#when the remake will come out i will play the HECK out of it. i've never played it though i know a lot of the game because i was interested

[codedparaiso]

putting doopliss battle theme from paper mario ttyd in the background while i write threads here is the worst choice of music i could make, it has nothing to do with what i'm writing, but MAN. IT'S SO GOOD.

[masquayla-the-splendid]

Things I noticed about the music-realm of the fnaf fandom as of recently.

[From the person who did Paranormal Powerhouse]

My brain just fired an interesting set of neurons. I was thinking about how JT Music "remastered" some of his older fnaf songs, like Join us for a Bite, and Five Long Nights. Usually, JT Music never misses with his songs. Except for when he redoes them. Normally, I would describe the remakes of feeling too processed and the OGs more organic, but that's too vague for my point to get across.

I got a Reel on my feed the other day about the new Beetlejuice movie that showed images of behind the scenes pictures from the original movie, and the new one. One of the comments said that although the new movie was good, Beetlejuice's outfit from the original felt more authentic, and the new one felt too much like it was a costume. (I can see it in the hair most, imo.)

That's how I would describe this situation with JT Music. Heck, even just current Fnaf Fan songs in general.

I haven't heard any new fnaf songs that stuck out to me in a while. To me, the new ones just sound like someone just picked a cool synth and played 4 chords and went "OOG THE BEAR IS APPROACHING~" lmao.

Idk they just sound less...from the heart. Compare the "You might look at me-" "-you're not alone, Baby" part of the original Join us For a Bite, and the remake. They got rid of the huge chords the vocals did on "crazy," and the delivery doesn't sound like she's about to lose it. She just sings it and the autotune does the rest.

A number of other songwriters that made pretty good songs back then have fallen off too, I noticed.

Idk if it's because this is how these artists are making a living, so they gotta pump out content all the time. Tryhardninja has been uploading multiple music videos for songs from like, 2016. (They're good animations though.) It's all in the matter of taste though, I guess.

But it's a shame, because all the older songs that were fire, the writers ended being creeps, or have just been absent from the internet or the fandom for a while. Mandopony's songs felt like they came straight out of a musical. They made great use of harmonization, and painting a scene in your head. [I've never come across a song made by a brony that was mid.] That kind of style has yet to be replicated, because I don't want him returning anytime soon.

Idk what happened to Groundbreaking, other than he stopped making fnaf music specifically, but he was really good at writing character, and catchy instrumental breaks. The sounds he chose for each character song fit them very well. His style was very electronic and industrial.

Similar notes for Griffinilla, with the added bonus of the scenes in Stay Calm. Then he turned into Fandroid. His Freddy song is pretty good too. The lyrics are pretty generic, but I like the wacky instruments used. Not a fan of the Ballora song. I did recently hear about him being a groomer though. Can't have nothin in Hurricane.

Shameless plugin, that's why when I wrote Paranormal Powerhouse, (and Bolts4Brains) I was taking those aspects into account. I never hear vocals harmonize anymore, or singing in character, or silly voices in general. Those add texture, imo. The instruments I chose were very specific. I wanted it to sound mechanical and haunting, while keeping the overall lighthearted campy nature these games have, thus, the title of the song. (Totally has nothing to do with the level "Lava Powerhouse" from Sonic Spinball.) Even the drums are meant sound like clunky robotic movement.

The Genesis is capable of very harsh and edgy sounds, which would be perfect for the industrial side. It's capable of atmospheric sounds as well, ex. Ecco the Dolphin. It also shares a soundchip with arcade cabinets from at least mid 80s, so I tried to replicate instruments from certain arcade games, because FFP has an arcade. The Snes plugin was used for softer sounds the Genesis couldn't achieve the way I wanted, like the wonky piano.

I did add a sort of autotune to my vocals, but a real quality autotune plugin costs money, so I used Reaper's built in manual pitch correction. On top of that, I added a light chorus effect for the main melody, and a bit crush at that part where Phone Guy starts to break it down, and the animatronics provide a counter melody, leading up to Chica's solo.

Idk maybe I'm just not in the loop with the current music scape, and when I am, I just get really unlucky. It's hard to tell, because I hardly ever come across a fnaf fan that's also a music nerd. Like I'm just finding videos talking about the Watch Your 6 motif. Did we all like subconsciously know this and just decide to talk about it, or did the right people just start noticing it at the right time?

[gryficowa]

I tried to check the source code of the site from nico nico (Yes, it's about the well-known lost media, i.e. "Interface"), because, for example, when launching flash games, you can use it (which is an interesting thing that I recently found out) and I tried to do something similar , yes, I know it's a movie and I know it's not a game or a flash movie, or rather something that was deleted, but you understand, many options have already been used, so why not try it this way?

Well, I've been playing with these links and all that, but not much has changed, although someone with more experience may be able to recover the video from Nico Nico, because unfortunately, other options didn't work, the people who said they had the song didn't have it , and Masa doesn't have the song itself at all, so yes, there aren't many options left, there probably won't be a situation with a bootleg from DVD where this song will be in the menu, or a found cassette with the entire song, because it is from a different era, from the times of the Internet

Unfortunately, waiting for someone to come along with the entire song (Or at least the music video) is unlikely, so you have to look for other options to get this song back, because even if it had covers, at least we would know what music and lyrics it had, and that's all we have a short clip and nothing else, so we can't even have information as basic as song lyrics

Heck, even if the original version of "Rogats Theory" disappeared for a while, at least we had the covers and the music itself, so that made it easier to find

And the remake itself doesn't help us much in our search, because we have no guarantee that the song sounds the same as in this case

So we don't have many options to find this song, other songs had a better chance and were therefore easier to find (Apart from that beloved pink radio song that everyone of us already knows)

And many lost media, being less known, often disappear into the depths and gradually lose any chance of returning at all, which is sad

[icedragonlizard]

The one Kirby game that really deserves a remake, in my opinion.

When Return to Dreamland Deluxe came out, I've then noticed people wanting remakes for Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot. And if I'm going to be honest? I don't think it's necessary to remake those two games. At least not around this time. They're still deep in the newer half of the spectrum for Kirby games, they're still literally from one console ago, and thus I believe it's too soon to remake them.

Remakes don't happen very often in the Kirby series anyways. But if I think there's one game in the series that absolutely deserves a remake more than the others, I think it's Dreamland 2.

This is another long rant so I'll add a "keep reading" tag to this if you're curious to hear more of my thoughts as to why I think this.

Dreamland 2 is the most outdated mainline Kirby game, as the original Kirby's Dreamland has been used for Super Star's Spring Breeze gamemode, and Kirby's Adventure has been remade into Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland for the GBA.

Dreamland 2 is the only mainline game in the series that you can't play in graphics better than Gameboy Color.

And the game has a lot of flaws. Due to being on the Gameboy, it's got a small screen. Kirby can't even run in this game because of how small the screen is. Kirby also loses his copy ability EVERY time he takes damage in this game, compared to other games where it usually takes more than one hit for him to lose his ability.

Rick and Kine both suck to use in this game, but thankfully they've been heavily improved in Dreamland 3 when they gave Rick all sorts of perks like climbing walls and being unphased by slippery terrain, and allowed Kine to be faster on land. But in Dreamland 2? Coo is the only one out of the three animal friends that's actually good here.

Planet Robobot is still pretty fresh and fine, as is Triple Deluxe. They can stand pretty well on their own and don't need remakes for a while. Dreamland 2, however, really shows its age. It's good for a Gameboy game, but it's so archaic and lackluster compared to all the newer Kirby titles, and like I said above, it's the most outdated since even the Kirby games older than it got remade one way or another.

Remaking Dreamland 2 into the modern era could easily go a long way to do it much needed justice. It could address all or at least the majority of its problems. It could provide a bigger screen to let Kirby actually run like he does in the newer games. Rick and Kine could be given all the same buffs that they were given in Dreamland 3. Heck, we could probably even add a few more copy abilities to provide combinations for, as after all we're still only dealing with three animal buddies here, so it should be okay to add a couple more abilities into the mix! They added some abilities in RTDL's remake that weren't there in the original game, so the same can apply here.

I think a Kirby adventure where Rick, Kine and Coo are the companions could be great. I love those three characters anyways. But Dreamland 2 as we know it is really outdated, barebones and tbh I'd be hard-pressed to call it fun at this point. For a Gameboy game, yes, but it's kind of a joke compared to all the newer Kirby titles. Looking at this game, it seems absolutely ripe for a remake imo.

Dreamland 2 is a short game, but in a remake they could easily just add more gamemodes to make it a larger game compared the original. I'm aware that a remake doesn't typically do any real notable expansions on the gamemodes that existed in the original, but I mean.. they could add a few things in the original mode. Like I said, they could maybe add a few more copy abilities.

Extra gamemodes.. I dunno, they could be stuff similar to Merry Magoland. I'll admit, I'm not that creative when trying to think about gamemodes, I guess they'd come up with stuff fine if they ever choose to remake this game into the modern era.

Also, maybe GOOEY could be a little bit something more in a hypothetical Dreamland 2 remake compared to how he was just in the bags in the original to serve as a heal item if you already were riding around with Rick, Kine or Coo. Who knows? Maybe a Gooey "epilogue" that happens between Dreamland 2 and Dreamland 3 to show his growth and to how he got to his position in Dreamland 3! Although I'll be honest, I'm not exactly advocating for all sorts of characters to have prologue/epilogue-style gamemodes similar to what Magolor got, as that could get old and repetitive pretty fast. But hey.. I think Gooey would be a sensible candidate if they actually do decide to go that route again for whatever reason.

Given Dreamland 2's shortness, even with extra gamemodes included I would agree that a remake for the game definitely wouldn't be worth $60 like most switch games are. I guess... $15-30 would be better? HOWEVER, I wouldn't be opposed to a "Dreamland Trilogy" that contains all of Dreamland 1, Dreamland 2 and Dreamland 3.

Dreamland 3 is also rather old for the series, although the idea of remaking that game sounds a bit weirder in comparison because I think it should keep its crayon aesthetic to allow it to stay unique. I also think it's generally more fleshed out than Dreamland 2. So in my opinion, Dreamland 3 isn't as needing of a remake as its predecessor is. I wouldn't be too opposed to it, though, since it's also old.

Anyways, those are my thoughts. I can understand why people would want Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot to be remade, but they're still new for Kirby games, and I think it'd be weird to just remake all the Kumazaki games and ignore all the older titles that arguably need remakes so much more. I mean, remakes are rare in the series like I said earlier, but if we're gonna choose another one to remake, I think it's pretty obvious who could ACTUALLY use it. Dreamland 2 is the one Kirby game in most dire need of a remake, in my opinion.

What do you think?

[silver-wield]

I'm sorry, but Aerith is 70% of the reason I found it so hard to get through this game. Idk maybe because I hate fake bitches in real life and that's exactly what she is. Selfish, obsessive, annoying, and fake. The entire time I was playing, she only cared about having fun and dating. I don't really see actual concern for the planet, just herself and how much fun she can get out of something. Heck, Barrett brings up the planet more than she does! She actually hates being part Cetra because it isn't "normal." I feel like if she could tell the planet to shut up, she would. She's just conveniently along for the ride on this adventure. I feel bad that someone as sweet as Tifa is forced to be her best friend.

That's why part 3 worked well without her. She's literally not needed and doesn't do anything. The planet fixes everything. She's only there to be a clumsy, uwu, red harring, love interest for drama. It's so sad because I really used to like Aerith before rebirth, and even though she was annoying in remake as well, she was tolerable. but my gosh in rebirth? I just wanted her to shut up and fade in the background! Devs, don't bring her back in part 3, please. We don't need her squeezed in parts she doesn't belong in...

The way she behaved genuinely put me off wanting to play and replay. Remake I've played about 16 times from start to finish and during lockdown it was the game that kept me sane. Rebirth I've played twice all the way through and I'm on a third playthrough but I've been really casual about it.

The game just isn't enjoyable when I know scenes with that two faced bitch are coming up, and the fact after every single battle she literally pops up beside Cloud or in his face like why tf did the devs do that? It's so fucking annoying how she's in the edge of every single fucking frame.

I'm so glad she's dead and p3 won't have her rancid two faced bitch ass taking up valuable resources.

[aticklishpercivalwriter]

Updates

Yeah, so it been busy for me lately. List below:

Job Interview Monday, will hear back today if I get the job or not.

Making the itenary for my family trip

Shopping (For my little bro's birthday and myself, two tablets. Got good deals, but still the most money I have ever spent in my life 😭)

Adding on, making sure I still have enough money 🙃

Played the Bedtime Story quest in Genshin and man that was emotional. Spoiler: When she said Aether's name and he was like, "You're the only one who calls me that," not just because they were talking but because that hits so hard. Everyone calls him Traveler and hearing his name for the first time in forever was like, oh man. Heck it rang deeper for me because there was this one fanfic of Lyney and Aether that was exactly like this (I'll try to find it). If I remember correctly, Aether was crying because he was feeling so lonely in the world doing all these commissions over and over, helping the people in Teyvat and for what? No lead on his sister and everyone calling him Traveler and he like completely lost his identity/way. Then Lyney came into the picture and the moment he said Aether's name like "Aether, that's your real name isn't it?" Aether was like crying and they eventually kiss, and yeah, so many emotions. We're not going to talk about Hoyoverse making it so they don't remember.

Writing the Zhongli and Itto fic. The reason I put it off for so long is because I didn't know how I can write their dynamic and the plot. I got it now though! I'm sorry for the two who requested for them that it is coming to you this late :(

Just being so tired. Like I feel exhausted everyday and I don't know why.

Getting jealous over Genshin males. Yes, I get jealous and when you see artwork and writings of hot male characters, and your favorite ships kissing each other, being themselves, smut, fluff, and tickles, all the time, you get jealous of wanting something like that in the real world. It passes...eventually...then comes back.

Got a Playstation Plus trial and was browsing the games when I saw Tales of Zestria and Final Fantasy. I've read many fics of the two and loved them and was curious how the games fair. Wasn't disappointed at all, I just started mind you.

So, Tales of Zestria, I loved the ship between Sorey and Mikleo when I read fics and seen artwork of them and now I can fully appreciate why people ship them. They have a great dynamic and are funny even in dangerous situations. Also, is Mikleo like jealous? Once Sorey starts talking to the girl he saved, Mikleo is like pouty when Sorey isn't giving him as much attention as before. There was a couple lines where Sorey goes, "I hope Mikleo isn't worried," and when you talk to Mikleo he goes, "It wasn't like I was worried or anything." Give him attention Sorey!

And then Final Fantasy, the VII Remake, one. This is my first time playing Final Fantasy, so I am really out of the loop. I thought I would see characters like Ignis or Noctis from the fics I read, but they must be in a different version or I haven't encountered them yet. Action and fighting was the first thing I was doing in the game and I was hooked. I love to appreciate the graphics and fine details that goes into video games and this was no exception as I took in the experience, the cutscenes, everything. The dialogue, the other characters, Cloud Strife (main character), the story so far, it's so cool. Then Jessie brings up how Cloud is good to look at and then I actually look at Cloud and yeah. Why is he so hot?! You probably know my type knowing who I like in Genshin. Like his arm muscles are well defined. I am a sucker for males in tank tops and showing off their arms. And his cool hair, his facial expressions, his sass. Why does he look so good!? Ahem, gotta stop. I am also interested in his story more than anything like what happened? There's these flashbacks and yeah. This game has me hooked, okay? I admit, I searched up Cloud Strife thirst trap (I'm sorry, I had to. I blame the fan artists for making Sethos hot asf with arm muscles. @cawiechan on Twitter for example. I'm obsessed.) and you know what came up? "FF7 Remake transforms the horniest Final Fantasy into a full-on thirst trap" So, you are telling me the first Final Fantasy game that I play is the horniest and a thirst trap? Hey, I'm not complaining and I find that really funny.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading! I consider this a safe place to talk about stuff that I wouldn't talk about anywhere else and where I feel welcome, so thank you for making me feel accepted here :) Wishing you all well and talk to you all later ❤️!

[kieuecaprie]

KieueCaprie's Games Finished List of 2023: Entry 7

#11: Pokémon Infinite Fusion

What's done? Kanto

What platform? PC

Started when? 20/3/23

Finished when? 22/3/23

Clear 2

What's done? Kanto, again, but randomized

Started when? 22/3/23

Finished when? 23/3/23

So, this fangame I picked up playing after seeing a couple of people playing through it and man, it's quite nice playing through Kanto yet again but this time it's with weird strange freaks you make with the fusions in a fangame.

Classic Mode was actually a little harder than Randomized but it may be because I was playing on the dumbest setting possible with Randomized, so it ended up with me seeing a million legendaries and getting to the point where I just wasn't really pleased to see a legendary or mythical anymore.

It was still fun, mind you, it was just really funny having a second playthrough be seeing previously rare Pokémon become exceedingly common.

#12: Sludge Life

What's done? All endings

What platform? PC, Steam

Started when? 26/3/23

Finished when? 27/3/23

This game was on my radar for a good while but I kind of forgot about it as though I had suffered a weird fever dream about cigarettes, cats with two buttholes (no, seriously), and graffiti. It did come back onto said radar later on when it released on Steam but was drowned out by the noise of other games at the time (I honestly forgot what was there at the time.)

Then it became free. So, I guess I took the opportunity to do so before the period of when it was free came to an end and it was an enjoyable walking sim of sorts, I like these kind of weird games where you do stuff and just generally explore an area without much lore to go off on.

Maybe now that the sequel is out, I'll probably grab it once my radar empties, sadly, I got Pikmin 4 and AC6 on the horizon so that may be a while...

#13: They Hunger

What's done? Full campaign

What platform? PC, Steam, Sven Co-Op

Multiplayer? Yes, with armoreddragon99 and Kaelynthegoat (I dunno if there was a fourth? Could be, please correct me.)

Finished when? 29/3/23

So, I think I remember trying to play They Hunger solo several times back in the day but I could never complete it because I was not very skilled or knowledgable about operating my own private listen server back then.

Either that or I lacked the motivation to play through it.

However, with Kaelyn and Armored in tow, we completed the campaign for They Hunger over two sessions, although we eventually had to use a walkthrough to figure out where to go next because there were times when conveyance was pretty bad.

It was very quaint and enjoyable for what it is, certainly not something to write home about in this day and age but the fact that this existed in the first place waaay back then, I can truly appreciate that.

#14: Dungeon Defenders

What's done? Base Campaign, Hardcore Hard mode

What platform? PC, Steam

Finished when? 5/4/23

Multiplayer? Yes, with Armoreddragon99

Now, I should iterate that this is the ORIGINAL version, not the remake, not the other branch, the ORIGINAL, with all of its flaws and issues on full display.

It's kinda fun and enjoyable still, feels loads better than its successor, Dungeon Defenders 2, which kind of... I dunno, there's something that's felt off about it.

No screenshots, again.

#15: Toontown Corporate Clash

What's done? The main taskline as of V1.3

Finished when? 6/5/23

Toontown Online is one of those games that kind of sit in my subconscious and only surfaces from time to time, much like stuff like Maplestory, Neopets, Kartrider (RIP OG), and maybe a few others I neglected to mention.

Now, Rewritten was the first private server I've played after TTO's servers had shut down and while I liked it for what it was, which was a nearly-pure vanilla gameplay, I felt like I had been spoiled by other more modern MMOs and it was a little rough trying to get into a groove with it. Couple that with my social anxiety and, well, I've never made much progress into Rewritten. Heck, I've yet to leave TTC there and the furthest I've gotten recently is my bear toon named Flint who is halfway through his Sound track training!

Enter: Corporate Clash. I've seen this private server variant float around for a while and thought the concept felt interesting but never really got into it until The First (Second? Third? I lost count...) Twitter Exodus and I came onto Tumblr.

You see that toon in the second screenshot, Loopy Lancelot? Yeah, that's a toon belonging to photondoesstuff, who I follow here on Tumblr, whose reblogs and likes kept putting TTCC content on my dashboard, most notably these stranger looking cogs that were classified as managers.

Combine that with the drive to see Sads the Skelecog (who is now gone from canon forever so I'll never see him now 😔), and I created my first proper toon on there, a non-binary deer who now joins the ranks of my OCs because god knows I need more of them. I'm still debating on whether I should change their name or not but this isn't the post for it.

I really loved how much they changed the game, they took the entire Toontown game, stripped it down to its components and basically said "How far can we push this game to its limits?" and they've largely succeeded.

The main taskline was an easy and clear goal, the manager fights were fun and not Sound Meta Sound Meta Sound Meta (Still have that in Cog Facilities and HQ Cog Waves (Up until Bossbot, at least)), there were more cosmetics to play around with, there's stickers, choosing your gag tracks was great and having them all levelled and KEEPING their experience if you respec was amazing, and there's still more to this if their teasers about 2.0 content is to be believed.

Sure, you get the Ship of Theseus problem with Corporate Clash where you ask if this is still Toontown even when it has been majorly reworked but I still think it has some Toontown Online DNA still in there, for better or worse, and I'm okay with that.

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[iantheartandtapecollector]

Hey guys, I decided to try another top 10, and this time I'll be talking about my top 10 unpopular opinions. Now keep in mind, these are my unpopular opinions, so if you disagree with me, that's completely fine. Now without further ado, let's get to the list.

10. I hate Gacha Life

Yeah, I know I'm gonna get shot for saying this but I hate Gacha Life, In my opinion, it's overrated in a bad way, overused, and it really gets on my nerves. @asherbuddy uses this from what I've heard. Anyways, you won't be seeing me use Gacha Life AT ALL!

9. I find VHS better than DVD

As a kid, I always had a fondness for VHS, I especially loved seeing the nostalgic previews, the different promo material that can be included inside the VHS along with the tape, and the different colors that the actual tape can be. DVD on the other hand, I hate it. Discs get scratched easily, some previews can't be seen on DVDs. But yeah, VHS is my preferred format.

8. I like cartoony games better than games that are real

You know how I prefer animation over live action? Well the same could be said with video games. When it comes to video games, I prefer a cartoony and distinct style better than games that look real and boring. Games like any FPS game, feel like they look the same, and I find it overrated in a bad way. But when it comes to cartoony games like Spyro the Dragon or Crash Bandicoot, they have very unique styles for their games. So yeah, I would rather play games that are cartoony rather than games that look real, boring, and cheap for a quick paycheck.

7. I prefer Nintendo consoles

I'm a huge Nintendo fan, especially with their consoles. I always played them a lot even as a kid. As for the PlayStation consoles, I have played those consoles a few times, but as for Xbox consoles, I hate Xbox mainly because they have so many FPS's and I hate them. Nintendo's got a lot of distinct games which is why I've been on the Nintendo bandwagon for so long.

6. I prefer cartoons with anthropomorphic animals, food, or vehicles

When it comes to cartoons, one thing that I like seeing the most, is seeing different cartoon characters that are either animals, food, or vehicles. Shows like Elinor Wonders Why, Work it Out Wombats, or VeggieTales, make it different because they decided to try something different character-wise. But cartoons where it's nothing but humans, I get bored of it real fast. Although there are a few exceptions like The Loud House, Peanuts, or The Powerpuff Girls for example.

5. I prefer the original version of Super Mario 64 over the Nintendo DS remake

For those who've been following me for a while now, you'll know that Super Mario 64 is one of my favorite games of all time. Heck, it was thanks to Super Mario 64 that it introduced me to video games in general and I've played it countless times. In 2004, came the release of the Nintendo DS, and the launch title, Super Mario 64 DS, which is a remake of the original. But in my opinion, I prefer the Nintendo 64 original over the DS remake. The Nintendo 64 original is simple yet charming, but the DS remake in my opinion, there's been stuff that's either added or changed, and I'm not one for changes like this.

4. I hate RPG's as a whole

If there's a genre for video games that I hate, it's RPG's. I just find RPG's to be boring, repetitive, and overrated. Games like Final Fantasy, Paper Mario, and some others, are not really for me. I'm more of a platformer kind of person in my opinion. When it comes to video games, you won't see me playing any RPG's any time soon.

3. Thomas and Friends Season 6 doesn't look that bad

I know you guys are gonna kill me for this but I don't think Season 6 of Thomas and Friends is that bad. A majority of the fans say that the writing in some episodes is sloppy, the narration is flat, or the visuals are dull. But me on the other hand, I don't think it's not so bad. I think Season 6 has a majority of good or okay stories (except for Middle Engine. That story was shit).

2. Wilbur is underrated

Who remembers Discovery Kids? I know I do. One thing that Discovery Kids did on their channel was a special block called "Ready, Set, Learn" and there was two shows I enjoyed from the block, which were Peep and the Big Wide World, and of course Wilbur. When it comes to Wilbur, I feel like it's just underrated. The characters are quite cute, especially since Dasha's my favorite character, and the stories they tell have a good moral too. It just saddens me that this series doesn't get talked about as much as it used to back when it first aired.

1. I prefer the Lyrick Studios releases of VeggieTales episodes more than the Word Entertainment releases

When I was a kid, I had an unhealthy obsession with VeggieTales, especially when I first owned the episodes on VHS, specifically the Lyrick Studios releases. And as a kid, these were the best releases compared to the Word Entertainment releases. These Word Entertainment releases just don't do it for me. I honestly thought they lacked something, but when it comes to the Lyrick releases, they're amazing. Especially with the cover art for the different releases they had.

And those are my top 10 unpopular opinions. If you disagree with me, that's completely fine.

[frigid-moon-fall]

I'm not going through the entirety of all these crossover games yet. I'm waiting for TOD2 and TOR patches to be done before I head into RM1. I'm skimming a lot of the mobile ones for Destiny only, and I'm very sure that I don't want to delve any deeper until I've played every single game that it uses characters from. Because some of the scenes I've seen already very blatantly spoil things from the source material, and I do not want that.

That being said, what little I've seen of Destiny in these crossover games seems to be giving a whole lot of What Could Have Been type things.

Rays (I didn't even finish the first arc because it was looking like TOD2 was going to get unavoidably involved) drew parallels to Leon's betrayal and then took the turn we wished it could have. Leon accepts help and is able to rejoin. When it looks like he'll still sacrifice himself, Stahn takes his place--and survives long enough for everyone to come back for him. Drawing that line right back to the source material, that made me wonder if Stahn could have figured out a way to escape if he had taken Leon's place at the elevator's console.

Crestoria... Well, I couldn't avoid that spoiler. It was also something that could be inferred from TOD2's opening animation, so I suppose it's probably not that big. But I'm probably working with incomplete information to try to draw those same lines. So, while I'm acknowledging... that, I can't really work with it yet. But there's still more to it. Just the bond between Stahn and Leon in Crestoria is enough. They have a full understanding of each-other, and Leon is surprisingly pliant to most of Stahn's whims when Stahn literally can't do anything to convince him but speak. (Though it could also be interpreted as Leon only folding when whatever Stahn is suggesting will directly help people. It could show that he really does want to do good just for the sake of it.) And for me, that's what we could have had if Leon directly survived and rejoined immediately. They could have very quickly built that kind of understanding and bond, and become one of the most formidable duos.

Heck, in a lot of little bits and pieces through those games where they're in/from some nebulous point in time before the mid-point of their game, it feels like they did go that route of them learning more to understand each-other. Stahn responds perfectly to Leon very frequently, even immediately seeing past his stubborn doublespeak to know what he actually means.

I'm holding out hope for another full remake in the future. I really hope we get one that consciously takes all of the best parts of every adaptation of Destiny and refines them into what can absolutely be one of the best entries in the entire series, and be accessible to all fans. And I hope they aren't afraid to take the same path they did with Symphonia way back then, and allow your actions to have big consequences. I wouldn't change the ultimate outcome's canon, but it would be a huge waste to not explore the potential in things like Leon rejoining, or having trusted the party enough to have turned to them for help in the first place. It would be a huge undertaking, but it would be so worth it.

[caseofthestolenspecs]

Questions! 1) Are you a megane IRL? 2) Do you enjoy other FF games, or just XV? 3) Do you prefer the Ep Ignis ending, or the main ending to their story? 4) Who do you ship Ignis with the most, if at all? 5) What's your favorite color? 6) Has anything come out recently you really enjoyed?

Ahhhhh YAY thank you so much for sending me an ask! I'm excited!!

1) Are you a megane IRL?

Sort of?? I'd always wanted glasses and got my wish a few years ago! I'm a bit farsighted (objects turn blurry once they get a few inches close to my face) so I typically only wear glasses when I am focusing on screens (such as my computer monitor, TV or phone), otherwise I don't need them and can see quite well. But does this classify me as an Official Megane™? I guess so, since there is usually a screen involved in my day to day life. ����

2) Do you enjoy other FF games, or just XV?

While XV is my favourite for a majority of reasons, I've played and enjoyed quite a few other FF games over the years! I especially love 6, 7 and 9. My favourite RPG series are actually non-FF though!

3) Do you prefer the Ep Ignis ending, or the main ending to their story?

I assume you mean the "Verse 2" ending of Episode Ignis when you say the Episode Ignis ending - and the answer is… I like both of them, but ultimately I prefer the main ending of the game. I love a good tragedy (as much as it makes my heart hurt!!) and there is beauty in it through the tears. However, I am also not opposed to the idea of "happy, everyone lives" AUs, which Verse 2 delivers quite nicely, so I can enjoy it purely in a "what if" scenario.

4) Who do you ship Ignis with the most, if at all?

Prompto of course!! The Promnis pairing has had me in a chokehold since the game first came out and it's still going strong. It's the main pairing that I write (ha… writing.. what's that…?? 💦💦) and just the mere mention of it evokes strong emotions in me to this day. I won't write an essay here, but I do think they are perfect for each other in every way.

5) What's your favorite color?

Purple! My phone is purple, my bedspread is purple, my childhood room was purple, my hair has been dyed purple multiple times…. if I could have everything be purple, it would be. It's such a happy colour.

6) Has anything come out recently you really enjoyed?

Video game-wise, there have been SO many. My favourite game of all time is Super Mario RPG for the SNES, and when the remake for the Switch was announced I actually cried watching the trailer. Playing it was absolute perfection and I couldn't have asked for anything more! More recently though, I played through Sea of Stars (AMAZING GAME I loved the heck out of it) and just finished Little Kitty Big City, which was a super cute delight!

[shamelessrabbithole]

https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_sct37f1XSM1auermq.mp4

CraveOnline: Are the party scenes like a party on the set?

William H. Macy: It’s a tight cast. John Wells is the smartest guy I ever met. He did great things. Mark Mylod directed our pilot. He directed the British version also. When we got there, there was no craft services. If you wanted something to eat, you walked onto set, used our kitchen. And there was as sign there, “Clean up after yourself,” and we had to. So no craft services, we had our kitchen. At one point in the middle of the week, they said, “That’s it for the afternoon. We got you a bunch of tickets, go play miniature golf. We’re sending you to miniature golf and there are some batting cages there.” So they hauled us over there in a van and the actor in me is thinking, “All right, what the heck is this? Am I supposed to do this in character? Am I supposed to develop my character? What horseh*t is this? What am I supposed to do.” Little Emma who plays my next to youngest daughter, was playing miniature golf and she couldn’t play to save her soul, so she’d hit it and say “Do over,” hit it again, “Do over,” hit it again, “Do over.” I’m sitting there and I’m thinking, “This is so boring.” Finally I just pushed her out of the way and I played through. When I got home, I though, “I think we did do some character work there.” We made fun of each other at the batting cages. I said, “No, you’re doing it wrong!” Then I tried to show them how to do it and I threw my arm out.

https://archive.ph/s77tN

But Macy himself, naturally, couldn’t be more different: He’s polite, enthusiastic about art and what it can give people, and was known for playing ukulele on set – between takes, of course.

“I play it quietly and gently so it doesn’t bother people,” Macy said, “I heard from a lot of people, including the producers, that it is so soothing. Just that sound wafting over the soundstage lowers people’s blood pressure.”

Macy, who introduced himself as “Bill,” has been singing the praises of his favorite instrument for years. Watch him on CBS This Morning in 2014, talking about the amazing instrument, and you can listen to him sing about “Wild Hogs” and roast his co-stars on “Oprah” four years earlier. He keeps eight just in his office, likes to write vulgar songs with titles like “You Don’t Know Where This Dick Has Been” and “I Love F**ked up Women” and even likes to leave them lying around his home: “If I walk by my uke on the couch,” he said, “I’ll play it for five minutes.”

https://archive.ph/Kgf4J

Emmy Rossum has revealed how cast members on the US remake of Shameless pass the time between takes: making up rude songs.

The 24-year-old, lauded for her angelic singing in The Phantom Of The Opera, said she and co-star William H Macy enjoyed composing naughty ditties during their downtime.

"Bill Macy brings his ukulele to set and we make up funny songs - dirty songs," Emmy laughed.

https://archive.ph/Vj5Nt

https://mshannahspannah.tumblr.com/post/131410562197/

Is it like theatre in this way? Where you have night after night and so you reach new planes and things get richer, or more layered?

Yeah, it's a learning curve. It's a joy. I know Frank, I know the other characters. We can build on our relationships. When you do a film, there is a race to create intimacy with the rest of your cast. Because it does count, it shows. You will go out drinking and carousing with a costar, and that shows on camera, later. In some inchoate, magical way, but it does show. We can count on that. I've got two kids and I'm the old guy, so I can't, but the rest of this cast, they come in howling every night about putting someone to bed or about somebody peeing on the sidewalk.

https://archive.ph/zoP7j

So how does the cast of Shameless bond together? What’s that high school like?

The rest of my cast goes out — I’m too old for that stuff! [Laughs.] But when we go to Chicago for the week, it’s all Sodom and Gomorrah. They walk in all bleary-eyed, and once they all lost their cell phones in a fountain. They couldn’t remember how, but all their cell phones were destroyed. They’re all in their twenties, so they’re just working hard, partying hard. It’s a good way to relax.

https://archive.ph/DRuoU

You're working with a young cast who play your family. How did you enjoy that experience?

They cast it so brilliantly, they're really crackerjack actors, all of them. Emmy Rossum is really the heart of our series, she's there first, she goes home last. It's funny how our relationship has evolved offstage almost identically to onstage. They hang out together as a cast. I don't go out with them, just as Frank doesn't hang out with them. I don't go out with them because to do what they do in one night would take me two weeks to recover, I'm so old. But I just adore them. I'm in for a ride, I think our series is going to be around for a while. Good grief, they'll be going to college by the time we finish, they'll all be grown-ups.

https://archive.ph/mPIAE

-🔍

Thanks 🔍. Based on all of this, what sort of light is Bill painted in for you? Do you feel he's the very nice patriarchal figure and mentor people make him out to be in interviews, or is he kind of an enabler? Standing by and watching his much younger castmates behaving recklessly, then adding to that atmosphere with his whiskey and off-color song lyrics? 😉 I'm just teasing you... but I am curious as to how you feel all of this correlates.

[bearpillowmonster]

REsident REvil 4 REmake REview

Attack of the games I've tried and didn't like then came back later to love.

I've played RE3 more times than I care to count because I had a lot of fun with it but fun doesn't always equal the perfect game, it has its flaws. I just run through it so much because it's easy and I've learned it, the actual game I gave a 6/10, all I ask is that this one beats that.

I don't know if I'm going to be the first person to say this but here are my honest thoughts…let me preface by saying this is the PS4 version. It ran fine, a few hitches but nothing unplayable, nothing intolerable, just small little stuff. Graphics are obviously downsized as the same with file size which I expected but judging from the PS5 footage I've seen, that mainly affects performance, the graphics remain similar enough.

When I first saw the trailers, the graphics looked obviously good, I was blown away with RE2 and I'm not a total graphic fidelity guy or anything, I still play old games but I can also appreciate a good graphics game as much as anyone and I'm sorry but that first chapter of the game is just bad. His hair glistens, which sounds pathetic to complain about but in a nighttime setting, especially that opening scene, it just doesn't make sense when Leon's hair lights up the room more than his flashlight. In the light, it looks real good but aside from the environment, it renders the photo mode almost pointless because Leon's face is so stock it's not even funny. It wouldn't be a problem because you're looking at his back anyway but photo mode allows it, so you see it. There aren't filters or poses either, maybe I was just spoiled by Horizon Zero Dawn. But that's not even all.

This game is a remake of something from 2005 and it reflects that, there are a lot of narrow linear passages to get from point A to point B, it feels like you're heading from town setting to town setting to wipe out waves of zombies. I know this was more action based than that of the previous entries but still, do you beat enemies or outrun them, do you save ammo or not? It's a gamble.

One of the things that turned me off initially from the 2005 version was that everything seemed very samey, like I was shooting these villagers that were copies of each other and they just kept reappearing. Now there are some zombies that you'll see copied but now it's not so glaringly obvious due to the upglow. But it can get really irritating hearing them say the same voice lines over and over, I missed when they didn't talk. But what that first chapter covers is when I sold the original game back, heck it's what they based the demo off of. When I played the RE2 and 3 remake demos, I was blown away but had I played this one, I might not have picked it up. But! It kind of gets better and better as it goes on so you're clear :)

There are certain parts where it hit that whimsy because I would be like "I'm actually doing this." I don't really wanna spoil those moments for you (if you don't know them already from the original) but even knowing some of them were coming, I was reminded of how cool some of the gameplay context moments were in Jedi Outcast and how rare it's been since then to feel that.

Leon is very reactive, whether it be his grunts and breathing or when he's hurt to when there's poop and flies and he waves his hands and puts his hands up to his face. There were some points that I knew what was going on just based on his reactions alone. I mean the controller itself is used quite effectively too with voices coming on it and such.

Leon's whole personality has shifted, he was a dork in the last game (RE2) but he's become hardened, something that I've always found the contrast of as a little too much, too uncomfortable for me but hearing his voice lines, he's still a dork at heart, just has a lot more going on and is better prepared for it…mostly. In RE2, he'd say "What the-" whenever he saw something unnatural like a zombie now he says it when he sees something common like a bodybag. I mean, what happened between 2 and 4 is really up to a few second recap so a whole game could've filled that period but whatever. If you get confused, apparently Darkside Chronicles has some of that information but you probably know that's not an easy one to find.

One of the things I enjoyed about RE3RE was that it had the quick dodge. Some people thought this mechanic was too broken because once you got a rhythm down, you could parry. Well you don't have the quick dodge this time (THANKS A LOT!) but you have an evade which is a quick time that appears whenever it feels like it. But you can also stealth kill if you have the knife and if they have a knife then you can parry that and I say if you have the knife because it now breaks and you can either repair it or find a new one but eventually it wasn't really a problem because I found them so frequently. You also have a melee which after getting a zombie stunned you can kick for a wide effect (hitting multiple targets) and or depending on the situation, strike them with your knife. It's especially helpful when they've hit the ground because you're not awkwardly standing over them to try and aim your reticle to make sure they stay down while they're rising up again, instead, you just give it a finishing move. But what's that? You have no room for a knife in your inventory because it's packed with grenades? Just use the item box. What's that? You can't store just anything? Mainly weapons? Well, that sucks. So it gives, it takes.

In fact, I feel like what I liked about RE3 wasn't really present here but what I disliked about RE3 wasn't really an issue here either, leaving room for new things to like, perhaps even more. With that said, there are parts reminiscent of RE3RE like how the Hospital plays out, having Jill out of commission and you play as Carlos to go around the place, getting key cards and such, running into pale heads, giving her a cure. That's basically done the same way with Ashley and Leon, it's not a tired trope because it's only happened once before as far as I know but that's the only pass I'll give it for that. This is also a much longer game than the previous ones so it's not as detrimental.

There are traps now, stuff to slow you down and hurt you just a little but enough that it may hurt more in the long run (not like poison but if a zombie gets you or something, you're down that much more) but you can eat chicken eggs now, so you're good! Speaking of zombies, they are indeed zombies but more like people with a spell put on them sort of. Necromanced or whatever. You can jump through windows, the world is bigger to explore but not so big that you're getting (totally) lost (I mentioned linear passages after all). This allows for more collectible opportunities.

Money, there's a money system which is obviously used for the merchant, this allows for challenges you can complete for dough, similar to that of the ones that are usually in the menu. Most of your weapons come from this but that's the thing, I feel like everything is a soft introduction and I in no way mean that in a bad way, I mean it in the best way. You're not forced to use the merchant if you don't want to but it's definitely helpful and you can still pick up some of the weapons and items here and there like any other game if you wanted.

There's a treasure system which you can collect stuff and then apply gems to make them more valuable to sell. It'd be cool if the treasures were collectibles in the menu and you in turn put gems in them to unlock the models and concept art they already have in there but still cool. Use that money to get upgrades and repairs and stuff.

It's split into chapters for whatever reason, which I don't really care for, it doesn't exactly hurt the experience but it does add to a series of other problems I had, making it feel like each chapter was something new but at the same time disjointing it overall. Sometimes like a tv show. Revelations did that as well. At one point I remember thinking "Did that happen in the actual game?" referring to the original, as if I wasn't already playing a game, it was kind of like an adaptation to me, where these scenes that I felt like I should know were being brought to a new screen kind of like HBO's The Last of Us. I feel like this was probably made for fans of the original. One thing I already know I prefer in the original is Ramon's design. He was a creepy little kid before, almost like a puppet but now he's just a little old man that acts like he's at the opera.

It ended up ranking about where I expected with me preferring RE2 just a little more for being a bit tighter around the edges but this game does improve on a lot from the ones previous, putting it above RE3 overall, we'll see how the memories of this game hold up though. I may even visit the original (is it that different?) now that it gave me interest. I was a little disappointed by that ending though. Not by the final boss or cutscenes but more that Ashley was pushed aside "We're a team, right?"

[tangent101]

I've talked about this in the past.

In the Life is Strange: Remake games...

well, first let's look at Before the Storm: Remake. There is a perfect place to start this game. It's when Chloe runs away from home during the summer of 2009. But let's change things a little. We start a little later - it is either a post-Bae or post-Bay setting. Max finds Rachel's journal in Chloe's truck. And she starts reading it and learns about when Rachel met Chloe at a camp when Chloe was 15.

Rachel slowly draws out Chloe's story. She learns that Chloe ran away from home. Her mother's boyfriend hit her, and her mom at first accuses Chloe of lying... and then when David admits the truth, turns it around that Chloe pushed David. And that night, David proposed to Chloe's mom and she said yes and Chloe was "fuck this" and packed her bags and ran away. She wants to find her best friend Max, who moved away almost a year ago after her real dad died.

There are specific points in the game that are hard-coded in. These are written in the Journal. But Max gets to interpret things as she wants. Anything that isn't written in? Max (and the player) chooses what Rachel does. And heck, some things are vague - like there was a play. (Of course there was.) So Max is imagining it and certain things are happening that are in the journal but Max still interprets things as she (and the player) wants.

Finally we get the Kiss scene between Rachel and Chloe... and a moment where Rachel's dad intervenes. He calls the cops on Chloe and she's dragged off. And Rachel is pissed because he deleted Chloe's contact information and forbade Rachel from ever talking to that girl again. (There should be homophobic elements to this - the father is hating Chloe because Chloe and Rachel got close and he feels that's sinful or somesuch shit.)

The journal ends with Rachel going to a new school named Blackwell in a new town her father moved to called Arcadia Bay and at the end she comes across Chloe Price who attends the school... and that's where the story tends.

We get to see Rachel through Max's eyes, and through the player's eyes and choices. Chloe is the deuteragonist once again. And in a Chloe Lives timeline, she can even interject a few things here and there. (I mean, why not?)

The story works much better this way. It's Rachel's story, we see it through Max's eyes, and it takes place as both a sequel and prequel to Life is Strange itself.

Now let's look at Life is Strange: Remake. First, Blackwell is a private college, not a high school. It makes far more sense. Nathan and Victoria could even be 21 years old (and thus old enough to drink) which explains more about the parties that the Vortex Club holds.

Next, Max left a note for Chloe and she never got back in touch. She left the note on Labor Day. (David confiscated the note. Max can find it in her journal, and it's part of why David hates Max from day one, he's trying to keep Chloe isolated and thinks Max is a dealer or somesuch bullshit.) Max literally thinks that Chloe is off to college and probably at a different college since she never saw her on campus and no one knows her.

So the game starts on the last week of October. Chloe is even more pissed at Max because it's been two months and Max is just... "but I left you a note! You never got back in touch!" and it's partly finding that note that helps alleviate Chloe's anger because "that fucking David... I should have realized!"

This means that Kate has been harassed for the past two weeks. She wasn't drugged on Friday, she was drugged a couple weeks ago and things have spiraled downward over the last couple of weeks. We even get flashbacks of Max talking to Kate, maybe stuff of Max and Warren (where the player can choose how friendly they are with Warren, though honestly I'd have Max as lesbian-coded in any event and maybe even have Warren backing off and just being... actually nice instead of attempting to be a Playah. Hell, maybe he even starts trying to get Max and Chloe together. He ships them. It would be hilarious as Max is all "What the fuck, she's my best friend!" but starting to realize that yes, Chloe is hot).

Expand on the other characters also. Increase bits of their stories. Let's flesh them out more so that we actually learn more about these characters... maybe even become better friends with them. For instance, remember when Courtney was going to help Max dress for the party? Include that in the game. Rather than the dance being where Chloe is trying to find Nathan, they're going to the dance together and then Nathan intervenes with the text (but it's Jeffershit trying to get Max isolated).

In addition? Have Max's actions have an impact. For instance, helping people during the game may mean they could survive the Storm. And also have the severity of the Storm depend on how much Max uses the Rewind and what she is changing. So the Storm might be fairly small if a player actually avoided doing the Rewind for the most part. Just to make it more interesting (and improving replayability).

Finally? We should have three endings. We should have Sacrifice Chloe and Sacrifice Arcadia Bay, of course... but also Sacrifice Max. And each ending has a different way it impacts the story... but Max's actions still alter things as people subconsciously remember Max's actions in a post Sacrifice Chloe or post Sacrifice Max ending.

Who knows. If I ever win the lotto for a billion dollars, maybe I'll try to get the rights to the game for a Remake as I daydream of it. ^^;;

Life is Strange Rewrite

HELLO CHAT. i know it's been entirely too long since i've posted anything but i feel like i need to get this out somewhere besides in my poor friends' dms. i have no idea how active the LiS tags are, but it matters not; i am ready to unleash my super autism upon whoever is willing to read this post!

you've read the title, i assume. i started rewatching a playthrough of LiS and BtS fairly recently, though i've been a fan since... well... a while. at least since 2018, perhaps earlier. i will admit, i wasn't quite in tune with the story during those years because i was a young child. simply put, i grew up with this series—thank you for introducing me to these awkward lesbians, ma—and had almost no outside opinions to consider.

enter 2024 hal with internet access and a dozen friends who don't mind discussing things with me. i have one friend who has a distaste for the game and was in the same boat with me until somewhat recently. to keep it short, they don't like chloe because of all the things she's done throughout the entire game; especially the options where you choose to go against her. i have probably given chloe the benefit of the doubt for years due to my heavy relating to her character... unfortunately.

as you would guess, i consider myself a writer. i do writer things, like stare at a google doc for 30 minutes and wonder when my brain will finally let me get words on there. and because i am many more steps above my younger self in terms of writer brain, chloe's character confuses me to a curiously dog-shaped degree. i am conflicted. yes, her father died and max left her around that time, but would that justify or even make sense how she became the chloe in LiS? on the other hand, it makes sense. i have seen what happened to her happen to someone else. that gradual change, being stuck in the past whereas everyone has moved on, not having a support group, being infinitely lonely, falling into the deepest depths of the crevice of your brain... i understand; more so than the average LiS fan.

(if you're rory, my wife, stop reading from here, please <3 until we finish that watchalong)

i have always chalked chloe up as the sensitive type. she would never admit it, but i've always seen her as someone who is highly reactive to her environment. she took the death of her dad and max's departure disastrously, she was absolutely distraught when rachel was stabbed, she took rachel's death horribly, plus at any sign of "you will die" danger she immediately becomes rigid. i could just be unreactive, but this all seems to be signs of an environmentally sensitive individual—not to mention her general behavior when talking to max about the incident in the BtS DLC! i could just be misremembering that, though, so take that with a grain of salt. one could also interpret her being dependent on max—even before her dad's death—and later rachel. also she?? basically has hallucinations of her dad???? i guess???? why does nobody talk about that wtf

apologies, i went a little bit off-topic. my point in the last two paragraphs is that i am completely on the fence about chloe as a character. she is both liked and hated, and she is supposed to be a character we would be willing to sacrifice an entire town for. for some people, the bay vs bae option was obvious, whether it was because they hated chloe or adored her. here is the horrendous segue because i don't know how to connect this thought and the next.

i began to think: what if i were to rewrite life is strange and before the storm?

i'll give you some information and talking points on what i have currently (minus some bullet points i've omitted because they're not ready for the world) and you will tell me whether i should keep cooking or stop before i burn the building down.

BEFORE THE STORM

// change rachel's situation with her parents. make her justifiably hate her dad and make her go to her biological mother to tell the truth, i don't really get rachel's whole thing about her parents. it hurts to be lied to in general, but rose is the woman that raised you lil bro. i would get it if she were mistreated, but she wasn't. no reason to have the story based around that when it doesn't make sense, so let's switch it up. the easiest way to do this would be to make them abusive. make her think that things would be better if her bio mother stayed and/or if she met up with her (this would turn out wrong when they find out that she is an addict, and does a little bit of #manipulation.) not canon in the games, but making her biological mother a bad person would be very poetic. there could be an episode dedicated to chloe trying to pull rachel away from her bio mother because shes ass tm. and this transitions into my next idea...

// make chloe the "i can fix her" type, the residue of herself from before her father died. hell, make her character a bit different from the LiS 1 chloe! maybe have her be a combination of pre-william death chloe and post-william death chloe. this portion was initially "make it take place a year or two after william's death" but then i realized that it DOES take place approximately two years after. so, i'm changing this point to being "make it take place 6 months to a year after his death" so we can explore her character more. by the end of this, make chloe further traumatized. or at the very least, make all these events impact her so much that she ends up becoming the woman she is in LiS 1... of which some people in-game would describe her as "broken" or "irreversibly damaged" (i wrote this before learning that rachel's dad actually said this about her, by the way! jesus, man.) and make the thing longer than 3 damn episodes.

LIFE IS STRANGE

// make max and chloe parallel chloe and rachel, except their relationship gets less and less problematic as time goes on rachel's relationship with chloe is... certainly something. i don't have any strong opinions on amberprice, but what i DO know is that rachel is chloe's BIGGEST enabler and absolutely contributed to why she's like the way she is. she's like the devil on your shoulder saying "burn down that orphanage" except chloe doesn't have an angel on the other side. the thing that makes max different from chloe in BtS is that she is the "i can help her" type. all for therapy and shit. make them both go to therapy actually. perhaps even have a duo counseling scene where they air things out and finally forgive both themselves and each other. genuinely have no idea why therapy was never seriously included in any LiS game so far considering the kind of shit they go through.

and that is it! thank you for sitting through this hefty wall of text. i am infinitely sorry for yapping, but i'm just an autistic little lesbian who loves these dorky ass weirdos. i will not take any more of your time—this is where the post ends.

i was not eating those beans☹️

[kanguin]

How are you feeling about the newly announced pokemon game? Came out a bit fast tbh, but it looks good to me.

It looks alright but I think GameFreak employees should unionize, demand slower production cycles, better pay, and more staff.

It's simply not healthy or sustainable for a company with under 200 employees to be working nonstop on producing new content without time to let the old content breathe and take on a life of its own. This pace of releases isn't sustainable and is showing in the quality of the games being released. Numerous assets zoomed in on in the trailer released the other day have low resolution textures stretched over large planes, which is a game development canary in a cole mine for rushed work.

GameFreak is unsustainable, and at this point if it weren't kept afloat by the massive Pokemon Company it helped start and the franchise that brings in money from merch, it wouldn't last. They operate like it's still the 1990s, where games are produced by small dev teams on a regular basis, and yet no longer put in the effort they did back then. Where's the tenacity of the company that fit the original Red and Green games onto Gameboy cartridges so tightly the code has to juggle memory space to accomplish everything on such a simple gaming system? Where's the company that admitted defeat and asked for help with Gold and Silver, and were rewarded with Satoru Iwata finding a way to not only fit the code in better, but also freeing up space for a whole second region? Where's the company that loved its old games so much, it made remakes years later that didn't just update the look of the old games, but rewarded players on this return journey with expanded and extended content, Pokemon, and story? Where's the company that pushed the DS system to its limits with Black and White 2's animated graphics and 3D elements, and delivered 2 brand new, emotionally complex stories with older protagonists? Where's the company that, when switching to 3D, decided to future proof the series by creating high fidelity models for every single Pokemon, not just the ones found in the new region, and in ORAS and Gen 7, produced some of the most beautiful and colorful worlds on the 3DS?

I know I have nostalgia for these titles, but Gen 7 came out when I was already an adult in college. No, not all of their older titles were perfect, but they used to take time. There was a year between Gen 2 and 3, a year off in Gen 3 between Ruby/Sapphire and the second three titles, a year between Gen 3 and 4, another year between Diamond/Pearl and Platinum, a year between Black/White and their sequels, and a year between Gen 6 and 7.

There hasn't been a year between releases since 2015, when GameFreak releases used to come in 1-3 year spurts. To match pace with their past releases, GameFreak should have taken another year with Sword and Shield after Let's Go. Heck, they could have taken a year after USUM. But for 7 years now it's been non-stop releases, and now they're pushing to get two major releases out in the same year.

It's important to remember that games take years to develop. This means that when a game company releases games yearly, they are dividing their workforce up to work on multiple co-current projects, and this means they don't have their full effort going into one project. And for a company like GameFreak, this means dividing into teams of 70 developers or less, which makes an already tiny team even smaller.

While I got Legends Arceus and Briliant Diamond, I've hardly had time to play them with work and other interests occupying my time. So that, combined with my above frustrations, means I'm already not planning to get Scarlet or Violet later this year, if ever. I do not trust this company to make lovingly made games anymore, and I don't trust them to give me enough time to enjoy them before they toss something else at me. GameFreak needs to catch up with modern standards of game development, expand their team, and slow their production cycle, or eventually they're going to wear out their good will with both fans and employees for good.

[tinkasims]

Hi, I really love Betterfield. It's one of the most beautiful neighborhoods I've ever seen and I love the way you designed it. I especially love these early summer night pics, they're so gorgeous. I'm also very impressed by your graphics. What kind of graphics card or computer setup in general do you have, if I may ask? I'll need to buy a new computer soon and I'd love for my game to look like yours.

Hi dear Anon! :) Thank you very much for your kind words! 💜💜💜 Actually Betterfield is a remake of @ousmeo’s remake of @criquette-was-here​‘s Dullfield. When I first saw that neighborhood it was love at first sight, and I wanted that map to be the base of Betterfield (which already existed). I modified and redecorated it many times, this version of Betterfield is the 2020 version, but there were many before. I have to say there’s still a lot of work with this to finally be complete. Anyway I’m thankful for all of the wonderful neighborhood deco creators!

And about my graphics setup... Well, it’s interesting you asked it, because yesterday I was about to write a post dedicated to this theme, I’m just not sure about some things so there’s a lot of testing still waiting for me, but here (after a lot of useless talking) I answer your question. 😁

So, I have a Lenovo Ideapad 520, with Intel i7 7500U, 8gb RAM, and two graphics card, an NVIDIA GeForce 940MX and an integrated one, Intel HD Graphics 620. Oh and I run the sims 2 from an SSD. That’s it in general, but if you interested I explain how I manage to run the game with such a beautiful graphics these days under the cut.

Warning! It’s going to be messy and huge, and more like a long boring story than a tip, but can be useful for someone. (I’ll write it down properly someday)

------cut should be here but tumblr refuses to put it here, and put it at the top of post instead where I can’t delete, sorry------

When I bought my laptop I was really dissapointed, because I was only able to play the game with the integrated card, and it wasn’t bad but kind of annoying when I knew I have better. If I tried to enter Betterfield with nvidia, the game crashed on the neighborhood loading screen. Uptil some point I was like okay, then I’ll play with integrated card, nevermind........ but of course I’m dealing with those problems like almost everyone in the community the random crashes and purple flashing.

I’ve dedicated half of my life to solve these problems. :D Sims 2 really is an annoying game! I’ve tried every possible solution what can be found over the internet, there were always some little trick what helped, but after some time the troubles came back. The last year was intense. There are a lof of clever people out there finding new ways to get rid of the crashing and flashing issues coming with new and new solutions and I couldn’t be more grateful to them. When I say I‘ve tried everything I’m not kidding. And I was like okay, I’m going to pretend my integrated card doesn’t exist and I will fix NVIDIA. However there are those annoying issues with both of them........

I’m trying to mention everything what helps me these days to run a smooth and beautiful sims 2 with a huge CC folder (67k+ file lot of them really high poly). First the 4gb patch and the Graphics Rules Maker. These two are pretty common.

There’s one solution what seems like to help a lot of people but for me it never worked, the DXVK method. It looks really useful, and time to time I give it a shot, but somehow never works out for me, my game crashes whenever I try to use it. But the tip @episims made is one of the most useful things I’ve ever seen, and the one by @dramallamadingdang as well.

Absolutely useful, but somehow never enough. Maybe because of my huge CC folder, or some broken mod, or my computer specs, or just windows 10 or sims 2....... whoever knows....So I was messing around with nvidia profile inspector according to iCad’s tip, trying to reach beautiful garphics with low ingame settings. It was a complete failure. Maybe my expectations are too high but those looked terrible! I decided to turn everything to the best in nvidia control panel (profile inspector seems too complicated for me), and then checked the game again. It was still ugly as hell with low ingame settings. Then I thought what the heck, and I’ve turned every settings to the best and highest, and went on checking Betterfield.

It was something I’ve never seen before. A completely smooth, lag free, purple flashing free, crash free wonderful game, with beautiful textures, smooth edges. With the highest graphics setting in and out of game! I loaded my biggest lots which are always crashing or flashing, none of them did! That was the time when I first posted about Betterfield.

The next day I was really happy, started my game thinking it’s going to work... well, I was wrong, but not too surprised. It crashed when I loaded Betterfield. I took a deep breath and started to think through what have I done yesterday what helped. And after I’ve tried some method I guess I found the little trick what helps me from that day to reach that “dream state of sims 2” again.

So, I have an almost empty neighborhood which I named “stop crashing b**ch”, that I use for testing and etc... I did the graphics tests I mentioned above there as well. So my first thing when my game loads up is to load that neighborhood and a household in there. In the household I set all of the graphics settings to the lowest (expect smooth edges). Then, I load up Betterfield. I have to mention here Betterfield is really a huge city, with tons of decoration, lots, and households (which could be corrupted as well XD). So, at that point Betterfield loads up just fine, but remember the settings are on the lowest. Then I enter one of my biggest lot, which used to be nothing more than a purple flashing. And in the household I turn the garphics settings to the highest again. And that’s it. Ugly textures are refreshing, becoming high res and beautiful, Sims 2 runs like a dream, and beautiful as a blooming flower! At this point I usually test night mood and turn on and off some lights just to see everything is fine for real. After that I can enter to my other big households, lots, without any crashing or flashing. Once I look around everywhere in 360 degree it’s absolutely lag free. Same goes for the neighborhood itself. Beautiful in day and night. :)

The only reason I haven’t share this little discovery of mine, because there’s one lot (Betterfield High School) which is still causing the purple flashing (even if it’s just a huge unfurnished building...), and sometimes there are some objects here and there randomly flashing... but according to the purple game I had before it feels more like a small bug or something :’)....

Okay, what I got is Sims 2 with highest graphics settings in game and in Nvidia control panel (like 8x edge smoothing and stuff...), working beautifully, the only thing I have to do before playing my HUGE neighborhood with my HUGE and high poly CC folder is to load up an empty neighborhood, enter a family, set the graphics to the lowest, then enter my big city, enter a big lot (or whatever, I’m not sure about this part), and set the graphics to the highest again!

I’m not sure if everyone have read this or if it makes any sense (bc of my crappy english), but I promise after some more testing, if I think it’s actually useful, I’m going to share a proper, understandable tip about this. ^^”

[loregoddess]

6,7 and 11 for the Fates Ask Game!

6. Who’s your favorite of the Hoshidan siblings? Takumi, to the point where some friends who know me irl and have never touched Fates associate me with him. I really love Sakura and Hinoka a whole lot too, but Takumi's got a special place in my heart thanks to how the narrative messes his life up in nearly every route. (Ryoma's fine too, he just. Isn't as interesting to me as the other three, sorry bud).

7. Who’s your favorite of the Nohrian siblings? Aaaaah, that's hard bc I love them all a lot. Probably Xander? I've really come to appreciate the complexity of Xander's character, and I just love that he's canonically really, really, shy but found a way to put up a façade to live up to being the crown prince, and yet still has all these darker inner struggles while still trying to be the pillar of strength for his remaining family (at least in the Japanese version, but that's actually still what I'm most familiar with).

11. What do you feel is underappreciated about Fates? The, uh...entire game? Which I mean seriously, bc it got a lot of bashing and it's actually a fine game, but "fandom threw it in the ditch" aside, actually my favorite thing about Fates is that they did away with gender-locked classes (outside of like, the butler/maid classes which were "gender-locked" but also essentially the same class w/ a different outfit). Like I was SO excited to see Subaki in the pre-release materials when I was follow the game's launch bc we'd never had a male pegasus rider, it was so neat to see Charlotte as a female fighter even if her outfit put me off at first. When Echoes came out I wasn't too surprised that the gender-locked classes "returned" bc that was a remake of an older game, so like, of course the gender-locked classes returned. But when Three Houses released, and I discovered that gender-locked classes were still a thing, I was like, wait hold up, what the heck? Given how a few other mechanics work in TH, I still can't understand why gender-locked classes were still in place, it's just, frustrating, esp. from a purely game-mechanics level bc like, the characters are just a collection of numbers and pixels to the game code, and classes are just a collection of modifying numbers and pixels in the game code, so why lock certain numbers and pixels out of other numbers and pixels bc of some superficially applied cultural norms? So yeah, Fates made a ton of progress by throwing the gender-locked classes out the window, and that more than anything else is a mechanic I want to return and stay.

ALSO, I was really glad that they did away with weapon durability. Like I'm not sure I personally liked the balancing for the weapons in Fates, but I was so glad that I didn't have to worry about them breaking (aside from staves, @ my healers what are you doing to always break your healing staves?). I think I liked how Echoes dealt with weapons the best, but Fates was the first FE game I played w/ no breakable weapons and I loved it. Also the "hidden" weapons class was really neat, and I'm glad it'll be making a return in Engage in some form.