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terramythos · 3 years

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TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 21 of 26

Title: The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (Wayfarers #4) (2021)

Author: Becky Chambers

Genre/Tags: Science Fiction, Third-Person, Female Protagonists

Rating: 9/10

Date Began: 8/15/2021

Date Finished: 8/22/2021

Gora is an unremarkable planet. It has no natural life and few resources to speak of. In fact, its only use is its proximity to more interesting places. Over the years, it’s become a waystation, notable only as a temporary stop for travelers as they wait for their spot in the wormhole queue.

The Five-Hop One-Stop is a small, family-owned rest stop on Gora. Three travelers— a marginalized nomad, a military contractor, and an exiled artist-- lay over at the Five-Hop awaiting the next stage of their journeys. But everything goes horribly wrong when repair work on an orbital satellite causes a cascade event, destroying the planet’s communications. Now stranded on Gora with debris raining down from the sky, the travelers and hosts must live with each other while cut off from the rest of the galaxy. As they learn more about one another, each is forced to confront their personal struggles… and challenge their perspective on life.

Speaker had a word for how she felt right then: errekere. A moment of vulnerable understanding between strangers. It did not translate into Klip, but it was a feeling she knew well from gatherings among her people. There was no need being expressed here, no barter or haggling or problems that required the assistance of a Speaker, but errekere was what she felt all the same. She’d never felt it with an alien before. She embraced the new experience.

Content warnings and spoilers below the cut.

Content warnings for the book: Non-graphic sexual content, child endangerment, ableism (if you squint; it’s not malicious), references to warfare, discussions of intergenerational trauma re: colonization (not the scifi kind), prejudice and xenophobia, recreational drug use.

I’ve had a mixed experience with Wayfarers, which is unusual for me. I can’t remember the last series I read that fluctuated so much in terms of personal enjoyment and (in my opinion) quality. People as a whole seem to enjoy this series more than me, hence the multitude of awards and glowing reviews. I liked book two, A Closed and Common Orbit, because of the focused narrative and dedicated development of two lead characters. But the first and third books suffered from an overly large cast and reliance on generic archetypes. When a series is built on character development and plot is a secondary concern at best, those characters have to be outstanding. And to me, they usually weren’t.

But in this fourth and final book, I felt that Chambers finally hit her stride. On a surface level, The Galaxy, and the Ground Within has striking similarity to book three, Record of a Spaceborn Few. Both are virtually plotless novels which do deep dives into a cast of characters. What sets The Galaxy apart is its execution. All three leads have unique and compelling personal conflicts. An underutilized strength of the series is its creative aliens; something Chambers takes advantage of here with a fully alien cast. Finally, this book hinges upon interaction between the three leads, something sorely missing from the previous book.

In these reviews I often seem critical of ensemble casts. But when done well, I actually prefer them to singular narratives. The main hurdle is having consistently interesting characters across the board. When there’s one or two characters I prefer over the others, I usually struggle with the novel. There’s an inherent sense of disappointment when leaving a favored character’s POV. For me this affects my overall enjoyment of the story. But when I like all of the characters or they all have something interesting going on, ensemble casts are great. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is successful in this regard because I thoroughly enjoyed all three perspective characters. In no particular order…

Speaker is an Akarak, a birdlike scavenger species introduced as sympathetic antagonists in the first book. Going in, we know their home planet was colonized by the Harmagians, which has caused irreparable harm to their culture. Robbed of their homeworld and forced into the margins of GC society, the Akarak are nomadic, and many of them rely on banditry in order to survive. We have seen very little of them besides that. The Galaxy expands their lore a lot; their short lifespans, their incompatible biology with other sapients, and the resulting generational trauma from centuries of colonial exploitation. Speaker’s arc in particular is about dealing with the prejudice she encounters daily, adjusting to acceptance after being othered for so long, seeing things from a new perspective, and persistent worry for her twin sister Tracker, who she’s been separated from due to the events on Gora.

The Aeluon Pei is actually a recurring character; she’s Ashby’s love interest from the first book. Here we get a more intimate view of her as a person. In particular, she struggles with living a double life. She works a prestigious yet dangerous job among her people, running cargo into critical warzones. But her affair with Ashby (a Human) is a huge cultural taboo among the Aeluons. If her colleagues discovered her romantic relationship, her life as a cargo runner would be over. The double life is wearing on her, because she loves both aspects of her life, but knows that it can’t go on like this forever. To make matters worse, she goes into “shimmer”, a once-in-a-lifetime fertility period, during the events on Gora. This adds a layer to her struggle; does she do her duty to her species and produce a child, or does she pursue what she really wants?

Finally, there’s Roveg, a Quelin. Like the Akarak, Quelin haven’t received a whole lot of development in the series. In the first book, they’re portrayed as a xenophobic insectoid race, and their role is unambiguously antagonistic. Roveg is the polar opposite of that. He’s something of a renaissance man; an appreciator of fine art and dining, who designs artistic sims by profession. He delights in meeting aliens, befriending them, and learning everything there is to know about them. His arc centers around his exile from Quelin society and all the hidden pains associated with that. Chief among these is a mysterious meeting he has to make— which the Gora disaster obviously complicates.

Complementing the three leads are the Five-Hop’s hosts; a Laru mother and child named Ouloo and Tupo. Similar to the Akarak and Quelin, we haven’t seen many of the Laru (who I always picture as fuzzy dog-giraffe hybrids). Ouloo struggles to be a kind and accommodating host in the wake of disaster. She’s also forced to confront her own prejudices, especially regarding Speaker, the first Akarak she’s ever met. The two initially have a lot of tension, but grow to be great friends over the course of the novel. Her child Tupo is a nonbinary character using xe/xyr pronouns throughout the novel. Xe’s basically a Laru teenager, and super endearing. I love xyr natural curiosity and naiveté. Definitely the “heart” of the group.

Interaction between these characters is the bread and butter of this novel. There’s very little action; instead it focuses on their differing perspectives and life experiences. It’s a gradual build as the characters grow more familiar with one another. The epilogue is brilliant, because we see the long-term effect of these characters meeting. Despite interpersonal conflict in the story, Speaker inspires Pei to make a specific decision. From this decision, Pei realizes she can help Roveg with his meeting. As a result of this, Roveg is inspired to help Speaker based on one of their earlier conversations. His help fundamentally alters Speaker’s perspective on life— and there’s an implication it will reach beyond that, to the Akarak as a whole. It’s a cascade effect, but rather than the disastrous version that happened on Gora, it’s a positive social change for the leads. That’s the kind of literary parallel that really fires me up.

I do have a few criticisms of this novel, minor and otherwise. The first is, I wish the tension between Speaker and Pei was more strongly built throughout. While I’m glad the novel isn’t all sunshine and rainbows when it comes to the character interactions, their conflict goes from an idea in the back of one’s mind to an explosive event. This is something of a nitpick because it’s otherwise well executed. I especially like that despite their interpersonal problems, they work together in the climactic events of the novel without sacrificing their respective principles.

My other criticism is a series-wide observation. Wayfarers is optimistic to a fault. As such, it’s pretty rare that we see true evil or even bad behavior in this series. On one hand, it’s nice to read something where the characters are people who want the best for everyone. But there’s a lot of dissonance here, because there are MASSIVE social problems with the GC at large. For example, we see the effects of xenophobia, war, slavery, and colonialism, but the ones who perpetuate these issues are faceless. If Chambers wants to portray good characters, that’s fine, but it strikes me as odd to build complex social issues into your society, yet exclusively portray groups of morally good people. Why would a society full of such nice, helpful groups also marginalize the Akarak, or create an entire caste of slave clones to sort through their junk? This approach comes off as a desire for nuance without committing to it.

This trend continues through the final book. The Galaxy, and the Ground Within is clearly a COVID-19 response novel (“we’re all in this together”!)— but everyone is blameless, and the government response is reasonable and timely. That’s just not how it worked in real life. So many people were (and still are!) selfish in response to COVID, often outright endangering others. Practically every government botched their response for the sake of money, leading to mass death worldwide. If Wayfarers has similar social issues to the real world, why would the response to a disaster be any different? It’s an ongoing contradiction; the Wayfarers society is simultaneously utopian and flawed, and it’s hard for me to suspend my disbelief.

As an individual novel, though, I really enjoyed The Galaxy, and the Ground Within. Like all the other books in the Wayfarers series, it’s a standalone and can be read on its own. My experience with this series has been up and down; I recommend the second and fourth books, but I’d skip one and three if I ever do a reread. There are things to like about Wayfarers in terms of worldbuilding and the creative ideas behind all the different aliens. Characterization is hit or miss, but the hits are great, and this book in particular knocked it out of the park. Chambers’ prose improves a lot over the series, and it’s nice to see how she develops as a writer. As I’ve mentioned, Wayfarers has gotten lots of positive feedback, so it’s possible you will enjoy it more than I did. But I’m looking forward to reading something new.

#taylor reads #2021 reading challenge #9/10

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izayoichan · 5 years

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50 Questions for your sim(s)

Since @cillaben asked me to do this for Toshi, I figured I’d make it a double and make one for them both

Toshi's answers will be first, Derek second

1.How old is your sim? 28 / Somewhere over 3000 but he looks around 25-30

2. When is your sim’s birthday? 29th of February / has take on 30 July as his birthday, his world doesn't normally celebrate them.

3. What is your sim’s zodiac sign? Pisces / Leo

4. What is your sim’s ethnicity? Japanese / Meridian (humanoid alien)

5. Does your sim have any nicknames? Not really / Star-boy

6. Do they have a job? If so what is it? Military / Military (cover but it qualifies)

7. Where does your sim live? At the moment they both live in Tokyo.

8.Who does your sim live with? His boyfriend and their cat Ollie (goes for both)

9. What environment did your sims grow up in (strict, loving, cold etc.)? Strict, cold but also loving when he was with his mother / loving from what he can remember

10. What are your sim’s favorite food? Anything with chocolate/ hamburgers and pizza, they share a first place. (Generally unhealthy food he loves)

11. What is your sim’s favorite drink? Coffee / Tea

12. If they have one what is your sim’s favourite color? Dark blue/Royal blue / Not really any clear favorite color, but he does like variations of grey

13. Does your sim believe in any clichés (like love at first sight, etc)? Karma / Not really, it's harder for him to understand this part of humans.

14. What is your sim’s sexuality? Homosexual / falls in love with the person (whatever that is called)

15. What is your sim’s gender identity? Male / Male

16. Is your sim type a or type b? A / B

17. Is your sim introverted or extroverted? Depends on what is happening, if he is comfortable around them, he is more extroverted. / Extroverted

18. What is your sims favorite woohoo position? He hasn't had enough time to find one yet / No clear favorite, he likes to try new things

19. Is your sim a pet person? If so what is their favorite animal? Didn't think of himself as a animal person, but now loves a cat. / Loves all animals, finds it the most fascinating thing about earth. Has no favorite, but does love a certain cat more than most.

20. Does your sim have a best friend? His two sisters, and of course his boyfriend. / His boyfriend, although he is almost as close with the team he works with when not working with Toshi

21. What is/was your sim’s favorite school subject? Astrology and cooking / Astroscience & cold fusion basics

22. Is/was your sim a high, mid or low achiever in school? High Achiever(forced to by his father / High Achiever

23. Are they planning to go or have they already been to college? If so, what would be or what was their major? Toshi studied business and leadership / There isn't a term for what Derek studied, but it was high tech fusion and energy based research

24. What are your sims political beliefs (if they have them)? None / None

25. What is one thing your sims wants to do before they die? Right now he wants to know more about his boyfriend, and how to not die away from him. / He doesn't think about it much, his race lives very long.

26. Does your sim have a favorite TV show (cable) and/or movie? Chernobyl (small series, but he can watch it over and over) / Armageddon, he finds it fascinating that anyone would suggest handling an asteroid that way.

27. Is your sim a Netflix viewer? If so what are their top 3 shows. On occasion, he likes some of the crime series on their. He can't say top three shows though. / Lucifer, The rain, Black Mirror (he loves the idea of binge watching)

28. Does your sim like books? If so what’s their favorite one? Tolkien, and can read lord of the rings over and over. / After coming to earth he found A song of Ice and Fire (Game of thrones) and has read every book from that author and generally all sci fi he can get his hands on because it makes him smile and laugh a lot.

29. Does your sim enjoy video games, if so what is their favorite one and do they play on PC or console? No.. him and pc/techy stuff just does not mix / he does like it, but he prefers board-games etc that he can play with Toshi

30. What is your sim’s personal style? Clean/casual but always in style / Casual

31. Does your sim have a lucky charm? No / A ring on his finger that he never removes.

32. Is your sim religious? No / No (but he does find it fascinating)

33. What kind of music does your sim listen to and who is their favorite artist? Generally likes orchestral music, and guitar, but can also be found listening to k-pop on occasion / Loves all music, it was something they didn't have where he came from, and he can listen to anything and everything.

34. Is your sim a festive person? If so what’s their favorite holiday? No, it was never a thing in his family so he has a very awkward relationship with it. / Yes, he loves all of the silly holidays and festivities off this world. They had no such things in his old one.

35. What is your sim’s favorite type of weather? Spring, when everything comes back to life / Winter, his planet didn't have it, and he loves it.

36. Does your sim prefer to start fights or finish them? Finnish them, he prefers not to start them. / He doesn't fight, he'd just get his butt kicked.

37. Does your sim have a dream job? Chef, he always wanted to focus on cooking / Not really, he had his dream job, and it didn't end well.

38. Does your sim have any siblings? He has two sisters who are twins. / No

39. Does your sim get along with their family? With his sisters yes, his mother yes, his father, not at all. / His family is dead, but they used to be tight knit and close.

40 What is your sims favorite hobby? Cooking, and exercising / Watching the world, specially animals.

41. What does your sim look for in a romantic partner? He didn't actually know until he met Derek, who was everything he looked for. / A meridian doesn't look like humans do, they instinctively know when they met the right one.

42. What is a secret about your sim? He has such a bad relationship with his father that he has gotten anxiety from it, and worse. He still struggles with it, but has learned to mostly hide it. / Who he is, where he is from, what he does.. he has many.

43. What is a wish your sim has? That he could be a chef, and not have his father hound him for the rest of his life for his choice. / To undo what led to him coming to this planet, although after meeting Toshi that wish has become less prominent for him.

44. What is a flaw your sim has? His inability to handle technology, and his anxiety that he still struggles to control / Sometimes to sure of himself, which can lead to shit going down, also a clumsy ass that will stumble on his own feet at any time.

45. How do others generally perceive your sim? Friendly, quiet, shy / Outgoing, friendly and funny.

46. Does your sim have a greatest achievement? Escaping into the military away from his father. / a discovery on his home-planet solving the energy issue completely.

47. If they have one, what is your sim’s greatest regret? Never standing up to his father because he is too afraid too. / his discovery that solved the energy issue, as it also led to his planets downfall.

48. Does your sim have a favorite emoji? 😊 / 😎

49. Does your sim use simstagram? If so what’s their @? No / No

50. What is the last text your sim sent (and who did they text)? «When are you coming to visit?» To Derek who is being taken care off by the base doctor. / «As soon as this monster lets me out!» Answer to previously mention text.

#tagged #Derek Abernathy #Toshi Watanabe #there you go cilla #now you know more about both #without spoiling too much #i hope

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simmerdanicc · 5 years

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50 questions about your sim

Cutie Charlotte

1. How old is your sim? 15

2. When is your sim’s birthday? 20th April

3. What is your sim’s zodiac sign? Taurus

4. What is your sim’s ethnicity? Mix of Korean and British

5. Does your sim have any nicknames? Her mums call her C

6. Do they have a job? If so what is it? No shes just 15 but plays the guitar and people gives her tips

7. Where does your sim live? Oasis Springs

8.Who does your sim live with? 2 mums, Brother, 2 kitties and a hamster

9. What environment did your sims grow up in (strict, loving, cold etc.)? Loving too casual probably

10. What are your sim’s favourite food? Hot Dogs

11. What is your sim’s favourite drink? Lemonade

12. If they have one what is your sim’s favourite color? Purple

13. Does your sim believe in any clichés (like love at first sight, etc)? I dont think so

14. What is your sim’s sexuality? straight

15. What is your sim’s gender identity? Female

16. Is your sim type a or type b? B

17. Is your sim introverted or extroverted? Extroverted

18. What is your sims favourite woohoo position? Still a virgin because Carlton keeps regecting her flirts

19. Is your sim a pet person? If so what is their favorite animal? Shes a cat lover

20. Does your sim have a best friend? Not really, but she is close to Gianna

21. What is/was your sim’s favorite school subject? Music

22. Is/was your sim a high, mid or low achiever in school? Mid achiver, Shes smart and getting a B but slacks and is very easily distracted

23. Are they planning to go or have they already been to college? If so, what would be or what was their major? I dont think she will but has a few years to decide and if she does defo a music major

24. What are your sims political beliefs (if they have them)? Left

25. What is one thing your sims wants to do before they die? Hear her own song on the radio

26. Does your sim have a favorite TV show (cable) and/or movie? Anything reality

27. Is your sim a Netflix viewer? If so what are their top 3 shows. Riverdale, Crazy ex girlfriend and drag race

28. Does your sim like books? If so what’s their favourite one? She reads ya novels

29. Does your sim enjoy video games, if so what is their favourite one and do they play on PC or console? Plays simcity a lot

30. What is your sim’s personal style? She tries to fit in so wears what she thinks people like to see

31. Does your sim have a lucky charm? Nope

32. Is your sim religious? She does not believe in any religion really

33. What kind of music does your sim listen to and who is their favorite artist? Indie and rnb

34. Is your sim a festive person? If so what’s their favorite holiday? Loves all holidays

35. What is your sim’s favorite type of weather? Sunshine so she can lounge around the pool with her friends

36. Does your sim prefer to start fights or finish them? would finish them

37. Does your sim have a dream job? world famous musicion

38. Does your sim have any siblings? Twin brother Matt

39. Does your sim get along with their family? He gets along with her mum Nichole more than Hanna and her brother

40. What is your sims favourite hobby? playing her guitar

41. What does your sim look for in a romantic partner? shes going through a bad boy phase so anyone who is rebelious

42. What is a secret about your sim? She secretly wants to quit school and be a musician but she knows her parents wont let her

43. What is a wish your sim has? to fall in love

44. What is a flaw your sim has? She cares too much about peoples opinons

45. How do others generally perceive your sim? cute but intimidating

46. Does your sim have a greatest achievement? shes young

47. If they have one, what is your sim’s greatest regret? no regrets but maybe one day she could regret pursuing Carlton even though his is bad news

48. Does your sim have a favorite emoji? Peace hands

49. Does your sim use simstagram? If so what’s their @? WonderlandCharlotte

50. What is the last text your sim sent (and who did they text)? ‘Carlton came over today all alone wihtout me asking him too!!!!! He defo wants me’ - Sent to Gianna

#charlotte #ch hanna

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simplyoriginalcharacters · 7 years

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((Thank you so much for the review on Kamon. I learned a lot from your critique. This character is from the same Universe, and I did feel that I wrote his story bad, like I made him too “edgy”. I did research, but I’m not sure if there is a word for a humanoid race that is dying out, so I apologize for that. He’s an older character of mine and he is the Foil to Viggo. I created this image on the Sims 4. Currently Viggo has black hair, and Aeron does as well.

Some warnings: Birthing camps, forced extermination of a race.

World/ Universe: In the world that my cousin and I made, these guys are villains. The universe is set in 2035, demons and aliens are on earth and everything is the same except earth is more green. Anyone else mentioned is from the same world too.

To help with understanding:

Shershen’: An alien race of giant hornet human hybrids. They’re dangerous.

Makarasan: Another alien race from Iyzurria. They are like spiders and the natural enemies of Shershen’.

N'Kairen: A race that was enslaved and abused by the Makarasans.

Dvorrah is a Shershen’ general who lives on Earth. He’s a good guy.

Also the name “Aeron” means “Hidden Beast” in the A'maranian language, and he sees it as a symbolic name. ))

Name: Aeron

Real Name: Solceya Dovess

Gender: He uses He/ Him pronouns.

Sexual Orientation: Somewhere between Asexual. He does not know at the moment.

Age: He is technically 40 years old, but he does not age anymore because of the extreme stress that was put under his body when he was younger.

Species: N'Kairen

Birthplace: Dlolva, Iyzurria

Occupation: He does rarely serve as Viggo’s stand in. He is “trying” to turn his life around.

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Affiliations: He is affiliated with Viggo, the Raznatovic siblings, and he is currently listed as one of the 25 intergalactic criminals that are running free.

Family: Subject 35- She was his mother. Because he was born in one of the experimentation sites, he never knew her real name. He can barely remember her face, but he can remember her scent which is his only memory of her.

Keaseva- Keaseva was his twin sibling. When the two of them came to earth, they were inseparable for a long while. He made sure that his twin was safe and they hunted together. Sadly an accident caused him to get injured so bad that Aaeron felt that there was no way for him to go on. Out of mercy he killed his sibling.

Best Friends: He does not have any best friends as of now because he is rather difficult to get along with.

He sees Viggo as his friend because he has never tried to hurt him or use his powers for illicit means.

Hilkuta: Hilkuta is actually the child of Emperor Heriotza. They are the complete opposite of their sister and parents. Aeron tolerates them and he is slowly learning how to get along with a Makarasan.

Relationship Status: Single

Significant Other: NA

Other Relationships: He has this strange obsession with Viggo Hwajae. It’s been described as someone who is obsessed with a perfect piece of art. In his own way, he sees Viggo as a source of power.

Height: Variable, but he’s seen as being 6'7

Weight: Variable, but normally he is 235lbs

Build: Variable, but he is Athletic like a swimmer.

Skin Tone: Variable, but he is commonly seen with a fair complexion.

Hair: Variable, but it is currently bleach blonde.

Eyes: His eyes are rather creepy because they have been described as being dead. He never blinks and he usually has this unending stare. His Irises are highlighter pink while his sclera are a faint red.

Identifying Marks: Because he is an N'Kairen, his sclera have a faint pink glow. He also has a slight reddish tint to his teeth. He also sometimes has horse hooves for feet.

Appearance: Aeron is a rather strange person. Nobody knows what his real appearance looks like and he keeps it a secret. As of now he looks identical to Viggo. He is 6'6, 240lbs. His eyes are usually highlighter pink, but he’s usually seen with red irises and light pink sclera. He is usually seen with a metal collar on his neck though, but there’s no explanation for this.

Like Viggo, He is of Korean heritage and like a normal A'maranian he has a tail with a hair tuft on it, sharp canines and the ability to fly. The only difference is that his nails are a bit longer than normal and they are sharper. He is sometimes seen with horse legs, a long tail, and sometimes he takes the form of a dragon because he feels that they are powerful. It has been rumored that his True form looks like a corrupted version of some sort of creature, but this is pure speculation.

Personality: Aeron has a strange personality because it’s almost like his personality is fake itself. A lot of people think that along with his true appearance, nobody knows how he really acts. In general, he’s kind of mean, and a bit of a jerk to lots of people, but he’s also he’s seen as being extremely introverted, angry, and scared at the same time. One thing that makes Him upset is that there are a lot of other alien races that don’t trust N'Kairens because of their shapeshifting ability and violent ways. He knows this, so he has been perfecting his shifting skills. He takes in the characteristics of whoever he has turned into, and it is difficult to understand who Aeron really is.

Although he won’t admit it, he is very loyal to those that he trusts, and his trust does not come easily. If he makes a friend, he cherishes them because he feels that they will not hurt him. He did have a friend who went against his back once, and in response he killed their whole family.

Motivations: Anger and Fear. He feels that scaring people will keep him safe.

Current Goal: He is trying to keep himself from being executed, and he is also trying to turn over a new leaf.

Life Goal: To be as perfect as Viggo Hwajae and he wants to destroy the Makarasan leader.

Motto: “You can never trust me”.

Best Quality: Determination. He sets his mind to things and he will carry them out no matter what happens.

Worst Quality: He is reckless. He sometimes gets so riled up that he gets hurt. If he has his mind set on something, he will risk life and limb to complete it.

Likes: Eating, Hurting people, reading, being alone, and listening to people talk

Dislikes: Makarasans, and anything that has to deal with them, Except for Hiylkutxa. They are the only Makarasan that he can stand.

Fears: Going back to the Makarasan planet. He would rather kill himself than go there.

Hobbies: Reading books that he finds, Stalking people, climbing trees, and learning more about a subject that he has found.

Talents: He is an extremely fast reader and for some strange reason, he can turn some of his body parts 360 degrees.

Skills: Over the years from hiding out, he has learned how to carefully map his surroundings. He is also fluent in 30 different languages because as a N'Kairen he is able to learn languages faster than normal.

IQ: 246

Abilities: He is an N'Kairen, so he was born with the ability to shape-shift/change his appearance. These powers are extremely strong, and he seemingly has no limit to this. He can shift to a smaller size and a larger size too. His smallest form was 3 feet tall, while his largest form was 10 feet tall. He can go past 10 feet and under 3 feet, but his stamina gets drained easily during this. His senses are enhanced, but smell is his strongest one. He can tell people are related by how they smell. He is also a quick thinker and he uses this to his advantage when he needs to.

Weapons: His weapons include his teeth, claws, tail, and anything that he can naturally create. He is proficient in sword use and he can actually use firearms pretty well.

Weaknesses: If he knows that he is losing or in a situation where he can’t escape, he gets reckless. Also, if he knows that he can’t win, he’ll give up and surrender. He once fought a guy for 5 days straight and he gave up when he knew that the guy was going easy on him. Also, Shifting into another form is painful. He does it so quick that he forgets that it happens, but shifting causes him to break bones and to grow different ones. In a fight his adrenaline causes him to ignore the pain, but usually it takes him 10 seconds to recover if he’s not focused.

Fighting Style: His fighting style is a mix of skills that he has learned over the years. It’s close and impersonal, but it’s unpredictable.

Secret: He feels that if Viggo died then he wouldn’t have a reason for living.

Influential Memory: Escaping the planet that he was on. Viggo’s mother risked her life to get some N'Kairens off of the planet that they were on.

Role Model: Viggo’s mother, Blue. She risked her life to help his people and he is indebted to that.

Crush: Unknown. He’s hostile to everyone.

Source of Embarrassment: His past. He admits that he did some horrible things to survive and they involved killing a lot of people.

Source of Pride: The fact that he can hide out and live on 20 different planets without being discovered. He just chooses to let himself be seen on earth.

History:

Aeron has had a rather difficult and hard life. He was born in a planet known as Iyzurria, where the dominant race known as Makarasans would experiment with his race’s shapeshifting abilities. At the time there was an extremely low rate of births and they were at war with the Shershen’ warriors, who were ruthless and ravenous. They were infamous in the galaxy and seen as menaces. Many Makarasans would capture the N'Kairens, force them to change into one of them and that’s how they preserved their race. They would also eat them. Aeron, who was called Solceya at the time, and his twin brother, Keaseva were born into one of the Makarasan birthing camps. At a young age they were taken from their mother and raised separately.

Aeron was a bit more confrontational than his brother, and he was a good fighter. They felt that he would fit nicely with the emperors family, so they sold him to the Makarasan Emperor’s daughter, Gaiatorix. She was infamous because she felt that it was her right to abuse N'Kairens. She liked that Aeron was reckless and she used this to her advantage. He was kept as her personal “attack dog” and his job was to attack anyone who fought back or refused to listen to her. His main job was keeping people of his race in line, which was a terrible job because he did not want to hurt his own people. At first he refused, but she had her ways of making him listen. On the Makarasan planet there were members of their race that were born without brains. They were known for being extremely savage and uncontrollable. She would put Aeron in a pit with five or more of them and she would make him fight until he was near death. She would also punish him by making him turn into races that were difficult for him to turn into. He was still a child and she would force him to turn into races or creatures that were bigger than he was. He gave in and he did what she said. Most of the time she wanted him to look like a Makarasan because it intimidated others. Working as Gaiatorix’s slave was torture. She didn’t care for him at all, and there were times where she would hurt him for no reason. During a day where she was feeling really special, she ordered him to beat Keaseva up. He refused, so she started to do it. He hated to see his brother suffering, so he gave in and he continued to beat him. Keaseva lost an eye to this, but he was still alive. Aeron was around 17 or 18 years old when Gaiatorix informed him representatives from a new Planet were arriving, and that they wanted to talk. She told him that he was to come with her because she needed someone to keep her safe. They met with the representatives who happened to be from a planet called Acrinco, and they were interesting. They looked humanoid, but something was different about them. Two of them were soldiers and brothers named Javia and Rovya, and they came with their superior, Commander Blue Veya. She was a pretty blonde woman and she had a distinctive scent about her, but she meant business. Aeron could tell that she was uncomfortable and that something was different about her. Gaiatorix and her grandfather, Emperor Aorpug hated her. Aeron had a feeling that something would happen and because he knew how Makarasans worked, he had to act fast. Gaiatorix was going to attack her, but Aeron stopped her. He attacked Gaiatorix, severing one her legs. She was so enraged that she killed the brothers and took Blue as her prisoner. She punished Aeron severely and she forced him to kill his own mother. She then chose to starve him for a long while. He didn’t see Blue for a while and he worried that she was killed or worse. It wasn’t until a week later that she was thrown into the cell that Aeron was in. He saw that she was beaten up, but she was fine. He was so hungry that he considered eating her, but he couldn’t place why he trusted her. She wasn’t afraid of him and she started to talk to him for a while. She explained that they came to learn more about Makarasans and they wanted to help them with their fight against the Shershen’, but she was learning that they might have made a mistake. She also explained to him that she was pregnant with a baby boy, and that for some reason the other Makarasans were creeped out by this fact. Gaiatorix was still upset, so she ordered Aeron to attack Blue. He refused over and over again, but Blue told him that it would be alright. He did as she said, but he made sure to not hurt her too bad because he was curious as to what was growing inside of her. Afterwards, he could tell that her health was failing, but she was strong. He talked to her and explained that he was sold to Gaiatorix years ago. He also told her that he had a brother. Blue told him that she had a plan, but she had to wait. Months passed, then there was a commotion that put all of the Makarasans into a panic. Apparently, Emperor Gorpua was murdered and Usurped by his son Heriotza, who was Gaiatorix’s father. She went on a rampage, attacked her brother and was exiled. Emperor Heriotza came out of exile himself, but unlike his father, he was scarily logical and cunning. He liked technology and he wanted to figure out a way to stop the Shershen’ without killing them. His first order of business was establishing relations with Acrinco. He ordered the release of the A'maranian prisoners, but Blue asked to speak to the new Emperor himself. He agreed, and she approached him with a proposition. Blue’s offer was that she would sell him her ship in return for Aeron and his brother. Heriotza was intrigued because he liked her ship, but he was more fascinated with her unborn child and who she was. His offer was that she would stay and give him her child in return for Aeron and his brother. Blue agreed and Aeron and Keaseva were sold to her. There was no reason as to why Heriotza wanted her, but Aeron didn’t want to find out. Blue was given quarters within the Emperor’s home and Aeron worked as her servant. Keaseva was there too, but he was afraid of his own brother. This hurt Aeron, so he chose to leave him alone. Blue was strange because for some reason, Heriotza really enjoyed her company. All they would do is talk. She told him stories and he listened to her constantly. Aeron started to notice that the Emperor was changing. Blue would suggest something and he would do it. Just by talking she got him to stop the abuse on the N'Kairen people. The other Makarasans followed suit and they ceased their activities. Within the year, Blue felt that she was ready to give birth, but she had no intention of giving her child to those monsters. She convinced Heriotza to let her contact more of her people. He agreed and soon more A'maranians came. They slowly started to take N'Kairens off of the planet until Aeron and Keaseva were left. She convinced him to give her ship back and soon Aeron and Keaseva were going back to the A'maranian planet. Acrinco was beautiful, but they couldn’t stay long. Blue got word that the Shershen’ were coming to Acrinco within the month and they were after N'Kairen. Aeron and Keaseva stayed with her for a bit on their planet. They took the forms of her soldiers who had died so that they could stay safe. They met her husband, who was a kind human man, and she eventually gave birth. He asked her about what she did and she told him that her powers were about persuasion. She could influence people with her words and speech-craft. She never used this power for cruel means, but she knew that she had to do something. He thanked her and they were safe for a bit. It was a hard decision to make, but she decided to send Aeron and his brother with some N'Kairens who were being sent to Earth. He agreed and they got into a ship that was bound for Earth. The Shershen’ arrived earlier than expected, and their forces were massive. As the ship was going to Earth, it was attacked and it crashed towards the blue planet. It crashed landed in a desert of some sort. He and his brother were the only two to survive and although it was difficult they managed to make a small home in the desert caves. Keaseva was starting to trust his brother again, and Aeron took it upon himself to protect them. Earth had a multitude of creatures that he liked to take the form of. He would watch others walk by and he would occasionally take the form of some of the humans. He changed himself into a human teenager and he would follow people around, learning more about them. He stole a few magazines from the store and he would bring them back to Keaseva, where they took turns turning into the animals that were in the book. Aeron was happy with this life and he was glad that he had his brother back. He apologized for what he had done and they forgave eachother. Things were going great until an accident happened. He and Keaseva took on the forms of Mountain Lions and they were prowling the hillsides for food until there was a noise that he had never heard before. Something hit his brother and he fell down the hillside. Aeron rushed to get him, but it was bad. Someone shot him in the chest and he was dying. He had no way to help him and Keaseva couldn’t change forms. Aeron tried to help by bandaging his wound, but it was no use. He was suffering. He told his brother that he was sorry and he killed him out of mercy. Aeron was enraged and alone. He had no one to talk to and he felt that it was his fault for allowing his brother to get hurt. That night he tracked down the hunters and he killed everyone that he was in the home. Any hunter that came near that side of the desert caves was immediately killed by some sort of creature that was living there and he became a legend. It had been five years since his brothers death and he couldn’t forgive himself, so he chose to change himself into one of the hunters that he had killed about a month ago. He made himself younger and changed his eye color so that he would look a bit different, but he left the desert. As he was traveling, he heard of a place that was known as the A'maranian embassy. He went there and he learned that A'maranians could travel home for a while. He wondered what was going on in the planet, so he found someone who was an A'maranian, killed them and took their place. Acrinco was like he remembered, but something was different. As he was there, he learned that the Shershen’ and the A'maranians were allies. He was appalled by this because he felt that the Shershen’ were the cause for everyone’s problems. He thought “Why could they be forgiven so easily for all of the trouble that they had caused?”. He did not realize that the person that he killed was the son of a diplomat, and that day his family was going to meet with the King and Queen. He pretended to be their son and he got dressed to meet with the royal family. He thought the party was alright and he left halfway through, but as he was there he saw someone that made his heart stop. The man that he saw looked just like Blue who had saved him years ago, but he was different. He had her hair and her features, and he was dressed in the Captains uniform, but it wasn’t her. He changed himself into one of the other party guests and he went to observe this man. This man had the same mannerisms and characteristics as Blue, and when he spoke to him, they spoke the same way. He introduced himself as Viggo, and Aeron realized from his scent that this was her son, but he became panicked because deep down, he felt that he treated her unfairly. He left the party that night and he wanted to fix things. He had it in his mind that he would kill Heriotza, but he knew that he couldn’t face him at the moment, he needed to be stronger. He decided to travel to different planets where he learned from different races. Violence was what he knew and he was frequently called “Monster” because of how he would attack people that he met. The strange thing was that he really enjoyed how Viggo looked so he committed these crimes while looking like him. He took on a couple of A'maranian hunters who were after him, but he was too tricky and dangerous for them to capture him. He went to 20 different planets before he decided to go back to Earth. He was there for a while, and he did kill two Shershen’ warriors by himself before Viggo caught him and brought him in for a trial. On Acrinco, Viggo learned that Aeron was actually a N'Kairen who was wanted on various planets. They wanted to execute him, but because he was part of race that was nearing extinction, they wanted to help him. Aeron felt that if it was his time to die then he would accept his fate, but Viggo had other plans. He asked for Aeron to be conscripted into his squadron of soldiers. Aeron objected and he threw a fit, but after realizing that Viggo reminded him of his mother, he reluctantly agreed. They have slowly been learning to trust each other, but Aeron refuses to show his real form and he insists on taking on Viggo’s appearance. Viggo suspects that because of what he’s been through, he is going through an identity crisis and due to trauma, he can’t take on his actual form. He told him that he was allowed to take his form, but only if he turned himself around. He has been trying. But occasionally he gets into trouble for eating people that threaten him and for trying to start fights with Dvorrah.

Hello Again!

What I like best about this world and your characters in it is that you have tied it all together and you really know each character, even the secondaries. You have a great grasp on this characters motivations, where he’s coming from and why he does what he does. Having said that, you know so much that when creating these profiles you’re leaving out parts that I need to know in order to proceed.

I have to say that my biggest issue with this profile is the organization. I continuously went back and forth between sections because things were mentioned before they were explained. For example, you mention his powers before explaining what they are. You mention his alien race but tell us nothing about what that means for several sections. You say his personality is weird because he takes on other people’s personalities, but then give us bits and pieces of what he’s like, and why, in the background. Just tell us, in his natural form, sitting with his brother, what would he be like? Sitting around with Viggo, if his guard was completely down, who is that person? If he’s being a jerk is it because he’s unaware of how his comments affect others, or is he trying to keep people at arm’s length?

I also have some general plot questions. How are the N’Kairen identified if they can continuously shape shift? If Aeron was born on a different planet how is he A’maranian, N’Kairen, and Korean all at once? Is A’maranian his specie, and the other two his races? How did these races come to get mixed together? Is this rare? How does his human part affect his other abilities? If the answer is that his human DNA has no affect on any of his abilities, I suggest you take it out. Right now it reads as a complete afterthought that goes unmentioned, so just don’t mention it. I’d also like you to consider how knowing Viggo’s mother before meeting the man sets expectations. Instead of being so reverent of Viggo, try having Aeron realize what’s disappointing about him. Where doesn’t he live up to the legend? What is so glaringly different from his mother that it’s irksome? Let Aeron compare them and see where either comes up wanting.

An IQ of 246 simply has to be taken out. You can make your character intelligent, conniving, and worthy of praise, but never set exact numbers. When you set a number that unrealistically high your character has to realize everything before any other character can possibly think of it, which means you have to write him as a character who knows what will happen 30 pages away and reacts accordingly. He’ll kill your story by fixing problems before they arise. You’ll have readers wondering how it could possibly take him 5 days to figure out his opponent was toying with him, how he hasn’t figured out who’s pulling strings behind the facade. All of that.

I think you already know that I’m going to tell you to cut down on your back stories. A lot. I want back story bullet points, not the entire story. Tell me that Aeron ties himself to Viggo because he was once imprisoned with his mother, who helped set Aeron free, not every detail of the escape and how it came to be. One of the reasons I suggest this when writing profiles is because there is no better way to slow down the pace of a book than to insert lengthy background exposition into the middle of an otherwise fast-paced book. Practice in profiles so that you’ll know how to dole it out in chunks through a novel so that we get to know the character bit by bit, leave us wanting to know more instead of overwhelming us.

I hope to see more of the characters from this world, so hopefully this review gives you some information help with Aeron specifically and will help streamline your profiles so I can do a better job of really diving into your world.

Happy Writing,

Shields

#SOC Critique #OC Critique #Backstory Help #General Help #submission

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daleisgreat · 7 years

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Dale’s Top 11 Videogame Experiences of 2016

Greetings! It has been awhile since I did one of these top 10 of the year lists. It felt right to place my list on my long dormant Giant Bomb blog where a few of my past lists reside and because I always enjoy the wealthy amount of game of the year content from the Giant Bomb crew each year. This is not a ‘Top 10 games of 2016,’ but more of a ‘Top 10 Experiences’ of 2016.

As you will see, a lot of my games listed will be from prior years. Also you will definitely notice I cheated on most of my entries and included multiple games on most entries. I tried to make each number on my list a theme for each experience, so I hope that suffices for you. If you take a liking my ramblings, please check out my movie blog where I recently ran down my favorite and worst movies from the past few years. I may post this on my movie blog as well since I have a ‘Top 10’ label there too, so if you are reading this blog there, greetings again! *Edit* I saw after I finished editing this I screwed up my numbering and actually had 11 items, not 10, but it is too late now to remove an item after working on this for so long, so onward with my top 11 experiences of 2016! 11) Finally acquiring current gen consoles Yes, that is right, three years they debuted I finally picked up both PS4 and Xbox One. My gaming backlog grew out of control because I do not have nearly enough time to game as I use to so I wanted a few years to get caught before I got the current systems. I first jumped on the Xbox One shortly after they released the S model in September and caught a good sale on the 2 TB version that knocked off $100. It took me six weeks though to get around to hooking it up and playing it however, but I have gamed a fair amount on it since.

The PS4 I got a couple months later on Black Friday weekend when retailers were having big sales on the Uncharted 4 500gb bundle, and I was able to stack a couple other discounts to get it for $190. An awesome friend gifted me a 2 TB hard drive for Christmas shortly thereafter. I have since hooked it up and got all my cross buy games from PS3 and Vita transferred over, but have yet to find any time to play a single game on it because of all the other games I am trying to catch up on. I think one of these weekends I should do nothing but binge on Uncharted 4 because it is one of my favorite franchises and it is a crime that I have yet to play the latest installment. I also want to squeeze in here two other platforms that kind of meet the criteria of this subject: the Retron 5 and the NES Classic. The games I have tested out on the Retron 5 have worked great on my HDTV, and results in my classic games running flawlessly in HD, with none of the fuzziness that would result from hooking up my classic systems with RCA/composite cables into an HDTV. Like everyone else, I hate the Retron 5 controller, but am thankful the Retron 5 is compatible and works well with my classic controllers. The NES Classic I lucked into getting one morning right when a retailer opened and I was not even looking for it, but happened to hear the store had them. I brought it over to play with the family after Thanksgiving dinner and it was a big hit that night. My brother-in-law kicked my ass in Tecmo Bowl that evening. Later on I let my six year-old niece, and eight year-old nephew play the system for a bit and took in their reactions to experiencing classics like Bubble Bobble and Super Mario Bros. 3 for the first time. I have since busted out the NES Classic a couple more times with my nephew and we made a lot of progress in Bubble Bobble since, and have also had good times playing the original Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong with him. My nephew loves Minecraft and other tablet games, and I feared him playing these older games I grew up with would not jive with him, and I was delighted he took a liking to many of them. 10) Arcade Racers! I love me some arcade racing games! Racing and pinball games are the perfect way to start off a gaming session. I like to invest about 30-45 minutes and knock off a few races from a career mode before moving on to whatever game I am working on in my backlog. Going through my gaming journal I realized I have invested significant time into five racing games in 2016, and have completed the career modes in three of them. I first finished off Blaze Rush, an excellent downloadable racing game that is essentially the old school Micro Machines games, but with crazy weapons. The career mode is filled with a ton of variety, and while I had a few hair pulling moments trying to win certain races, I very much enjoyed my time with it.

Toybox Turbo is from Codemasters, the same people who made the aforementioned Micro Machines games and this is a contemporary follow up to them from a couple years ago. You still race in crazy environments like kitchen tables and workbenches, and the racing is still as quick and fun as the 8-bit classics. The third career mode I finished in 2016 went to Dirt Showdown, also from Codemasters. This is an arcade spinoff from the sim-heavy Dirt rally racing games, and Showdown is more of demo-derby racer in similar fashion to Destruction Derby and Flatout. I love that style of racers, and they do not make enough of them! Dirt Showdown is a welcomed addition to the genre, and I had a blast doing both races and last man standing demolition derbies! It is pretty fun, but not quite perfect, but establishes a good foundation I hope Codemasters builds on with future sequels. Road Redemption is the contemporary take on Road Rash I have wanted EA to make for many years. These guys are getting it right, but it is still in Early Access on Steam so the developers are constantly building upon it. It controls how I would imagine a Road Rash game would evolve into today, and they thankfully took out having to run out back to your cycle so you can get back into the race quicker. I had some friends over for four player couch play, and we had a blast and it convinced them to get it too. If you have played old school Road Rash give it a look! Mantis Burn Racing is another Steam game I put a decent amount of time into that offers up a similar isometric perspective and has a good arcade/sim hybrid feel to it complete with drifts and turbos. It recently hit consoles so give it a look there too. Finally, I have lately been making a lot of progress into Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed. Sega really stepped up their game with their second kart-style racer a few years back. I really dig how the karts morph into planes and hovercrafts during the race and how some tracks transform during the race to keep me on my feet. The roster features a ton of Sega favorites and the racing feels great and is right up there with Mario Kart! 9) Pinball!

Anyone who knows my gaming habits knows I am a pinball nut. Ever since Pinball FX on 360 I have spend countless hours on various pinball games. As I stated in the previous entry this is another one of my go to games to start off gaming sessions with. In 2016 I played a lot of Pinball Arcade, Zen Pinball 2 and a little known indie game on Steam called Hyperspace Pinball. I love nearly the entire Zen 2 roster of tables and spent a good chunk of the year trying to replay each table on my PS3 at least a couple of times. I am all caught up now with the exception of the recently released Bethesda pack that offers up tables based on their Doom, Skyrim and Fallout properties. Alternatively, the real life translations in Pinball Arcade are also up my alley, and I always find myself coming back to tables in attempts to best previous high scores and knock off all the preset goals for each table. I recently busted out the spinoff Stern Pinball Arcade disc on Xbox One, which offers up a couple exclusive tables that are not yet in the standalone Pinball Arcade hub and have been eating that up a lot too. Hyperspace Pinball is an under-the-radar game that got buried in the plethora of indie games on Steam and it is unfortunate that it has gone ignored for this long. It features simple-yet-groovy futuristic graphics and a very fitting soundtrack. The primary mode is like a addicting version of pinball-meets-Asteroids and every several levels there are unique boss battles to vanquish. It took several runs before I got use to the physics of this pinball game, but once I did I was glad I mixed Hyperspace Pinball into my rotation. 8) Road Trip gaming!

This past October I went on a week long road trip to hit up some attractions I have always wanted to see and hang out with some friends who have moved out of town over the years. I visited my friend, Dick in the Twin Cities. We have a history of playing many hours of our favorite wrestling game, WWF No Mercy together and we could not resist busting it out again. We had some intense matches where we teamed up against the computer on expert difficulty, and then a few more grueling one-on-one encounters. Later that day, we checked out an game shop that had an arcade machine with a ton of games built in and one of them was for a Japan-exclusive sequel to Saturday Night Slam Masters I had no idea existed until that point. Slam Masters was Capcom’s take on wrestling meets Street Fighter II, but the sequel, Ring of Destruction, is a straight up fighting game that plays as good as any Capcom fighter back in the day. After that, we traversed to a recently opened arcade in the Cities called Up/Down, which is an arcade bar loaded with arcade and pinball games and has a full service bar. All the hits from 80s and 90s I grew up with were there such as classic brawlers like TMNT, X-Men and Simpsons to the hits Midway dominated the 90s with like NBA Jam, Mortal Kombat I-4 and NFL Blitz. There was even old school Nintendo games like Excitebike, Donkey Kong and a version of Fix-It Felix straight out of Wreck-It Ralph I had no idea was a thing until I saw it with my own eyes. There was also around a dozen pinball tables there, with a good mix of classics like Funhouse, Terminator 2 and Adams Family to more recent Stern releases like Ghostbusters and Metallica. I guess this is a slowly expanding chain, so if you happen to run across one, make sure to check it out as you will be guaranteed hours of fun.

The next destination on my road trip was to visit my brother in a smaller town a couple hours outside of the Twin Cities. I had a great time hanging out with him, and like my friend in the Cities, we also have a history of beating the tar out of each other in WWF No Mercy. After telling my brother about experiencing the awesomeness of taking on expert level AI opponents in tag mode and proceeding to have another close match with the AI where we emerged victorious, we proceeded to take on each other in about 15 one-on-one matches. I consider myself a pretty darn good No Mercy player and can hold my own with any other seasoned player, but for whatever reason my brother has always had my number and is the only one I know that can outplay me (that link is a clip of us squaring off in a tournament final from several years ago for proof!). Of the roughly 15 matches we played, I only had one victory out of them all, and I made sure to savor every moment of it! 7) Awesome Local Coop! This is where I will give a shoutout to my local friends in town, Ryan, Derek and Brooke! Last few years we have had recurring couch multiplayer game nights every several weeks! I always look forward to them, and we are constantly rotating in old favorites like Mario Kart: Double Dash, Mario Party and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect with newer games for a constant fresh variety of multiplayer goodness. I will give props to some of my favorite moments I had with them this year. One awesome early multiplayer night in 2016 involved a NES theme night, and me busting out my four player adaptor which led to many hours of Gauntlet II and Super Off-Road fun.

For a couple weeks we were into slaughtering zombies and we played through a couple levels of Left 4 Dead 2. I forgot how awesome and frustrating that game is as I experienced both soaring highs when our teamwork was flawless and devastating lows when we ran into trouble a couple of times. Either way, it was still a blast re-experiencing Left 4 Dead 2 for the first time in years. That led us to a couple days of long sessions of Dying Light. I loved the first Dead Island and this game is from the same developers and plays just like it, but mixes in an awesome parkour system. That resulted in all kinds of crazy running dropkicks and being on the lookout for next great weapon that would turn up in our endless piles of loot. Just a few weeks ago we had another great session where we played Drawful and Fibbage out of the Jackbox Party Pack. Both are awesome social party/trivia games from the same people who made the also-excellent You Don’t Know Jack. These games make great use of cell phones as controllers so anyone could play, and we had way too much fun guessing at what the heck we were drawing in Drawful. It brought back classic memories of staying up all night in another similar multiplayer game on the DS, LOL!

We followed that game up with a random game I got for Xbox One since I heard so much good buzz about it online called Overcooked. This simple four player Root Beer Tapper-meets-cooking game featured some of the most fun I have ever had in a multiplayer game. When your teamwork is firing on all cylinders it is a blast, when it is not it led to us playfully shouting at each other until one point a few of us had to drop the controllers because we were uncontrollably laughing so hard. It was a moment I will never forget. There was one other multiplayer night between us that usurped these moments, but I will save it for later. 6) Extra Life 2016 Extra Life is the annual 24 hour gaming event where we game for a day straight in order to raise funds for our local children’s hospital! These last two years I traveled down to my friends, Chris and Lyzz’s house to game for 24 hours straight. I always attempt to beat WWF No Mercy’s 100-man Survival mode, and just like all previous attempts, I failed about halfway through. There were two main takeaways from Extra Life 2016. One of them was binging through Gears of War 4’s campaign from start to finish during the 24 hours. I love me some Gears, and Extra Life happened not to long after I picked up my Xbox One, so Gears 4 ended up being one of the first games I played on it. I had to take a break halfway through Gears 4 because I signed up to run a local 10k in the area, which was actually a nice breather to get out of the house and get some exercise and fresh air! I came back revitalized and had a great time playing nonstop until I finished. Chris and Lyzz were playing their own Gears 4 campaign in split-screen coop and we both did our best to look away from each other to avoid spoilers. Turns out you cannot have a split screen system team up online with another player on their own, but we found a way to get through it on our own without spoilers! Gears 4 turned out awesome as expected, and was a return to form after the experimental game in the series that was Gears Judgment.

The other game I played later on in Extra Life I want to make sure to recognize is Mega Man 2 off the Xbox One Mega Man Legacy Collection. I never gave a Mega Man game a serious chance before. I recall trying to play the first one a couple times long ago and getting frustrated many times and not beating a single stage. In the Legacy Collection however, it has save states which I made sure to exploit to the fullest. I was saving every screen or two in Mega Man 2. I decided to start on that one since I usually hear that is the best, and it had a firm, but fair challenge level to it. I died many times, but wanted to try out different techniques in order to progress and beat each boss. I did not finish the game, but did complete three stages, which will go down as the first three levels I ever finished in a Mega Man game! One day I will return to at least finish Mega Man 2, mark my words! 5) Firewatch After finishing Dear Esther and Gone Home a couple years ago, I have become a huge fan of the genre that has become known as the walking simulator! Firewatch hit out of nowhere early in 2016 and became a much talked about indie game throughout the year. I finally played it towards the end of the summer, and relished every hour of the six or seven hours it took me to finish. The graphics are superb and perfectly capture the solitude and beauty of being a fire ranger in the vast wilderness. I could get lost out there forever, and spent many moments just pausing in the game and taking in the sublime surroundings. The score is not always present, but knows when to kick in to amplify the moments that need it.

I could not help but get immersed in the narrative between the two fire rangers, and the mystery that the two found themselves in as the summer unraveled. Reading other game of the year reactions in recent weeks I found myself in the minority that liked the twist towards the end and was not thrown for a loop by it. I really loved the final days in the game, and it all culminated in an impactful moment for me when I could tell my summer with Firewatch was coming to an end. I got lucky and managed to get in on the Limited Run release of the physical copy of the game on PS4, and look forward to replaying it sooner than later with the newly added developer commentary. 4) Objection, dedicated handheld gaming is here to stay!

I try to dedicate a couple hours a week to traditional handheld gaming. I am not talking smartphone games, but good old fashioned DS/Vita/3DS gaming! I grew up playing a ton of my various versions of the GameBoy and still try to cram in a little bit of the current stuff too. I am a huge Ace Attorney fan and spent a good chunk of my 2016 handheld gaming getting caught up in the series. I finished off Ace Attorney Investigation: Miles Edgeworth early on in the year, and spent a good chunk of 2016 gradually chipping away at the first 3DS entry in the series, Dual Destinies. The last couple weeks I finally put my first few hours in the most recent release in the series, Spirits of Justice. If you have played one Ace Attorney game before you know what to expect, and that is a ton of crazy over-the-top characters you meet investigating crime scenes and cross examine on the witness stand as you try and clear innocent names from murder cases. There is a ton of reading involved in these games which is why they take forever to get through at my rate, but they are worth it in the long run to me since I find myself craving what kind of adventures the Wright Anything Agency are getting themselves into next.

There was one other non-Ace Attorney game I snuck into for a few hours at a time in-between my travels in and out of the court room. That game was the PSone version of Final Fantasy VII on the Vita. I have started FFVII a couple times before, but never made serious progress in it, and I guess I did not make a ton of progress in it this year either, but barely set a new record for time and progress! I originally was trying to keep up with Game Informer when FFVII was a part of their Game Club feature, but quickly fell behind. I came back around to FFVII in December for a few more hours, and am glad to say that I finally got out of Midgar and into the overworld for the first time in FFVII! I went on to get through the portion of the game in the village of Kalm, and then failed a few times at trying to kill off that big serpent by the Chocobo farm outside of Kalm. I think I need to grind by there for a bit in order to proceed. While I know I am nowhere close to finishing the game, I plan to periodically pick it up and eventually beat it in 10-15 years! 3) Nintendo Sixty-Fourrrrrrr!!!! If you have somehow stuck with me through this dreadfully long top 10 blog, you might recall that I stated I had one other awesome local coop gaming night I wanted to elucidate on later. That brings us here to where my brother was visiting from out of town and he joined me, Derek and Ryan for an N64 themed night of gaming. I knew Derek and Ryan had a bunch of N64 games, and I brought a bunch of my favorites to play also. I was a little taken aback when Derek asked me to bring the N64 wrestling game I loved so much because I did not associate Derek and Ryan to be much of wrestling game fans before. Turned out that WWE 2K16 was a recent Xbox Live Games for Gold free game of the month and both of them spent a bit of time suplexing and powerbombing the heck out of each other in recent weeks and wanted to give the N64 game I raved about the most a whirl as a result. Derek and Ryan picked up the controls for WWF No Mercy in no time and we spent at least a good hour tearing each other up in intense tag team and Royal Rumble matches. I am still befuddled that Derek and Ryan had a legit good time playing wrestling games that night, and it will probably be the only night that will ever happen with them, but I will forever remember it! The night did not end there because we went on to spend hours in other four-player hits like NBA Hangtime and New Tetris. I was surprised New Tetris went over as well as it did, but the timeless puzzle game was the right breather we all needed after some heated rounds of basketball and wrestling. It would not be an N64 night if we did not bust out the Giant Bomb favorite, Mario Party 2, and we proceed to complete a 20 turn game where everybody won!

The highlight of the night however was breaking out the original console FPS multiplayer hit, Goldeneye 007. I have read many times online how this game does not hold up in modern times, but I beg to differ! Play it on a big TV and play for at least 10 minutes, and trust me, you will be conditioned to like it was 1997 all over again! That is what happened to us that night. Sure the graphics are obviously last-century, and there is a bit of slowdown in four-player split screen when the explosions start rolling, but if you are on a big screen TV after about 10 minutes, you get use to it because the core gameplay is still that damn good. We played all kinds of variants including old favorites such as Grenade Launchers in the Temple, Rocket Launchers in the Complex, Proximity Mines in the Archives and a random map incarnation of Slappers Only with Golden Gun rules so that each slap meant instant sweet death! These five games for about five-to-six hours that magical night combined for nonstop greatness and hands down my favorite multiplayer game night 2016! 2) MGS 2/3/Peace Walker Since the fall of 2015 when Metal Gear Solid V released. I swore to myself I will get around to playing through all the Metal Gear Solid games in order. Up until that point I only finished MGS4 and gave up on MGS2 after just a couple hours. I somehow have found myself still determined to meet this goal as I plugged away and finished The Twin Snakes GameCube remake of the original MGS by the end of 2015. Throughout 2016 I managed to finish MGS2 and MGS3 and got through around the first 15 story missions of Peace Walker off the HD Collection on PS3. I even dabbled a bit with the first hour of Portable Ops through backwards compatibility on the Vita, but decided to stick to playing on consoles and moved on to Peace Walker instead. So what do I make of the series thusfar? I have absolutely enjoyed the core three games immensely so far. I am probably playing these games completely wrong, but I played through all three MGS games on very easy difficulty. I have no shame, but for what it is worth I try to play stealthy, and if I blow my cover and fail to retreat that is when I bust out the AK-47 and go guns blazing. That works OK most of the time for me in very easy. In Peace Walker there is no difficulty setting so that involves a bit more trial and error, but thankfully that game’s missions are shorter since it was originally designed for the PSP so failure does not mean a ton of backtracking there.

I really enjoyed my time with the first MGS, and the updated graphics on the GCN made it much more pleasant on the eyes. By the time I finished it, even all these years after its release I could tell I finished something special. Playing as Raiden did not bother me in the sequel….unless it came to saving which sometimes resulted in a few raised eyebrows. It still had the same unique, great gameplay as the original, and managed to tell another memorable chapter in the MGS universe. That said, I still rank it at the bottom of the core trilogy I liked the least, but not by as much one may think. I am probably going to give the slight edge to MGS3 to being my favorite so far. The gameplay seemed to have hit its stride there by finally giving the ability to move and shoot simultaneously, and I actually did not mind the healing/wound treatment system in MGS3 either. The Cold War-era story is probably what I will give the nudge to me liking MGS3 the most. Each MGS game got to gradually become more bonkers in nature, and wrapping the Cold War narrative around it seemed like a perfect fit. I also loved the boss battles the most in MGS3, especially the final battle with ‘The Boss’ and the beauty with how it is presented in MGS3 will easily rank as one of my favorite moments in videogames. 1) Oxenfree When it came down to it, I only finished three games in 2016 that were released that calendar year, and Oxenfree was one of them. It is a walking simulator like Firewatch, and also like that game the small development team at Night School Studios has members that worked on the critically acclaimed first season of The Walking Dead from Telltale Games. Unlike Firewatch though, Oxenfree has far simpler 2D graphics that are watercolor-esque in nature. Do not let these simple looks deceive you, because the narrative that surrounds these four coming-of-age teens out for a night of fun on an island quickly transforms into a night of sci-fi spookiness that I will never forget and left me wanting a sequel ASAP. I am heads over heels for the script and dialogue that unloads throughout Oxenfree. One moment the cast is trying to come together to figure out the grand mystery of this island, then the next they are taking quick asides to find out more about their personal lives that encapsulates the everyday life of teenage drama. Night School Studios make tremendous use of certain camera tricks and jump cuts that do not necessarily equal out to jump scares, but sure as hell something close that had my skin crawling with goosebumps as the adventure played out.

There are several pivotal decisions that will affect gameplay, so naturally I had to play the game a second time telling myself no matter what I am going to play the game differently. A lot of the dialogue choices in the game have positive, neutral and snarky response options so I spent a good chunk of my second playthrough being a snarky jerk and it was fascinating seeing the responses I would get in return. When it came down to bite the bullet in the end and make one of the big game-changing decisions, I had to pause the game and step away from it for a few minutes to think it over. Even after doing that, I could not go back on my natural instincts and I went with my original decision in one of the most frantic moments I had in playing videogames. Shortly after I finished Oxenfree a second time I was caught off guard by the developers patching in a remixed mode for people who have finished the game that offers up a slightly new gameplay experience. These changes were minor, but they did add a few new wrinkles throughout gameplay and the dialogue would unexpectedly change at random intervals to keep me constantly alert to see what tricks Oxenfree had up its sleeve next. I think it goes without saying if a game can manage to convince me to finish it three times within a year, especially at a time when I have just a fraction of the time to game than what I use to, then Oxenfree easily walks away from 2016 as my favorite videogame experience of the year! Limited Run has a physical release for PS4 set for later this month, and you can bet your booty that I will be attempting to pick up a copy and experience this game a fourth time!

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terryblount · 5 years

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Forza Horizon 4 – A Love Letter To Cars And Racing Games

It’s a hard question to answer these days: is there any good racing games? It’s not like there is of no abundance of racing games- there’s plenty around. But to the average gamer, racing games have somehow lost its appeal. Gone are the days of Gran Turismo being a hit and talked about for months as it influences petrolheads and normal gamers worldwide. The biggest hype around racing games in the mainstream this year is for kart racers.

Not that it’s a bad thing. But the point is: what we traditionally classify as racing games have lost its luster in the mainstream.

But with all that said, I’m glad we live in a world where Forza Horizon exists. The initially weird offshoot of the more serious Forza Motorsport series is now the crown-bearer for the best racing game out there with Forza Horizon 4- we said so last year. And it’s for good reason: It’s a lovely love letter to cars, and racing games in general.

For The Love Of Cars

No other game series right now are offering the breadth and depth of a car list compared to Forza Horizon 4. Sure, Gran Turismo used to do that, but their current car list in Gran Turismo Sport is far, far smaller than in their heydays.

Meanwhile, that torch has been handed to Forza with its large and ever-expanding car list. And an eclectic mix too. You have the supercars in the form of the McLaren Senna and the Porsche 911 GT2 RS on one side. Then on the other side are.. the Peel P50, the BMW Isetta and the Reliant Supervan- slow, tiny cars you would expect to see as pedestrian traffic, not something you can buy, tune-up and drive like the wind. But you can.

There’s something for everyone in Forza Horizon 4. Group B rally cars, offroad monstrosities, utes and vans, that Final Fantasy XV car, and with the DLC, even cars made of Lego bricks based on actual Lego sets.

The game’s livery editor is also pretty great. You can have a real racing car livery slapped on, or get a Mini have it rock Mr. Bean’s colours. But more importantly: itashas are so popular and expected there’s a dedicated tab to filter the liveries for anime, I kid you not. The Forza community are active and creative in this aspect.

Pick a car, any car, and for the most part, you can race it and expect close competition with your rival AIs. But if not, you can always go back to the garage and buy some upgrades and tune it up to speed. Unlike most games, Forza Horizon tips the scale towards sim rather than arcade.

Sure, it’s an arcadier Forza compared to Motorsport, but not many games let you add a bigger rim but it makes your car slower in general because that’s how it works in real life.

And if you’re a car nut, you’d love the ability to convert a car’s drivetrain config, or change an engine, or change its power config- like add in twin turbos to an otherwise naturally aspirated engine.

The Forzavista was a feature made with the ill-fated Kinect peripheral in mind, but it still is an amazing feature for car porn. You get to see these lavishly rendered cars up close in the first person, and fiddle with them to a certain extent.

Admiring a Konisegg’s trademark dihedral synchro-helix actuation doors opening up close and inspecting a V12 at the back of a Lamborghini up close after opening the trunk is something a Doug Demuro video would provide for us common people unworthy of owning these. But here you can do those yourselves.

There’s a lot to love if you love cars in Forza Horizon 4.

Real Racing Roots

But Forza Horizon 4 is not just sending an ode to cars, it also celebrates the great arcade racers of years past. This is particularly clear in the story missions provided by LaRacer. A streamer, she enlists your help to create her Top 10 Cars list from racing games.

The first thing you have to do in the missions is getting in a Ferrari Testarossa, like the one in Out Run. Yeah, that name was just casually dropped.

It’s surreal to see a game celebrating its past brethren, especially those own by other competing publishers. How the heck they got Sega to allow this, or is it fair use? While the missions are nothing to write home about mechanically, the story flourish sells it. LaRacer talks about how cool Out Run was with its various biomes you get to travel to. She shouts “Checkpoint!” in the event homaging Daytona USA. You drive a yellow Bel-Air as a reference to Crazy Taxi. Ridge Racer got a shout too.

She even laments that no one is making a game like Smuggler’s Run anymore. And wished out loud for a Project Gotham Racing reboot- a defunct series Microsoft had where it’s the main gimmick is you get points for driving in style. Which is now integral to Forza Horizon.

Of course, some of the homages are less direct. The nod for that one game that does cross-platform play in the ’80s, in particular.

But to drive home that the developers of Playground Games really love cars and racing games, it is the number 1 pick from the list. The last mission have you drive a Porsche 911 Turbo. From all the games.

Sure it sounds like a cop-out, we could have a BMW ME E46 for NFS Most Wanted or something for Burnout, but LaRacer explains it candidly why it deserves the spot.

“Cartoon games, sci-fi post-apocalyptic games, racing games, They had one thing in common. You’d find a 911.

“Or you know, something that looked a lot like one.”

This is, in reference to, EA’s exclusive license for the German marque has now lapsed. For over a decade, racing games have to settle with a RUF or a fictional car that sort of looks like the 911. And now the flood gates have opened, every decent racing game with real car license has a Porsche.

It’s a historical moment worth celebrating- it is, in fact, the car and marque we wanted in racing for oh-so-long. And the developers understand this, hence the tribute to the Porsche 911.

(Now, if only Toyota got the memo…)

The Joy Of Driving

But the most important element Forza Horizon 4 gets right is the driving. Thanks to this game, I am finally convinced that, outside of driving sims, racing games can also be just called driving games. The simple act of going from point A to point B, the very problem cars are created to solve, is very much prominent.

I can bet that making fast travel limited and require a small fee at the start was a calculated one. This isn’t a game about completing races and objectives in rapid succession. You are meant to cherish the downtime. You are meant to appreciate driving to whatever your next point of interest is.

It’s not about the destination. It’s about the journey.

Forza Horizon 4 delivers the fantasy any petrolhead can relate to if they’ve seen various car media- either official advert videos or an episode feature from Top Gear.

It’s the fantasy of taking a car, rev it up and drive it along a long stretch of road with a beautiful view on the sides. It doesn’t have to be wicked fast. You just want to hear the beautiful soundtrack from the wailing engine, the feel of tyres losing grip, the ambiance of the countryside and the rocking tunes you have on the radio. All while leisurely driving a car so expensive, or so rare (or both) in the comforts of your little virtual world. For a fraction of the price to do so in real life.

The location, some amalgamation of the UK including the town of Edinburgh, captures the atmosphere of the English countryside, complete with uneven road surfaces that can hold puddles after rainy days. The sweeping roads have character, not something to just glide over so the driving will keep you engaged.

Especially with the game’s handling physics, it demands you to understand how to brake before turning, but with the right build, you can take corners sideways with a tap of the handbrake and careful balance of steering. It’s a robust handling model that can cater to grip racing and drifting.

But soaking it all in is such an experience- so much that most of the story missions as mentioned before are based on just driving, albeit really fast.

Final Lap

Traditional racing games may have fallen out of favour in the big mainstream gaming crowd compared to the biggest AAA titles, but the niche is here to stay. Forza Horizon 4 is now the poster child for the typical racing games for good reason: It remembers to honour the real cars that are the star of the show.

And not only that, it blends all the elements of a good racing game, into a smooth cocktail of pure racing goodness. With its own twist thanks to the remarkable robust handling physics.

Forza Horizon 4 is a great game, and it will remind you how awesome cars are, and how great racing games can be in this modern age.

The Backlog is a series where the Gamer Matters crew cover games past their release dates- either to make it eligible for Game Of The Year discussions or because they have strong opinions about it but only got around to play them later.

Forza Horizon 4 – A Love Letter To Cars And Racing Games published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

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barbosaasouza · 5 years

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DreamHack Dallas Announces 2019 Indie Lineup

The swell gang at DreamHack have chosen an array of thoughtful, striking, ridiculous, spooky, and action-packed titles for their Indie Playground at DreamHack Dallas 2019! So, come take a peek at them.

Best Action

Black Salt Coreuption – “Black Salt Coreuption is a one-on-one 3D arena fighting game that allows complete freedom of movement around the arena rather than 3D fighters doing combat on a 2D plane.”

Prodeus – “Prodeus is the first person shooter of old, re-imagined using modern rendering techniques. It reaches the quality you expect from a AAA experience while adhering to some of the aesthetic technical limits of older hardware.”

Them’s Fightin’ Herds – “Them’s Fightin’ Herds is an indie 2D fighting game featuring a cast of adorable animals designed by acclaimed cartoon producer Lauren Faust. Beneath the cute and cuddly surface, a mechanically-deep GGPO-powered fighter awaits!”

Trap Labs – “Follow Billy’s ascent on Trap Lab’s building in pursuit of pocket money in this online action puzzle. Dodge trap doors, spikes, vortices, cats on Roombas, salary-chickens, and other weird things to survive! It’s a game inspired by the strange combination of RTS games and cartoons from early 2000s.”

Best Action Adventure

Dreamscaper – “A fluid, action-packed, RPG Rogue-lite – every slumber is a different dungeon and you must unlock the powers of your dreams to fend off nightmares and see a new day.”

Freedom Planet 2 – “The fast paced platforming of Freedom Planet returns! Become a full-time cartoon heroine and use abilities and items suited to your play style to explore the world of Avalice and defend its animal citizens!”

Outpost Delta – “Outpost Delta, the latest game from Hidden Achievement, is a single player, 2-D side-scrolling sci-fi shooter for PC. Take on the role of Delta, the outpost’s emergency defense, along with her AI companion, Joule, as you defend the outpost against alien intruders called the “Klaath.””

The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines – “The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines is an action packed twin-stick shooter built around your ability to stop time.”

Best Adventure

Depths of Sanity – “Something is brewing at the bottom of the ocean and it is up to you to investigate. Dive into this underwater metroidvania, coming Q1 2020.”

Best AR/VR Experience

XING: The Land Beyond – “You died. Welcome to XING: The Land Beyond, an atmospheric first-person puzzle adventure for desktops and virtual reality. Enjoy your peaceful escape from the chaotic world of the living, and travel the lands of the dead.”

Best Arthouse

Blink – “You are trapped within the perception of a mysterious Eye; everything it sees is a reality for you. But a curious thing happens when its eye closes, the world disappears around you and anything brightly lit up leaves an afterimage burned into the vision of the Eye. To you, these afterimages are solid objects, and you can jump on them to get to unreachable places and accomplish impossible feats.”

Heartbound – “Heartbound is a non-traditional role-playing game about a boy, his dog, secrets, and sanity.”

Project Arrhythmia – “A rhythmic adventure in which all things beautiful are deadly. Avoid the musically timed pulse of blocks and bars, and in the process you might just find out what this mysterious “Project Arrhythmia” is.

Best Casual

Alluris – “Alluris is what would happen if you asked: “What if someone mixed Oregon Trail, D&D, Hearthstone, and Tinder.” The answer is an adventure game with nearly limitless opportunities yet only two inputs: swipe left or swipe right. Swipe your way through an adventure that is uniquely your own!”

Merchant – “Merchant reimagines the classic RPG experience from the perspective of a Merchant. Hire Heroes and Crafters to do your bidding for you.”

Ooga Booga: The Prehistoric Survival Game – “Follow a tribe of the ancient world’s laziest hunter gatherers. See how long you can survive without leaving your cave. Hunt, cook, and eat various pre-historic wildlife and invent new ways to stay alive as long as possible in this weird and wonderful survival game.”

Roundguard – “Roundguard is a bouncy dungeon crawler with pinball physics, lots of loot, and a randomized castle full of oddballs. Press your luck against hordes of dangerously cute monsters and challenging roguelike elements in this all-round bouncy adventure!”

Best Early Access

Super Animal Royale – “Select your favorite adorably murderous fox, panda, or sloth and parachute into a FURocious 64-player battle arena.”

Best Horror

The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] – “The Eternal Castle [REMASTERED] is an ambitious attempt to modernize an old classic in order to keep its memory alive. Through detailed research and hard work, the production team tried to expand the experience while keeping the same ‘feel’ and emotional flow of the original masterpiece from 1987.”

Krumpet Town – “Krumpet Town is a slice of life meets horror game. Customize your character, explore exciting new environments, help your neighbors, and investigate the strange occurrences that are taking place on your home island!”

Best Humor

Shadow Fencer Theatre – “Shadow Fencer Theatre is the competitive awkward physics sword fighting game set in the world of shadow puppets. Take center stage with a unique cast of characters and make your way to become a Grandmaster of the theatre.”

Wave Break – “Grab and grind to your heart’s content in Wave Break! Inspired by classic arcade skateboarding games, with a splash of boating, explosions, and cold-blooded murder.”

Best Multiplayer

Balls Out – “Balls Out is a 4 player Cooperative Third Person Action Game Show Shooter. Think Rocket League meets Smash TV. Play solo or with 3 co-op friends, fighting to survive waves of Aliens in an episode of a space survival inspired Running Man type show.”

Mini Wheels – “Mini Wheels is a story-driven karting game. Play one of the five available game modes: Story Campaign, Single Racing, Capture the Flag, Burnout and Boss Battle. Help Pipo – the lost and lonely toy – find the way back to his favorite human through an action-packed series of races.”

Project Winter – “The perfect game to back-stab your friends. Project Winter is an 8 person multiplayer game focusing on social deception and survival. Communication and teamwork is essential to the survivors’ ultimate goal of escape. Gather resources, repair structures, and brave the wilderness together.”

PROTOCORE – “The bad news : you’re lost in a massive spaceship, your memory’s gone and there’s an army of robots that wants you dead. The good news? You have guns. Lots of guns. So lock and load and get your memories back, one bullet at a time.”

Best RPG

Bound By Blades – “In the Action RPG, Bound By Blades, the desolate land of Ashmyr has become overwhelmed by bloodthirsty beasts. Scavenge materials, forge gear, and fortify yourself to confront the ferocious foes that lie ahead in order to rekindle the last hopes of life.”

Last Epoch – “Last Epoch combines time travel, exciting dungeon crawling, engrossing character customization and endless replayability to create an Action RPG for veterans and newcomers alike.”

Popup Dungeon – “A papercraft roguelike RPG that lets you create any weapon, ability, enemy, and hero imaginable.”

Rogue Empire: Dungeon Crawler RPG – “Rogue Empire is a tactical turn-based RPG with randomly generated content and heavy Rogue-like elements. Choose one of multiple character combinations and advance it with unique abilities! Embark on a quest to heal the 5 kingdoms and understand the mysteries of the First Shadow!”

Best Strat/Sim

Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark – “Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is a turn-based tactical RPG with a focus on storytelling and strategic battles. Unfold a mature story as you progress through hand-crafted scenarios, controlling your own group of Arbiters, with each character customizable from a wide selection of classes and abilities!”

Summoners Fate – “Summoners Fate is a top-down deck builder adventure game with turn-based combat. Determine the destiny of hundreds of diverse characters by choosing cards as you explore an ever-changing single player experience. Battle other players on desktop and mobile in async and real-time cross-platform multiplayer.”

Wildermyth – “Wildermyth is a character-driven, procedurally-generated tactical RPG. Lead a band of unique heroes as they grow from reluctant farmers into legendary fighters. Battle the threats lurking in the Yondering Lands and discover secrets that the land has to offer.”

Dive headfirst into the exhibiting experience by joining the Indie Playground at DreamHack Dallas this June. Selected games will receive a free booth in the Expo at a festival that encompasses everything gamer life from esports, to indie games, to midnight horror films.

The post DreamHack Dallas Announces 2019 Indie Lineup appeared first on Indie Games Plus.

DreamHack Dallas Announces 2019 Indie Lineup published first on https://superworldrom.tumblr.com/

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smlpodcast · 7 years

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The SML Podcast - Episode 300!

Download Episode 300!

Episode 300 is HERE and it is absolutely massive including a chat with Tom Wimbush and Luke Borrett of Mediatonic about the game Fable Fortune!

Before that though, we've got a lot to take care of and that includes an opening segment with my old co-host Kris Huber as we just catch up on things for a while. We also talk about the Switch because Kris is finally getting one and we talk about good games and accessories for him as a new owner.

After a quick break, it's business as usual with CJ and guest co-host Cole Martin as we cover the news of the week including new Games with Gold and PlayStation Plus announcements, Xbox Game Pass and Backward Compatibility additions, PlayStation Now headaches, Killing Floor 2 hitting Xbox, and The Sims 4 coming to console, plus tons of code drops and some heartfelt moments after the reviews! Oh yeah, reviews!

Gigantic is a third person strategic hero shooter with massive guardian battles from Motiga and Perfect World Entertainment. Vostok Inc from Nosebleed Interactive and Badland Games mixes twin stick space shooting with clicker style automatic progression. Solstice Chronicles from Ironward and Nkidu Games is a battle for survival in a tactical twist on twin stick shooters. Pressure Overdrive from Chasing Carrots is a cool mix of driving, twin stick shooting, and tons of customization.

Greg Middleton writes in a review of Tiny Trax from FuturLab, old school track racing in your face with PlayStation VR. Race Arcade from Iceflake Studios is a top down racer with multiple vehicles and a whopping 100 race tracks. UNBOX: Newbies Adventure from Prospect Games and Merge Games is a massive open world platformer with sentient boxes. Infinite Minigolf is a minigolf title with endless holes thanks to a cross-platform course creator from Zen Studios.

The final segment of the show welcomes Tom Wimbush and Luke Borrett of Mediatonic to the show to discuss their new release Fable Fortune, a collectible card game set in the legendary Fable Universe developed with the team at Flaming Fowl! We cover it all from keeping the game alive after the death of Lionhead, the crazy cards and powers in the game, plans for game updates through Early Access, and cat talk! There's always cat talk...

We end the show with a handful of tracks from some of our favorite artists we've featured over 300 episodes!

Kris Huber - Dude, Space (McDonald's Treasure Land Adventure) Stemage - Mercury A_Rival - The Wight to Remain (Crypt of the Necrodancer) The OneUps - PC LOAD LETTER (Command & Conqure Red Alert) Jake 'virt' Kaufman - Shovel Knight Release Trailer

http://www.fable-fortune.com/ http://www.mediatonicgames.com/ https://www.motiga.com/ http://www.perfectworld.com/ http://www.nosebleedinteractive.com/ http://badlandgames.com/ http://www.ironward.com/ http://nkidu.com/ http://www.chasing-carrots.com/ https://www.futurlab.co.uk/ https://iceflake.com/ https://www.unboxgame.com/ http://www.mergegames.com/ http://www.infiniteminigolf.com/ https://blog.zenstudios.com/ https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sml-podcast/id826998112 https://twitter.com/theSMLpodcast/ https://www.facebook.com/theSMLpodcast/

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simplyoriginalcharacters · 7 years

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((Hello. This is a newer character that I’ve been working on. He’s maybe a few months old but I’ve really liked working on him and his backstory. This may sound silly but I’ve never submitted a profile for a character who is transgender and I hope that this is written well. I know this shouldn’t be a big deal, but I don’t want to offend anyone. I hope I wrote his profile well too. I’m looking for help with his profile, development and backstory, so basically everything because I feel like my profiles are awful.

Image is created and edited by me on my Sims 4 game.

World: This is character is from my Space series. It’s 2036 and Demons and Aliens are on earth. Ren is one of the characters that can be seen in space or on Earth. These aliens are interesting because they are like humans, but they are stronger, they age slower, and they come with different sorts of powers. When mothers are pregnant, they have telepathic connections to their child and once the children are born they can raise themselves if they have to which is why most of the children in this backstory are doing different things. Viggo is a different character who was reviewed by Mod Shields. There are a few translations on this page and if you have questions then feel free to ask))

Name: Ren Silla

((Reign Sheila))

Real Name:

Kharmin Volta-Oskaalivik

Gender:

Transgender Male

Sexual Orientation:

Pansexual

Age:

On his planet he does not have a birth date, but he would be 88 or 89 years old.

Birthdate:

A'maranians don’t have birth dates, but for Earth purposes it’s February 29th 1988.

Occupation:

Ren is a bodyguard and an occasional hit-man. He was an assassin, but now he sometimes works as bodyguard.

Alignment:

Chaotic Good

Group/Organizational Affiliations:

He is affiliated with Viggo and anyone that he is working with at the moment.

Family:

Kharmon Volta-Oskaalivik:

She is his identical twin sister. They are actually very close and she was very supportive of him as he was transitioning, but he’s afraid of her. She’s a gladiator on their planet and she’s always trying to fight him. They favor facially, but she is more muscular than him and a bit meaner. She loves him and he loves her.

Mimikya Volta-Alakkiria:

This is his dad and they have a great relationship. Mimikya is from the north and his powers are strange because he can control ice and water vapor. When his son came out to him, he was confused at first, but he was supportive of him. He does hate that his son works as a contract killer.

Behdo Roseith-Oskaalivik:

She is his mother. From birth, she knew that her child was different. She didn’t care and she loves him anyway. Her powers are that she can control cosmic energy that radiates from planets or stars.

Best Friends:

Viggo Hwajae-Alakkaria- Viggo has been his friend for many years. They have known each other since they were children and he was the first person that he came out to. Now he works as Viggo’s bodyguard and he’s never more than 300 feet away from him. They also call each other friends with benefits.

Relationship Status:

Single

Significant Other:

None

Other Relationships:

None at the moment.

Height:

6'3

Weight:

220lbs

Build:

Lean but muscular because of his job.

Skin Tone:

Dark with Goldish-tan undertones.

Hair:

Jet black, which is a Southern trait.

Eyes:

Highlighter pink, which is a Northern trait.

Identifying Marks:

He’s biracial, he has braces, and he looks lizardlike.

Appearance:

The most noticeable thing about Ren is that he is of mixed heritage. He has tan skin with black hair, but his eyes are pink, meaning that he’s of North and South origin. He has a handsome face with what has been described as a “shark like” smile. He has braces, but he voluntarily got them because he thought that they looked cool. He is about 6'3, 220 pounds and like all A'maranians he has a tail that has a black tuft on it, but he has silver rings that are on the end of it. He has a lean build, but he is muscular because his job is rather physical. His hair is always seen as being shoulder length and it is rather straight. Sometimes he has his hair slicked back, or sometimes he has a bang, but he has never had it longer. He paints his nails neon white while his sisters are always painted black. Because he is a Bodyguard he is always seen wearing black, or something with the color in on it because black is an intimidating color. Red is the color of where he is from, so he always has that on somewhere, even if its a red bracelet. He also wears boots that go up to his knees.

Personality:

Ren has a rather interesting and weird personality. It’s been noted that he acts like his friend Viggo, this meaning that they are charismatic and charming, but Viggo is a bit more serious and slightly more mature. Ren is mature, but he tends to joke around or space out often, which causes him to forget what he’s saying. He can laugh and have fun, but when he’s on his job, he’s focused. He’s generally calm and level headed when it comes to danger, and most of the time he’s really relaxed. He’s weird because he says his thoughts out loud, and he thinks about the oddest things.

Motivations:

Exploration. When hes doing his job he’s always looking forward to traveling.

Current Goal:

Completing his contracts that he’s gotten.

Life Goal:

He wants to enjoy who he is.

Motto:

"Just give me a contract and I’ll do the rest".

Best Quality:

This dude is on his job. He is an excellent worker with an amazing work ethic. He’s also one of those people who would risk his life to keep his friends safe. He’s always there to lend an hand and it would offend him if someone would reject his help.

Worst Quality:

He’s moody sometimes. He’s always been that way, and Viggo has described him as being picky. He has a certain way of doing things and he won’t change his ways when it comes to his job. He tends to get over emotional sometimes when it aimed to doing his job. He doesn’t realize that he makes decisions that are based off of his feelings. He’s been known to take a contract and he goes to talk to the person that he’s supposed to kill.

Fears:

Shershen’ Soldiers. He’s pretty brave but he has a deep fear of them. Mainly because he knows that he can’t kill one by himself and they never travel alone. He’s also afraid of his sister because she’s a bit of a handful.

Hobbies:

He likes doing his nails. They are always perfectly manicured and painted nicely. He will fight anyone who tells him that he shouldn’t be doing that.

Talents:

He’s never noticed it himself, but he has a nice singing voice. He sings to himself when he’s bored. Like most A'maranians, he’s fluent in two languages.

Skills:

He’s learning more about his powers and in the process he’s learning he’s hand symbols. He’s learned how to do lightning and although he’s not at Viggo’s level, he can scorch someone pretty bad. He’s also really good with a sword.

Abilities:

Like everyone of his race, Ren can fly and adapt to the span of space. His powers are centered around Quantum Magic, so he can control certain things when he is in space only. He can teleport, create time warps and he can manipulate the atmosphere and environments of different planets. He also has limited control over ice, but not to the extent that his father does.

Weapons:

He’s the only known A'maranian that uses a gun. He carries around has been identified as a Benelli M4 Super 90 shotgun and he’s very efficient with it.

Secret:

He wasn’t aware that his gun had a brand name until he got to Earth.

Influential Memory:

Coming out to his parents. He was really scared at first and although they were confused and scared for him, they completely understood and helped him with his transition.

Role Model:

His dad and his mom. Although they weren’t home a lot, he’s glad that he knows them.

Also Viggo is a role model of his because his confidence is infectious.

Crush:

He kind of has a crush on Viggo’s friend Chaiu, but that guy is picky. He openly admits that he doesn’t like Ren because he’s a contract killer.

Source of Embarrassment:

When he’s really stressed out, his voice cracks sometimes.

Source of Pride:

His natural accent. He’s worked hard to keep it and it’s distinctive. It like a very Australian man who is trying to hide his accent with an American one, but it’s pleasant to listen to.

History:

Ren was and is still Viggo’s good friend. Growing up he knew two things about himself. 1) he was different in more ways than one, and 2) He is a living contradiction on his planet. His Father was from the North while his Mother was from the South. He was born with magic powers, which was an anomaly because A'maranians have no magic abilities at all. He never knew why he had these powers, but he liked having them and even as a child he exhibited great control over them.

When he was five years old, he met another A'maranian who was different too. His name was Viggo and he was partially human, which scared a lot of people because he couldn’t really control his powers. They instantly clicked and they were the best of friends. Ren and his sister would hang out with Viggo all day and they even snuck him into their house when their parents were gone for the week. He usually came to eat, but he was a great story teller and they liked having a friend who was older than them. As he got older, Ren was having some difficulties with understanding who he was. On his planet everyone was equal. There was never any discrimination towards a certain part of the culture, and gender roles were equal. Although he tried he couldn’t hide how he was feeling. Nobody really paid attention, but his mother knew that there was something that her child had to tell her. His only real friend was Viggo, and he was the first person that he told about his feelings. Because their planet was close allies to Earth, a lot of books were sent over for the A'maranians to read. They went to one of their libraries and found books that Ren felt that he could understand. He had read stories that scared him about bad experiences that happened to humans, but he spoke to Viggo first. He came out to him and Viggo was glad for his friend, but worried because he was going to make himself sick with worry. Ren eventually made the decision to come out to his parents. His sister was fine with it just as long as she could still fight him up from time to time, his mother already had a feeling, and his dad was actually confused because he didn’t know that his child felt this way. Being the scientific person that he was, he did research because he wanted to understand how his child was feeling. They told him that they wanted him to be happy, and they did everything to help him with his transition like helping him with hormone therapy and other things that were to help him.

He was 18 now and it was time for him to go into the academy. He was upset that Viggo couldn’t attend himself, but he was glad to hear that he decided to join the ___ Priesthood. Ren and his sister were accepted at the same time and throughout their academy days, they were well known. “The Volta Twins” were always combative and they would usually get into fights with other students. Like his sister, he was a natural fighter, and a bit rebellious. He loved his parents line of work and he respected them for it, but he didn’t want to become a scientist at all. He wanted to know more about the neighboring planets, so he went off the beaten path and he enlisted to become an assassin, which was a respected but extremely dangerous profession. When he told his parents about this they were extremely upset because they knew that he could do more. After much thought, they felt that their son could handle himself and they spoke the council, who approved his application. Not wanting to be outshined by her brother, his sister became a Gladiator in one of their battle arenas. Before they went their separate ways Ren, his sister, and Viggo had a party with his family. He was going for training and was away from his planet for about 20 years. As part of their training they had to adopt a code name, so he chose to call himself “Ren Silla” which meant “The Revenant” in their language.

When he returned to his planet where he did some parts of his job on Acrinco. It was going well and he mainly had contracts that dealt with corrupt people and gangsters. He never knew anything about those that he was supposed to kill, and he never paid any mind, but eventually he was given a contract that he had a problem with. Someone wanted him to assassinate an up and coming Soldier that was named Viggo Hwajae. He was told that there was someone who was supposed to get the position as the Army Captain, but the commanders saw that Viggo was more of a leader and a better soldier. Apparently, the man who was up for the promotion was denied because he was racist, nobody really trusted him, and he felt that the A'maranian half-breed had no place serving in the royal army. Ren was shocked and he could have sworn that he was a confirmed priest by now, but he had no idea that he was a full-fledged soldier. He took the contract and he used it instead to track down his old friend. He eventually tracked him down and he spied on him. He saw that Viggo was indeed in the army. He had no idea that his friend was still on their planet and he was truly happy to see him again. Remembering his contract, he used it instead to kill the racist soldier, and as he was gathering important documents he saw that this man was giving army secrets to the Makarasan Empire, their enemies. Knowing that he went against a contract that he was obligated to fill, decided to go to the council and he became a petitioned to become a free agent. He liked his job, but In a strange way he really hated not knowing about the people that he killed. The council accepted and he was allowed to operate as a Free agent as long as he completed his contracts fully and completely. He quit being an assassin and he eventually became a hunter, which was a more enjoyable and dangerous line of work.

He was free to do what he wanted, so he spent the day visiting friends and family. Ren went to talk to his sister who was now an enlisted gladiator, he saw his parents and they were well, and then he met up with Viggo. He was shocked to see that he had changed and that he was doing something that he liked. They got to talking and Viggo told him about what has been going on while Ren told him about being an assassin, quitting and becoming his own employer. Viggo told him that he was going on a rather risky mission and that he needed a partner with him to help. Ren didn’t really have anything to do, so he offered to come with him. They did about 10 different missions together before Ren decided to work as his personal bodyguard. He accepted and he has been working with him ever since because they trust each other.

Welcome back!

The great thing about these characters is you have a very involved world. You understand what your characters are doing and why inside that environment. They have backgrounds that are separate but intertwined that mesh together.

Once again though I’m seeing some personality, job, and motivation aspects that simply aren’t working as cohesively as they could. Instead of looking at individual things let’s really delve into how all of these sections can come together.

Ren is described as a lovable, charming guy who spaces out, says whatever odd thing he thinks and wants to travel. This sounds like a person who is not compatible with a bodyguard, especially a bodyguard to a friend. Bodyguards become friendly with their clients all the time, but covering someone who starts as a friend is tough because of the distraction factor. Also, talking to and befriending targets makes a hitman un-hirable very quickly. Is this really what he wants to be doing? They sound more like fellow soldiers than bodyguard and protector. Why does Ren like killing people so much? He’s described as relaxed and calm yet he likes being a hunter because it’s exciting and dangerous. I’m seeing some dissonance here.

Now for the second issue I’d like to tackle, Ren’s identity as a Trans individual. As you may have noticed here at SOC we are super trans friendly. We get a lot of characters who are not cis/het, and there are some issues we commonly see on trans profiles. Every single relationship you defined in the profile talks largely about coming out reactions. There’s so much in relation to him being trans that I’m losing how he connects as a person. His relationship with his father is great. Why? Do they have similar personalities? Interests? What do they do together? He and his sister fight physically. Do they also compete for parental affection? Does he favor one parent to another? If these are important people to him give me more than how they felt about him coming out.

I also always wonder why alien species are often limited to binary genders. Your characters can manipulate and fly through space so they obviously have non-human characteristics. Why are they still female/male only? Why does his Dad have to find trans information on Earth instead home world? Is he literally the first transgender person in his specie? That would be a very difficult thing to explain to people who had never even heard of the concept before. If gender roles are completely equal how does he explain needing to make a purely physical change to people who don’t understand dysphoria?

For anyone who is trans, coming out and transitioning are major events, but they do not define personalities. For Ren make sure his coming out is a distinct, honest, and accurate moment in his history. Then leave it in his past. Yes, there are still struggles, yes it’s part of daily life, yes outing can still happen and have consequences, but his relationships with the people who know need to reflect that he knows who he is and he’s moved on.

Happy Writing,

-Shields

#soc critique #oc critique #backstory help #development help #general help #submission

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barbosaasouza · 5 years

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DreamHack Dallas Announces 2019 Indie Lineup

Best Action

Best Action Adventure

Dreamscaper – “A fluid, action-packed, RPG Rogue-lite – every slumber is a different dungeon and you must unlock the powers of your dreams to fend off nightmares and see a new day.”

The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines – “The Ambassador: Fractured Timelines is an action packed twin-stick shooter built around your ability to stop time.”

Best Adventure

Depths of Sanity – “Something is brewing at the bottom of the ocean and it is up to you to investigate. Dive into this underwater metroidvania, coming Q1 2020.”

Best AR/VR Experience

Best Arthouse

Heartbound – “Heartbound is a non-traditional role-playing game about a boy, his dog, secrets, and sanity.”

Best Casual

Merchant – “Merchant reimagines the classic RPG experience from the perspective of a Merchant. Hire Heroes and Crafters to do your bidding for you.”

Best Early Access

Super Animal Royale – “Select your favorite adorably murderous fox, panda, or sloth and parachute into a FURocious 64-player battle arena.”

Best Horror

Best Humor

Wave Break – “Grab and grind to your heart’s content in Wave Break! Inspired by classic arcade skateboarding games, with a splash of boating, explosions, and cold-blooded murder.”

Best Multiplayer

Best RPG

Last Epoch – “Last Epoch combines time travel, exciting dungeon crawling, engrossing character customization and endless replayability to create an Action RPG for veterans and newcomers alike.”

Popup Dungeon – “A papercraft roguelike RPG that lets you create any weapon, ability, enemy, and hero imaginable.”

Best Strat/Sim

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