#finally a real reason to buy the ps5

[featherbow]

"We’ve updated our Steam page to better reflect the content of the game and bring the Early Access section up to date, as well as the specifications. On that page, we’re recommending that players don’t buy the Early Access version of Baldur's Gate 3 with a view to play through that content, partly because it’s out of date but mostly because we’re so close to launch and want to make it very clear that saves in the Early Access version will not transfer into the final game. This is due to technical reasons.

Essentially, the game is so vastly different that it’s not possible to make those save files compatible. Early Access will, of course, remain playable up to launch.

A purchase of Early Access is essentially a pre-order, and will still grant you access to the Digital Deluxe content for Baldur's Gate 3 on PC, granting you access to: an exclusive in-game dice skin, the Divinity Bard Song Pack, Treasures of Rivellon Pack, Adventurer’s Pouch, Digital OST, Digital Artbook, and Digital Character Sheets for D&D IRL.

The PC Digital Deluxe Edition does not include a 72 hour head start, which would have essentially made the game’s release date July 31st. Shifting the release date – and thus communication around the Digital Deluxe Editions across PS5 and PC – came with a few complexities that we didn’t manage to communicate very well, so we thought it best to clarify it here, given that a 72 hour head start on PC wouldn't have been plausible.

But isn’t it wild? Our PC launch is just a few weeks away! Baldur's Gate 3 is set to release to PC on August 3rd, followed by its PlayStation 5 release just a few weeks later on September 6th – or September 3rd if you pre-ordered the Digital Deluxe Edition for PS5.

For those of you who have been with us throughout Early Access, we want to thank you for all your support over the years. One of the reasons we chose to release Baldur's Gate 3 in Early Access is because it would give us an opportunity to listen to your feedback and make meaningful changes in return. As a result, your participation has been instrumental in helping us bring the Forgotten Realms to life. Everything you play – be it Act 2 & 3, or a return to Act 1 – will reflect how we’ve gotten better at making the game, thanks in no small part to all of your feedback, comments, and love over the years.

We also want to send out a very special thank you to everyone who’s been sending us hyperrealistic Halsin fan art. It inspires us, it sustains us, it frightens us to our core. The meme game has been real.

We still have some work to do, but we’re thrilled to learn that those who played the game at our recent press event really enjoyed what they experienced, and we can’t wait for you to experience it yourselves."

#Baldur's Gate 3 #BG3

[nuggyshouse]

Do you recommend FF16 at all?

I think I'm going to use this as a jumping off point for my FF16 review: TLDR: YES 5/5, 9/10, 17/20

I really like where the story ended up. I think the game kind of relishes in the warfare aspect of it at first, because after a certain point they include a map where you can look at what army is doing what during any part of the story. I wasnt huge on that and I didnt pay attention to it but it didn't matter anyway. There are some contrivances in the story but I was able to largely ignore them. some real Cinema Sins "ding" shit but it's there if you care about that kinda stuff. There's huge bombastic kaiju fights that act as really cool setpieces. I really liked the combat and after a ways into the game it gets very customizable. I think a critique I saw was that it's too easy, and I think yeah it's pretty easy. the hardest fights are all optional hunt bosses you can find and that was a lot of fun. the side quests are kind of not great, and there's little indication on if it's dumb bullshit or really cool lore shit. there IS indication if it gives you a really good upgrade which is pretty cool. It's kind of worth it to do all the side quests and hunts. I think one of the strongest aspects of the combat is how customizable your abilities are. you'll find a lot of ways to chain stuff together which is pretty great. the crafting system sucks. you have endless resources just by playing the game normally and fucking nothing to spend them on. You craft one sword and it's the best sword you'll have for 5 whole hours. no additional stats just strength and stagger. same goes for your armor. I crafted the Drakeslayer armor and I didnt change it until the ultimate Oroboros armor showed up 30 hours later. The best equipment options are the accessories which change actual stats and stuff. Reduces cooldown on moves, changes attributes of certain things, increases potion healing. The problem with that was I was pretty okay with what I had (auto torgal accessory, berserker ring, and potion healing increased by 40%) that I almost never changed it. I think the one time I did was some stuff that made it so I gained more EXP and Ability Points, and then back to normal after I finished what little grinding I wanted to do. Those are good shit though. the thing is you can't craft them, you buy/pick them up. so it's another reason crafting is useless and stupid. I think it's just fun. It's not a huge challenge, but it hit a sweet spot for me. Some people are saying it's piss easy but I had trouble in some spots. I dumped probably 60 hours into it and I usually don't play games that much. It was detrimental to my work ethic for like a week and a half. Great game. oh yeah it's also gorgeous and load times are almost nonexistent. the only time you notice a load is when you have to push a door open with a qte or when you fast travel. you select a different map and the screen goes black for 5 seconds and you're in a completely different map. that's the power of the PS5. Shit like this spoiled me because making games seamless like this just makes it more obvious when the temple opens up in zelda TOTK, and you walk into the hole and there's a loading screen. PS5 wouldnt do that. I'm so spoiled by PS5 shit it's fucked up. It's so fucked up we got a real playable game that has in-engine graphics better than fucking Final Fantasy: The Sprits Within. it's so fucked up. so so fucked up.

[phantasyhalation]

crazy how back ten-fifteen years ago anything and everything was trying to market itself as the be-all end-all Über HDD Home Media Center for all your MP3s and movies and games. i'm afraid it was too visionary. storage was so expensive back then! barely a decade later and HDD is cheap as all hell, even as externals, and SDD has become widely adopted and reasonably priced for vital files. the costs for all forms of physical media were steep, but it was a promising time! sure, convergence was finally starting to feel real back then, but it just made the singularity more appealing. those first soft storage home media centers were garbage! early smart TVs, externals with bundled-in media centre bloatware, the launch PS3's price points - god, no wonder people kept buying PS2s. but looking back, there was a real fervor in the air, wasn't there? discs were better than tapes, which were certainly better than old super 8s, but they were still clunky, and fragile, and a real pain for us datahoarders. made the advent of digital streaming so much more enticing: you mean i get all this media on demand with zero need for storage?

yeah anyway now your phone will try and electrocute you in your sleep if you've got spotify music downloaded but miss a payment and youtube won't play in the background unless you pay adsense king google for its single-site premium subscription. i tried to teach a friend how to Download Movies Online last year - or hell, even stream them for cheaper, and she halfway lost her mind. her laptop doesn't have an HDMI port anyway; good luck getting those up on your TV for the gang these days. the most popular PS5 model doesn't take discs. i think the dream's hit a roadblock.

#going through ps3 marketing material and thinking about the tv at one of my old friend's home. and then the roku attacked. good times #this post inspired by my monthly battle to put new doujin music as real portable Files in a process that only gets harder year after year #latency.txt

[leam1983]

On Weird Narrative Choices

TechTubers might not think of themselves as creating stories, but the modding and homebrew scenes absolutely love walking a third party through the minutia of sticking a Raspberry Pi Pico or custom-ordered breadboard or PCB into Ye Olde Video Game Console for the sake of re-enabling features or expanding on a "reduced" model. Case in point, Macho Nacho Productions' soldering of SD and Memory Card slots onto a Wii Mini's motherboard, in order to re-enable features lost in Nintendo's shot at reduflation.

What's reduflation, you ask? It's a portmanteau of reduction and inflation, in which you take a given object, strip it down and then sell it either for the same price as the original design, or at a discount that's not really representative of the features lost. It's a design trend that inspires everything between "jumbo size" bags of chips being of the same exact size as last year's Regular-size bags, to electronics manufacturers portioning out a section of their inventory for a pared-down, supposedly "budget" version of their main offering.

Take the PS3, for instance, and its total of three instances, from the fat front-loader to a motor-operated top-loader and finally to the old reliable Push Button and latch-based slim top loader. The practice fits, but Sony's earning brownie points here, seeing as the PS3 Slim's two models are not just the object of cost cuts, but also of design improvements. This isn't quite the case with the Wii Mini. The red-rimmed console has the exact same board as its bigger cousin, the controller ports and memory card readers simply aren't soldered in. You can see the spot where there'd be joins on the PCB; there's simply nothing there.

Now, my gripe is with content creators who say that "for some reason", Nintendo would've chosen to do this. If you're going to tell a story, at least be thorough and mention that the early two-thousands saw a small electronics-related market crunch, which made some of the components needed to assemble and solder GameCube ports and Memory Card slots pricier than usual. Nintendo simply decided to pivot and to dedicate a measure of its inventory to a second-tier selection that wouldn't be affected by these increased costs, thereby maintaining the Wii lineup's profit margin.

In effect, the Wii Mini was made in the same kind of bull market that made GPUs very difficult to buy at MSRP, up until fairly recently. It wasn't drummed up "for some reason" - executives are far too money-hungry to not see the benefit of a costs-to-benefits adjustment.

Things are slightly different, nowadays. Microsoft is going to keep dividing its XBOX offering into incremental tiers to maintain the core offering's supposedly-premium status, Sony's more than likely exploring revised-cost editions of the PS5, and Nintendo's already broken through with the Switch Lite.

As for the opposite - trumping up a Deluxe build with artificial scarcity - Nintendo's smart about not pushing its OLED Switch too hard, or in not really quashing fan speculation about a Switch Two, Switch Pro, Switch Super or what have you. What they want is to create a situation where the Big Box retailer of your choice is left free to pout at you and say "Aw, shucks - sorry about your Super Mega Console Edition; we're not expecting new stock for the next three weeks. I can put you on a wait list; or maybe hit you up with a perfectly-serviceable Core model, with which That Game You Want is already fully compatible..."

That Gamer Envy model you want so much exists solely to drive up sales of the core model you were perfectly content with until the Company announced a slight uptick in processor speeds or an OLED screen that gives you barely darker blacks with no real upticks in performance.

In other words, they want you to make the stupidest choice you could make for the sake of firing off those dopamine and serotonin receptors - and saying that some stock management-related decisions are part of some cryptic and unknowable process we can't ascertain further propagates the notion that consumers of a market as volatile as the gaming culture's are at the mercy of its suppliers.

We aren't. Educate your viewers, don't make publishers and manufacturers pass for the Wizard of Oz. Lift the fucking curtain.

#gaming #gaming market #games industry #nintendo #wii #wii mini #modding #advocacy #consumer rights

[krewekreep]

Introduction of sorts + Interests

Animated

Castlevania (I somewhat specifically made this blog to write about Alucard🤪)

Helluva Boss (thank TikTok)

Invincible

Young Justice, Justice League, every other DC thing

Corpse Bride, Nightmare before Christmas, Coraline etc

I’m also Cartoon Network/Adult Swim coded so I promise I’ll know some random cartoon from sometime at some point in history. I’ve seen most of everything if it had a cartoon or a cartoon channel, seriously. I’ll need a whole other post for my cartoon likes.

Comics

DC Comics

I’m trying to read more Western stuff again but remember the mountains of lore I’m returning to so I’m also into completely indie or non-superhero comics.

I got into Marvel movies which got me into Marvel comics but since I was more DC coded growing up (although I really loved 00s X-Men, I had no real grasp of it being a Marvel thing) I already shifted my taste towards a darker or grittier experience. Likewise, where Marvel does get into that…it’s nowhere in the movies so by Civil War I had the Marvel fatigue I see finally hitting the fanboys. This watered down whatever is certainly not solely phase four (and diversity)…but hmmm.

It became a Marvel exposition but that’s all to say I’ll have to learn alot more to really have a non-movie grasp of Marvel people—DC characters? I got you ! Including the obscure as I’m one of those Blerds that begged my dad to buy a $50 A-Z DC Comic Encyclopedia. One of my most prized possessions😭

Specifically though my favorite superhero is Batman. I know TOO MUCH Batman lore and actually had characters bdays in my calendar to celebrate at a point. (I was young, spare me) But yeah my favorite story arc is Batman RIP and my favorite villain is Scarecrow, Black Mask, and Solomon Grundy.

Video Games

Perfect Segway as one of my favorite games (and reason I begged my dad for an XBOX 360 was Batman Arkham City. I bought Arkham Aslyum and City pre-owned from GameStop 😭) It was the first time I felt like a real gamer (besides playing Smash on GameCube tbh) and the experience of a story and being old enough to really care and get into it made it feel exactly how those streamers playing felt).

Other video games I’m into even if not for gameplay are:

Final Fantasy

Mortal Kombat (played since 9 up until the most recent which is 2023’s Mortal Kombat 1. I have not played cause I need a PS5🫤)

Castlevania

Guilty Gear

Street Fighter (played a few besides the newest one this year)

Tekken (also played a few besides the new one)

Animal Crossing (played since GameCube…in that vein I play Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, Rune Factory, etc.

FromSoft Games (played Bloodborne, Sekiro, and love the lore of all the games. Elden Ring of course is where I’m interested most and really want to play)

Resident Hill, Silent Hill, FNAF, Bioshock etc etc etc including beyond horror

Dinner Dash, Virtual Villagers, Sims 4 😂 anything really from the 00s I was an only child with internet access…

#video games #get to know me #new account #blerd #Batman #dc comics #marvel comics #animal crossing #castlevania #street fighter #text post #Justice league #young Justice #helluva boss #animation #animated #krewekreep

[art-making-grat]

I posted 79 times in 2022

That's 79 more posts than 2021!

65 posts created (82%)

14 posts reblogged (18%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@thehornedsystem

@catcrumb

@nuppu-nuppu

@justmenoworries

@besosquecreanadiccion

I tagged 48 of my posts in 2022

Only 39% of my posts had no tags

#art - 33 posts

#drawing - 31 posts

#messy drawing - 10 posts

#genshin - 8 posts

#sketch - 7 posts

#oc - 6 posts

#fanart - 6 posts

#genshin impact - 5 posts

#genshin fanart - 4 posts

#color - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 45 characters

#someone buy me a ps5 rn i need to try this 😤

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

yay it’s finally done and now I can work on other stuff asflkshslkaha

7 notes - Posted October 4, 2022

#4

just another tuesday

venti: *drunk* hEyYyYyYyyyyyyyyy 😏😏😏😏😏🤭

diluc who is used to this happening: *ignores him … continues working*

zhongli: *gags* you disgust me 😒😔🤢😤*sighs like an old man* 

kaeya: *also drunk* hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii 😋🥴

paimon: does this mean paimon will have to carry the tone deaf bard home…?  kazuha: *awkward and concerned* are you feeling alright, friend?

itto: BETCHU CANT DO ANOTHER ONE 😤 - venti: oH yEaH??

scaramouche who challenged venti to a drinking competition then proceeded to drink water: I WIN 😈😈😈😈😈😈

childe: well venti, if you think you can handle another one… drinks on me 😏💰

albedo who got dragged along for some reason even though he isn’t friends with anybody: I’m afraid this is an unhealthy addiction you have 😕 alcohol poisoning is a real issue *goes on about all the ways alcohol can kill you blah blah blah in gory detail*

literally everybody to albedo: ohmygod why would you say that 😭🤢😰☠️

See the full post

8 notes - Posted November 17, 2022

#3

WIP lol

11 notes - Posted November 9, 2022

#2

venti :))

23 notes - Posted November 16, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

okay it’s coming along so much better than i ever expected 😭 

62 notes - Posted November 22, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #ahahahahahahahhahahahahhahahahahah yesssssssssss

[terricell]

When will gran turismo 7 be released

#When will gran turismo 7 be released trial

#When will gran turismo 7 be released Ps4

Considering how similar much of the racing aspects of GT7 will likely be with GT Sport, they will want to keep as much reason as possible (4k resolution, ray tracing, new content) for gamers to buy GT7. I think they split their codebase a long time ago to start optimizing for PS5. I don’t think they will be patching GT Sport with native 4K support.

#When will gran turismo 7 be released Ps4

I think GT Sport as more of a GT 7 Prologue simply as a means to deliver something on the PS4 generation. Ultimately I think GT 7 on PS5 and beyond was always their intention when they set out to rebuild their game engine and assets from the ground up, with HDR up to 10k nits, 8k textures, etc. I also don’t expect to see any major changes to the race UI or race cameras - maybe minor tweaks, but just like in the trailer they showed I think a lot of that will carry over from GT Sport. I wouldn’t be surprised to see minor tweaks to the tire/handling models and AI, but I don’t expect any major updates in that respect. It adds an extra layer of realism that the car is truly present in the environment. That was a hammerblow because it would have been the second delay for this highly. You'll remember that early this week, we heard unfortunate delay rumors regarding Gran Turismo 7. Thankfully, a leaker has confirmed the release date for us. I hope that is a feature they consider implementing in the final game. There were rumors of Gran Turismo 7 being delayed after a media event was cancelled at the last minute.

#When will gran turismo 7 be released trial

I am disappointed there was still no sound reverb when the Mazda is driving through the tunnel in Trial Mountain or near walls in the gameplay trailer. A minor gripe I have had with GT Sport was not being able to rely on sound to position cars around me as much as I would have liked. The in-game footage they showed I can hear a minor improvement to the sound engine in being able to hear more motor/exhaust noises from the non-player cars around the player car. I believe their sound recordings will translate into this generation just fine. Unless of course Kaz was only being half truthful, as perhaps they have been developing GT7 content alongside GT Sport for years, and simply never intended that extra content to be patched into GT Sport, hence his comment they were providing GT Sport tracks/cars as fast as they could develop them. If they delay to 2021, they could have a dozen new tracks and 100+ new cars. I think if it is to be a launch title it will have only a handful of new tracks and maybe 50 added cars at launch over where GT Sport is today. Kaz mentioned in an interview last year they were bringing cars/tracks to GT Sport as quick as they could model them (before stopping end of last year to focus on GT7). Enough people complained when GT Sport came out with a small car/track roster, and they might not want to set that tone at the launch of GT7. I guess my main question is whether they will hold back to 2021 simply in order to add more content to separate it from GT Sport. It is clear they have added ray tracing to their game engine, but they won’t need to re-model the cars/tracks for this. They were very clear when GT Sport came out that they developed assets for the next generation, claiming their textures will still look great up to 8k resolution. Gran Turismo 7 does a great job improving on the customization options available in Gran Turismo Sport and brings them more in-line with competitors like Forza.I see no reason it couldn’t be a launch title. Along with all the usual cosmetic adjustments, shifting weight around a car's frame or adjusting the height of your suspension will change the way it handles turns and accelerates. The game's focus on real-world simulation also makes the detailed customizations you can add to cars feel more impactful. Gradually unlocking cars in Gran Turismo 7 and upgrading a favorite with my limited reward money feels more meaningful than hopping between dozens of different vehicles in Forza. It might sound like less fun at first, but even as a casual fan of racing games I appreciate the straight-forward approach of Gran Turismo 7 when compared to the bombastic stunts and destructible environments of Forza Horizon 5. While games like Forza and Need for Speed allow for more forgiving, arcade-inspired driving (including Forza's rewind button), cars in Gran Turismo 7 feel like they obey the laws of physics and don't drift around turns with the same sort of ease. Gran Turismo 7 just focuses on regular races and "license" practice courses designed to improve your in-game driving skills. Other racing games, like the Xbox-exclusive Forza Horizon 5, have embraced variety in the genre with off-road driving, exploration, cinematic stories, and a bunch of game modes.

#When will gran turismo 7 be released

[boozerman]

Spider-Cat in Spider-Man: Miles Morales

#gamingedit #dailyvideogames #userstream #userkd #mikaeled #winterswake #wolfamongthem #vindicia #spid #spiderman #miles morales #finally a real reason to buy the ps5 #this is the best feature of this game

[myrfing]

big 6.1 reaction thread that I will update since that is more smoove

it's ok gourd didn't get adventurer headways by making conversation he just overhears shit. you cant help it when your ear bones are that big

NO ESTINIEN EVERYONE WAS RIGHT YOU'RE GETTING CONNED AGAIN NO AOGDJSIGDSG NO

ESTINIENNNNNNNNNNN HELPPPP GOURD YOU'RE JUST GONNANWATCH YEAH HE IS ACTUALLY THAT'S KIND OF IN CHARACTER ACTUALLY

ooh do ppl still comment stuff like "i didnt recognize you" "dressed for adventure" if you're not wearing tataru prada

ohhh I see estinien I doubted your intelligence for a second. or fifty. or as long as I've known you. i owe you one compliment

bro you cna just give the child money directly. LMOFAOOOAOOAOAO

gourd you're making estinien look shrunkenhead here for some reason

did my choice actually matter or did we all get shoed into graha krill (shrimp duo) heaven because graha fans are always cheating and we always win

GRAHA'S VOICE TRAILING OFF LIKE THAT? YOU STUPID CATBOYYY

*gourd writing in his notes app* umm Estinien. His whole family died

YSHTOLAAA LMFAOOO SHE'S SO CUTE hi. uhh. they gave you ear wigle

GREATEST OF ALL TIME...UNDER WADDER

fell asleep woke up to do this dungeon immediately and also yes I wiped us to the spin even with tank privilege because I was giggling and clapping and dancing

ohh it really is void time. also dont worry moldy little dragon I put my hands over these all the time in world of darkness raid

FUNNIEST DIALOGUE OPTION AND YOUR WOL LOOKS SO SERIOUS WHEN SAYING IT. DUNCE

THE FACT WE'RE ALL THE GROWNASS SCIONS AND WE CANT BLUFF THROUGH THGHTGHTGTHR. scions reconvene only to um destroy personal property but like why do you sit on a gold hoard anyway vrtra

oh okay. we were actually going to steal it and use it to buy ps5s vrtra

THIS IS SO TRADITIONAL FANTASY that knight looks meatious

bury the orphans beneath the stage like dogs is what ive learned. or yes taxes

gourd standing there not mentioning the void ark shit nor cylva & unu LMFAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

aw yshtola. i finally get to do something for you after all these years. limsa starters winning

the little remix in the archives. also this is far less books than I expected. tiny ass archive

NO I PICKED UP THE VOLUME FIRST GO AND NOW I DIDNT GET TO READ THE OTHER BOOKS?

nidhana..yes we want YOU beloved elephance

I love how there's no music at the font of maya. place of tranquility for real

ESTINIEN WHAHGHGHT?? WHY

you know I have a feeling yshtola might um unleash tha void and that's totally fine but given the fanbase's recent weird uptick of virulent hate for her well.

oh a drippy? is she going to make a drippy...

HELP DID SHE MAKE BEING A MAGICAL GIRL A PART OF THE INCANTATION

THE ... OPTIONNNNN

im laughinign so hard you're sending them into HELL like that

NIDHANA DOING A LITTLE JIG IN THE BG SHE'S SO CUTE

also was...estinien there when we met matoya? how does he know anything about her. forgetting bits of heavensward moments

YES THERE IS. I KNOW ONE. CYLVA CYLVA YSHTOLA HER NAME IS CYLVA YOU HAVE TO BRING HER INTO THE MSQ

nabdeen's brit accent is so funny why do you talk like that here

bald man summer

ok. i really liked it cute patch yshtola time. all I can ask for

#6.1 spoilers #ffxiv

[celepeace]

A monster-taming game recommendation list for fans of Pokemon

Whether you're a pokemon fanatic obsessed with all things pokemon past and present, or a veteran fan disillusioned with GameFreak's recent adoption of monetary philosophies and strategies reminiscent of other major game publishers, or looking for a monster-taming fix as you await new Pokemon content...

I'm compiling here a post of little-known games in the genre that Pokemon fans are likely to enjoy!

Under readmore cause long, but some of these games really don’t get the attention they deserve, so if you have the time, please read!

(I am also likely to keep updating and editing this post)

First up is Temtem!

Temtem is a game made by and for Pokemon fans, from the spanish indie developer Crema. Temtem is currently in early access on Steam and PS5, and is likely to remain in early access until sometime late next year. Full launch will include a Nintendo Switch release, too. Despite this, it has plenty of content to explore before full release. The developers are active, release new content on a semi-regular basis, and are responsive to the community as a whole and individuals if you happen to come across a bug you want to report.

Temtem boasts a wide variety of monsters to collect and train. It takes place in the Airborne Archipelago, a system of floating islands that orbit their star, the Pansun. The monsters inhabiting the archipelago are called Temtem, or tem(s), for short.

As far as game mechanics go, it has many similarities to Pokemon, but also many important distinctions. The biggest one, in my opinion, is that the element of chance has been removed from battle entirely. Moves cannot miss, have the same power constantly, and status afflictions have an obviously displayed countdown to when they will wear off (for instance, sleep lasts as long as it says it will last. Not 2-4 turns). PP does not exist, either. Your tems can battle for as long as their HP holds out. In place of PP, a new system called Stamina exists. Stamina is an individual stat, like HP and Attack. Each move costs a certain amount of stamina. If you go over the amount of stamina your tem has, the deficit is detracted from your health instead, and that tem cannot move next turn. Stamina passively regenerates a certain amount each turn, and items and moves exist that can heal stamina. All battles are also double-battles, you and your opponent will typically have two tems on the field at a time. This is just a few of the differences Temtem has from Pokemon, but they're some of the biggest ones.

Temtem is also a massively multiplayer game. You complete the storyline independently (or with a friend through co-op!), but in the overworld you can see other, real players moving around and interacting with the world. There is also public and area-specific chat you can talk to other players through. Despite this, all multiplayer functions are (currently) completely optional. You do not need to interact with others to complete the game.

Overall, Temtem is suitable for the Pokemon fan who is looking for a more challenging experience. Temtem is not a walk in the park you can blaze through with a single super-strong monster. For one, individual tem strength is more well-balanced than it is in Pokemon. There are very few (if any!) completely useless tems. Even some unevolved tems have their niche in the competitive scene! Aside from that, enemy tamers are scaled quite high, and you typically cannot beat them just from the exp you get from other enemy tamers. You have to do some wild-encounter grinding if you want to progress.

Temtem is a very fun game and I've already gotten over 100 hours out of it, despite only 3/5-ish of the planned content being released!

However, I do feel obligated to warn any prospective players of one thing: the current endgame is quite inaccessible. After you complete what is currently implemented of the main storyline, there is still quite a lot left to explore and do, but much of it is locked behind putting a lot of hours into the game. You kind of have to get perfect temtem to do the current PVE (and this is also somewhat true for the PVP too). By perfect I mean you have to breed a good tem and then train it to get the preferable EVs (called TVs in temtem). This takes... well, for a whole team... tens of hours. Of boring grinding. Some people enjoy it! But I don't. Regardless, the game was still worth buying because the non-endgame content is expansive and fun.

So overall, pros & cons:

Pros

Battle system is more friendly towards a competitive scene

Cute monsters

Lots of gay characters, also you can choose pronouns (including they/them) independently from body type and voice

Less difference between the objectively bad tems and good tems than there is in Pokemon

Lots of stuff to do even in early access

Most conversations with dialog choices have the option to be a complete ass for no reason other than it’s fun

Having less type variety in your team is less punishing than in Pokemon due to the synergy system and types overall having less weaknesses and resistances

At least one major character is nonbinary

Cons

Falls prey to the issue of MMOs having in-game economies that are only accessible to diehard no-life players

Related to the above point, cosmetics are prohibitively expensive

Endgame CURRENTLY is inaccessible to most players unless you buy good monsters from other players or spend tens of hours making your own. However I must add that the grind is great if you like that kind of thing and is quite easy and painless to do while watching a show or something.

Here is their Steam page and here is their official website.

Next is Monster Hunter: Stories!

This is a spinoff game of the Monster Hunter franchise released for the 3DS in 2018. If you're anything like me, and you've played the core Monster Hunter games, you've often thought "Man, I wish I could befriend and ride these cool dragon creatures instead of killing or maiming them!"

Well now you can! In Stories, as I will be calling it, you play as a rider rather than a hunter. Riders steal monster eggs from wild nests to raise them among humans as companions and guardians. And yes, egg stealing is a whole mechanic in of itself in this game.

This game works pretty differently from most monster-collecting games. You do battle (usually) against one or two wild monsters using your own, except you fight alongside your monsters too. With swords and stuff. There's armor and weapons you can smelt to make yourself stronger. Type match-ups also kind of don't exist in this game? Except they do? But not in a way you'd expect?

The vast majority of attacking moves you and your monster use fall into categories reminiscent of rock-paper-scissors. Moves can be categorized as power, speed, or technical. Speed beats power, technical beats speed, and power beats technical. The matchup of your move vs your opponent's determines how a turn will go down. If one move beats the other in matchup, then the winner's move will get to go and the loser doesn't get to do anything. If you tie, you both get hit, but for reduced damage. There's also abilities and basic attacks, with abilities basically being the same as pokemon moves, and basic attacks just being "I hit you for normal damage within this category". Also, you don't control what your monster does all the time in battle. You can tell it to use abilities, but what kind basic attacks it carries out is determined by its species' preference. Velicidrome, for instance, prefers speed attacks, but Yian Garuga prefers technical. Stamina also exists in this game in a very similar manner to Temtem.

Overall this game carries over a lot of mechanics Monster Hunter fans will find familiar (how items and statuses work for instance). You don't have to have played a core Monster Hunter game to enjoy Stories though! It's fine and is easy to understand as a stand-alone.

The story has some likable characters and is rather long (it was actually adapted into an anime!), for those of you who enjoy a good story.

I'd really recommend this one especially. If it sounds fun to you and you can drop $30, just do it. I bought it on a whim and I got a few weeks' worth of playing almost nonstop out of it, and I didn't even get to do everything! (I got distracted by Hades, oops)

Stories is also getting a sequel later next year on the nintendo switch! How exciting!

And yes, you do ride the monsters.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Large variety of cool monsters to befriend and raise

Pretty lengthy story

Every tamable monster is also rideable

Deceptively simple combat mechanics, easy to be okay at, hard to master

Incorporates some mechanics from early turn-based party rpgs like Final Fantasy for a nice twist on the monster collecting genre

Cons

Many monsters are objectively outclassed by other ones, making what can be in an actually good team more limited than you’d expect

3DS graphics inherently means the game looks like it was made 7 years before its time

Here is the Monster Hunter Stories official 3DS product page.

And here is Monster Sanctuary!

Monster sanctuary is a game that just had its 1.0 launch- meaning it was in early access and no longer is! Although the devs say they still plan to implement a few more things into the game in future updates. It is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4.

Monster sanctuary is a metroidvania twist on the typical monster collecting game, meaning it is also a sidescrolling platformer in which you use abilities you gain throughout the game to explore the world around you. The abilities in this case are the monsters you get! Every monster has an ability that helps you traverse the sanctuary.

Speaking of the sanctuary, the game is set in one. The monster sanctuary is a magically shielded area, cut off from the rest of the world, created by an order of monster keepers, people who befriend and protect the mystical monsters inhabiting the world. Humankind encroached too far on the natural habitat of monsters and were hostile to the native wildlife, so the keepers created an area of varied environments to safely protect and preserve the remaining monsters of the world.

Unlike many other monster collecting games, this game only has 5 types: fire, water, earth, air, and neutral. However, the types themselves do not possess resistances and weaknesses. Instead, each monster has its own assigned weaknesses and resistances. And yes, this can include things like debuffs, physical vs special attacks, and the typical elemental types.

All battles are also 3 vs 3! And unlike in pokemon, where you can only hit the enemies nearest, all monsters have the ability to hit any opponent they want. Turns also work a little differently in that speed doesn't exist, you just use 1 move per monster in your turn and then it goes to your opponent's turn. Your monsters hit in whatever order you want them to.

There is also a quite important combo system in this game, where every hit builds a damage multiplier for the next. Moves often hit multiple times per turn. Healing and buffing actions also build this combo counter. So what monsters you have move in what order really counts!

But the main mechanical difference between this and other games in the genre is how it handles levels and skills. Instead of learning a set move at a certain level, this game incorporates a skill tree, and you get to allocate points into different skills as you grow stronger. And jeez, these skill trees are really extensive. Monster sanctuary is a theorycrafter's dream. Each monster has a unique, specially tailored skill tree, making every monster truly able to have its own niche. You can make use of whatever monster you want if you just put thought into it!

And like Temtem, this game is not made to be beatable by children. I'm sure a child could beat it, but it's not made to be inherently child-friendly like pokemon. It's honestly quite difficult.

On top of that, you are actively encouraged to not just be scraping by each battle. Your performance in battle is rated by an automated system that scores your usage of various mechanics like buffs and debuffs applied, type matchups, and effective usage of combos. The rating system directly influences the rewards you get from each battle, including your likelihood of obtaining an egg from one of the wild monsters you battled (no, you don't catch wild monsters in this game, you get eggs and hatch them). If you're not paying attention to how the game works and making good, effective use of your monsters, you'll have a hard time expanding your team!

The music is also really good, it's made by nature to be able to play over and over and not get old as you explore each area, and the composer(s) really did a good job with this. Some area songs, namely the beach one, I especially enjoy, so much so I've actually played it in the background while I do work.

This is a game I would really recommend. If I made it sound intimidating, it is by no means unbeatable, you're just gonna have to put some thought into how you play. At no point did I actually feel frustrated or like something was impossible. When I hit a wall, I was able to recognize what I did wrong and how I could improve, or I could at least realize something wasn't working and experiment until I found a solution. It's challenging in a genuinely fun, rewarding way.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Extremely in-depth combat system

I genuinely don’t know if there’s an objectively bad monster in this game

Evolution exists but is completely optional, as even un-evolved monsters can be great

Entire soundtrack is full of bangers

Large and diverse variety of monsters to tame

Cons

Story is a little lackluster, but passable

That’s the only con I can think of

Here’s a link to their Steam page and the game’s website.

A kind of unorthodox recommendation is the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series!

Likelihood is that everyone reading this has heard of this series already, but just in case anyone hasn't, I thought I'd include it! I would categorize this as a hybrid between the mystery dungeon genre and the monster collecting genre, because you recruit pokemon as you play and can use those pokemon on your team!

If you're unaware, the mystery dungeon genre is a small subset of dungeon crawler games where you progress through randomly generated levels called mystery dungeons. Throughout the dungeons, there will be enemies to fight and items to collect. The challenge of these games is mostly due to the stamina aspect of them, in that you have to manage your resources as you progress through the level. If you go all out in each fight, you will inevitably lose quite quickly. You have to learn to win against enemies while balancing your use of items and PP, so you have enough for the next fight, and the fight after that.

Pokemon mystery dungeon in particular is famous for its stories, the likes of which isn't seen often in Pokemon games. They are hugely story-driven games and are notable for the emotional depth they possess. It's pretty normal for the average player to cry at least once in the span of the game. There's lots of memes about that specifically.

This entry in my list is also unique for being a series. So, which one should you play first? It actually doesn't matter! Each storyline is entirely self-contained and requires no knowledge of prior entries. The quality of each entry varies and is a point of contention among fans. I say you should play all of them, because they all have their merits (though some more than others.... coughgatestoinfinitycough). They're mostly distinct for the generation of Pokemon they take place in. Rescue team is gen 3, Explorers is gen 4, Gates to Infinity is gen 5, Super Mystery Dungeon is gen 6, and Rescue Team DX is a remake of a gen 3 game but has the mechanics and moves of a gen 8 game.

My only real caution is that you play Explorers of Sky, not Darkness or Time. Sky is basically a combination of the two games with added items and content. It's an objective upgrade over its predecessors, and I honestly wouldn't waste money on the other two. 

I’m not going to include a pros and cons list for the PMD series because I’m incredibly biased and it wouldn’t be an honest review.

Next is Monster Crown!

Monster Crown is a monster collecting game that seems to take heavy inspiration from early-gen Pokemon games in particular. It is currently in early access on Steam and is not expensive. I learned about it through the developers of Monster Sanctuary, when they recommended it on their official Discord.

The game has lots of charm and interesting creature designs, and an entirely new take on monster typings as well. Instead of monster types being based off of natural elements like fire, water, electricity, etc. Monster Crown uses typings that seem to be influenced by the personalities of the monsters. For instance, Brutal, Relentless, and Will are all monster types!

It also captures a lot of the charm many of us look fondly upon in early GameBoy-era games. The music is mostly chiptune, with some more modern backing instruments at times, and the visuals are very reminiscent of games like Pokemon Crystal in particular. Monster Crown is definitely the monster collecting game for fans of the 8-bit era!

The thing that stands out the most to me about this game is the breeding system. Instead of one parent monster passing down its species to its offspring, you can create true hybrids in this game.

However, it is very early access. I would consider the current build as an alpha, not even a beta yet! So temper your expectations here. I have not encountered any major bugs, but visual glitches here and there are quite common. The game also could definitely use some polish and streamlining, and is quite limited in content currently. But the dev(s) seem quite active, so I fully expect these kinks to be worked out in time!

The reviews are rather positive, especially for being in early access. I'm all for expanding the monster collecting genre, so if you're looking to expand your horizons in that sense, I would recommend you at least give this one a look! I personally had quite a bit of fun playing Monster Crown and am going to keep an eye out for updates.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Charming artstyle, appealing monster designs

Faithful callback to a bygone era of gaming

Controls are fairly simple and easy to get the hang of (and are completely customizable!)

Cool breeding and hybridization mechanics

There's a starter for each monster type!

You can choose your pronouns, including they/them!

Cons

Inherent nature of being very early access means can be clunky and unpolished at times

Also not much content as of right now, see above

User interface could use some redesign in places

Here’s their Steam page and the official website!

Here’s an oldie but a goodie, Azure Dreams!

This is one I actually haven’t played, mostly because it’s really old and therefore only practically accessible if you play it on an emulator, unless you're one of those old game collectors. Azure Dreams was developed by Konami and released for the PS1 in 1997. My impression of it was that it either didn’t sell well or only took off in Japan, because it’s actually really hard to find any comprehensive information about it on the internet.

Azure Dreams is a monster collecting - dating sim hybrid. You can build relationships with various characters and can pursue some of them romantically, although that isn’t the main draw of the game. There is also a stripped-down version that exists for the GameBoy Color, which forgoes the dating portion of the game entirely.

Azure Dreams is kind of like a mystery dungeon game in that you progress through a randomly generated, ever-changing tower using the help of the familiars you have accrued throughout your adventure. Similarly to Monster Hunter: Stories, you yourself also take part in the fighting alongside your monsters. Each time you enter the tower, your character’s level is lowered to 1, but your familiars keep their experience. Thus, progression is made through strengthening your monsters. To obtain monsters, you collect their eggs, just like in Monster Sanctuary (which, turns out, was at least partially inspired by this game!)

Due to this game being very old and on the PS1, the visuals leave a lot to be desired... but if you can get past that, Azure Dreams has lots of replayability and customization to how you play the game. To this day, it appears it has a somewhat active speedrunning community!

If you don’t mind the effort of using an emulator, and like old games, Azure Dreams just might be that timesink you were looking for in quarantine.

Honorable mentions:

Pokemon Insurgence (or any Pokemon fangame/ROMhack, really!) is a Pokemon fangame that introduces Delta Pokemon, which are really cool type-swapped versions of existing Pokemon. It’s sufficiently challenging and has a lot of variety in what you can catch in the wild, so you can pretty much add whatever you want to your team! The story is quite good, and the main campaign is multiple times longer than a typical Pokemon game’s campaign. Download it here!

ARK: Survival Evolved is NOT a monster collecting game BUT you do get to tame and fight alongside a lot of really cool extinct species, including but not limited to the dinosaurs we all know and love. This game is genuinely fun as hell, especially with friends, but I must warn you: never play on official servers. I highly recommend singleplayer, playing on a casual private server, or making your own server. Here’s the Steam page.

#pokemon #temtem #monster sanctuary #monster hunter stories #monster crown #azure dreams #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon alternatives

[xadnem]

Talk about the P.S.3 Supercomputer.

Absolutely, but I'm doing it from memory so if you want to actually know more about this you should probably do your own research.

Around 2010, the navy bought 1760 PS3s and hooked them into a series they dubbed the Condor Cluster. This was not because of some deal with Sony or because they wanted to finally build a gaming rig to put PC gamers to shame, but because the processors in PS3s were extremely good for pattern recognition software, cost substantially less than actual supercomputers, and ran on considerably less power. When all 1760 were linked together, the Condor Cluster was using about 1/3 the power of supercomputers of comparable strength, which is saying a lot because it was at one point in the top 50 active supercomputers.

I'm pretty sure the project ultimately fell through because when the next console generation came out, the PS3 was no longer in production, making it unreliable to replace parts that got broken, so they dismantled the Condor Cluster and either sold or gave away all those PS3s. As I understand it they never did this sort of thing again, but who knows? Maybe the real reason for PS5 scarcity is not because scalpers buy them up and sell them at massive markups online, but because the military keeps snatching them as soon as they hit shelves so they can calculate the most efficient way to terrorize the citizens of other nations.

[livefromphilly]

The Good and The Bad, 05.20.21-08.07.21

None of this shit is amazing.

:(

I think I put off doing these because it requires me to reflect on life and I haven’t wanted to do that in a bit.

I already wrote about it briefly, but my younger cousin died in a tragic car accident along with two of his friends. My mom, dad, sister and I went down to Texas for the Janazah. It was difficult but necessary. I hadn’t been down to Texas since 2014 when my grandmom died so it felt bad to go down there once again under sad circumstances. At the same time, it was good to be around family and reflect on all the cool shit my cousin did in his short life.

It’s been entirely too hot and I’m ready for fall and even winter (as long as it doesn’t snow too much). Coming back to Philly after five days in Texas should have been a relief but it was just as hot here and felt worse because of the humidity.

I bought a Canon 10D from a thrift store and it was working in the store as far as I could tell, just no memory card. A friend of mine said he’s going to give me an old Canon film cameras so I figured “cool, this cheap digital can use whatever lens that film camera has”. So I buy a battery + charger kit and a CF card for it and then as soon as I try it again it doesn’t work. So now I have a 2GB CF card that I can’t use in anything I currently own and two BP-511 batteries.

I hadn’t finished a roll of film all year until last week. I’m on pace for the least amount of film I’ve shot in a year since 2013. I even managed to forget that the roll of Fuji inside my Rollei was 36 shots and not 24, so I left about ten or so blank. Oh, and speaking of shooting film: I finally got around to trying Lomochrome Purple. The results were not spectacular. Maybe I should have shot it at a different speed, or with a different camera.

!

While my film shooting has been falling off, I’ve been really into the idea of shooting old digital compacts. I suppose it’s a logical jump that my love of late 90s/early 00s tech would lead to something like this. I’ve also been inspired by Sofi Lee’s work with small sensor CCD compacts, plus I remember how much I liked the output of old CCD cameras I’ve used like the Sony DSC-600. With that said, I think I may get a G2 like the one she used for this project. It helps that the batteries for that Canon camera I mentioned earlier will work in it, as will the memory card. There’s also the Lumix point and shoots she used that are very interesting. Haven’t had luck getting one for a good price on eBay yet, but I did manage to snag a GF2 for $36, which pairs nicely with the 12-32mm lens I got with my GX7.

Lagunitas has something called “Hop”, which is basically a non-alcoholic carbonated water beverage made with hops. It’s ridiculously good and the perfect warm weather drink.

The Phillies are actually in first place. I’m hoping to get to a game sometime next week. I haven’t been paying a ton of attention to them as early on it seemed like they had the same issues they did the past two years, but at least the rest of the NL East is bad this year so we have a real shot at playoff baseball for the first time in forever.

My air conditioner in my car wasn’t working and I finally got that fixed. Thank goodness. Driving in even in 80 degree weather is horrible.

I finally got a PS5. I immediately played through Spider-Man Miles Morales and had a blast, then me and my girlfriend started up Last of Us 2 again. She really likes watching me play that one for some reason.

#The Good and The Bad

[gamesception]

Sception’s Switch Port Wish List:

Dragon Age, first game only.  Fun game, even on console.  Best of the series easily - the second game’s rushed dev time forced so many cut corners that there’s hardly a game left over, and the third game is so bloated with tedium that every time I try to play it my eyes glass over and I slip into a boredom coma before I can get a quarter of the way into it.  But the first game?  Way better on PC with mods and keyboard/mouse controls, but even so I’d jump at the chance to play it again on switch. Chances of it happening?  Low.  EA doesn’t want to remind people of when Bioware made good games, and they aren’t interested in releasing anything on the switch that isn’t an exploitative microtransaction store.

Mass Effect Trilogy: First game was good, second game was better, and, yeah, ok, the series didn’t finish on the best foot, the third game suffering from tone problems and a final ending that just flat out sucked, but Mass Effect 3 has a several key moments that stand out as among the best in the overall series, and while the ending is kind of bad, at least the series *has* an ending - something Dragon Age fans will probably never get to see. Chances of it happening?  Again, low, for the same reason as Dragon Age.

Arkham Asylum.  Just Asylum, not the rest.  City’s not bad, but the loss of focus costs the experience more than the larger world and better boss encounters can win back, imo.  The rest of the series, though?  Bleh. Chance of it happening?  I don’t know.  Bunch of Warner Bros games on switch, of varying port quality.  Asylum was developed by Rocksteady, not sure if that would introduce rights issues.  Better chance of this than of most other games on this list.

FF6.  Sure, Square has ported over PS and PS2 titles, but what about earlier ones?  FF6 is the best game in the series, imo.  Sure, it’s way too easy, like most JRPGs are, but the engaging story with a huge ensemble cast of likable characters is amazing.  I’ve never seen a game with so many playable characters where I liked all of them this much, and the couple of multi-party dungeons reward you for spending time building up all of them.  You also don’t frequently see this kind of story heavy jrpg game with a real ensemble cast, with no obvious ‘main character’, letting the player engage with whichever characters they like rather than forcing you into the shoes of a Chrono or a Cloud or some other default Hero, characters who are sometimes good but rarely the most interesting or engaging member of their respective games’ playable casts.  So yeah, FF6 is great, but good portable versions aren’t easy to come by.  The GBA version is amazing, but good luck getting your hands on it.  The mobile port is trash.  Phone emulators have to deal with awkward phone controls.  A switch port - whether of the original snes version, or the PS1 port with additional pre-rendered video bits, or the GBA version with it’s not-terrible extra postgame dungeon and bosses, would be great. Chance of it happening?  Frankly, I’m confused why it hasn’t happened already.  Square has ported a bunch of old final fantasy games to switch, I have no idea why they cut those games off at the PS1 era.  I would say the chances should be good that FF6 will come to switch, but it’s such an obvious port that the fact that it hasn’t happened already implies to me that there’s maybe some behind the scenes bullshit ruling it out.  And if it does come over, it might be a port of the ios version, which would be terrible.

FFTactics.  I will buy this on any platform it’s released on.  But if we could get a port of the PSP version, with post game multiplayer dungeons intact?  Maybe with online multiplayer support - the turn based nature of the game letting it bypass some of the lousiness of switch online?  Please. Chance of it happening?  Again, I’m confused why it hasn’t happened already.  FF7, 8, and 9 are ported over, but not Tactics?  As with FF6, it seems like an obvious and very likely port, except that it’s so obvious and so likely that the fact it hasn’t happened already maybe implies that there’s something specifically preventing it from happening.  At least if they do port the ios version it wouldn’t be a tragedy here, though I would still lament the lack of the post game content from the PSP version.

Fallout 3 / New Vegas.  Really Loved 3, and loved New Vegas too, though I never did get around to finishing it.  Would love to see these games on the switch, provided Bethesda didn’t use the opportunity to stuff them full of microtransactions.  New Vegas, despite bugs and some cut corners, remains probably the best 3d fallout game, and 3, despite the not-undeserved hate it gets for its main story, is still probably the most fun I’ve had just randomly exploring a world in a bethesda game. Chance of it happening?  You’d think the chances would be ok, Bethesda’s had a bunch of games ported to switch - Skyrim, Doom, Wolvenstein, etc.  That said, Fallout 3′s reputation among the Fallout fan community has plummeted in the last few years so Bethesda might not think a port would be worthwhile.  And as they’re still trying to push 76, I can’t imagine their eager to remind people that their Fallout games weren’t always the hottest of garbage.  So... better odds here than of Mass Effect or Dragon Age, but I’m not holding my breath.  As for New Vegas, I doubt Bethesda has any interest in reminding people that the best Fallout game to be released since they picked up the license was developed by someone else.

Morrowind - Still probably the greatest Bethesda game, though I understand it was already showing the trend towards streamlining and loss of depth coming off of Daggerfall that would eventually lead us to the likes of 76 and Blades.  But yeah, another classic I never got around to beating, that it would probably take a switch port to get me to try again. Chance of it happening?  Some but not great, largely for similar reasons to Fallout 3.  Skyrim sold quite well on Switch, IIRC, so you’d think other Elder Scrolls ports would have been a natural choice, but years later and nothing but Blades means it probably isn’t going to happen.

Mother Series, especially Earthbound - which like tactics I’ll buy and replay on any platform it’s released on - and Mother 3, which seems fantastic, but the only time I’ve tried it I didn’t make it very far due to the SNES emulator I had at the time ruining the rhythm based combat minigame.  So yeah, an official port would be great. Chance of it happening?  Actually good for once, for the first time on this list.  As with FF6/Tactics I’m kind of surprised that it hasn’t happened already, but Nintendo being Nintendo I’m more inclined to blame that on them either just not getting around to it yet or trying to hold off on a cult classic to use it to spike excitement in a dull release window later down the line.

Demon’s Souls - Great game.  Sadly my play through was killed by a hacking incident, but yeah, a classic, laid down the souls game fundamentals while pulling of some aspects better than any of the games that followed it.  And a remake has officially been announced for release on PS5, would be a great opportunity to release a port of the original to the Switch market... Chance of it happening?  Unfortunately, Sony owns the rights, so I just don’t see it happening... not unless Sony really plans to abandon the mobile market and instead push interaction with switch.  They did include that “would you be interested in PS4 remote play on other devices - including Switch” question in a survey a while back.  Still doesn’t strike me as likely, though.

Dark Souls 2 - like Fallout 3, Dark Souls 2 has become the black sheep of its series in fandom eyes.  Not entirely without reason, but there’s some interesting and novel design choices that get overlooked and unappreciated as a result.  I’ve never made time to play it myself, despite it sitting in my Steam library never downloaded, but would absolutely play it on the switch. Chance of it happening?  Without the fan crowd clamoring for a re-release, an updated port seems unlikely.

#dragon age #mass effect #arkham asylum #ff6 #fftactics #fallout 3 #new vegas #morrowind #mother #demons' souls #dark souls 2

[smokeybrandreviews]

Lumens in the Land of Tomorrow

Epic Games released a tech demo for Unreal 5 running on legit PS5 hardware and i am stunned. This sh*t looks incredible. I’ve kept my ear to the ground about the next-gen tech and only a little information has muddled through so far. Sony dropped one of the most information laden, dry ass tech conferences ever and then showed us the PS5 controller a few days later. Microsoft did an entire non-conference about the neXtBox. I don’t care about Madden, i play NBA games and 2K for sure is cross platform because those motherf*ckers are mad greedy. I already saw the next Assassins Creed and even that motherf*cker is cross platform. All Master Chief’s crew gave us were a bunch of  pre-rendered nonsense. That sh*t was bunk, man.

Admittedly, I’m a Sony purist since PSOne. Resident Evil Director’s Cut piqued my interest, NBA Live 97 got me hands-on with the tech, and Final Fantasy IX sold me on the system. I was a PSShill for life after that. But i consider myself an open minded guy. If Xbox ever had a killer app like any of the PSOne era FF titles, i’d probably get one. Hell, i actually have an original Xbox strictly to play the KOTOR games, the DOA titles because those were the best of the series, and Panzer Dragoon Orta. I think i even had Sudeki, too, back in the day but that was more because it was getting penneyed out at Gamestop rather than my actually wanting to play it. That’s the caveat in all of this; Xbox has nothing i want to play. I don’t play shooters because i think they’re corny so Halo, COD, and Gears were never a thing to me. Literally every title that piqued my interest was cross platform so there was never a reason to buy another Xbox after the first. And then the many, MANY, tech issues those things have had. Holy sh*t, man. Going into that next-gen conference, Microsoft had to do a lot to win me over and they just didn’t. Sony, on the other hand, did right by me and then some.

Lumen in the Land of Nanite blew my f*cking mind, man. All of that tech jargon was legit, too, as i actually keep pace with the technology aspect of the systems but seeing what the PS5 could do in real-time, on real hardware, was f*cking incredible. This sh*t looked as good as early 10s, cinema CG. Like, this demo looked better than the sh*t they had in actual movies and it was rendered organically. That SSD is working, for real, and it makes for incredibly dynamic scenes. Graphics formed peaked way back in early PS3. You have to understand, the first system i ever played was a Colecovison at my grandma’s house. The first system i ever owned was an NES. I was raised on bits and blast processing. When we got to the PS2 era of titles, everything i imagined had been blown out the water. By the time the first hint of PS3 found their way into the gaming rags, i was euphoric. Everything after that has been an exercise in flex.

Watching Lumens, all i could think was how ridiculous this sh*t looks and we’re at the beginning of this generation. The best titles, the games that get the most out of the system, come toward the end. The Last of Us stressed the PS3 but, goddamn, was that thing gorgeous. Final Fantasy VII R pushes the PS4 to its limits and it is glorious. What the f*ck are games going to look like when it;s time for the handover at the end of this generation? What the f*ck are games going to look like when developers get a hang for the strengths and weaknesses of the new consoles? What can some ridiculously creative geniuses like Hideo Kojima or David Cage do with that tech? How rich are the worlds Bioware can construct using this hardware? What the f*ck does the world of Horizon look like on the PS5? What the f*ck does Mass Effect look like on these systems? What can Square Enix do in this absolutely lush, Sony Playground?

This demo made me pause and reflect. I actually thought back to where all of this began and marveled at how far we have come. I’m old enough to remember when Sonic the Hedgehog was the best looking games out in the wild. Now, a tech demo is destroying anything we’ve ever seen in gaming, and it’s not even an actual game. It’s just showing you what yo van do with an engine, built to create the actual games. Watching Lumens gave shades of Agi’s Prophecy. Just like my darling Agni’s sun drenched, flame infused, desert escape, Lumens hit me with the brilliant lit expanse of free-form dynamism. F*ck, man, imagine Agni’s world, running on this hardware. My goodness, i NEED that! Square, make that sh*t happen. Give Agni and her world that main line numbering. FF XVI, much? Tangent aside, what comes next, is only limited by imagination and, whatever shape it ends up taking, is going to be absolutely remarkable.

#Lumen in the land of Nanite #PS5 #PlayStation 5 #Unreal Engine 5

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

so apparently P5R just usurped P4G and is now the best selling Persona remake/remaster/whatever; how do ya feel?

Dunno why I didn’t see this, phone’s not giving me updates it seems. ;w; Anyway.... Short Answer: Meh, I really don’t care, I’m more interested in Scramble/Strikers numbers. Long answer tho....(gonna be long, not a rant just I’ve had A LOT of thoughts about sales numbers since P3/5D’s and PQ2′s releases).

I’m not surprised, I mean it’s a remake on a mainline console, combined the fact that it was popular too (I’ll come back to this when I talk about the other Persona games but for now put a pin in that). But there are two things I’m more interested in, 1) P5R’s lifetime sales, and 2) Scramble/Striker’s numbers.

1) Will possibly show how many newcomers we’ve retained. And I’m interested in that because....P5 sold a few million right? If Atlus can retain that that’d be amazing! We won’t know till the Western releases tho. But if it doesn’t, and sells say.....as much as P4G’s life time sales, then....all P5 did was retain the hardcore original audience, it didn’t win over as many new people as we thought it did. Which isn’t a failure, but it’s.....a crude way to say it (sorry I just woke up words are hard), it’s that P5 isn’t as really as hot shit as we all thought it was (and it probably just sold well due to timing and crazy marketing). 

2) What I REALLY want to know is P5S’ sales tho, even more than P5R’s. Since I think that might indicate P5′s standing if it’s as much as a fan favorite as P5 vanilla′s sales show. And it might be the first time we have a clearish answer without any other possibility being the reason for sales numbers. Lemme explain, P5R might do well because is a mainline game instead of a spinoff (but it could do meh compared to P3P and P4G in terms of lifetime sales due to the new comers not wanting to rebuy the game for whatever reason: Same console [which is a double edge sword, PS4 is popular but also people might not want to buy the same game for the same console twice], not worth the price, not enough new changes in their eyes). P5D did poorly, but is it because it was just bad, was it cause of the shitty DLC practices, was it because it didn’t have a lot of content (aka no real plot like P4D)? We don’t know. PQ2? Was it cause it was bad, was it cause it was released on a dying console (as opposed to PQ1 being released at the peak popularity of that console), was it on a console that P5 was it released on, was it cause it featured P3/4 cast and it was aimed at P5 audiences who have no idea who those people are? We don’t really know (this one is probably the dying console tho, which means could it have done well/better if released on the Switch instead?). Did both do bad cause they weren’t really sequels (both technically take place during P5 so yeah)? But P5S? It’s releasing on two very popular consoles, and it’s set as a sequel, so far doesn’t look like there’s a lot of scummy practices going on, actually looks like it has content (so if there are some scummy DLC practices, at least that’s not the ONLY thing you can think about, like with P3/5D). It has A LOT going for it in terms of a spinoff, that even non hardcore/new fans can get into. And I want to know what kind of impact P5 left on the fanbase as a whole and so far it’s not doing so hot spinoff wise (maybe anime too, when the anime was still in the middle of it’s run it wasn’t doing as hot as P4′s first anime or P3′s movies....at least sales wise I found, but that was in the middle maybe it got better), merch sales are probably doing fine tho (since they keep announcing new things). So to me P5′s......all over the gd place. 

tldr; I think P5S will show us a decent idea on how P5 as a series is doing compared to P3/4, it started off strong with it’s main game but has struggled with it’s spinoffs which might be because of other reasons than people just being “meh” on it. P5R will be a good chance to see how many people stayed. 

Now let’s look at the other games. You should know, considering hurdles P5 didn’t have (except maybe P3P, but on the other hand it probs could’ve excelled more on a home console), the modern day Persona games (Tadashi/Old games got screwed and I’ll explain but it’s probably for the same reason as PQ2, or at least for P2EP) did well despite these hurdles, well both original and remakes but I’mma focus on the remakes (all you need to know about P3 Vanilla and FES and P4 vanilla is that they were both released post PS3 and/or towards the end PS2′s life cycle and still did great).

Now P3P probably had the easiest, released during a very popular time for the PSP, and it ended up selling better than EITHER of it’s two PS2 counterparts Life to date (now if you cheated and combined Vanilla and FES, then yeah P3P sold 80,000 less than those two/all their versions, but that’s 2V1 and it’s still amazing how well it did).There was def an uptick in sales, maybe it was all newcomers or maybe it was half old and half new people, but it still resulted in more people buying it than it’s original (which is why I still wanted to talk about it despite it not having the same hurdles as P4G). 

P4G however, that’s where the biggest hurdle comes in (and why I really bring this up). The Vita. A console that sold peanuts compared to the PSP, PS2, PS3, and PS4. No, less than peanuts. 10/15 Million compared to the 80-150 million the other 4 ranged from. I mean yeah a million is a lot, but now you need to market to those million, no, you need to get people to BUY this console first (it was released roughly when the Vita dropped). You need to convince people to ditch their PSP, for a console that isn’t backwards compatible, for this semi-obscure Japanese title. But god damn it did, it almost got all it’s sales from the PS2 back. Hell it exceeded it’s original run L-t-D if you don’t count “The Best” re-releases (Vanilla’s cheaper re-release sold more than P4G’s cheaper re-release). I don’t know if these are also new people, or all hardcore fans, but it did really damn well! It got people hyped and it got people to buy this game AND console! (tho I wouldn’t be surprised if it was at the sacrifice of poor P2:EP, may you rest in peace ;w;). And that was a BIG hurdle for it to overcome! 

Like P3P and P4G really make me wonder how well they’d do with a real remake on the PS4/PS5. Like a port would probs do well, but imagine if they actually improved the graphics and changed/added new things, I think it’d sell about as well as P5 vanilla. 

P5R’s biggest hurdle is justifying itself as a full price game remake on the same console. But like FES could do that (so I think P5R’s outlook is fine, no real hurdles like P4G had to go through)....and just for fun cause I hate myself (jk I dunno I just wanna see if I can take a guess at JPN’s possible sales based off of numbers of past re-releases). And FES’ first week compared to it’s vanilla is 10% higher than Royal, but Royal has more units sold obvie, FES sold about 80% the total the vanilla did, Royal did 70%, L-t-D for FES was 78% not counting cheaper-re-releases, 82% counting re-releases...but I think that’s because P3 Vanilla didn’t have a re-release cause of FES. If I use that as a base.......P5R’s numbers (going off of the graphs from Personacentral like this one and of course the P5R one, which I think are all Japanese sales). If P5R follows a similar patter to FES’ sales %.... I’ll give P5R 72%-82% of Vanilla’s sales (including the cheaper re-release), and we’re looking at maybe L-t-D sales of Royal ranging from about 334,955 to 381,476 units sold. 

If Royal follows a similar pattern to P4G however (cause P5R is more similar to FES and P4G, I’ll do P4G’s too for fun, but I won’t do P3P’s). So there are two life to date numbers, one before factoring in P4/P4G’s re-releases and one after. Before P4G sold about 111% more than vanilla, after re-releases it sold about 96% of Vanilla’s total units. So a low ball and high ball of Royal with P4G’s % would be.....446,606 to 516,389 units sold. 

So combining those two together, I predict (aka this is a theory that I wanted to do for fun for WHATEVER reason, made by someone that JUST woke up and trying to get my math out as quickly as possible, maybe if I have time next week I’ll go back and check my work....I’m very busy this week sadly ;w;) P5R’s L-t-D (pre- cheaper re-release)sales to be somewhere to be 334,955 to 516,389 for Japan. 

But that’s Japan, Japan it feels like they’re more willing to re-buy games on the same console, the West might not be as inclined tho (if we re-buy something, it’s because it’s on a different console). So while P5R could sell about as well as Vanilla did in Japan, I dunno so much about the west. 

tldr; P5R did about as well as I thought in Japan, but not sure about the West. Some number predictions for P5R. If P5R does poorly in the West it could be because it’s was released on the PS4 instead of a different system. P5S I think will give us a better idea on how P5 is doing as a franchise compared to P4.

(also I should note, I prefer vanilla P4 over P4G, there’s some good stuff in P4G, but 1) I prefer Tracey Rooney as Chie, I prefer her down to earth approach more, and 2) there’s some things in P4G that ruins my enjoyment and outweighs the new positive stuff. I like all the remakes barring the guy who directed P4G/P5R, I haven’t finalized my thoughts on P5R yet tho. I do like Kasumi more than Marie tho just on a personality level, still thinking over how they handled her tho. I will say P5R has a lot of gameplay improvements that fixed a lot of gameplay gripes I had so like that’s all I feel like saying/can say about P5R, gameplays better!). 

[elecdarkon]

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