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the-travelling-witch · 7 months

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𝐆𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐨𝐲𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝: 𝐋𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍

Character Choice: Leviathan x Fem! Reader

Stats: nsfw/ minors dni, jealous/ possessive! levi, cream pies, monster/tail fucking, mean dom! levi, levi with two cocks, degradation/ name calling, marking, double penetration, unprotected sex (stay safe everyone!), hint of/ alllusion to exhibitionism towards the end

Profile: It’s not fair! Why do his stupid brothers get to hog your attention all the time? He’ll make sure you’ll pay attention to him and only him. You’re not leaving his room for quite a while; there’s lots of fun stuff Levi wants to try with you. And when you do limp out of his room, his brothers will certainly get the message.

this is a repost because i'm moving my nsfw works onto this blog!!

obey me masterlist || sfw version

You had been playing video games with Levi for a while now, comfortably sitting in his lap with his chin resting on your head. And so far, everything had been super relaxed. That was until the credits rolled and Levi’s focus started to drift from the screen to you, inhaling the comforting scent of your hair products.

Just for the stench of his brothers to fill his nostrils, clinging to you just as stubbornly as the actual demons. It made him livid, imagining Asmo hanging off your arm, Satan holding you close as he read to you or Belphie using your lap as his personal napping spot. You should be spending time with him!

Before he knew it, pure jealousy was coursing through his veins and his form shifted. Coral-like horns perched on his head like a crown as a scaled tail wrapped around your ankle, slowly winding upwards. His hands, which had held the controller up until now, gripped your hips tightly as he tried to control his breathing.

You’d felt Levi’s envy often enough through the pact linking you two together. Whether it was losing the bid on a figurine he wanted or seeing someone else with the character he tried to get, the feeling wasn’t new to you. But this time, the sensation was overwhelming, his pact mark on your body searing with his jealousy. Normally, you could console him easily enough but right now you weren’t so sure.

“Levi? Levi are you alright? What’s wrong?” you questioned, one hand coming up to thread into his purple locks as you tried to shift so you could face him. Only to be stopped by his iron grip. You could, however, get a glimpse of his orange-flashing eyes, pupils merely slits. “Levi, I’m worried-”

“Oh, now you care?” His tone was cold and sent shivers down your spine, rare determination falling from every word. “What’s wrong, you ask? Maybe it’s the fact that you’re always so busy cosying up to all my brothers. Even that scumbag gets more of your attention than I do.”

Levi knew deep inside that wasn’t true. You always spent plenty of time with him. Then, Lucifer’s cologne tickled his nose and he lost all sense of rationality, thoughts only fueled by his sin. When he spoke again, his words were like pure venom dripping from his fangs. “Did you have fun? Letting them get their grimey hands all over you?”

“No, Levi, I-” You interrupted yourself with a sudden gasp as sharp teeth sank into the column of your neck, not deep enough to draw blood but enough to leave a nasty, very visible mark. Still, you couldn’t help but grind yourself back on him, feeling his prominent bulge against your ass. You almost drooled at the inhuman size of him, mind wandering to how good he’d stretch you open on that.

“Enjoying yourself?” He hissed while pressing you down harder, rubbing himself against your clothed pussy. Searching for something to ground yourself with, you reached back and dug your fingers into his hair as you rolled your head back to give Levi more access to your neck. “Look at you, you’re actually getting off to this. You’re so easy, no wonder demons like you so much.”

Much to your embarrassment, you could feel the arousal staining your panties at his harsh words. There was no use denying it, this side of your usually timid Levi was heavily turning you on, so much so that you could feel yourself pulsing against the straining material of his sweats. Somehow, that realisation just made you squirm against him more, searching desperately for any sort of friction.

It came in the form of his tail flicking forcefully against your core, not enough to seriously hurt you but definitely hard enough to mix pain with pleasure. Levi took advantage of your moan to tip your head back and shove his forked tongue down your throat. At the same time, his clawed hands roughly groped your breasts over your RAD dress shirt, certainly leaving red marks for you to find later. Apparently that wasn’t enough for the demon though, carelessly ripping the material apart and making buttons roll over the floor of his room.

Your bra was next. Although he didn’t destroy it, he merely pulled it down enough to where your breasts could spill over the cups, further driving home the point that this wasn’t about you. This was only for him and his pleasure.

As his fingers meanly pulled at your nipples, tweaking the little buds and rolling them between his digits, his tail had stopped prodding at your slit and instead slithered under the waistband of your bottoms. With it pressed against your body like that, it really had no option but to rub over your clit as it reached for your undergarments.

Just when you thought Levi would really have you ruin your clothes, he pushed them off your legs to give his tail free reign to work. As the appendage curled around the seat of your panties to pull them off as well, it grazed your folds and you lightly jerked in your demon’s hold.

Said demon had gone back to biting and licking at your neck, his eyes following the string of arousal sticking to your underwear with rapt attention. The fact that he could reduce you to this state so easily was definitely an ego boost but he was nowhere near satiated with just this.

“I think it’s time I remind you who you really belong to,” he snarled, voice bitter as he could still smell them on you. “Once I’m done with you, nobody will ever forget it again.”

Without so much as a warning, Levi plunged the end of his tail into your soaked core, earning something between a shriek and a moan from you. The initial clamp down of your walls around his scales drew a shaky groan from him in return, squeezing your tits harder in his palms.

His tail was curling and uncurling inside of you in unreadable patterns as he stretched you out gradually. The texture of his cold scales was something you never grew used to as they scraped against your warm walls, the tip effortlessly hitting spots you never knew you had.

In record time, Levi had you writhing and squirming in his lap and he chose to make it worse by slipping one hand down your front to ruthlessly tap your pulsing clit. The noises you made drove him nearly insane with lust but he willed himself to patience, as far as that was still possible.

“That’s it, you’re gonna cum,” he all but ordered, fingers and tail pressing down on the same spot on opposite sides of your walls. “And your orgasm is gonna be all mine, you got that?”

“Yes, Levi,” you whined, eyes screwed shut and fingers tightening around his wrist and his purple locks.

“Then do it,” he spoke directly against your ear.

You straightened in his hold as lightning shot up your spine, the thicker part of his tail keeping your legs nicely spread while he flicked his fingers harsher against your clit.

Then, your bones turned to pudding as you weightlessly leaned back against Levi’s clothed chest, feeling your release leak around his tail. You tried to control your breathing with little success. A hand swept sweat matted hair out of your eyes while a second one ran up and down your side to provide a familiar comfort.

But soon, your world shifted as you fell forward, your fall only cushioned by a hand on your chest before your cheek met one of Levi’s many pillows, which had previously not laid there. Behind you, the demon rose to his knees as well, his thighs colliding with your ass.

You whined as the movements of his tail started again, much slower than before though. He shushed you almost gently, yet when you pushed yourself up on weak arms to look back at him, one hand firmly pressed your upper back onto the floor again.

“Be good and behave.” Levi’s cold voice made you shiver in the best way possible and this time he could feel the way you clamped down on him at his command. “Seriously, I thought between us I was the perv but seeing you let me use you like this without any resistance makes me question that.”

There was rustling of clothes to be heard and you almost protested the withdrawal of his tail but the pressure of his pre cum leaking cocks against you shut you right up. No matter how often you two got frisky, you wondered every time how they were supposed to fit.

As much as Levi wanted to see you choke on his cock while attempting to wrap your hand around the other, he was far too impatient. He needed to stretch you open now.

Aligning the head of his upper dick, he heaved a sigh before pushing in. Just feeling your heat around the tip made him lightheaded but before he could get carried away, he remembered why you two were in this position in the first place.

In one single thrust, the demon filled you to the brim, knocking all air from your lungs as you were shoved into the pillow. Despite having two members to work with, taking just one was still quite the challenge. It hurt but at the same time it felt so good.

With his demeanour that night, you thought he’d set a ruthless pace from the start but he surprised you with tempered and measured thrusts, aiming for depth rather than speed. Your shoulders tensed up when you felt his tail return, this time however circling your other hole.

“Levi-“

“Don’t tell me you don’t want this, I can feel that messy cunt of yours gripping me even tighter.” And he was right. Just the imagination of Levi using his tail, which was still coated in your previous release, to prepare you for what was inevitably to come had you bounce your hips back on him. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. You’re supposed to be my master, yet you’re acting more like a bitch in heat, already going dumb on my cock.”

Apparently now it was time for your bra to leave the scene completely as Levi fumbled with the clasp for a second before carelessly throwing it somewhere into his room.

The fact that he was still fully clothed whereas you were completely nude made you feel excitingly exposed, fire burning through your body at the thought of Levi just having your way with you like this.

It should have been embarrassing how your pussy squelched with his cock inside, how fast you were approaching another orgasm, but with Levi leaning more of his weight onto you as he seemed to reach deeper in both your cunt and ass, you were more concerned with trying to sustain your lungs with enough air.

Well, it wasn’t like you had to tell him you were close anyway. The way it got harder to move in and out or the way your legs started trembling gave you away. With his cocks hitting your g-spot and clit on every forward motion as your walls were sandwiched on both sides between him, it was clear you’d reach your peak sooner rather than later.

Your high pitched moans echoed around the room and Levi’s guttoral groans soon joined as he starved off his own release to fuck you through yours. At this point, your vision turned hazy but you couldn’t help but want more. And more you should get.

Through the fog of your mind, you barely registered the moment of emptiness and Levi’s biting words were drowned out by your own heartbeat pulsing in your ears. What you did notice was the sensation of two cocks stuffing you to your limit, both heads throbbing with a desperate need to just stuff you full of his cum.

The view of you on your elbows and knees, back arched and fingers a death grip on his pillow rushed directly to his head and to his dicks. He was the one who had reduced to such a pathetically fucked out state, unable to speak any coherent sentences. Not his brothers.

“Do you just whore yourself out to everyone?” Sharp claws were dancing up your spine, the layer of sweat reflecting the blue light of his room. The thought of his brothers getting just a glimpse of you like this made his earlier rage flare up again.

“N-No,” you whimpered meekly.

“No? Just the demons you know?” His still clothed chest met your back as his hands held your hips in an iron grip, no doubt leaving bruises in their wake. His fangs were grazing your skin again, searching for a new spot to leave his mark on. “If Mammon were here, would you let him fuck this messy cunt of yours, hm? Would you gag on Belphie’s cock like a slut, yeah? Let him push your head down as he pleases?”

You didn’t answer this time, not that he really expected you to. Normally, Levi might have intertwined your fingers or pressed a sweet kiss to your temple. But not on this day.

“C’mon, you can be louder than that, slut.” Purple coloured nails tangled in your hair and pulled your head up. “Let everyone in this house who’s fucking you this good.”

Nothing he had to tell you twice. You felt so full, every sensitive spot you could think of and all those you didn’t know you had were being abused over and over again.

What had you screaming and scrambling for purchase was the pain of his fangs piercing the skin of your shoulder as his tail wrapped around your middle, the tip resting dangerously close to your sensitive clit after dragging through the slick mess staining your thighs.

“You’re close again, right?” That was when his tail started circling your pulsing nub and your eyes flew open as the knot in your stomach started pulling you into opposite directions once more. “That’s right, you're just a little toy for me to use, aren’t you? Just an obedient cocksleeve waiting to get stuffed.”

To emphasise his point, your expression was reflected back to you on one of his shiny consoles, eyes fluttering open and shut as your tongue lolled out and drool dripped from your lips, head still pulled back.

“Fuck, you look so good like this,” Levi cursed out of breath, cocks twitching against your walls as the slapping of skin picked up in speed. Letting your head fall forward again, both hands gripped your hips tightly, nails nicking your skin.

“I’m so close, please I can’t—“ You couldn’t decide if you were begging to cum or to rest.

Your demon made the choice for you. He drew quicker circles on your abused clit, pressing his scales down harsher, which had your toes curling and your hips trying to wind away from the assault.

“Stop squirming!” Pulling your hips back to meet his strokes, you weren’t sure if Levi was trying to make you cum again or if he was just selfishly chasing his own release with all means possible. “I’m gonna fill you up and you’ll be a good human and not waste a drop. Once we’re done, you’ll only smell like me!”

Mindlessly nodding your head, you fell over the edge with a scream of his name, shuddering and jerking as his pace didn’t slow at all. Maybe it was because you were so out of it but you could swear you could feel his cocks swell before his hips stuttered and he painted your walls white with a throaty groan.

There was no chance you could ever keep all of his cum inside, no matter how deep he shot it. You were pretty sure no human could ever cum this much.

For a few minutes there was nothing but panting to be heard before he finally pulled out, the bite marks on your shoulders pulsing as the adrenaline wore off. Levi stared as his cum leaked out of you and ran down your trembling thighs, collecting the drops with the tip of his tail before pushing them back into you. You moaned weakly at the clench of your overstimulated walls around the appendage but just as you were wondering whether you could handle another round, the chime of your phones echoed through Levi’s room.

Satan @ House of Lamentation (New): Dinner in 5, get down here

Just as you were about to push yourself up on shaky arms, Levi’s hand on your upper back kept your chest on the floor.

“What are you doing? We don’t have time, we need to get cleaned up,” you protested.

Without a word, Levi wrangled your ankles into your panties again and slid them back up your thighs. Snapping the waistband, he gave your clothed cunt a final slap and innerly gloated at the way your combined release was soaking the already ruined fabric.

With widened eyes, you looked back over your shoulder to see if he was serious only to find him staring at you with a fierce look in his eyes, daring you to challenge him.

“I told you, I’ll make sure everyone knows who you belong to.”

if you like my content, reblogs, comments and asks are always much appreciated ♡

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#┊holly’s potions ೃ༄#obey me #x reader #obey me x reader #obey me smut #leviathan x reader #levi x reader #leviathan smut #levi smut #obey me leviathan #om! leviathan #minors dni

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disneyanddisneyships · 5 months

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@gyubby99 okay. Last part of the actual story. After this if there are any fics of rosastar or ellali etc. That come from me. They're canon

The Prophecy is Fulfilled

"So... what now?" Clarissa asked as she walked up to Mia, wrapping her in a side hug. "We... live our lives I'm assuming..." Carol stated with a small smile. "Does anyone have access to a pen and paper?" She asked, a hopeful gleam in her eye. Ella smiled. "Come on. Let's go back home," she stated, taking Eli's hand and walking away, everyone except alistar following. Ella stopped, looking back. Alistar looked at them, not sure if he should follow or not. Elias walked over to him, holding out his hand to shake. With hesitation, Alistar shook his hand slowly before Eli pulled him to walk with the group. "I still don't like you," Eli stated. "That's fine with me," Alistar smiled, happy to not be alone.

........ "Carolyn?" A voice spoke. It had been 3 weeks since the event and Carol had written to someone from her home island. She turned around, a smile on her face. "Eathan!" She exclaimed running up to him and hugging him. "I..... your parents said you died," Eathan stated. "I did... come. We have much to speak about," Carol insisted as she took his arm with hers and led her through the halls of Ella's castle. Alistar stared at the giant family portrait on the wall, containing Ella, Eli, their kids, and their friend. Along with Alistar himself in the corner with a small smile. "You're really very handsome in my painting," Rosalyn spoke as she stood next to Alistar. He looked at her with a blush. "Uh.... Thank you.... youre.. a wonderful artist," Alistar replied, turning back to the painting. "Thank you! It's easy when you have a good looking reference~" Rosa flirted. Alistar hesitated before turning to her. "Wpuld you like to join me for dinner?" He asked. "Would you like to join him forever?" Mia called as she walked passed the two down the hallway. Alistar blushed, and Rosa giggled. "Dinner would be great," she smiled. Alistar blushed and the two turned back to the painting. Deena sat in her room, her arms around her sister as she cried. "It was my fault," Deena sobbed. "No! No no, Dee... it was never your fault!" Aggie replied as she held her little sister. "It was.... I never shouldve-" Aggie cut her off with a hush. "Deena... It wasn't your fault. And I'm back now. That's all that matters....." Aggie stated before looking at her sister. "Remember the song?" She asked. Deena nodded. "Remember how I told you when you were little that if you sang it, I would always be near?" Aggue asked again. Deena nodded. "My heart is pierced by Cupid~ I disdain all glittering gold! There is nothing can console me... But my jolly sailor bold~" Aggie sang, Deena joining in.

....... Ella watched her kids play in the field, Elias sitting next to her. "Thank you for trusting me," Ella stated, out of the blue. "Thank you for being trustworthy," Elias replied. Silence for a moment. "Did you hear that Eve has a new girlfriend?" Ella asked. "I did. She's stated she will be introducing us later at dinner," Elias replied. "Good," Ella sighed, contentedly. And just like that. Everything was right the way it should be.

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ghostoffuturespast · 2 months

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@reilleclan-blog since you asked...

I try not to make my VP process a secret, there's literally nothing to hide, all the tools I use already come with the game, I utilize techniques anyone can learn, I don't do any fancy post-editing (other than rotating), and I think VP should be accessible for everyone.

I took these shots at "Star Lake", which is technically an out of bounds asset - you drive over this thing in the Star Ending of the game in the tank with Panam, so it requires some cheese in order to get to this location. I got inspired by a couple other bloggers here with their trips down to "Langley" (@arachnophobic-larantula & @mynonsenseistingling) and decided to go on a road trip myself. I spent about five hours exploring out of bounds and went all the way from the SoCal Border Checkpoint up to the Oil Fields. (I'll post my tourist photos another time. Technically, I'm still stuck behind the fence at the oil fields, but I'll figure it out later.)

If you need some detailed instructions on how to cross the border in vanilla versions of the game and get to Langley (and yes, you do need the fortified ankle cyberware, double jump will not cut it), this video is helpful:

youtube

If you're trying to get to Star Lake, once you cross the border follow the road south and when you get to the intersection head east. If you roughly follow the curve of the border wall and the ridge that splits thae map between in bounds and out of bounds, you should bump into it.

It was dark when I got to the lake, so the lighting actually wasn't optimal but I stopped because the ground was shiny. It took me a minute to figure out what the heck I was looking at, but funny thing about this lake is that it's just a reflective texture suspended over the lake bed, it's not even water. You can drive and walk through it.

Once I realized the lake was just texture, I walked in, popped open the camera, and started swinging the thing around and playing around with all the effect settings and the poses just to see what I could get. And that's the process for all my VP. I mainly rely on whatever lighting I can find, intersting locations, angles, and juxtaposition, because those are the techniques you have the most leeway with on console and in vanilla photomode.

Anyway, the shot on the left was one of the first pics I took at this location. With how dark the water is and the limited amount of light, I realized that a shilouette style photo was only gonna work at a distance. But I wanted to see what else I could get, so I went the opposite direction of what I thought I wanted. I turned V around so her back was facing the moon towards the light, pretty much maxed out the exposure and brightness settings, bumped up the contrast a smidge, cycled through the poses (Night City Strut is always a favorite), put the field of view down to 15, rotated the camera angle 90 degrees, adjusted my camera to frame the shot how I wanted. Boom. Photo on the right.

P.S. If you do venture out of bounds, make a save file from before you cross the broder (do not overwrite it just in case you need an easy exit out) and save often and keep multiple save files while you are out there. You will die and you will get stuck and there is no fast travel. Also, make sure you have a decent amount of eddies on hand, insurance kept charging me everytime I called a vehicle. Fucking rat bastards...

#cyberpunk 2077 #virtual photography #reference #resource #i'm not a corporation i have no trade secrets #more than happy to share and learn #console shots #ps5 #out of bounds #Youtube

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tails-artwork · 6 months

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Gaming Thoughts - October 2023 - Xenoblade Chronicles X

Ever since the announcement of the Wii-U's internet being discontinued, I had found myself going back to this game after so many years. Also, knowing me as a small disclaimer, you may be seeing this game a bit from me as well. XD

I had actually picked up XCX back at Launch and played it quite a bit, but because things got busy and also there was a point that I was stuck in the game, I had put it down for a period of time and said that I would come back to working on it later when things calmed down a bit. Well...now became that later so I may be a little scrambling to get things in it somewhat gone through. At least get some of the online-only content in there at the least before it is no longer accessible. (I know that Pretendo could be an option in the future, but I'm not 100% confident on if they will be able to get XCX up and running through their service since looking at their roadmap it isn't quite a priority yet and also I just have great skepticism on fan projects of this large of a scale ever getting finished as well, so it is more or less a 'I'll believe it when I see it deal')

Though coming back to this game now, I've been enjoying it a LOT more now that I'm finally able to understand certain mechanics. The game does jack-shit to explain how some mechanics with the battle system works (ESPECIALLY Overdrive most of all) and the digital manual is like a pain for me to even go through as well (and why I miss physical manuals in games, dammit) either way, after a bit of research and such I've been finding myself highly enjoying it more and more now at this point. It already was my favourite game as it was even with how difficult it was being before, but now only just cemented it even further.

Just as a note for anyone that may want to try to get into the game, DON'T ever approach it the same way you do with normal JRPGs, if you do and just try to go at it entirely for the main story and only hit the side missions here and there, you will find yourself disappointed since the main story itself doesn't present a lot of development for the other characters as it was with the exception of one. You get more of your development of the characters and even of the world itself through the affinity missions and the side missions most of all. Even most of the sidequests have a lot of their own little storyline to them as well too that helps expand more on the world and everything.

I actually wish this game will get at the very least a port to the modern consoles, though. Or even at least Nintendo's next console since because it was on the Wii-U it hardly got a lot of attention as it was and not a lot of people would have played it, but more of all, I would actually also would love to see there be a sequel as well considering there are so many things that are still unanswered as well that I would love to find some resolution to.

Anyways, when I played this game, I made my primary OC, Conrad, being my custom character as well. So I tried to draw him with at least the equipment that I have currently in-game. Out of the weapon types that there are, because of some of the prior things that I have done with him, I felt that out of the weapon options in the game, the Sniper Rifle was still the best one that did fit him as well and I'm still keeping that as being the main weapon that I'm basing my build around. (You have a LOT of options of how to make your build and a few different weapon options to use. You have to have one ranged and one melee weapon in your setup, but with how the game is designed, you really cannot balance your build between the two and it becomes more of one being your main damage dealer and the other being essentially there for support because of the arts that are available to it.)

Either way, odds are likely I'll be playing this game quite a bit either until I get a lot of things finished up finally or after the end of April, whichever comes first so if I end up needing to cover this game again because of this, I'll try to at least make it more on that month's summary as opposed to the game as a whole. XD

(All in all, I don't think I will ever see this being dethroned as one of my top favourite games anytime soon)

#Xenoblade #Xenoblade Chronicles X #my work #my OCs #conrad strasburg #Gaming thoughts

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prototypelq · 6 months

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video game ask let's gooooo

5. Game(s) coming out that you’re looking forward to

12. A character you particularly like in the game you’re currently playing (or any other game really)

13. Quick, name the first song from a game that comes to mind

20. A boss you think is really cool

22. A game ending that’s really stuck with you

26. Realism or stylized?

Thank you for the gaming ask my beloved mutual! )))

5. That's a really tough one. While I do follow gaming news, I am not so attentive to actual game releases. Mostly because I have never really played on a 'current' platform. I have been using consoles for gaming most of my life, I played on x360 up to 2017, then I got a ps4, which was/is my most go-to platform till this year. This year was a change for me, because I finally surrendered to pirating at the beginning of the year, and played through a number of awesome low-spec indies that way. Though, I have been very lucky to get a new pc recently, and oh boy is this a big change for me. It's still crazy to think this machine can run something more than pixelart now xD (no disrespect to low-spec games in this house allowed, the more accessible the game the better, weak hardware optimisation my beloved)

I have also found a way to get past the payment blocks and have bought all those games I pirated, that was a big weight off my shoulders) So, uh, yeah. I don't follow releases. I would have said Alan Wake 2 is you asked earlier this year tho, CONTROL had me transform into a Sam Lake devoted follower xD I'll gladly watch a letsplay of it sometime soon, before I catch any spoilers. All the other game series I'm interested in are either on hiatus (Darksiders when), or the latest entry made me lose interest (Horizon 2. I love the world, so I'll follow the series anyway, but the story of the sequel is a mess I didn't like at all, and it doubled down on this new direction too). That was a long and roundabout way of saying I don't really look up to any new games currently, lol.

12. Currently - Lohse from the DOS2. This game has an extensive player character creator, however, you could play as basically one of the companions of the game, with full custom story and questline. And Lohse is a Very special case, as my dear bard woman is currently posessed)

The game has some amazing moments, where it will throw you a persuasion check to 'prevent you from throttling a character because the demon inside you didn't like them' for example. Funnily enough, in this moment in particular, if you succeed on the first check (which is hard to do early-game), if will throw you Another one with other stats to use. And Another. There's three persuasion checks in succession here, which is normally literally impossible to do, unless you mod the game to hell and leave the balance there as I did, and STILL this is the only option the dialogue will leave for you. Lohse becomes uncontrollable after this, and your other party members have to subdue her.

It's incredible, amazing time, 10/10. Other origin characters are great too, but I think this fourth-wall-meddling makes Lohse simply the best origin character to play as.

I also greatly enjoyed playing as Delsin Rowe in Infamous Second Son, I love that game, it's super fun and has great style, plus Delsin is adorable. He's a bit punk, he is witty, he is a geek, an artist and his grafitti-drawing mechanic is adorable.

Also Death from Darksiders 2. His parkour is superb, his abilities are super cool, he has an amazing horse, and he is Literally Death Rider Of The Apocalypse.

13. First song that comes to mind would be Bound Together, since I mentioned it a lot the last few asks...excluding that one, Subhuman + BTL, and Black Dog for the fun of it, All Is Soft Inside which was featured for a virtual concert of AURORA in Sky: Children of the Light (adorable game, which will hopefully come out sometime on pc, mutuals I would hold your hands in that game so. much.)

20. A really cool boss. Sorry King Cerberus and Vergil, you are cool by definition. The first that comes to mind is the Guardian fight from the Darksiders 2, which is honestly the most badass fight in the series. THAT MUSIC HITS SO HARD. And that finish animation, oh my, pure epic.

22. A game ending that’s really stuck with you. ooops already did a too-long and roudabout post about that one xD

26. Realism or stylized? Stylized anytime. Realism is honestly kind of boring, though I admit sometimes seeing your fave very detailed is cool. For example, dmc5 Dante design is my favourite out of them all, because it is finally (kind-of) down-to-earth. The game is about fighting demons and being cool about it, but the story is of human struggle and issues, and the character design finally reflects that. And I do enjoy the Impressive hair physics in Horizon games, but that's it for realism. Stylized is literally better in every possible way: it makes the design more flexible - it can be expressive or constrained, depending on your direction; it is cheaper to produce and easier to optimize and easier to run. Plus 'realism' is a forever-outdated style. Games that were considered 'realistic' in 90s, 00s and 10s don't look so realistic to us now. Even Delsin Rowe I mentioned above - he looks great, the motion capture and animation for the game looks awesome, but his face is kind of baby-smooth and the pupils of every character in the game are just a bit too-wide, it makes them all look like they all collectively had some hallucinogens xD. Meanwhile, stylised games can never go out of style, as they are the ones dictating it. Beyond Good and Evil still looks good, Fables look good, Psychonauts does too, etc. These games always exist in the state they were meant to be viewed in, while realistic games are always reaching for the not-really-but-sort-of unattainable standards, which change with time and available technology.

Stylized is Always. Better. In. Every. Way. Also make games optimized again and lower the hardware reqs. I swear, it's like every new title requires you to buy an entire basement full of rocket-science multi-computers, each with a videocard which name will make the math-lovers cry.

#this was fun to answer thank you)#mutuals my beloved #gaming #surprisingly a lot of darksiders snuck into this one xD #darksiders #infamous second son #dos2 #dos2 lohse #delsin rowe #darksiders death #sky cotl #that sky game

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stevetown · 4 months

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Final Fantasy IV

Playtime: 16h 54m Completed: January 3, 2024

Ah, nothing like the smell of the first completed game of the year.

Or for that matter, the dulcet tones of a re-orchestrated soundtrack that was given way too much power. My god does the Pixel Remaster of this game have a repetitive, grating soundtrack. It's unbelievable that Square-Enix would omit the option to use the much softer-on-the-ole-eardrums original OST on the Steam version of the game. The console players get the option! They can turn off random encounters too!

But I digress. An essay on Square Enix's failures when it comes to ports and game accessibility will have to wait for another day.

Final Fantasy IV is...good! It's perfectly fine! I enjoyed my time with it! It is incredibly funny hearing people talk about how good the story and characters are though. I found them charming, sure, but the game doesn't do anything particularly noteworthy on the narrative front in 2024. I suppose it does introduce the now inevitable Final Fantasy third act twist where they raise the stakes by introducing aliens.

In fact, the game is at its best when you look at it more as a historical work than a game just on its own merits. Everything it did, mechanically and narratively, are table stakes for subsequent games in the series. It's charming though. An early scene that involves a character looking out over a lake before being attacked by a monster while his dead girlfriend cheers him on during the fight must have blown minds back in the day. A game using turn based battle mechanics alongside emotional dialogue to tell you a story about a named character? It's taken so far for granted that it's hard to believe it all started with Final Fantasy IV. No wonder this game was bundled with Chrono Trigger for the PS1 release.

Also present is the deftly handled episodic story telling the series is now known for. It's impressive how the game manages to provide a rotating cast of characters that weave their way in and out of your party because of story circumstances. I suppose it was to avoid you having to actually make up a party of your own, but it provides a forward momentum to the proceedings that Final Fantasy I-III lacked. They were really stretching things with five party members at a time though. Poor Rydia sat on the floor for the entire final fight.

As a time capsule for JRPGS, Final Fantasy IV is clearly a momentous entry. The effort they put into every aspect of the game still comes through when you know to look for it (the ATB system originates here!). I can't say I particularly have a desire to play The After Years, a sequel released seventeen years after the fact, but I admire the respect this game continues to garner.

Just please, Square, please let me change the music. I'm begging you. You ruined a perfectly lovely soundtrack.

#2024 video game journal #final fantasy #final fantasy IV #retro gaming #these are getting longer aren't they

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miloscat · 5 months

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[Review] Child of Eden (PS3)

The cooler Rez.

After United Game Artists (the studio behind Rez) was dissolved into Sonic Team, Tetsuya Mizuguchi left Sega and founded Q Entertainment. They made other games with his signature flashy light show style, like Lumines and Every Extend, but in 2011 they followed up his original "synaesthetic" game with another rail shooter, Child of Eden. If you ask me it's a more successful expression of Rez's aims, and a more engaging shooter as well.

In addition to Rez's eight-target homing shot (which can now get multiple locks on stronger enemies like Kachi's shot in Sin & Punishment 2), there's a new rapid-fire shot which is specifically for destroying projectiles and damaging certain enemies. A strong use of colour coding helps with gameplay readability, so it's clear when there are hazards to shoot down or targets to lock on to, and responding with the right choice of weapon is satisfying. There's also a score multiplier system that turns CoE into a true rhythm hybrid game, as you're rewarded with a score combo when you get full target locks that are released to the beat of the backing track.

You will want to get good scores as this grants you stars which are necessary to unlock new levels. Again there are only five, plus a unique bonus marathon challenge unlocked after you clear them; I couldn't get more than a third of the way through this but it's a nice extra that hearkens back to Rez's more abstracted visual style. Luckily the unlock stars are cumulative, so you don't have to perfect stages to open up later ones, simply play them through a few times. This felt like a chore at first but I did get into improving my score as I flew through the rich virtual environments.

While the setting is similar to Rez (a cyberspace world vaguely under attack, an avatar character to save) the levels have memorably stronger theming, such as evolution or technology, and the bump in console generation certainly helps to make more fleshed-out and visually impressive worlds and setpieces. I also found the music landed better with more of a pop and vocal tinge, especially given the story.

You see, Child of Eden is something of a tie-in to Mizuguchi's house-pop band Genki Rockets, who needless to say handled the soundtrack. Their virtual frontwoman Lumi, played in their shows and this game by Rei Yasuda, is the central character, an AI recreation of a woman born in the far-future year of 2019. Lumi has a constant presence in the game as a live-action integrated FMV character, appearing on menu screens, in gameplay, and in the intro movie as a white-dress-clad personality-less object of innocence soon imperilled.

I'm not keen on the damsel-in-distress imagery, and I thought the concept would have landed better if she had been rendered in the cool sketchy "Take On Me" rotoscope style as seen in the unlockable music videos (well, you can only watch partial clips of them in the gallery, for some strange reason...). Either way, she provides a central figure to hang the game around which works well enough, especially because the implied player character has reduced presence as the game is presented from the first person perspective.

While I was underwhelmed by Rez, I found Child of Eden genuinely impressive; it actually is what I was hoping that Rez would be. It's a shame that it's now a lot less accessible than Rez. I suppose it's also worth mentioning that just as Rez Infinite has its VR support, Child of Eden is compatible with the flash-in-the-pan 3DTV technology, as well as having optional Playstation Move motion controls, which seems like it would work pretty well (the 360 version instead has Kinect support, which probably doesn't work as well). I still found it plenty immersive without the gimmicks, playing on a 2D telly with a stock Dualshock 3. Good stuff.

#child of eden #rez #q entertainment #review #ps3

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doubleddenden · 7 months

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So Nintendo announced that they're fully shutting down any servers that the 3ds and wii u use for games

Except Pokémon Bank

Which is still on life support and, according to TPC, they encourage us to transfer to Home soon, meaning they WILL be shut down, probably within the year.

Realistically this was at the back of my head back when they first introduced Bank almost 10 years ago, but I'm still irritated about it.

First of all, let's look at the shut down of servers. XY, ORAS, SM, USUM all lose wonder trading, online trading, and gts- effectively meaning trade evolutions and version exclusives are forever lost to those games once that happens. That also means the only instance of gts we'll ever have now is in fucking Home. And that sucks.

Here's another thing: When Bank shuts down, what does that mean for transferring?

Well, we'll still have gen 3 to gen 4 to gen 5 transfer, they can't take that away from us because that was back when they cared enough to make transferring an in game mechanic.

But now we have the issue of gen 5 onward, and for that matter the gen 1 and gen 2 Virtual Console games. The only way to transfer those pokemon will be through Transporter, which btw has to connect to Bank, which is a cloud based service. Even further complicating things, you cannot transfer to or from gen 6 or gen 7 once it shuts down. Basically, pokemon obtained prior to gen 5 are stuck in gen 5, gen 1 are stuck to gen 1, gen 2 to gen 2, gen 6 to gen 6, and gen 7 to gen 7.

Looking at the current situation on Switch, we'll only have access to Kanto via the Let's Go games, Sinnoh/Hisui via BDSP and Legends Arceus, while Galar and Paldea are currently unaffected.

That means when Bank shuts down- and they will shut it down next year probably- we lose access to Johto, Hoenn, Unova, Kalos, and Alola- which btw Alola is not even 10 years old yet.

Even with a positive outlook that Unova and Johto are next up for remakes/re-remakes/revisits, that's still means that we no longer have access to 3 regions, and especially Alola for at LEAST 10 years at this rate.

Even further complicating things, as it stands with Indigo Disk on the horizon, we'll still be missing a few pokemon across the Switch games. It's a small handful, but those are still unusable.

Look, I get some of you have already labeled me an asshole manchild getting upset over something we all saw coming- fuck you btw, but I get it. It still just sucks so much ass. I know people that don't transfer don't get the big deal and are already typing up why i'm stupid and should just get over it- but to me, I've always enjoyed keeping each pokemon that's made a difference to my playthroughs throughout the years. That was a unique thing for Pokemon as a series that separated it from other games- i actually still have Pokemon from when i was 9.

What this means is that once Bank is gone, your pokemon are stuck, you cannot transfer anymore! If you want to play through those games, you'll have to erase any new pokemon! If you encounter a shiny in X or something after Bank closes, tough titties! It's basically gone forever.

This absolutely sucks. I literally haven't experienced this since I learned I couldn't transfer my very first pokemon from gen 2 to gen 3 back when I was a kid.

It also just highlights a humongous issue with modern games in general. Too much reliance on services that won't be available 10 years from now. Too much reliance on the assumption that game companies will care enough about preservation to keep things going even when it's not AS profitable- which it still would be.

Like again, I get that they couldn't "realistically" keep it up forever- Except tbh they could have if they actually gave a shit beyond what makes them more money than they'll ever need. I fucking hate corporate gaming. Like you CAN NOT realistically tell me they don't make enough money from Home subs and Go to just keep the damn servers up. It isn't that old! The technology can probably run from like, 1 broom closet at most.

Listen, if anyone smart out there can do this, I have an idea for you: create some sort of hardware that directly copies info from gba, ds, 3ds, and switch cartridges- especially Pokémon games- by plugging in said cartridges to a program of some kind. That program can then be used to essentially copy the process that Transporter, Bank, and Home uses to copy the specific data of of each specific pokemon and then inject that data straight into the cartridge, with no cloud service needed. At the very least fans need to figure a work around like they did the DS DNS servers for events and gts, or else we just have even more corporate sponsored lost media.

I'm upset, man. Fuck corporate pokemon. Fuck Nintendo too. Fuck all of this. There's no need for any of this except greed. I don't want to hear how Pokémon was being "gracious" by giving us more time, they're a corporation and I'm not kissing their asses anymore for doing the bare minimum, they can and should do better by their fans and have been getting away with far too much bullshit lately.

#pokemon #nintendo #yes this is a rant #i don't want to hear arguments and if you want to insult me kindly save yourselves the keystrokes

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vizthedatum · 1 year

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I'm a gamer who is too traumatized to play a game but...

I was talking to my friend/crush today and they were telling me about a game and described it as: "It's like Scott Pilgrim but with an Indian queer woman sk8r" Me: *perks up* Me: *sees trailer* https://youtu.be/PH2WP4G-WhY Me: WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK "Thirsty Suitors is a stylish, story-driven adventure that unfolds through turn-based battles, skateboarding, and cooking. Help Jala confront her mistakes, make up with her exes, reconcile cultural differences, and become the person she was meant to be. Easy, right?" Ahhhhhhhh. *in love and immediately adds to Steam wishlist* Like this is my life, no? I'm not a skater or a girl but still.

I'm currently taking a break from gaming because it was a huge and integral part of (my ex) and my life. I am not saying this lightly: (my ex) made me the gamer that I am today. When I grew up, most gaming was not allowed except for select educational games or games I'd sneak in. I didn't grow up with video games mostly - some PC games from time to time. Games were seen as childish by my parents. And we couldn't afford them. My mom and I would try to play some and we enjoyed it a lot but she was also weird about it. :/

In my other serious relationship of 5 yrs, he introduced more games to me but it was so hard. I really enjoyed playing games with him and his family - but it was really difficult sitting with my abuser (my hs boyfriend who was my boyfriend's brother). Playing a game with my abuser knowing that he's most likely a soulless psychopath who goes around taking advantage of smart femmes in order to make himself feel something.... was incredibly hard.

(my ex) helped me overcome a lot of gaming hurdles and also gave me access to consoles and different types of games. They really helped me understand what I liked and didn't like. They were so patient with me. They were such a great teacher - I'm sure they still are. I loved them so much for that (among other things).

We used to play games all the time - ALL THE TIME. Board games, card games, video games, etc. We went to cons and competitions together. They were my favorite gaming partner of all time. They still hold the #1 spot in that regard. I loved competing with them. I loved seeing all the facial expressions they'd make when they were making a decision. And listening to them talk through their process of a decision (I know that sometimes I was a little put off by this, but only because I needed to beat them at the game and had to think about my strategy lol). We have played countless hours of games with each other. So much laughter and conversation and seriousness and strategy... and respect. 💔 Towards the end of the relationship, I was so hurt and traumatized by them that I started to lose my ability to play.

Games were a sign of our strength, of our love.... and all of that slipped away. I am so heartbroken beyond belief.

I don't know when I'll be able to play a game - any game. I'm hoping to try when I land a full-time job. It would be so nice to lose myself in a great story for a bit. Or to gather some friends together and play a board game. Or anything. Any game.

#thirsty suitors #annapurna #steam #video games #gaming #relationship #domestic violence #abuse #queer #indian #skater #relationships #board games #card games

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voidendron · 4 months

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last night's Lethal Company shenanigans:

we used the bigger lobby mod so we had a group of seven

which is

chaotic, to say the least

so, we started off from Gham's last save when it was just the two of us playing last. so it was our..... third? quota margin, iirc. still a pretty small quota to reach, and with seven of us we figured it would be easy!

....yeah. no.

starting off, I went in with the group. everyone else went main entrance, I went with Stone to the fire escape. we were Immediately met by steam, so we're stumbling around trying to find the valve to turn it off

suddenly turns black for me, takes a sec for me to realize a snare flee got me since I couldn't see the ceiling

so I'm telling Stone he should leave, there's a facehugger, forgetting that you get Super Muffled when one attacks you

so he panics, and jumps to his death around the same time that the flea kills me 😂

me, in dead player chat: ....this is why I'm the Ship Guy™️ I always die when I come in 😑

Stone: *starts laughing*

some other shenanigans, in no particular order:

-Stone mishearing someone say "Muffin Man" in the distance, when it was actually "muffin tin" and he went around trying to find the group to join in on the meme. he finds them, starts walking up "did somebody say, THE MUFFIN MAN????" as they're talking about watching out for a mine ....then immediately steps on said landmine.

I was in the ship, monitor focused on Gham (the one he initially misheard), I see him walk up on the display, then his body just got YEETED across the room.

apparently Gham was bemoaning about dragging the body back to the ship, turned around, and it was gone because I teleported it back ajksld;jd

-----------

-a group of four, walking in and realizing the only non-dead end was a jump blocked by a landmine. me, over walkie to whoever had one: "I can only disable mines for a really short time, gotta be quick when I disable it"

Stone didn't have a walkie

....which resulted in the following

transcript (PoV: Stone): Drohne: There's a landmine Traven: There's a mine *overlapping, but all talking about the mine in the way* Gham: This is the only way, and there's a fucking landmine. Drohne: All right, Stone, you know what to do. Stone: Guys, don't worry. I'm an expert with these kinda things! *Stone immediately sets off the mind and is put in the dead player chat. with Gham and Traven, who he just murdered, all three are laughing. he goes into spectator mode on me, at the ship console* Gham: STONE! Traven: You all SUCK! Gham: STONE! Stone: Did I kill you guys, too?! Gham: Yes! *laughing as they talk* Gham: STONE! You better have recorded that one, too! FUCK! Oh my god! Drohne, over walkie: This thing work? Hello? me: Yeah, I can hear you, now. Drohne: Yeah, they all b- they all blew up. me: All three of them???? Drohne: Yes! me: Oh my god. ok- *video cuts off*

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

-we bought one of those horns that can be heard throughout the whole map.

me: since not everyone has a walkie, I'll use this if it starts getting late, ok?

the rest of the group promptly forgot we had it.

I ran to the entrance to cart some scrap back to the ship, I got back around 7pm or so. glanced at the monitor and saw everyone just kinda congregating in a room, probably chatting together

I pulled the cord on the horn

and they just fucking SCATTER running for the entrance 😂

when they got back, they said that the horn really creepily echoes through the halls, and they forgot what it meant but that they just wanted OUT when they heard it

everyone but Drohne (who got eaten by a worm on the way back) made it to the ship before midnight

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

-so. it's just kinda become My Thing™️ to grab beehives while everyone else is in the facility collecting scrap. they're dangerous to grab, but worth A Lot, so worth the risk. I put the hives on the walkway outside the ship so we don't get attacked trying to get in/out of the ship but it's still in easy access, then when we take off either Gham or me will run out to grab it before the door closes

I usually just solo the hives, get stung a big but whatever, I'm Ship Guy anyway

Stone and Winter decided to grab two hives that no one else had seen yet

....and put them INSIDE THE SHIP

entire group ends up dying in our attempts to get in there and take off, we lost All Of Our Scrap at a 700+ quota on the last day 😂😭

when we restarted, no one else even TOUCHED the hives and left them to me to deal with jakls;ajkld

-----------

-after our restart, we all went into the facility since I'm not much use on the console without a walkie or other tools to communicate

ended up turning out there were A BUNCH of turrets in the map for some reason

our first view of that:

Stone: Oh my god, there's TWO TURRETS IN HERE!! *shit ton of gunfire goes off as he runs for his life out of the room*

we're exploring deeper into the facility, run across Yet Another Turret. I mention going back to the ship to disable them because there's just Too Many To Deal With. the turret went off, I ran around a corner when it went off

...it still killed me >:(

went into spectator mode on Gham, who's picking up my body

first thing I hear:

Gham: Uhhh Oliver's dead let's cut our losses and leave

#void ramblings #this game is SO FUN with a big group ajskdl;asjdk #very chaotic and as ship guy it actually gets difficult to keep track of everyone #when i'd be watching one person #someone in a different area of the map would run into trouble #but it's fun!#i actually had the word switch copy/pasted so i could easily rotate between players on the monitor #just bc there were so many to rotate between #caps #swearing #video

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charliepipedesigner · 1 year

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Secondary Research into Trophies & Achievements - Major Project

I wanted to look at examples of gamification for my app that would make the users feel rewarded for using the service to learn about film and cinema. So I thought about implementing achievements or trophies for the users to earn rewards for completing certain parts of the app. This can be motivational for the user to continue using the app.

PlayStation

Since I own a Playstation console, I'm able to access my details on an app that showcase the trophies I've achieved from playing each game. As shown in the screenshots above, it displays my profile name and gamer tag alongside the avatar icon. Then it tells me the percentage of trophies I've achieved along with the actual amount I've achieved throughout all the played games. Below is a set of different coloured trophies to represent the rarity of the achievements; with platinum being the rarest trophy, and bronze being the most common trophy. After that, you can vertically scroll through the different games that show the percentage of trophies earned, with a progress bar visually representing the percentage number.

When you click on one of the games, it will display the set of trophies as you scroll through. Using GTA V as an example, it shows that I have collected 42% of all the trophies I can collect in the playable versions of the game. I then clicked on the full version since I have collected 58% of the trophies. On the trophies list screen it displays the all of the collectible trophies, with there being unlocked and locked versions. The unlocked trophies showcase an illustrated visual related to the in-game content. The style is consistent throughout the trophy list to keep the visual framework consistent with the brand identity. As for the locked trophies, there is a trophy and lock silhouette to show the player that they haven't unlocked that trophy. I like the fact that the user can't see the locked trophy icons so that it brings an element of surprise and self-accomplishment to collect the trophies. It feels rewarding to be able to achieve something after using the product/service for a certain amount of time.

Trophy Guide

I found a website that shows players how to unlock trophies for each video game on the Playstation consoles. On the home screen it presents more obscure video game titles rather than the more main stream games. I couldn't find games such as GTA V or Overwatch (two of my favourite games) in the search bar so I just looked at some examples from the home screen. I chose a video game called Tchia, with the web page showing the list of collectible trophies in the game. Each trophy has the icon and name of the trophy, along with a brief description of how to achieve the trophy. This website displays screenshots of the in-game content showing where and how to achieve the trophy. The layout and presentation of the web page is consistent with the brand identity, with it being one of the nicer guide website for trophy-collecting. However, for my app I will not need a lot of written detail about how to achieve each trophy because the achievements will be very simple to accomplish but still requires a certain amount of time. Additionally, screenshots of the in-app visuals will not be needed to show users how to achieve the trophies because that would take away the fun of attaining the trophies.

Conclusion

Achievements can serve as a way for users to showcase their skills and accomplishments to others, such as on social media or in job applications. Unlocking achievements/trophies can also allow access to exclusive content, which can further motivate the user and add value to the app. When I design the achievement, I must use consider the brand framework of my app so that it keeps a consistent theme throughout the platform.

#AUB #VIS COM #FMP

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button-mash · 1 year

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What I played last week #11

Outrun 2006: Coast 2 Coast [Playstation 2]

I realised when playing this that I actually used to fucking love Arcade racing games - I'm not into cars at all, so once racers started to pivot towards more of a simulation style and car porn, I completely lost interest - If I can't powerslide for a 1000m hairpin, instantly change directions on a penny and do the same again the other way all whilst losing zero speed, I really don't wanna know. I actually think this might be my favourite ever racing game - there's loads to do, the different stages have shitloads of personality and detail, and above all it's just a really fun game that perfectly straddles that line between being really accessible and easy to pick up, but still ridiculously satisfying when you're hitting some perfect corner.

I just want every racing game to be Outrun 2006 - I strictly need any racing game I play to allow 280mph powerslides in a Ferrari as love hearts are flying out of some broad in the passenger seat because she’s utterly delighted that you’re avoiding UFO traction beams as you power-slide around London and inexplicably end up in San Francisco If your game doesn't have that, then I am simply NOT interested

Super Mario Land [Game Boy]

I think this was actually the first game I can ever remember completing in my storied gaming career. Not much to say on this really, it almost feels like some ripoff Mario flash game or something, where it has this 'almost but not quite' quality to it - the movement, the enemies, the levels, it all feels like this slightly off-brand version of regular Mario... like some Mario game where they only got partial rights to it or something.

Obviously they were doing their best with what they had, and I actually think they succeed in a lot of ways, but it's just ultimately not that great a game when you strip a away all the nostalgia. One thing I do love is the music in this game - it has some great themes that you never hear again in the Mario pantheon, and I surprised myself how much I remembered the music and how much nostalgia I had for it - all except this one, which I'd apparently completely blocked from my memory

youtube

even at the time I deep down knew it proper wasn't on

It's actually a proper short game, there are only 4 worlds and each world only has 3 levels. It does try and change things up but most of the challenge comes from how stiff the controls are, which is so at odds with almost every other Mario game. Final thing was how fun it was playing on the Steam Deck - mentioned in another thread, but some of the filters out there now are insanely convincing and completely change up the look - with this filter it's probably as close as you can get to f eeling like you're playing on a real Game Bo

Great nostalgia hit for this lad playing the same game in this photo though :*)

I also went away with some mates for a weekend break where I snuck in a bit of gaming TMNT: Shredder's Revenge [Nintendo Switch]

I completed this last year and thought it was fantastic - a brilliant love letter to both the cartoons, the Arcade and console games of past and also just the 90s in general. The first time I played it through mostly solo, although this time it was a change to play it with 6 players. It was lot of fun, but the game often devolves into such on-screen lunacy that it becomes almost impossible to see what is going on sometimes. Also, for all the personality and individual touches in the game, it felt like the special attacks feel very samey and unimaginative next to everything else. Still, this was great fun and we were all having an awesome time until we ran into a reoccuring bug that meant we couldn't progress beyond a certain boss. A shame, because i think we might have sat there and finished the whole thing in one go otherwise

Super Smash Bros Ultimate [Nintendo Switch]

I've always really liked the idea of Smash Bros, but never really had much experience playing them. I remember when I lived in my beloved NJ, I'd visit my mates at Rutgers College where they were all absolute savants at Smash Bros 64 - that was my first experience of the game and they were all just SO good at it that it was just impossible to learn. I dabbled in a few of the other games here and there, but never really had a chance to experience it properly. We got some 4 player matches going here, but like with most fighting games, they tend to get boring quite quickly if there is a gulf in ability. I guess that's true for any game really, but it feels particularly true with fighting games

Anyway, it made me realise that for all it's simplicity with it's pick up and play controls, it's actually a fairly complicated game that doesn't really lend itself to new players just picking it up and giving it a go, as there is quite a lot to get to grips with - even the sheer number of characters is overwhelming, let alone trying to explain what is happening on screen. In retrospect I should have picked a stage you couldn't fall off-of and turned off items and let people just get to grips with things, but people quickly got bored of it anyway. One of those series I kinda admire from afar but feel like I've never really had the true 'Smash' experience

Celeste [Nintendo Switch]

A bunch of my mates went for a hike and I didn't fancy it so I ended up playing this for a bit. I completed it on PC when it first came out and absolutely loved it and had been meaning to replay it for ages. Was having a lot of fun with it before my mates returned, so will have to go back to this one at some point

Cruis'n Blast [Nintendo Switch]

This game is super dumb and super fun - a racing game where you basically can't crash and can race a muscle car against a Triceratops and an Attack Chopper gets infinite thumbs up in my book. It's a great game to pick up and play because it requires almost zero skill and every race is basically designed to come down to the last 1000 meters and who can time their final nitrous boost the best. Really fun but the performance gets kinda tanky on 4 player split screen and it's hard to see what the fuck is going on, so we only had a couple of games of this one

Switch Sports Bowling [Nintendo Switch]

Easily got the most play of the weekend. This is that perfect game where you feel like you all kinda want some sort of vague activity to do, but it requires very little attention so you can kinda just sit around and chat shit but still feel like you're playing something - almost exactly like real bowling in that regard. This is great fun, but there is something about it that feels like it isn't as fun as the original Wii Bowling, although I couldn't tell you what. Switch Sports in general feels so sterile compared to Wii Sports, but I guess the whole point is they're just trying to recreate it, so it's always gonna feel a little hollow. Still, it's great fun and easily got played more than basically every other game combined

Mario Golf: Super Rush [Nintendo Switch]

We gave this a go on a whim and it was actually pretty fun, although I probably shouldn't be surprised as golf games inexplicably often seem to make very fun videogames despite being a horrendously boring game in real life. This was fun, but it becomes quite time consuming when a bunch of you are playing. I wish I had more Joycons instead of relying on Gamecube controllers, because I would have loved to have tried out the mode where you all play at once, as I bet it's bonkers and potentially very fun. This was one of a few Switch experiences this weekend that made me think maybe I'll get some more Joycons for the occasional moments like these when you have a fairly large group

Trivial Pursuit [Nintendo Switch]

This is actually a massive guilty pleasure of mine and a few other mates - it scratches the same 'kinda want a vague activity to focus on, but nothing too intensive' itch Bowling does. Unfortunately proved to be a bit difficult to play with Gamecube controllers since it was hard to quickly figure out which answer you were selecting in some rounds. Another nudge towards getting new Joycons

Undisputed [Steam Deck]

I played a bunch of this again to see how it was getting on with patches and to see if it actually ran on Steam Deck. It ran like absolute shit and the recent patches seem to have sent the gameplay backwards, so not the most exciting experience

F-Zero GX [Nintendo Gamecube]

This game is honestly so amazing, it's one of those games where you go back and play it and can't believe it still looks and plays as good as it does. The level of detail in the individual tracks is absolutely astonishing, and the sense of speed is incredible. It's hardly some hot take, but I've never understood why Nintendo has never gone back to the F-Zero well, it's an amazing series

James Bond: 007 Nightfire [Nintendo Gamecube]

I have no idea why I played this - I don't give a shit about James Bond, I have no nostalgia for this game...I think I just put it on out of pure curiosity. I actually thought it was an alright game, but the controls were hard to get to grips with. Honestly couldn't tell you why I even started playing this

Christ, that was a shitload of games

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