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spacebarbarianweird · 3 months

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Hi there, I had this fun idea - while the tinkerer class isn't playable in BG3, can we pretend for a while that it is? You know, Tav and Astarion both showing middle finger to all the gods... Tav can even help him with his condition. Some gadget blocking the sun, artficial blood, stuff like that. Honestly, the of them being this steampunk couple of a vampire rogue and Tav with enhanced crossbow or a gun has made my day. So - do you have aby headcanons about that?

OR perhaps Astarion and an Alchemist who likes to trick people too if that makes you happier? 😉

You are the first to request Artificer! People forget this class since it's not in the game, though, it's official. But some DM believe the Artificers bring unnecessary steampunk vibes.

There is also some naughty, to say the least, stuff, let me know if you want more of this.

Masterlist

Headcanons

Astarion x Artificer!Tav

In the realm of magic, you are that bitch who brings a gun to a knife fight.

You construct machines and mechanisms out of nothing, enchanting them with unique techno-magic,

Armour to withstand necrotic damage? A healing helmet? A prosthetic hand? A full-time "living" creature, a Nimblewright?

There is nothing you can't do with your crafty hands.

Things are complicated in terms of love.

You are more interested in cogs and gears rather than dates and sex.

You've tried once and it was a huge "ugh".

Virginity is wasted for nothing.

So, you've also learned to make sex toys but it's this side job you pray no one will ever know about.

But customers are never unsatisfied though you sometimes get in trouble.

Mostly, the owners of local brothels try to accuse you of lewd misconduct.

You are finally tired of all this shit and decide to move places.

And the mindflayers take you.

You easily escape, making small machines out of debris to help you survive this madness.

You construct armor, and you enhance swords.

Magic sucks, behold the science!

Astarion makes moves to you, successfully seducing you.

And let's say, none of your inventions have ever satisfied you the same way this troubled vampire does.

You think you are in love. And you believe he is, too.

But later he confesses to you that it was a lie.

He used you. And he is sorry.

You are heartbroken, at the very least. You feel used.

You break up with Astarion, leaving him alone in his misery.

But it doesn't mean you want him to suffer - you kill his master, secure his freedom.

When it all ends, he starts burning alive - running to the shadows, like a rat chased by cats.

You feel bad, especially when you hear vicious mockery from your friends.

But you fail, losing his track underground.

That night, you cry.

The thing is, you've never stopped loving him. You were just too stubborn to admit it. Besides, gods, Astarion tried to be honest for the first time in his fucking life.

And you punished him for opening his heart.

What a vile creature you are?

Half a year later, you meet him at the party.

Astarion looks happy - he is an adventurer and a hero, living his life to the fullest.

And he tells you something that makes your heart stop.

"I wonder if we could be together after all, you know. But it seems like you have a new life, and I am happy for you."

You take his hands in yours and ask him to go somewhere private.

Then, you apologize. You say how much you've missed him and that you love him. And you want to be together.

Instead of an answer, he hugs you.

"There is nothing I want more," he whispers.

In the morning, you leave together to find a place that fits both of you.

Living with Astarion is worth of effort, but sometimes it's almost unbearable.

His nightmares, his breakdowns.

You wonder how tf he survived on his own all these lonely months.

You open your artificer shop in Neverwinter, and Astarion becomes a professional monster hunter.

Thanks to you, he doesn't need to hide in the shadows.

You make him a cape that creates a field protecting him from the sun. The eye lenses to make his eyes green.

You also learn alchemy - first, to make potions to ease his nightmares and anxieties.

Later, you make them to satiate his hunger.

Your crafty hands also come in use in healing his sexual trauma.

Astarion craves intimacy, he wants to enjoy sex. He just can't make himself undress and make love to you.

Problem solved - he can fuck you with a toy you've constructed while being fully dressed and in control.

You also use some of your inventions on Astarion, helping him to reconnect with his own sexuality.

One day, he pins you to the bed, making love to you without any extra tools.

It's been such a wild night that your neighbors "politely" asked to install soundproof shields.

You keep learning alchemy, making more and more potions, and one day you finally get your answers.

There is a way to make Astarion mortal without interfering with dark magic or soul-retrieving pacts.

Science, bitches.

Astarion is hesitant. He is eager to drink any potion you make, but being transformed back into a mortal is very extreme.

You ask Astarion to bring him test subjects.

He drags you a deranged vampire, one of the most miserable Cazador's victims - completely insane, almost an animal, that was hunting in the dark caves.

And it works.

The deranged vampire turns into a deranged mortal. But mortal.

Astarion takes the potion, but, maybe, it's because of how long he's been a vampire or because he's an elf, he doesn't turn immediately.

He falls to the floor comatose.

He stays like that for a month, a terrible and long month when you think you've lost him.

One evening, you hear a strange sound.

Breathing.

He breathes in his unconsciousness.

You put your hand on Astarion's chest.

Heartbeat.

You did it. You cured him.

He wakes up with you on his chest, dizzy and exhausted with some memory gaps.

Piercing you with his natural green eyes.

Tag list

@tugoslovenka @marcynomercy @wintersire @vixstarria @not-so-lost-after-all @ashiro20 @theearthsfinalconfession @herstxrgirl @starlight-ipomoea @micropoe10 @astarion-imagine-archive @veillsar @elora-the-slutty-songstress @fayeriess @lumienyx @tallymonster @caitlincat-95 @tragedybunny @valeprati @lynnlovesthestars @marina-and-the-memes @waking-electric @ayselluna @connorsui @asterordinary @darkarchangel96 @locallegume @brainfullofhotsauce @coffeeanddonutscafe

#spacebarbarian headcanon #astarion #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 astarion #bg3 #astarion romance #astarion bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #astarion headcanon #astarion headcanons #astarion x tav #astarion x you #astarion x reader #tav x astarion #astarion x f!tav #artificer tav #artificer dnd #dnd artificer #tav

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aha-chuu · 1 year

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Alhaitham and Kaveh's dynamic is interesting, because I've seen a lot of people say either "oh my god Kaveh is so mean" or "oh my god Alhaitham treats Kaveh terribly". But, quite importantly imo, in this quest Paimon remarks that she "doesn't know which one of them is more problematic".

I think when considering their relationship you need to look at intention. Do Hoyo want to villainise one of their popular husnandoes as a toxic asshole? No. Even the "villain" playable characters like Childe and Wanderer are nice/funny on occasion. Kaveh and Alhaitham's interactions are intended to be humorous, to make you gasp and say "oh wow I can't believe he just said that!".

Like, during the most recent story quest, for example. Kaveh accusing Alhaitham of having no empathy when he's clearly pretty emotionally stunted and decently moral is mean. But saying "At least I'd be a fungus with empathy!" Undercuts that - it's clear neither Alhaitham nor the player are suppose to take those words seriously.

Alhaitham dismissing Kaveh's field of work with "you work yourself to death just for a smile" is so belittling, but it's a retort to Kaveh saying his scribe job is at "rock bottom" in the Akademiya. Alhaitham isn't lashing out or trying to demean Kaveh in front of others (this interaction happens after the player has "left"); he's just continuing their verbal sparring match. I think people take this jab so seriously because it can be seen as a jab at a lot of people working out of passion, but in the context of the dialogue we're not supposed to regard it so deeply.

It's also fairly clear that nobody in game takes them seriously either. Tighnari says Kaveh is "as pent up as an anemo slime" in his Alhaitham voiceline - another funny quip - and Collei details how hard it was to suppress her laughter when Kaveh was talking about Alhaitham. Nobody thinks they're genuinely bad for one another, or that getting them separated is all that crucial.

Even the interactions in this story quest are just so silly and domestic: Kaveh can't get the painting straight, Alhaitham buys ugly furniture, they're arguing about rent and drink tabs, Kaveh is doing an unfair amount of housework and Alhaitham fucks off without entertaining his own guests. it's funny, or at least it is clearly intended to be.

I've heard that in the other dubs the VAs tones are different and it makes the lightheartedness clearer. Personally I've thought since their first interaction in the AQ that Alhaitham is having fun during their quarrels, and Kaveh is just melodramatic enough to act traumatised even if he isn't truly offended.

Then when it comes to whether their dynamic is supposed to be read platonically or romantically... Well Hoyo won't do anything canon, but it's hard to argue that there is no intentionality in how their relationship is portrayed. What other character(s) has an idle animation directly referencing their relationship with another character? How many other voicelines explicitly reference two characters as a pair? Nahida's Kaveh voiceline, Collei's, Tighnari's - I'm sure there are more. "Roommates" "senior & junior" "academic rivals" -> certainly there's a case to be made that they're just very close, but Kaveh and Alhaitham getting fifteen minutes of epilogue interaction in two different quests (where none of the content is related to either quest) says something. Fanservice, quite possibly.

Also Kaveh's line "We used to be friends, but not anymore"; I've seen plenty of people interpret this as "oh we're not friends, we're dating*". I think this is fun in fanon, but on a canon level it's basically a promise by Hoyo to fix (or explain) their current dynamic. Hoyo, for all their many faults, are detail orientated enough to follow up on such a line. Perhaps it will just be in Kaveh's voicelines/character stories, but I anticipate a future event or Kaveh hangout in relation to their bond. Nothing explicit, but more exploration. It's fairly clear Alhaitham and Kaveh are popular enough characters to warrant it.

All this to say: I have lots of thoughts. I have seen people call them toxic and (while idm the drama of that in fanon shipping) that isn't really the intended case in canon. Or, at the very least, the intention is not to to take their squabbling so seriously.

#genshin impact #alhaitham #al haitham #kaveh #kavetham #alhaitham story quest #also pls don't somehow take this as ship bashing for other pairings #this is NOT: oh my ship is canon everyone else stfu #i just wanted to discuss how interesting Hoyo's approach to their dynamic has been #and how polarising the fandom's reaction has been #it's not supposed to be taken seriously #i think kaveh is leaked for 3.6 #which should be new desert area #i would not be surprised if we have a desert quest with him #considering how he has had a significant amount of screentime already #in comparison to Faruzan and Layla and even Candace #we don't know what his rarity is yet #but he's had a lot of build up #when most characters not directly involved in archon quests #only debut in their release patches #with rumours of them beforehand #think ayato think itto think eula #i wonder what Hoyo will do with Kaveh #and haitham might end up as the Sumeru Albedo #considering he's already a front runner for most dialogue out of the Sumeru characters #maybe he'll get an event before Fontaine

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orginllazyblog · 26 days

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Been playing AFK Journey and honestly...I'm loving it so far

So here we go with some headcanons and silly interactions

The player, either male or female, can attract beautiful women or be beasties with them

With my player and with the interactions with the characters I meet so far, she is most fond of women

Haven't really thought of a name for my player, so I'm going with "Magister" even tho their name is Merlin. Plus, they forgot half of their memories

Meeting with Valen, the character who everyone falls in love with him. Yeah... I don't really see him that way 😅

Other people: "He is so fine 😏"

Me: "He's my beastie. If I die, he's dying with me, ain't no choice."

He's my emotional support friend

Also, I'm glad that there were characters from the Afk Arena such as Antandra, Satandra, Rowan, Niru, Brutus, Thoran, Lyca, Silvina, Arden, Lucius,Mirael, and Eironn I'm surprised how Lyca is playable but not her brother Lorsan 😭

There are only a few celestials and hypogeans in the game (so far)

The side quest I've completed, Romeo and Juliet, I find it quite funny as the group read the letter Romeo wanted to give tk Juliet. Yeah, it was a bit cringe, but luckily, Lorsan is the guy who knows romance 👍🏼

And with that, we become a trio: Valen, the friend everyone has a crush on. Lorsan, the friendly one, and me the player and the great mage everyone thinks but just a chaotic gremlin searching for treasure chest. And then there's Rowan, the rich friend.

I go straight to the npc monsters to get goodies and resources for my heroes. I make sure my team is at a higher level than them.

Yesterday, I just figured that you can interact with the animals like a cat or dog, and it was just...so cute. It show hearts and even sounds of them.

As for the guild party, I haven't decided on which one and more focus on the story mode.

Speaking of which, I actually got asked on a date by none other than...Mirael. Yeah, that got me by surprised 😮 Fun fact, Mirael was my first crush when I started playing afk arena bc she could wield fire, but that was when Lilith introduced Talene. So getting asked out by her was like... a dream to me 😌

But then she left 😭 like what did I do!?!?!? Did I choose the wrong answer? Don't leave 😢

Back to the story, the group has to sneak into the old man's mansion to investigate more of the grape situation, and that's where I left on bc I was playing late at night

It is such a beautiful game with the graphics, the weather changing, and new heroes. I'm very happy to be able to play when it got released for mobile. Also, I was wondering if the devs would add heroes from the Afk Arena

#afk journey #silly headcanons #gotta find secret chest #oooo found something shiny #Valen is my homie #he got my back #itll be funny once everyone knows that the player is the merlin #there are pretty women here #Valen here is our wingman

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purplekoop · 18 days

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A bit belated of a topic, but last week's holiday and a few other things have me positing the possibilities of "joke" weapons for War Bots.

The tricky thing is that it's hard to define what a joke weapon really counts as. My go-to definition for a joke character, weapon, move, etc in a game would be something like "funny in execution but not practical", but this is still a hard line to draw. In large part it's because comedy is subjective, and what one person finds funny could just be annoying to someone else, but it's also hard to define what the "funny" part should be.

For instance, Smash Bros has a variety of answers to what joke characters it has. To a casual fan, characters like Jigglypuff, Mr. Game and Watch, Wii Fit Trainer, Duck Hunt, and Piranha Plant are joke characters due to their conceptual absurdity in just being playable in this game. To a more competitively inclined person, Ganondorf and Little Mac are instead the joke characters because of their incredibly min-maxed skillsets making them extremely unviable in serious competitive play, thus the joke becomes not their existence, since they feel like they seriously should be here, but rather their functionality. Sometimes these opinions align, Plant has been considered pretty lackluster, but sometimes they directly clash, like Jigglypuff being one of Melee's best characters. But according to the series creator (not looking up the exact source so Dude Trust Me), Smash doesn't have joke characters at all. Every character is made as seriously as everyone else, regardless of who they are or how well they end up doing competitively. I personally think that Smash's only true joke character is Melee Pichu, an absurd and dated inclusion almost certainly here due to Melee's tiny development period leading to abundance of clones in its roster, and a character so deliberately self-detrimental with no redeeming qualities that it's a miraculous accident that there are worse characters competitively than them. Their trophies even allude to jow terrible they are, and how they should just scramble for items rather than seriously fighting on their own. But even then, when they returned for Ultimate, they were "un-joked" and turned into a serious character with the lowest durability and a self-damage mechanic, but also genuine strengths over Pikachu that made them a seriously competitive character that was even NERFED early into the game's lifespan. Pichu is a real character now who has a genuine place in the game's cast, and isn't just a comically undertuned throw pick used to flex on your friends if you somehow win with them.

A similar but more infamous deliberately bad fighting game character is Dan Habiki, who got his start in Street Fighter Alpha before becoming a series mainstay. In Alpha, he was very literally a joke, made to make fun of Capcom's rival fighting game company SNK and their suspiciously similar looking gi-wearing fireball-throwing martial arts man, Ryo. To poke fun at this imitation of Ryu, Dan is a deliberately terrible clone of Ryu, with a pitifully weak close-range fireball in place of the gameplay-defining hadouken of his more competent counterparts. His one strength? Taunting. In Alpha, every other character can only taunt once per round, but Dan can spam his taunt as much as he pleases. He can even pull off a super taunt, which uses meter like a normal super, but does no damage and leaves him exceedingly vulnerable. The ultimate flex. This puts him in a very stark contrast to Akuma, the secret superboss character of SF2 that was banned in that game's competitive play, but has since become toned down to be a much more competitively fair character in the rest of the series. Similarly, and just like Pichu, Dan was turned into a serious character in terms of competitive usability in later installments, though retained his comical nature by incorporating his goofy nature into his gameplay. He's still funny, but now he's taken seriously as a character. In SF5 he actually somehow had infinite combo, a rarity in a big-name modern fighting game. This was patched out by giving his aforementioned terrible fireball, which is part of the infinite combo, a random chance to come out as a stronger red fireball. This gave Dan an appropriately funny random chance to throw out a stronger attack, but also the way the red fireball launches the opponent breaks the infinite. It's a buff and a nerf at the same time, a paradox so delightfully and thoroghly Dan.

Fighting games have a more storied history of deliberate joke characters past Pichu and Dan, which are too numerous to go into here in full detail. Skullgirls has Fukua and Robo Fortune, parodies of real characters Filia and Miss Fortune of dubious canonocity that owe their existence to jokes too complicated for me to explain now. Sega's old internal crossover fighting game, Fighters Megamix, has a roster including cast members from Virtua Fighter, Fighting Vipers, Sonic the Fighters, and... a car from Daytona USA. Excellent youtuber Leon Massey has a recent video discussing Tekken 3's two terrible bottom tier joke characters, which I highly recommend giving a watch.

But this is all a bit of a tangent, with the main point being that the culture of fighting games makes it unclear sometimes what a joke character really is, while also deliberate joke characters are often made more serious as a series goes on, but still retaining their identity as "funny".

For a more relevant genre, let's talk class shooters... and by that I mean TF2. Overwatch doesn't really have joke characters, it's not a game devoid of humor but it likes to take its cast seriously.

TF2 doesn't really have joke characters either, the cast was made well ahead of the game devolving into mediocre Adult Swim humor, but TF2 *does* have interchangeable weapons introduced later on. Most of these are serious additions to a character's arsenal, even if in somewhat comical forms like a ham sandwich or a soda can. But even in its earlier alternate weapons, there additions that felt like deliberate downgrades added for either sheer fun or comedy value, like the Huntsman being a questionably useful alternative to the hyper-efficient sniper rifle that's validated by just kinda being funny to use and see in action.

As the game went on though, there's very clear instances of joke weapons that aren't useful but funny, weapons that are plain bad but not in a funny way, and weapons with comical concepts but genuine uses in gameplay. The Holy Mackerel is functionally identical to Scout's weak default baseball bat, but announces every hit in the kill feed and humiliates enemies on death with the condemnation of a "Fish Kill", because hitting people with a fish is funny. The Hot Hand meanwhile has Pyro slap people twice with a unique glove, and is objectively kinda useless, which adds up to being a vaguely funny throw weapon. The Pomson 3000 is a cool-looking shotgun alternative for the Engineer that is just terrible, but in a way that isn't funny or interesting, just kinda frustrating. And the Second Banana is one of the final weapons ever added, given to Heavy as a gag pity prize to rub in how he lost to Pyro in a vote for a major update... but it ended up being a seriously viable sidegrade to the Sandvich, with its stat adjustments giving it pros and cons that fit a slightly different playstyle over Heavy's mainstay secondary. It was a joke in concept, but a valid choice in practice.

This all adds up to joke options being kind of. Weird. Not only in the variable nature of comedy, but also in how seriously they get taken in practice. Sometimes what wasn't meant to be a joke becomes one, sometimes what was meant to be a joke is taken seriously, and sometimes this status flips over time.

...this post became very long and eventually wasn't about War Bots, so I'll go into my ideas there later on. There's more I wanted to talk about, didn't even get to taunt kills, but god this is a lot to type on a phone so give me a break.

#long post #not gonna subject other game-specidic tags to this

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leonbastralle · 2 months

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GAMES I PLAYED IN 2023 - FIRST HALF-ISH

i've been seeing a lot of this in gif form but i do not have the energy or video material and also i'm late but i rly wanted to make a post where i say a lil bit abt all the games i played and how i liked them!

pokemon platinum, soulsilver, white, white 2, y, sun, alpha sapphire & shield: i started a big mainline pokemon marathon in 2022 but most of it fell on 2023. it was a lovely time tbh and i miss it! platinum was a bit too grindy (but we love cynthia) and soulsilver traumatised me for glitch reasons. my favorites out of this lineup were definitely gen 5 in terms of storyline and pokemon selection, the later ones were a bit too handholdy and slow for my taste, and alpha sapphire could not compete w the og emerald which is my favorite pokemon game of all time. i did rly love shield though but that's bc i'm a) a football girl and b) i played it on my wife's sofa askfjhkasjf. anyway music is bangers all around and i do love The Concept of pokemon so i didn't hate any of them.

lonely people potion shop: this was an absolute surprise indie gem that i found on my wife's itch.io in 2022 but i replayed it for her in 2023 so it counts. this game is a rly short very fruity visual novel where you make potions for people and chat with them. it's one of the most heartwarming and gentle games i've played, every character is so lovely and caring towards each other and also to you the player! 100% would recommend i cried a bit several times.

validate: i really wanted to love this game because a dating sim/visual novel/narrative fiction type game w a super diverse cast (in terms of backgrounds, body types, gender, sexuality, and mental health struggles) and such a lovely art style? sounds perfect! and it would be if the characters weren't so...unlikeable sjfhaksjfa. it eventually got so difficult for me to root for them and also kind of frustrating bc the routes overlap in a way that even if you get good outcomes in one route, you can still mess up the relationship in a different route (because you have routes for each of the characters) so i ended up not finishing it.

neo cab: another one i never finished but was rly intrigued by! another visual novel but choices matter type deal where you play as a taxi driver in a dystopian world where you're being replaced by self driving taxis. the mechanics and cast are really cool and if the storyline didn't stress me out so much i would've finished it by now but i definitely will one day!

coffee talk 1/2: barista simulator meets visual novel in an urban fantasy setting where you also kinda save the world one drink at a time! i loved the first one so so much and finally played it last year in preparation for the second one coming out that i'd been anxiously awaiting, it's so vibey and the characters and their storylines are so interesting and i loved seeing their heartfelt interactions! also the first game was giving such strong queer vibes but they kinda dropped the ball w that in the second game trying to backtrack on that. ruined the experience for me a little bit but still a very solid game w cool additions to the already great cast of the first game!

skyrim: not much to say about that one. my favorite classic walking simulator that i keep coming back to, still very much playable and so pretty even on the switch! unfortunately also incredibly broken so i can't finish the solstheim questlines kjsfhkajsfas fuck you todd howard

calico: wonky little game where you explore the world and also bake and own a café that you can fill with all sorts of animals from cats to snow foxes to capybaras because why the fuck not! absolutely delightful, 10/10

later alligator: lovely little puzzle game w great old timey detective vibes and a banger soundtrack where everyone is alligators. these characters are such great fun, i loved the writing and i loved learning about all of them and doing tasks for them! the minigames got a bit frustrating at times bc i was lacking the coordination skills or just general strategy and there are some completionist things i could never do because of that and the main character (the main guy you're doing things for, not the player character) can get on your nerves pretty quickly but otherwise a lovely game w a great twist in my opinion

strange horticulture: this one made it into my all time favorites too. you play as the owner of a supernatural plant shop in a place where A Lot of strange things are going on. it has a bunch of really cool mechanics like plant identification and a lot of map related puzzles to find new plants, secrets etc. the overarching story that gets revealed bit by bit from an unknown person's pov outside of the gameplay while related events are also happening in real time was so interesting, and there are a lot of cool choices you can make that lead to various more or less unsettling outcomes. the spooky vibe is SO good but at the same time it has a very calming homey feel AND YOU CAN PET THE CAT 10000/10

penko park: another absolute indie banger. probably something like a pokemon snap but the beasties look fucking stupid and kinda creepy and the lore is cursed as hell. throughout the game you explore the remains of a park that was built upon the abuse of all sorts of cute little creatures (and big creatures) and while you mostly try to take pictures of every weird looking fella in their different emotional states that you bring upon them in various ways, maybe there's something you can do to right the wrongs of the park founders! who knows! (also special shoutout because these are german devs and as a german, i am especially demanding when it comes to german games and this one knocked it out of the park) (haha the park get it)

#my games #gaming year in review #idk how tf to tag this so im just gonna slap some random ones that ill hopefully be reusing eventually #theres a second part some other time bc i played too many games skjdhfksdf #it was the unemployment

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cryptile · 4 months

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ok tumblr user cryp tile how does one get into tf2. you have no idea how long i’ve been meaning to look at it and someone calling my mechs oc fem!medic just makes me want to even more. but you see. i’m scared. ok thanks

I am filled with immense joy im so happy you asked.

So!!! If you like viddy games, especially first person shooters- you can easily download the game off of steam for absolutely free. The matchmaking isn't entirely intuitive, and the game is full of destructive aim-bots making it hard to get new people into the game, but it's worth it :3. I'm more than happy to play the game with you if you'd like, i can show you around and tell you what servers to avoid etc etc.

If you don't like playing viddy games or shooters or simply aren't interested- there are tons of fun official content letting you get to know the characters and plot! A lot of tf2 fans dont even play the game lol.

There's a meet-the-team series that consists of short videos about every single playable character (and one extra) and they are so fun and also cinematic masterpieces. There's also a few fun promotional videos like Expiration Date that's a story driven short that everyone should watch because its just sooo much fun. And a few trailers that are great like the Mann vs Machine trailer that's just very badass and cool and has sick music.

There are official COMICS!!!! and they're DELIGHTFUL! There's a main comic series that unfortunately never got finished and ends on a cliffhanger, but i reccomend it with all my heart. Of course there are some side comics that are just as great and let you get to know the characters even better.

If you do get into tf2- tell me EVERYTHING!! tell me what you think and tell me your favourite characters pleasepleasepleaseplease it will make me so happy i will die. And i will forever talk to you about my blorbos because i actually cannot shut up ever.

Also pls show me your oc eyes emoji eyes emoji eyes emoji eyes emoji eyes emoji

Thank you for listening. Collapses.

#tf2 #answered #julian posting

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myreia · 7 months

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Top 10 Video Games

Thank you for the tag, @thevikingwoman! 💗

I've been thinking about this for a few days. My top 5 has been in place for a few years now, but my top 10 tends to change from year to year depending on new things I've played and how much of an impact they made or games I've revisited and rekindled a love for.

Criteria is pretty personal: games I enjoy because I find their gameplay supports their story and vice versa; games I like because it's doing something cool with the roleplay aspect; games I like purely for the gameplay; games for nostalgia or personal importance; games I think did something interesting with an interactive format to tell a story.

I'm going to exclude interactive fiction or visual novels here for a few personal reasons.

tagging @lilas @greyyourwarden @coldshrugs @galadae @a-shakespearean-in-paris @hylfystt @allaganexarch @sunshinemage @impossible-rat-babies @roguelioness if you want!

10. Heroes of Might and Magic III

I grew up with the HoMM series. It was the first computer game I was old enough to understand; I spent hours exploring maps, building up my towns, getting freaked out when the enemy AI surprised me. Hours in the custom map maker and campaign maker trying to create playable stories. The third installment in the series has so much going for it--colourful world, really beautiful creature design, interesting and challenging campaigns that really made you think about the systems and utilize them in different ways. It's light on story, but the story that is there is interesting if you spend a couple minutes thinking about it.

This series is probably the basis of turn-based combat being my favourite type of gameplay.

The music is also really nice!

09. Persona 3

I feel like a Persona game needs to be on this list, but I wasn't sure which one. My introduction to the series was backwards: I played Persona 5 first, then P4, then P3. I think the thing that always stands out to me about Persona is how much fun the turn-based combat, combined with its sometimes bonkers monster design, the dynamics between the core cast, its in-depth storytelling, and, of course, the music.

There's something about 3's characters and story that always comes back to me. The conversation it opens about death, grief and loss is very raw but also very compassionate. I think it has one of the most thoughtful handling of existentialist and nihilistic viewpoints in gaming. It has the kind of ending that will haunt you after you witness it. You might not think about the game for years but you'll have a day where you remember Persona 3's ending and get pulled right back into thinking on it.

And Mass Destruction is here.

08. Dragon Age (Series)

I can't choose one! I can't!

Dragon Age: Origins was the game that got me into gaming. I hadn't really played anything since HoMM as a kid. The flexibility of its UI and systems to be a kind of cross between an action RPG-style and a CRPG style made it really friendly for getting used to gameplay mechanics I was not used to. The storytelling and characters pulled me right in, and I think DA:O still is one of the best examples of interactive storytelling where the player actually has an impact on the unfolding narrative to date.

Dragon Age 2 continues to fascinate me. There are obvious issues with the gameplay, design, and overall storytelling, but the foundation of what they were trying to execute is really unique. The three-act structure is very theatrical and almost Shakespearean, using Varric as a bookend to narrate the whole experience adds another layer (what is the truth? what is fabricated for entertainment?). Act 2 has some of DA's strongest storytelling and really digs into its dark fantasy roots even as it rushes towards a conclusion that is unavoidable, grotesque, and bitterly unfair. I played this one last so I knew what I was getting into when I played it, so I was able to temper my expectations a fair amount and enjoy it for what it is, rather than what it could have been.

Dragon Age: Inquisition was the second DA game I played and it's the one I have the most hours in. The combat is a lot of fun, it has one of the most versatile CC's to date. The landscapes are beautiful and were a lot of fun to explore on the first few playthroughs. I'm still very fond of the story and the characters.

DA's transition from a more CRPG style and dark fantasy genre to an action RPG style and high fantasy genre is a shift that will probably always fascinate me and I love to talk about it.

If I had to narrow it down: it's DA:O for the overall story, DA2 for the characters, DA:I for the combat and gameplay.

I don't have much to say about the music other than Trevor Morris went off for Trespasser's Lost Elf theme.

07. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

I'll be honest, I almost put Jedi: Fallen Order here because I wanted to talk about my favourite Star Wars game but it's been a hot minute since I last played it and I think Amalur has been on my favourites list for too long to kick it off.

Kingdoms of Amalur is really good and really bad and it is trashy and I love it.

If you go digging you can find its whole sordid history, but the reasons I'm very fond of it:

whacky, campy art style

colourful worlds

THE COMBAT

The combat in this game is excellent. It is freeform. You can respec at any time. There are three main classes (warrior, rogue, mage) and you can multiclass them whichever way you want. Warrior/Rogue, Mage/Rogue, Warrior/Mage, Warrior/Mage/Rogue... It's so much fun to change it up on the fly. Combat feels smooth, and once it clicks it's really easy to feel like a badass.

This game FINALLY gives mages a cool weapon. No more scepters or staffs, we're going for magic chakrams and I love it. Best weapon in the game, hands-down. Every fantasy game that has come out after 2012 that hasn't given their mage classes chakrams is missing out.

Amalur's a campy power-trip. The worldbuilding is really interesting if you want to take the time to dig into it, but you don't have to. Its MMO roots are there in much of its quest design, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes a bad thing. YMMV with the main characters (there aren't any companions here, there are a couple of people who regularly pass in and out of your PC's life), but in general everything is just big goofy fun that shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Again, don't have much to say about the music other than Grant Kirkhope did Grant Kirkhope things. The Dalentarth theme has some nice atmospheric stuff happening.

06. Final Fantasy XV

I love Final Fantasy, it's one of my favourite game series/franchises, but I'm only allowing myself one FF game to be on this list and it has to be this one.

FFXV is a weird game. Troubled development history, troubled story, troubled execution. It has a lot of good ideas packed into it that may or may not be done well, kind of confusing worldbuilding, and a kind of confusing story that asks you to do homework in advance (you can watch Kingsglaive and Brotherhood if you want to; I didn't, but I did end up having to read a few wiki articles to make sense of things). However, the final version of the game (Royal/Windows edition) has so much heart and soul and love in it. This is my comfort game, and I find myself returning to its world a lot just to drive around.

I think it helps to reconfigure FFXV from a grand sweeping epic adventure fantasy to a character study. The four boys and the bonds of their very deep friendship are at the heart of everything in this game. And if it does one thing really well, it's that it makes you feel for them and everything they go through and you're going to be a sobbing little puddle on the floor by the end of it.

The ending is sad. I love it, but it makes me cry. About halfway through you get an idea of where this is going and I'm so glad they commit to it because Noctis' story hinges on it.

The world is a lot of fun to drive or ride (chocobos chocobos chocobos) around in. You can fly, but you may get the boys killed because crashlanding it very easy to do. Pitioss Ruins is a thing that exists and it breaks my brain. The combat is a lot of fun once you get used to it (the secret is to press and hold the buttons, button mashing doesn't get you very far).

It also has one of my favourite FF villains. Ardyn is delightful. The level of spite emanating off this man is just a wonder to behold.

Oh, and the music is really, really good. This is probably my favourite FF soundtrack.

05. Nier: Automata

Um. Hm.

I don't know how to explain this game.

It's uh...

I don't know how to put it other than the utilization of game mechanics and UI within its story structure blew my mind. This game has an ending I still think about because I can't untangle it. Your first 15 hours is going to feel like a pretty standard scif/fantasy JRPG. Then you're going to hit what feels like the end of the story, except it's not, be asked to do something and then you're going to make faces and throw your hands in the air and ask WHY is the game asking me to do this again.

You're going to get through that next 15 hours, hit another point that feels like it should be the end of the story--

And then.

I don't know how to say that the silly android vs robots game where you can blow 2B up to see her butt (yes that's a thing, ignore it) is one of the weirdest but most compelling gameplay experiences I have ever had. It's weird. But it works. But it's weird. But it works.

Also the gameplay is really fun but it's sheer chaos because it changes what it wants to do every 5 minutes because it gets bored. You go from bullet hell shooter to hack-n-slash action with combos, to hacking into a robot and running around in a pixel world dodging balls.

The balls are endless.

The balls are everywhere.

We become as gods balls.

Have I mentioned that the music is really good.

04. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

This is another comfort game. There's something about BOTW's world that is just so relaxing. I love exploring every nook and cranny, cresting the hill to see what's on the other side. I am content to ignore the main quest just to see if I can scale a mountain in the rain (no) or terrorizing an enemy camp by launching a burning tree trunk into the middle of their campfire.

I feel like all the systems work together cohesively, building off each other in a way that lets the player flex their imagination, test things, and see what happens.

I remember the score getting some flak because it didn't have the bombastic and catchy themes that previous Zelda games have, but the scaled back and atmospheric tone really works for the game. BOTW is a gently horrifying post-apocalyptic world. The moments when you do need strong themes, the score delivers in spades.

03. Horizon: Zero Dawn

I love this game so much.

Aloy is such a joy to play as. Her characterization is set in stone, but when you do have diverging dialogue options, everything feels like something she would say so it's really easy to roleplay her. She does talk a fair amount as she roams around the world, but Ashly Burch's voice acting is really lovely to listen to.

HZD has one of my favourite post-apocalyptic worlds. The worldbuilding is in-depth, the developers have thought everything through in how these societies came to be and now function. The combat system is so much fun; early techniques provide a foundation for later ones, and you have options in how you want to tackle various enemies or problems. There's a lot of flexibility in how to go about things, so one person's playstyle may be completely different for someone else.

The animations and sound designs for Aloy's assorted bows are so satisfying.

This is another game where I love wandering around the world so much I usually forgo fast travel because I love the journey, even if it takes me longer.

Not much to say about the music other than the themes for Meridian are very nice.

02. Hades

Hades is probably the most polished game I have ever played. It is virtually bug-free. The gameplay compliments the story and the story compliments the gameplay in such a way that you cannot separate them. It feels like every choice behind this game's design was done with purpose and precision.

The art style is gorgeous. The music is off the charts - sometimes you can't tell what came first, the level design or the music, they're so in-sync with each other.

The characters are delightful. Everyone has understandable motivations and desires; everyone is ridiculously likeable, particularly Zagreus himself.

It's so easy to fall into the pattern of "just one more run" because you want to stay in this world a little longer, you want to push yourself further, you want to challenge yourself again. And even when you don't complete a run, losing or messing up doesn't feel like a punishment because you have all your favourite characters waiting for you back at home with another opportunity to talk to them.

01. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I don't know where to start because I love this game so much. Turn-based combat with an in-depth levelling system and a diverging storyline so there are actually FOUR separate stories in one? Catnip to me.

The combat system is exactly the kind of turn-based combat that I can get addicted to; I love the risk/reward, the chance of failure, yelling at the AI for getting the better of me because I put a unit in a risky spot and now they're permanently dead and I can't rewind time.

Each of the stories can stand on their own and give really different perspectives on unfolding events. How you view one character on one route will be completely different when you see them on their own and get a chance to get to know them.

The cast of characters is very large, but everyone has their place and everyone has their own journey and arc to go on. The character interactions are delightful. Because of the house and recruitment system, it is really interesting to see characters you recruited out of their houses and into yours and how they change when the story diverges and puts them down a different path--especially if that path puts them in direct conflict with a former friend.

The English dub for this game is out of this world, it is one of the best ENG dubs I've heard in years. The music has some absolute bangers for combat music, especially in the endgame. Shout out to my favourite, Chasing Daybreak and also Funeral of Flowers because it's underrated.

#video games #personal nonsense

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the-sinful-voice-witch · 2 years

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The time has come! I am talking about my sweet pink girl Amy Rose!!!🥰🥰

TIME TO LOVE AMY ROSE part 1:

AMY'S CHARACTER

Amy Rose the hedgehog Aka the very first female ♀️ character in sonic games also the first playable female, also the only existent female hedgehog and the only hedgehog in the games whose name doesn't start with S. Associated with red and Pink roses🌹and loyal love, armed with a huge hammer she can summon at will, able to do magic with tarot cards and see people's fortune 🔮, car owner, boxing lover🥊, acrobatic abilities, amazing cooking, unbreakable will and faith for others, casual fourth member of the sonic team but also a capable leader of her own team: team Rose, brave with a huge temper and love for ice cream 🍦 with a really big heart ❤️

And yet....

Amy Rose was a really unfairly wasted character at (least at the beginning let's see how things go in the future, I'm rooting for justice for my girl): She was conceived to be basically Sonic's Minnie mouse and she was his girlfriend in her first appearance in a manga where she wasn't even pink and had a different hair but after that in her first appearance in the games with the exact same haircut as sonic... Playing as damsel in distress and apparently she already knew Sonic and was already in love before being kidnapped by metal sonic and Sega team decided that instead of a relationship they'll make a one sided obsessed crush on her part🙄 because that was so.... Funny Ajjj Thankfully at least she got a makeover with a more stylish look with a different haircut and looking a bit older and I completely fell in love with her i mean her young classic design is super cute but... This: 👇is supreme 👌

But my problem was that... 😔 even though I Loved her concept and hated what she was... Her personality had good traits sometimes but she was used too much as a not funny comedy relief with the fucking dumb stalker girl obsessed with getting into the hero personal space and trying to push him into marry her and all her personal life and plot/reason of existing and casually be there in the games was that she was looking for sonic! To hug him and ask him for a date no matter the situation making her so obnoxious!!🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦🤦 Ajjj enough please stop! That is so tiring!!This character deserves better! Also she is too often portrayed as weak and being kidnapped or just be a bother to the sonic team that they leave her behind... Excuse me? How dare they make a girl that likes do boxing and can summon and Weald a fucking hammer bigger than her head look weak and useless???? For real??

Exactly weasel, that's the reaction everyone should get from my girl and his hammer 🔨❤️

And well the version of her i hate the most was in the first tv show she appeared Sonic X... Damn she was awful... Repellent, annoying, clingy, whiny, pushy, obnoxious, loud and even mean! This Amy is one of the few Amys I can believe is twelve because of how Immature and childish she was 😑😑😑 yeah she had her good moments but very few! 😠😠 She was never allowed to be in important fights because she wasn't even considered as a fighter she was just a spoiled girl who swings a hammer like a madwoman... That wasn't even intimidating in a good way and there was a very important scene with shadow that i loved in the games that stupid anime took away from her and was given to the character i hate the most! (That completely useless tag along wanna give pity kid) but of course they conserved the embarrassing scene where she hugs shadow by accident because of course this Amy can't help save the world but had to look dumb and colorblind 🤬🤬🤬 seriously why this mistreatment to Amy?? I bet that is was so over exaggerated because they thought it would make her fun... Guess what? It didn't! She deserved better!!! Ajjj and Sonic X Amy is not the only annoying Amy... In almost every game she has to do her stalker thing and depending of the writer I guess, she was more or less childish or mean or dumb 🤦🤦🤦... Thankfully that might finally stop!! 😤😤🤩🤩

Ironically a terrible sonic game that lead to a cancelled weird but fairly funny tv show changed everything, Sonic boom has a lot of things i hated but its existence did also some good 😊😊 like how our girl evolved for the better after how people reacted to her sonic boom version and Im gonna talk thoroughly about it in part 2! See you there 😚💋💋

#sonic #sonic idw #sonic the hedgehog #amy rose #sonamy #sonic movie 2 #sonic the hedghog movie #rouge the bat #knuckles the echidna #miles tails prower #love post

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minuy600 · 6 months

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The Arcade Games of 1980 #2: Navarone

Huh. Namco making the curious decision to base a game on a 1950s novel called 'The Guns of Navarone'. Now there's a twist I didn't see comin'.

This game is one of the newest to make a return in playable form, coming into play thanks to the Arcade Archives release in no earlier than March this year. It's very cool and I hope more super obscure releases like these will come back one day. Space Firebird, your time will come.

Now whether this game is actually good is questionable. This is an extreme case of a fish out of water. One of the first games to be based on a novel? Check. New gameplay type sorta? Check. Exceptionally dated design even compared to Namco's prior titles on this engine? Double check.

OK, well, Navarone isn't alone in that. Anyone remember the joys of SOS? The worst shoot 'em up ever that also featured a stripping lady during the game's 'coffee breaks'? This one's errr, a cut above that thankfully.

You start with a cluttered playfield full of bombs and obstacles, playing as a little battleship on the sides of the screen. Your task is simply to clear out all the nasty sh*t on what I think is a beach. There's a skull in the middle for some reason too! He has his defense mechanism that shoots at ya from different points of the field. Detonate enough bombs and you can shoot the skull itself for bonus points. Aaaaaaand that's Navarone. All of it.

This game never changes. It's the same layout over and over, no subtle changes other than the predictable increase in speed as time goes on. No reason to keep playing, and that's by far it's biggest downfall. You wouldn't know how sorely lacking it lacks that single feature. If you're so inclined to maw down on a high score, then the speed also peaks at around the same time as ALL those other games I discussed before (sans Moon Cresta).

Sorry guys, this one is plenty of fun to play and listen to, so it still gets a pass by all means. If only they bothered to give it lasting appeal, then we'd have a little underrated classic on our hands. Alas!

The Verdict

Graphics (5): The colors look nice, but they are given to very basic shapes vaguely resembling underwater ammo. The skull in the middle with an eyepatch on seems completely out of left field and looks dehydrated. As Vinny Vinesauce would say, this title is very gormless. It hardly even has a proper attract screen. Not miserable, just weak.

Sound (7): Nothing I haven't heard before in the other 'Namco Warp & Warp' engined game i've played so far, Cutie Q. The explosion noises are new to the engine and sound GOOD, it's just that that too ain't exactly crazy anymore. Most games that let you blow something up nailed the satisfaction already. Nevertheless, 'pleasant and quirky' are what come up in my head here.

Fun Factor (7): I liked it while it lasted. Once you get a rhythm down, you got all those bombs exploding one after another and taking out extra debris with it. Avoiding the defense mechanism is a fair challenge I think? It keeps you on your toes, I believe you get eliminated if you stay in one place for too long too. A sound little gameplay loop, emphasis on little, emphasis on loop.

Longevity (4): Hah. No. For high score purists on Arcade Archives only. There's some determined peeps out there, i'm kinda one of them, and kinda not at the same time. The charts are dominated by Japanese players, shows all you need to know of this game's impact overseas.

In Conclusion

#retro gaming #minuy600 #review #arcade #1980 #namco #sona #navarone

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thechariotrider · 1 year

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An Introduction to Emulation

There are a lot of really cool old games, but actually playing them can seem quite difficult. Fortunately, there are tools available that make old games much more accessible. The most powerful, by far, is emulation. If you have ever wanted to learn how to play classic video games that aren't available on modern platforms, this post is for you.

TLDR: Emulation recreates old hardware (like game consoles) using software, allowing games to be played on modern systems. It's an incredibly cool technology that, while it has some minor downsides, is overall an important tool for preserving game history and enabling new game experiences.

What is the issue?

Game companies don't always make their older titles easily playable on modern hardware. There are so many important, influential, and fun video games released on older hardware that can't be bought on any modern platform. In fact, game companies sometimes go out of their way to remove their titles from modern storefronts. After Bandai Namco released Dark Souls Remastered in 2018, the original version of Dark Souls was removed from Steam, presumably to encourage people to buy the newer, shinier, more expensive release. Game history is important, and it's incredibly rewarding to engage with. Unfortunately, if you limit yourself to what is only available through official channels like Nintendo Switch Online, Steam, GoG, Xbox, Playstation 5, you will miss out on a lot of cool games.

Games are often designed to operate on very specific hardware. Games made for the N64 can't run on a Sony Playstation, and vice versa. Even on PC, a platform which is generally much more customizable, games can be made obsolete through software updates and new operating system releases. Software's dependency on hardware makes it harder to access as technology progresses. Because of this dependency on specific hardware, it takes a non-trivial amount of effort to keep games "up to date", and often companies decide it isn't worth the effort. I can still read books from the 1500s because fundamentally, they are just words and those are easy to bring to modern formats. Film too is relatively easy to keep functional. As long as you have a device that can run mp4 files, you have a lot of options with regards to how you watch a movie (even if those files have to come from an unofficial source). This isn't to imply that lost media and preservation challenges don't exist for books or movies, but the fact that I can easily access books that are several decades old, but many influential console games released even in the past few decades aren't playable on natively modern hardware says a lot. Fortunately, we have a solution. Emulation

What is emulation?

Emulation is software that performs the same function as hardware. Put simply, it lets games designed for one platform run on another. For instance, Dolphin is an emulator designed to play GameCube and Wii games. Dolphin runs on Windows 10 and 11, and allows you to play GameCube and Wii games on PCs. Emulators can be designed to recreate pretty much any piece of hardware. There are emulators recreating handheld devices like the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, Java phones, and Playstation Portable. Other emulators are designed to run old PC games designed for Dos, the Amiga, or Commodore 64. There are even emulators designed for modern systems like the Switch. It should also be noted that emulators aren't exclusively used on PC. There are emulators designed to run games on Android phones or modern consoles. Every emulator is different, coming with its own set of features, requirements, and drawbacks.

It should be noted that most emulators also require ROMs or ISOs. ROMs and ISOs are the file type most commonly used to store game files. If emulators are a virtual recreation of hardware, ROMS and ISOs are virtual recreations of the software that would be inserted into the actual hardware.

What all can I do with emulation?

Emulation is a powerful tool that could be used for a variety of things. Most obviously, emulation is excellent for playing older games. While they certainly can do that, they can also do so much more. For instance:

Emulators make it much easier to play old games on the go: I can't carry a SNES with me everywhere I go. It's big, requires a bunch of cables, and I probably won't even have a TV to play it on. However, I can always bring my laptop with me. I have a SNES emulator installed on my laptop that lets me play SNES games anywhere. If I have a few moments in between classes I can boot up Front Mission, Tetris Attack, or any other SNES game I want. As if that wasn't enough, I also have NES, GBA, and DS emulators on my laptop, taking up very little hard drive space. Convenient!

Emulators let you customize your control schemes: Most emulators give you a lot of choice in how your controls are set up. For my laptop emulators, I simply use my keyboard because I don't want to carry a controller around with me. But, if I wanted to, I could plug in my Switch Pro Controller, or any other controller to play these games. This feature alone has some non-obvious advantages, such as...

Greater accessibility in control schemes: For people with physical disabilities, who might be unable to comfortably use a SNES controller, emulators allow them to relatively easily substitute the original controller for one they find more comfortable to use. This makes the emulated versions of classic games far more accessible than they would be on original hardware. As with all disability infrastructure, adding considerations for disabled people helps everyone, and a great example of that is...

Customizable controls are great for challenge runs: All sorts of interesting challenge runs become possible with emulated controllers. Have you ever wanted to play Link's Awakening with a Dance Dance Revolution pad? Well, set up an emulator and map its controls to the dance pad and you are good to go! You can't do that on an original Game Boy!

Save States let you bypass unfair nonsense: Old games sometimes have a reputation for having a lot of cheap deaths, and some definitely live up to that expectation. Some emulators come with save state features that essentially take a snapshot of the current game state that can be returned to at any point. If an upcoming platforming section has a lot of precarious jumps with impossible to dodge enemies, you can make a save state to go back to that challenge instantly, instead of having to replay the whole level again. Very nifty! Also, some emulators have rewinds, which serve a similar purpose.

Fast forwarding saves time: Some emulators let you increase the game speed, allowing you to bypass slow sections of a game. My friend Harry who runs the Video Games Are Bad YouTube channel recently released a video talking about how the speedup feature on his Seam Deck GBA emulator that made the experience of playing classic GBA Yu Gi Oh games much more enjoyable because he could skip the opponent's long turns. For JRPGs, games with cutscenes, or many other games, this is a great convenience feature

Emulators bypass region locking: Many classic console games were only playable in consoles from the right region. Japanese Playstation games could only be played on Japanese Playstations. While it's certainly possible to bypass this restriction on original hardware, it requires you to modify the console's internals in a very technical and easy to mess up process. Emulators bypass this entirely, making it easy to play games from other regions and see all of the differences between versions of the game.

Romhacking and Translation patches: Beyond playing games in their original form, emulators make it possible to play romhacks, mods, and other alterations. Translation patches allow players who don't speak a certain language to play games that didn't receive official translations. Famously, Mother 3 was never localized for a North American release, and to this day hasn't seen an official English translation. Fortunately, the game's very passionate fans translated the entire game to English, allowing tons of Mother fans to finally play the third, and best, entry in the series. Romhacks are similar, but instead of being used for translation purposes, entire game mechanics are altered. With romhacking, designers can create fan campaigns, edit game balance, create jokes, and many other things. Romhacking is a world of possibility that lets games be experienced in new ways that would be difficult to experience on original hardware.

Speedrunning: While the rules surrounding emulators obviously vary from game to game, some speedrunning scenes (especially those for handheld games) use emulators for their runs. Without emulators, some games would be much harder to speedrun, and would have smaller scenes as a result.

And more!

What are some Downsides of Emulation?

Clearly, emulators have a ton of advantages, even if you have the original hardware. However, for as great as they are, and they are pretty great, there are some downsides worth considering when using emulators.

System requirements: Emulators function by recreating hardware through software. Doing this takes a certain amount of the host machine's CPU power. For older systems this usually isn't a problem, but the more recent and complex an emulated machine is, the better your machine needs to be to smoothly run the emulator. Naturally, it's a lot easier to emulate a Playstation 5 than a Playstation 1. If your computer isn't powerful enough, there might be some emulators it can't run. I personally haven't run into this myself, but its something to keep in mind.

Finding ROMS and ISOs can be tricky: While emulators themselves can usually be downloaded easily, ROMs and ISOs are a different story. When searching for ROMs, some people come across sketchy looking websites that are filled with ads and give the impression they could give you a virus, and some of these sites very well might. This isn't to say that there aren't ways of safely obtaining ROMs and ISOs. In the past, there was EmuParadise, a quite extensive ROM library that was safe, however following a legal threat from Nintendo the site had to remove the ability to download ROMs. MyAbandonware is a pretty safe site and is my go to for PC emulation, but doesn't have much in the way of console gaming. The Internet Archive also is pretty safe, but might not have everything. In the future I want to make a post detailing ways of safely obtaining ROMs and ISOs as that is a nuanced issue, but for now know that there are safe downloads online. ROMs and ISOs NEVER come in the form of EXEs, so never run an EXE downloaded from online. Beyond that, it never hurts to do a quick google search about the site in question to find other people's experiences with the site in terms of safety.

Emulators aren't always 100% accurate: Because emulators are recreating hardware with software, it isn't always perfect. Some games don't run exactly as they would on original hardware. Textures might not appear properly, in game mechanics might be a bit wonky, and there might be some visual issues. For older systems, these kinds of problems have been largely ironed out and these emulation issues are extremely rare, but they pop up from time to time when emulating more modern systems. In my years of emulator experience, I have only encountered serious emulation errors once. Fortunately, most emulators are in continuous, open source development so visual issues often eventually get fixed. Even if the game does have some problems, a flawed, visually imperfect game is better than nothing at all.

Isn't emulation illegal?

Some people might be hesitant to get into emulation because they feel it is illegal, or that it's essentially piracy. This technically isn't the case. In 2000, Sony sued Connectix, who had recently released the Virtual Game Station, a commercial emulator for the Macintosh. The Virtual Game Station was designed to only play legal games. Players had to insert the Playstation game they wanted to play into their computer in order for the emulator to work, meaning the emulator didn't inherently enable piracy. Regardless, Sony sued Connectix, arguing the emulator infringed on their copyright and stole Sony's Playstation code. However, the court ultimately sided with Connectix. While their software did recreate the function of the Playstation, it did so with its own code which had been reverse engineered from Sony's hardware, meaning that Connectix didn't violate Sony's copyright. Sony v. Connectix established the legal precedent that emulation was entirely legal, and this has born fruit for modern game companies. Many PC games released on Steam and GoG run off DosBox, an emulator that runs Dos games. These releases come from the current rights holders and are entirely legal, even though the games use emulators. For more evidence of legal emulation, look no further than the Wii Virtual Console or Nintendo Switch Online service, both of which are commercial emulators.

While emulation is legal, the sharing of ROMs and files without permission from the copyright holders is illegal. As such, downloading ROMs from the internet is technically illegal. However, there is certainly a case to be made that, while it isn't always legal, it can be ethical to emulate classic games. If I wanted to legally play a GameCube game, I would have to go online and buy a used copy online. Depending on the popularity and rarity of the game in question, used game discs can cost anywhere from dozens to hundreds of dollars. Buying used games and the hardware to run them can be extraordinarily expensive and would put many games out of the financial reach of many individuals. It's also important to note that none of the money spent going to buy these used games is actually going to the developers who made the game.

In general, I'm actually not a huge fan of piracy, especially for indie games. My rule of thumb is that if a game can be purchased on modern hardware, I won't use emulation to play the game. I only use emulation to play games that are out of print and impossible to buy legally in a way that supports the developers. Unfortunately, there are tons of games that I can only realistically experience through emulation, and in that case I feel no guilt for doing so. I can't deny the developers a sale if they aren't selling the game. Further discussion of the ethics and legality are interesting, but might be best approached in a post of their own.

Conclusion

Emulation is an incredibly cool technology and one of the most powerful tools in the fight to preserve gaming and its history. Emulators can be complex, and in the future I hope to write further blog posts detailing the intricacies of emulation in more detail, laying out emulators I recommend and discussing other emulation and game preservation topics.

If you have any questions about emulation, game preservation, or any related subject, feel free to ask.

Have a good day.

#game history #game preservation #video games #gaming #emulation #guide #technology

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possum-down · 1 year

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Splat 3 DLC

prefice this by saying NON OF THIS IS CONFIRMED. this is mainly what I PERSONALLY would want to see in the splatoon 3 dlc, and is supported only by my own observations of in-game occurrences, nintendo stuff, and the occasional dream. if any of this does make it into the dlc, id be stoked, but i am also pretty bad at guessing so

What do we know so Far?

Very little! the only thing actual confirmations we have for the dlc is that it is coming, and that its gonna feature marina and pearl in some way as shown in splatoon 3 direct. we haven’t gotten any plot details, what new features it would bring, or even a release date.

if were comparing it to octo expansion, which came out a little under a year after splat 2′s release, we could very well see the dlc be released by august or september. on the other hand, depending on the size of the dlc, it could also take longer, but judging just from how nintendo likes to push out game releases, im guessing itll come sooner rather than later.

What are the biggest theories right know?

Concerning the dlc’s actual content, most have concluded it’s going to be focused on a world tour kinda event. This is hinted at most obviously through sunken scroll 22, which states that “After leaping from Inkopolis Square to the world stage, Off the Hook has found their new side project: performing vocals for a rising rock band as Damp Socks feat. Off the Hook!” the conclusion from this is that DSft.OTH is currently touring, and that the main protagonist of the DLC will get wrapped up in that some how. This is admittedly a very vague and non-solid premise, but seeing that we know OTH is probably going to be a big part of the DLC, its the best we have to go on.

Another more recent conclusion is that nintendo will be introducing a third playable race, in the form of cuttlings. @rassicas has made a post concerning the evidence here, so i won’t go to much into that, but it seems somewhat likely. knowing that nintendo really likes to push the theme of numbers in splatoon (all the references to the number 8 in octo expansion, three idols for splatoon 3, etc.) i don’t think it would be that much of a stretch to assume they would add a third playable race and finally add the last cephalapod species to the game (also would let them have a squid vs octopus vs cuttlefish splatfest)

What do I hope/think is gonna be in the DLC?

Personally, i think the world tour event is not only the most likely option, but also the most fun option. Similar to how the main story mode of splatoon 3 has different islands to explore as you move between kettles, i think having different music venues where you could explore little slices of the bigger splatoon world would be not only fun, but expand the in-game lore as well. It could give the splatoon team an excuse to show diffrent places weve heard about (calamari county, the northern land the bottom feeders come from, etc), without having to model something as big as the squares.

the only argument i can see against this is “how would an antagonist fit into this” and the thing is, i don’t really think there needs to be an antagonist. or rather, i don’t think there needs to be a big bad antagonist. we have already had a world-threatening baddie in the form of mr. grizz, and im hoping that nintendo doesn’t try and push such a serious plot twice, even if it is a dlc. i think an antagonist in the form of a rival band maybe, or some mysterious occurrences that keep trying to ruin pearl and marinas concerts would be a much more believable (and fun) enemy to fight rather than another commander tartar. the reason people loved octo expansion so much was because it stood out from the base game and gave players new lore on the characters they loved. the splat 3 dlc could do the same, by focusing on untapped aspects like the splatbands rather than trying to create the world-defying mission octo expansion had

Speaking of the bands, i do find it interesting that nintendo recently localized the splatbands as well. Splatbands have been around since splatoon 1, but only were localized now to english and given americanized names. along with having harmony/paruko suddenly showing up as a shopkeep, i am hoping this is signaling that the splatbands are gonna play a larger role in the actual games. I don’t think nintendo is going to go as far as to model everyone, BUT i do think it could have the potential to be the collectable item/lore in the dlc. instead of getting sunken scrolls/mem cakes from completing diffrent levels, i think band merch would be a much cooler collectible that also ties into the world tour theme. having a diffrent opening band at each location that you could then collect merch of would give an excuse to finally flesh out the splatbands in game and present the lore to a wider player base.

i think the splatband localization could also tie in a different way however. walking around the square, i find this building next to man-o-wardrobe crush station weird.

its just stand out from the other non-enterable buildings, being so prominently placed next to two other shops, and also looking like its closed off for renovations. why have this building right next to the other two on the strip?

it could be possibly hinting at another store. while i did struggle to think about what else the game could possibly sell the player, i saw a post that presented the idea of a music store where you could buy cd/vinyls to pick which songs play during your turf and anarchy battles (i cannot find the post, but when i do i’ll link it here). i think this would be a great choice for a dlc shop, since picking the songs played during battles isn’t a game changer like new clothes or weapons, and rather works more as a quality of life improvement. and again, this could offer a way to give more splatbands lore in-game, with either descriptions or fun facts given when you purchase a cd like the op proposed.

tldr: i think the dlc is gonna be a world tour that focuses on the splatbands and introduces cuttlings as the new playable species whatever the dlc does turn out to be, i really hope it’ll be fun. it does have some high expectations to live up too seeing as how well octo expansion was recieved, but im hoping it'll do what splatoon does best: release some new banging tunes, and hint at gay cephalapods

#splatoon #splatoon 3 dlc #splatoon theory #splatbands #i know this is not what i usually post #but i had to write this out since i keep bugging my friend about it #i really think music is gonna play a big role just cause of all the occurences #but #as long as the story is good and we get some lore im a okay #also please have deep cut in there somewhere #i know they were in rotm but i need more of them

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moni-harmonia · 1 year

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I wonder why, but the 3.2 update seems so long right now. Even if it’s just 5 weeks, thinking that we still have 2 weeks left... it feels like we’ve been here forever!

Maybe because I got used to doing so many new things in Sumeru and this is the first update that got the minimal aside from the archon quest.

The main event was a bit simple too, it wasn’t a big festival or anything, there wasn’t a lot to talk about.

I guess I’m just very excited to have Scara playable, that’s why it seems like it’s taking so long... I mean, I still haven’t even done Nahida’s quest so it’s not like I’m up to date with everything.

But seen that we’ll get a possibly cool Interlude in 3.3, with playable Scara and also the new TCG makes me so excited! And I’m not even a fan of TCGs, but it’s a new mechanic that will feel fresh and if I understand the game correctly then it could be really fun.

3.3 can’t come fast enough!

#I'm just excited ok??#I want more story!#I'm very curious about what will happen #And I want to try new things #Genshin Impact #mine

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the-rainbow-lesbian · 10 months

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idk how active you are in the genshin fandom but i wonder if you know zajef? he's a theory crafter, i absolutely hate him but i watched him to build some of my characters.. his worst take to date yet is that raiden is /worse/ than dottore (okay raiden was partly responsible for a civil war but she wasn't the sole factor and she had some more or less valid reasons for it.. like the fact that she was grieving for her beloved sister and was completely unprepared for her role as archon (she was merely a samurai/the brawn while makoto was the brains) dottore on the other hand? willingly tortured ppl, children included, and gruesomely murdered a woman he was "dating" when he was a student, etc) and i was like.. yes this is such a male opinion. also i love morally grey female characters... need more of that.

idk if arlecchino will suffer the same fate as yae and raiden though, because she's a harbinger and ppl in the fandom have the biggest boner for them, if anything ppl will complain if she's not evil enough.. (i've already seen ppl complaining about how are hyv gonna redeem someone who kills the parents of children who are raised to be soldiers? they think she's gonna become a typical waifu)

oops sorry for ranting :^)

I think people overestimate Ei’s crimes because when we went to Inazuma it was very tense let’s just say, so people got the feeling that Ei was some fascist dictator not counting the fact that the vision hunt decree only affected a small minority of people and the sakoku decree was the one that affected the general population most, and they only lasted for few years, not decades. some fans legit think Ei or the samurai were murdering people for fun but like that was not the case :) and the civil war only happened because Orobashi attacked Inazuma but before that Ei left Orobashi and Watatsumi alone, and only slain him when he attacked. there is in-game speculation about why Orobashi attacked Celestia basically told him to kill himself after he read forbidden text. even after Ei slain him she didn’t try to assert authority over Watatsumi and allowed them to give offerings to Orobashi’s corpse. I know they resent Ei and they have the right to do that since they don’t know the real reason (also they asked him to attack Inazuma but I can’t be too hard on them since they were low on resources) let’s just say it was a complicated situation but Ei had every right to defend her people, her people loved her precisely cause she kept them safe. some players were confused about why the citizens “forgave” Ei and didn’t want to overthrow her but like I said they overestimated Ei’s “crimes”

male villains like Scara get babied around even though they actually had evil intentions, Ei was just misguided and had very low self-esteem about her ability to be a ruler.

as for Arlecchino, make no mistake they are gonna be insufferable about her and write post after post trying to “cancel” her. I was hesitant about her being playable, because I didn’t want her to be redeemed cause how do you redeem someone who raises orphans into soldiers? my speculation (and hope) is that she will be on speaking terms with the traveler because they are interesting as a descender, she might just tolerate us or want to watch what we do, without caring much for our wellbeing, I think she is capable of that level of manipulation.

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peaseblossom101 · 2 years

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(Not so mini) game review: Coral Island early access! Coral Island is a farming sim/Stardew-Valley-alike from Indonesia-based independent game studio Stairway Games. I’ve been super excited about this game for a while - I backed it on Kickstarter, and play-tested the alpha a little bit. I’m so happy to say that the current version of the game is very much worth that excitement and investment.

I’ve played about a year in-game, so I have a decent idea of what it’s going to be like. It’s in early access, which means there’s a lot that’s not done yet (and occasionally some confusion when you can’t do a thing as to whether you haven’t figured it out, or whether it just hasn’t been implemented yet), but it is playable, and already a lot of fun. The core of it is very Stardew Valley. You’re going to be farming, foraging, raising animals, mining, fishing, befriending villagers, and going to twice-monthly festivals. Currently fishing kind of needs some work, but otherwise it’s all very familiar (ymmv whether it’s too familiar, or just the right amount).

Coral Island does introduce some new things into the mix. There’s bug catching, which is pretty straightforward, and fun. There’s a lot more emphasis on decorating both your house and your farm land, which you know I love. The art design for this game is gorgeous, from the character design to the scenery. Even your farm machines are pretty!

The biggest new mechanic is diving. The main story of the game is that there was an oil spill not too long ago, and the island is suffering because of it, so one of your activities is cleaning up the surrounding oceans. It’s honestly a great addition, and leads to its own very charming plot developments.

The one issue I have, which is not really a criticism, but something worth considering, is that there’s almost too much of it. There are a lot of different activities to learn and master. The island is massive, and takes time to explore (or even just to walk across, although this gets mitigated by fast travel stations that unlock fairly early). There are so many villagers to meet - something like sixty, of which 25 or so are possible date/marriage candidates. Fortunately, it does seem to be a lot less punitive than Stardew Valley about a lot of things, so you can take it at a slower pace, and not worry about setting yourself back accidentally.

Anyway, if you made it this far, let me reiterate that if you like farming games, and pretty things, you’re going to want to wishlist this right now!

#coral island #farming sim #cozy games

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alynnl · 1 year

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actually I want to know your thoughts on Legend of Dragoon too. And throw in Legend of Legaia while you're at it!

Oh my. It's been ages since I originally played either one but I'll answer to the best of my ability.

For Legend of Dragoon -

Favorite thing about that game: The dragoon spirits and their different abilities. Each one had different uses in battle and then there was the elemental rock, paper, scissors that led a player to target weaknesses, which is a JRPG staple. Also I thought the dragoon armor designs were cool.

Least favorite thing about that game: I guess it's the fact that I saw the whole deal with Shana coming from a mile away. I recognize both the childhood friend romance and the "person being key to a world ending event" tropes being key parts of storytelling in its time but I don't know. The whole "People as objects" (it's almost always female characters!) - puts me off.

Favorite character in that game: Albert, my man! I will admit to my younger self (14-15 years old) having a crush on him, but all in all he's just a decent person. He wants to be a good king and help others, and he's willing to pick up a lance and do the fighting himself if that's what it takes. Also I liked his bromance with Lavitz quite a lot.

Would I recommend it? Why? I don't know if I could recommend it now. The actual hardware to play it would be hard to come by, and I think a lot of the writing and the mistranslation would date this game quite a bit. But it does remain a fond memory of its time.

Free space to go off about something! Can Legend of Dragoon get a remaster? A remake? Something to bring it into the 2020s? I feel like it's becoming a bit of lost media at this point and it's kind of a shame! I'd like to experience it again with fresh eyes and a new perspective as an adult, but at the moment it's not possible!

Rating out of 10: 6/10. I don't remember hating it at the very least. Some of the characters and plot points were enjoyable but others I could take or leave. It's a mixed bag, but I still think this game is worth something because I do remember it well over two decades later!

For Legend of Legaia -

Favorite thing about that game: I liked the combos that you put in. It's similar to a fighting game (but you're not putting in the Konami code!) It was interesting finding out the different moves you could use, and even better when you added the Seru into the mix. Gameplay wise Legaia was very fun.

Least favorite thing about that game: Some of the battles are tough, especially in early game. You really have to be on your toes all the time if you want to win. This was a game in the era where they did not hold your hand, and it shows.

Favorite character in that game: Noa. I love her first meeting and then finding out her origin story later. And I also like her fighting spirit. She might have a simple understanding of the world because she was literally raised by a wolf/Seru, but she does come to know what love is and she wants to fight for it! I respect her writing for that.

Would I recommend it? Why? For the same reason as Dragoon, I can't recommend it solely because it's so hard to find now! But if money and hardware were no object, I would say go for it? The world building is solid, the storytelling simple but enjoyable and the music is quite nice.

Free space to go off about something! Same as Dragoon above but... can we somehow bring this game to modern hardware? I think that it would be a good addition to other classic JRPG collections that are included on consoles like the Nintendo Switch and the Playstation 4. I know I would definitely play it again if I had the chance.

Rating out of 10: 7/10! Cool world building, nice imagery, and gameplay that shakes up the JRPG formula. I also like the fact there's only three main playable characters, since it gives each of them more than enough screentime and development. (Even silent protagonist Vaan is enjoyable!)

#replied #send a game ask #Legend of Dragoon #Legend of Legaia #90s era RPGs

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