#weird to play as human after like. 80% of the time in game playing with anthro monsters mods on

[cloud-ya]

stuff shapeshifters say

[goblin-the-clown]

pokes you. may i hear about katia? :333

AHHH YAY!! I'm so glad you asked about her she's my fav :D

Yapping under the cut

These are all the drawings I have of her (some of them are really old and I might change her design a bit if I ever draw her again but whatever)

I don't have a name for the story all my OC's are from but it's set in England some time in the 80s in an alternate universe with these Gods. Katia is one of the three god's (this is her human form, her God form is invisible to the human eye but she can transform into all kinds of weird creatures)

So there are three gods, the creator, the mother and the destroyer. Katia is the third God (the destroyer) and her job is to destroy the earth when the time comes. She was also given the power of chaos so if anything ever goes drastically downhill on earth she can do a kinda Noah's arch type situation and they can start again. However, since she's the youngest God, she's incredibly immature and gets bored of barely being able to use her powers very quickly. So what does she do? She goes down to earth as a human and decides to mess with a bunch of people, ruining their lives for fun.

So how the human forms work is that a human is sacrificed to become the vessel for a God (this happened like ages ago in ancient times). So basically she's puppeteering the dead body of some random girl from ancient times around. In her God form, her main state is invisible to humans but she can transform into all kinds of eldritch monsters and beings, she just can't transform into anything that lives on earth unless she's using a dead vessel. So she could become a deer or something if she wanted to.

As for the other God's, I won't go into too much detail about them because this is about Katia, but they're called Filippa and Xanthi. Filippa is the creator and has been in a coma like state since she first created the earth and Xanthi is the mother who is supposed to take care of the earth but he treats it more like entertainment and lets Katia do whatever she wants. They're all sisters and Filippa created Xanthi and Katia.

Anyway, there are two main ways she tortures humans. 1. She shows them weird god stuff that humans can't usually see and watches as they go insane 2. She recruits desperate, vulnerable people into a life of addiction, crime and violence and basically ruins their lives. All the other main characters are her victims, I'll give a very brief summary of them.

Milly was roommates with Katia for a while and developed a very unhealthy, one sided crush on her (something something she was a closeted lesbian and Katia was the first girl she'd ever been super close with). I don't have a lot about Alfie but he's punk and he has a very strong gambling addiction, him and Milly became roommates after Milly moved out. Yuto is the main character, he's a middle aged man who's ten year old daughter was murdered some time ago and he's been feeling lost ever since, when he met Katia he decided she was super cool and started acting and dressing like her. Jordan is a homeless lesbian who actually wasn't recruited into an unhealthy lifestyle by Katia but rather Yuto, her and Milly are yuri. Anyway yeah there are other characters as well but they're not directly related to Katia so I'll leave them out.

Personality wise, Katia is very energetic and outgoing, thus why a lot of people are drawn to her and tend to trust her. She speaks and dresses in a very eccentric way and she is very much inspired by Midori from yttd because of course I have to include her in some way. Besides torturing random people, her hobbies include: Making her own clothes, spending an insane amount of time doing her hair and makeup, listening to music, playing drums, doodling and beating little kids in arcade games. She is very silly and evil i love her <333

Also! Here's a very short story I wrote with my OC's (featuring Katia) a few days ago. It's the only thing I've written for them so far but I do plan on writing more, I'm just mainly caught up with doing stuff for my danganronpa rewrite atm.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed this yap session lol

[vannyisinsanity]

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1. Intro:

Hiii!!! - I am a cis woman (she/her) in my late 20s who is a Terrifier enthusiast. I am bisexual with a preference for women, and I am diagnosed autistic/adhd +. (I wont be yappin much about this as it gets exhausting to restrict my humanness to labels of any kind.)

This blog is multi-fandom/selfship/yumeship primarily with Sienna Shaw from the Terrifier series. I started self shipping myself with her during Terrifier 3, but I will from time to time reblog some stuff from Terrifier 1 + 2. I also self ship with my other fictional crushes, though not as much. This is a NSFW blog, so please be 18+. Mostly this is just a chill safe space for me to gush mainly about my yandere women boyfriends and occasionally my baby boy wives. I also ship Ronance (Robin x Nancy from ST) and Zadison (Zoe x Madison from AHS) - I might occasionally post about them.

This is also a safe space for all of MY hyperfixations. I do not like pro/anti discourse and I do not exist to appease you and your tastes or opinions. If you don’t like that, don’t interact. I won’t list all my fandoms, but I enjoy many video games, shows, movies, animes, mangas, horror/gore, fantasy, and science fiction medias. Fiction is often my way to cope and express myself so be mindful of that while interacting with me.

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2. About me:

I like the 80s, anime, writing, making music, oil painting, thrifting, dark room + analog photography, and drawing expressionism + surrealism portraits. I have a weird obsession with clowns. I play a lot of Overwatch, Fortnite, Phasmophobia, Pokemon, and Stardew Valley (I play other things but I play a lot of those). My favorite author is Iain M Banks (I have the entire culture series collection), and my favorite book genre is sci-fi, though I also enjoy horror, poetry, classics, memoirs, mangas, and theology. I am bias to female solo artists like Halsey, Grimes, Lady Gaga, Lana Del Rey, but I also love 80s, witch house, and necrotrap. I enjoy horror franchises like American Horror Story, FNAF, Terrifier, and Halloween. I love Attack on Titan and I am currently collecting the manga box sets. I also enjoy Game of Thrones, but hate what they did to Daenerys. :,) (I will grieve forever). Thai girls love dramas are also cool :3

I love love love clowns, and if you can’t tell, i’m pretty bias to villains (and or) mentally ill characters. Of course I studied psychology as a result -.- …

Moreover, anything that I post about is fiction. I am not listing all of my ideologies here either, but just know that I believe that everyone deserves freedom, acceptance, peace, and lack of violence/bullying - even the people you don’t like. That being said, I DO NOT agree with any real harm towards others, especially children and animals. Keep that far away from me. Other than that, I have no dni. It’s your life, you do what you want with it. Oh and by the way, I know these mfs aren’t real - that’s the point. Don’t be weird or make this distressing for me.

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3. About my self insert (Sunny Joy Clover):

(Warning, Terrifier [1,2,3] spoilers ahead)

Lore:

T1. - Sunny (my Terrifier s/i) grew up on an affluent farm with her loving mother and her controlling father. In an attempt to get away from familial dysfunction, Sunny's mom moved them to the suburbs. Sunny's mom befriended Sienna's canon aunt Jess Shaw a year after moving to the suburbs (much to her dad's dismay), as he heard about the "trouble" that the Shaw family brings. The move happened the year before Art became active in the area in movie 1. Sienna and Sunny first meet that summer before Art begins to terrorize Sienna. Timeline wise, think of this as the Terrifier 1, before we meet Sienna on screen in the 2nd movie. They spend a bit of time here and there hanging out, but not much. Sunny is mostly seen as a family "friend".

T2. - By the 2nd Terrifier movie, Sunny begins babysitting Sienna's younger cousin Gabby for some extra money. It's that summer that Sienna and Sunny grow even closer. That is until Sienna is sent to a psychiatric hospital (cannon) towards the end of the second movie. She's there for 5 years, until the T3 movie. During that time away, Sunny writes to her for years. In between releases, they tend to hang out and share deep talks. Sienna grows semi-affectionate towards Sunny, as she's the only one that really listens to her. Sienna also sends Sunny these drawings from her sketchbook and entries from her diary. However, Sunny stops writing back just before her 18th birthday. Leading up to this, Sunny is the only one that takes the time to try and understand Sienna. She spends a lot more time with her than the other people in her life who genuinely seem disinterest and "burdened" by her problems.

T3. - Five years later during Terrifier 3 (canon time jump), Sunny's 18th birthday approaches. Sienna is excited because it's the first birthday in a long time that they get to spend together. However, Sunny mysteriously disappears into the hell pit, where she later finds Gabby (who canonically disappears in the hell pit at the end of T3.) Sienna feels sad about Sunny's absence, and assumes she must be better off without her (heartbreaking.)

T4. (TBD) - In the 4th movie (yet to be released), I assume Sienna at least rescues Gabby. However, she also finds Sunny - with nobody having any idea why she was wanted down there in the first place (to be continued.) If they kill my man, I will riot !!!

Family Background: Her mother is named Garden Jane Clover and her father's name is Rain Walter Clover. She has a younger brother named Cloudy who died on Easter Sunday when he was 4 because he drowned - in relation to me irl, this is symbolic of the trauma l began to experience around 3-4, although not written in an entirely personal way. It is written in a way that is expressed through the character in her own original way. Like me, however, this impacts how she relates to love and intimacy. It affects how she makes friends and trusts others moving forward.)

Both Sunny and Sienna can relate to one another, and Sienna deeply understands just how significant taking things slow with Sunny is. She wants to be the one person who doesn't hurt her or judge her for showing up how she is. She'd never leave Sunny the way other people have.

Sunny wouldn't push Sienna away because she shuts down. Sienna would encourage Sunny to let go of those who hurt her, and in return Sunny would teach Sienna how to hold onto what truly matters without sacrificing herself.

Likes: Music, pink, baby blue, yellow, legos, Peter Pan, pirate ships, circuses, victorian dresses, blue jean 90s overalls, bunnies, duckling (pet named Tulip), picnics, tea parties, Alice in Wonderland, horror movies, balloons (especially the orange and purple ones), animatronics like FNAF/Chuck-E-Cheese (idk why but this makes sense), spiders, gummy worms, rainbows, the 4th of july and halloween, clowns, butterflies, stuffed animals, The Sound of Music movie, baking fresh cookies.

Dislikes: Rain, winter (but likes Christmas), fear of water (often seen in a rain coat just in case), sports, ice cream, eating meat, snow, anything that can melt, the color grey, concerts, lady bugs, popcorn ("prefer jelly beans and potato chips during a movie"), rollercoasters, busy cities.

Appearance: Literally me lol - but think lots of clown core/kid core aesthetics. I try to make us very similar, but different enough to be able to insert her into the Terrifier universe comfortably. I like bringing my character to life and writing little quirks that make her “her”.

Current AUs in the works here

Stranger Things AU promo here

^ veeeerrrryyy [clownkisser🤡💋] coded. ~

probably somewhere cleaning my really brave girlfriend’s wounds.——————————————————————————————————

4. List of my (Current) F/O + crushes:

Ultimate/Primary (non sharing):

- Sienna Shaw - Terrifier 3

^ I am completely non sharing with Sienna

No doubles on this one, I beg of you. I will block doubles or AU(s) + fic(s) authors that conflict with mine. I write what I write for the prioritization of myself and my own comfort/expression.

This by no means is me trying to discourage writers and artists from creating original works. I am anti-censorship and encourage you to creatively engage with the media(s) you like. I know I do not own the franchise. However, I’m also not sacrificing my safe space by entertaining conflicting pieces of fiction over my blorbo. Goodbye.

Ship name Clown Kisser -> tag = clownkisser🤡💋

Crushes: (sharing 90% of the time, honestly?):

- Brooke Thompson - American Horror Story 1984

- Villanelle - Killing Eve

- Vanessa/Vanny - Five Nights at Freddy’s

- Love Quinn - YOU

- Michael Myers - Halloween

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5. Comfort Characters:

My 3 favorite non romantic characters are Geronimo Stilton, Bojack Horseman, and Jake from Adventure Time.

I do not ship myself with them, but I have a sickly obsession with them that makes my heart go boom boom boom. They mean so so so so so much to me, the goobers. Look at the mouse in space. Look at the feminist horse. Would you just look at the puppy with a sandwich !!! <3 All of them …..? may be alcoholics…

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6. Sienna Shaw (my man, my man, my man):

List of Sienna canon interests

List of Sienna head canons (I will add as I go)

Also, both me (like actually me) and Sienna have experienced extreme grief. I am drawn to her so much because she has tragically lost her family in her teen/early adults years, as have I. If you’re interested in my very personal grief analysis:

Here is part 1

Here is part 2

Anyways, I love love love my fictional girlfriend who I touch like my boyfriend to da moon and back. If you don’t like horror/gore, complex characters, villains, or anti-censorship - then this blog isn’t for you, and that is okay <3

LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL GIRL BOYFRIEND -

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7. Outro:

^ Currently blasting this while kicking my feet in the air giggling over my fictional lover who has anger issues and deep rooted traumas.

PSA - Please feel free to be my mutual/friend. I’m super nice and I really love to talk with & see other self shippers with their F/O(s) !!! Ship & let ship. x ~

- Sunshine ☀️ xoxo

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[localgremlinboy]

I finally did it: creepypasta redesign/reimagines!

As a huge longtime horror dork, I have a soft spot for creepypastas and have wanted to sorta reimagine a few in sort of a "connected horror movie universe" type of au!

Starting off our series is the infamous "smile killer" of the mid 80s, Jeffery Woods. As a child, his alienating or odd behaviors created a rift between his parents that only grew as time passed. In an undisclosed tragedy, an unknown attacker killed both of the parents in the Woods household. Both children are put into foster care but it seems like death only follows Jeff, much to his intrigue. Most regard him as a freak, a role he steadily leans into as he gets older. This eventually cumulates into a breaking point and horrific incident involving blood, violence, and face scarring burns. While his face is forever scarred, a familiar forbidden smile now feels stuck to his face; for the first time in his life, Jeff is happy. The smile killer is born.

This is a silly personal project I've been wanting to do for a while now and I'm really excited to start off with Jeff! He was the first stinky internet horror story I ever read/was exposed to and he was half the inspiration for the idea! (also my cute style does no justice, he's got more burns. I think he'll start with just chemical burns and later gets lit on fire in his life)

Please check out down below for some more sort of au/background info and ideas I have as well as my inspiration!

(BEN's sheet is next, then I plan to do EJ. I've got ideas for others if anyone has someone they'd like to see :) )

Some extra background/extra info!

Jeff becomes a prominent serial killer in the 80s, mostly breaking into homes and killing but his MO can vary. One this is consistent though; Jeff carves a smile into all of his victims pre or post mortem.

His younger brother (I'm calling him Louis rn but I don't have a sheet for him) was young when their parents died and was eventually separated from Jeff in foster care. He was raised in a comparable home but his demons continue to haunt him. After coming to the realization that Jeff is the smile killer, he begins desperately hunting his brother.

Jeff eventually crosses paths with his brother and kidnaps him for an undisclosed amount of time. It ends when Louis escapes his binds and manages to overpower Jeff. Brought to his limit by his brother's mental and physical torture, he begins to turn the tables on Jeff and starts carving a smile into his face. Before he can finish, Louis is kicked off and Jeff escapes. Both scarred and forever connected.

Jeff later finishes his smile on his own.

Later on meets and becomes partial allies with EJ and BEN

(undecided but I think the event that pushed to Jeff's snap involved Jane. either way, she's gonna be in this)

also some extra headcanons I have

My Jeff has eyelids probably (I dunno, I've never liked him not having eyelids)

Weird anomalies are unspokenly drawn to him. Jeff gets along with ghouls way better than he ever has people

Jeff only smiled as a kid when he was doing fucked up manipulative shit, it was the biggest warning sign

His parents knew Jeff was off from an early age but it was a point of division for them. (I'd say his father believed these were correctable behaviors but his mother more so had that, "I know something is wrong with him" kind of feeling that no one really listened to)

Jeff is not being influenced/manipulated/used by another entity to do evil. He is a bad guy w/ his own issues and despises the idea of people writing him off as "damaged and used" (Jeff's a bad dude with a rude tude)

At a certain point, Jeff starts to have this existential terrifying doubt that he's not human anymore & has become something else

Also plays the knife game all the time, has fucked up his fingers doing it and didn't learn his lesson

He's a fan of rock & hair metal (he'll die before he cuts his hair)

Inspirations

Charles Lee Ray & Chucky in general

80s Hair metal & rock groups/aesthetic

80s slashers

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Do not fear Trump

Steve Schmidt

Donald Trump is riding high, but soon he will be weighed down by the one thing he has shown over and over again in his life that he does not do well with: responsibility.

Soon he will be in charge, and his MAGA movement will control government.

Everything that happens next will be on their watch.

Everything.

Because Trump has surrounded himself with a creature cantina of unfitness, depravity, weirdness and nuttery, when the moment comes — and it will — where wisdom is needed, there will be none in the room.

Disaster will follow misjudgments that will be compounded by a mix of arrogance, certitude, incompetence, stupidity and epic ignorance. The American people will pay the price for believing the lies of a liar, who was made credible by the failure of America’s political elite over the last 25 years to do the things that they said they would do and make wise decisions.

[...]

Meanwhile, the great supplication and appeasement rolls along at Mar-a-Lago.

The parade offers important lessons about the cost of personal debasement in the pursuit of self-interest dressed up as something else.

Whether it is Justin Trudeau or Joe Scarborough, Trump devours weakness. He preys on softness. When his foes come calling they seem to do so with a bag full of quibbles, quivering and whining, while trying to play a version of Trump’s game. It never works. Ever.

Everywhere right now there is a spirit of accommodation, appeasement and supplication in the air.

What Trump plans to do demands opposition that does not relent, and does not tremble. The terrible abuses, corruption and malice demand resistance. The test ahead will be both political and moral.

Americans are a tough people. No wonder they hold the media in such abject contempt. People always reserve their greatest disdain for the people who treat them with contempt, and signal with each breath their smugness, superiority and arrogance. It’s basic human nature.

More than anything else, right now, Americans deserve leaders who are less worried about themselves, and more focused on the wellbeing of the American people. Fearful people can’t lead because cowardice, like courage, is contagious. When integrity, conviction and honesty are called for, cowardice is a cancer.

When Donald Trump takes power he will seek to stifle dissent, intimidate media companies, threaten opponents, journalists, and anyone who asserts themselves in opposition. This must be opposed loudly, fiercely and effectively. It must be confronted relentlessly without fear or panic.

Do not fear Trump. Do not give him that power. Instead, take it from him.

In time, he will fear the American people who will turn on him after a short season of abuse.

The greatest political failure of the last 80 years was the 2024 loss by Democrats to Donald Trump. Period. Don’t let anyone ever tell you this race was unwinnable. It was lost. Understanding the how and why of that is of the utmost importance because three short years from tonight we will be closing in on the home stretch of the New Hampshire primary. What comes next doesn’t need to remind anyone of what came before.

The political situation in America will be very different after 100 days of Trump. The time for pretending will have long passed by then.

[prima-materia-ttrpg]

Shooting for gold and falling flat on your face or How I failed miserably at writing ranged combat.

Not every mechanic is a winner, and designing a ttrpg is hard. First drafts, playtesting, modification, second draft, playtesting, modification. So far all of the systems I've written, while they absolutely needed extensive work, had solid cores. Sometimes, though, like when I wrote Ranged Combat last week, the base it's built upon is faulty and the whole thing needs to be gutted and scrapped for anything salvageable.

After playtesting and modifying melee combat, its core seemed solid and I decided to move on to ranged combat. One of the core principles involves not missing, or missing being rare. This is why when someone comes at you with a melee weapon, you can dodge or block to mitigate some or all of the damage. Armor, while not yet written, will also play an important roll in damage mitigation.

Ranged combat as I wrote it does allow missing, but missing is rare (or so I thought) particularly at close ranges. It didn't make sense to me to be able to dodge projectiles or block them with a weapon, and I haven't written a cover system or put in shields which would be able to block projectiles, so the only real thing that mitigates getting hit by a ranged weapon is armor. This was a mistake.

Before we get into all of that though, let me get into the core of how I wrote the mechanic and how that was bad. I decided that because ranged damage was hard to mitigate, it should have a chance to miss, which means an attack roll to see if you hit. For some reason, I decided that the player should roll a d100 so the Hit Chance (the number you try to roll at or under when rolling the d100) would align with a percentage. In theory, this works, especially since I tied it to the Dexterity attribute on the character sheet. In practice, the very first playtest I ran with these mechanics saw characters with long guns and an 80% chance to hit miss most of the time, and a single Xente character (large amoeba thing - it will get its own species highlight later) nailed two player characters one after the other on one turn with a roughly 18% chance to hit with its revolver due to the distance. My players have dubbed this particular Xente Big Boss after the metal gear character, and it will be making a re-appearance.

The clear issue here, of course, is that rolling a d100 gives you as much a chance to roll a 1 as it does a 100, and even if you play with percentages like I did, weird stuff is going to happen at some point. Perhaps even often within the span of a session. There were other issues with this ranged system as well, one of my players said it felt like it came from a completely different game compared to how melee combat feels. Another player astutely pointed out that a class of weapons that can one-tap most characters with little effort and no real choice for the player to be able to get out of the way or otherwise mechanically try to save themselves, feels bad.

I got some good feedback, and I'm still trying to figure out how to move forward with the ranged mechanics. I have some ideas that will bring it more in-line with melee mechanics but I have to see how it hashes out, and then playtest that. All-in-all, this is a good experience. Not every mechanic is a winner, but failure is incredibly important.

If you read all this, thanks! I appreciate it very much. I'm trying to figure out what to do for the next blog post, it's a toss-up between another species highlight (humans - I promise it will be interesting) or how alchemy (magic) works in detail. This would be the history of alchemy as a field of study, animals that have evolved to use it, and what players will be able to do with it.

[femboycatofmystery]

So my post about how you should draw (YOU SHOULD DRAW!) blew up beyond any precedent since my return to tumblr and someone in the FRANKLY KIND OF TERRIFYING NUMBER OF REBLOGS mentioned downloading a free DAW to make music and that got me thinking,

HOBBY SOFTWARE MEGAPOST GO

All of the below software is free to use, and most of it is Open Source (which is its own thing I recommend learning about, its entire existence and success gives me hope for humanity) so GO GET SOME TOOLS! Make things like nobody's watching and then SHOW IT TO THEM ANYWAY! Or don't! Even if you hide your work from the world (lord knows I do!!!) you will have created something! And it feels amazing to create something!

VISUAL ARTS:

Inkscape: Adobe Illustrator replacement, pretty solid if a bit quirky.

Krita: Painting software, if anything slightly overpowered and sometimes more complicated than you want, but can do bloody anything including advanced color management. A wonderful tool.

Blender: You have probably heard it is super hard to use. This is CONDITIONALLY true. Because the developers are working day and night to improve everything about it it's always getting better and now like, 80% of the hardness is just because 3D is hard. Aside: Blender Grease Pencil - A subsystem in Blender is concerned with 2D animation and it is. Surprisingly good. Some annoying conventions but totally possible to literally make professional traditional 2D animation.

MUSIC:

LMMS: A free and open source DAW that can do a lot, except use most modern VST plugins. The practical upshot of this is that if you are just starting out with music it is totally serviceable but over time you might start to long for something with the ability to load hella plugins. (I'm currently trying out Reaper which has a long free trial and is technically nagware after that point...)

PlugData: You GOTTA TRY THIS, it's not mentally for everyone (not HARD exactly, just WEIRD) but if your brain works well with this kind of flow graph stuff it's a magical playground of music. (If you have heard of PureData, PlugData is based on it but has a lot of nice graphical upgrades and can work as a VST if you have a proper DAW)

Surge XT: A big ol' synthesizer plugin that also can run standalone and take midi input so you can technically use it to make music even if you don't have a DAW. If planning notes ahead of time sounds intimidating, but you can get your hands on a midi piano controller, this might actually be a great way to start out playing with music on your computer!

Bespoke Synth: Another open source DAW, but this one is... sort of exploded? Like PlugData you patch things together with cables but it has a wild electrified aesthetic and it can do piano rolls. Fun though!

GAME DEV:

Yeah that's right, game dev. You ABSOLUTELY can make video games with no experience or ability to code. I actually recommend video games as a way to learn how to code because the dopamine hits from making a character bumble around on a screen are enormously bigger than like. Calculating pi or something boring like that. ANYWAY:

Twine: Twine is what I might describe as sort of a zero-barrier game dev tool because you're literally writing a story except you can make it branch. It has programming features but you can sort of pick them up as you go. Lowest possible barrier to entry, especially if you write!

Godot: I use this engine all the time! It's got great tutorials all over the internet and is 100% FREE AND ALWAYS WILL BE. Technically there are more Unity tutorials out there, but Godot has plenty enough to learn how to do things. It's also SUPER LIGHTWEIGHT so you won't spend your precious hobby time waiting for the engine to load. There are absolutely successful games made with this but I think the best thing about it is that the shallow end of the learning curve is PRETTY OK ACTUALLY.

[bunnymajo]

Top 5 toy-driven anime for boys? For some reason I've been really noticing lately how much of the magical girl genre is essentially really pretty toy commercials and I'm kind of fascinated now by whatever the gendered flipside of that is.

Keroro Gunso

Keroro's a funny case because it wasn't always a toy driven franchise, it was just a boy's comedy manga heavy on anime references/parody and romcom hijinks, but once Sunrise & Bandai decided to be a sponsor for the anime adaptation you better believe it became one.

One aspect you have a team of color coded alien critters that are screaming to be made into marketable plushies. Each one even has a corresponding human character they're best friends kids can identify with. So there's that merch avenue

On the other hand you have Keroro's great love of Gundam model kits, a trait they leaned into hard. The show served not only to promote Keroro's toys but also real world Gundam models and other Bandai ventures. The funniest part of the 3rd movie to me is when they're all building a giant gundam model to fight against the bad guy and as a test of their friendship - and when they finish an orchestral cover of "Tobe! Gundam" plays in the background. Gundam models can solve all your problems kids!

2. Digimon

Where to even start with Digimon man...

It's strongest aspect as a toyline frachise was selling these guys with the ideal of having your own personal pet that can have conversations with you and all beat up your bullies, save you from danger, loves you unconditionally and help you grow into the best version of yourself. Digimon are the ultimate magical girl mascots if you ask me. While Pokemon has a big emphasis on collecting and working together as a big team - I like Digimon's spin on making it more personal.

3. SDF Macross

(I'm adding the "Women of Robotech" dolls because I think they're neat)

Macross may have more of a reputation for its music these days but in the 80's it was all about the giant robots & transforming planes! The VF-1S Valkyrie also went on to famously be added to Hasbro's Transformers toy line so when Harmony Gold wanted to make Robotech toys they couldn't sell it! 80's toy deals were a mess! Love it!

That all aside, the heart of Macross is it's drama and it's analysis of humanity adapting to weird af conditions. What do we fight for, how do we solve conflicts, how do we create, how to we continue to grow - the answer is to sing pop music until the aliens leave us alone. In my mind the planes & robots are just a fun bonus to everything else lol.

4. Yu-Gi-Oh

I had a huge Yugioh phase in early High School so I gotta mention it even if I wasn't really into it for the toys. I liked the monsters and the characters/story and tried to get into the card game but it didn't stick. I didn't have a hard time learning the rules though.

5. Saint Seiya

I'll be real, I've never been really into Saint Seiya's story or characters much, but I LOVE its aesthetics. If I was a kid in the 80s I probably would've gone nuts for this. A bunch of cool fighters named after stars and you can go and collect them all and collect all their cool outfits? I keep trying to get into it each iteration (the closest was probably Saintia Shou or Saint Seiya Omega) and it never sticks, but dang it looks cool

[boolpropper]

A Quick Refresh!

Boy okay SO. It's been like 5 months since I've touched this game or posted about it. Here's a summary of my active hoods so as to spare everyone from a million posts of many months old drafts and for my own good LMAO. Read below for details!

Pleasantview While I've updated most of the premade hoods, I'm playing Pleasantview the most because I love being a homewrecker. There's a supernatural turf war brewing between resurrected alien Bella and vampire Mortimer because that's absolutely fucking ridiculous and awesome. Also, all the premade teens are in college and mingling with SSU premades. Greek life is a mess of love triangles (accurate to real life I think) based on what I last posted there! MAJOR UPDATES:

Don Lothario and Mary Sue are having a fling against all odds. It is definitely just physical. Also, Don went out with Goopy and it was very funny because Goopy got SUPER pissed at Don for being a two-timer. Er, 7-timer.

Cassie and Darren are married, with one alien hybrid baby and one human baby on the way. Dirk is in college and feels really weird about his dad remarrying and has a hard time connecting with Cassandra or the alien baby...understandably. Oh, did I mention Cassie is a witch?

The Caliente/Broke household is...broken? Something is wrong with the lot they're on so I'll have to figure that out BUT. Nina runs a gym and continues to flirt with every single eligible person on the planet. Dina and Brandi got married and have combined their households.

The Burbs are coping with Lucy growing up and developing a temper, and are raising a somewhat unexpected baby.

Daniel Pleasant and Kaylynn Langerak had a pretty dramatic falling out. They are both living on their own and trying to make ends meet.

Frogpoint Frogpoint is my BACP set vaguely in a 1970s/80s zeitgeist. You have to suspend your disbelief a little. Right now it's still in early stages with just three families (and I'm building a university since the eldest teen is about to age up), so there's nothing too funky going on yet.

Rita and Lewis Radisson, the young couple, just had a baby. The first born-in-game sim!

The Sikes are a wealthy family on the edge of town with of course a very rambunctious and counter-cultural daughter. I cannot wait for her to go to art school.

Finally, there's a commune of young adults near the not very well hidden secret government lab complex. Something something Cold War something something.

Damerel Damerel is my medieval hood that loosely follows the Warwickshire Challenge rules + my own rules. There's a lot going on and still several families I haven't introduced. It's busy. The last family I posted about was the Brewers family, which is HELL to play -- operating a business AND wrangling like seven grillion bajillion children, AND satisfying a lecherous patriarch. But I think the blacksmith is up next in my drafts!

There's a university being built (at no cost of course because the coffers of the crown are boundless) because the heir to the throne is incredibly depressed that he didn't attend.

The Blacksmith household is led by Jaco, a gruff and down to earth craftsman. He looks after two apprentices, Seamus and Allie. Seamus is hopelessly in love with Maud, one of the brewers.

The Bards are my lesbian songstress queens and I love them. I roll a random event for every household and theirs was to get pregnant SO that's pretty swag

[evilrat-sabre]

I would love to see and learn how Centipede Tango would work in the Life Series. Especially with the whole 'soulbound' in double life.

Oh Hi, hello, you are not the first person to bring this up to me in the last 24 hours, but I am gonna utilize your ask to talk about it.

(First things first, I just wanna mention that I am not a life series type of guy, I watched at least some episodes from all seasons when it was coming out, but it is not really my jam.)

So like, in the CTT Universe the life series is just a game, that's all. Some code gimmicks here and there, a lot of half backed role play, but at the end of everything it's just a bunch of friends playing a silly game.

There is no really a red blood lust per se, it's just them following the rules and being already stabby stabby inclined.

If my timeline of events is right (It can be wrong) The first life game happens after TCC, so the cat is already out of the bag and Tango can really enjoy himself without "his big secret" being at risk.

They have some measures in place in case a big injury happens that respawn magic can't fix, mostly to Cleo and Tango that are more prone to injury that doesn't heal itself. But everyone that is from hermitcraft has this notion that you don't attack Tango in the legs or arms, just in places where the real body is so it can trigger the respawn and cure the injuries. The non-hermit guys know about this "rule" too, It's more of a request, but still. Some may not know about the centipede part and It leaves gaps for fun pranks or even strategic uses of the surprise in the pvp.

So like you know that headcanon that the players eyes turn the colour that they are in? Yea this happens in this universe.

So like I just imagine Tango logging in third life for the first time and his entire real body is now a very vibrant green, he wouldn't have noticed hadn't Impulse started laughing and saying something about sending a picture to Zed.

Someone says he looks like a caterpillar and he is slightly annoyed that he can't stab anyone while green.

Same thing as yellow, he is piss colored now and looking menacingly at anyone who dares to comment about it.

In red his normal colour is slightly off he is still slightly annoyed but at least he can stab people now.

Someone talked to me about the possibility of Tango being color blind and don't differentiating green from yellow, because if we go realistic a bug probably doesn't see the same colours as a normal human being. But I decided that he sees colours in a normal way and my only excuse is Magic or plot convenience.

Anyway, about the soul bound thing.

Jimmy is having a very weird time.

Like, yea he loves Tango as his partner, they are having a fun time! But like, because the way it is programmed he now feels pain in limbs he doesn't have. (Tango does too, but Jimmy has now to worry with phantom pains in more than 80 non-existential limbs)

They have a blast! (Literally haha)

And like, some people talked to me about the very common and fun headcanon that soulmates share traits of each other and about this I say.

Tango now has very tiny wings in his real body and he is having a very fun time! Jimmy has grown a shiny red exoskeleton in some parts of skin, but he has passed through weirder things.

Oh and for those that read chapter 4, Jimmy now knows what an spaghetti kitty is and this pays for every fanton limb that he has the urge to scratch.

I think this is it for now! As always I love receiving asks and an excuse to talk about CTT! If I forget about something let me know, I don't mind talking more.

(Oh and for the more body horror oriented, we can think about the possibility of Jimmy growing extra limbs :D)

[hekateinhell]

okay wait if you're looking for blorbo soft thoughts can i PLEASE tell you about this 6th grade girl who is currently in my summer camp like she is this tiny little thing but she's OBSESSED with italian giallo horror films like she will NOT stop talking about them, she listed it as her "fun fact" on the "get to know me" thing we had all the campers fill out and i immediately was like "oh this kid is awesome" and the second i asked her about it she spent the full lunch hour infodumping about italian horror to me and ANYWHOOOO the entire time i was just thinking "if armand was ever allowed around children this is exactly the kind of influence he'd have. i bet the neighbors ask him to babysit and come home to find their kid obsessed with incredibly niche 70's foreign horror" asdgfhjds i just think armand deserves to hang around Weird Kids more often!!!!!

OMG ASHLEY I'M YELLING this is so on point!

And I'm dying because yk I may have mentioned it in passing several months on here several ago but I had started on this human AU last summer that was basically Louis as a single-dad lawyer in his early to mid-30s and Armand's the teenager next door he hires to hang out and keep an eye on little Claudia after school. And then Armand starts flirting with him and Louis has an epic crisis of faith and eventually lives are ruined. I didn't trust this fandom not to have a heart attack over it lmao so I never continued but idk, I guess I already crossed that milestone of upsetting the antis recently so I'm thinking about it again!

All that to say I have so many ideas of Armand hanging out with kids! Showing them his big anatomy and biology textbooks and making a game out of charting the path of the circulatory system. Assisting them with making cookies in the kitchen -- Daniel taught him better after those first couple weeks (and in my AU I want Louis walking into his fancy ass "I took that cheating rockstar for everything he was worth and then some" divorce kitchen and seeing Armand and Claudia mix chocolate chip cookie batter while some broody Norwegian death metal plays in the background before unexpectedly cutting to Beethoven). Movie nights with Armand absolutely consist of a mix of niche horror, surrealist German shit from the 1920s, and wacky ass 80s cartoons.

[miss-bluerose]

TDI23 Season 2 ep 5 and 6 thoughts and theories. Spoilers ahead.

*I have seen the character spoilers for eps 8-10 but I'll only mention the challenges in this post.*

Ep 5: Running around an ice berg doing either an obstacle course or a maze to collect keys that will open a safe to retrieve a coin and bring it back to the island. This challenge was alright and the angry baby seals were funny. And the Yeti showed up again but didn't do much.

Ep 6: Partner up with someone, grab a canoe, get it to the water, then joust against your partner with a dueling stick to win and advance in the bracket. This is the third reference to Squid Game and I'm a little disappointed with some of the duo's tbh. I would have loved to see Raj vs Wayne and Julia vs MK but at least there was Axel vs Ripper. The final part with the horses on water skis was wack but at least they didn't get hurt.

*Ep 7: cake baking and a special guest judge

*Ep 8: human pinball

*Ep 9: tearing apart large objects

*Ep 10: memory game

*Ep 11: hunted by attack dogs and a pug

*Ep 12: fishhook challenge involving their worst fears

*Ep 13: final episode of the season

Merging the teams with 11 people left is crazy to me but I guess Chris just wanted to make MK suffer right away after she stole his hairdryer. There is also an immunity idol hidden somewhere and I hope Zee finds it, I'm still rooting for him to win! 💪

Chris:

I enjoyed him suffering through a bad hair day and loved how Chef kept giving him funny styles. So he did know about the cheating but didn't do anything about it until MK crossed him personally which doesn't shock me at all tbh. I'm glad he made her suffer though but Julia still needs to get her own dose of karma too. 🙏

Chef:

Owned a hair salon in the 80s and it shows lol. I laughed at his medieval outfit and his small moment in the confessional.

Eliminated contestants:

16th: Lauren/Scary Girl - still no sightings but ep 12 is going to involve the contestants worst fears so maybe she'll show up then? 🤞

15th: Chase

14th: Millie

13th: Emma

12th: Nichelle - She did pretty well in the challenge and I loved her sass towards Julia at the beginning but then she gets hired for a movie trilogy and quits the show just like that??? I feel bad for her since the contract is fake but she did save Zee from probably being eliminated but damn, what a way to end a character arc if there isn't a season 3. Hopefully she'll get taken back by Hollywood anyway now that she's a badass.

11th: Bowie - He let the girls + Ripper cheat in the ice challenge but put his foot down when they went too far in front of Raj and Wayne which was great to see. He didn't have too much angst with his boyfriend and they are staying together. His elimination was complete crap and no one can convince me that the Rat Faces dislike him more than Julia or MK.

Merge

Priya:

I still don't like her crush on Caleb and now that the teams are merged it's only going to get more annoying I fear. Her kissing her pillow was weird and telling her secret to Zee was a bad move. They both have controlling/strict parents and are starting to bond more than they were before but drama is likely on the horizon.

Caleb:

He really is as dense as plywood. Of course he's started to develop feelings for Priya right after he told Zee that he's only spending time with her to make an alliance with her. 🙄 The drama is coming, I can smell it.

Damien:

I laughed at him sassing Chris about being a bad person. He picked up on Priya's and Caleb's closeness, plays DND and he won the jousting challenge somehow, good for him! Ep 12 is the fear challenge so I can see him sticking around to face off against Lauren which would be really great to see. 👀

Axel:

She's just making out with Ripper a lot and not much else, super disappointing to see. 😔

Zee:

He found out about Priya's crush but is terrible at keeping secrets. I thought it was funny how the soda cans kept multiplying every time he was in the confessional. Pee isn't strong enough to melt that much snow/ice at once. He barely avoided elimination thanks to Nichelle quitting but I'm really worried about him. He thinks that Caleb just wants an alliance with Priya and doesn't know that he's started developing feelings for her which will most definitely lead to him spilling the beans and possibly being targeted for elimination. I really hope he finds the immunity idol to stay in the game longer or wins immunity when he needs to. I'm not ready for him to go home yet! I also want to know what he was going to ask Priya when he walked in on her kissing her pillow. 👀👀👀

Raj:

It was great to see him angry about his team cheating again but I'm glad that he didn't break up with Bowie. I hope he gets back at Julia for getting him eliminated somehow.

Wayne:

He was angry about the cheating too but it came off as more comical than Raj's anger. Him looking in two different directions freaked me out and apparently he has a really thick skull that got him included in a medical journal. I laughed at him annoying Julia and I hope he helps Raj get back at her.

Julia:

She is an absolute savage and has no qualms about being as underhanded as she needs to as long as she gets what she wants. She also has mile-thick plot armor to not get eliminated in the first episode of the merge. I'm beginning to think that she'll be the one to betray MK first before the reverse can happen. I can't wait for her to get what's coming to her.

MK:

Cheating has consequences, especially when you screw over Chris. I thoroughly enjoyed watching her suffer for everything that she's done but she didn't get eliminated which means that there could be more karma to come her way.

Ripper:

He's just making out with Axel a lot and is apparently fine with cheating in challenges. Not sure when he'll get eliminated but hopefully soon. I think he's the pain magnet for the season.

Each week I get more stressed out about what will happen next and I think that is a pretty impressive feat for a cartoon show meant for a younger audience or I'm just weird like that. 🤪 Excited for tomorrow, thanks for reading!

[everygame]

Until Dawn (PS4)

Developed/Published by: Supermassive Games Released: 25/08/2015 Completed: 04/10/2023 Completion: Everyone survived. Trophies / Achievements: 80%

It’s spooky season, so I thought I’d play some scary games and for whatever reason Until Dawn happened to be the one that bubbled to the top first.

I think when I was a kid who loved graphic adventures, I think this is what I thought video games would be. Cinematic experiences where you’re constantly making choices that have a meaningful (or not) effect on how the story goes forward. With Until Dawn, the tropes of horror are a perfect setting to ensure this kind of design doesn’t get out of hand: you can limit things almost to: who lives? Who dies? 

Of course, there are still, simply, limitations to the form that I don’t think I was thinking about when I was 8 or whatever. Even if you stick close to the traditions of horror and make your cast an interchangeable group of arseholes who the player will be happy to see get offed, there’s only so much branching you can do, and then you also have to put in some stuff the player actually… plays. Which usually means… quick time events.

Isn’t it weird how they’re a thing? They’ve essentially existed since Dragon’s Lair in 1983, where you had to make a (barely) educated guess about which direction to push or which button to hit, and the main (only?) innovation in the last 40 years is that you know get told exactly what to do. And that happened literally about a year after Dragon’s Lair!

Does anyone like them? For me, they’re just an annoying bit where I have to remember which button is where on the controller. In an action game where succeeding at them matters, they are legitimately the worst way to engage me with the action–I’m not watching the cut-scene, I’m waiting for a horrible pop-up–and in a game like this, I think… why not just replace them with more choices? Choose if character A manages to perform the task or not because you want to see the story go one way or the other.

(And while you’re at it, only offer me the choices that are interesting. There’s a hilarious amount of climbing involving QTEs here to stretch things out.)

When I think about QTEs, I think it's telling that this was originally more focused on motion controls; I can imagine QTEs being more successful by actually going back to being more like Dragon’s Lair when played with (say) modern VR controllers. A character leaps to grab something, you throw your hand up and grab. Like Dragon’s Lair, though, that becomes complicated when there’s more than one option (do I do the motion to unsheath his sword, or run away? etc.) and here you just get stuck with Heavy Rain-style “Push R2 to open this door” and then you watch your hero awkwardly move their hand towards the door until you slip off R2 and they stop, creating the world’s most unconvincing human behavior.

Anyway, outside of QTEs, the play here largely features you… walking about slowly, usually following another character, and optionally picking up lore items (if you find them). Also something that feels like it could be almost entirely excised!

The thing about Until Dawn is, though, that the junky plot of “teens go to a cabin in the woods where a tragedy had previously occurred” is easily understandable and, dare I say it, enjoyable. The archetypes and tropes are all on show, and it’s actually fun to try and maneuver through the plot which is never really that surprising, but you don’t really need it to be. In fact, if if wasn’t for all the bits where you actually have to play it rather than making choices it’d be such a breezy wee experience; unfortunately, rather than going for a nice movie length it’s somewhat over-extended into ten episodic chapters, and I was disappointed when I finished it to have absolutely no hunger to play it again to see different things happen.

I suppose also, probably, because seams of the branching become a little too apparent towards the end. There’s a couple of characters who seem destined to die simply because the plot doesn’t do anything with them, and in the final sequences there’s only one character that really matters.

This is still pretty fun for a single run through though, and I imagine it’s much more so if you play it with a group and just see what happens. There’s a lot of jump scares, comedy gore and even a few moments of actual tension. 

Will I ever play it again? I won’t, but I’m already considering running through The Quarry, which isn’t supposed to be as good, but there’s something enjoyable sometimes about playing games which are so “low effort” (well apart from the bloody QTEs.)

Final Thought: I wrote about Supermassive Games’ Hidden Agenda six years ago and gave it an absolute kicking–a game which I did play with a group. Should have played Until Dawn back then instead…

Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up a digital copy of exp. 2600, a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

[its-blip-on-the-radar]

I was curious, are you in any fandoms? Or in general like a thing a lot.

oooohkay so. I'm not in any fandoms really, I don't watch online media enough to really say I'm in a fandom

HOWEVER

I am a HUGE science nerd. Especially about biology. I am constantly researching animals and their behavior especially with ocean animals and reptiles. I also really love insects. I'm planning to have a reptile/insect keeping room one day because I love them so much. I have literally told my girlfriend I rather have a blue tegu than a dog. I don't really like furry things all that much if I'm being honest, I relate a lot more to the types of animals people claim are unable to love. Like yeah they probably don't get the burst of oxycotin that humans get about things, but getting a lizard or snake to trust you enough to be held without pitching a fit is amazing!! They're demonized so much in media and I adore them. My main special interest is also sharks so take that for what you will. I relate a little too much to animals that people make out to be "evil".

I also have a big interest in psychology. My brain is ten different levels of fucked so I kinda like doing research into how brains normally function or hell, even how my brain functions. Like the fact that people with schizophrenia are (I think) 80% more likely to experience insomnia than the average person! I just thought I was bad at sleeping but no there's a reason for it! But I'm also a big fan about the science behind human sexuality. I won't get too into the facts of it cuz a lot of it is NSFW, but looking a the science behind getting it on and how it affects the brain and how fetishes and kinks form, ITS SO COOL. I also collect vintage erotica and gay porn because of this gkjdkjlkfldkgl.

I also just generally have a big love for queer history, learning about the aids crisis and the struggles that our community has faced but also just the fact that we've ALWAYS been here... It makes me feel less alone.

And like the last main thing I'm into is spirituality type stuff. I'm actually a certified pagan priest irl, but my disabilities and life circumstances have made me need to take a really big step back from the work I've been doing. But I've always fueled my work in this with the fact I have seen SO MANY people do it the wrong way, that I want to be a guiding force in doing it the right way.

Besides that, I'm really big into the punk anarchist scene, I like the vulture culture community on tumblr here and have a few specimens myself, I build legos and models a lot, I like art (obviously), I'm learning how to do leather, metal, and wood working, and also building costumes or restoring old clothes/shoes. I like music and singing a lot now that my voice has dropped from testosterone, I play Minecraft and the Sims a lot in my free time, I'm not big on video games but I'm trying to get into TF2 again. I'm getting pretty good at the Pokemon Trading Card Game, as well as Magic the Gathering (Magic is much slower than Pokemon TCG if I'm being honest, that game is complicated.)

To be honest most of what I watch on youtube is documentaries, food reviews, and reddit videos, haven't found any youtubers I'm particularly into. Honestly, I spend most of my time scrolling through tumblr and listening to rock music because I'm two weeks away from finally getting to go home after getting stuck in Texas for seven months and I'm kinda stuck in wait mode. Hopefully once I'm back in Chicago, I'll be doing a lot more hobby wise. I might even share some of it here if I get my old camera back.

But yeah, that was a big old ramble, I know it's weird for me to be on the fandom website and not be in any fandoms but it honestly takes a LOT for me to get into series of any kind. 100% of the series or fandoms I'm "into" it just cuz I have an alter from their source. Either way I hope this accurately answered your question! I appreciate being sent stuff a lot!

[eldritch-elrics]

control (2019) review

alright! i now have 45 hours in control and have beat the main game, both big dlc quests, and the vast majority of the other sidequests (except shüm fuck shüm). so let me share my updated thoughts!

short answer: it’s really good 👍

longer answer:

control is a weird one. while it is technically true that i've never played another game like it (i have never played a third person shooter before!), it also takes much of its inspiration from stories, art, tropes, and aesthetics with which i am extremely familiar. of course, that isn’t a bad thing in and of itself. but it did kind of add to my lukewarm feelings about it in the first couple hours. there is very little in control (at least in its beginning) that legitimately surprised me, which somewhat contrasts the ~deep, dark, mysterious, twists around every corner~ vibe it’s trying to cultivate. but i absolutely warmed up to it.

while i’m talking about the beginning and my hesitation surrounding this game, i should probably bring up my only major grievance with control: the way jesse is written. i’ve joked many times that cutting 80% of jesse’s inner monologue would make control a far better game. the thing about jesse is that she is very invested in her own role as Mysterious Protagonist With Dark Past. i cannot emphasize enough that the worst way to make a character feel Mysterious (in a non-comedic work, at least) is to have them think to themself about how mysterious they are and how they have to avoid telling people about their backstory and etc etc. the opening ten minutes of the game actively made me want to know less about jesse. i did not care about her backstory until maybe halfway through.

she also keeps a running internal commentary throughout the game that i think is written to make her feel “relatable” ( “ugh, i have to go do more tasks?” “i kind of hate that guy” sorta stuff) but instead feels tell-not-show-y as hell and also just plain obnoxious. writers have GOT to understand that in a visual medium, giving a character an inner monologue and/or running commentary is going to make them look like a dork. hades understands this. psychonauts understands this. hell, death note understands this best of all. i do not believe jesse is a dork. i think she’s supposed to be cool as hell. and she is! i just wish she were a little less Aggressively Normal. (though, to be completely fair, it is cool to have an AAA video game with a female protag who’s extremely normal.)

well, with that out of the way, let’s talk about some of the other stuff in this game.

on the topic of characters, i surprised myself with how much i liked a lot of the characters here. the animations are a little uncanny but the voice acting is just top-notch. honestly i cannot pick a favorite (human) character; they’re all really fun, and i came to really look forward to talking with them. (oh except trench. did not like watching his hotline things. he has the same problem as jesse: the narrative thinks he is too Cool.) i think emily pope, casper darling, and langston all really nail the “cool but also dorky” vibe in a way that jesse, alas, does not. speaking of dr. darling, i loved the decision to keep his involvement in the plot to the backstory, and have him only “speak” to jesse through prerecorded messages. (live-action messages too! how cool!) unraveling his entire deal was one of my favorite parts of the story.

goes without saying that ahti, the quirky janitor, is GREAT. what an excellent character. “finnish tango” is my favorite section of the main plot (along with ashtray maze directly after it, of course).

well, that is a perfect segue into talking about the main plot. i think it’s fine. idk. no strong feelings. the hiss are a fun antagonist. dylan’s interesting. there are some parts of the ending i don’t entirely understand but that’s all cool. yeah idk! i can’t say i was really playing the game to see what happened next in the main storyline. but i also don’t really have any complaints about it, other than wondering if i would have been more invested if jesse’s backstory had revealed itself more quietly & naturally.

meanwhile, the way control uses environmental storytelling is top fucking notch. oh my god. i LOVED collecting documents. hooooooly shit guys this is such a good game if you want hundreds of irrelevant documents. there is lore about EVERYTHING. some of it is important to the main story. the vast majority is not. you gotta sift through it and piece stuff together. there’s a lot of stuff that’s just there to make the world a little richer. and the overwhelming bureaucracy of the bureau really makes me believe that they would have vast amounts of documents describing all of it.

in general, the stuff about the FBC and the oldest house is where the story really shines. it’s equal parts fucked up government agency & group of people who is actually doing important work. (well, maybe with an emphasis on the former. though i kind of wish there was more direct political commentary in the game...) i loved the unethical science, and all the disagreements about scientific method (hi underhill), and just the vast amount of history everywhere.

it helps that the number one appeal of control is its environments. obviously the game is gorgeous. i love its sinister brutalism, its use of color and light, the surrealist parts, just everything. it’s one of those games that well-balances realism with having a striking artstyle. but, of course, one of the biggest delights in control is how tactile the environment is as well. the part where i started liking the game was when i got the launch ability and could interact with just about anything. and then i started REALLY liking the game when i got to the maintenance sector and saw just how serious the worldbuilding was. not only are practical concerns like “how does the FBC process energy” taken into account, those questions also form the basis for hugely complex rooms with an insane attention to detail. goddamn.

ok well with the launch ability i suppose i should talk about the gameplay too. it’s very fun! since i was playing on controller, i wasn’t a massive fan of the shooter parts, but as soon as i got an ability that locked onto targets it was like yes. this will be my primary weapon for the rest of the game. and it was. (also the gun pierce. i love you pierce.) the movement is also great. and the other abilities. seize! is really fun! and it is so awesome to fight in environments where you have to take the environment into account even more than usual, since you’re launching stuff all over the place!

(edit: i have just now remembered one more thing i really didn’t like about the game: the obnoxious quest ui that just stays on the screen! i am a seasoned player of video games; i can tell what i need to do next without having a big message on screen at all times. and if i can’t, that’s what the missions menu in the pause screen is for! i turned off that ui very early on and completely forgot about it.)

i think the sign of a great game to me is one that makes you want to do the sidequests. boy i wanted to do the sidequests. i wanted to discover shit! i wanted to do all the fetchquests! i didn’t care at all about the rewards! the whole mold thing was an especially fun & challenging part, and i really liked confronting silly altered items. it’s also an interesting choice to lock many of the major boss fights behind sidequests. i won’t say much about it for spoiler reasons, but hands down my favorite character in the ENTIRE game is former. i love former with my whole heart. oh my god. best beastie in the world. (or, uh, not in the world. idk.)

one thing i will say about the gameplay, though, is that inventory management was a bit tedious. i could not get rid of mods fast enough (and i got so much money from that LOL) and there were so many of them that getting one didn’t feel particularly special. though yes, i did try to pick up every collectible and chest i saw.

finally, about the dlc!

investigations sector felt a little bit like a hamfisted crossover, but other than the alan wake stuff i was pretty into the execution. i really, really enjoyed the stealth sections, and just the general horror throughout.

the foundation is EXCELLENT. i liked the story of the foundation far more than the story of the main game. aesthetically sublime. great lore/backstory that keeps you intrigued but never gives too much away. FORMER IS THERE. contains “found footage,” one of the best short sidequests. there is a secret astral bathroom. it’s great.

overall, control is pretty good. as a story about a fucked up house it very much fits into my realm of interests, and i generally think it’s fun, interesting, and well-polished. i don’t play many AAA games, but wow, you can absolutely see how the big budget helped this one. would recommend.

[residences-of-the-darkforest]

if the eye out poly were humans, what books/tv shows/movies/video games would they be into?

Prefacing this with the fact that they would probably be in their prime during the mid-late 70s/80s (assuming they can't go back further than 1960, cause I believe that's when the Clans were formed?) (plus it fits cause that's the famous serial-killer time)

Books:

Myrtlewing would really be into non-fiction crime books and psychology as well as psychological horror. He also enjoys reading about poisonous plants. His favourite fiction book would probably be An Unsuitable Job For A Woman, because he would enjoy the main character's understanding of the mind.

Alderstar doesn't read. Put on subtitles and he's going to sleep.

Hootpetal likes reading books but she gets frustrated because she can only read specific types of books to keep her interest. Her favourite author is Shirly Jackson and she mostly just reads all her books over and over.

Grousemane reads kid's books because those are actually fun and not dramatic or gloomy like everything else is. He also likes those books that are filled with jokes.

TV Shows

Grousemane: The Muppet Show, Batman (animated), generally cartoons

Alderstar: M*A*S*H, The Golden Girls (claims he just watches it with Hootpetal because she likes it, secretly enjoys it), and Miami Vice

Hootpetal: The Golden Girls, Hunter, and Welcome Back, Kotter, (wb Kotter being one)

Myrtlewing: Unsolved Mysteries, Murder, She Wrote. Also enjoys watching the news and seeing people distraught.

Movies

Alderstar: The Outsiders, Stand By Me (but he hates Stephen King because he tried to read one of his books once and it was just weird, like how many fetishes does this guy need us to know he has??)

Grousemane: any superhero movie. Likes action and adventure, hates movies considered "art" and "think-pieces."

Myrtlewing: The Omen (thinks it's hilarious), Don't Look Now, various psychological horror movies and black-and-white movies

Hootpetal: nature films, Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Note: every member of the poly has been kicked out of a movie theatre at least once for different things

Note 2: they all hate any romance thing because it usually includes a love-triangle and it annoys the hell out of them

Video Games:

Young Alder would hit the arcade regularly. Hootpetal always wanted to, but never could because it wasn't "lady-like." Sometime after they bought a house together, Alder bought a machine (for himself, not knowing Hootpetal liked them) and Hootpetal instantly used it. He was surprised by her passion, but loved seeing it.

Hootpetal: Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Space-Invaders, countless others

Alderstar: xevious, metroid, Pac-Man

Grousemane: Frogger, Super Mario Bros

Myrtlewing doesn't play video games, but will watch someone else play