#the game would be good if they cut like 50% of the gameplay i think. if i see that forest one more time.

[gertritude-art]

not a fan of alan woke

#the game would be good if they cut like 50% of the gameplay i think. if i see that forest one more time. #it's me #doodle

[dr0p-dead-gorgeous]

Josh Futturman x fem!reader

Warnings: sub!josh,smut , p in v, Premature ejaculation,overstimulation, fem pronouns and anatomy used, use of y/n , not really proofread

You run into a cute,dorky guy at work,

As i wonder about my day, i accidentally bump into a sort of dorky guy. As we both stop and turn to apologize to each other, I notice his name tag reading ‘Futturman, Janitor.’ “I am *so sorry*” the Janitor says before apologizing profusely.”I'm sorry, it's fine really Mr.. Uhh.. Futturman. “Call me Josh, everyone else does” the Janitor says as he blushes a bit. “...Josh, I'm y/n, a vet tech for the possums around here, seen you around a bit, Josh blushes a bit and chuckles“Well…uh…nice to *meet* you, y/n.” Josh says, unsure of what to say."Nice to meet you I gotta go " I say with a sweet smile, Josh smiles back nervously “Of course…uh, you have a nice day y/n.” Josh says before awkwardly attempting to continue on with his day.

(third person pov)

Over the next week’s they talked in passing becoming quick friends

[Cut to Josh taking a break from cleaning the cafeteria and having lunch with her]

You like Video games too! I love playing *Josh blushes a bit, and smiles enthusiastically* “Oh, yeah! You play Biotic Wars?”. “Yeah! I'm on level 50! Lately ive been playing a lot of resident evil though!" 'I love resident evil! M..maybe you could come over to hang out and watch me play sometimes!” Josh suggests nervously "Sounds good! " y/n says ,Josh smiles, clearly very nervous and excited for the first time in a long time having anyone over, especially a girl. His mind races from the surprise of the date and future plans.

‘Wow…someone like *y/n* actually wants to visit my *house*. What am I going to do?’ Josh thinks to himself.*

Josh and y/n later visit his home. Josh nervously opens his door, ushering her to come inside. She walks in, and takes in his space, clearly enjoying his gaming setup and decor.*I love your posters! I have the same one of Tiger by my bed*Josh blushes a bit once again* “Oh…that’s uh…well…” *He points at his gaming console* “Do you wanna see something really cool?” “yeah! “ Josh smiles nervously and turns on his game resident evil. He then proceeds to show Y/n his final boss victory and the end-game content. Y/n is enthralled by the gameplay, clearly impressed by his prowess. “Omg you beat it! I thought it was impossible i've died so many times! "Josh blushes and jumps up exited“Oh my god… I beat it” He seems pleased with himself for completing the game with Y/n present they hug and he spins her around celebrating.He puts her down her hands on his shoulders for a moment they look into each other's eyes. She leans over and whispers “Hey, you’re really cute and charming josh, you know that?” Josh blushes and looks very stunned for a moment; then his face lights up red like a tomato.*Josh blushes a crazy amount as Y/n continues* “If I were to…*maybe*...kiss you right now…would you…be okay with that~?” *Josh’s face is as red as the sun, but he responds* “Uh…Yeah..! I would be okay with that…really!” She slowly leans in and Josh leans in as well. They embrace in a slow and tender kiss. Josh’s cheeks light up red and he blushes. “I think I really like you josh.” Josh’s heart beats as fast as a humming bird’s. He holds Y/n’s face with a shaking hand and looks her right into the eyes. He stares deeply into her own, and gives her another soft kiss. His hands begin to quiver. “Y/n…” Josh stutters, clearly flustered. “Uhh…I think I really like you too…”*Josh leans in to kiss y/n again, this time more passionately, a smile spreading across his face. Their kiss grows more heated, and y/n pulls Josh closer into a tight embrace. She starts to rub his thighs leaning more into him*Josh’s body shivers from the feeling, never having been in this situation before. He starts to feel a little anxious, his breathing increasing slightly. His heart’s beating out of his chest and his face is almost red as an apple. y/n kisses Josh passionately and continues to move her hands over his body. As she does, she begins unbuttoning Josh’s shirt…*Is this ok Josh... Josh’s body is shaking profusely at this point. He nods nervously, unable to communicate with words. y/n pulls him in closer.*y/n pushes her hand onto Josh’s chest, pushing him onto his bed feeling his heart beating rapidly. She looks at Josh with a hungry smile, her mind set on going even further. He begins breathing even faster and slightly heavier.*y/n whispers seductively into Josh’s ear “It’s getting hot in here…” *She unbuttons his shirt the rest of the way, and proceeds to caress his bare chest with a soft kiss. Josh’s mind goes blank and his heart beats out of his chest, unable to form coherent thoughts.*y/n runs her hands over Josh’s chest again, this time moving to his waist and slowly removing his pants. She kisses him again, and whispers once more “Can…can I?”Josh gulps loudly, extremely nervous and unsure of what to do. He responds “Uhh…” Josh’s heart is beating at breakneck speed. All of his blood rushes to his face as his body shakes uncontrollably. He tries pulling himself away Y/n’s seductive voice grows more clear. “Is that a no?” She continues to inch her body closer, clearly still looking to escalate the situation. Josh’s mind goes blank as his heart races. He can’t say anything.

“I can't do anything more if I don't get a yes baby” *Josh’s mouth dries up and he nods frantically* “Y-Yes! Yes please..

”Good boy using your words hun. *Josh’s face lights up red at the fact that Y/n called him “Good boy” and “hun”. He starts to feel a little uncomfortable in his underwear by the level of intimacy, but clearly still aroused by her.* Y/n moves herself closer, taking off her shirt and and skirt left in her Lacey underwear siting on-top of Josh. She bites her lip as she continues.* “Is this okay…?*Josh gulps nervously. His eyes flutter for a moment as he nods, . All of his thoughts disappear and he lets his body take control.**Y/n pulls Josh closer as she grinds herself onto him through his boxers. He gasps slightly with an intense feeling of euphoria and intimacy. His brain goes fully blank and he can’t seem to form any coherent thoughts.**Y/n moves slowly in his lap, her touch being more and more seductive. She leans in to give him another passionate kiss, her lips slowly moving down to his neck as she begins to Seep through her panties. Josh let’s out a whine bucking into her,loving the sweet friction on his fully hard cock. He fumbles with her bra strap before getting it off groping her chest harshly as she let’s out little moans. She lifts up causing Josh to whine in protest, she take off her panties before doing the same for Josh. She lower herself down rubbing herself on Josh, he yelps out from the sudden sensation, shuttering from the pleasure cursing under his breath. She reaches down and takes him in her hand, giving him a few pumps before lining him up with her entrance and slowly sinking down on him.

With a couple thrusts He moans out loudly “ Fuck fuck fuck… y.. Your so t… tight i’m gonna..” He moans almost pornographicly and cums inside her immediately, mortified he begins to apologize “Fuck i’m so sorry! y… your just so pretty and.. and feel so good… this is my first time i-”she shut him up by kissing him and rolling her hips. Continuing to slowly roll her hips she says “ Fuck no it’s ok that was so hot keep moaning like that for me baby wanna fuck you till you cry ”she starts slowly bouncing on his still hard cock as he unraveled a whiney little mess. She fucked herself on his cock hitting the bundle of nerves each time “Thank you.. F.. Fuck …thank you please don't stop riding me like that your so perfect “ she bounced on him each trust dragging against her sensitive walls” fuuuck baby boy you feel so good are you close ““ so..so close please let me cum please, i’ll be a good boy I promise just please let me cum…ahh~”he moaned “Fuck since you moaned so pretty for me baby go ahead and cum baby c'mon” “Fuck, thank you, thank you uhH~” his cum flooded inside her while her walls clamped down around him reaching her climax.She kept going, riding out her orgasm, much to josh's surprise . 'F..fuck Y/n~ its so much!".She finally begins to slow down eventially coming to a complete stop, her hands of his chest as he panted under her.

"That was so good thank you" he said still recovering. She lifted off him with a hiss laying herself down on his chest, his hand immediately wrapping around her to cuddle"You did so well baby" she responded nuzzling her head into him. they sat in comfortable silence holding each other for a couple minutes

"Sooo..next time you want to watch me beat Biotic wars?"

#josh futturman x reader #future man x reader #josh hutcherson #josh futturman #josh hutcherson smut

[blazehedgehog]

ICYMI: My Sonic Frontiers Criticism/Essay Is Out Now

So here's the last four months of my life come to fruition: the longest piece of edited criticism I've ever put on my Youtube channel, clocking in at just over an hour. For those of you that may be new around here, I am pretty against making long videos. I don't know if I overthink things too much or what, but it's rare for me to have much tolerance for feature-length reviews of things. They can wear me out just watching them, and it definitely wears me out to make them.

But sometimes you just have a lot to say. And I didn't even necessarily say everything I could have said here; there were things I would have added if not for the looming deadline proposed by the video sponsor. That's not a complaint -- sometimes you need someone else to tell you "be done by this date or else." Limitations foster creativity and toiling away at perfection can sometimes be just as toxic as crunch.

What I was trying to say is it's a big video, and it was hard keeping everything straight in my head because there was so much. One of those times where I was glad how I planned things out in advance, because sometimes the thoughts you had four months ago are not the same thoughts you have today, and the thoughts from four months ago were better.

It's already proving to be a bit of a divisive video, given I am going against the grain here. But I'm a big boy. I've spent time on the front lines of these sorts of things before. I know how to handle myself. I mean, half the reason I started my tumblr back in the day was pointing out some of the truly deranged takes I'd get in the replies to my Sonic 06 video.

Though I do worry. I'm getting a lot of people who are... politely declining to tell me what they think. More than a few "I don't agree with you, but I'm glad you released this video" that then never elaborate further. And that makes me feel bad? But why? Do I want to argue with my friends? Not particularly.

But more to the point, are people afraid to argue with me? Do I get too aggressive? I've picked up on a vibe, not just from friends, where people seem to go out of their way to avoid arguments with and/or around me. I mean I literally just said I started my Tumblr blog as a "get a load of this guy in my comments" spotlight (which, for the record, I don't do anymore). I don't want to be scary. But is it scary, or is it a strength? Or am I just imagining the whole thing? History says it's probably that last one, but it doesn't stop me from wondering. It's a lot to chew on.

At the end of the day, I do think parts of this script could have been better. I do kind of get a little mean at a couple points in ways I could have written around. A lot of people are bristling at the opening spiel, where I get more than a little "you people" about the Game Awards voting situation. There's another part later in the video where I also feature actual comments from a previous video and as I was editing it together I thought, "this sounds mean." But given I was less than 24 hours away from that deadline, I just had to roll with it (so I at least blurred the names and cropped the avatars out).

I'll end this post by quoting what I wrote on Patreon day before yesterday for the early access version of this video:

What a march this has been. I've worked on some videos that felt like they took forever, but nothing like this. This felt like the project that would never end. Some of that's because, after pushing myself so hard on the Sonic Adventure 2 video, I tried to be a little more casual with this one. I think I started the script around the end of April, a couple weeks after finishing the game on-stream. The idea was to avoid burnout.  And then the script grew, and grew, and grew, to be the longest script I've ever written. After doing voice over, I had three hours of material I had to cut down. I captured more than 60 hours of gameplay from more than 50 games. Thank goodness I took the time to stop and "storyboard" out this review like I did with the SA2 video. It actually proved to be extremely valuable here -- with a video this long, that takes so long to put together, it's hard to keep all of your ideas hot and ready in your head. Often I'd fall back to the storyboard and realize I planned something months ago that was way better than what I was doing in the moment.  And then in July, a sponsor came calling again. Suddenly I had a real deadline. The last four weeks have been a race to move this mountain of material into something resembling the shape of a video. The last couple days in particular have felt something like a miracle. A work ethic I hadn't tapped into in years suddenly roared to life as I locked down 20+ minutes of video in a matter of hours. It may have involved several actual panic attacks and me running on about four hours of sleep, but here we are. I was revising the script all the way up until a week ago. In retrospect, the sponsor segment probably leans a little too much on SAGE content, but by the time I realized that the train was barreling down the tracks too fast to stop. Thoughts for next time, I guess.

Patrons get a PDF of the script I used, including an unfinished earlier draft I abandoned where I think I was actually even meaner about it, if you can believe it. They also get a PDF of what my "storyboarding" process looks like (which is all just text).

I'll probably toss up a post for all the art I made for this video, too.

#sonic the hedgehog #sega #sonic team #sonic frontiers #youtube #video #long #behind the scenes #Youtube

[toastsnaffler]

Would love to hear ur thoughts on Hades game sometime because I too loved but had beef with the game and I think we are the same ….

yessss, disclaimer I haven't played it for like 3 years and I only played 10 hours/got to the end once before I dropped it so i might be misremembering some things but I stick by my opinions! under the cut cuz this is long as fuck 🫣 my haterism has no limits

ok so basically my grievances w hades can be split into 2 main areas: gameplay + narrative, I'll break them down in that order.

firstly gameplay - roguelikes/lites are my fave genre so I was predominantly approaching hades from this angle + its failure here is the clincher for me.

I found the gameplay repetitive and stale. this isnt a criticism of its permadeath like ive seen some ppl make - I usually relish repetition/grind especially in permadeath-based games bc I find tactical challenge fun + love the learning curve, its soooo rewarding. but hades is ultimately just a glorified button masher. mob/boss movesets are boring + unoriginal, and can generally all be fought the same way. trying to do otherwise drags out fights; it actively discourages emergent gameplay so theres little variance WITHIN runs. the pool of rooms for procedural generation is far too small so theres little variance BETWEEN runs. there's no real challenge to combat, difficulty is mainly increased by heightened mob tankiness as you get further in a run. movement/combat doesn't flow well, its mechanically very weak, relying heavily on its permanent upgrade system instead of developing skill in the way you approach the game. all the weapons feel clunky and don't really offer any unique challenge/benefit so theres virtually no point switching between them and the grind to unlock them all is so pointless… god there are just SOOO many hack n slash crawlers that keep it fresh even for hundreds of hours and hades fails miserably at keeping it fresh for even 5 measly hours :^/

I didnt like the boon system either - its far too simplistic + shallow. its fine to rely on chance, this is part of the random generation, and I think it had a lot of potential in that it was a good way of combining aesthetic w gameplay itself. but this is pretty much the only form of resource management - and theres barely any management to it! theres no reward for exploring different builds, they dont really synergise BETWEEN gods in interesting or useful ways, so the game encourages you to just stick with one god throughout, and biases random generation towards boons youve already collected. part of the fun for me is learning HOW to design a build, and working with the randomiser to play flexibly, but hades just isnt interested in that at all...

also - I don't like the permanent upgrade system, I think this detracts from it as a rogue. every time you should be starting on square 1 - maybe you pick up health upgrades etc throughout each run, and maybe you unlock new weapons etc for the random generation pool, or purely cosmetic upgrades, but the point of permadeath is that it RESETS! zags base health + dmg should be the same 50 hours into the game as when u first open it. make a different genre of game if u dont wanna do that lol. I also think IF youre going to say fuck it and add a permanent upgrade system, you should also add unlockable permanent biome shortcuts bc ur just making it boring as fuck to have to waste time grinding thru earlier biomes with unskippable combat once youre op for them.

I GET that they did this to make the game more accessible* to players who dont typically enjoy rogues, but it just makes it really disappointing for those of us who DO love rogues, and it always feels cheap to me when games are like "well of you want challenge then set the difficulty yourself with these modifiers 🙄" like just make the base difficulty TOUGH up front and then add an easy/story mode and accessibility features* for players who don't want the challenge.. if you're gonna call yourself a rogue the gameplay should be the PRIORITY not a throwaway option

one of my biggest peeves with hades is how people now laud it as one of the best rogues - whenever I mention I like the genre I almost always get asked "oh, like hades?" and it pisses me off so much… its a rogueLITE not roguelike, ie. it has rogue ELEMENTS but its not a true one and imo, it does a pretty shit job implementing them! I would have a lot less resentment towards it if it wasnt marketed as the forefront of the rogue genre - frankly its a very basic rogue with very mid gameplay, its characters/design are by FAR its strong point and it should be sold as such. its misleading and makes me sad that this is what most people think of when they hear rogue :-(

*(side note - accessibility in this game is another major flaw. theres really no excuse for a game as popular as this to be so lacking in accessibility options. allow people to bind keys together or use coloured outlines or have colourblindness settings or alter font/text size etc - its not that hard! dead cells did a great job of this lol)

anyway... moving onto my second criticism - narratively, its also unsatisfying.

the hades plot is, loosely, about a cycle of abuse, so the 2 natural directions to go in with this are either: #1: escaping the cycle, or #2: continuing it forever.

#2 is the easiest to do with a rogue format - bc of permadeath the game is already cyclical, so all you have to do is create an ending which loops perfectly back to the start (smth like 'its impossible to truly defeat/reconcile with his father so even after zag beats him, hades drags him back to the start again). obviously this is a miserable story to tell, but tbh I think it wouldve been interesting + fitting - so much of greek mythos is about cycles and the unchanging nature of the gods, and they LOVED eternal cyclical punishments. plus theres smth rly tragic about zag gradually helping everyone else while no one else can save him from his family LOL

#1 is a bit harder to do - this is the story they WANTED to tell but I just don't think it worked… the driving force plot-wise is his desperation to escape. realistically for this to happen the game needs to be finite, which it can't be due to its rogue nature - somehow you have to end up at the very start again. the main solutions I can think of for this are:

a) after the final boss, insert some time travel shenanigans (easy to fit into the worldbuilding using a character like kronos) and all of zags progress with hades is unspooled. this can be completely out of his control, or it could be a choice the player makes (to end the game here or choose to go back and relive zags past in order to progress npc questlines). eg. what happens in dead cells. again, tragic but it makes more sense to me

-or b) bite the bullet and give the game a completely finite ending after beating hades. if players want to go back and play more to complete other npc questlines, they pick up play from before they beat hades. this isnt explained "narratively" bc the plot is already concluded and now theyre just playing for fun (eg. what going under does)

I also think for a character-focused story-rich game, roguelite was a really terrible choice of genre as it locks every interaction behind pure chance and hours of grinding - just really baffling why they decided to do this, especially when theyve had such success previously making games within different genres (transistor, bastion, pyre). the core of the issue for me is that the devs wanted to create a game that was both story rich AND a rogue - and these things arent mutually exclusive, but the best features of each contradict each other when you try to balance them in a way to appease their respective fans (ie. the challenge/complexity of the gameplay is heavily restricted by keeping it easy for ppl unfamiliar with rogues to pick up, but the strength of the narrative arc is simultaneously weakened by the fact that as a rogue it has to be perpetual bc of permadeath + you're working with procedural generation…)

I'm not going to beef with the artstyle or music bc I rly loved them both (even if I wish the body diversity was better!), or with the interpretations of greek gods bc literally every piece of media abt greek mythos has to decide how to interpret them and I think its silly to be like "this isnt CANON" - since we actually dont HAVE a strict "canon" for many of these stories bc theyve been retold/translated in so many conflicting ways lol. I've just heard ppl complaining abt that and I dont think its worth complaining about 🤷‍♀️

ANYWAY tl;dr: hades should've been an action-heavy isometric metroidvania… it wouldve made it far easier to focus on character questlines (ie. with respawn points + a fixed map), unified the story they wanted to tell with the gameplay SO much more effectively, and allowed them to reach the full potential of both, whilst also playing up to supergiant's previous game-making strengths. but thats my 2 cents!

#SORRY THIS ENDED UP BEING SO LONG I JUST HAVE A LOT TO SAYYYY #also sorry for the weird formatting i typed this out in my phone notes and copy pasted into tumblr sjkdjf. hope it makes sense #just really frustrating to me that it ended up how it did bc it couldve been soooo good if it was good. but it wasn't 💔 #whats even more frustrating is that hades 2 doesnt look like its gonna improve on any of this lmao. sad well theres other games! #hades #.asks #.diaries

[milkpumpkin96]

Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars Review

I never had the chance to play the original Super Mario RPG, so I was SUPER excited when I learned it would be remastered for the Switch. After investing just over 20 hours into the game, I can say that it definitely lives up to its hype. I have always been a huge fan of Mario RPG games.

So, this review is specifically for the remastered version (even though this version is very faithful to the original).

[SPOILER WARNING]

OVERALL SCORE: 9 / 10

Honestly, I have no idea as to why I never played smrpg. I have played every Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi game, yet I never invested time into the original rpg game.

A lot of people struggle to get into the rpg genre due to the heavy time investment and/or the amount of dialogue. Super Mario RPG solves the issues by being an only 15ish-hour lighthearted game with playful characters, fun dialogue (and not too much of it), and unique enemies and NPCs.

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GAMEPLAY: 8.5 / 10

The remake operates very smoothly and the graphics maintain that Nintendo cutesy charm. It is a 100% graphic updated from the original, and it also added backgrounds to every area (instead of the weird bluish black voids)!

With this graphics update, Bowser no longer looks like a hell-spawn. I had always found SNES Bowser to be . . . eerie.

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The main game itself is not very difficult, which has irked nostalgic players of the game. Many people found the original to be harder (e.g., timing attacks were harder in the original game, and the og would not let you swap out characters during a fight, et cetera).

I have never played the original game, and even though I enjoyed my adventuring I do agree that I wish it was a bit more difficult. It would be hard to make a challenging game with a character like Princess Peach though . . . she is majorly a healing type, who can easily bring characters back to life ("come back") or perform individual and group heals ("therapy" and "group hug"). To use the abilities requires FP, but not a lot of it, and it was incredibly easy to attain a mass of FP with all the flower tabs and the safety badge which cuts FP usage in half.

As such, I tried to avoid using Princess Peach as much as possible, unfortunately. I want a challenge!

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However, the post-game to the Switch remaster of smrpg is a NIGHTMARE!!! There is evidently a difficulty spike as you beat the game. When I say "nightmare," I mean a fun nightmare. The post-game is just a gauntlet of rematching bosses from the main game (but not all of them), but twists are added. Bosses such as Punchinello and Booster have instant K.O. attacks, and fights such as Johnny require perfectly timed blocks.

I greatly enjoyed all the rematches and it took me around five or six hours to complete. I died quite a few times, particularly fighting Punchinello, Booster, and Johnny Jones. . . and it took me over 50 turns to complete the rematch against Culex. Speaking of Culex, the post-game finally reveals his epic 3-dimensional form.

I also think it is good that they added some post-game content due to how short the main game is. I do wish the main story was at least a tad bit longer, but I think overall the length is digestible for most people.

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MUSIC: 10 / 10

I am not alone when I say this, but Yoko Shimomura is a truly masterful composer. The soundtrack is going to be phenomenal when I know she is behind the works. The songs are the same in both the original and the new version of Super Mario RPG, but remastered--going from 16-bit chiptune to orchestrated.

I have no nostalgia for the original version, so I can easily say that I was blown away when I first heard the game's music. Of course with the game's added sound player and option to switch back and forth between the old and modern soundtracks, I can confidently say that I highly prefer the orchestral versions. One, I am a big fan of orchestrated music in general, and secondly, I highly appreciated the emphasis, intention, and passion put behind Shimomura's remaster. Again, I lack any sort of nostalgia for the old stuff (though I still loved the old tracks greatly).

I also appreciate how the music becomes layered as players build up their chain. Once the five chain hits, there is added background percussion. I do admit that some of the songs can be a little too intense, but it's catchy and gets me going!

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I would say my favorite updated tracks include:

Battling Monsters

Hello, Happy Kingdom

Got a Star Piece!

Fight Against an Armed Boss

Beware the Forest's Mushrooms

Versus: Smithy Battle

Fight Against Smithy, Who Likes Transforming

Obviously. . . I love battle music.

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STORY: 8 / 10

Super Mario games are not really known for their "mind-blowing" plotlines. However, smrpg was one of the first Mario games to really have a plot that was not just Bowser kidnaps princess Peach; Mario must save the damsel in distress.

In fact, this was the first Mario game that Bowser actually joined your party! And damn, do I really love when I can play as Bowser.

Super Mario RPG had heavily set the stage for future Mario rpg games where more story and unique characters become involved. Still, the story is not overly complex, but it is something. It is charming, fun, silly, and interesting enough.

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In summary, while Mario is fighting Bowser as the latter had kidnapped Peach once again, the massive sword named Exor slices through the Star Road and stabs through Bowser's keep, ejecting all of the characters.

The Star Road is an area within the stars that grant mortals' wishes. When Exor destroys it, all of the star pieces from the Star Road are scattered everywhere, which in turn permanently prevents people from having their wishes come true. Exor is a part of the "Smithy Gang," led by Smithy himself, in which they aimed to turn the planet into a weaponized, hate-filled world devoid of wishes.

On Mario's quest to find Peach, he encounters a self-proclaimed frog named Mallow (whose real species is a nimbus cloud). Mallow joins the party, and after being told by the Frog Sage that he is in fact NOT a tadpole but a bastardized cloud person, he sticks with Mario in order to find is real parents (who are King and Queen of Nimbus Land).

During their journey, they join up with Geno, who is a wooden doll come-to-life on a mission to gather all the star pieces and repair the Star Road. Geno himself is a warrior star that hails from the Star Road and decided to inhabit the doll's body because it "looked powerful."

Eventually, the trio meets up with both Princess Peach and Bowser and they all "join" Bowser's Minions in order to take down Smithy and restore the Star Road to its former glory, allowing everyone to make wishes once again.

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I think that the overall story was pretty cute and it was very cool to see Square Enix's added elements. Geno himself is very Final Fantasy-esq . . . no wonder so many fans find him to be super cool. Mallow is also a very unique character who is both useful with his "Thought Peak" and magically strong with his thunder attacks, yet he is very . . . whiny.

I also find it very strange that players have absolutely no idea who Smithy is or what he looks like until the very end of the game. There is certainly a mystical element to this, but it is also kind of weird. For the longest time, I assumed that Exor was Smithy! In other words, a small complaint I have is that I wish most of the villains were fleshed out a bit more, particularly Smithy and his goals, but I cannot really expect too much from a Mario game. It would be hilarious to see more Geno interactions with the bad guys.

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SETTING: 9 / 10

The Switch version of Super Mario RPG is very cute and charming in a graphical sense. As mentioned earlier, in my opinion, I am happy that areas are fleshed out with backgrounds rather than endless mono-colored voids! Like most Mario games, players traverse around the Mushroom Kingdom(?) or whatever island the kingdom rests upon, going to places such as Peach's Castle, Bowser's Keep, and new areas like Rose Town, Monstro Town, Marrymore, and the Forest Maze.

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I found the Forest Maze and Star Hill to be particularly beautiful. The nicely saturated greens and browns and blues are appealing to the eye, and the little green or golden floaties gave off a pleasant mystical touch. Regardless of the linearity of the game, exploring areas was still massively enjoyable and magical. One could find secret little areas and hidden blocks along the way.

Super Mario RPG was very innovative at the time and definitely pioneered novel aspects in future RPG games as a whole. In other games I have played inspired by smrpg, a lot of settings include distinct regional characteristics inhabited by unique people. For example, I am playing the game Sea of Stars, and the Stonemasons Outpost filled with Molekin people is certainly an homage to smrpg's Moleville.

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COMBAT: 9 / 10

While the combat may be easier than in the original version of Super Mario RPG, it was nonetheless enjoyable.

As you venture throughout the game, players acquire a total of five possible characters to utilize: Mario (who must always be in your party), Mallow, Geno, Bowser, and Princess Peach. Each character comes equipped with their own unique stats and abilities. You can only use three characters at a time, but the game allows you to even swap characters mid-battle if needed. So, a lot of different combinations can be tested.

Aside from Mario, I normally used Mallow and Bowser. I always used Mallow's "Thought Peak" to discover weaknesses, and plus, most of Mallow's abilities attacked enemy groups as a whole (at the cost of power, but regardless it helped battling go by a little quicker). Bowser was my other character of choice mostly because I just love him. The King Koopa is a tank but otherwise not too tactically special, although I enjoyed all the triple moves that involved him.

Geno is a great offensive character to use as well but I found that timing his attacks was more challenging; I avoided using Peach as aforementioned, but she is incredibly useful with her healing abilities and attacks such as "Sleepy Time" that puts all enemies to sleep.

----------

Timing attacks are easier in remaster than the original . . . and despite this, I still found difficulty in landing them sometimes (especially blocking). The Switch version also allows you to swap out characters in the middle of battle, even when the character is fainted, which makes things easier as well.

Players can also store unlimited amounts of items in the chest back at Mario's house, but can only carry a certain number at a time. Frog coins were not too difficult to find or earn either. As such, there is definitely a difficulty difference between the original and the remaster, but making the game "easier" did not derail enjoyment of the game. In fact, I really did struggle sometimes, especially in the post-game, so having these hoards of items and being able to swap out characters proved very useful in certain fights.

Also, I am an adult . . . I am sure children still struggled, haha.

----------

The game plays out like a typical turn-based JRPG, and I can confidently say that I am glad that for one, there are NO random enemy encounters (which I personally find annoying outside of Pokémon or something like that), and secondly, this game does not require you to devote an ungodly amount of time to grinding for exp. In my experience, if you just normally progress through the game and take out every enemy at least once per room, you will be fine level-wise. I beat the hidden boss Culex at level 22 and beat the game around level 24-25. The game caps your level at 30.

----------

I loved the addition of the triple attack moves. It acted as a chain-breaker, and honestly, it did not really affect the difficulty much. Sometimes, the triple attacks were obsolete or did very little damage to enemies. At other times, it completely obliterated who I was fighting against. The cutscenes that initiated these triple attacks never got old either and were rather amusing to watch.

Every version of this attack was useful. I predominately liked "Star Riders" with Mario, Geno, and Mallow; "Shooting Star Shot" with Mario, Bowser, and Geno; and "Clown Car Barrage" with Mario, Mallow, and Bowser. It is clear I preferred the offensive triple attack moves. While the healing/protective ones with Peach were useful when implemented, by the time my gauge was full I typically was not in need of it.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ENJOYMENT: 9 / 10

Overall, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars is a charming, silly little game that is not too short, nor too complicated, but equipped with some challenging and innovative aspects.

I believe it to be a great game fit to please a majority of audiences, not just Nintendo fans or RPG fans. Even for gamers not into these style of games, I think it can be really fun and does not require a heavy time investment.

I am super pleased that I was able to play smrpg on my Switch, as I have never played the original. Now I can claim that I have played every Mario RPG game, and have loved almost every one of them. Super Mario RPG started it all, and you can see how it influenced both the Paper Mario and the Mario & Luigi series . . . and even other video games as well.

TOTAL TIME SPENT: 26 hours

OVERALL SCORE: 9/10

PLATFORM USED: Nintendo Switch

DATE OF COMPLETION: December 2023

#smrpg #video games #smrpg remake #video game review #smrpg review #super mario rpg #mario bros #mario #princess peach #bowser #mallow #geno #Another unnecessarily long review #But damn do I love Mario rpg titles

[cassiesdevblog]

Pyo as... Adaptation? Homage? Clone? Thing?

Hey paisanos! I've been doin a lot of work lately helping @zombielesbean finish up their project Grey Area, and I wanna write up a big post about my contributions (including a really big exciting secret one!) once that's done, but the original warioware just hit the switch and with that comes Pyoro >:3

If you don't know about Pyoro, you can get the gist by watching a little bit of this epic video:

Of course, Pyoro on switch means I've got my game Pyo on the mind too. I mean, they are...

...similar games... 'w';

So similar that sometimes I worry Wario is gonna come to my house and beat the tar outta me. Wario, if you're reading this, I can explain

In 2020, when I finally found out you could download DSiware games on the 3DS--not for long tho :')--I immediately remembered a game I had on my DSi as a kid: Bird & Beans, a standalone version of Pyoro (and Pyoro 2!) with 50% more floor space to maneuver in. I bought it and absolutely fell in love with it! It became a sort of hyperfixation of mine for a little while, and so naturally, as one does, I started thinking "alright, but what if this was a platformer?"

See, I think arcade games and platformers mix really well. Platforming is often fun to do all on its own, and a lot of arcade games have sort of non-linear goals. It's a great combination if you wanna break platforming gameplay out of the usual get-from-A-to-B design, which is something I'm always wanting to do. Shoutout to any good boss in a platformer btw

One thing leading to another

So my immediate thought was like, what if you could just jump up there and pop the beans yourself? You could bounce off of them and get a combo going!

And so, if the beans themselves hitting your head is no longer a hazard, naturally the pits they create should be how you lose the game. In Pyoro they're functionally walls, but in a platformer that doesn't even make sense

But wait, if you pop beans just by touching them, can't you stand in one place forever and the ground under your feet will be safe for eternity? Ok, there'll be a special, extra dangerous flavor of bean that sends explosions left and right when it hits the bottom of the screen

As you can see, a lot of the game's design just flowed naturally from solving the problems caused by turning it into a platformer. Just by changing these few things, the game is already pretty distinct from its inspiration, but I took it a little further

Taking advantage of the genre

Beyond just patching holes in the design caused by that one change, I wanted to change other things in order to better take advantage of the focus on platforming

This is where @bisthefairy comes in. While ground in Pyoro is restored by eating a white bean to summon an angel to fill in nearby holes for you, I wanted to encourage the player to use platforming to get high up on the screen. I also wanted ground to be stackable, because that could spice up the platforming and even lead to unique, creative strategies

This led to the idea of having something like the angels from Pyoro flying around up high, so you'd have to bounce up there to get them to drop their block, pit or no pit. I gave the role to my friend Bis since they're small and they fly around

This desire to get the player to bounce up high also led to the creation of the worst feature in the game, the "clear line," which was quickly cut. As you'd rack up a big combo, a horizontal line would start rising up from the bottom of the screen. If you fell below it, it'd kill your combo and clear all the beans off the screen. 0/10. Having to play on half the screen and barely having time to react to incoming beans suckssss

Seriously. One of the worst aspects of Pyoro is that you get huge score for nabbing a bean right as it comes onscreen, so the best strat is to just keep spamming your tongue out hoping to get lucky. No idea why I thought making you play near the top was wise. The best interactions happen near the ground anyway, where you can skid and bonk into blocks

Also, stripes!

Not sure if this counts as a connection between the two games, but I feel like it's also worth mentioning a very indirect source of inspiration: the color banding on the sky in Pyoro. See, in Pyoro, the screen is divided into horizontal slices, and eating a bean from a higher slice gets you more points. I remember thinking the color banding on the sky should indicate the different slices, but it just doesn't! I think that put the idea of stripes conveying information in my head though, and that's probably unconsciously where Pyo's distinctive pit-indicating stripes come from

So, will Wario harm me?

Well, I got pretty bold using a bird and some "beans" in my game. I could have used the classic trope of a horse and some babies. Honestly, I used a bird and beans because I was sketching up ideas for the game and really liked Margie as soon as I drew her, and I liked the beans too much not to use them

"What about the name?" I hear you say, complaining you've not been able to tell which game I'm talking about this whole time. Well, I found the "Pyo" part of "Pyoro" really satisfying to say, so I put it in as a placeholder name, intending to change it later. Then I decided the sound of that syllable was so satisfying that Margie should say it every time she pops a bean, and by then it had grown on me so much I, once again, couldn't resist. It's all ok though, because baby chickens say "pío" in Spanish, and Margie is a chicken!

Well, I've baited some mouse traps with garlic just to be safe, but honestly, I think Pyo stands on its own two talons

Its inspiration is extremely obvious, but I think everyone agrees that, after the first passing glance, it has an identity all its own, in terms of both gameplay and presentation. I might even say it surpasses Pyoro in a few aspec--Oh fuck guys he's here

#pyo #pyoro #warioware #gamedev

[aheathen-conceivably]

Hey Alexis. I have to say your Darlington legacy is amazing and Zelda is the cutest and I love her story, and omg don't get me started on Antoine. I want to start the decades challenge myself, I’ve tried and failed before, but reading your story is making me want to do it. BUT, how? I’m not asking for a long detailed explanation, but more like your top 5 ways or something, you used to start it? Mods, cas-blogs, etc? And only if you got the time and of course want to share it with us/me?<3

Hello, there! Thank you so much for the kind words! And I’m incredibly glad to help. The Decades Challenge is a bit of a beast compared to other sims gameplay. It takes a little more research, effort, and organization to make it really enjoyable. So if I can push a few people deeper into historical sims life I’m happy to do so 😉

A key point before we get in resources below the cut (because prepare for paragraphs babes), how do you want to play the decades challenge? Do you want to stick to the original challenge? Do a version with more realistic aging? Just play casually for the gameplay? Have a meticulous storyline planned out (ahem 👀)?

In case it isn’t super clear, I’m not playing the decades challenge anymore. I have used it as a jumping off point for storytelling. Truly, I play the game very little. Usually I try to recreate the story posts in gameplay for myself but I do not try to achieve any of the challenge goals or gameplay rules (although I do have my own rules).

For this reason, I am not the best resource on gameplay mods. There are some mods that I’m dimly aware of that make the challenge more fun, like those by @janesimsten and this mod which I used a lot in the 1900s.

That being said, there is a lot of freedom in the the historical simblr community to craft the experience that you want. You can always try one idea and change it as you go. When I started the Darlingtons it was meant to be about 50/50 gameplay/storytelling with randomized death rolls and challenge goals. Then, I realized what I enjoyed and leaned further into that. I think this is the key to sticking with the challenge, because otherwise it’ll just feel like checking off boxes and you’ll give up sometime around 1900.

So without further ado, let’s get on down below the cut:

First and foremost, and I cannot stress this enough, start a mod organization system from day one. Playing historically requires a good deal of CC and if you don’t organize at the beginning, it gets very very difficult to sort stuff out later. This can easily make historical simming overwhelming and frankly, unenjoyable. I personally would start with a clean mods folder. Keep this separate from your regular (modern) mods as well. I have three mods folders, one for regular (modern) gameplay, one for building vanilla, and one for the Darlingtons.

For the Darlingtons, I have everything organized by mods, CAS, and then BB. Within these folders I organize by decade. That way when I enter a new decade it is easier to pull things in or out. I also have a folder on my desktop for subsequent decades CC, so if I ever find anything that isn’t easy to save on my Pinterest (more on that later), I download it then and there, and put it into the appropriate folder. Then when I hit a new decade I already have a bit of a CC collection going.

Now for finding CC, I am really not the best resource on BB stuff. I just don’t download a lot of it, and what I do is usually super specific or things that I see others using regularly. There are a couple of pieces of mainstay BB CC that I use consistently, and I’ll be glad to point you in the direction of those if you see something you’re interested in. However I don’t really have a central resource on BB they way that I do for CAS. So without further ado (because CAS is really why we’re here for historical simming, isn’t it?)….

Lookbooks, lookbooks, lookbooks. Seriously. Pixelnrd’s lookbooks we’re one of my first references, and I find them so helpful that they’re the reason I started to make my own. Just looking at a couple lookbooks can be much quicker and easier than scrolling through pages and pages of CC. But if you’re willing to go a little deeper down the rabbit hole, @twentiethcenturysims has truly made the resource to end all recourses. Their CC is categorized by decade for easy scrolling, and they also have a lookbook tag if you prefer to get your CC that way.

Now, and this is a personal one, I have used Pinterest SO much for this legacy I cannot even stress it enough. I have two boards: one for poses and one for CC. The poses one is a whole different beast, so if you ever want an answer for poses and storytelling please send one. But I’ll refrain from diving down that rabbit hole right now too.

My Pinterest CC board is organized like my mods folder, by decades. I also have a board for BB, general mod finds, hair, and (this one helps me a lot) CC that I have already downloaded so when I do lookbooks or get a WCIF, the link is already there for me.

These boards serve two purposes. Whenever I find a piece of CC that I like, I do not have to download it immediately. I save it to the appropriate decades board and it’s there, waiting for me, whenever I reach that era. This makes the hunt way easier, and also makes me SUPER excited to get to the next decade because I already have CC that I can see the characters in.

Secondly, Pinterest is an amazing resource in and of itself. Once it “learns” what you’re looking for, Pinterest will pull CC from all over the internet, including stuff that I’ve never seen in people’s lookbooks or the resources listed above. Then it’s an easy click to save this link for myself for later.

So scrolling through Pinterest then turns into a sort of inspiration board as well. This is a broader point regarding the tendency of people to quit the decades challenge: find what inspires you to do it and what makes you excited for the next decades.

For me, part of this is the storyline and seeing my characters reach the next plot that I’ve written for them. But much simpler, it’s the clothes! I’ve always been into fashion history and historical CC is actually how I found this community in the first place. So often if I’m tired out with writing or editing I’ll just go look through Pinterest for new stuff or scroll through my historical inspiration blog (which is linked in my pinned post if you’d like to check it out).

But above all, honestly, just don’t take it too seriously. Sometimes I see rather stringent calls for fashion accuracy or anachronisms but like…it’s your game. Start whenever you’d like, play however you’d like, for as long as you’d like. Hopefully this just gives you a bit of a framework for making that happen ❤️

#ask #answered #probably about 4x the answer that was necessary 😅 #but y’all know me #why use two words when 10 will also work? #WCIF #resources

[gcrtys]

a review of new tales from the borderlands

so, new tales from the borderlands was ... something! i was really excited going into it, and i can say it was moderately enjoyable. it was not worth $40-50 at all, esp. with the preorder which included three skins in all grey!! woohoo!! that was super cool!!!

anyway,

style

in comparison to the original tales from the borderlands, the game shines in some aspects. the mocapping is wonderfully done. a lot of people are saying its awkward and weird, and at some times, it definitely can be. its not an entirely perfect system but it shows a good amount of emotion. with the funding of telltale’s tftbl, it was clear where they were lacking. odd cuts, janky animations, etc.

gameplay

the gameplay of new tales is definitely more polished. there were a few things that were odd and not well done and some segments were definitely dragged out a lot more than they shouldve been. i wish there were more interactable events in the world b/c i did enjoy exploring. vaultlanders was a unique addition, though overall felt very lacking and didnt make sense in terms of the storyline. it couldve done without it, and im 99% sure this was only added for replay value (collectables?)

they brought in some other new things i didnt necessarily enjoy. the entire system that was created for rating the group dynamic also did not care in terms of the game. i had about two scenarios where it did.

i didnt even know what was changing my group dynamic or how characters felt about one another. i didnt even know if they were on good terms by the ending of the game -- it wasnt made clear by gameplay. my only indication were a few popups stating “fran doesnt respect octavio” (yeah, i wouldnt either) and it was annoying. lou13 has an entire point in the beginning of the game stating teamwork would make the process easier to survive, and yet this didnt reflect one in the entire game. not where i saw, at least.

charm

holy. fuck. they bombed hard with the music choices. one of the BIG big aspects of tales, what made it shine, was the introduction and intros. they were well done, crisp, perfectly timed. its difficult for me to pick a favourite intro from any episode of tales because theyre all so well done -- from a stylish crash onto pandora to “busy earning” by jungle, to the somber crash onto pandora to “retrograde” by james blake. it was clear every song in tales was carefully chosen and the intros were framed around them.

whereas in new tales, its... weird. the introductions to the episodes are odd, weirdly timed and dont expand upon much. it felt like they were trying too hard to mimic the bonding the tales team went through -- but that was natural in comparison to this. even then, there wasnt a single introduction i enjoyed. episode 5′s introduction was the best out of the bunch but even then, the music choice was odd and it felt like there was nothing happening. it wasnt worth watching. whereas in tales, it would hook you and keep you there the entire time.

the name cards are also very oddly timed. a lot of them dont appear when theyre supposed to. typically in borderlands, we get a line or two before a character’s name is revealed. i found multiple times, either name cards did not appear for characters that would be reoccurring, or would just be flat out poorly timed. it didnt feel like borderlands, which is known for the flash of the cards and the catchy one-liners to accompany them.

writing

so... its definitely an improvement from borderlands 3. some would disagree and say its a difficult storyline to follow, which, i understand

i think episodes 2-3 were quite literally worthless and provided nothing. i dont think i even remember what happened in those episodes. the ones that really captured me, were the last two. its where the spirit of the game (quite literally) came out to reveal itself. i didnt expect myself to get emotional but episode four did make me cry, and then immediately sober up in confusion when it jumped to a retro 90s fighting style game with fran.

some of the jokes dont hit quite right and a lot of episode four is... odd. between the std’s joke, the spiderant, so on... it felt unnecessary. the running gag of lou13 “data sharing” (aka having sex) was uncomfortable to watch.

and there were a lot of inconsistencies with the writing, as is usual with the borderlands universe, but:

- anu creates a device to replicate siren technology, which is disregarded after episode 1 and never brought back up again

- octavio’s idiocy goes beyond being an idiot and quite literally just having no brain for the sake of “humour”, which just comes off as frustrating

- characters just stand out in open hallways and get shot and die. its seen as emotional and heartbreaking in game, and incredibly stupid as the player of said game. why the hell did stapleface die from a gunshot to the shoulder? why couldnt anu heal her? who knows, there is absolutely no explanation for it

- when the characters are going on a gameshow and stopped by a bouncer, he says “all contestants are accounted for” and then when you get into the area, there is literally. a single person. and its not a sake of others going before said person -- they literally begin the gameshow, starting with that person, a moment later.

- rhys calls anu to ask her help to stop tediore from opening the vault, and then, never follows up. literally. he is not seen from again for like five chapters or something ridiculous and when he does return, its for a completely separate reason and its never brought up again.

- the writers seemed to have either never played the original tales, or did not care enough to stay true to rhys’ character in general. he’s power-hungry, an asshole, and the type of superior he wouldve hated. the writers chose to ignore every single line of rhys discussing how atlas could be different from the other corporations and went with “actually, theyre ALL bad” which like, yeah, i get it. capitalism, boo. but when it doesnt match up with the characters behaviour its... very irritating.

while there was definitely some of sassy rhys in there ("you’ll be hearing from me, specifically my tears” is one of my personal favourites), it didnt make up for the rest of how they butchered his character. also, i see them hinting at sasha’s return and i DO NOT like it. stay away from her.

they also decided to make athena the ceo of hyperion-- how or why that happened, i have no idea, and frankly at this point i dont want to find out.

characters

the cast is... certainly a cast. but delete lou13.

i really liked anu and i resonated with her. although a little irritating at times, i could appreciate her as a character. it was a real breath of fresh air in comparison to the other borderlands characters we typically receive. octavio was... octavio. i did enjoy fran, but the consistent horniess was overdone after about the second episode.

a lot of the side characters that were introduced just, dont get brought back in. youre introduced to a big group of characters in the first episode by octavio, and then you barely see any of them for the rest of the game. (justice for diamond danielle) its a waste and once again, one of the biggest complaints i have about borderlands games is wasted potential. from bl3′s clay, to athena (who actually makes a reappearance, after the audience reminded the writers she existed), katagawa jr, aurelia, rose, gladstone, and so on...

now we have an additional cast of characters we’re most likely never going to see again, who were introduced as important to one of our protagonists and then never expanded upon. (the fact we saw a literal talking gun more than any of his closest friends was weird)

anyway, going back to my first point, im sorry but i hated lou13. his entire existence was unnecessary. a robot filled with existential dread, oh boy, i wonder where we’ve seen that one before! this isnt familiar and not well done at all.

where loaderbot in the original tales shines, lou13 fails in every. single. category. from personality, to likability, to personal sacrifices for our protagonists... its all lackluster, disappointing, and i could not care less about this character.

anyway, we’re never going to see about 99% of those introduction characters again and while its annoying, im fine with it if it means more room for other, already established characters who deserve some more time in the spotlight.

going back-- we finally saw katagawa senior! they copied katagawa jr’s model entirely, and put a beard on him. fantastic, great work everyone. take a day off, you guys deserve it. mustve been really difficult to come up with that one, especially considering the art we see for him in the next episode is literally not the same man.

overall

if you go into this expecting tales from the borderlands, you’ll be disappointed.

if you go into this expecting good writing, you’ll be disappointed.

if you go into this expecting a few laughs, you might get some! it depends on your humour! i thought badass superfan was hilarious and there were a few bits i genuinely enjoyed. a lot of the humour was enjoyable to me, but after all, this is all matter of opinion. if youre not a fan of reoccurring jokes or bits that drag on for a little bit too long, planned awkward laughter, tension, etc. this might not be your style of humour.

if you go into this wanting good characters to grow attachments to... play tales from the borderlands.

5/10 just want troy baker back plz ty.

#borderlands #new tales from the borderlands #tales from the borderlands #ntftbl #tftbl #**mine

[oneokkombat]

‼️ Call of duty modern warfare 3 campaign spoilers

So…I am mourning 😭 mind you that I’ve only seen cut scenes that cut a lot of the gameplay so might opinion might change after.

To me it does feel it was rushed, which I kinda expected after the very little time frame there was after the second game, disappointed but not surprised.

Soap is dead. I hated it, even if he was going to die it still felt rushed, like he was a major character and he die as a side character, and ig he got that cut scene at the end but still..maybe I just hate it because he was my favorite.

I did saw a lot of people saying that they heavily cut down the ghostsoap banter or that they kill off soap in part to stop it, honestly I’m 50/50 on it, but I do think soap’s death was more to repeat the shock from his death in the og game, unfortunately as I said it felt flat because it felt rushed but whatever.

I’m upset because his team showed little emotion towards his death, but it’s cod so again I expected it, it’s a dude bro game too much emotion would kill them.

Shepherd is death ! But I feel price’s decision will come back to bite him in the ass, for some reason I see price going on a darker path and maybe becoming an enemy in future games.

Graves should have died.

I feel so much for farah, she is trying her damn hardest to keep her country in peace, I was at first upset they trusted shadow company but I can see why she did, at the end it seemed she learned the truth so that’s good, I really hope they don’t kill her off.

I’m glad we saw more of nikolai and laswell

I liked this new makarov

I’m still mourning soap 😔

#call of duty #call of duty spoilers #cod mw3 #cod mw3 spoilers #modern warfare 3 #modern warfare 3 spoilers

[theeeveetamer]

If you've been wondering where I am: the answer is Zelda

I kind of want to do a quick comparison of what I think TotK did better (and worse) than BotW so here it is. I'm not finished with the plot yet so I won't be talking about the story, but I think I've played enough to make a comparison when it comes to gameplay and characterization.

No story spoilers or quest spoilers or anything. Just general discussion about the kinds of puzzle contents of dungeons and shrines and some of the features you can find in the overworld, but I'll put it under a cut anyway.

Starting with what I think TotK does worse than BotW so we can end on a positive note:

1) The shrines. I'm probably at least 50 shrines in at this point and I hate how they're all basically a variation of either a physics puzzle or a combat trial.

It's like the devs looked at how cool everyone thought Eventide Island was in BotW and said "do that, but again, and 20 times just to make sure it gets really stale." The physics puzzles are all really short and, by nature of the game's design, you have to put at least some Zonai devices used for the "intended solution" into the shrine itself so players can't get stuck. This means the game basically hands you the solution to every shrine right at the start.

If I could improve this game's design, I would just give players 99 of every Zonai device capsule while they're in the shrine that they can take out and use as they see fit (removed once you leave the shrine).

I don't mind some of the underpants trials or basic physics puzzles, but I'm dying for a more meaty experience that takes a bit of actual thought to solve. Speaking of...

2) The dungeons. Admittedly I've only done two so far (the Rito and Zora ones) but somehow I find them even easier than the BotW ones. At least the BOTW ones had the kind of neat mechanic where you can flip and move and rotate parts of the dungeon to open up new areas or do different things. So far the two TotK dungeons I've done have been more incredibly basic physics puzzles. The lead up to the dungeons themselves can be kind of neat but other than that, I'm craving something more complicated and time consuming. Like, something I'd be able to burn an entire play session on instead of just an hour or two.

3) The tutorial segment. It's literally just the Great Plateau 2: Electric Boogaloo, except this one is extremely on rails. There's a very obvious intended path you're supposed to be taking around the islands and there's really not much you can do to deviate from it, at least from my experience. Which I get; TotK has much more complicated mechanics to explain and naturally the more complicated a mechanic the more babying the player needs initially. I just think it was kind of a bad introduction to the game. It's at least two or three hours of extremely linear tutorial, the island isn't really even fully explorable since you don't get the paraglider until after you're done, and I wish they'd allowed a bit more freedom right off the bat.

4) This is kind of hard to explain, but I feel like in general the path to some key features are a bit more on rails than I would expect?

Just as an example from the early game: You jump down to mainland Hyrule and you still don't have a paraglider. You actually have to do parts of the main quest before you can even have access to it. Sure you can continue running around without it, but you won't be able to fill out your map AND you're functionally locked out of 65% of the map (since there's no way to get to the sky or the depths safely without it).

The game doesn't force you to go do the main quest either, and there's no indication that the main quest will be what gives you the paraglider or that you need the paraglider to activate the towers and get map pieces. I probably played for a good 7 or 8 hours before I finally gave in and looked up where to get it, which is kind of a shame because I was really not having that much fun until I hit the first Depths section. I wish they'd just given it to you when you finish the tutorial section or the first time you talk to Purah, instead of making you do a whole run around for it.

That's not the only aspect of the game that feels like that. E.g. you can't activate the Fairy Fountains until you go to one specific stable and start a quest line, or you can't get rewards for those spirit frog gems you keep picking up until you go to one specific place and start a quest line. Sorta takes the fun out of exploring and finding new things when you're basically told "oops, come back later I guess" when you find something cool. That said though, this is probably the least egregious of my complaints because it ties into something I think TotK actually did better.

5) The UI in some places is hot garbage, I'm sorry. Why do we not have different tabs for food, bugs, and monster parts at this point? It is a nightmare 100 hours in trying to organize your shit. Not to mention attaching something to your arrow lays out EVERYTHING in your inventory in one big long line that you have to scroll through, which means you might have to shuffle through a hundred different items to find the one you want. It should not take me 10+ minutes in the middle of combat to find a shock fruit to throw/attach to my arrow.

Now for the things I think TotK did better than BotW:

1) I actually think the quests are LEAGUES better than BotW. This is the reason why complaint #4 above doesn't bother me that much. For an example of what I'm talking about: the great fairy fountains have a quest tied to them specifically. Because of that you need to go to that one specific stable to start it. So it's more on-rails, but as a result you get a better and more involved side quest.

To be honest, I'm okay with the tradeoff (a little less freedom for a little more quality). I was really, really craving more quests on the level of Tarrey Town in BotW and pretty much every town I've visited in TotK has at least two or three semi-sizable quests to dig into. And there are far fewer "catch ten bugs for me" quests, thank god.

2) Overall the world just seems more lived in. The towns are bustling with activity and all of the NPCs have their own little schedules and problems and dialogue. You see a lot more travelers roaming around, and it's actually worthwhile to talk to them (I just found out yesterday that some will mark where you can find clothing sets on your map!). You can encounter travelers fighting monsters and merchants and whatnot.

BotW's big problem really was that there was like no one out and about when traveling, and you were pretty much always punished for talking to anyone because 95% of the time they turned out to be Yiga Clan.

3) The sky islands are kinda meh, but the depths are REALLY cool. Admittedly I haven't replayed BotW in a hot second so I'm not really bothered by them mostly recycling the main map, but I can see why that would bother some. However, I say the devs more than make up for it by essentially creating an entire second map below the surface. And kudos to them too, because it's genuinely unsettling and cool to be down there. I just wish there were more sky islands/more variety in the ones we do have. I mean like every region has one with a central wheel with a piston that you can spin to launch yourself, I've encountered like three moon ones, etc.

4) Maybe this is just me, but I felt like BotW strayed kind of far from previous Zelda games. I like that TotK has a lot of little references and easter eggs for players to find.

And it's not overbearing enough that a new player wouldn't be able to understand what's going on, but they're neat little things for the long time fans. Like I howled when I got the Windwaker PJs and I adore a lot of the visual references to Skyward Sword.

5) I still don't love weapon durability, but it is better this time. The fuse mechanic does make it so you can turn pretty much any crap weapon into something usable. This definitely gets me using my powerful weapons more often, whereas in BotW I would pretty much never grab two handed swords and I would cling to my powerful weapons like a hoarder.

I still wish there were a couple of unbreakable "bases" you could use and just the materials you attach would break, cuz it doesn't feel good to get something really cool and rare like the fierce deity sword and have it break.

6) I CAN BUILD A HOUSE!!! Also the customization in general is fantastic. I love that you can have different paraglider cloths and there's soooo much FASHION!

7) I found the guardians very unfun and I'm glad they're gone. I'm not a big fan of the big bad enemy that you either die to immediately or you take them out FAST. Encountering a guardian was always more stressful than fun for me.

I'm not sure if this was in BotW as well, but I notice that in TotK if something really strong hits you from full health you'll always survive with a quarter of a heart. Cuts down a lot on the unnecessary deaths and is a good indicator to players on what is and is not currently safe for them to take on.

And just in general there wasn't a lot of enjoyable strategy to the guardian fights for me. Meanwhile in TotK I've been taking on stuff waaaaaaaay above where I should be for hours now, and while it's hard/a bit frustrating sometimes it's very doable.

8) Link! I like TotK Link a lot better than BotW link. Maybe it's just me, but he feels so much more expressive and interesting. One of my big complaints about BotW was that Link was very flat, which stood out even more since they added voice acting. So characters would just talk at him like a brick wall. A bit jarring if you're coming off of Skyward Sword or Wind Waker link.

#legend of zelda #totk #just some thoughts

[bunnyinatree]

I decided to combine two of my interests and brainstorm which schools of magic the Death Note characters would main if they had played Wizard101 growing up. My thoughts are beneath the cut!

Light would be a Fire wizard, because I associate that school with obnoxious men who often compete rather than cooperate with other players because they want to be the main hitter. He prioritizes high offense over high defense and can get around shields with DoT spells.  (Also, Immolate is a pretty good metaphor for what Light does to himself during the Yotsuba Arc!) 

L would be an Ice wizard, to contrast with Light (and so they can be super-effective against each other). In my experience, male Ice wizards often got flack for choosing "a feminine school," so this can reflect L's queer energy. I also think that the taunting component of certain Ice spells fits L nicely, and spells such as Ice Armor would explain why Light finds L so hard to kill. 

If Light chooses an elaborate, three-part name such as Adam Nighthunter, then it would be funny if L went with a short one such as "Elie." Bonus points if he wears some of the less-gendered gear and has to endure other male wizards asking, "Are you a girl?" and trying to flirt with him. Bonus bonus points if Light did this once and now can't decide whether he should pretend like it never happened or dig in his heels and insist that he's always known that Elie was a male-exclusive name and decided to flirt with L anyway.

I think that Light would hate L in the context of Wizard101, because L would be so good without any visible effort.  Light would spend 50 hours farming a boss for the best boots, or he would dedicate his entire weekend to farming Loremaster with nothing to show for it, while L would be drawing the Ultra Rare 4-person mount from a free seasonal pack and complaining to people on chat forums that it took him “almost thirty runs to get Pigsie.”

Just as Light and L are opposites (Fire and Ice), Near and Mello would be a Myth and a Storm wizard, respectively.

Mello would be a good fit for a Storm wizard, because he can do a lot of damage, but his spells often fizzle, and he frequently dies before the battle is over. Other players would use him for his heavy hitting, but that strategy wouldn't be viable for soloing much—although I'm sure that wouldn't stop Mello from trying. Also, Storm and Fire are similar schools, and I think that Light and Mello are similar characters. Both are too pretentious for their own good.

Near would be a Myth wizard, because both are given a hard time by fans for being "boring." Back when the game was new, I remember minions being the main draw to the Myth school. But plenty of people thought that they didn't need to summon minions to fight well, so it was seen as childish and a waste of everyone's time to summon a creature that would mess up traps, provide useless shields, etc. etc.

If Myth was seen as the most childish school, then I think it would fit well with Near, one of the youngest characters in Death Note who, like the Myth school, is very imaginative and surprisingly competent. (Also, I think that Near deserves to have a pet Orthrus. It would be very cute.)  Near also delegates responsibilities to people such as Gevanni and Rester, so it would make sense for him to be a minion-summoner.

Mikami would be a Death wizard, because his gameplay style would focus on being a supportive role for others at the cost of himself.  Could you imagine him using Feint four times (maybe eight, if he makes use of Treasure Cards) just so Light’s Fire Dragon spell can be boosted as much as possible?  He would also have spells such as Dark Pact, Sacrifice, and Bad Juju, which would deplete his health significantly if he never cast his own attacks to restore some hit points. 

I also think that Mikami wouldn’t optimize his deck completely, because he would enjoy the thrill of deleting half of his hand every round—and even though other players (like Light) would get mad at him for it, Mikami would genuinely enjoy having to rely on the luck of the draw to determine his next move.  (It’s worth noting that Mikami probably wouldn’t pack any Spiritual Traps or Blades for himself but would focus on having Elemental Traps and Blades that other, more powerful players can use.)

If Mikami is Death and Near is Myth, then imagine the sheer rage Light would feel when Mikami’s gearing up for his big attack (like at the Yellow Box Warehouse) only for Near to use Myth Imp the preceding turn and place a Death dispel on him.  (Bonus points if Light anticipated this and had Mikami prepare a Cleanse, only to realize that Near placed an Indemnity on the dispel, so Mikami’s big attack still fizzles.)

Misa would be a Life wizard, because it is seen as one of the more feminine schools (based on its weak attacks and emphasis on healing).  It would be fun if she always dyed her clothes black, so people assumed she was a Death wizard, while she actually played for one of the most vibrant and colorful schools.  I could see her attaching herself to a group of stronger players and establishing herself as the resident healer—though she would be surprisingly good at wreaking havoc on and attacking her enemies in a pinch.

Rem would be a Balance wizard, not just because of the whole dissolving-into-sand pun, but because she would be great in a support role, and I associate Life and Balance together (because I main a Life wizard whose secondary school is Balance).  If Misa focuses on healing others at the cost of herself, then Rem could use Helping Hands to reciprocate and keep Misa from over-exhausting herself. 

I also like the idea of Rem using the spell Judgment, and I could see her being a generally self-sufficient solo player who decides to help out those who are less competent at the game (much to the chagrin of more impatient players such as Light who don’t have the patience to explain puzzle rooms and cheat codes to newbies).

Those are the seven playable schools, but I DID think about a few other characters...

Matsuda would play as a Myth wizard, for similar reasons as Near: being underestimated and unpredictably efficient at his job, as well as working best in team settings.  Also, Matsuda having to put up with Cyrus Drake as his teacher would be a parallel to how exasperated the other Death Note characters get with him in canon.

Aizawa would be a Balance wizard, because he supposedly mediates well between the police and L during post-series investigations.  I also think this fits with his image as a family man, and if he were playing Wizard101, it would totally be to help his daughter out with tough boss battles.  (He would probably also trust her to log onto his account when he’s at work and have an extra player in battle to make her quests go by more quickly.)

Ryuk would be a Death wizard, mostly for the macabre aesthetic, although I can’t help but think that the perfect role for him in this game wouldn’t be another playable character but an NPC who follows a questing player around and lends them stat boosts—only I think that Ryuk would behave much like Captain Pork and provide a relatively insignificant benefit, like 3% accuracy.  (Bonus points if he provides +10% Death damage, which is completely useless to Light and only makes Mikami’s strategy of damaging himself to boost Light even more unsustainable.)

#death note #w101 #bunny babbles #i'm not gonna tag this for all of the characters because i think the intersection of death note and w101 fans is very slim #but for maybe the two people out there who are vibing with this: hello <3 join me in my brain rot

[odysseytopgames]

If Assassin's Creed Odyssey is on level, you can tell that Ubisoft was taking a look at the CD Projekt Red's The Witcher for inspiration. The gameplay quests aren't very interesting, but the people whom you meet are. One woman asks you to find the ingredients for an ingredient that will increase her husband's stamina, so they can get more sexual pleasure. A man is in prison due to the protests of his parents because a prophecy predicted that they would be hurt by their swords and shields. I won't go over the many ways one could go however some of them are bizarre. On an island that was not my, I saved a desperately foolish leader from his crew who were planning to murder him for having their ship sunk. The main plotline is relayed with a lot of seriousness, but as Odyssey becomes a bit snarky the story also improves. Here you can buy cheap Xbox keys.

The foundation was laid in Assassin's Creed Origins Odyssey blends that console game's RPG adventure with the ship-based journey in Black Flag. The themes of choice and consequence are prominent in Odyssey as the player is taking on the role of Alexios and Kassandra through a huge adventure to bring their family back together and also kill lots of people. There are some issues with the game and things like recruiting as well as Conquest Battles need a bit of tweaking however overall Odyssey is a great next step in the adventure Origins began. Here you can buy Xbox Series X keys for the 30 best online games to play with friends.

Your main choices change and alter the course of your story. They make me think about another option. In the beginning, I decided to protect the family from priests who had put their village in the flames due to a plague. It's easy to guess how it resulted. Within the town of Korinth, the missions must decide whether to kill the crime boss discreetly or in the theater in front of the entire city. Do you lie during a conversation or boast of your presence, knowing that the choice could result in the death of a man? Certain choices can have a regional impact but others spread out to include the rest in the tale. Most of the time, Sokrates is there to assist you in deciphering the moral significance of your decisions. Here you can buy cheap Xbox Series X keys for the 50 best video games of all time, according to critics.

It's my opinion that in the end, I am enjoying Odyssey more than Origins, however. The odyssey, as well as Origins, aren't the Assassin's creeds of the past however, they're both an exciting new basis for the franchise, and Odyssey is certainly an important step in the right direction. If you're eager for another epic adventure, Ubisoft has one ready for you. Buy cheap Xbox Series X keys.

Many players are going to ask: Is Assassin's Creed Odyssey better than Assassin's Creed Origins? Overall, Odyssey offers a full RPG experience, with a variety of cool options and a variety of locations to explore in addition to the returning combat on ships for the sequence. Odyssey is a larger game It took me about 70 hours to finish the main storyline, but it is possible to cut it down to 40 hours by simply slogging through. The basis of Odyssey is derived from Origins which was a fantastic video game. The only area where it falls short is the various methods it incorporates into the formula, such as Conquest Battles or recruitment; They're not bad in the overall sense however they require some rethinking and polishing so that they can be able to compete with the other elements in the console game.

I don't think that the plot is superior to Origins however the impact of your choices gives the videogame more weight. If one of the supporting cast members dies, I was unsure whether my actions at the beginning of the console game could have prevented their death; there's a good chance that they'll die, but I was guilty because in my mind there was a possibility in which I could have saved the characters. The game title even offers several endings, based on some options made from which I've experienced only a handful. It's a great choice for this series although I'd like to see that more of the intriguing options were incorporated into the more routine quests since you'll likely be playing lots of them. Buy cheap Xbox Series X keys.

[acepalindrome]

I’ve spent much of 2021 thus far playing Stardew Valley in the hopes of distracting myself from the horrors of reality, and I keep meaning to make a list of mods I recommend! Because I am running a truly embarrassing number of mods and there are some really great ones that really improve the gameplay or add fun content or just make everything look really pretty! So without further ado, here are some of my favorite mods:

- Lookup Anything: This is probably my favorite mod. It basically eliminates the need to have to keep consulting the Stardew Valley wiki while you play. The title says it all: this mod lets you look up anything. Need to know what’s a good present for Shane? You can pull up a list of all his loved and liked gifts, with items you have on hand highlighted for ease, plus his birthday, how many hearts he has with you and how many points you need to get to the next heart. Need to know if you should hoard that pine sap or sell it? You can pull up all the uses for it, items that can be crafted with it, anyone who might like it, community center bundles it’s used for, and how much you make by selling. How many days until your melons are ready to harvest? What items can drop from that stone in the mines? What are all the items you can make with the furnace? It’s such a fantastically handy mod and I refuse to play without it!

- NPC Map Locations: One of the most frustrating things in the game is trying to remember everyone’s schedule and then not being able to find someone to give them a birthday present or turn in a quest item. This mod shows exactly where everyone is on your map and solves that problem for good!

- Automate: This mod automatically pulls items from nearby chests into machines, so you don’t have to keep running back and forth to your furnace to pick up the finished metal bars and toss more ore in there...it just spits the finished item back into the nearby chest, pulls in whatever available items you’ve got in the chest and starts running again without you having to do a thing! Just be careful of where you place your chests and machines or you might end up processing items you didn’t want to. Luckily, you can set individual chests to not have items pulled from them.

- Fishing Made Easy Suite: I suck at fishing. I almost never bother with fishing if I don’t have a mod to make it bearable. I like this one because it has different levels of easy-ness, so you can make fishing just 25% easier, or 50%, or 75%, or 99%! And there are some other fun perks too. You want to catch all fish regardless of weather or season? Want to catch legendary fish multiple times? Want to catch prismatic shards? Go nuts.

- Stardew Valley Expanded: This mod is absurdly huge and adds SO MUCH CONTENT. New areas! New characters! New events! I was a little hesitant to start it just because I knew there was so much to the mod and was a little concerned of how well it would mesh with the rest of the game, but the characters and story and style fit in perfectly with the vanilla content. I could almost forget Andy and Sophia weren’t there all along! The purpose of the mod was to make the game feel fresh and new for people who had already played the game and that’s exactly what it does. I love it.

- Artisan Valley/Project Populate JsonAssets/Starbrew Valley: I’m lumping these together but this is a collection of mods that add a TON of new items, crops, trees, flowers, machines and recipes to the game. You don’t have to download them all! You can pick and choose the ones you want, or download the PPJA content pack to get the bulk of these mods all in one go! I personally really love Artisan Valley because it lets me make floral candles and soaps. And an espresso machine so I can make fancy coffee. And Starbrew Valley so there’s actually a fun variety of alcohol in the game.

I’m putting the rest under a cut because this is getting too long.

- Chests Anywhere: Lets you access all of your chests from the menu! You can add some limitations, like only being able to access chests in the same location you’re in, but I’m dumb and constantly forget that I was supposed to bring a present for a villager with me today, or that I wanted to upgrade one of my tools but left all my metal bars at home. So instead of having to run all the way back to my farm, I can just open my menu and switch through the chests until I find the item I need! Labeling the chests also makes this a lot easier for organization.

- Seasonal Villager Outfits: Finally, the villagers have more than one set of clothes! This mod gives them different outfits in different seasons, different weather and special outfits for holidays! It’s cute and really improves the immersion to see the villagers wearing tshirts in the summer and bundling up in the winter, and dressing up for special events! Some characters will change their hairstyle too, which I love.

- Canon-Friendly Dialogue Expansion: Gives all characters more stuff to say so they won’t just repeat the same lines over and over! Also gives them varied dialogue for festivals starting in year 2, so they don’t say the same thing every year at the Egg Festival or Spirit’s Eve.

- Immersive Elliott: Add more dialogue! Lots more dialogue! I downloaded the Elliott version of this mod because that’s who I plan to marry but I recommend looking up dialogue mods for whoever your favorite characters are (I think there’s one for almost all the marriageable candidates.) You’ll probably be chatting a lot with whoever you’re trying to woo and it’s nice to get lots of new lines!

- Stardew Foliage Redone: There are tons of mods that change the colors and style of trees and buildings and stuff but this one is my favorite. It’s very soft and earthy and pretty without being overkill.

- The Love of Cooking: Actually makes cooking fun in Stardew Valley! It adds a cooking skill, an upgradable cooking tool that lets you cook with more ingredients (at the start you can only make one ingredient dishes), a cooking community center bundle, star levels to cooked items, an animation when you cook...cooking was very bland in the base game, and this mod really spruces the whole system up.

- Medieval Buildings/Medieval craftables: Again, there are so many mods that change up the look of your farm buildings and stuff but these are really pretty and cool and absolutely my style. There’s a mod to make all the town buildings have this style too, but I kind of like keeping the town normal and just living on my mysterious and beautiful farm apart from the rest of the world. My sprinklers are magic moss covered rocks now!

- Elle’s Dog/Cat/Horse/Barn/Coop/etc animals: Super cute animal skins. They look so huggable and soft. Also one of the dog options looks like my real life dog and that’s very important to me.

- Adopt ‘n’ Skin: Pairs well with the mods above, this mod lets you have multiple dogs/cats/horses and lets you use as many different skins as you like. I’ve got four cows and they’ve all got different patterns and colors. I love it. Also Marnie starts taking in stray animals and you can adopt them from her, which is a really cute way of letting you have more pets.

- Seasonal Garden Farmhouse: Its a pinch overkill especially in the early game, but I really like this farmhouse layout. It gives you a small kitchen from the start, a bathroom you can use to restore stamina, big open windows that change with the seasons and time of day...it’s a luxury house and it’s very nice to live in!

- Industrial Kitchen and Interior/Industrial Furniture/Rustic Country Town Interiors: These mods give the interiors and furniture a more rustic style, and the last one changes the town interiors to match. There are many furniture/interior mods, so if this style doesn’t do it for you, check out some of the others! There are lots of very pretty mods!

And I’m going to stop there but that’s only the tip of the iceberg and I highly recommend looking around NexusMods or ModDrop and seeing what kind of stuff is available!

#stardew valley

[rainplaysswtor]

SWTOR: New Player Combat/Survival Tips

If you're familiar with SWTOR, these are things you probably know backward and forward. Think back, though: when you first downloaded and started playing, were they all so obvious - particularly if you didn't play similar games/MMOs before? Here are ten things I wish I'd known when I started playing SWTOR. If you're a newbie, hopefully they will help you too. 1. Take a picture of your abilities bar. 

There are several bugs in various areas that will inadvertently unlock your abilities bar, sending your carefully arranged abilities scattering in all directions. You may accidentally unlock the bar yourself, or forget to lock it again after adjusting something. 

Take a photo of your characters' abilty bars. Use the screenshot function in the game. Use CTRL+Print Screen on a PC. Take a photo of the screen with your phone. Whatever works. That way, if a character's abilities go floating, you will have a reference guide to put everything back in its proper place. 

2. Kill the healers first. 

In a lot of fights, there will be medics or other NPCs who heal their colleagues as you're fighting. Needless to say this can complicate your fights. 

Sometimes the medics really will have nameplates that say 'medic.' Other times they won't. You have to learn to pick them out of the crowd. They usually hang toward the back of the mob, as opposed to the other NPCs who will charge at you. They are also often weaker and don't have gold or silver tags. You may spot them fiddling with a scanner device in their hand or casting Force healing toward whoever you're fighting. Look at what your own healer companions do, and learn to recognize it - and then take out the healers first. 

3. Learn what your interrupts are. 

Every character is given at least one 'interrupt.' This is an ability that, as the name would suggest, can interrupt a cast or an action being taken by an enemy NPC. If you use this skill, you stop the enemy from doing whatever it is trying to do to you. 

How do you find out what your interrupt skill is? Click P. Now click on the first entry, and scroll down the list to browse your abilities. Click the second and do the same. If you mouse over each ability, you will get a text box that tells you what they do. 

Every class and advanced class has their own interrupt(s), and the icons often have different meanings with different classes - so do read the descriptions.

Once you have found your interrupt, make sure it's on your ability bar. How? Unlock your ability bar with the small padlock on the left. Put your cursor over the skill you want (you can only do this with abilities that are NOT marked as "passive"). Put the skill on the ability bar. Lock it by clicking the padlock again. 

I tend to keep my interrupts and stun breakers on the far right side of the bar so I always know where they are immediately. 

4. Learn what your stun breakers/cleanses are. 

Every character also has at least one 'stun breaker.' This is an ability that will break a hold that an enemy NPC has on you or cleanse a negative effect they've given you. you want to know what this is and have it on your abilities bar ready to go. 

How do you find your stun breaker (s)? See above. 

5. Learn what your stuns are. 

As the name would suggest, these are skills that momentarily stun or incapacitate an enemy so they stop fighting you. If you're having trouble in a fight, stunning them for a second can help you take a breather. 

Find them and put them on your ability bar by following the instructions above. 

6. Know if your character has heals, and what they are. 

Some advanced classes, notably Marauders, really don't have any good ways to heal themselves in battle. Others, like Sage and Mercenaries, have a lot of heals for themselves and others. Find them. Add them to your abilities bar. 

For the characters that have a lot of heals, like Sorcerers, Scoundrels and Operatives, I find that it helps to keep them all in one place - in my case, on the left hand abilities side bar. 

7. Use your Heroic Moment. 

Heroic Moment is a special set of abilities you can call upon. You can get eight of them in total. They are awarded when you finish each class story for the first time. They include an orbital strike, a kick, Force lightning, and more. You will also be slowly healed for the entire two minutes the Heroic Moment is active. The abilities will appear in a special bar above your regular abilities bar - use them as you will. 

If you're having trouble in a fight or fighting a boss, do not feel shy about calling on your Heroic Moment. You can only use it once every five minutes. If you have a boss fight coming up, don't feel bad about hanging back for a moment to let it cool down. 

8. Repair your gear whenever you can. 

Your weapons and other gear get damaged as you fight. As it wears down, it's less effective at both offense and defense, and your fights will become more difficult and longer. Repair it whenever you can. You will know if you need to repair your gear if the "repair all" button is lit up when you are interacting with a vendor. Invest in the Legacy repair perks, which allow you to summon a field repair droid. Buy the Legacy perk which places a repair droid on your ship. As you are out and about, remember just about any vendor can repair your gear, not just the ones marked as medical droids.

8. Make friends with at least one companion. 

Your companions can be set to heal, tank or go on the offense (damage). The higher your influence is, the more effective they will be at any role. IMHO it's really worth it to work on getting at least one favored companion to influence level 50. Or as high as you can. 

You can raise your companions' influence by giving them gifts they like, getting approval (or even disapproval) from them in conversations and cut scene choices, and sending them on crew skills missions. There are two Legacy perks - Legacy of Altruism and Legacy of Persuasion - that will raise the amount of influence you get from conversations and gifts. IMHO they are worth buying. 

8. a. Use Presence stims

Let's say you have a required companion for some content - something that annoyingly happens more and more. Let's say your influence with that companion is low. Buy a Command/Presence stim from the nearest medical droid. They're usually pink. These stims raise your presence level so your companion(s) will temporarily be more effective. 

9. Get some datacrons

Datacrons are little magical cubes that you can find here and there on SWTOR's many planets, moons, and even the Fleets. Each datacron will permanently bump up your Mastery, Endurance or Presence stats slightly for all your characters and give you some XP and a lore entry, and those things are always helpful.

If you've read the guides for the datacrons you might be intimidated. It's true that some of them are so hard to get that you may spend hours trying. When I started playing SWTOR I didn't even try to get the datacrons because I was intimidated.

However, some of them are so easy to get that you literally just walk up to them. No jumping, no grouping up, no fancy tricks. Thus even if you do not have the desire to go on an ambitious datacron hunt, do try to get the ones that you can stroll over to or access easily.

10. Change your camera angle. 

If you look at videos of SWTOR gameplay you will notice that people play from a variety of angles. Some are close to their characters, some are not. Different fights and area of the game may call for different angles. Play around and figure out what works best for you. Sometimes the right camera angle can help you see something that's making a fight tough and show you how to resolve it. 

#rain plays swtor #swtor #new player help

[kaseysgtnonsense]

So. I mentioned having an idea for a g/t video game in this post and people seemed interested, so here it is!

It takes place in a setting where giants live in deep, underground cave systems, and their numbers are dwindling. The home you live in is running low on supplies, and in the end they decide that to lower the amount of resources consumed and improve their chances of survival, they’re going to kick someone out.

Unfortunately, that someone is you. You are cast out of the caves and into the surface world, on a continent ruled by several human countries on the brink of war. In their eyes, you are a monster, and you are severely limited. You need to hunt to survive, avoid injuries or else risk infection, and avoid areas where giant-slayers might see you as a threat and try to sneak-attack you while you’re resting.

Every faction is wary of you, and unless you’re particularly good at convincing others you don’t mean any harm, you won’t be able to ask for help early on. Doing things like rescuing random travelers, ending conflicts non-violently (like picking up someone who’s being chased by bandits and then bringing them to safety and setting them down), and leaving gifts all will help you start to establish yourself as a helpful person and not a monster.

Rescuing someone and making it clear you don’t mean any harm could lead to them wanting to travel with you, meaning they’d be able to talk to other humans and convince them to trade with you, cooperate with you, etc.! Plus, you’d get dialogue with them from time to time, letting you say how you feel about having been kicked out, which faction you want to support, how you feel about other giants, how you feel about being a giant in a world like this, etc. (basically it’s where the majority of the g/t interaction happens)

I figured I’d put all the more boring + ramble-y gameplay ideas under a cut, just so I’m not tossing a massive wall of text on people’s dashboards:

Additionally, acting recklessly would have some rough consequences. Like, say you decide to go to the evil empire, pledge allegiance to them in exchange for armor, then betray them and escape.

At first, you might feel heroic and proud, and it’s definitely good that you stole from the bad guys, but most people are just going to end up wary of you. Word would get around fast that the mysterious giant showed up, blatantly lied to the evil empire, and then betrayed them. Even people who vehemently hate the evil empire are going to be worried you’re lying to them when you show up.

For visuals I kinda pictured it being like those old RPGs where your character looks big on the overworld map, but then that’s actually just how tall you are. I imagined the player character being like, 50-70 feet tall? (15-21 meters)

Combat would be kind of similar to a roguelike: based around avoiding long-lasting injuries, buying (or stealing) medicine and bandages to prevent infections, avoiding hidden archers who’ll aim for your eyes, dealing with enemies who set traps (like sharpened stakes used as big caltrops, leading to you being slowed and having a risk of infection), and dealing with enemies who lob fireballs and other spells at you, damaging your armor and yourself. I can’t imagine a way to make it especially fun and action-y, so I’m just imagining it like Cataclysm:DDA, where it’s kinda turn-based but you’re able to position yourself around the enemy and run away, and different weapons give you access to different attacks. Like, a tree might give you a sweeping attack to hit multiple spaces at once.

I’d wanna add a talk option for combat kinda like in Shin Megami Tensei or Undertale, so you could try to end fights without anyone getting hurt by being like “wait, wait, I don’t mean any harm!!” or “if you don’t back off, I’m going to devour you all alive.” depending on the type of character you wanna roleplay. Maybe the clothes you make/buy and wear could factor into whether diplomacy or intimidation is more effective: a dorky cat-like hat is gonna make you look a lot less threatening, but a helmet that covers your face is gonna make you look way more menacing.

The game would end once you’ve finished a faction’s questline. The ending narration would be affected by what faction you’re allied with, whether or not you have access to food and medicine, and what you picked in dialogue regarding how you feel about the giants who kicked you out. (Aaaand I haven’t written up any factions yet. Whoops.)

In the ending, you might decide you prefer the company of humans rather than giants and live peacefully with them, or maybe you’ll go back home to get revenge, or maybe you’ll return home with an armful of food and supplies and hope to create a new era of peace between humans and giants with the support of your chosen faction. Maybe you just decided you preferred being the mysterious giant who lives in the mountains.

I’d wanna work on fleshing out the RPG mechanics in a way that lets you RP a character, kinda like how New Vegas does: letting you pick special dialogue if certain stats and skills are high or low enough. Maybe you wanna put more points into strength and endurance and play a super tough scary figure, or maybe you wanna put more points into charisma and perception and be a friendly and caring person. Maybe you know how to farm or hunt or cook, maybe you know how to build or invent...

And sorry for making this so long, but I’d wanna add flaws you can pick, too. Maybe you need glasses but giants don’t have them, so your character starts with terrible perception (meaning they won’t notice traps or hidden enemies) until the human faction they join helps make glasses for them. It’s cute to think of things leading to friendly interactions like that...

I’d wanna add multiple solutions to any one problem, too. Like, early on you could just talk to the guards outside a major faction’s location and if you made a character with enough points in persuasion, you could convince them to let you trade with them or join them. But if you aren’t persuasive enough, you could ask someone you rescued to vouch for you.

It’s WAY too ambitious for me to make and I’m already busy so I’ve got no intention of making it anytime soon, but someday in the future it would be fun to use this idea for something...

#g/t #giant/tiny #gianttiny #g/t community #giant/tiny community #gianttiny community #tw eye injury #tw burns #tw eye damage

[neproxrezi]

Are you participating in the proposed dbd boycott to get them to do a game health update?

yeah, i wasn't sure at first caus "dont play the video game for a brief period" isn't going to work but "this company has put all its eggs in one basket and they are frankly quite neglectful of said basket, everyone stop buying anything ingame for 3 months" has me interested

more than 'fix the bugs' or anything else like that what i want to see out of the game is them being less god damn stingy with cosmetics (you should not have to pay $10 for ONE FUCKING COSMETIC) and addressing the grind. holy shit the grind in this game is so rough and it could be fixed fairly simply (i'm in favour of removing perk tiers, to cut a long post short)

hold on im gonna complain about dbd under a cut caus itll get long, i love this game so much but oh boy it has issues

it's been said a million times already but dbd's grind made more sense when there were like 4 or 5 characters per side, there are now over 20 and each new one introduces 3 perks to each side

I want to write about the grind in this game for a moment. There are 95 survivor perks in DBD. Every perk has three tiers. Some of them are great, and many are kind of pointless. Realistically, I'd bet you're only going to see about 15 of those perks in action in most of your games. However, if you unlock a perk to be taught to other survivors (which I tend to do even if I don't particularly want it, out of a mix of completionism and a 'may as well get it out of the way' kind of thing), you can't get rid of it. It's in your bloodwebs forever. 95 perks. 285 perk tiers. Let's talk about how long that takes to claim.

You buy a new character in the next chapter. You have every teachable perk unlocked. The new chapter really excited you, and you want to claim every perk on the new character (who I am going to name... Doug), so you saved a lot of bloodpoints in advance. In fact, you played for days and days and saved the cap, which is a million bloodpoints. You buy Doug, after much excited testing him out in the PTB. You spend all million points on Doug. Doug is now about level 35 to 40, out of 50. Hm. Well, time to keep playing. The bloodwebs kind of gave you a bunch of crap stuff on Doug, and you don't feel like running Power Struggle, Ace in the Hole, Babysitter and Breakdown, so you can't play Doug yet. You go play someone else.

Solo queuing as survivor is a mixed bag, and your games range from getting 10,000 bloodpoints (pretty rough game where everyone got wiped) to 27,000 (a great match, maybe with a bloodpoint offering). You save enough to get Doug to level 50. In the later levels, you start being able to get two perks a level instead of one. Let's say from level 1 to 50, you collect a total of 65 perks, because I don't remember exactly when it starts offering 2 per level. Okay, there are 220 perk levels left. Because of the game's propensity for giving you the same perk over and over to get you lots of perks at level 2 out of 3, of those 65 perk tiers you've probably got something like 20 to 25 actual perks. You're missing like, 70. Best case scenario, the ones you picked up include a lot of what you want. Most likely, you've got like half a good build and some gimmicky crap to slot in alongside it. Worst case scenario, which has happened to me plenty of times, you have like maybe one good perk and a pile of gimmicky crap. So. How long is it going to take you to get what you want?

There are 220 perk levels to go. After level 50, the webs are all the same size. It costs about 50,000 points to level up, and you get two perk levels per bloodweb. That's going to be 110 webs to get everything for Doug. Which is 5.5 million bloodpoints. Oh no. How many points were you earning per game again?

If you play with friends, you're probably going to do better. I find this to be true even if me and my friends are playing without voice comms or anything, because I just sort of know these people a bit better. I know my friend who mains Lisa Garland is a hook-diving bastard, so I don't need to go rescue anyone. Ace, god bless him, makes batshit altruistic plays, so I certainly don't need to go protect my teammates when he's out there doing things like this. I think I'm just going to sit on generators in the distance, think about our final gen spread, and try get us out of here. I'd say if I'm playing well, and accounting for offerings and WGLF stacks, with friends I average 30,000 a match and by myself I average 20,000. Playing killer I average more like 60,000, but playing killer is a bit stressful sometimes and I'm very indecisive about actually queuing up for it, so I probably actually get bp faster as survivor. I'm going to call the average per match across everything 25,000, because for every good game there are plenty where you underperform, or things just go drastically wrong. To earn 5.5 million points like that, you're going to have to play 220 matches. A game, including queue times and whatnot, can take ten to twenty minutes. That's... that's going to take a while. And that's ONE CHARACTER.

Now, on the survivor side you only really need to do this once. They're all just reskins of the same gameplay loop. On the killer side, you need to re-earn those perks for every new character you want to try out, because they're all different. Miiiiillions and millions of points. Hundreds of games. I have no problem with the game having a grind, but at this point it's absolute insanity.

In my opinion, removing perk tiers would cut the grind down to a reasonable level. There'd still be a grind, which I'm completely comfortable with existing, but it wouldn't be excruciatingly long, and you wouldn't have to spend as long dealing with bad perks.

HOWEVER, on top of that is the fact that they just. Holy shit the game updates slowly. I don't want to blame them for that in a way of like "these developers are incompetent and lazy", I really do love DBD to bits and I'm sure they do work very hard on it. That said, its update cycle is really slow. Reeaally slow. I wish they either had a bigger team, made balance updates faster (a handful of perk adjustments once every six weeks is... very very slow) or something to just try make the changes faster. Even when things do change it always feels so anxious and tentative, I wish they'd experiment more often. The time they disabled bloodlust to see what happened was really cool!

Yeah in short I just hope the grind gets addressed more than anything else, caus that's the part I actually think there's a relatively straightforward solution to. Also, I never got to play the older events where you could do shit like earn cosmetics, but they sounded way fucking cooler than the new ones. The halloween one last year was absolute shit, it's weird that their special events would get worse over time rather than better.

Buuut I agree with Scott Jund that the Resident Evil chapter was bad news for DBD's long term health because the one thing that would really give BHVR a kick up the ass is competition, and every time they land an amazing licensed chapter they become harder to compete with. They have an absolute monopoly on asymmetrical horror, and I honestly think the game would be in a better state right now if they had some competition >:[

#dibi #dbd #long post #i love dbd to bits i really do #but UGH it has issues