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From back during the holidays

#hex maniac

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The first loading screen quicktip you get in Fallout 4 is the explanation that most Vault-Tec vaults were science experiments which bugs the hell out of me because either you're a returning Fallout fan and you would almost certainly know this fact already, or you're new to the franchise and now an element of the world you would have otherwise discovered/learned about going through the game naturally has been plainly spoiled. Bethesda is so faithless in their own writing abilities.

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I'm three episodes into the Fallout tv series and its mood is so uncomfortably silly. Fallout's humor has always worked best when it's just in the background but whoever is leading this franchise has been trying to push comedy waaay too much, to the point that the entire atmosphere of the world it builds has become incredibly unserious to me.

Much of the story feels like a scrapped plot for what could have been a whole Fallout game, and I mean that in the most criticizing way possible. So much that it does intentionally tries to invoke Fallout energy by repeating iconic story beats, to the point it all feels derivative of the main games. You have a storyline that pushes a vault dweller out of the vault; you have a time-pressing matter of a waterchip being broken; there's a german shepherd; le epic power armor from le epic Brotherhood of Steel; main character is trying to locate lost relative; etc. etc.

But then even smaller moments feel right lifted from the games. There's a moment where the main woman is exploring the wasteland and walks through an abandoned house, and of course, there's Bethesda's classic environmental storytelling, a room full of skeletons that have been left exactly in place for 200 years with all the evidence around them to explain exactly what happened. Like jfc it really does feel like this is the first environment a player would happen to explore if it were a game, and again, I mean this in a mean way, it's so uncanny.

And the way the characters all act and play out, the situations that end up happening, the dynamics between characters... it all feels more like a fucking Nickelodeon show sometimes. It has such an immature approach to gore and sex, it's over the top in its execution and then soulless with its follow-up. A huge example of emotional emptiness is that the main woman has sex under false pretext -- by all means, raped -- and subsequently assaulted, yet her attitude remains almost completely unchanged. In fact considering that entire sequence of events, everyone involved seems relatively unshaken. I guess because they just had an encounter with the lamest, least effective raiders in all Fallout history, they're just so underwhelmed by what happened. I mean good god these raiders had an entire vault snared in their plot, and they just... don't do anything meaningful with it. I guess because some plot contrivance that future episodes will get into, but jfc, what a bad first impression.

And Maximus is so, so incredibly awkward. He genuinely feels like a different character each episode. And I get so tired of those in-suit close-ups of his face inside the power armor, it's so fucking uncomfortable how it cuts to show his funky little smirk or side-eye glance. Not to mention how uncomfortable his entire plotline is, so far making him out to be a character I really don't give a shit about. Yet most annoyingly the main woman seems to be sooo head-over-heels for him that she just keeps whimsically thinking about him, like oh my god.

There's an encounter early on where Maximus has a showdown with the ghoul and it bothers me so much that neither of them seem to give a shit about prioritizing the target they're after? This is one of those writing things I've become particularly apt at sniffing out, when a plot has characters seemingly forgetting their motivations just so the writers can squeeze in some other interaction. Like idk, if it were me writing this encounter, I'd put more emphasis on both parties trying to secure the scientist -- fighting each other to have a hold of him, rather than just fighting each other super slowly for like ten minutes while the target they're both after gets a headstart running away. (...headstart. haha)

Many elements of the show also just feel like straight-up torture porn, if not some other kind of fetish. I guess the writers feels like this makes the world dark, gritty, and extreme, but the direction and point of view never really gets me to empathize with the victim -- instead I feel like I'm often supposed to feel good that bad stuff happens. I mean as mentioned earlier, there's an entire rape scene that just gets played out like some smexy sex scene as usual, even though by that point the viewer should probably have figured out something is off about the situation -- doesn't matter, we get this overly long sex scene with the main woman still in her wedding dress, which is awkward because she was literally just complaining about the dress and how it felt tight and her friend said "don't worry you'll be taking it off soon enough, to have sex!" and then she doesn't take it off UYIBIASBDUIIGSB THIS FRUSTRATED ME SO MUCH.............. So many other painful scenes go on for waaaaaay too long, there's this whole scene where Maximus watches someone die and it's so gross to sit through -- because the writers just assumed we'd have fun listening to a guy slowly die and cussing with his last breaths. It's not dark or gritty, it's trying to give us black comedy but it failed at being funny so it's just awkwardly bleak at best. And then semi-related, there's this whole gag throughout the first part of the first episode, about how the vault dwellers effectively practice incest............ bro who wrote this?????? Who the fuck played any Fallout game and told themselves, "damn I wish they'd give us more details about the inevitable incest! I really want to know about vault dwellers having sex with their cousins!" Who would want that except for someone who really enjoys elements of incest??? It's not just one line or two lines either, it's a topic that keeps coming up to the last fucking minute it can be relevant.

............................ And the scene with the nukes going off wasn't even that impressive!! The scene I felt like they had to nail the most, the scene with bombs going off in the distance, it feels so lame! It doesn't feel at all like several nukes detonating, it's so disappointing for what's meant to kick off the fucking Fallout tv show.

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An annoying phenomenon within online multiplayer games is when it becomes something of a meme to DC from games under particular conditions, i.e. if you get sent to a particular map, or the enemy is playing particular characters/abilities

In Overwatch 1, there were 2CP maps, which became a gamemode generally disliked by most of the community -- even though it was, realistically, a fairly balanced gamemode, especially in the competitive environment where both teams swapped sides. Nothing was inherently wrong with this map or mode design, but lots of people just didn't like it, and thus there became a sense of illegitimacy to having to even play on some of these maps. The most infamous two, I think, are Paris and Lunar Colony -- infamous for how often people would DC immediately, which causes games to either close down, or fall into a never-ending backfill problem.

And this became justified because "the map isn't good." We ended up with this awkward community census that you just dont have to actually play these maps. In effect, it became a meme to DC from these games; everyone was doing it, everyone "knows" these maps "suck," so it's okay if you're just in on the joke and DC.

... But then that itself becomes a problem with these maps uniquely: people keep fucking DCing from these maps. People dont even give these maps a fair shake partly because they're never having a real game there -- there's just constantly people leaving or giving up, so you never get a real experience of playing there. A community learning curve just becomes stunted -- and worse, it becomes stunted permanently, because even though Lunar Colony got reworked two different times, each time bettering the map layout and addressing common issues, people just still DC'd when they got to Lunar Colony, because lol map suck.

And in Dead by Daylight, the same phenomenon is happening to some killers, namely the Skull Merchant. This killer has been received poorly due to a playstyle and ability set that isn't quite like other killers; I could go on all day about the problems she's had, but BHVR has noticed these problems themselves and have given her two major reworks in order to make her more appealing to play against as survivors.

... But as with Lunar Colony, it doesn't matter. Unfortunately it's become ingrained in the community at large to just not even try to play against Skull Merchant; just DC and go next. And in DBD, this is crippling, since there are no backfills, which means anyone leaving puts the rest of the survivors at a huge disadvantage. Which then feeds into itself, the problem that people don't get good experiences playing against Skull Merchant this way, and so they never learn or adapt.

And this is so frustrating when the design of these game elements seems genuinely fixed. The devs have addressed the problem points, they've patched in reworks, and generally accomplish what they set out to do -- but then there's still a significant amount of players that just don't care and DC anyway, ruining the experience for everyone else, and leaving people to think that the game element is still poorly designed.

It's a stink on these elements that I wonder if it can ever be washed off. Even if you took Skull Merchant and turned her into a completely different kind of character with all new abilities, I really do believe people would still DC immediately against her, simply because they remember all these bad experiences, they remember all the other people that DC'd from her, and they're going to think it's okay to do the same.

And I think this is one of the most obnoxious community things within games. It's such a spoiled attitude, isn't it? It's a misuse of the ability to disconnect -- why put up with anything you don't like in the game, if you can just skip over the parts you don't want to deal with? This steps into the argument of "it's my game that I paid for, I can play it how I want" -- yeah you sure can, and if you choose to be an asshole that exploits this privilege, you're an asshole! And you're degrading the rest of the community with you.

How can this sort of problem really be fixed in game design? If the community has simply rallied against an entire element of the game, what do you even do? Leave it as is to continually piss people off? Or rework the element, just for a null-effect and people are still continually pissed off? With the case of Lunar Colony, Blizzard was fortunate they could simply turn the map off and move away from that entire game mode, but with BHVR, they're just sort of stuck with an entire character -- an entire identity they've had teams working on for possibly years -- that no one likes, and the reason no one likes her, is because no one likes her. How maddening.

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two lil social rejects finding comfort in one another

#hex maniac

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Hex Peek

#hex maniac

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Invincible impresses me but also pisses me off so much. It's like a talented good friend that also just says some of the dumbest shit sometimes and you can't even believe it's the same guy.

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I am finally done with all of Regular Show. Though some parts in the middle were difficult to grind through, I'm grateful the show could put on a decent final season with a surprisingly apt ending. The whole space-thing was startling at first, but the change of setting definitely helped refresh the feeling of the show and ultimately led to an interesting arc. I didn't quite expect Regular Show to have such a poignant message about media broadcasting and conservation; I feel its message gets a bit messy, and potentially could have been much more engaging and cooler had their been some more cohesion between plot elements and metaphors.

... It does feel awkward having streamed the show all the way through, what with its anti-streaming angle...

Another charm of the show, for me, is that it takes the time lapse for itself decently seriously. It's kinda nice just to see the characters reflect on the fact that, indeed, years have gone by between the start and ending of the series. It's a good vibe for what the show is about and adds a sense of nostalgia; especially for me, who loved the show back when it aired in 2011, but took all this time to actually watch all of it.

The most disappointing aspect is definitely the shit they do with Margaret and CJ lmao. I like the romance triangle, it's fine on paper, but it eats up so much of Mordecai's plots and so many of these episodes felt so stupid. The fact that both girls end up getting dropped almost completely by the final season........ yeah in general I don't think Regular Show had uhh a good track record for writing women.

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The Patagonian mara is a large rodent, resembling a large jackrabbit and most closely related to capybaras and guinea pigs. They're monogamous until one partner dies, but generally breeding happens in large communal dens where care of young is occasionally shared. ©

#been enjoying these dudes lately

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were the toes necessary, gamefreak

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I've been contractually bound to play Overwatch this season due to battle pass and I've kinda come around to the big changes that came this last patch. The updated passives, the regenerating health, the larger bullets, the increased health pools... Yeah, it's all okay. I was initially put-off about the changes like pretty much everyone else but after so many games, it's still just Overwatch at its core. The changes aren't so drastic that you're dramatically playing the game differently.

The changes definitely make encounters a lot more lethal, but all-around they keep a game feeling active and focused on teamwork. It's much easier to get overwhelmed in this atmosphere and obliterated just for turning a corner; the bigger bullets ensure you're going to get hit more often, and the DPS passive heal-reduction means you can't rely on tons of healing to just survive. You really have to pick out your fights much more carefully and make sure you're all on the same page. It's more important than ever to play around corners and focus targets -- especially important to focus whoever the DPS is focusing, so you can make the most of that heal-reduction.

I was worried the passive self-healing on all classes would encourage more selfish playstyles, but I've found it actually helps encourage players try to survive and peel back to their team. Before, if you were a DPS left alone in the side-rooms with 10 hp, you were just sort of dead without a health pack, but with a passive self-heal, you can recover some of that health and make a safer breakaway to your team; you don't have to rely on someone coming to save you, or otherwise giving yourself up to respawn faster. And pretty rarely does self-healing ever come up otherwise, because in most fights, you're either dying right away or winning the encounter.

Overall I like how these changes have improved gameplay a bit. It's nice too that in the next patch they'll be reducing the DPS passive to be less oppressive, because yeah it does sometimes feel like it can be overbearing -- I've seen plenty of times both healers putting EVERYTHING into their tank just to watch them die anyway, which I don't think is right lol. Of course this is all just a quickplay perspective but I gotta say that once you get used to the new atmosphere of danger, it feels quite smooth, a lot less time spent dragging your team back together or having those prolonged fights.

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no, you're not the one... 🛗

#hex maniac

[protagonistheavy]

#hex maniac

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I'm excited for Pokemon Legends Z-A like I haven't been before for a pokemon game in a long time........ but god do I just worry so much about what the final product will be based on game freak's track record.

I'm especially irked at the trailer itself -- a complete nontrailer of information, giving us literally nothing to think about except confirmation of a setting/region. Jfc. Pokemon Company is the only company allowed to do this, aren't they? Trying to think of any other game franchise that could get away with a trailer that just shows their mascot running around in a total non-game space.

It's annoying because it leaves us with so much to wonder and worry about. Yeah it's a 2025 release, it's very well a year+ away, but my god we can't even see a screenshot? A vista? Nothing? Jfc.

And the Nintendo tweet especially concerns me how it says the game "takes place entirely in Lumiose City." Not Kalos, Lumiose City. What the fuck does that mean? Because I'm sorry, there's no way youre convincing me that an entire Legends-style game is gonna take place in a singular city -- not when PLA had several regions to explore featuring different landscapes that required different ride pokemon to traverse. Lumiose was big, but not THAT big, and certainly not diverse enough. So what do they mean "takes place entirely in"? Do they just mean Lumiose is your hub town like Jubilife was? Do they literally mean you don't leave Lumiose ever?

Maybe if we saw actual gameplay we'd know! But god knows if they did show us actual gameplay I'd be upset at the 5 fps pokemon and the n64 trees all over again. Man it would be so nice to be hyped for a pokemon game and not be so fucking worried it's gonna be a mess.

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Robin & Tharja