds hype like a Smash Ultimate trailer. Every single trailer builds more hype for this game. From the original reveal trailer with the Inklings, Ridley, King K. Rool, and now Sephiroth?! Seeing those trailers, I can’t help, but smile and get hyped up and excited! Despite my nitpicky issues I have with the game, I can still say its a pretty darn good Smash game! I applaud Sakurai, the dev team, and Nintendo for going big with this game and putting so much effort into it and I can still enjoy it even if its not quite at the exact level I want.

#my thoughts #Super Smash Bros #personal

4 notes · View notes

jeanvaljean24601 · 4 years ago

Text

Assassin's Creed Valhalla Hands-On Preview

I guide my longship along the waterways of East Anglia, one of the regions of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s Anglo-Saxon map. Ahead is the shoreline of Beodericsworth, which will soon be the stage for one of this Viking-themed entry’s flagship features; raiding. With the blow of a horn, my crew begin bailing out, charging up the sands and crashing into the shields of the village’s unprepared guards. Wood splinters, blood gushes, and heads drop from shoulders. It’s exactly the kind of skirmish you’d expect from a Norseman raid. Inside, we hack apart the guard leaders defending the village’s treasures and take it for ourselves. Amongst our findings are two caskets so large it takes multiple vikings to get them open, filled with raw crafting materials. It’s a bounty that will, at the very least, get a knowing nod from Odin, if not a smile.Raiding in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla feels smaller scale than I expected, but is nonetheless good fun, and a vital part of fulfilling the Viking fantasy at the heart of the game. It’s also not the only way to pillage a Saxon settlement. The first time I approached a raiding target in a recent three-hour hands-on with Valhalla, I actually bailed out of the longship on my own, snuck around the back, and crept from guard to guard, taking them out silently. Stealthing the entire camp was overly easy due to the enemies standing perfectly still at their posts - something I hope will be upgraded with patrol paths by the time of full release - but some satisfaction remained thanks to the fact that Assassin’s Creed’s iconic hidden blade has been restored to full power once again, killing instantly with a generous splash of crimson. Preorder Assassin's Creed Valhalla Post-raiding party, I take protagonist Eivor to meet up with fellow clansman Finnr, who sets us on a course to assault Burgh Castle in Northwich, where we’ll face a rival clan. This transitions into what is effectively the boss fight version of raiding; Valhalla’s siege assaults. This one begins with a Viking variant of D-Day, with landing craft exchanged for longships and machine gun fire swapped out for volleys of flaming arrows. As the boats hit the shore and the first set of walls are blown apart, I become tangled up in the first phase of the main assault. It’s here where Valhalla’s combat really shines, despite the rough edges of the work-in-progress build. It’s an iterative upgrade of the system first introduced in Assassin’s Creed Origins, but one with enough Norse-flavoured garnish that it feels just right. Active abilities return, including one that has Eivor hurl half a dozen throwing axes into a collection of nearby enemies, and another that’s basically a charge-and-tackle manovre that lasts for as long as there’s still yards left to sprint. Such abilities can only be triggered by spending adrenaline, which is built through performing standard attacks and parries. But the moments between those super-powered blows are no less entertaining. Enemies have a stun meter, which when worn down allows you to follow up with finishers such as beating them over the head with their own shield, or swinging your axe up through their chin. Foes knocked to the floor can be leapt and stomped on as if they were a bed at a child’s slumber party. And if they refuse to fall over, they can be gleefully booted across the battlefield with the Kick of Tyr; essentially Odyssey’s Spartan Kick in all but name. In moments like these, the spirit of the berserker really starts to shine through. With the first courtyard clear of enemies, I’m able to use a battering ram to break down a timber perimeter fence and progress up to the gate. There are three phases in the assault (frustratingly without checkpointing in this preview build, meaning a full restart on death) with each introducing a new wrinkle of complexity. At the next gate, contained within a stone archway, archers fire arrows from wall-mounted ballistas and pour gallons of burning oil over the ramming crew. On the other side in the final courtyard, the castle’s hardiest occupants do their best to scupper your assault.By this point, I’m feeling fairly exhausted (I’m on my third attempt) and Eivor is feeling the burn. There’s no regenerating health in Valhalla, nor an HP boosting ability like Odyssey’s Second Wind. Instead, you have rations; effectively health potions made up of food gathered from the open world. While the grounds of the castle have a few mushrooms to nibble on, by the last phase of the assault I’ve picked both the land and my pockets dry of food, and have sustained a dent to my HP meter. In other words, I’m not well equipped for the boss battle the game then throws me into. Rued is a rival Viking armed with a longsword he can set ablaze, and is accompanied by a pet wolf. Like with many of Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s boss fights, it’s in this battle where you can detect some potential Soulsborne influences. Eivor has a stamina meter, depleted by dealing heavy melee damage, dodging, and absorbing enemy strikes with your shield. While light attacks may come for free, in a tight boss fight arena populated by a walking mountain and a ravenous wolf, it means stamina is constantly in need of attention. The wolf is able to grab hold of my shield in its maw, opening me up to heavy cleaves from Rued while I try to wrestle my arm free. A few well-placed strikes and some throwing axes knock the wolf out of the fight, leaving just Rued and I to dance it out atop the castle wall. As the fight progresses Rued begins to throw his weapons at me, but the combination of his attack patterns and the gap between us means there isn’t enough time for me to pull out my bow and strike back at range. With the screen fading to black as my health drops to critical levels, I’m just able to dodge a blow and generate enough adrenaline to perform Dive of the Valkyries; a leap that brings both my axe and shield down on Rued in a bone-crunching slam. He’s done for. Before I can bury the hatchet in his skull, though, my hand is stayed by Oswald, an Englishman ally who we’ve saved from Rued’s clutches. He preaches of fair trials before God, and I’m offered the choice to kill or spare my enemy. h96 max tv boxI do the sensible thing and slice open Rued’s neck with an axe, much to Oswald’s distaste.A bug in the demo - something not uncommon in pre-release builds - means I have to reset the game. I continue from where I left off, but am told that in this save game Eivor has abided by Oswald’s request and spared Rued. Fair enough, I think, that’ll keep him happy for his wedding, which is Valhalla’s next quest. Very much following in Odyssey’s footsteps, Valhalla - at least in this showing - has a well-judged balance between light and dark. h96 max x3After a gloomy castle siege I’m treated to a wedding filled with fun conversations and mini-games. I’m challenged to shoot a field full of targets after downing a flagon of ale, and take part in a drinking competition in which I need to neck no less than three horns of beer and not fall over in the process. It’s a delightful time to celebrate Oswald uniting with our clan as he marries Norsewoman Valdis. At least, it is until Rued crashes the party. It appears that Valhalla has ambitions to take the RPG side Assassin’s Creed up a notch; this moment feels like the kind of narrative consequence akin to what we’d see in games like Dragon Age. Because Rued had been spared, he turns up at the wedding looking for vengeance (had he died, I’m informed I’d instead be enjoying a race around the town). But rather than my blood, it’s Oswald’s he’s here to claim. At this point I’m offered another choice; I can let Oswald fight, or I can be his champion and kill Rued on his behalf. I take the latter option, and while I cut down Rued for good this time, Oswald seems slightly disappointed in me taking his place. I wonder if, in later hours, this will have a negative effect on our relationship. I also wonder if this is not just a one off event, but a promise that Valhalla is filled with these kinds of choices and repercussions. Along with narrative choices, Valhalla also iterates on the RPG stats systems its predecessors added to the Assassin’s Creed mix. Alongside the familiar active abilities is a constellation-style map of skill upgrades that provides a variety of passive upgrades. Some improve your basic stats - higher damage, increased health - while others unlock new combat moves such as stun attacks and finishers; those additional attacks that make the combat that extra bit more flavourful. Together, all of your upgrades increase your Global Power rating, a numerical indicator as to how powerful you are that replaces standard levelling. h96 max x3Alongside the introduction of further RPG mechanics, Valhalla’s world is also significantly more traditional of the genre, too; when galloping around it on my horse, or sailing down rivers on my longboat, it was easy to mistake England for The Witcher 3’s Velen. This means, visually, Valhalla is less striking than Odyssey or Origins, with its practically Tolkien colour palette feeling less fresh than the sands of Egypt or mediteranean greenery of Greece. Yet, perhaps because I’m English, I can’t help but get a thrill out of exploring just-about-recognisable versions of my own homeland.h96 max x3It should also be noted that Valhalla embraces British folklore perhaps more than it does Norse Mythology; as I explored this small chunk of the world I came across Black Shuck, a huge black dog that’s part of classic East Anglian folklore, as well as two members of the Daughters of Lerion; Gaelic women dressed in skulls with a fondness for sacrificial rituals and the supernatural. As with Odyssey, exploring uncovers optional bosses and other fun activities, although this time it’s all a lot more goth. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla looks to be, as is the tradition of the series, an iterative update on its predecessors. If the new approach to RPG design and gear-based progression has put you off the series, this slice of the game indicates that you’ll likely be unconvinced by Valhalla’s barely altered direction. But the few changes it makes to those systems suggests developer Ubisoft Montreal may have a newfound confidence in its RPG abilities, and a willingness to embrace more of the genre’s toolset. If its branching story points are frequent occurrences, it may be that Valhalla’s real innovation comes from player agency in the narrative, rather than any mechanical revisions. Provided the game delivers on that promise, my only genuine concern is that the return of the lethal hidden blade hasn’t resulted in instantly satisfying stealth. h96 max tv boxIt currently feels underbaked due to those stationary guards, and so needs some extra challenge to make it a worthwhile alternative to the entertainingly barbaric combat encounters. Fix that, and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla might well be able to both reclaim its lineage and further its admirable RPG ambitions.Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.

2 notes · View notes

rogueshipagogo · 5 years ago

Text

ppl have been asking me my opinions on space channel 5 vr... and i guess since i bought a vr headset off craigslist just so i could play it and speedrun it before work the day it came out... i should talk abt it now... i dont rly think i’ll be able to separate it into ‘good’ and ‘bad’ things i think i’m just going to do a rambly stream of consciousness bc i have a headache... but i DO have good things to say abt this game... so st.... sta stay t tune d

right off the bat, the thing i appreciate most abt this game- i like that space channel 5 vr doesnt have cash grab vibes. i Do genuinely believe that they Wanted to make this game For the people who are still obsessed with it, and that they ultimately did what they set out to do when they intended to scale certain aspects of the series up conceptually to match the way the fandom perceives it nowadays. but like i’ve said before... i’m not going to Disagree with the very common conclusion that it Needed to be longer, or at Least more intricate plot-wise. one of my fun and fresh excuses for sc5vr being as short as it is is because you arent really supposed to be playing vr games for too long anyways, its really disorienting and kinda painful, but even that doesn’t account for why so much of the game that we got is a rehash of old settings, concepts, songs, and characters. [i dont even have a problem with reusing old songs, i just think the ones they chose ended up being misleading]

for example i think it makes sense that the first report is a remake of the first games first report on the surface, it’s meant to take you back to the way the first game felt and give you an idea of what it means that the games classic scenery can be rendered in actual high quality detail now [same with the recurrence of events like encountering the space pirates in the asteroid belt/the last battle against a villain being singing to it about what it’s done wrong], but i really thought, like, report 1 was going to end up being a simulated scenario for the benefit of lou and kee’s training... which i dont think ended up being the case??? i think they really did write ‘ok here you are in the first game’s setting again, fighting the old enemies again, because... :^) ok have fun playing report 2!’

and then whats report 2... you fight another old boss from the first game... but theres Still no clear villain or motivation for anything thats happening... and there wont be until like... basically the end of the game...

like, glitter is a really cute character, but its kind of underwhelming that shes just a random citizen who was kidnapped by an entity that we NEVER LEARN ANYTHING ABOUT... like part 1 was extremely notable for being about corporate greed and corruption, part 2 honestly wasnt that political in comparison but at least made you do a think wrt purge’s motivation and his methods, and this game just has a plot device that feels like it’ll do smth but then ends up not doing anything beyond what we already learned about it from the information on its character bio before the game was out. if it turns out that cell x is actually relevant again in a future entry in the franchise and they do have a more developed concept for what cell x Is in mind, i’ll do an entire backflip, but for now its just chalked up to being the result of More Space Hijinks that dont need to be explained

ESPECIALLY WITH ALL OF THE ALLUSIONS TO CELL X BEING AN ENTITY THAT FEEDS OFF OF DANCE ENERGY... it had me thinking that there would have to be some New Method of fighting it off that didn’t just lend it more power in the process, but nah apparently just tacking on the disclaimer ‘*this dance energy is not for glitter’ is enough to turn it from smth it can consume for power into big attacks you can use to kill it... like honestly it sounds like im asking for a lot from a game that has Never made too much sense, but considering that in part 2 they could add details like ‘oh didnt you know purge can open pocket dimensions? ulala is capable of manifesting tangible dance energy and the only other person who can do that is purge???’, its not like they havent come up with weird new shit for dance energy to do within the plot before. they just didnt do it in this game fsr

like did anyone else think that cell x/glitter was going to be the result of tossing purge out into deep space and him encountering the sc5 universe’s equivalent of an eldritch alien creature, smth more bestial than morolians?? even if purge wasnt part of it, when you say ‘uh oh, this guy Eats this society’s only source of energy!!!’ i expect the stakes to get HIGH, and i want the ramifications of it to be kinda STARTLING, because blank wanted money and purge wanted to ritualistically end the world but something this near to an ecological disaster that would force an entire paradigm shift hasn’t occurred yet in the series?? its totally new!!! there’s a lot they could do with this but OH DONT WORRY ABOUT IT EVERYONE ulala knows how to make dance energy kill cell x instead of feed it she’s got this we’re good no need to investigate more into all that

i can’t explain why the game is like this. and i dont expect grounding to address it in any meaningful way either. i’m sure they’re Aware of these complaints by now- the game reviewing community has Not been kind to sc5vr specifically due to all of these shortcomings [i didnt even touch on the issues with motion sensing and how many of the games mechanics were removed in favor of smth presumably easier to program yet much less satisfying, like Secret Moves just being mini quicktime events and Turning Your Ratings Into Stars just being replaced with the standard Three Strikes You’re Out method of scoring], but the pr team still seems very enthusiastic abt the game and is still promising dlc and potentially even more games in the series after this one- heres hoping that they’ll at least take these grievances to heart and consider making the experience not only more accessible [aka it will... go back to being a rhythm game with controller input.... and not... an exclusive vr experience...], but also as immersive and detailed as the old games, with less reused plot beats. i can let some of it off the hook in this game simply because i’m aware that it began its life as a tech demo that was only supposed to be that initial first report from the first game But Happening All Around You!, but i Really dont think they could get away with doing this little to expand upon the groundwork set by the first two games again. not with the way people remember part 2 being such a vast upgrade from part 1... the bar had been set so high that this just felt like a huge backslide into something even sillier and harder to take seriously than part 1 before we had any idea what kind of staying power the franchise would have as a hallmark of sega’s quirky antics. like... this game is what i think space channel 5 looks like to people who don’t understand the appeal of the first two games. and that scares me

but i guess for the most part, aside from wishing they had done more to revitalize the setting and the lore of the sc5 universe itself, im kind of glad it didnt do a lot to change the existing storylines the characters have kinda forged for themselves- here i was stressing out that they would pull out some plot development that would utterly and drastically change the way we talked abt the series for the rest of time, but so little happened and so little was added to the bank of sc5 lore that we can kind of all just carry on as usual and keep having the same headcanons we always had.

BUT!!! there ARE a lot of cute little details here and there that make the experience feel wholesome and like i said not an utter cashgrab- like so many of the character profiles referencing previous games [all of the references to npcs in this game being relatives of the npcs of the last games made me lose it] and how often ulala changes her expressions up and looks right at you and talks to you. the new music they wrote for the game also all slaps and everyones redesigns [if they got a redesign... rip pudding] are stunning

one of the most important things they did in this game was give a nice sort of Update to every character.... for example explaining that ulala isn’t a rookie reporter any more like she was in the first 2 games, that she’s moved up to being in charge of training new channel 5 reporters, and that while pudding is still somewhat stuck on her rivalry with ulala her career isn’t stagnant either, she was just cast in a romcom series as the lead... which is really nice considering how in the past she was portrayed as somewhat of a loser with almost no remaining fans left from her idol years

and you knew i was going to bring up jaguar at some point HES ALL OVER THIS GAME AND IT LITERALLY MADE ME FEEL LIKE MY LIFE WAS WORTH POWERING THROUGH THESE LAST FEW YEARS AND ALSO LIKE IM A GENIUS FOR SPENDING SO LONG POSTING EVERY SINGLE DAY ‘NO REALLY, HE’S THE SECONDARY PROTAGONIST OF THE STORY, ITS ABOUT CHANNEL 5 AS A COMPANY AND THEIR IMPACT ON EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER ENCOUNTERED THEM AND THAT INCLUDES JAGUAR AS WELL AS ULALA HES INTEGRAL TO THE PLOT BC SHE WOULDNT BE ALIVE IF IT WEREN’T FOR HIM’ i feel like it’s really incredible how in this game he has genuinely nice energy and doesnt withhold praise from ulala just to be helpful in a mysterious way later and he like HAS FRIENDS now. like consider how he went from disgraced former ch5 employee who got mad every time he saw them, to kidnapped robot henchman kinda humbled by the fact that now the turns tabled and ulala had to rescue Him, and now 3 years later his bio is all about how he has a new tv show thats super popular and he has a new entourage of ladies who he considers his '’’’’’comrades’’’’’’’ within the station he founded??? AND AFTER 20 YEARS THEY WERE FINALLY ABLE TO GIVE HIS MODEL JUICY ASS CHEEKS??????????????? NO MORE PANCAKE BOOTY???? THE BOY HAD A GLOWUP AND NO I WONT STOP TALKING ABOUT IT

WHEN I SAY MEOW MATCH THE POSE MOTHERFUCKERS THIS BLONDE BASTARD GETS TO BE IN CHARGE OF THE HUNDRED STAGE BATTLE NOW TOO THIS IS THE YEAR OF THE SPACE PIRATES BAYBEE

#its almost 4 am. idk i will probably have more to say tomorrow. my head still hurts #the galaxy depends on my funky moves

9 notes · View notes

alright002-blog · 4 years ago

Text

Should Buy a Mechanical or Computerized Sewing Machine?

If you are new to this field, you may be in doubt of sewing machine type and have no ideas about the different between mechanical and computerized sewing machine.

Simply, the main difference is the computerized sewing machine run much more smoothly and quietly than the mechanical one. Needless to say, there are lots of handy features that the computerized units can perform.

Basically, the mechanical sewing machines controlled by a rotary wheel and available at market place ever since 1800. These machines have knobs and dials to make changes in the tension or the length or width of the stitch.

The famous manufacturer, Singer, had been monopoly this industry once upon a time. My mother also own one Singer unit when I was young. Now, it becomes an antique at home.

I don’t sure it still functioning or not. Perhaps I should test it when I go back hometown to visit my parent. Sorry about the tangent.

Before computerized sewing machines available at market place, the pioneer manufacturers such as Singer, Elna, Janome are introduced electronic sewing machines around year 1970.

As its name implies, this kind of device equipped with a motor, each one is assigned with a specific task and run by electricity. Instead of turning knobs or dials, it use button to adjust length or width of the stitch which is common feature that you can found in almost all computerized sewing machines.

The computerized sewing machines equipped with the similar chips and stepper motors that commonly exist in electronic units. If you saw a sewing machine comes with a LCD display screen, then it is computerized one.

It posses a lot of convenience features that benefits all sewers. Some of advance models such as Singer CD-200 even have built in microprocessor which helps the machine accept new information via a SD card and generate new stitching patterns based on the information loaded inside the card.

Back to the question: which type of sewing machine should buy? I personally suggested computerized sewing machine. You probably may argue that you just want to use it to sew over any fabric and does not require embroidery functions. You might also worry that computerized one could not last as long as mechanical unit. Some even concern about the repair cost.

Although it is the fact that some of old aged mechanical sewing machines are still functioning. But, do you really want to carry a machine for more than ten years with today advances technology? You might have excellent sewing skills, but don’t you think that you still benefit a lot in term of productivity if you choose computerized one? Unless you treat your sewing machine like pearl necklace and plan to hand down to your grand-kids, else I totally cannot see any realistic reason you want to keep your mechanical unit instead of upgrade it to computerized unit.

Simply, think about what you want to do or you been plan to do but your old unit cannot fulfill you. If you are beginner, a computerized sewing machine definitely could help you a lot especially in certain stitch patterns. If you own a mechanical unit and considering trade-in and replace by computerized sewing machine, I’ll tell you that is a smart decision and you’ll never regret.

Janome 8077Review

At the first glance, the Janome 8077 computerized sewing machine has a nice and clean control panel. People normally will be surprised when they start realize that this Janome sewing machine has quite a lot of sewer friendly features that are usually found only in much more expensive units. Those easy-to-use functions make it be one of popular computerized sewing machine for beginner.

With dimension 16”L x 11”W x 7”D and weight 18.2 lbs, it is portable and you are free to carry it to your sewing class or any place you want with its built-in carry handle.

Better still, this sturdy Janome sewing machine is designed to handle sheer fabrics as well as heavy-weight fabrics. Users are easily selecting their desired stitches or adjust its width and length via the Front Stitch Panel and LED Screen.

There are total 30 built-in stitches for users to choose from including 6 One-Step buttonholes which sew a buttonhole exactly according to the button size. With Janome 8077, users no more straining their eyes as this free arm sewing machine equipped with automatic needle threader function.

It also comes with 7 Feed Teeth Box feeding system and drop feed function. The manufacturer giving 20 years warranty on parts, 2 years on electrical, 1 year on labor and might be voided due to certain activities.

Janome 8077Highlight Features

Handy Control Buttons

As the picture shown, there is few control buttons located at the left handed-side of this Janome sewing machine. From top to bottom, there are

Needle Up/Down: Users are allowed the position of needle either stops in the up or down position; which is useful feature for sewing tight corners

Pattern Stop: this auto lock button manages to take care of tying off stitches.

Reverse: Use it as and when needed.

Start/Stop: no longer foot control; simply push this button to start any sewing tasks

As a computerized sewing machine for beginner, the Janome 8077 is equipped with speed control slider conveniently located for sewing pleasure. So users especially those novices could reduce the sewing speed with a slide of this button to ensure the electric equipment running under that particular limit.

30 Built-In Stitches

The Janome 8077 has 30 well thought out stitches which include 6 One-Step Buttonholes; they are round end, keyhole, stretch, square, knit and antique buttonhole. The bright LED screen will display the selected stitch number together with number of width and length.

So, users just need to choose their favorite stitches as well as stitch width and length by pressing the plus or minus buttons and take a look at the LED screen. This is another great feature for beginners.

The Janome 8077 comes with 7 Feed Teeth Box Feeding System means that 7 point contact in a box rotation pattern for extremely consistent fabric movement. It allows users to sew any type of material from the lightest weight fabric to heavy fabric.

Wondering how the Automatic Needle Threader works? I happen to see a demo during their product show few weeks ago.

Just pull down the needle threader, put thread in the hook and in front of the needle, pull back and the needle is threaded.

Better still; the bobbin cover is see-through so users always have an idea about how much thread they have left or nearly running out of thread.

Another great feature for beginners is that the Janome 8077 is jam proof in case any they sew off the edge of fabric.

Furthermore, its drop-feed system allows for free motion quilting, free motion embroidery, darning, and button attachment.

To make your sewing enjoyable, this computerized sewing machine also equipped with precision tension dial for users to set tension they want and the tension stays there.

Janome 8077 Pros and Cons

The Janome 8077 is lightweight sewing machine and easy for carry around. Those satisfy users normally comment that it is well worth the price and their favorite features include automatic needle up and down function, clear bobbin plate, speed control slider and easy to thread.

Having said that, there are certain users feedbacks that the decorative stitches are not much and there is no cover included with the package. Some other said that its user manual does not cover all features is detail and diagrams are difficult to read.

1 note · View note

ladala99 · 5 years ago

Text

More Thorough Thoughts on Mystery Dungeon Rescue DX Demo

Intro

When I was a kid, the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series was peak hype. You could actually play as a Pokemon, going on adventures in randomly-changing environments so nothing is ever exactly the same. The story blew me away, surprising me with how emotional video games could be. And that was just the first game, as the second improved upon so many things.

Here we are again, remaking the first games. I’m really excited for people who never played Red Rescue Team and Blue Rescue team to experience the story of the Ninetales curse for the first time. It’s a great story in a great game and it deserves to be seen by more people.

Graphics/Art Style

In addition, this game fixes something I never imagined would be fixed: the art style. When the Mystery Dungeon games transitioned to 3D, they lost the series’ original art style to be replaced with the generic cartoon art style every 3D cartoon game feels like it has. With these filters, it not only regains what the drawn graphics of the original imply, it recreates the concept art with its hatched shading and bold lines. Look at any screenshot of the game, and everything other than the Pokemon looks like a drawn picture, not a 3D environment. It is so pretty and it works so well.

Aside from the Pokemon, though. The filters make them fit in for the most part, but it is very clear that these 3D models (the same ones used in everything since Gen V - GameFreak, you taking notes?) are not made specifically for this game. It’s not bad that they stick out, since in a way, they should, but it does break the concept art look that everything else has.

It does keep Super’s walking animations, too, unfortunately. They animated four-legged Pokemon very generically and it doesn’t look great. The originals had unique animations for every Pokemon, mainly because every Pokemon had unique sprites. Now the uniqueness is largely gone. It’s not a dealbreaker by any means, but I miss Skitty’s pounces as it wanders around town.

Changes from the Originals

The personality quiz will sometimes suggest Pokemon from the opposite gender compared to the original. I haven’t tested it thoroughly, but when I took it, I chose girl and it gave me the Pokemon that used to be male-exclusive for that personality trait.

And now you can choose your starter regardless of the test results. I like the best-of-both-worlds approach here. You can also choose Partner Pokemon that used to be exclusively Heroes in the original, so that’s very neat.

Dungeon mechanics have been updated to be an evolution of Super’s mechanics. The demo ends too early in the game for me to form a full opinion on this. So far, I haven’t noticed it change the difficulty, as moves didn’t really have Base Power in the original as far as I noticed, so Tackle was just as good as Slam. Better even, as it has more PP. Now, you start with better moves, but it doesn’t seem to make it all that much easier. It was already easy.

I can’t say I’m the hugest fan of “press A and the game chooses the best move for you to use,” but if you use Super’s move button combo, you can choose a move yourself, anyways. And there is a “do nothing” button combo, so I’ll just have to get used to using that rather than pressing A when I want to do nothing.

Overall, though, moves are handled a lot better than they were in the originals, at least on the accessing them front. Some people are upset about the lack of a Basic Attack, but I made my farewells when Gates to Infinity came out and made them useless. It makes Max Elixirs less useless.

Story-wise nothing has changed so far other than Diglett being introduced slightly earlier, while also making you a shortcut to the Pelipper Post Office. Not sure if that means more story additions are on the way (I hope so!) or if it’s just a convenience thing with an in-universe explanation.

Really small thing that bothers me, though, is that wandering NPCs in town have zero weight to them. In the originals, NPCs had set ranges and you couldn’t move them. Now, you so much as brush up against them and they slide away from you. Even Gates and Super did it the original way. It feels wrong and cheap the new way; at least in most games that let you move NPCs, you need to exert some force. As it is here, I try to talk to them and push them away in the process.

Conclusion?

As far as I’ve seen so far, I’m pretty excited. But there’s still more to talk about that I will under the cut! It involves mild spoilers found out through the game’s Help Menus.

Pokemon Availability

Here’s something that’s neutral-to-negative: all signs point to these games consisting of only Gens I-III, evolutions/pre-evolutions(?) of Gen I-III Pokemon, Megas and Primals of Gen I-III Pokemon, and Lucario. More than the original? Yes. But in this day and age, it’s not very many. We criticized Sword and Shield for cutting the cast, and even before the DLC those games have more than this game does.

I understand it as an artistic choice. It’s the same reason Let’s Go, Pikachu and Eevee only have Kanto Pokemon. But when I get a new Pokemon game, especially Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, I want to use Pokemon I’ve never used before in that context. And I’ll be shocked if any of the newcomers are available before the post-game.

And not even Alolan Formes are in. The game’s TMs indicate that this game was developed to release during Gen VII, but they didn’t even do the obvious and make the Ninetales that lives on an icy mountain ice-type.

Shiny Pokemon Exist

That’s all we know, but that’s really cool. Apparently the Friend Bow helps recruit them.

Exp. All

Something that started in Gates to Infinity and continued into Super Mystery Dungeon is the fact that every recruited Pokemon gains experience along with you, regardless if they are on the adventure or not.

They changed the name of Friend Areas to Rescue Camps, and one of the Rare Quality descriptions seems to indicate that Pokemon in Rescue Camps gain experience with you.

Unlike with the main series, I don’t really mind it. I find the game more fun when I’m bulldozing my way through everything than I do when I’m struggling. But that’s just me.

I can see this being a disappointment for some. It’d be nice to be able to turn this on or off, especially since it would be funny considering the main series took away that option. But I’m just speculating now.

IQ Replaced

Instead we have Rare Qualities, which it seems some Pokemon come with, but others can be obtained through gummis. Gummis now only come in two varieties rather than the type-based ones, and thus are likely a lot rarer. Likely. I’ve got a job sitting in my Accepted Jobs list that rewards one so maybe they’re not all that rare.

Absolute Mover has an equivalent, so that’s all I really care about here. If I can have a Caterpie that crashes through walls, I’m happy.

Six Additional Story Beats?

The original Red/Blue Rescue Team had 12 total story portraits on the loading screen. DX has 18. This could mean one of two things:

One, it could have more actual events in the story. This I’m hoping for, but...

Two, more of the game’s story could have portraits. The original only showed the Legendaries you encountered, but there’s important events that happen that don’t involve Legendaries. Plus not all of the post-game events had portraits.

So, I want to be excited, but at the same time, I can’t get my hopes up.

Conclusion

I’m still excited, but it’s not exactly what I wanted from another Mystery Dungeon game. The gameplay’s still fun, of course, and I’m excited to see the rest of the game in this beautiful artstyle, but I have to temper my expectations. This isn’t Gen VII Mystery Dungeon where I can play as a Litten, nor Gen VIII Mystery Dungeon where I can have a Sobble partner.

This is Gen III+. It’s the original but prettier and with new mechanics. I’ll definitely love it, but it won’t be what I was hoping for.

#pokemon #pokemon mystery dungeon #video game review

8 notes · View notes

eretzyisrael · 5 years ago

Link

September is a super busy time of the year for families, with millions of students returning to schools, entering new classrooms, meeting new teachers and peers, and sitting at new desks. During these first few days or weeks, parents will be watching — perhaps weepily, perhaps with relief — as their offspring disappear behind school doors, launching themselves into the next phase of their academic careers.

Doors are things we take for generally take for granted. Unless there’s a problem — the door won’t lock! — we don’t really think much about them. We talk about them more in metaphors than we do about their actual physical manifestations. We assume they keep unwanted things out and keep us safely in, but the assumption is an unconscious one.

But for one Israeli dad, Omer Barnes, who is the CEO of REMO Doors, doors are something more — and I don’t just mean his livelihood. They may be a solution to a uniquely American problem: school shootings.

For generations, parents used to assume that when their kids disappeared behind their school doors, they would be safe. That, at the end of the day, kids would walk out the doors of their schools, and walk through the ones that open into their homes and rooms, where they could talk about their days, share meals, do homework, and play pretend.

But, increasingly over the past few years, that assumption, that feeling of security, has been challenged. Since Columbine, we’ve experienced over 200 school shootings here in the U.S, with 24 school shootings taking place in 2019 alone. That’s not comparable to any other country in the world. And that reality has made the dreadful possibility of our kids not returning home from school something very real.

It was to avoid this possibility that the superintendent of Harrington Park, New Jersey — where Omer’s kids are enrolled in school — called him one day. The superintendent got word that Omer was in the door and security business, and wanted him to come check out the school’s front door and, if necessary, suggest a replacement as a way to keep out a potential shooter.

It was during this visit that Omer, a father of two, found out about what kids actually do during active shooter drills. During these drills, which now occur in just about every public school in the U.S., kids pretend as if there was an active shooter in the building. They have to hide under their desks and keep quiet and still in a dark classroom until the drill is over. Many times, these drills happen with no warning, and with no letter home to parents.

“My kids?! You’re putting my kids for 20 minutes, half an hour in the dark, and you think it’s normal?” Omer recalls asking. “I grew up with a country of terror and drills and this is wrong.”

It’s hard for us to know how effective active shooter drills really are. In fact, psychologists have noted that frequent and realistic drills can be harmful for kids, and cause anxiety and depression.

In Israel, Omer tells me, these kinds of traumatizing drills would never be acceptable. Yes, Israeli kids are familiar with terror and missile threats. For school drills, or during times of emergency, Israeli kids run to the merchav mugan, which literally means “protected space,” known colloquially as the mamad. Since the Gulf War — which Omer and I both lived through in Israel — every new construction project, from private homes to schools, have to have a designated space that is a shelter from both bombs and chemical weapons. The mamad can be any room in the house, as long as its constructed to meet certain safety standards.

And so, when there’s a missile attack, Israeli kids know to run to the mamad and shut the door. They can bring coloring books and other activities to the safe space — no silence and dark required. This doesn’t mean that they avoid trauma, however. After Operation Protective Edge, Omer tells me, one of his nieces was so traumatized by the missile alarms that she was too scared to be in her bedroom in the dark by herself. The difference here is that this type of trauma is both familiar and expected — all Israeli citizens are familiar with it, unlike the quiet trauma of American active shooter drills that exist only on school grounds.

After the meeting with the superintendent, Omer needed time to think. And, after months of research, Omer realized that changing the front doors was not a solution. After all, the shooter usually comes from inside the school — either a student or a former student. And so, he turned his attention to classroom doors.

The door that he came up with, which is made in Israel, is not just a door: made of metal, it is both fireproof and bulletproof. With the door in place, a classroom with cinderblock walls is transformed into a safe room. The idea is to recreate the mamad in every American classroom. After all, school shootings are a type of terror attack, Omer said. And who knows terror better than Israelis?

Of course, bulletproof doors are not Omer’s invention. But what he helped create is an affordable ($2,500) bulletproof door that is fast to install and easy to operate. What’s more, since the REMO door fits over the existing doorframe, it takes just under an hour to install. And the door itself has no complicated electronic mechanism, just a simple analog palm lock. When demoing the door in a classroom, he asked a 5-year-old to lock the door from the inside. The fact that he managed to do it showed to Omer that this was truly a workable solution.

Moreover, Omer hopes the doors will be so effective that they might help end school shootings altogether. Like a guard checking bags at the entrance of every building in Israel, Omer hopes that his doors will deter shooters from carrying out attacks in schools.

The doors so far have been installed in dozens of schools, including Bnos Menachem, a girl’s Yeshiva in Brooklyn, the first school to get a government grant to install the doors. Omer’s doors have also been endorsed by 25 senators after a recent visit to the senate.

The doors aren’t just about keeping kids physically sound. Omer he recalls how stressed he was when his son, 11, came back home after a drill. “There was a school shooting today but we don’t know who died,” his son told him.

Later, Omer discovered what had actually happened: “They did a drill at lunch, and one kid had a nosebleed and they saw the blood in the corridor and they thought someone died,” he said.

Active shooter drills are traumatizing, not just for the students, but for the millions of teachers who have to go through them. But with the safe doors, things are different. Once the door is locked, and the kids are safe in their classroom. They don’t need to turn off the lights. They don’t need to be quiet. Just like in the mamad, where kids and adults can entertain themselves while they wait for safety, the kids and their teachers can have a semblance of normalcy as they wait for the lockdown to end.

When there’s a lockdown drill, kids can color, read, write, or chat with each other. In other words, they can go about their day. “Suddenly, lockdown is creative time,” Omer said.

#school #Israel #Domestic terrorism #school shootings

14 notes · View notes

vgperson · 6 years ago

Text

What Did I Translate in 2018?

#vgperson

137 notes · View notes

cyberramblings · 3 years ago

Text

3DS: Time for Playtime

It's been fun getting a Wii U lately, but I wanted to look back on all the use I've gotten out of my 3DS in the last year by running down my most played games.

Super Smash Bros. - 154 Hours

This is still my most played game after recently getting back into the 3DS, despite playing zero Smash in that time. I played a lot of this game when it came out and then leading up to the release of Ultimate. This game was a godsend for someone like me who didn't own a Wii U but wanted to stay involved with the series.

Pokemon X - 56 Hours

Again, this is from when I first got my 3DS. I played this one over a whole summer vacation off and on! I still can't decide how I feel about XP Share.

Pokemon Ultra Moon - 51 Hours

Okay, this one is this high because after beating the game, my girlfriend tried to catch all the Pokemon and collect all the totem stickers. I really enjoyed this one, but the Ultra Necrozma fight kicked my butt.

Link Between Worlds - 49 Hours

I actually own the special edition Triforce 3DS which came bundled with this game! As my first game on the system, it is no surprise to see it so high, even though I got stuck on the final boss. I consider this to be one of the best Zelda games.

Professor Layton and the Miracle Mask - 41 Hours

This one makes a lot of sense. When I played all that Smash Bros before the release of Ultimate, this was the one other game I played during that time, to the point of actually beating it and a good chunk of the daily puzzles! I even missed a college lecture because I was so wrapped up in the climax.

Pokemon Alpha Sapphire - 27 Hours

Finally, a game I played recently with no shenanigans or excuses. This was an interesting "book ends" with Omega Ruby, as OR was the first Pokemon game I played in my recent endeavor to play them all, while AS was towards the end. Backwards of their names, huh?

Pokemon Omega Ruby - 26 Hours

Fitting that this game should be so close to Alpha Sapphire. I would think that one of these two games would've been left running overnight or somehow had the playtimes differ more, but it somehow makes me hapy to see them side by side. I appreciated Wally's Theme much more the second time through.

Pokemon Y - 23 Hours

Considerably less than the time I spent in X all those years ago. This was one of the last Pokemon games I played in my recent playing of all the games, since I had already technically beaten X. It was a lot of fun to revisit though, and I love Sylveon!

Ocarina of Time 3D - 21 Hours

This one also makes sense, since I owned it during my original teenage years of owning the 3DS. I can't believe I paid 40 bucks for this just to get stuck on the Forest Temple for years! OoT doesn't resonate with me the same way as everyone else seemingly.

Pokemon Red - 19 Hours

Again, this makes sense. I think this was the third game of my recent Pokemon marathon, right after Alpha Sapphire and Ultra Moon. It was a short run thanks to an overlevelled Venasaur and the three legendary birds. I enjoyed crushing this game.

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy - 16 Hours

This is the game I just finished. I love the series and it was nice to finish it out. I think the ending was silly but the presentation value was nice to see.

Pushmo - 14 Hours

This was my go-to breakfast game for weeks, but phone-scrolling has replaced it as my morning activity while eating.

Shovel Knight - 14 Hours

This used to be the premiere downloadable title on 3DS. I think this game still holds up, but it has lost the sheer novelty of being a Kickstarter retro success over time.

Shin Megami Tensei IV - 13 Hours

I liked Persona 4 so I thought I would like this. It was too difficult for me back then, but now I don't have the patience. This was one of the games I actually paid 15 bucks to download back in highschool.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - 13 Hours

The first of my several attempts to get into Monster Hunter. I bought, played, quit, and sold this game all back in high school. I would later go on to buy, try, and sell Monster Hunter World as well. It just isn't for me.

Metroid: Samus Returns - 12 Hours

I tried and hated this game on PC emulator, but it has a lot more charm on the actual system. I still generally dislike the melee mechanic but I generally enjoyed this game. It helps that I even beat the original first! Hopefully Dread fixes the few things wrong with this game.

Kid Icarus: Uprising - 12 Hours

I don't know if I ever fell in love with the "unique" control scheme of this game, but I definitely fell in love with all of the characters! This was a great one to play with my girlfriend watching. It's also great to have more of a context for Pit, Palutena, and Dark Pit in Smash now!

Pokemon Sun - 11 Hours

I haven't beaten it yet, whoops.

Rhyhm Heaven Megamix - 11 Hours

One of the last purchases I made before the Switch came out and killed my 3DS playing nearly permanently. I paid 30 bucks! As much as I love this game, I don't know if it was worth that.

Super Mario 3D Land - 10 Hours

A rare game that I played before AND after the rift of me playing 3DS. It's...fine. Definitely Mario.

Picross 3D: Round 2 - 9 Hours

I have always loved Picross and this is no exception. I really should dive back in sometime!

Animal Crossing: New Leaf - 8 Hours

I just can't get into it, I've tried but I can't.

Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright - 8 Hours

This was actually a birthday gift! I was very excited for the concept but hugely turned off by the time travel and setting. I need to give it another shake, perhaps after replaying some of the Ace Attorney games.

Resident Evil The Mercenaries 3D - 7 Hours

One of my few highschool digital purchases. I played a lot of Mercenaries in 6 and 5 (which this is based on, seemingly). It's...fine. But I should have just replayed Revelations on 3DS instead.

Theatrhythm Final Fantasy - 6 Hours

It was 7 bucks at GameStop used, so I guess I almost got a 1:1 ratio of hours to dollars. I would've enjoyed this game more now, after playing FF7 Remake.

Pokemon Picross - 6 Hours

Free AND Picross? Yes, but also grindy and scummy. I wish you could just buy a physical copy of this game with everything unlocked.

Paper Mario Sticker Star - 5 Hours

Ten dollars on clearance was too much for this game. Maybe I will try it again sometime knowing ahead of time that it is a joke of a video game. I spit on this game's grave.

Mario Tennis Open - 5 Hours

A lot of the games I acquired within the last year have much lower playtimes, so I was not expecting to see this game this high. I guess I played a few tournaments. I feel like I quit because Waluigi cheated, then played just the tutorial of Mario Golf before quitting that too.

Elite Beat Agents - 4.5 Hours

This game rules.

Tetris Axis - 4.5 Hours

This game drools.

Kirby Planet Robobot - 4.5 Hours

Cute game, but I only play it with my girlfriend.

New Super Mario Brothers 2 - 4.5 Hours

I am surprised it is this low considering I got stuck on the final boss in single player and beat around 2 worlds in coop.

Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward - 4 Hours

I need to play more!

Super Smash Brothers Demo - 4 Hours

Hell yeah this was such an exciting time to be a Nintendo fan! Trying to get ahold of this demo was like getting a Willy Wonk golden ticket. I was so excited to play as Mega Man, Villager, Mario, Link, and Pikachu even if just on Battlefield.

Kingdom Hearts 3D - 3.5 Hours

A surprisingly competent action RPG. This game kind of reeks as part of the PS4 collection, but it really shines on the original version.

Layton's Mystery Journey - 3 Hours

I like the idea of playing as Layton's daughter, but I don't like having a talking dog and an insufferable simp as sidekicks. I hope the next game just returns to the original crew.

Mario Kart 7 - 3 Hours

It's...Mario Kart. Not a ton more to say.

Mario Party Island Tour - 3 Hours

I have trouble keeping the different 3DS Mario Party games separate in my mind, but anything that's not Top 100 is fun with friends. Top 100 only has one, miserable board! Why???

Ultimate NES Remix - 3 Hours

A great game for pick up and play, but not for long sessions.

Art of Balance Touch - 3 Hours

Recently got into this. Tons of fun until the difficulty gets a little too high!

Warioware Gold - 2.5 Hours

I completely beat this game and it is still this low. Fun, but hard to recommend at any price but free.

Luigi's Mansion 2 - 2.5 Hours

Cute game....but feels hard to play for more than 20 minutes at a time.

Dead or Alive Dimensions - 2.5 Hours

Again, all I did was beat the game and then quit. Surprsingly competent for a 3DS fighting game, but too barebones with content compared to Smash.

Boxboy - 2.5 Hours

I feel like I played this game way more. It's cute and fun, but now I have a hard time picking up the puzzles where I left them.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate Demo - 2.5 Hours

This tricked me into buying the game! Dangit

Mario Party Star Rush - 2.5 Hours

Oh god, I can't keep this one and Island Tour straight.

Pokemon Shuffle - 2 Hours

I feel like I played this one way more, but that is probably because the phone version also exists.

VVVVVV - 2 Hours

Beat the whole game! Not a bad way to spend time, but this makes it worth only 2 dollars according to my 1:1 ratio of dollars to hours.

Final Fantasy Explorers - 2 Hours

I like some things about this game but I just cannot play anything related to Monster Hunter.

Tri Force Heroes - 2 Hours

This suffers from "Overcooked syndrome" where you have to rely on your teammates so much that it becomes a total chore.

Theatrythm Final Fantasy Curtain Call - 1.5 Hours

I played that much just to unlocked multiplayer.

Super Street Fighter IV - 1.5 Hours

I think I paid for this game full price back in high school and then barely played it. I've always tried to delude myself into thinking that I can play real fighting games that are not Smash.

Hatsune Miku Project Mirai DX - 1.5 Hours

Again, I feel like I played this game for days and days. I suppose rhythm games feel like time slows down when you play them. Thumbs up for including Puyo Puyo! I am surprised this game released in the West at all.

Rune Factory 4 - 1.5 Hours

I got this far as a favor to a friend. I just can't play any game where there is an optimal way to act that sounds exhausting but possible to me. I know I could easily talk to all the NPC's every day... but I do not want to.

Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate - 1.5 Hours

This was exclusively played with friends. Not a fan.

Pokemon Rumble World - 1.5 Hours

Free games. Novelty as a kid. No time for them as an adult. Nothing about this game is appealing beyond the price point.

Attack of the Friday Monster - 1.5 Hours

My biggest memory of this game is playing it on the schoolbus when a little kid asked if he could play/watch and I told him I was playing a boring game that he wouldn't like. As cute as this game is, yes, it is boring and not very fun.

Sonic Generations - 1.5 Hours

I somewhat enjoyed this game until the Shadow boss fight. Can't figure it out. Not fun.

Kirby's Extra Epic Yarn - 1.5 Hours

Cute, played it with girlfriend.

Super Mario Land 2 - 1 Hour

I think I got this with Club Nintendo points?

Rage of the Gladiator - 1 Hour

Medieval offbrand Punch-Out.

Mario Party: The Top 100 - 1 Hour

ONE BOARD?!? At least it has the storybook minifame from gamecube Mario Party.

Trace Memory - 1 Hour

Bought used from GameStop. I was told it was a hidden gem, but I didn't have the patience.

Mario and Sonic Rio 2016 - 1 Hour

Cute game to play with friends but some of the minigames suck. Thumbs up for less common Sonic characters.

Azure Striker Gunvolt - 1 Hour

Not bad, just helped me realize that I don't really like Mega Man style games all that much. The genre of "Mega Man" just feels like a Metroid with no exploration or meaningful progression.

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - 1 Hour

I tried to get into this franchise but it is so booooorring and slow and unappealing to me.

I've been rounding to the half hour, so the next game is Zelda Oracle of Season at 44 minutes, which would round down to half an hour. I will take that as my cue to finish here.

In conclusion: games I owned longer tended to be played longer. Shocker. This was all just an excuse to ramble about Nintendo games anyways.

#3ds #ds #nintendo #mario #zelda #pokemon #metroid dread #sonic #kid icarus

0 notes

chaoticengineerbanana · 4 years ago

Text

Screensaver For Mac Clock

Clock Screensaver For Mac

Best Clock Screensaver For Mac

Welcome back to my Youtube Channel! If you liked this video please give it a Thumbs Up & Subscribe ️ Here is the link to Download the Flip Clock.

This creative clock screensaver shows the current time in digital format using the hour and minute hands of a multitude of analog clocks placed together in a tight grid. The size of the grid changes every so often in order to show the time in a different style, and between showing the time each clock will turn its hands in a 'dance' with the.

Clock Mechanism Screensaver by SaversPlanet.com is a free screensaver that displays a clock on your screen. Even though Clock Mechanism Screensaver for Mac cannot be found on the developer's website, there are other clock screensavers for Mac. Here is a list of replacements for Clock Mechanism Screensaver for Mac.

10 Stunning Clock Screensavers for Windows And Mac

Mac clock screensaver free download padbury clock a horribly 3d halloween screensaver for mac os x 3d matrix code screensaver and many more programs navigation open search. An minimalist mac os x screen saver that integrates easily within your system and simulates the de.

What Are Screensavers ?

Long time ago, screensavers were actually meant to save the screen. Ya speaking literally. Save from what ? Well it happened to be a problem named screen-burn-effect – a permanent deformity on areas of a CRT monitor due to non-moving text or graphics being displayed for a long period of time. To negate this problem, screen savers were used to fill the screen with moving graphics when the computer was idle. But nowadays its sole purpose is to spice up your screen.(Also read : Display RSS Feeds as Windows Screensaver)

Some Free Clock Screensavers

1. Word Clock :

Word clock is a nice replacement for the typical analogue or digital clock that we generally use. It displays the date and time in a sentence. You can select from two display modes Linear and Rotary. The screensaver can be downloaded for iPhone, iPad, Mac OSx and Windows.

2. Fliqlo

Fliqlo is a nice flip style clock screensaver that happens to be my favorite. If you have a habit of keeping your system on for a long period without working on it (or just a download or scan running in the background) then this clock is a nice tool to spice up your PC screen. It is really a nice alternative for a led clock.

Clock Screensaver For Mac

3. National Geographic Channel Calendar Screensaver :

This is one of the nicest clock screensaver I have ever used. The date and time is shown in a nice animated fashion. This was the official National Geographic screensaver when I used it. But right now, I have (tried my best and) failed to find out a direct link from their site. Here is an alternate link for the download.

You may also want to check out some desktop tools which allow you to download National Geographic wallpapers for Free

4. In Rumour Screensaver V2 :

Inrumour is not just a clock screensaver. It is actually a weather screensaver too. You get to see the weather forecast for the next 2 days for your locality as well as the present weather update too for the same. The screensaver consists of an analogue clock and shows the date and calendar as well as news from inrumor.com.

5. Time Beat Clock Screensaver :

Time Beat is yet another clock screensaver that only serves the purpose of a clock. It uses a nice screen-beating effect every second. You can have a nice demo of the clock here. Look out for the download link to the bottom right corner of the demo page.

6. Crazyscreen Clock Screensaver :

Crazy screen is a free rotary clock screensaver which shows the time as a nice wheel.

7. Polar Clock Screensaver :

Polar Clock is an awesome clock and calendar screensaver in circles that moves as every second passes. The clock is based upon the idea of polar coordinates. The screensaver is available in 28 languages with numerous options such as text alignment, font size, arc properties, continuous / stepped motion, appearance, colors etc. The screensaver is available for Mac and Windows users.

8. Clockr A Flickr Based Clock Screensaver :

Clockr is a Flickr based clock screensaver that uses random images from Flickr to show the time. It needs a steady internet connection to work properly.

9. Uniqlo Screensaver Music, Dance :

Best Clock Screensaver For Mac

The strangest and most unique clock screensavers among the ones I listed here. All you have on the screen is cute Japanese girls dancing around different exotic locations along with a time and date stamp. The screensaver works in selected countries which are Japan, USA, UK, France, Korea, China, Hong Kong and Singapore. Download the application here. You will need a working internet connection to download all the sessions of the screensaver.

10. ClockBlock Screensaver :

It is really a nice way to show clock as a screensaver. The screensaver is available here.

You may also like reading online time clocks, stopwatches and timer websites. If you know about any such stunning free clock screensavers then please let us know via comments. And also drop in a few words about how you liked the list.

Known issue: If after installation you get an error saying the screensaver 'cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified', click 'Cancel', then click the back button (<) in the Desktop & Screen Saver panel to return to System Preferences. Choose 'Security & Privacy', click the 'General' tab and then click the 'Open anyway' button at the bottom where it says 'ClockOfClocks.saver was blocked from use because it is not from an identified developer.' Then return to the Screen Saver panel to test the screensaver.

This download will probably not be usable on computers running Microsoft Windows. Torrent for photoshop cc mac.

ScreenshotsVideo previewFilesAnti-virusHelp

Message board

Do you have a question about this screensaver? Post it on our message board »

Help pages

Anti-virus report for Clock of Clocks

Our editors have reviewed all files and found them to be safe, but they are also checked automatically using many different virus scanners. We are happy to share the results.

Virus scanner1715-ClockOfClocks.saver.zipAVGAviraBitDefenderClamAVESET-NOD32F-SecureKasperskyMalwarebytesMcAfeeMicrosoftPandaSymantecTrendMicro

Last scanned1 month ago

We have 1 file for 'Clock of Clocks'

1715-ClockOfClocks.saver.zip (Mac)

File report #1File name1715-ClockOfClocks.saver.zipTarget system Apple MacFile size87.15 kB (89,240 bytes)File typeZIP archiveAnti-virusDetection ratio0/13 (0%) View reportPopularityTotal downloads476Last downloaded13 hours agoFile verificationMD5942017c58f7d7f09bc2c10887222c01eSHA17b12cfbd137008e4eec484855f2fd299d1212ec9SHA2569337b7c88908f9d06cfbe8fd42b68688bf6d6d80a3fbed3c6fc455dc5b9a5e83

User reviews (1)

I am the developer of this screensaver. Since I am not interested in paying Apple 99 dollars per year for a Developer account, there is no way for me to have it flagged as a 'safe' program to install.

Autocad crack 2016 for mac. If you still want to install it, please do the following: 1) Download the screensaver 2) Open the downloaded .zip file to uncompress it 3) You will get a .saver file that you open to install the screensaver 4) System Preferences -> Screen Saver will open up. Select the ClockOfClocks screensaver. 5) You should get an error message. Click Cancel. 6) Go to System Preferences -> Security & Privacy -> General and click to let ClockOfClocks run 7) Go back to System Preferences -> Screen Saver and select ClockOfClocks again. 8) Once again there is an error message, but now you can click Open

PS If you like the screensaver, please consider donating a few bucks to Parkinsons research

by Magnus on May 28, 2020

Write a review

Please share your opinion about this screensaver in a user review.

Have a question or problem? Please post it on our message board (no registration).

More: Analog Clocks, Black & White, Clocks, Cool, Digital Clocks

Related screensavers

0 notes