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paragonraptors · 2 years

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Hello, I absolutely adore that last piece of yours. The one from Andromeda. My question is - what are your favourite aspects of the game. I played the demo version (first ten hours) and I have mixed feelings about it. So I would like to know what kept you hooked on it if that's alright?

Thank you! You've just asked me the one question I have spent the last like 5 years thinking about. So, well...[cracks knuckles]. As much as I hate saying it, I feel like the first 10 hours are a poor representation of the game, depending on how quickly you progress through the main story. For better or worse, Andromeda's first act frontloads you with a lot of side quests, and I think a lot of the ways it presents its setting and ideas in that time can leave someone apprehensive about how it grapples with its themes later on. If you're willing after reading this, I'd grab it on sale for super cheap or borrow it from a friend/the library and give it at least until finishing the mission to rescue the Moshae on Voeld. (This is around the 15-20 hr mark.) Loyalty missions begin to trigger after that and you really start getting into the thick of it. Though I think they're worth doing as you progress (you are rewarded for it in the final mission), anything that's not in the main quest and companion tabs of the journal can pretty much be ignored without consequence and completed post-game.

Despite all the online shit, it was love at first sight for me. I played at launch and got close to finishing before the first major patch came out. A lot of what probably kept me in my first playthrough was that the idea I had for my Ryder fit really well into what the game gave me, so I was deeply invested in my PC. I think that can really influence one's enjoyment of an RPG.

Ryder is not Shepard, and Ryder's canonical backstory as a 22 year-old nepotism baby who, from what we can tell, had a fairly cushy life growing up on the Citadel until fairly recently is kind of essential for the story to work. I joked in a caption that ME:A is a YA dystopia, but I'm also completely serious about that. It still has a lot of the core cosmic horror themes of the original trilogy, but with a much more scrappy, unexperienced, underdog flavor that you get with a younger protagonist. I liked this in contrast to Shepard being highly and unquestionably competent and having already experienced significant trauma before the story starts via their origin or psych profile. It almost forces you to create an entirely different perspective on Mass Effect's universe as a whole.

Beyond that, it really hit on things I felt were missing from the original trilogy, and especially in comparison to ME1, it's an incredibly compelling introduction to a new trilogy. (I believe it is a disservice to compare ME:A to the original trilogy as a whole, and have come to these opinions by almost exclusively comparing it to 1.)

I really enjoyed the roleplay system. I think the casual/professional/logical/emotional wheel and the impulse actions were a good move away from the paragon/renegade thing. It allowed for choices to not get locked into the appearance of being "good" and "bad" or a kind of set personality type. I like that Ryder gets a psychological profile and relationship bios that are updated as you progress.

I'm a huge fan of all the characters. They carry this game. I think their flaws are interesting and add depth to what's appealing about them. I think the voice performances are just fantastic across the board. I really loved how the NPCs interact with each other and that they have distinct and active relationships outside of Ryder, which is something we didn't really get for the Normandy crew until 3. I love that the Tempest is a small scouting vessel with a crew of 11 all sharing *one toilet*. It's a MIRACLE they are not actively trying to kill each other! Especially when you consider the Normandy was so big it had a whole staff you just straight up didn't really get to know, and Shepard's squadmates were sometimes actually trying to kill each other-- And they at least had three toilets!!

The male characters were written with a vulnerable emotional depth we rarely get to see, especially in video games, and especially in the Mass Effect universe. Hearing them openly talk about their emotions without deflection, and sometimes even gawking at the idea of deflection, was really refreshing. Its easy to get caught up in Alec's whole thing, but the themes of masculinity and fatherhood in other characters' stories (Drack, Vetra, Gil, Jaal, and Liam particularly) offers some nice balance and reflection to that narrative to the point I believe they are intentional supplements/foils to what Alec's got going on.

This game is PACKED with ambient dialogue and text, and it makes the world feel so alive. The message boards, emails, and data pads you find throughout are so good. The ones on the Tempest and New Tuchanka in particular are my favorites, but even the text you can pull up from the forward stations have some delightful little bits. It's unfortunate that ambient dialogue/banter can get cut off by the slightest thing, and the only workaround is to just stop dead in your tracks the second you hear someone talking, but I love listening to the dialogue. It's crazy to me how much made the cut to be recorded and put in the final product despite the known time crunch issues of the game's production.

I've always favored Bioware's map design over of a lot of open-world games, and this one isn't any different. Though I wish they were more fleshed out, there's a solid attempt at introducing different mechanics for different areas of the game to switch things up. I lament the loss of controlling squadmate powers, but the combat is still fun and I enjoy the fluidity of the class system for mechanical and narrative purposes. I really enjoy Remnant sudoku.

For all the flack Andromeda caught about bad animation, it has some of my favorite bits of animation in an AAA video game. For every awkward animation there is a wonderfully charming and well-done one. I wish I could get into specifics without spoilers, but there's a list of ones that get me every time. I've also always considered these cosmetic flaws to be a feature I enjoy in games. So what Ryder runs kind of weird up and down stairs? Geralt Witcher3 can't walk stairs very well either, yet that somehow never came up when people would compare the two.

Your mileage could greatly vary when it comes to the main story. Upon several replays (through the whole series), really getting into the codices, and reading the novels, I think they were setting up a lot of really cool things that expanded on the ideas of the first three. Cosmic horror, creationism, the integration of organic life and artificial intelligence, regulation vs deregulation, autonomy and self-governance, resilience against entropy and destruction. However, I can see how it could come off as half-baked, thoughtless, even irresponsible. It's not perfect. It's clearly rushed in places and unfinished. I don't really have a counter-argument to this as it does also deal with sensitive topics- specifically colonialism and genocide- where people's tolerance can vary significantly. While Ryder can be fairly principled about the problems you encounter, and can often speak out or refuse to be complicit, not everything is handled delicately. Sometimes you will say "Man, I wish I could do this other thing instead of the options I'm given." or "Oof, that could have been written A Bit Better." It struggles to balance the shoot-em-up gameplay with the Moral Questions. I take it as the necessary, but flawed, result of not hand-holding and spelling everything out for an M-rated open-world RPG that can only offer so many variables, but not everyone feels that way, nor do they have to.

With all that said, this is just one of those games I keep coming back to and finding something new to love about it or a detail that illuminates something in an entirely new way. I think it's a shame that as far as we know, subsequent sequels have been cancelled. Much like ME1, the ending left me ready for more.

#ive been working on this all day hopefully i dont regret expressing Opinions online

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gauntletqueen · 1 year

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You've talked positively about 2 before, but what about the rest of the Rayman series?

I have a long history with the Rayman series! So I'll put it under a readmore

I used to play Rayman 1 a lot when I was little, but never beat it because it is Bullshit. You need to 100% it in order to get the ending. Not the "good ending" or "best ending" but ANY ending at all. You're not allowed to fight the final boss unless you've collected every collectible and some of the levels later on get Pretty Bullshit afhhgasf That said, the visuals and music for it are wonderful! And most of the levels, with their slow, careful platforming, are very fun and unique even today. I think, anyway.

Let's also include Rayman 2: The Great Escape, which is one of my all-time favorite games! I own like over 10 copies of it across several platforms (PC and 3DS are the best ways to play it btw) and have beat it more than any other game, easily (Sonic R runner up) It more or less reinvented the world from the first game, giving clearer lore, and a more mystical, immersive feeling to the fantasy world. The characters are endearing, the gameplay is tight and makes it super enjoyable to run through the fluid level design. Also the soundtrack is REALLY GOOD!!!! (Some of this might be nostalgia speaking but also I think I'm right probably)

Rayman M is FUN I love the music and visual design of the levels. It's not like. Good. Per se. There's basically no way to catch up once you're behind in a race, and the arena mode is pretty awkward, but I have a soft spot for it :>

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc (which I'll be streaming on the 21st for charity!!) retains a lot of the cool mystique and creative fantasy from the first game, along with expanding on the wonderful artstyle. It's VERY 2000's with making Rayman more rugged and quippy, but not to any degree that really ruins the character. I like it a lot!

Rayman Raving Rabbids makes me Sad. It was supposed to be so much more than just a wacky minigame collection. Many of the minigames are fun! And if this was just a little spinoff from the main Rayman series it wouldn't be that bad. However, this marked the beginning of the death of Rayman as I knew and loved him. From this moment on, we just got more Raving Rabbids games. each subsequent installment focussed less and less on Rayman, until he was removed entirely, and wouldn't appear again until many years later. I was extremely saddened by this and hated the rabbids for a long time as a result.

Rayman finally made his return in Rayman Origins, which is critically acclaimed and the first thing that comes to mind for many people when they think of Rayman. I was Extremely Excited when it was announced, and like the previous games, the visuals of the game are beautiful. The gameplay is also fantastic, but I actually hate the story and how it portrays the characters. The game sends many mixed messages about what it wants to be, where it fits into the series, whether it's a sequel of a reboot, it's a mess. I was worried about where the series would go from here.

Rayman Legends validated my worries, by being even nicer to look at, more satisfying to play, and even worse in terms of story. The most half-baked setup for a story with no payoff. But hey it does have the music levels and those are the best so. I guess it evens out. (fun fact even though I don't like the two most recent games, I still 100% them ashfhgaf)

(bonus round) Rayman Adventures is like random small Rayman Legends levels but on mobile, they did a great job of fitting the controls to just sliding and tapping the screen, it was quite fun actually

Thank you!! Hope this was fun to read cause it's a lot hsafhgafs

#Rayman

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ladyrawthorm · 2 months

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I’m back!

Hi guys! How’s it going? I owe you a bit of an explanation. I’ve been AWOL for a couple of weeks for a few reasons, some I will explain and some I can’t explain.

As you all know, I’ve been in a funk for a while now. I’ve been dealing with it somewhat successfully. Trying to figure out what it is and how to overcome it. I think I have it figured out, it’s not something I can talk about sadly but, I can talk about how I am dealing with it. Once I figured out what was going on, everything sort of fell like dominoes. The solution at the time was really difficult and not something that can happen quickly. So because I wasn’t really making any progress with my solution I started to feel bad about everything and mean literally everything.

Some of you may know, some of you may not, I usually get up at 5am to go to the gym just for a bit of exercise and to get out of the house (I’m told it’s a good thing to touch grass but I’m not 100% convinced XD). When I couldn’t find a solution to the funk I started feeling really about everything I was doing. What is the point in going to the gym? I’m tired all the time, I have to go to bed at 2030, I never seem to loose any weight. I hate the way I look in the mirror. Am I a good wife to Rawthorm? Is he happy? And it all goes downhill from there. I just didn’t feel like streaming and I was wallowing. I am coming out the other side though. Surprisingly Horizon Forbidden West did help a little. Horizon Zero Dawn is one of my all time favourite games and I had so much fun sharing that playthrough with you that I couldn’t wait to play Horizon Forbidden West and playing it 2 days in a row did just enough to start me off in the right direction. I’ll get there, It’s hard to explain when I can only tell you half a story.

Maybe one day I will be able to tell all but for now, just know, that I am getting better and I don’t think there are going to be any more missing streams without me at least telling you guys beforehand. Speaking of streams, I’ve got some good updates coming.

Lets start with my computer. As you guys know, I’ve slowly been updating my computer for a little while now. All I have left is to update my graphics card and graphics card cooling solution. So here are my new specs and a photo update!

Case :NZXT H9 flow

CPU: Intel Core i9-13900K

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER

Mobo: NZXT N7 Z790

Ram: Corsair Domintor DDR5 64GB (4x16GB)

Hard Drives:-

-Samsung MZ1L23T8HBLA 3.5TB

-Samsung SSD 950 EVO 500GB

-Samsung SSD 950 EVO 250GB

Monitors:-

-BENQ G2420HDBL x2

-LG UltraGear 27GN88A

CPU Cooler: Kraken elite 360 RGB

Mouse: Logitech G502 X (White)

Keyboard: Logitech G213 Prodigy

Webcams:-

-Elgato Facecam Pro

-Microsoft LifeCam

Headphones/Mic: Astro A40 with mix amp

Elgato Stream Deck Mk2. (White)

Elgato Stream Deck + (White & Pink)

I’m excited. Hopefully it wont take long to save up. Once I have a new GPU then I will be top spec for a few months. On another note, my H510i PC case is now for sale so that gets me a little money towards a GPU 😊

We had a Thursday stream last week with the release of Horizon Forbidden West and so far it has not disappointed. I’m still getting to grips with a few of the new mechanics but it’s going well. As you can see from my Sunday selfie I was so excited for the game I put on battle paint just for the occasion. As much as I would love to it’s not going to happen for every stream but I felt the occasion warranted a little something extra.

Todays stream of Rainbow Six Siege was awesome. Thanks to everyone who dropped by and played some games with me. It was fantastic. I was carried in every single game and I did not deserve any of the wins I got.

My Horizon Zero Dawn playthrough is still going up on YouTube every Wednesday and I have started streaming on YouTube as well! So every Friday I will be live on YouTube playing Horizon Forbidden West so I wont have to edit any the videos for them to go up there! Win Win :D

I am off from my day job all week next week, so if you guys want to play any games or you see my playing anything on discord, come and hang out with me, lets play some games!

Have a wonderful week next week, Make good choices and I will see you next week!

Lady Rawthorm

xxx

#Twitch #Twitchstreamer #gaming #videogames #varietystreamer #gamergirl #girlgamer #gamer #twitchaffiliate #blog #blogger

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eloarei · 3 years

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@ my friends who like free stuff and PC gaming

(Or who think they might like PC gaming any time in the future!) I feel like this is probably common knowledge already, but did you know that the Epic Games Store gives away free games every week? Every week! Free games! And they’re not even crappy cheap games either. This week they’re giving away “Control”, which you might have heard me raving about last month.

You play as badass but relatable Jesse Faden, as she infiltrates a shady government facility to search for her brother, and eventually learns such awesome abilities as levitation, extreme telekinesis, and mind control, as well as getting this cool morphing gun. I’ve never had so much fun absolutely tearing an office building to shreds. You like destruction? This place is ripe for it! It also has an interesting story though, and characters and humor. It’s an action game, but it has serious elements of suspense and mystery. I started off very cautious and nervous, but the powers you gain eventually really turn the tide, and it’s very satisfying. And, yes, through at least June 16th, it is free on the Epic Store. Just sign in with basically any social media or gaming account (well, not Tumblr), and add it to your library! Maybe you don’t have a gaming PC right now, but there’s no harm in stocking it for the potential future, right? Anyway, the free games aren’t always graphics intensive, or action-packed and fast paced. One I’ve been enjoying recently is the survival-city building game “Frostpunk”, which manages to stagger along on my old PC. “Among Us” was free a couple weeks ago too, although I haven’t played it. TL;DR, basically, I really love free stuff! And I hate when others miss out on great free stuff! And “Control” is a fantastic game (if you like that kind of thing; and if you don’t, they’ll have other stuff later), so I really recommend checking out the Epic Store at this link (it’s the free games page) every week, and seeing what’s available. Maybe you’ll find a new favorite, or something you’ve been meaning to try! (And even if you don’t want to play, I still suggest looking at “Control” LPs or something, because it is really very cool.)

#elo talks #gaming #free stuff #Control game

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autumnslance · 3 years

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Was it just me or is corran’s dragon for rathian looking?? Also how did you design Avengret in game?? Cause I see a bunch of people make screenshots for their stuff and I’m here going ‘???? How???’

Short answer: Patience and a little Crime.

Longer Answer: Go under the cut for explanations, like Avengret's body double, Corran's transformed model, and How Lyn (subjects you all to her) Screenshots.

The model I used for Avengret is simply a red dragon at Anyx Trine named Nehsk Fan, using careful Gpose angles, camera zoom, filters, lighting, time of day, and the same Gshade filter I've been using for these headers for consistency (Teddy Gpose for the curious). So actually fairly simple in the manner of "anyone can actually do this and get similar results" (aside from the Gshade).

Image is Aeryn at Anyx Trine with Nehsk Fan, using my simple default gameplay filter in Gshade.

For Corran's look in "Scale" I used CMTools, which takes in game assets and allows one to manipulate them, as well as time and weather. It's how one can use carbuncles, chocobos, and/or most housing retainers to take the form of NPCs, and create custom poses while dressing up in whatever existing clothing items one wants.

Which is how I got this shot with all 4 of my OCs in one room; one I am actually playing, another is a carbuncle, and 2 others are Dark's housing servants, after saving each of my ladies' appearances in the tool. This is also how I get so many shippy shots of Aeryn with Thancred; she's just hanging out somewhere with a carbuncle (while I curse how various joints work as I mess with sliders).

For "Scale" I actually went with the monster menu and stood Dark Autumn somewhere while overwriting her appearance with Rathalos. Anyone else wandering by just saw my femroe idling on a hill, as the change is only visible on my own screen. Then back to the game's Gpose, using zoom, angles, drop lighting, filters, to take multiple shots until I found one I was happy with; I have 7 others in this case that I took and edited but didn't use.

For post-work, I mostly use Picasa 3, a simple photo editor discontinued about 10 years ago but still can be found in places online. I don't do Photoshop, so a simple tool that lets me one click color corrections, lighting balance, and various filters and minor adjustments, as well as cropping, lettering, angling/straightening the pic, works for me.

Image below are just the examples of options I can play with in Picasa 3, many of them adjustable in various ways:

I mostly use Crop, Straighten, I'm Feeling Lucky, Auto Contrast, Auto Color, the Fill Lights/Highlights/Shadows/Color Temp menu, and play around with what filters seem to work for the shot I want. I use "Tint" with the default light blue to "cool down" many of Aeryn's screenshots so she's not super red, depending on what other lighting and colors are happening in the picture. Saturation is good for upping or lowering saturation, especially when using the Bright 4 filter in Gpose.

Knowing how to compose a picture using camera angles, lighting, color, etc, with the in game tools is the most important part; all the extra tools won't do a darn thing to make a good screenshot if you don't learn the basics. Basic photography/art rules apply! The extra tools just make some things easier. I don't think I'm that good at it (I have little sense of composition, lighting, or color; all my best stuff is happy accident!) and I still have a lot to learn, and it does take time and practice. As well as lots of patience and taking dozens of shots to only then end up posting 1 or 2.

My dear friend @healerstail is fantastic at taking screenshots (and photography in general) and has mostly only used basic Gpose and Gshade, only the occasional mod and just recently picked up CMTools. Mostly it's just knowing how to set up the default emotes, timing, and good angles. His composition is amazing. Likewise, @gunbun is very good at lighting and composition, and has been using the new posing tool, Anamnesis (CMT's successor) to excellent affect. She'll tell you to mind your drop lights and camera angles, too

Extra tools only work on PC, so console users have to use only Gpose and defaults, though some do post-work in Photoshop. An excellent example of detailed post-work is @kukurubean's edits.

NOTE: Remember that while Gshade is fine as it's just a filter overlay (and one can get the same results from most graphic card interfaces these days), mods are against the SquareEnix TOS so use your extra tools responsibly; remove the default watermark from screenshots, do not tag official accounts, do not talk about mods in game, put any lewds on locked/private/behind cuts. Do not tease or harass other players with either cosmetic or combat mods.

The FFXIV devs are willing to turn a blind eye and allow player creativity so long as extra tools are used responsibly, not to affect gameplay or bother other players. Yoshida flat out hates DPS meters as people don't tend to use them for personal growth; we have Sky Sea Stone and the metric is "did the boss die and everyone have fun?" Also he has gone on a PLL before and told people to stop lewding younger characters using game assets for legal reasons--right after talking about changing code to break a combat mod used during the TEA world first race (as well as changing how combat markers work in general), making the implications clear.

#Lyn Prompts #Gpose #Gshade #Picasa 3 #Screenshots #Blogging #about me

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twinvictim · 3 years

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your opinions on each of the post team silent games and a rating out of 10. hand 'em over

YEAHHHHHH FINALLY CATERING TO ME!!!

Uh really long post oops. for reference, my rating for the first 4 sh's are as follows

Sh1: 9/10 Sh2: 7/10 Sh3: 9/10 Sh4: 9.5/10

Silent Hill 0/Origins

overall score: 7/10

Alot of the games issues can of course be attributed to it being a psp game, and while i won't excuse everything bc of that, j have to be honest and say I think it had so much potential as a (very) late ps2 game. Not to mention, the game ON THE PSP functions as it should. (The ps2 port does fucking not tho..oops) ans you'll see that this is...a rarity post team silent.

The story has alot of potential, Travis as a character is interesting and sympathetic and j think his dynamic with alessa js super fascinating to dig into, both of them being abused children and there was alot of intrigue regarding his powers, the game feels like a smaller more watered down she, and for that I can't fault it too much. The weapons system isn't my favorite but the combat itself is reminiscent of 1 and 2 and I really like a good chunk of the monster design, there was clearly thought and care put into it, nurses and strughtjackets/lying figures be dammed. The unlockables are pretty cool though and alot of the environments look pretty cool for a psp game, hell i LOVE the theater level its super unique, I would love to see it in (actually functional) better graphics. I also think the puzzles are pretty solid, not hair pulling like sh1 even if they're not quite as clever as say sh3.

My biggest criticisms come from the reuse of sh1 characters (just alessa and Travis would've been fine, maybe dahlia and some more org characters would've been better) the bad ending being straight up bad writing. Not to mention they did the sh3 thing of "kill too many monsters and get the bad ending" which is...stupid. The foreshadowing of the butcher being? He's just kinda there, I like the lead up but it would be more interesting if the butcher represented something from those years between Travis' father dying and him being an adult. And while there's more replayability imo than sh2, it doesn't have difficulty sliders and that makes it kinda hard to come back to quite as often. Not to mention unlike sh1, 3or sh4 there's not as much horror focus and random events.

Overall, solid game its fun to play, very silent Hill and if you're willing to look past a few continuity errors and accept its a little different and slightly derrivitive at the same time, I like to say I had alot of fun with it and still do. (Maybe I just like Travis alot...idk)

Silent Hill: Homecoming

Overall score: 6/10

Once again most of the issues here are gonna be corporate fuck ups, but I'm also not gonna beat around the bush, this game isn't like...good. its bad actually. "But you gave it a 6/10?" Yeah bc its not NEARLY as bad as some other games I've.. experienced.

The negatives here are, many and vast, so let's run them down. Firstly the games performance is janky on console (ps3 at least) and abysmal/unplayable on PC, what with framerate issues that are detrimental to game play on pc and make the third boss impossible. That said on console it is completable and not even too terrible...usually. Scarletts boss fight however is terribly unbalanced and broken on all skews so :/. The combat is...functional but not anyone's favorite, it's difficult to use any actually strong weapon and you can pretty much strong arm ur ways through shit with just the knife (except scarletts first form..don't try it, it won't work) for some people this will be borening (not my opinion but w/e). Most of The puzzles...leave alot to be desired. I hate sliding block puzzles. Also no run button? At all?? No easy mode? Ok... also what is this.. wheel design for the inventory...im accidentally using my serum..what is serum also? And why is the item pickup noise like...bass boosted.

The character models look awful most of the time, and comically unfinished other times, some human models are just grotesque, (judge halloway, Adam shepherd, mayor Bartlett. .you get it) and yes...there are sexy nurses. Bc of course there are. (Whole ass out???) They did straight up have some terrible endings for this game (ph ending for one, the way you get the ufo? Hell the ufo ending is kinda boring. I like the in water ending here too but. Yeah.) the story has some, problems. To say the least.

However, while the performance is bad its not the worst I've played (on the ps3 once again..unplayable on pc) and I hardly noticed the framerate when I was just running around, I personally found the combat kinda fun, between trying to dodge accurately and still attack and not use all my health items (bc those and ammo are actually rare! Unlike some games...) it is kind of a challenge and reminds me of a much worse sh4. And hey, the health items both heal an understandable amount of health that i can easily read with a bar (unlike 1-3) and they're not a complete joke (unlike sh4...) i find the exploration really fun and sure the characters look shit but the environments are Fucking great. The church is one of my fav sections, short as jt might be and yes it stole the confessional scene but its pretty well written and acted I think. The monster design is pretty fucking rad too honestly, I like the schism, siam, I like the DESIGN of the needlers even if they make me so mad to fight, and hey the nurses and ph don't show up that much to be too aggregious. The boss monsters are also fantastic design wise, very unsettling and the boss rooms are interesting as well.

The story has problems but it also has alot of potential, the concept of people sacrificing ther children for silent Hill and being overcome by their own pain and guilt is pretty fucking cool, and alex is a good character they did a good job of giving him personality, ppl bitch about him being a soldier but a) he's not and b) soldiers are people too, and a sh game that could tackle toxic masculinity, be critical of the military, and also tackle abusive religeious parents is pretty intriguing, not to mentions themes of brotherly love that's complicated bc of how they clearly favored Josh . Sure, it misses the mark, but I like taking the potential and thinking about it bc its compelling to me. And like I said, i like alex alot.

Overall, bad game yes, but not the worst as it has enough good for me to honestly really enjoy it, besides it is pretty funny when it is bad. Don't play the pc port tho

Silent Hill Shattered Memories

Overall Score: 8/10

Unpopular opinion im sure but honestly? I find this game ALMOST on par with the team silent games. Its really that good, yes its a wii game, so this is my score taking into account the motion controls BTW.

For the good, man where do i start. Its BEAUTIFUL for a wii game and esp for a post team silent game, the graphics are nice and Constsitent, the environments are pretty and it has a pretty nice cold color pallet to contrast the warmer tones the series tends to skew towards. The acting and intrgrige are all on point and the WRITING is fantastic, its one of those games you play the first time not knowing the twist and play the second time picking up more and more clues and things that strengthen that twist so much more. Like sh2 its a simple story told in such a clever and interesting way that you'll probably be too invested to put it down, I beat it in one sitting in 6 hours bc i was so engrossed in the narrative. And the Puzzles man! The puzzles are phenomenal and fun to accomplish and there's even a little bit of variety in a few places on repeat playthroughs. The level of detail in this game is insane really, the things that change with the different psychology answers are pretty cool too and tho it all plays out relatively the same its still fun to see the different things you can get to happen. The gimmicks like the phone as an object, taking pictures, sneaking and zooming in, they're not too intrusive as to take away from the exploration or other game play but not completely useless and have some pretty fun Easter eggs too. The game plays sort of like a worse outlast with good puzzles and for that I do have to commend it. Oh and the fucking MUSIC is INCREDIBLE idk something ab this soundtrack has alot of heart put into it clearly.

Now, it's not perfect. The thing is, it is a WORSE outlast type game, in the running and hiding sense but well, the hiding is completely useless, its a run away game, which is ok, but I understand that people aren't gonna be a big fan of that when silent Hill has always balanced combat ad puzzles and exploration. The running segments are..aggravating, mostly bc its hard to figure out where to go, not to mention using motion controls that don't like to work half the time to fight the monsters off of you. Also, the monsters are not scarey in the slightest and the raw shock scream is actually enragaging if you've died one to many times, there's also...not really any penalty for dying. And once you're out for these running segments,there's no danger, no monsters, nothing to hide from despite having a hiding mechanic. Its not really a horror game more of a psycological thriller and I understand that the fact that its not horror can be disappointing. The psychology things might be a bit overhyped And yeah fine, the wii foreplay scene...well yeah its weird but it IS also funny as fuck.

That said, there's still alot thats good and alot thas unfair criticism lobbed at this game. Harry didn't have much of a personality in sh1 bc he's a ps1 character and sm really fleshed him out well, not to mention giving cybil some nice characterization, and they did some interesting things with dahlia and kaufmann. And Lisa.. well I'm gonna be honest I never found Lisa all that interesting in sh1..so it doesn't bother me that she's the way she is in this game. I know people hate the "horny" aspect of it but to be completely fair, YOU choose to make the game that way, don't answer in a sexual manner or look at boobs or anything else and you won't have an overly sexual game, its...literally that easy. Its given as an option for the play id they want to go for what is arguably another joke ending. (You cannot tell me sleeze and sirens is meant to be a real serious ending to the game. Cmon) and you can complain about the innacuuracies if you want but its a spin off, a retelling of the original game. Its not canon, and it didn't change the original game. It just took the ideas presented there and made them more human and lest fantastical, there's some supernatural elements but it takes a backseat to the human moments. And its honestly really cool.

Overall, great game, i reccomend it if you don't mind some slight jank with the motion controls and honestly? Look up directions on where to go for the running segments and you'll have a pretty good time overall.

Silent Hill Downpour

Overall score (so far): 7.5/10 *to be noted i haven't finished actually playing it yet but I know the basic plot and some of the details so I doubt it'll change

And so for the final silent Hill Game, I have to say, i don't think it deserves NEARLY the hatred it gets, there's alot about it that i find really cool and even fun and I think its a solid entry, a little better than origins in some parts and its downsides are both unfortunate and once again, mostly Konami's fault . That said, I'm also not gonna kid and say its a good game, just that I like it alot and we should be nicer to the last silent Hill game were probably ever gonna get.

Downpour has a pretty good, original story overall, there's alot to it, alot of intricacies and intrigue to it that honestly make it a pretty sold silent Hill game. Its different enough from the others to stand out but not super far removed from its themes and messages. I like that it doesn't try and lean into the cult aspect and tries to do something else with it, it doesn't try to explain silent Hill, but just use it to torment the characters, as it should be. There's tragedy ad human feelings here and some of them aren't the most...sensitive but they are pretty reasonable reactions id say. Playing as someone who's odds are stacked against him from the beginning as he's a prisoner is a cool way to open the game, someone convicted and you must discover if he is a good person or not. Themes of revenge explored more than in sh3 which is pretty cool. The environments look pretty nice, and i like the look of the otherworld, once again being unique with its cooler color pallet, but without the ice so it really feels like its own thing. The EXPLORATION is awesome with an actual open world which I think works well, there's alot to do in town (unlike sh1 and 0 on limiting hardware and 2 which just pretends you can explore to town but you cant) there's alot for cool little stories and sidequests to do, my favorite so far being the cinema (which has a section of ACTUAL fixed cameras like old Resident evils which is smth SH has never done and its super fucking cool!) And all the sidequess help strengthen murphy as a cheacter and argue for his innocence or complexites. The weapons system is pretty cool, picking up items and attacking with whatever you might find, finding cool Easter eggs with exploration and having fun noticing things. And it does honestly have the strongest side characters outside of SM. The puzzles are pretty solid and fun to figure out with some cool mechanics and the seperate difficulties is a great thing to bring back (actually done well like sh3) I also kind of like the method of triggering the night world/rain/monsters, and silent Hill really feels likes its constantly punishing Murphy, as it should. The music might not be Akira but its still pretty damn good, and fuck yall I like the Korn song, and you CAN press start and skip it yknow. (Thx tomm hewlit)

The negtitives tho, well they are there. For one it has the worst performance of any sh game outside of pc homecoming and like...the hd collection, the framerate like to shit itself alot lmao, its not usually detrimental bc I've played re2r with similar framerates but, yeah its not great. Not to mention while the models look better than hc they don't animate well or often at all, and the game has trouble loading in the models as fast as they should. The sound mixing could use...some work too, poor murph sounds like he's eating the mic. While I find the games exploration really fun, murphy also has the issue of not running very fast so it can be a little annoying to get back to a place you want to be when you can't run that fast, not to mention the loading times. The monster design is def the worst in the series, maybe on par w SM. Which is disappointing bc there's some pretty good moments here and there, but not nearly enough to make it scary and there's so much you can do with monsters with this premise. Also, the running sections in the otherworld are better than SM ad even more engaging than the brief ones in 2 and 3, but still, I'd prefer to do puzzles or fight a boss or smth. I will also say, the endings are, iffy while the main 2 endings are really good and Anne's bad ending as well as the joke ending are great, murphys bad endings are weird and ooc for the muphy you come to know in the game (even more so than Origins) plus, idk that the writers knew all that much about prison andbprison culture, nobody in a real prison would be mad ab Murphy killing a pedo (there's some racist implications here and there too which is. Unfortunate and disappointing. I like Howard and Robbie but they are a bit tropey, esp Howard) that said Anne is a compelling albeit unlikable character and thas pretty cool to see pulled off.

Overall, while it has downsides, I don't think Downpour is worthy of all the scorn it gets, this can have problems and you can point them out without disregarding the good parts and while it is unfortunate it doesn't run better and have some extras and didn't handle some things great, I still think its worth a playthrough, esp if you go out of your way to do the sidequests.

Bonus round

Book of memories is not a game I intend to play bc I don't wanna get a vita and can't imagine I'm missing much. It doesn't look bad pwr say but I'm not interested tbh

Fuck PT. :)

#entries #silent hill #long post #thank u thank you #ill try tk put a cut in here at some poitn hold on srry

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theirrationalzone · 3 years

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Yakkin ‘bout Games: Wolfenstein: The New Order

Yakking ‘bout Games is a series where I talk about games that I’m currently playing or have just finished. It can be new or old, console or PC, good or bad, it really doesn’t matter. If it’s a game worth talking about, you’ll see it covered here.

I think it’s fair to say that the FPS genre has enjoyed a bit of a renaissance over the last decade and a bit. The modern military shooters that dominated the late 2000s and early 2010s have become less common. We have seen the return of classic franchises like Doom and Half-Life, and we have also witnessed the influx of “boomer shooters” like Dusk and Amid Evil. A lot of cool stuff indeed.

With that being said, let’s take a trip back a few years. 2014 to be exact.

This was the first year of the (then) brand spanking new PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The two consoles were not off to the best of starts though. Their early exclusives like Killzone Shadow Fall, InFamous Second Son, Forza Motorsport 5 and Dead Rising 3 had failed to impress. The only games picking up the slack were multi-platform releases like Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag. The only FPS games available at the time (other than Killzone on PS4) were Call of Duty Ghosts (dull as dishwater) and Battlefield 4 (I enjoyed it but it was completely broken on release.)

Not exactly the most exciting of times for an FPS fan on console.

Wolfenstein: The New Order finally came along that May. It had been announced the year prior but it didn’t have much fanfare behind it. The initial E3 showing didn’t really impress anyone and there wasn’t really a great excitement for the game’s release. Perhaps it was because the previous Wolfenstein game was largely ignored by people or maybe because people were skeptical due to the game being MachineGames’ (the developer) first effort. People needn’t have worried though. The game turned out to be a massive surprise. It ended up being one of the best of that year.

Why am I covering this now? It’s because I recently got the urge to play it again after all these years. Plus I wanted to see how it would function in a post modern Doom world. So with that in mind, let’s get psyched and see how the game holds up.

Never has a smile brought terror to my heart so fast. Well this and my last dental appointment...

The New Order is set in an alternate universe where the Nazis won World War II due to their advanced technology being too much for the Allied forces. After an operation to try and assassinate the spearhead behind this growing technological evolution goes horribly wrong, Captain William “B.J.” Blazkowicz ends up taking a piece of shrapnel to the back of the head which puts him into a vegetative state. He ends up spending fourteen years in a Polish mental asylum before finally being awoken again due to witnessing a horrible atrocity committed by the Nazis. B.J. is now in the alien world of 1960 where the Nazis rule over the world with an iron fist. It’s up to B.J. to link up with the remnants of the Resistance and take the fight back to the Nazis once and for all.

The story was and still is one of the most surprising elements of The New Order. It paints a brutal picture of a world controlled by an evil and ruthless force who will stop at nothing to assert their dominance. The cast as well are very memorable. You have the plucky and likable Resistance fighters who you get to spend quite a bit of time with. You then have some memorable encounters with the evil figureheads of the Nazi regime at certain parts of the story. Anyone who has seen the train sequence in this game knows exactly what I’m taking about. I have to give MachineGames credit as well for the characterisation of B.J. himself. They managed to turn a character who was known for being a badass Nazi killer to a very sympathetic and likable Nazi killer. B.J. in this game is weary and tired after years of fighting evil and tyranny at every corner. The man wants nothing more than for the war to be over so he can hang up his guns and finally settle down. How could you hate the man after hearing something like that?

B.J. is such an upstanding guy that he would infiltrate a Nazi controlled train just to get you some coffee. Liberation and a Cappuccino, you can’t beat it.

The real bread and butter of The New Order though is the gameplay. It has held up fantastically for the most part. Combat is a blast thanks to the very meaty arsenal at your disposal including assault rifles, shotguns, marksman rifle and a Laserkraftwerk which allows you to blast enemies to smithereens. You’ll have plenty of enemy types to cut through including rank and file soldiers, big mech suit soldiers with heavy weaponry and robots that have massive lasers. B.J. has a few abilities though to help turn the tide of battle. Leaning is one such ability and it’s implemented very well. How it works is that if you hold the L1 button, it locks B.J. in place and you can then use the left stick to lean at different angles. It’s super useful. Earning a well placed few shots at a Nazi from a very awkward angle never gets old. B.J. also has the ability to dual-wield certain weapons to deal even more hefty damage to his foes. Press up on the d-pad and prepare to bring the carnage. While this is a pretty fun feature, it does limit your movement speed and it can result in you burning through ammo quite quickly. It also is restricted to two types of the same weapon. You can also find upgrades for weapons which give them different ammo types and fire modes. The Laserkraftwerk, for example, can be used to cut through certain boxes and materials which is pretty nifty.

In terms of how health works, it’s a hybrid between classic pick-ups and regeneration. You can recover health by picking up health packs and food throughout the game. Armor can be found as well to allow you to take some extra damage. If you take health damage and managed to find cover, you’ll eventually get 10 health points back. You also have the ability to overcharge your health. How this works is that if you end up picking up a health item that takes you over your max health, you get higher health points for a brief period which is quite useful. You can increase your max health by finding hidden health upgrades throughout some of the levels.

AI is decent for the most part. They will attempt to find cover in the heat of a firefight and they do try to flank you. Some of the heavy soldiers will also attempt to rush your position. I certainly didn’t notice any unusual behaviour from them. Boss fights are a bit unremarkable for the most part. The game pretty much spells out how to take them out and they don’t really put up much of a fight. The main exception being the final boss but even then, it really isn’t that hard.

The secret painting boss fight was an interesting idea though. Definitely a canvas for them to work on in the future. (Apologies for the bad pun and joke.)

The game does have a basic stealth system and it works fine. When you enter most of the areas in the game, you will be informed that there are two commanders in the area. Take them out without being spotted and you can sneak through the area without having to worry about reinforcements if you get spotted by an enemy. You can take down enemies stealthily by using a silenced pistol, throwing knives or by sneaking up to them and performing a takedown. Stealth can feel a little overpowered during some of the early sections because the pistol is super accurate and it only takes one headshot to take some of these enemies down. The game does balance this a bit better later on as areas are populated with more elite enemies that harder to kill without being spotted.

Being a Wolfenstein game, you would expect exploration to be a big part of the gameplay and it does play a part for sure. There are hidden areas to be found with collectibles such as the Enigma codes which can unlock new difficulties and cheat codes. You can also find hidden max HP upgrades and other stuff as well. Maps can be found in each level which will indicate possible hidden secrets with a question mark. Levels are definitely more linear than some of the prior Wolfenstein games so don’t expect huge hidden areas or levels.

Key and item hunting still exists of course. You will find doors that require a key or a tool needed to progress which requires a bit of skulking around to find that key or item. You see this especially in the Resistance HQ sections which occur after most of the levels. In these sections, you will be tasked with finding a certain item for a character to progress to the next level. There are also side missions where you can do the same thing for other characters in the HQ and completing these unlocks extras such as artwork. I’m mixed on the Resistance HQ sections overall. On the one hand, they’re good from a lore perspective because you can overhear conversations from some of the characters and there are newspaper clippings and notes to find which do a good job of building up the world. On the other hand, they do feel a little bit like filler. Swings and roundabouts, I suppose...

I don’t really have many issues with the gameplay as a whole. My only real gripe is how the weapon wheel works. Weapon wheels are commonplace on console because a controller doesn’t have many buttons when compared to a keyboard. Makes perfect sense. The New Order’s one however can be such a temperamental thing to use. How it’s supposed to work is that you hit the R1 button to bring up the wheel and then you use the right stick to pick the weapon you want. Sounds simple enough. In reality what happens is that the game ends up giving you the wrong weapon time after time. I can’t even begin to count the amount of times that I tried to switch to the assault rifle and the game switched me to the dual-wield pistols instead. It can be a bloody nuisance. Part of this is down to how sensitive the stick is when using the wheel. It’s way too fast. Also why do the dual-wield options even need to be there? You can already hit up on the d-pad to dual-wield a particular weapon plus I didn’t really need to dual-wield all that much so it’s just clutter. They could have cleaned this up a lot better. I also had issues with swapping back to the previous weapon. It would sometimes default back to the Laserkraftwerk even though it wasn’t my previous weapon. Thankfully these issues didn’t get me killed but they certainly got on my nerves a little bit.

Textbook schadenfreude here from one of the villains. Shouldn’t be that shocked really...

From a graphics point of view, Wolfenstein: The New Order still holds up remarkably well. It runs on the same idTech engine that powered Rage before it and it certainly looks great. Character models are well detailed and they animate well. Cutscenes are well framed and the angles are perfectly done. Environments are beautifully crafted with amazing detail so whether you are in rainy soaked London or even the friggin’ Moon, you feel immersed in the world of the game.

I wasn’t kidding about the Moon. Look Ma, I’m in space! (In a video game...)

The game is quite aliased on the consoles. You definitely see sharp and jagged edges at times. Plus the textures look a bit low-res when viewed up close, but the game still looks great, and I imagine the PC version cleans up most of this stuff anyway so there’s that.

Tumblr’s image compression doesn’t do this environment justice. Oh well. C’est la vie, I suppose...

I can’t fault the game’s sound though. All voice performances are pitch-perfect with Brian Bloom (the voice of B.J.) being the standout. The music is incredible too with a great balance between atmospheric tracks and hard edged ones when the action really kicks off. It’s composed by a guy named Mick Gordon. Don’t think he’s done anything of note since though.

In terms of length, you’re looking at about roughly 8-10 hours for a first time playthrough. There is replay value with the collectibles and the Timeline system. To briefly explain, the Timeline system is related to a choice you make at the start of the game which changes some of the characters you encounter during the game. It doesn’t drastically change much. The events remain the same. You just get some unique dialog and a scene or two. Not much else.

So as you can see, I think that Wolfenstein: The New Order is still a bloody good time. The shooting still feels great with some really meaty weapons, the story and characters are super engaging, and the presentation and sound still kicks some ass. It has some minor issues here and there, but this game is well worth experiencing. You can pick it up pretty cheap nowadays on most of the platforms and it does go on sale quite often.

It’s nice to go back sometimes and revisit a classic, isn’t it?

Check back here soon for Part 2 of this where I take a look at The Old Blood. Until then, stay safe, folks!

#wolfenstein #ps4 #video games #yakkingboutgames

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legendarymasterwolf · 4 years

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My Top 10 Favorite Video Games

Now that The Last of Us Part 2 and Ghost of Tsushima are out and I’ve finished both, I’ve decided to finally compile a list of my top ten favorite games I’ve played and have revisited over time. This is my own personal list, make no judgments based on what is here.

And awaaaaaaaaaay we go!

10: Ghost of Tsushima

I’ve never played a game that scratched that samurai itch before, and this one totally did it for me. Whether it was the standoffs straight out of a Kurosawa film, or the ability to scare the shit out of Mongols, or riding through a beautifully rendered world viewed through one of the most natural HUDs I’ve ever seen, I loved this game. Sure, it may be leaving this list once Cyberpunk 2077 comes out, but for now, it takes the tenth spot.

9: Star Wars: The Old Republic

Still one of my favorite Star Wars games. This was the first MMORPG I played where my character actually had a voice. I know, it’s a little thing, but I still like it. Whenever I have a spare moment on the road, a decent connection, and some time to chill, I fire up this game. Plus, it’s still operating even with Disney owning the franchise now, so there’s that.

8: Wolfenstein: The New Colossus

Still scarily relevant at the time of writing (hopefully not for much longer) and one of the best modern reinventions of a protagonist from a classic series. Also, shooting, hacking, and exploding Nazis and Klan members will never get old, no matter how many conservative man-children say otherwise. Plus, there’s one of best female characters in gaming, Grace Walker, who’s got some of the best lines in the game and some great commentary on masculinity.

7: “Assassin’s Creed” Series

I’m cheating here, but I can’t just choose one game from this series. One of the first games I played when I got a PC was Revelations. I played through the rest of them in the year that followed and I became hooked. So hooked, that I got both the Ezio Collection and AC3 Remastered for PS4 when the opportunity came (though the latter was just because it was on the Odyssey Season Pass). Odyssey was the first AC game I platinumed and, barring a few missteps here and there, I loved it. I can’t freaking wait for Valhalla.

6: “Persona” Series

I was just going to have Persona 5 Royal in this spot, despite still not finishing it (damn Okumura boss fight), but I’ve also got Persona 4 Golden and am loving it, so now I need to get Persona 3 whenever Sega decides to port the game to PC. Each game is set in a high school with an other world where your inner self is revealed. The social links system is great and you're basically playing an anime, complete with filler and everything. Some of them have surprisingly relevant themes, too(P5 fans know what I'm talking about). Now to finish them at some point.

5: Marvel’s Spider-Man

A game better than Spider-Man 2: The Game? No one thought it was possible until this came out. The web swinging has weight to it, the acting is great (props to Yuri Lowenthal), and the story, which Dan Slott contributed to, is a fantastic original Spider-Man story. Also, this happened to be the game that convinced me to buy a PS4. Can't wait for Miles Morales.

4: Disco Elysium

When I heard about this game, I knew I had to play it. It's not like any other isometric RPG I've played. In it, you play as an alcoholic detective waking up after a three day bender to find himself with amnesia and 24 distinct personalities that are always clashing, especially when you’re in conversation with an NPC. The story progresses as you try to piece together not only the case you were assigned to, but why you drank for three days straight to forget the case altogether. It’s batshit nuts and I love it. It also runs fairly well on my laptop, with a console port on the way. Also, still need to finish it. I know, my backlog is huge.

3: Red Dead Redemption 2

I never really got into the original RDR, mainly because I didn’t get a console until Christmas 2018. Thankfully, RDR2 is a prequel to the original game, set in the last years of the Old West, so it was easy to get into. While it did take a while for the game to get going and its storage size is massive (105 GB, WTF), when I finally powered on through and played the rest of the story, I was treated to some of the best characters I’ve seen in a game along with a story so heartbreaking, I was tearing up by the credits. Sure, the realism did become annoying to an extent, I could have done without the Guarma chapter, and the epilogue was four hours too long, but regardless, this is still one of my favorite depictions of the Wild West I’ve ever played.

2: “The Last of Us” Series

If the story for RDR2 was heartbreaking, then this series shattered my heart, pieced it back together, shattered it again, and then gave me hope to mend it in the future. I can’t choose between either Part 1 or Part 2, because I think both games are not only brilliant, but oversimplified when it comes to their themes. If we’re being simple about it, Part 1 is about Love and Part 2 is about Hate. In actuality, Part 1 is about the lengths we are willing to go for the ones we love and Part 2 is about the cycle of hate and how love can break it. Beyond the story (going to finally do that Part 2 breakdown in the future), the gameplay in both games is entertaining, the graphics look breathtaking (Part 2 has ruined all other games for me when it comes to graphics), the music is on point, and the performances are some of the best ones I’ve seen for a video game. This series set a new standard for how we see games and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for it. I don’t even mind waiting another seven years or so for the next one!

1: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

While the other games on this list are fantastic, they don’t hold a candle to the game that first inspired me to start thinking about making this list. This was the first game where, when I got to the credits, I felt not joy at completing another game, but sadness at the story finally being over. Geralt of Rivia’s final tale is still my favorite for its choices with no clear terms of morality, monster hunting missions that kept me enthralled even if some of the creatures scared the shit out of me (fucking Aracnomorphs), and the chance to have some fun with several members of the opposite sex (I regret nothing). Oh, and Gwent. Can’t forget Gwent. CD Projekt RED still remains one of my favorite developers to this day and I can’t wait for Cyberpunk 2077 to finally release in December (when it’s ready!!!).

And there you have it, my Top 10 Favorite Video Games I've played so far. This list is definitely going to change in the next couple months once I finish Watch Dogs: Legion and Cyberpunk 2077, but for now, this is how it is (AC already has an entry here, and Valhalla won't change that).

I may be putting my energy into that TLOU Part 2 Breakdown of my thoughts along with that Ellie/Dina fic I've been working on, so expect those at some point.

If you haven't already, go out and vote! Stay safe!

Lemme know what you think!

Until then!

#ghost of tsushima #swtor #wolfenstein the new colossus #assassin's creed #persona #marvel's spider-man #disco elysium #rdr2 #the last of us #the witcher 3 #video games

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shoeshineyboy · 4 years

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horse games I played as a kid (on pc only)

horseland: first ever online horse game I played and I’m very conflicted. on the one hand there wasn’t much to it. but it was fun. BUT then they revamped it and split it into two games after they made a TV show. it was like a saccharine Saddle Club and I wasn’t there for it. 5/10, ultimately

pippa funnell: the stud farm inheritance: I adored this game as a kid but it was Really Fucking Hard. can you round up the sheep? actually no I fucking can’t and there were entire forums dedicated to not being able to do this ingame. that being said I went back to it when I was 15 and beat it within a couple of days. I dunno what Vincent Blacklock’s accent was supposed to be but it was a decent game. the forbidden romance between Harry the saddler and your now-dead great-aunt Patricia was heartbreaking. 7/10

pippa funnell: take the reins: this was brilliant actually, the story was genuinely compelling and the characters were fantastic, to give credit where it’s due. I still remember all the side characters’ names. what the fuck is elsys? I still don’t know! I never actually beat this but that’s because the computer itself broke. I was looking for it the other day on steam but it’s not on there. 9/10 there was a part that was really hard

pippa funnell: the golden stirrup challenge: what’s the golden stirrup challenge? I never found out. this was a sequel to take the reins and it brought back Spike who’s the only character who matters. the story was way more in-depth and you could actually walk around the little Tuscan village where you were based! never finished it because I suddenly started fucking up the controls. the horses changed size depending on breed which was cool. wish I could’ve found out what happened. 8.5/10

howrse: this fucking banged 10 years ago. I used to play it every day and I bought the cards when they released them. I had a sleipnir and one of the first mustangs. I inevitably got bored with it though and they closed my account. I tried to play it again last year and it’s way too easy now, all the fun’s been sucked out of it. 10/10 in 2009, 4/10 now. I gave it a good few months

mary king’s riding star: I feel like this was shite except for the multiplayer competition aspect? my mum and I used to play it together. there were some cheats that made the horse purple. I don’t think the main game had much of a story. 3/10

equestriad: as soon as I got good at this it started to crash every time I opened it. pisstake. 4/10 at least it was fun while it lasted

pony luv: crap. 0/10

ellen whitaker: the horse mystery: I guess the logical step forward for former equestrian stars is to make a video game. the main character’s voice was fucking annoying but the story seemed vaguely interesting. HOWEVER. there was one part where you have to chase a light through a forest and if you fuck up Once you lose. my mum and I beat it together with her doing the controls and me doing the jumping. then. you had to do it AGAIN and I gave up. fuck this. 2/10

bella sara: horse pokemon cards but you could have them online and like take care of them and stuff. I had so many of these fucking things. then my account got locked and I couldn’t access it because I used a 30 day email address which expired. I’m still bitter to this day. I don’t want to fucking talk about it. [REDACTED]/10

my pony club: basic but kinda fun. typical plotline for the 00s where you had a bitchy rich girl who hated your guts because her parents don’t love her and a bespectacled boy who became your best mate. I can’t hate this. it was fine. never finished it but unlike the Pippa Funnell ones I wasn’t upset enough to care. 6/10 the MC and Eric were cute

horse isle: the original one I never played 3 and I played 2 like twice. it was so so so hard but fun, too? my first ever MMO experience! I get good energies from thinking about it, and very very cursed ones from thinking about 3. you know how it is. 7/10

there’s another one I can’t remember the name of that intimidated me. it taught me what lethal white syndrome is though and now I’m heading down that wikipedia rabbit hole

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gaminggrabs184 · 3 years

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How to get used to pc gaming

Profession In Gaming

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sirbadgerduke · 4 years

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Retrospective Thought: Top Ten Games of The Year 2019

Another year down and just on the horizon beckons another year into the light, and this year was a real wild ride for games. From triumphant returns ala Devil May Cry V to huge disasters ala Anthem. What is a defacto truth though; there’s plenty of great games that came out this year, and can only make us wonder what is brewing for the new start of a new decade. As we close out the 2010s and enter the 2020s, I think we should look back on the great games that came out in 2019. Obviously this is MY list of games that I LOVED playing this year, I haven’t played every game to ever come out this year so there’s bound to be a favourite or two of yours not on this list. I respect you either disagreeing or agreeing with me. So here goes, the Ten Games of the Year. Honourable Mentions: The Surge 2, Mortal Kombat 11, Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, Blasphemous, Oninaki, My Friend Pedro, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3:The Black Order, Dusk Diver, Daemon X Machina, Death Stranding, MediEvil Remake, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

10) Plague Tale: Innocence(PS4/XBO/PC) This title is very much a sleeper hit in my opinion, a game published by Focus Home Interactive, who have been killing it in the “AA Experience” space of games with the likes of Styx, Greedfall, etc and Plague Tale, is a game worth checking out. You play as Amicia De Rune, who must protect her younger brother, Hugo, from Inquisition guards, villagers and a deadly swarm of plague carrying rats during 14th century France. The story slowly builds drama, tension and atmosphere with a fantastic setting that is surprisingly overlooked for more contemporary settings and locales, the idea of making Rats(for most of the game mind you) as this unstoppable almost “supernatural” force is both genius and frightening. Above all else the characters are well written, many parts believable and many parts relatable, you’ll be feeling their trials and tribulations as you go through the games 17 lengthy chapters. The gameplay is surprisingly both solid and janky at times; taking on a stealth system that mostly works well, you gradually gain a number of tools to deal with both human and vermin obstacles all the while with a small number of bosses that feel more like a mix of combat and puzzle solving. The game is worth picking up if you’re craving a smaller, less busywork heavy kinda game.

9) Astral Chain(Nintendo Switch) Platinum Games is one of my favourite Action Game developers currently in the industry; they make great combat systems with deep mechanics all the while adding more depth than you initially thought could possibly be able. While it’s not on the same level as NieR: Automata, Astral Chain continues the trend of Platinum Games nailing their signature style of gameplay; over the top whacky combat with anime as hell storytelling. This time you play a cop of a special police division that focuses on investigating the Astral Realm with your own Jojo-like Stand called a Legion. You’ll go on missions to battle these weird creatures, investigate the areas, even helping people and picking up litter(yeah, really) all the while slowly opening up your repertoire of Legions at your disposal. This is standard “Goofball anime nonsense mixed with badass tier combat and gameplay” that you either love or hate from Plat. While it’s not the deepest combat system out of their library, it is a rather interesting and fun premise with the combat focus being on the switching between Legions and their placement on the battlefield, the game offers its own level of depth, even if its a pond compared to the likes of Bayonetta 2 and NieR: Automata. If you want an anime as fuck, fun romp, Astral Chain is for you.

8) Code Vein(PS4/XBO/PC) The Soulsborne-like clone fad is a weird beast to look back on; while some heavy hitters have come out of it(NioH, Surge to some extent, hell Hollow Knight,Jedi Fallen Order) there’s been some real stinkers( Lords of The Fallen, again, Surge to some extent), it seems to have caught the industry hard as you could easily find at least one clone you’ll like and one you despise. Code Vein is a very weird Souls-like game in that it’s focus isn’t really a particular gameplay mechanic they introduce into it, or even how it offers “loot” but more on its focus on a narrative and characters. You play as a nameless revenant that wakes up with amnesia and a pretty white haired but barely clothed girl. It’s your duty to collect blood beads to keep your hunger sated. As you explore and push on the story opens up, introducing new characters and locales with a enough variety to keep you interested. Gameplay wise? Combat is solid, it’s admittedly very soulsy, so love it or hate it, that’s how it does things, plus you have the option of having a CP controlled companion with you on your journey to help alleviate some of the difficulty. Where the game shines in gameplay is it’s endless combinations and build opportunities, allowing you to really cater to a unique playstyle best suited for you or a more typically fantasy build if you so choose. Bosses, however are a huge mixed bag of good, bad and just outright frustrating. If you really want an Anime Souls-like, you would do yourself a huge disservice to miss out on this one.

7) Outer Worlds(PS4/XBO/PC) Obsidian Entertainment does a really good job on making some great RPG titles. From KOTOR2 to Fallout: New Vegas and even their own IPs like Pillars of Eternity 1 and 2, Outer Worlds is no exception among this collection. While the game is set in an alternative future, you are awakened by a mad scientist named Phineas Welles from cryosleep only to find that most of the passengers are still in hibernation aboard a colony ship. The game features several factions and a branching story that reacts to the player's choices. The writing is pretty damn great, witty and intriguing, something severely lacking in later day Fallout titles. Outer Worlds is pretty much a Fallout Game without the fallout licence only it builds from New Vegas’ strengths rather than let it get muddled down with Bethesda’s weaknesses. It even comes with it’s own take on the VATS system. The gameplay is solid, it’s just New Vegas but better, whilst in the grand scheme of things? It’s not the thing that will win you over in the long run. If you’re a Fallout Fan sick of the current trend Bethesda is in or whether you’re looking for a great Space Adventure, Outer Worlds is not the best choice, it’s Spacer’s Choice!

6) Greedfall(PS4/XBO/PC) Oh Spiders, Spiders, Spiders. This dev company has steadily grown strong from game to game. From it’s rocky beginnings with Of Orcs and Men and Bound by Flame to the almost good Technomancer, Spiders have, in my honest opinion, have found their major hit and boy has it been a hit for Focus Home Interactive. You begin as De Sardet, a human who’s sent with his cousin to govern newly discovered island, neutral in the varying factions and war that is happening all the while you seek to find out more about the this mysterious illness that plagues the De Sardet family, so that you can cure Greedfall, honestly, is such a weird game to come out in 2019 but one I do not regret having played at all. It’s reminiscent of old Bioware titles like Mass Effect 1 and Dragon Age: Origins; the gameplay is solid and fun allowing you a nice enough variety to go deep as you want whilst having a rather engaging story and narrative that is populated with companions that all have very different opinions and often clash with one another’s. It feels like a game that should’ve been released back in 2010 from Bioware, in a good way obviously. While it’s not graphically impressive, the art style is really nice and the world is both intriguing and bleak. Worthy a look into if you’re seeking that old bioware-esque flair that’s seriously missing from Latter Day Bioware.

5) Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice(PS4/XBO/PC) One of my all time favourite games is a From Software developed title by the name of Bloodborne, which is also my all time favourite PS-Exclusive. My hype for Sekiro was almost reaching the moon since the teaser was shown back in 2018, a chance to travel to Japan with that Souls-like style if you will. Only it’s the least Souls games in the Souls style of games that is developed by the originators of the brand. The focus here, is less on builds, blocking and dodging and more about your posture, parrying and loadouts and the gameplay absolutely, masterfully services that to a T.The Bosses are some of the best in the series, almost better than Bloodborne’s roster, but with the addition of mini bosses that roster is pretty huge(for better or for worse). You take the role of Sekiro, a ninja who’s service is needed by Kuro, a bearer of the Dragon’s Heritage; power/curse that grants anyone they deem worthy with immortality, however, when they die and resurrect it runs the risk of infecting people with Dragon Rot. The more narrative focus is a nice change of pace in my opinion and with the added blend of japanese history with mythology giving it a rather rich and surprisingly lived in world. Sekiro is definitely worth getting if you fancy yourself more dueling style gameplay.

4) Judgment(PS4) Ryu Ga Gotoku Studios have become another of my favourite game devs in recent years. Their work on the Yakuza Franchise is a blessing for a revamping of a classic Adventure/Savage Beat’em’up Hybrid, though they’ve since become the most popular and one of very few to exist. Judgment is a sorta separate entity/spin-off to the mainline franchise but still somehow connected(Unlike the great Fist of The North Star: Lost Paradise title.) to the Yakuza story in a much smaller degree. You play as Yagami, a private detective who was once a renowned lawyer until he was disgraced by one his star client who went on to murder another victim despite being found innocent. That’s as much as I can say about the story since the game is essentially a Crime Drama/Mystery with a little bit of Yakuza DNA. The cast of characters are all great, the villains make you want to absolutely bring them down a peg and the good guys really makes you root for them to win and push through the struggles. As is with Yakuza, the meat and potatoes of the series, the gameplay, is on point. Continuing the savage Brawler system but extending it into a more personalised style for Yagami, with his own heat moves and skills to boot, it’s fantastic and absolutely a treat to pull off combats, especially switching between all three of the styles. The Boss battles are a sweet as all hell, especially Cane Guy, who’s probably the most anime as fuck character you face of against. Buy it if you love Yakuza and crave for more, or if you’re new to the style of games.

3) Resident Evil 2: Remake(PS4/XBO/PC) Survival Horror is a genre that seems to struggle, with the occasional surprise hit that everyone gets behind. With that in mind, Resident Evil 2 Remake is a fantastic survival horror game that brings back the franchise to its roots and redoing them with a great, brand new shine and paint. Resident Evil 2 Remake puts you in the shoes of Claire Redfield and Leon Kennedy during the Racoon City Incident, while Claire searches for her brother and Leon goes to his first day on the job at RCPD, despite being told not, they must survive and avoid the monstrosities that roam the city, zombies, Lickers and the big bad Tyrant himself Mr X. A very nice remix of an old formula that gives it some new life, RE2R has impeccable atmosphere, tension and horror, half being brought to you via exploring and solving puzzles and the other half from Mr X himself who stalks you down with a purpose; to take out any survivors in Racoon City. Gameplay is super solid, and surprisingly does not make the game a pushover, solid shooting mechanics with some great puzzle mechanics and ofcourse exploration whilst not being an open world make this a title worth having in your collection. Whether you’re a survival horror fan, RE fan, Old Skool style RE fan, you’ll do yourself a massive disservice not picking this gem up.

2) Devil May Cry V(PS4/XBO/PC) Honestly, you can just call 2019 the Year of Capcom’s return to form, by nailing it with RE2, MHW in 2018 and obviously Iceborne later in year, it was only time that DMCV would come out between those mammoths titles. After the disastrous ReBoot, everyone including me too were sure that DMC was put back in the ice for good. That’s of course before DMCV’s triumphant teaser at E3. Devil May Cry V continues the story of Sparda’s progeny, Dante as he helps out returning upstart Nero and intriguing newcomer V as they take on the new Demon King; Urizen. This game is absolutely fantastic and I can’t fanboy over it enough. The story, while simple and easy to follow, has great character development and pacing, bring characters into their arcs in ups and downs that steadily build up to a final confrontation that just might be my new favourite boss battle of all time. The gameplay! The gameplay, is, to put it bluntly; absolutely sublime. From Dante’s weapon variety and DT craziness to Nero’s new gadgets in the form of his robotic arms to the weird Summoner-style gameplay of V, the game is its most diverse gameplay wise and not once feeling janky and sluggish at all. The Boss Battles are all fun and really bring something to the gameplay to both push and test you to your limit. Devil May Cry may just be one of my all time fave franchises and to see it return so triumphantly? Actually brings a tear to my eye. A must, must, MUST buy if I’ve ever played one.

1) Control(PS4/XBO/PC EGS Exclusive) Aaaah, Remedy, bringing such classics like Max Payne and Alan Wake into this world, Microsoft did you dirty with Quantum Break. So where did it leave them to go? To spiral into the weird worlds of Stephen King, Cosmic horror and the SCP Foundation for inspiration, to which Control is born, a phenomenal Third Person Shooter Metroidvania-esque game with a solid narrative and a beautiful visual and art design. You are Jesse Faden, a person of interest that has been searching for the Federal Bureau of Control since an incident with them when she was young had taken her brother. I really don’t want to say more than that, it’s better for you to experience the story for yourself. Narratively speaking? It has some great SCP-esque world building and lore with a solid to really good story that’s pacing 80% of the time really well. Gameplay and visuals with music are essentially where this game shines for me. Solid as hell shooting mechanics with some really badass powers helps to bring this game alive, but you don’t have all those powers from the get go, they are steadily paced throughout to make sure you’re not vastly overpowered or underpowered, it’s rather nice actually. Visuals and music are sublime, both together make for some truly memorable moments and areas. As stated, this is a Metroidvania and so has a lot of isms associated with that style; locked off area you’ll obviously return to with new powers to explore further, a semi-open world map, etc. I can’t sing this game’s praises enough, I think this might’ve just beaten out Alan Wake for my favourite Remedy game. Absolutely get this game NOW. So there’s my top ten list to round out 2019, a truly great year of great games. I’m honestly really excited to see what comes out in 2020, as it looks to be quite literally STACKED with potentially great(and shite) games. Hope you all had a spiffn’ new years, and here’s to 2020, let’s see what’s in store for us now!

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hyrule-in-a-pokeball · 5 years

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After having played the game, here are my thoughts on Sword and Shield. (SPOILERS)

RIVALS You’re stuck with yet another annoyingly happy friendly rival, though he does experience some character growth and becomes the most challenging of your three rivals. Bede and Marnie, while both better rivals characteristically, one a jerk who pulls a Vegeta and literally refers to himself as a “Super Elite” at one point, and the other how a friendly rival should be done, “I don’t hate you, but we’re rivals, not friends, and I’m gonna keep coming at you till I win” kind of deal, are sadly both are made easy by the fact that they’re mono-type users. Bede Psychic and Marnie Dark. VILLAIN TEAM Team Yell amounts to nothing. They are exactly as advertised. A bunch of hardcore Marnie fans from Marnie’s home town. Its Team Skull without the conspiracy. Chairman Rose’s, (The actual villain) plan makes no sense. He wants to awaken Eternatus, which causes Pokemon across the region to spontaneously dynamax, causing untold damage to the region and its people. He wants to do this because it will somehow solve an energy crisis Galar is not currently facing and won’t face for another 1000 years. How this works is never explained. His battle theme was awesome tho, it straight up sounded like something out of Final Fantasy. At times it felt like they were trying to comment on global warming. “Taking action today to solve a problem tomorrow”, but it framed it as a bad thing.

DIFFICULTY These games are more difficult than X/Y, but slightly less difficult than US/UM The gym leaders are finally free of their “3 Pokemon with only 3 moves” thing that plagued Kalos, but they’re not exactly “wall” difficult. There is no Whitney. They’re not rocking type-coverage moves or anything.

Hop is the only trainer to present you with any real challenge throughout the game, mainly because he changes his team up every now n then, even adding a surprise Snorlax out of nowhere.

I personally didn’t have any trouble taking down Leon, but I’ve seen him nearly wipe some people so idk. Regardless, his battle was really hype because he’s built up throughout the game as being unbeatable. He’s not a total pushover, but he’s probably the weakest champion to date.

MISSING MOVES You’re not going to miss any of the removed moves and not as many have been removed as that list that was floating around was claiming. GameFreak trimmed the fat.

QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE META GAME As far as breeding, raising Pokemon, etc for competitive goes? this is hands down the best Pokemon game to date. If you’re playing Pokemon solely for the meta game and you’re not hung up on some Pokemon being gone, then this is going to be the best Pokemon game in your eyes.

Mints let you change a Pokemon’s nature.

Ability capsule is only 50 BP now.

Egg moves don’t require breeding to be learned

Dittos with good IVs can be easily obtained in a specific raid den (I have two 4 IV dittos just chilling)

Move reminder/deleter is one NPC located in every Pokemon center and his services are free. (He’s also the name rater)

IV checker is a feature of the PC after you complete 6 battles in the battle tower in post game. thanks to the remote PC item thing, the PC is accessible from anywhere so you can check IVs where ever and when ever you want

Eggs seem to take less time to hatch now. That, or the wild area is just weird, because thats where I do all my egg hatching.

Hyper training is still a thing, with bottle caps you can boost a level 100 Pokemon’s IVs Getting your Pokemon to level 100 is easy because the game throws rare candies and EXP candies at you. Very easy to amass a bunch. You can also choose to feed as many as possible to the Pokemon at once, so no more one at a time crap.

Speaking of “No more one at a time crap”, you can now max out a Pokemon’s EVs with vitamins, where as in the past you could only use 10 of a vitamin max. It takes 26 to max out an EV. Expensive, but fast. Vitamins can be purchased for their usual price, or bought at battle tower for 2 BP each

PRESENTATION While the story wasn’t great, the presentation was. When they did a cutscene, they DID a cutscene. However this made the fact that there’s no voice acting very jarring. There are points in this game that legitimately feel like they were supposed to have voice acting. Maybe in the next one.

THE MISSING POKEMON I’ll be 100% real here. I didn’t miss them (and some of the Pokemon I use frequently didn’t make it in) And honestly, it shakes up the meta game. Meta game was getting stale for a while now. I just used different Pokemon and honestly found some new favorites because of it.

MUSIC The music in this game is great. Not every song is a banger, but a lot of them are. All the major battle themes are absolutely fantastic. Sadly you’ll have to wait until post-game to hear the battle theme Toby Fox contributed. Or you can just go to youtube.

THE WILD AREA The wild area is a pretty good chunk of land, but at the same time I hoped it would be bigger. After you beat the Pokemon league, the Pokemon in the wild area all scale up to a minimum level of 60, with some of the raid dens having level 70 Pokemon

MAX RAID BATTLES Surprisingly fun, though the game will give you the absolute most brain dead NPC teammates if you play offline. You have 10 turns to take down the kaiju mon, BUT if it KO’s pokemon on your team 4 times, the raid ends. The “Playing raid battles with NPCs” experience can be summed up like this. “Oh the Pokemon’s barrier only needs 1 more hit to break and that hit will also result in us winning? And the Pokemon only needs to get one more KO to make us fail the raid? And everyone is on low HP and will surely get KO’d in the next attack? Lemme just... Rock polish real quick...” The game doesn’t take type advantage into account when setting you up with NPCs for raids so sometimes you’ll go into a raid against a fire type and the NPCs will all have things that are weak to fire, or just not good against fire. So for the love of god, play raids online with real people if its a high level raid

The game is a solid 7/10 9/10 if you’re in it just for the meta game

#Pokemon #Pokemon sword #Pokemon shield #Pokemon sword and shield

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thats-so-sportswear · 5 years

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Some game recs to help you move on from LITG

To celebrate the end of the season, I’ve got some game recs for you. Finding games like this is hard, I know. If you’re like me, it’s frustrating to see a market flooded with games that are so close to what you want, but never quite reach the level of emotional engagement and immersiveness that you crave. So here’s a couple you may not have heard of that I can guarantee you’ll love:

1. Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem (PC, Free Demo)

7KPP is a delightful little indie VN by the gorgeous @azalynestudios. A romance/political intrigue game where you play as a delegate of one of these nations at a political summit, where your goal is to improve relations between the kingdoms and secure yourself an advantageous marriage, as well as personal quests and some murder mystery elements. It boasts a large range of LIs, both male and female and all amazing (and very difficult to decide between), as well as a fully customizeable MC (background, personality, skills, everything), huge range of dialogue options and great feminist undertones. Currently the game is still in development but the demo is almost a full game in itself with hours of replay value (and I’ve also played the most recent alpha version of the full game and can confirm is is like 90% finished and amazing). If you liked LItG please play this game. You will not be disappointed. Also the demo is free so you’ve got nothing to lose except your faith in me.

2. Regency Love (iOS, $8 AUD)

Regency Love, as the title suggests, is a romance game set in the Regency era. You play as a young lady going through her daily life as gentlewoman, trying to secure marriage prospects (or not, if you like). It’s like playing through an Austen novel, honestly. The art and sound design is gorgeous, it’s well written, feminist, has an MC who’s personality is fully customizable by the choices you make. The best thing about this game though is the little details that pull your MC into the world, like finding out gossip about you and your LI or overhearing them gush about you. The only this wrong with this game is that it doesn’t have any female love interests. Otherwise this game is perfect imo. Retails for around $8 AUD with an additional love interest for $5 (which i highly recommend. Mr Graham is the best and if you’re a Bobby stan he’s the one you’re gonna fall in love with). Only available on iOS.

3. The Dragon Age Series (PC, Console, Price Varies)

So, obviously these aren’t IF games, however as the only AAA RPG games in history to actually craft authentic, heartfelt romances, they deserve the spot. Not to mention the rest of the storytelling is fantastic. Play whichever game you like, they’re all great for different things, but I would recommend you start with Dragon Age: Origins. You play as typical RPG hero who is tasked with saving the world with a bunch of assholes you pick up along the way. Origins in particular is super immersive with a large dialouge tree and decisions that directly effect the game world and the events of the proceeding games. I’m sure most of you have at least heard of Dragon Age, but if you haven’t played it yet, go do yourself a favour

That’s actually about it for games that I would hand-over-heart recommend to everyone. But it’s not a lot, so here’s some others I’ve found in my travels that might be worth checking out, depending on what you’re into (in rough order of how much I like them):

Endless Summer (Choices) - The only Choices game worth its salt, IMO. It’s come to my attention that not everyone has played it? Go do that.

Titanic (Storyscape) - Be prepared to ~cry~

Dream Daddy - It’s not my kind of game but you can’t deny its good.

Mystic Messenger - Classic otome, only the LIs are actually likable.

Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery - All things considered, a good RP game

Aloners - Excellent for what it is. Great indie game.

Hakuouki - *sigh* Can’t not put the OG on here. Characters, story and theme are great. As a romance game? Not so much.

The Arcana (I never got into it but I know a lot of people love it)

Backstage Pass - Basic, but kind of cute.

Monster Prom - Barely a romance game, but fun nonetheless

Nameless - Again, like all classic Otomes, not my favourite for romance, but a cool game notheless

Red Embrace: Hollywood - It’s...an experience. I can’t say I hate it though. Read trigger warnings.

Dangerous Fellows - Great concept, wish it was better written.

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whimsyswastry · 4 years

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So late! But here it is!

Video Game Questionnaire

All my love to @flamehairedsiren for tagging me

Rules: Fill in your answers below and tag some buddies!

Tagging: @radio-chatter ... if she’s back? ... otherwise, IT’S A FREE FOR ALL!

Questionairre Below Cut

-Games-

First game you ever played: I played a lot of educational PC games on MS DOS when I was quite small. Reader Rabbit, Math Blaster...idk what the other ones were. Mickey Mouse teaches you the alphabet...that kind of thing. I’ve been gaming since I was like...4. After the educational games came either...Spyro or Sims 1, not sure which was first.

Favorite game: Dragon Age 2. I think. It changes all the time. But it’s usually a bioware game of some kind.

Game you hated at first but now love: Honestly, every game I’ve ever played (except The Witcher: Wild Hunt and Greedfall, both of which I loved immediately).

Game you used to love but now hate: Dragon Age: Origins. PLEASE LISTEN--it’s still a fantastic game. But it apparently cannot be played over and over the way the other two in the series can. It just feels like a chore. Not to mention my game crashes every ten minutes.

Game with the best group/companion(s): Dragon Age 2.

A game with your favorite ending: Until Dawn -- it doesn’t even matter what paths you chose (even though it does affect the ending) they’re all fantastic.

A game with the WORST ending: The Witcher (1). I was so confused by the final cinematic because wtf, was the assassin supposed to look like Geralt? Or was it just the shoddy graphics?

Best character customization?: Dragon Age Inquisition...with mods.

-Hero and Companions-

Your favorite playable character: Hawke, femShep, Geralt ... What can I say, I love my rpgs.

The funniest playable character: Geralt and his snarky ass always make me laugh. Not sure it’s intentional though lol

Your favorite companion(s): Dorian, Fenris, Anders, and Varric (Dragon Age), Kaidan(Mass Effect), Kurt(Greedfall), Sam(Until Dawn)

Companions you could live without: Honestly...Isabela.

-Relationships-

Favorite game friendship(s): Dorian

Favorite companion banter: The banter between Fenris and Merrill and also between Fenris and Anders, ESPECIALLY when Fenris is romanced.

A relationship you loved but went bad: Triss -- I started my entire foray into The Witcher fandom with Wild Hunt. After I went back and read the books and played the other games.....I want to love Triss as much as I used to, but she really did Geralt dirty.

A relationship you weren’t sure of but loved: Cullen! I know!!! But my first playthrough I got ninjamanced by Blackwall and ended up LOVING him even though he wasn’t my intended choice. So when I went back and played a second time, I couldn’t help but feel like Cullen couldn’t be as good as Blackwall. BOY WAS I WRONG.

A character you wish you COULD romance: Literally the only one that comes to mind is Dandelion, but I wasn’t that big of a fan of him in The Wild Hunt--but kind of the opposite happened as what happened with Triss. The more Witcher stuff I played/read, the more I liked him. Aaaaand then the show. <3

A minor character you wish could be a companion: Knight Captain Rylen

-Fun-

Shoutout to a random NPC: Dandelion ;)

A game you love watching playthroughs for and want to play: I don’t watch playthroughs for games I haven’t already played. I’m a huge stickler about spoilers. But I could watch someone play The Last of Us or Uncharted, or Until Dawn for hours.

Love watching playthroughs but won’t ever play: Again, I don’t watch playthroughs until after I’ve played it.

Online gaming or solo?: Solo. Almost always solo. Except I will on occasion play Anthem.

Why do you play video games?: For the story, for an escape from chronic pain, for the interaction with the fandom, and for catharsis

#about whimsy #whimsy games

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johannesviii · 4 years

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Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 1998

This is a weird, weird list. I don’t know.

Also, I turned ten in 1998! Woohoo! That means I’ve made one third of these lists! It also means we’ve almost reached the point when I had a cd player and a better access to music. Not yet, though.

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

And now, friends and enemies, a truckload of honorable mentions. Get used to this because it’s not gonna end soon.

Gettin' Jiggy Wit It (Will Smith) - Liked this more back in the day.

Everybody (Backstreet Boys) - Really like that music video. The song? It’s all right I guess.

Cruel Summer (Ace of Base) - Not as good as the original.

Turn it up/Fire it up (remix) (Busta Rhymes) - That sample is an excellent idea.

Panique Celtique (Manau) - Celtic rap. More on that later, I swear.

Save Tonight (Eagle-Eye Cherry) - This was a difficult cut.

We Like to Party (Vengaboys) - This was also a difficult cut because I love Vengaboys. Not my favorite song from them though.

10 - Music Sounds Better With You (Stardust)

US: Not on the list / FR: #35

Objectively, this is a great, catchy song, but I can’t place it higher in good conscience because overplay very nearly ruined it for me over the years.

9 - The Mummer’s Dance (Loreena McKennitt)

US: #83 / FR: Not on the list

I’d like to solemnly thank ToddInTheShadows, who made me realise Loreena McKennitt had a US year-end top 100 hit once, because otherwise I would only know about her thanks to a random cd I bought years ago. I love her work, and this is a great remix, so yeah. Very good, very strange that it was a hit ; check it out.

8 - Ton Invitation (Louise Attaque)

US: Not on the list / FR: #31

I used to absolutely hate this song and it took it more than 15 years to grow on me. I have nothing else to say about it. I can admit it’s very good now and I’m sorry it took me so long.

7 - Tubthumping (Chumbawamba)

US: #35 / FR: #Not on the list

This is a ton of fun and very energetic, and I don’t have anything to say about this one either. Except it could have made the previous list but in the end I put it on this one instead.

6 - Torn (Natalie Imbruglia)

US: Not on the list / FR: #21

Here’s the obligatory song-that-everyone-loves-including-me that won’t surprise anybody, but which I still really want to put on this list.

5 - Yakalelo (Nomads)

US: Not on the list / FR: #10

So, a couple of years after that one (around 2000/2001), I started to burn cd compilations on my parents’ pc, and this was the first one I decided to illustrate. As you can see I loved Pokemon, haha. Especially a specific manga called Pocket Monsters Special which was starting to get published here under the title Pokémon La Grande Aventure, and I would spend hours trying to painstakingly copy the characters.

Yes, this was drawn by hand. Wtf @ young me

All these songs right at the beginning are from 1998, and all of them together are gonna make most of the top of this list.

I’m saying all of this right now because I’ve got nothing to say about Yakalelo, which is simply a fun and super catchy summer song.

Moving on to another song which is also on that very old compilation I made as a kid more than 18 years ago and which, clearly, is still relevant to this day.

4 - Mysterious Times (Sash!)

US: Not on the list / FR: #79

A perfectly serviceable and adequate dance track which wouldn’t deserve much attention if it didn’t look so great in my ears. It has some rich cyan blues and vivid fuchsias and weird spiral-like patterns and ugh. Why does it look so great. It’s like seeing a random Ikea painting but with fantastic colors and you know it’s mass-produced and it isn’t worth getting excited about but you can’t stop looking at it. Sometimes I hate my brain.

3 - This Is How We Party (SOAP)

US: Not on the list / FR: #23

And yep, sure enough, that was the first track on that compilation I was talking about earlier. If I was still nine or ten this would be number one easily. It’s also quite possibly the last song which I thought sounded menacing and cool because I couldn’t understand the lyrics apart from the word “party”. I started to learn English the next year and oh boy, the number of songs in English which instantly became less cool even if I could only understand one word out of five... you don’t even know.

Still a great song, and the music video is half cringy half hilarious. I somehow never saw it at the time. Too bad.

2 - Frozen (Madonna)

US: #32 / FR: #12

That is quite possibly my favorite Madonna song right there, and it’s a very uncharacteristic song for her, so I don’t know what to think about that. I put it on several compilations and tapes around 2004, and I loved that hypnotic music video. A weird song in a weird year.

And that year, of course, has a weird, weird #1 for me.

Prepare yourselves.

1 - La Tribu de Dana (Manau)

US: Not on the list / FR: #3

This was a monstruous, incredibly huge hit song in my country.

If you live in any place where this song is virtually unknown and you clicked that link, boy do I wish I could see your face right now.

If you didn’t click, basically it’s a French rap song, sampling a traditional celtic melody played on a biniou (bagpipe), in which the singer is rapping about being a celtic warrior thrown into the horrors of war and being the only survivor of a battle, and then trying to rebuild his village and his life.

I swear I’m not making this up. I also swear this was an enormous hit to the point of being a game-changer here. If you’ve never heard it, I beg you to listen to it and give me your opinion afterwards. Here’s a translation of the lyrics.

I love it and no joke, I can sing it entirely from memory, and one time a guy on Discord asked me to sing it out of the blue on vocal to check if I was bullshitting or not and let’s just say he regretted that decision immediately.

Next up: possibly the most humiliating #1

#Johannes’ bad not good pretty terrible music lists #music #long post #eye contact tw

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