#we did some dungeons and a trial and it was super fun!!

[tieflingbi]

trying hard lately to get good grades in socialising which, for once, is actually both normal to want and possible to achieve it seems

#ppl at my internship place are super lovely and i've had some very pleasant chats since i started last thursday #one even gave me her phone and discord and was like 'here #if you ever need to talk :)' and that was so sweet of her tbh!!! #the kids are rlly sweet too and they've talked a lot more with me today which was also nice. and yes i count that as socialising lol #and just now for once i got over my anxiety and offered to help some ppl out in the ffxiv fc i joined a lil while ago #we did some dungeons and a trial and it was super fun!! #idk. i will ride this high for as long as i can because who knows when the seasonal depression is gonna drag me back into a hole #where i don't wanna see or hear anyone #:') #anyways. i should go to bed lmao

[atthebell]

do you have any favorite days on the qsmp? if yes which ones?

SO MANY these are not in order they're just whatever i could think of. also idk if you mean like vod recs or just like fave days either way i'm gonna list them somewhat like recs

the french speakers' arrival is a wonderful day from several povs (bagheras, cellbits, quackity's, although his is fairly short as always)

similarly, brazilians arriving is also great! watch any of the brazilians or q or roier or even phil who was losing his mind waiting for them to give the eggs back

WATCH A DAY 1 VOD!!!! if you already have watched one pov, watch another from someone else! day 1 vods are so funny and deranged and really set the initial tone that really was the server's vibes basically up until the brazilians arrived

the egg event day! tbh watch any pov but roier's and jaiden's are really really good

the conclusion of the happy pills arc was an incredible day; i know it's probably soured for a lot of folks, and that's understandable, but if you never watched it and feel up for it, check out pac's and cellbit's pov of it because it's wonderful (pac didn't stream the actual conclusion himself, so you'll have to watch cellbit's to see the full conclusion of pac and forever getting the risus antidote)

idr what day it was exactly but the day bobby was killed by the code and lost his first life is a super interesting vod from several povs-- namely roier's, cellbit's, phil's, bad's, and probably some other folks? a LOT of lore stuff happened that day that was super interesting

cellbit's may 7 vod (featuring the cucurucho chainsaw hallway) + his may 10 vod (featuring him screaming and revving a chainsaw at the sight of cucurucho); tbh, if you're into qcellbit, watch his first week vods if you haven't because they're IMPECCABLE they decided to immediately torture him and also gave him so many puzzles it was great. this whole era of theory bros/ordo theoritas was incredible generally too so max's and bad's vods are also very very fun watches and they didn't spend a million hours deciphering an ARG so their vods are easier to get through

the day wilbur found tallulah is so fucking funny we were all losing our shit over the admins making an egg literally just for wilbur and to his credit wilbur did actually log on a ton those two weeks

bagi's arrival IMPECCABLE tbh watching anyone's day 1/arrival vod is a good idea they're usually pretty enlightening & fun; watch her pov as well as anyone else's because from what i remember they had to do a bunch of weird puzzles to get to her

similarly, carre's first day is very funny and chill vibes very enjoyable

gemeos do misterio reveal need i say more

the time roier and vegetta got quackity drunk at casualonas and got him to reveal his plans to kill the eggs on tape

literally any roier vod frankly roier is just so entertaining i could watch him wash dishes and have a good time

jaiden's birthday party vod

jaiden's vod where she was going on a break (i think when she'd been to japan?) and we got the reveal that she'd worked with the feds in the past

whatever day it was where they went and found kameto again in some federation hq

the juanaflippa life trial was deranged i didn't watch it myself (i think i was at my nephew's birthday party or something tbh) but every part of it sounded WILD

related, the funeral streams from any of the parents whose kids died are pretty interesting

the day quackity found out tilin died is BRUTAL but a great watch-- q is, of course, a brilliant rper and what he did with tilin's death was masterful and really heartbreaking. i think it was the day after tilin died? something like that

bobby dungeon. obviously. that was crazy and it set so much up for jaiden and roier's chararacters gahhhhh

the event with the new members' arrival (like tina and everyone else in that whole big crew)

any romero richas moments i cannot think of dates or anything off the top of my head but montelyson lore is so cool and genuinely creepy i miss it so much

the furniture prank came at such a wrong time but it was genuinely so fun along with the deranged waystone prank i lowkey wish they'd happened like. three days before or something bc they would've been really really funny

hide and seek!!!! again idr the day but when they finally got to do that event it was so cool

festa junina!!!!!! so many shenanigans and fun times

dia de los muertos EVERYTHING TO ME!!!!! seeing bobby again ough and all the newer members getting to meet the old dead eggs.... gahh

spiderbit wedding i am unbiased. nodders.

the day where baghs and cellbit did the first day train station puzzle was so good i NEED them solving shit together again sigh

BLUE BIRD MISSION + TIMER DUNGEON!!!!! event(s) of all time fr i loved that shit.

that time elq kidnapped dapper was kinda lame in that it didn't actually make sense BUT baghera went IN on that man and the whole thing of them following him was very cool

max and bad assassinating elq KING SHIT

wilbur party explosion need i say more that shit ruled fit's pov is great for that particular bit of the night bc you get to see ramon figuring it all out

the day they did a server reset so they let roier and bobby and tilin (i think it was them three? its been ages) blow a bunch of shit up that ruled

spiderbit ocean temple hangout very very good day

tazercraft prison break (the one where they escaped with walter bob but then he got taken away at the barbie house)

tiny mike day idr what was going on that day i jsut will never recover from tiny mike. miquinho. smaller than richas even so itty

#asks #anons #vod recs #sorry i got really into this i am. normal about this server #also if you really meant fave days events and arrivals are always fun #well okay events prior to september are always fun #okay its 4am jfc i spent ages writing all this

[alyniaffxiv]

I wanted to make a post kinda compiling all my thoughts on what was announced today! First off feeling super hyped. I'm excited that we're adventuring off again after the events of endwalker, it'll be a much needed breath of fresh air. That trailer omg it was so good. Never seen one piece, but got such one piece vibes from it. The cgi for the scions and wol looked fantastic and the new areas look amazing. Very excited to see it's based of south america and hope they do it well.

Can we just look at HOW GOOD HE LOOKS ♡♡♡

A little bummed it is next summer, thought it would be beginning of next year but think it'll be worth the wait. Fingers crossed for early June/July.

Now this scares me don't let me fight the twins or g'raha please ;-; but honestly looking forward to some kinda of conflict with the scions and what it'll be about exactly. And will this have long term effects?

The new areas look freaking STUNNING with the new graphical update. It was cute seeing how excited yoshi p was talking about the shadows and plants being updated xD

SPEAKING OF THIS MAN WAS A TEASE ;-;-;-; But we all know yoshi doesn't wear a shirt without it having some kind of purpose so seen a few different theories. Based on the trailer we did see either the wol or somebody with a similar cloak holding a new weapon. Some people are thinking a corsair class which would be cool. And it could be a dual wielder with a pistol and a sword. If true that'll be a fun class. The two new classes were confirmed to be a melee and a caster (hell yes finally) But going back to the shirt it could be going many different directions. All the TMNT turtles are named after artists. So maybe some kind of Inkmage is what I seen most talked about. Or they are holding duel wielding weapons which could further confirm the corsair class. Whatever it is might see one of them at the EU fanfest in october.

Taking a break to admire the boys Erenville and G'raha Tia cause LOOK AT THEM ♡♡♡

Now probably the biggest thing this update is the graphical update and WOWW it seriously looks great so far.

Left is updated right is current ingame The way it just looks so much brighter and colorful fdjhfv seriously can't wait. It's a much needed update and so far they still aren't done but next time we see it will be even better.

Updated example of aura their horns look great so far not just a blob. There are some videos on youtube showing off just the updated graphical updates and it all looks stunning especially a certain flower field we're all quite familiar with. Now with this of course does come with updated system requirements not as bad as I thought I barley just meet the recommended but keep this in mind for Dawntrail. It makes me wonder if by 8.0 support for ps4 will stop entirely or they will just have a lower quality version for ps4. We'll have to see.

NOW THIS THANK YOU FOR ALL THIS This is all stuff I know myself and so many players have been begging to be added into 14 and it's finally happening.

Really hoping for at least 100 slots for housing inside and maybe 20 for outside. It seriously will just give so much more freedom for housing peeps. Now of course we have standard stuff we come to expect -Level cap -New Dungeons -New Trials -8 Player Raids -Ultimate Raids -Alliance Raids -New Gear and Recipes -Fates -Hunts -Treasure Hunts -Side quests -PVP Updates

P.S just love this little guy <3

But we also have what yoshi p said Expansive New Lifestyle Content so something like island but not. Super curious what they have in mind for that or what it even possibly could be? Now...the two things I would have NEVER and I mean NEVER guessed is this...

FALL GUYS?!?! Not just a collab in fall guys as a full pass but a probably perma game mode in the gold saucer! I could not stop screaming crying laughing in vc with a friend. I'm still in shock this is even happening. Much less skins being in fall guys but a fall guys game mode in 14! Ngl tho it looks like a ton of fun and I hope it brings some more people to the gold saucer. Now they said in 7.0 gold saucer is getting an update which they said in 6.x that was gonna happen. Please let it be a bigger update this time.

This is the second thing that surprised me was 14 is coming to xbox! Which is great bringing in new people to the game and honestly about time it's on xbox. Phil spencer also great to see him as awkward as ever :)

Nothing needs to be said about this picture lol this was so funny to watch live Overall though extremally hyped for what this expansion is going to bring. I think it's going to bring such a fresh air from the doom and gloom endwalker brought and what I am hoping is just more content. Endwalker does feel a little lacking in content and I just want more and hopefully they can deliver.

I know and can understand people not super vibing with the more relax vacation this is showing off so far. But we still don't fully know what mysterious or problems we'll have so I'm quite optimistic of what they will bring here. Anyone reading this I'm curious what other people think and if you want leave a comment I wanna know :D

#ffxiv dawntrail #ffxiv

[surprisebitch]

Finished Endwalking 🌟Overall, it was a fitting and epic conclusion to a 10-year arc. The expansion cements FFXIV as one of the greatest, maybe the best, Final Fantasy game personally. I do have some thoughts 🧵

First, I think there were pacing issues. For the most part, Endwalker has a very strong and epic story. But the Lopporits arc could have been better paced, especially towards the end in the Labyrinth. Had post ARR flashbacks performing chores for the Ark and back and forths... Also, I have to admit.. I felt while Zodiark was an epic fight that felt like a final boss. The buildup towards it felt rushed. Maybe integrating meeting the Loloporrits first before Zodiark wouldve been better like we first get to the Lolopporrits before Hythlodaeus then Zodiark. Fandaniel couldve made a ruckus involving the Lolopporits too and we couldve tried saving them and beating Zodiark at the same time. I know this is probably my nitpicky need to want some drama but the downtime in the ark felt dragging to me that I just wanted to get to the next. I did not feel this way in Shadowbringers.. i think SHB was very well paced and every step of the journey was exciting. EW had ordinary moments. So yes this is nitpicky and feel free to disagree. Mostly though, the high highs offset the weak moments.

I would say that Elpis is the second best part in the expansion. I loved the questline and learning more about the ascians, creation magicks. What Emet was like before being tempered.. and Venat. I could not stop playing cause I just wanted to know more. The first being Ultima Thule.. I think Ultima was very strong and I enjoyed the buildup towards the final day. I also enjoyed learning bout other civilizations. I love the quest title glitches and the music starting distorted then becoming a song. Very self-aware. I also really loved the Thavnair Final Days arc.. god how could I have forgotten to mention that here! Garlemald Final Days was very good too. Very dark yet hopeful moments.

The music is amazing. I love Endwalker theme. If there's anything nitpicky, I wish they had more original songs instead of doing a rework or reprise of songs we have heard before. But maybe this was done for nostalgic purposes, so I will let it slide. The maps are amazing. Although, I think Garlemald felt too much like Coerthas, so it'd be my least fave. Thavnair, Elpis, Ultima, and Sharlayan are *chef's kiss* though. Love the music in these cities too. I also love how the map changes like during Final Days (reminds of ShB)

The dungeons were super fun. Tower of Zot being least fave but the fights were interesting enough. Babil, Vanaspati, AitiaScope are great too. My fave dungeons are Ktisis and Dead Ends. In Dead Ends, we see all the worlds Meteion witnessed and it felt so cinematic. The trials were very fun too! All were super fun fights and amazing boss designs. Zodiark, Hydaelyn, and Endsinger had interesting mechanics and were very vibrant encounters. Epic experiences and the buildups were exciting too.

For characters.. I am so thankful the Scions are heavily involved. It continues the strength from ShB. Before ShB, the WoL did everything. Im glad in EW, it feels like a legit FF game, and i deliberately played with Trust parties in key dungeons + trials to immerse myself more. I love that many early NPCs got mentioned and played significance in this story. Everyone played a role and had involvement. It makes me really appreciate the 10 year long journey.. We made so many friends and connections and they all became our allies (even the primals)

The NPCs in this expansion are memorable and strong too. Julles, Erenville, Nidhana, Vrtra, and more.. even Fourchenault's development was great to witness. like this game really knows how to make interesting and significant NPCs. No one feels insignificant.

I love Hermes is complex. I love Meteion is an example of machine learning gone wrong.. a simple command caused the final days and I think that reflects the dangers of technology and how mankind might be responsible for our Earth's demise. Anything can happen. But despite this, we continue living. There's suffering in the world, but there's hope. I think Meteion and Hermes reacting the way they did are valid and reflective of how people can react to despair. Such great characters. Venat, Hythlodaeus and Emet are amazing too

I love how Hythlodaeus and Emet reappeared for an encore.. the last push to help the WoL get to Meteion. It was poetic. although it might seem too convenient for some, I feel the purpose was clear enough and fits the narrative. I can never get enough of the bfs and Emet's snaps. Zenos is surprisingly a villain I ended up liking. Hated his guts in SB, but I like how he is that character who is so bored that the only excitement he found came from his battle with WoL. Ever since, he did ways to provoke & even help us in his selfish conquest to FEEL again

We also got to fully explore the Scions and what makes them stand out. This was magnified when they confronted the despair in front of them. I thought ShB did an amazing part showcasing them but EW surpassed my expectations. I love seeing their growths and developments.

For themes.. I love dynamis. I think it mirrors the forces in life we cannot control, so it gave a richer lore in FFXIV. Some may feel it kinda appeared out of nowhere, but I think it was nice that it was something besides aether and concerned emotions, which was the key to this. Elpis, the flower being the key to everything was an amazing narrative. At first, we just were confused how come a flower that changes colour will be what answers everything.. btu that buildup was oh so satisfying. It's reflective of how Mother Hydaelyn has always watched over us

Some may think Hope vs Despair is such a cliche and overdone trope.. but I personally think the execution here was well done. I feel it was fitting that EW would tackle this theme eventually. Coupled with the fact, this is the fruit that we sow after our journey since ARR. Life's purpose was fully explored in Endwalker. Why do we live? What makes us not want to live? What gives us purpose to keep living? So many scenarios explored and we experienced the despair.. but we also witnessed the hope and how it can prevail and give us the will to continue.

This expansion was so inspiring. There were times I felt inadequate and discouraged.. but Endwalker reminds me to keep on the fight. I know there are many opportunities out there. I can explore further. I'm thankful for this game reminding me of this. I enjoyed Endwalker fully. and I'm glad that FFXIV does not conclude here. I'm ready to do the post EW quests and see where the story will take us next. FFXIV is truly the game that always has surpassed my expectations. I can not highly recommend this game enough. It's really the best game series ever ♥️😸

#ffxiv #endwalker

[night-city-valentines]

It's the end of the Year, and I played a lot of games, here's my Top 5!

5 - Saints Row (2022)

I grew up with Saints Row The Third, and after SRIV kinda killed the series, I was a little bummed. This new reboot of the series is a return to form. Yes, it has been scaled back considerably from the insanity of the last two entries, but I see that as a given - its a reboot, they're testing the waters to see if there's still an interest in the franchise. For me, there absolutely is. Hopefully we see more Saints Row games soon.

4 - Cult of the Lamb

An incredibly charming and captivating game, Cult of the Lamb combines a management sim with a roguelike dungeon crawler, and it works perfectly. The artsyle is cute, which contrasts perfectly with the Lovecraftian abominations you encounter.

3 - Fortnite

Yeah, yeah, I know. Fortnite didn't come out this year, BUT this was the first time I properly got into it, after the addition of the Zero Build mode. Removing building means that you can pick it up and play a lot more casually - no more skyscrapers appearing when you take a single shot at an opponent. Super fun, and if you've never played Fornite before because you don't want to worry about being behind on building, its worth giving it a go.

2 - Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

Another series from my childhood with a banger entry this year, TSS let's you play through the stories of all 9 main Star Wars films. The gameplay is almost completely reinvented for this entry, and with the ability to explore planets, do side quests, and invest in skill trees for the different character types, it feels more like a Lego RPG than anything else.

Before my number 1, let's see some Honorable Mentions:

- Metal Hellsinger

A rhythm-FPS set in Hell with a heavy metal soundtrack, Hellsigner is incredible. What makes it a mention rather than a top 5 is the length. I wish it was longer, but as all the songs feature actual metal vocalists, I understand why the game is the length it is. Still! Hope to see Hellsinger 2 at some point!

- Pokémon Violet

Ah, Pokémon...you tried, ill say that. Violet is a testament against yearly releases and crunch, and its sad. It could have been so much better if Game Freak's devs had another year or so to work on the game, but alas. The loop of catching Pokémon is as fun as ever, if not more so with the lack of random grass encounters, and the story is actually pretty good. What lets it down for me is the overall lack of polish, and the fact that it feels like SUCH a Downgrade from Sword/Shield

- Final Fantasy XIV

I've never been one for MMOs, but when my boyfriend let me play on his account for a while, I was hooked. Truly the only reason this isn't higher is because I haven't put all that much time into it. But I WILL!

- Need For Speed Unbound

Sneaking in at the end of the year, NFS Unbound is tons of fun for a racer. I wouldn't go as far as to call myself a racing game fan, but I WOULD say that I love this game. Like FFXIV the only thing keeping this game down is the time I've spent with it - I only played the free trial of it, but if I end up getting the full version at some point I know I'll sink hours and hours into it.

Finally, my Number One Game of 2022 is...

ELDEN RING

I...hated Soulsborne games. I really did. I found them too challenging, too overwhelming. Then my boyfriend bought me Elden Ring. I figured, hey, I'll try it out.

Now I love Soulsbornes.

Elden Ring is the combined genius of Hidetaka Miyazaki and George R. R. Martin, coupled with Fromsoft's trademark combat system.

I have put over 200 hours into Elden Ring. I've completed the story twice. I've made 4 characters, and I STILL don't think I've found everything this game has to offer. Hell, I recently bought the strategy guides for it (which, by the way, requires two volumes to cover all of the content in Elden Ring).

If you like fantasy - try Elden Ring. If you like challenging combat- try Elden Ring. If you like exploring a beautiful world with a complex story - try Elden Ring. It won GOTY at the Game Awards for a reason.

#long post #my goty #goty #elden ring #lego star wars #need for speed unbound #pokemon violet #metal hellsinger #saints row #ffxiv #cult of the lamb #fortnite

[daffythefox]

no bc we’re doing smthn about the legal system in my abpsych class and about insanity pleas and all that and putting aside my opinions on the matter it keeps reminding me of the time i poured my heart into my dnd character with NPD and I put so much time and effort into his backstory and I put a lot of effort into roleplaying him and he got corrupted and manipulated by this super powerful evil entity and i made a dungeon they went through that was like a manifestation of his psyche and they learned what happened to him and how what happened to him effected him and made him the sad man he is today and essentially was like “he just fucking wants a healthy relationship where he doesn’t have to constantly put on this performance of being “better” to have value and be respected” and then they got to the final boss room and they just kinda brute forced through it all and then put him on trial for killing his abuser in a fit of rage while almost completely corrupted by the evil entity and they didn’t have any redirects so the prosecutor (one of the other people in the party who did a bunch of research and shit out of game before this event we didn’t know for sure was gonna happen took place) went first and fucking grilled me. and then my defense (my boyfriend who was unaware this was going to happen until the very moment they said we were going to have a trial) tried to refute all his shit but every time he asked up a witness after he laid groundwork the prosecutor just knocked it all down because the defense didn’t get a moment to be like “actually that’s not true/taken out of context” and then afterwards the other people were the jury and they were like “yeah you killed him involuntary manslaughter” and they were like “see it’s not so bad all you’ve gotta do is like some community service” and then afterward one of the people got ahold of the evil entity (that apparently wasnt powerful/evil enough to corrupt me enough to make me kill this guy) and it ended up destroying half the city and killing my character (while I was home because I was throwing up) and afterwards he was resurrected and the charges were dropped and then nobody talked about anything else that happened in that dungeon in character. Ever. And the whole time we were going through the dungeon this same guy who was the prosecutor was like “oh my gosh I wish I could’ve had a father figure like that” while they were watching this guy get fucking gaslit to hell and refused dinner if he didnt do anything he wanted and the whole nine. and then afterwards he was like “yeah we probably should’ve killed you once you first were being corrupted by the evil entity in the first place. save you the suffering of being taken over by it” BITCH ALL YOU HAD TO DO WAS STOP MAKING FUN OF HIM AND THERE WAS LIKE A 90% CHANCE HE WOULDA REALIZED THIS THING WAS EVIL. OH and the WHOLE time they were making jabs at him for no reason than him reacting to them poorly because HE HAS NPD and it got so bad the dm had to say something about it. OHHH and while he was being corrupted 3 of the other players made a code word out of game so if they thought my character was getting bad enough corrupted by this evil thing & that he was in a vulnerable position that they could decide to kill my character! And then they got angry at me for finding that offensive. Like if I was a neurotypical person this probably would’ve gotten on my nerves but it felt like everyone was conspiring against me and my character just because I made someone with NPD. I mean, he was supposed to be one of those cocky “I am confused when we are not about me?” types and he was like “obviously I am the smartest one here so I think *I* should be the one to solve the riddle” but if you like befriended him at all (like held out even the smallest olive branch. like an olive twig) then he would be like, apologetic for if he was rude bc he’d care abt you and he wouldnt want to make you sad if you were his friend and such. It made me so goddamn frustrated and angry. and after the trial and the town being destroyed he was just kinda shelved the rest of the campaign. and nobody apologized to me for anything

#I am still mad about this but if i bring it up to anybody in the party they will be mad at me for still being mad about it #even though I am morally righteous in my still being mad about it #like if they bring it up again in any capacity I'll get cold and cross my arms and if they don't let up I'll leave the situation. #i guess i don't even let myself be mad at them i only let myself be mad at the situation #bc i still have to interact w the people involved so being mad at them would not end up well for me #you know what fuck hey there are two sides to the story fuck any kind of justification #that fucking hurt so bad #and I know they would never care about that #they only fucking care about me in so far as I am of use to them #they don't care about me as a person #if they did they wouldn't treat me like this #fuck them #fuck all of them i fucking hate all of them #oh it seems like you're pulling away are you abandoning me YES! #CLEVER YOU FIGURED THAT OUT! #MAYBE IT'S BECAUSE YOU FUCKING TREAT ME LIKE SHIT #AND MAKE ME FEEL INSECURE FOR FUN #AND IF I PULL AWAY AT ALL #OR ACT LIKE ANYTHING LESS THAN MY CHIPPER SELF #YOU FUCKING GET MAD AT ME #BECAUSE YOU THINK I'M DOING IT TO YOU #SPECIFICALLY #INSTEAD OF GETTING #I DON'T KNOW #CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR FUCKING FRIEND #tw caps #tw abuse #vent #dont rb #me when i

[acerace]

...you have opened my eyes to a vast universe of VintageBeef lore that I was unaware of. I knew about the New Hermit Order, of course, and the UHC invention, and I've watched a few of his CTM things but -- I will take all the info and lore you feel like giving out because Beef is amazing and my knowledge is so small.

Vintagebeef my beloved <3

So the thing is, right, until about 2016 I only watched two (2) youtubers- Vintagebeef for Minecraft and aDrive for Pokemon (and funnily enough both of them are named Dan irl). So I've watched most of Beef's videos over the years and have a general knowledge of most of his stuff, except because it's been like a decade I don't remember where most of the lore comes from XD

The thing with him is that he doesn't do Lore tm the way other mcyters often do lore- he doesn't have an extensive RP series to draw from like Grian, doesn't have a solo world with steadily increasing amounts of lore like Etho or Zisteau, and while he's played on SMPs and been involved in storylines before it's not really the focus of his episodes unlike with Evo or Legacy or Empires

So where does that leave us?

IRL, Beef always has multiple series running at the same time. Often he's playing on an smp while doing a singleplayer, often modded, series as well as a CTM or modpack with a group of friends. For example, right now he's playing on Hermitcraft, doing weekly Pixelmon and Building a Zoo episodes, and a CTM map with Slip. And to me, this translates to one thing: Beef is an adventurer. He travels frequently- he explores a world and when he decides he's done, he leaves for the next one. That's the basis of my personal interpretation of his series and his character for my writing.

Ok so reading this back, this got extremely long and didn't explain much in the way of lore, somehow? If anyone has any additions to add please do so, I am very definitely leaving out a lot and would love to see what other lore people remember and are using for Beef! I didn’t include the Hermitcraft stuff since my memory of season 4 is blurry (his base was themed after the Martian, that much I know, and he and Iskall were buddies :D) and most of the s5 NHO lore is best watched from Bdub’s perspective from what I remember, and the only s6 stuff is a single line in Hermitgang and then the Area 77 arc with its possibility of an NHO reunion which we did not get rip. And s7 of course had the cloning machine and also the Podzol Party as the main lore. So all the original rambling is still below the cut though it is very long, and I'm gonna bullet point the main stuff here instead:

Actual canonical things:

Invented UHC and was the only survivor of the first ever uhc (Mindcrack UHC s1)

Married to an ender dragon (one of the UHCs I think), later father to a different dragon (Mindcrack season 3? I think?)

Might not have legs if you choose to take that joke as canon (Mindcrack s2)

Was a wizard (RAD)

is a zookeeper (Building a Zoo) 

Had a wife and kids (Sims in Minecraft)

Part of the Trial of the B Team court case (Mindcrack)

NHO founder, founder of the Podzol Party (Hermitcraft)

Created a cloning machine that sort of works (Hermitcraft)

Played the Forest which is I believe the first time he and Keralis played together (look up the trigger warnings for this one, it's a horror game)

Was the creator/owner of Sourceblock SMP (featuring some familiar faces if you know Legacy, Empires, or MCC) and there is literal magic from a mysterious sourceblock of water that teleports people and summons mobs and probably more stuff that I haven't seen yet since I'm still watching it myself

Things you can infer:

Good with animals (Life in the Woods, Pixelmon, Ark)

Is a car nerd (irl and all of the car games he's played)

Is a highly experienced adventurer who has traveled through dozens of worlds both vanilla and modded, across multiple dimensions (Twilight Forest, the Aether, the Betweenlands, Limbo), completed dozens of monuments, fought in blood sports, survived apocalypse after apocalypse, tamed dinosaurs, and played a lot of prop hunt and golf with your friends

If you're looking for what to watch for lore purposes, I'd say the Mindcrack UHCs and Team Canada's RAD series are pretty good, definitely Sourceblock and HC s5, plus the Diversity CTM maps and Ruins of the Mindcrackers maybe? And Mindcrack Prank Wars for the chaos and the origin of Team Canada. And if you can handle horror than the Forest is fun and if you don't do horror you can watch the Pojkband play golf or prop hunt they're hilarious I love them sm I want a Pojkband reunion So Bad 

Beef's first series was a singleplayer series in beta 1.4_01 though he had played the game extensively before that, and was a big fan of Guude, having watched his own Minecraft videos. The series was functionally a hardcore one where if he died Beef would delete the world and start again! I haven't actually Watched this series so idk if he died or how often lmao. When Guude made Mindcrack, which was btw one of the very first Minecraft SMPs, he also hosted a competition for people to join, and Beef submitted a video (which is still viewable on his channel I believe!) and won, and was added to Mindcrack in season 2 :D (fun fact, Guude said that even if Beef hadn’t won he would have added him anyway) 

Two running jokes emerged from Mindcrack- pulling a Vintagebeef and Beef doesn't have legs. The first is a reference to Beef dying of fall damage (I believe the exact instance was him trying to jump into his swimming pool and failing spectacularly) and after the incident, every time someone died of fall damage they were pulling a Vintagebeef. The second joke comes from Guude, who joked that the reason Beef wasn't going to a convention was because he didn't have legs, and then he pranked Beef's base by building a giant pair of legs at the entrance to his castle so you had to walk between them to get into the base. This joke has long since died and both Beef and Guude feel pretty bad about it iirc because there were people who genuinely thought Beef was disabled and were emailing him supportive messages and stuff oops. So if you go looking on the Salad or find old Mindcrack fics, you might see references to Beef having prosthetic legs!

Mindcrack also brought about the creation of several Player groups- Team Nancy Drew, Team Canada, and GOB to name a few relevant to Beef. Team Nancy Drew consists of Beef, Pauseunpause, Guude, and Baj, who formed to investigate a prank on one of the members but I forget who. They're named Nancy Drew after the detective! Team Canada also formed in retaliation to pranks, with it consisting of Beef, Etho, and Pause, the three Canadian members on the server (not including Adlington who moved to Canada but never joined the group). There was also a Team America who pranked them with American flags everywhere. GOB is Guude, OMGChad, and Beef, who played stuff like the Ragecraft, Pantheon, and Monstrosity ctms together but that's way down the line lol

Team Nancy Drew is also notable for inventing UHC. It was Beef's brainchild but it was the four of them who first played it! The first UHC had the four of them working to kill the dragon with no natural regen, with everyone dying but Beef, who "won" the UHC. The second uhc was still dragon focused and iirc is where Beef married the dragon? Memories are hazy but they do kill the dragon in this one I think. UHC was then revamped as a pvp event and became a regular Mindcrack game every few months, featuring most of the Mindcrackers and several special guests, including Dinnerbone, who as we know Thanos-snapped Doc's arm out of existence as a result of Doc killing him in one of them

In one of the seasons of Mindcrack, Beef invited swedish Mindcracker and good friend Anderzel to go caving with him and invented ABBA Rules caving, where the winner takes it all. ABBA Rules is a game where each ore (and also dungeon loot like nametags) is assigned a point value and the person with the most points at the end wins and gets to keep all the stuff collected from the game.

In Mindcrack season 3?, Beef punched the ender dragon in an... awkward area, so when the dragon died and left the egg behind, Guude said Beef was the father of the egg XD I don't remember if I watched s3 so I have no idea if anything Happened with this concept but *history of the world voice* you could make lore out of this!

So Team Canada has played a Lot of CTM maps (which fun fact were pretty much invented by another Mindcrack member, Vechs, with his Super Hostile series! Super Hostile has a bunch of things called "Zistonian", which are references to another Mindcrack member Zisteau, who has a very wild singleplayer series with even wilder lore but I digress). In Ruins of the Mindcrackers, they had a running joke that Beef was Etho and Pause's mom, which is a joke we can leave in the past actually /lh. They also played all the Diversity maps, Sky Factory, Terra Restore, Uncharted Territory uhhh and a couple more ctms and adventure maps! Each map kinda has its own story so in Diversity 3 for example they were trapped in a simulation? I think? Team Canada also recently played the Roguelike Adventures and Dungeons modpack, aka RAD, in which Beef was a wizard with a magic staff that could do anything from summon lightning to control hostile mobs.

Sourceblock SMP is a vanilla survival 1.14 series that ran for one season and the series starts with each of the Players being drawn to a strange sparkling water source that, once they touch it, brings them to the Sourceblock world. It also summons a giant zombie at one point. There's probably more lore for this series but like I said I haven't watched it all the way through yet 

He has a Patreon server called VintageCraft and has done a series or two on there as well, and played a few UHCs with them, so lore that how you will! 

Beef also played a few popular mods, notably Pixelmon, Life in the Woods, and Feed the Beast, with LitW being singleplayer and the other multiplayer. He's also recently played the Zoo and Wild Animals mod a lot. He did a short series with the Minecraft Comes Alive mod where he married one of the villagers and had two children, so that's canon now :D he’s played a Lot of Pixelmon starting when the mod first came out iirc (he chose Turtwig in his first series and built a Grass gym, then made a Normal gym in another series in uhh 2016) and he still plays to this day. Quite a few Hermits played on his Pixelmon servers with him, like Wels, Etho, Iskall, Stress, Slip, Zueljin, and also Guude and Phedran (a Mindcrack adjacent player and creator of the LitW modpack) and a few Mindcrackers on the older servers 

Mindcrack and friends played a lot of other games too- 7 Days to Die, Ark Survival Evolved, Unturned, to name a few, so you can pull a lot of lore out of these as well. Speaking of friends and non-Minecraft games, Beef teamed up with Pause, Keralis, and Slip (a former Hermit) to play the horror game the Forest, which saw them stuck on an island trying to survive against terrifying mutated human... things. They played it a few times as the game updated but as afaik it's the first time Beef played with Keralis and possibly Slip and since the game starts with the Player's airplane crashing, that could totally be how Beef first met them in-universe 

I... think? that’s everything I mentioned in the tags? There is probably way more stuff I’ve forgotten that stems from inside jokes and things that happen within each series, but I hope that was a) helpful and b) at least somewhat comprehensible lmao 

#hermitcraft #mindcrack #vintagebeef #mcyt #long post #asks #redwinterrises #that was so many words #kudos to anyone who reads the whole thing lmao

[heyktula]

Closer, Chapter Four: Kink - Bonus Features

Chapter four of Closer, the first installment in Somewhere in Canada (the Terror kink AU)... is now up! It's a plot-heavy chapter! There's some platonic kink! There's the plot to an entirely different story if you squint!

Technical notes first, story notes after, line notes to finish it all up.

Alright, here we go.

Technical Considerations:

Chapter Titles: So I didn't have any particular chapter titles in mind when I started this story. The original structure I'd planned for was one chapter for Friday, one for Saturday, one for Sunday, with Jopson POV at the very beginning of chapter one, and then again at the very end of three.

Obviously, uh, there was too much story for that to fly. So I cut it where I needed to cut it, and swapped my structure to have Jopson POV at the beginning of every chapter (and bonus Jopson POV at the end of the chapter). So I needed five chapter titles. First I couldn't think of anything good, and then it occurred to me that I could name four of them after the RACK acronym (Risk Aware Consensual Kink), and then it was super fascinating from a storytelling perspective because of the way the chapters lined up. Like, Risk deals with the risks that Edward didn't take because he totally ducks out of talking to Jopson that first night. Aware covers them starting to know each other. Consensual covers the dungeon scene, Kink covers platonic kink, and also the very normal way that both of them have integrated kink into their regular lives, and how it leads to these intimacies that are normal for them, but would be strange from a vanilla perspective or in a vanilla relationship. And then, finally, since I needed a fifth chapter title, Aftercare seemed like the obvious solution, which cracks me up because the entire chapter is, uh, well. I mean, it's aftercare for them. But yeah.

Mornings: So I wanted the structure of this fic to be all chronological in order--ie, no re-covering events that have already happened from someone else's POV within the same fic. (The Tozer/Irving fic, obviously, will be covering many of the same events, but it'll be different enough that it won't matter.) Which led to an icky bit for me, because I split the chapters differently than I anticipated (see above), and needed to start the day out with Jopson-POV even though I already had this lovely Little-POV drafted out.

Thankfully, Jopson came in for the win with that one, because he's a morning person, and Ned isn't, and their alarms were set for different enough times that I could go right from Jopson's wakeup to Ned's wakeup without having to retread the same information or the same section of the day (technically, there's a small chronological overlap, I think Jopson is probably eating breakfast when Little is trying to resurrect himself from his bed, but I've decided I Don't Care).

The Three Bears' Bed: This is such a smol technical note, but I wanted to bring it up because it's one of the really fun things that you can do with deep POV. It's implied (and confirmed in the next chapter) that Jopson and Edward are in essentially identical hotel rooms. But if you squint--they both describe their beds very differently. Jopson's bed is "too big", ie, he clearly sleeps on a single at home, and it's probably not as nice as the hotel bed. Edward's bed, a carbon copy of the queen bed Jopson is sleeping in, is "too small", ie, he's clearly got a king-sized monstrosity for himself back at home. I absolutely live for these kinds of things that are literally too minor to be noticed (nor should they be, they're meant to fade into the background), but which communicate so much about the characters.

(Ah, god, there's going to be so much adjusting for them to do in London. Their lives are very, very different. Jopson is starting to clue in, and he's going to have to sit with that once he has a clear head and lets all the subconscious stuff he's been picking up on actually gel together. Right now, he's very much in the 'whoa that looks expensi--hooooly fuck Ned Little is hot' phase. He'll have a Moment in London, though, where he'll sit bolt upright in his single bed and go wait a minute he put fifties in the donation bin when I blacked his boots and didn't even blink, he just casually throws large denomination bills* around.)

*I grew up low income, and I never carry anything bigger than a twenty in my wallet. People who are used to having more money, in my experience, tend to carry larger bills in their wallets. I know a fifty isn't actually a large denomination bill, but it is when you aren't used to carrying that kind of money around. Fifties make me tense until I break them. If I have a hundred, it's because someone gifted it to me, and I am gonna stress about it until I get it to the bank to deposit. Twenties are good for me, thanks.

Story Considerations:

Jopson's Work Ethic: Jopson's work ethic is in full force here, and I love to see it. I also love to see how firm he is about not hiding it. Like, Blanky understands how rare it is for Jopson to find someone he connects with the way he connects with Nedward, and was perfectly willing to skip the dungeon* to give Jopson another go at it. But Jopson, at some point, has transitioned from 'perfect, a weekend hookup' to 'perfect, I would like Ned in my life always'. (Gonna guess it was that post blowjob cuddle-nap that tipped it over, to be perfectly honest.) And Jopson knows that for Ned to be in his life always, Jopson needs to be realistic with him about what his life actually looks like--so he's going to work the long hours that he usually works, and he's going to run Blanky's booth so that Blanky can head to the dungeon tonight, and when Edward asks to be told literally anything about Jopson's life, Jopson moves immediately to telling Ned about his job.

(You'll note that Jopson has a schedule for working in the morning, the afternoon, and also the evening, ie, decidedly more than an eight hour day/forty hour work week. He did not mention that he frequently goes to Terror, and then shows back up at three am to do more work in a haze of subspace, but I'm sure he'll get around to it.)

I think it's important to Jopson that Edward accept him as he is--that is, no arguing about what comes first (it's work), or what Jopson's priorities are (also work), or how much availability Jopson has for a relationship (all of it...after work). So in that sense, this is pretty much a trial by fire--Jopson is saying 'look, this is what my life is like, and if you fit, you can stay', and Edward, in turn, is saying 'please just let me sit next to you, I like it here'. (I'm sure Tozer would be irritable about Edward's changed loyalties if he weren't currently sorting out, you know, every bad decision he made the previous night).

*This is not a Blanky-specific thing. If Esther were here instead, she and Jopson would have the same arrangement. I think either Blanky or Esther would be equally fun to play with, don't you?

Duty and Responsibility: I also love the differing approaches to duty and responsibility, as displayed by Joplittle--Edward talks, multiple times, about his duties and responsibilities here as something that he needs to shoulder, like it's a too-heavy pack that he's hauling around behind him when he would really rather just pull the covers over his head and stay there. Jopson, however, is thriving under his.

I would posit that, perhaps, if Edward managed to distance himself further from Hickey's bullshit, that maybe his responsibilities wouldn't suck so much. But for Edward to get away from Hickey's bullshit, that would mean Tozer would also have to put his foot down, and Tozer has been ambivalent about doing that, so far.

Sadomasochism, and the ‘Gold-Star’ Dom: Oh, Edward, my sweetheart, my dear, you have a track record of dating terrible people, and hanging out with people who kinkshame you, and I am so sorry that it's come to this.

There's this really fascinating (by which I mean it's incredibly toxic) culture difference between old guard spaces and the "newer" spaces. For people Francis' age who grew up in old guard leather kink scenes, they would have come up in the scene submitting first, and then either continuing to submit, or transitioning into being a dominant as they gained experience. However, for newer spaces--and here, I'm talking about something that was starting to happen for people around Fitzjames' age--there started to be a shift toward just doing one or the other*. By the time we get to people in the same age range as Little**, Tozer, and Jopson, the emphasis on picking one or the other is much more prominent. You should 'know' your orientation when you enter the scene--and then that's typically where you stay. There's no requirement for a dom to have ever subbed--and there's no requirement for doms to be familiar with the business end of their implements either. (If I had a dollar for every talk I'd been to where a dom was proud that they've never actually tested gear on themselves, I would have a lot of dollars.)

This leaves Little in an awkward spot--he's got no interest in submitting (as per the way he nopes out of any sort of cuffs or protocol with James Clark Ross), but, unlike Tozer, who tolerates getting hit in the context of fighting but doesn't particularly like it, Little actively enjoys the pain of getting hit. Based on how awkwardly he discloses that to Jopson, we can infer (correctly) that it's gone down badly in previous hookups.

(The general stereotype that dominant-sadist-top*** and submissive-masochist-bottom are one scale instead of, you know, three different scales, is not helping Ned at all here.)

So Ned is in this spot as a sadomasochist dom where he's had a hard time finding a partner that is willing to accept that he has a masochist streak as well. Enter Jopson...

*I think, though I'm not sure, that part of this shift was kink culture moving into the straight scene as well. Heterosexual kink tends to avoid the formalized learning process, and focus strictly on I Have Always Been A Dom.

**For the purposes of kink!AU, I'm going with approximate show ages for everyone--I think I saw somewhere that historically, Little was older than Fitzjames--but I'm going with an older Fitzjames and a younger Little here, for Fitzier Reasons.

***Note that I’m talking about top and bottom in a BDSM sense here--the one who wields the flogger vs the one who has the flogger used on them. The penetrator/penetratee during intercourse is an entirely separate thing, which....you guessed it....is also unrelated to the above-mentioned scales.

Service: Jopson thrives when he's engaged in acts of service. I really loved working with the translation of canon-to-kink!Jopson, because it's really fascinating to dig into how those canon aspects of his personality translate. Like, the long hours as a steward translate directly to the long hours that he works for Francis. But those acts of service translate really easily into submission as well. (I would posit that, for people who pursue more 'lifestyle' kink as opposed to 'bedroom-only' kink, there's a great chance that they'll pursue jobs that play to those strengths.)

The particular benefit to this that's working in Ned's favour here is that Jopson loves nothing more than to arrange things for people to make sure they have what they need. So this intersects perfectly with Ned's typical methods for managing his top drop--if Jopson can leverage his connections to make sure that Ned has access to people that will let him bottom-but-not-submit for them when he needs it, well, that's a win for both of them.

(I would hazard a guess, if you squinted, that Ned is sexually monogamous, and generally dates other monogamous people, which sometimes makes the negotiation of play with other people outside the dyad a non-starter. I would also guess that Jopson wouldn't consider monogamy to be a particular value of his, and so anything he can do to make sure Ned is looked after is perfect for him.)

Top Drop: Pretty much any kink conference that even slightly touches on educational aspects will have a talk about subdrop, typically led by a sub or a panel of subs, or sometimes by a dom/sub pair, discussing how to properly care for one's sub, how to deal with subdrop, and all those coping kinds of mechanisms. I can guarantee Edward has attended a number of those talks, written at least one blog post, and probably could speak on it if you really bullied him into it.

Those same conferences typically do not talk about top drop. I've been to lots of talks on sub drop. I've only ever been to one on top drop, and it was so horribly done that we’re still talking about it years later. Even googling when I was brushing up on my research for this fic didn't give me much.

Anyways, it's good that Jopson works for Crozier, who treats drop as something that can happen to anyone regardless of position. In turn, this means Jopson is able to recognize it happening to Ned, and will just merrily bulldoze and/or gently bully Ned until he gets the information he needs to be able to help.

RACK and SSC: Ah, look, it's the author picking a pedantic fight in the middle of their fic using their POV character as a mouthpiece. SO. When I was first getting into kink in the early two thousands, SSC (Safe, Sane, Consensual) was the name of the game. It essentially means that the activities you do under the BDSM umbrella should fit all three of those criteria.

The issue that I and many others have with the acronym is that it doesn't particularly fit that well for a lot of the activities in BDSM. After all, what's really safe? You can trip walking down the same stairs that you've walked down every day of your life if your shoelace is loose, or if your ankle goes weird, or if you're just not paying attention. What's sane? No, really, what is it? What defines sane? Should we be using mental health terms to determine whether or not something is a good idea? What's the opposite of 'sane' in this context?

(I'm not gonna bicker about consensual, obviously, that one I still hold to.)

How do you practice edge play under SSC? Can you safely punch someone? Is it sane to do so? (God, I hate the inclusion of 'sane' in the acronym so much.) Can you consent to something that doesn't fit the first two criteria? If you decide an activity fits all three criteria, does that guarantee nobody gets hurt? (Absolutely not.)

So, there's a shift in the scene to use RACK instead--Risk Aware Consensual Kink. RACK is more focused on assessing the risks to specific activities, and consenting to do those activities even though the risk exists. You can definitely punch someone under RACK--because RACK supposes that you've discussed the risks of punching them, you're both doing your best to manage those risks, and you've both consented to the activity while recognizing that it’s inherently risky to do it and you’ve taken as many precautions as you can.

Sir John 'actually the expedition is outfitted for seven years and we don't need any rescue' Franklin is clearly focused on SSC, with an emphasis on no further risk assessments once a particular activity is deemed to be safe. This isn't to say that everyone who practices SSC ignores possible risks--but it is to say that the acronym doesn't encourage active risk assessment the same way that RACK does. (Doing X is safe, therefore, I don’t think about the risks while I do X, because it’s safe.) I personally think that RACK is a more robust way to assess kink activities, but, as you can probably infer from, you know, the entirety of this fic, I take part in a lot of activities that don't fit under SSC, so I'm biased.

I do not blame Edward one bit for getting into that argument with Sir John. I do feel pretty certain that Blanky surreptitiously filmed it, though, so that he can send it to Francis. I also am pretty sure that Francis’ own stance on RACK, which comes through pretty clearly in his books, would have informed Edward’s stance as well, so, you know, full circle there. (Do you have any idea how many people you’ve informally mentored via your books, Francis? It’s *cough*JamesFitzjamesAlso*cough* a lot.)

Florentine Flogging: Here's the reference video I was using for Florentine flogging! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGCQGsxbwtw

Sharp eyes will notice that this is a very similar skillset to spinning poi, which I thought was really neat.

Line Notes:

Jopson will be back in six months to give his talk, and Edward is going to be right there in the front row to support him, and that means that nothing can go wrong this weekend.

It...doesn't actually mean that. I mean, obviously, yes, not being banned from Canada is a requirement. But not having the booth open wouldn't have killed anybody.

Irving dragged you home—please advise how, he’s half your size?

This is funnier once I did some googling and realized that Ronan Raftery is six goddamn feet tall, which makes him two inches taller than Matthew McNulty, but I decided to let Edward's inaccuracies stand because they're pretty goddamn funny. Also, I maintain that Irving gives off smol energy.

“Oh, good,” Irving says, the tension instantly melting off his face. “I’m so glad he made it to bed.”

Tozer did not make it to bed, but, tbh, I wouldn't correct Irving at this particular moment either. Especially not in front of Lady Jane Franklin.

“Who’s this, then?” Lady Franklin asks. She’s wearing a vintage dress from a decade Edward should probably recognize, but doesn’t. (Jopson would, he’s sure of it.)

The 1950s, Edward. It's literally the most easily recognizable decade.

“…he’s fine,” Edward says, more confused than ever.

Edward, Edward, Edward. Both more confused than ever--and completely unwilling to do any followup on this whatsoever, because why ask questions when instead you could eyefuck Jopson. (In a sense, though, this is Tozer's problem, so Edward's ability to disconnect from it completely is probably an improvement from, say, Edward of a few years ago.) Normally, leaving plot threads hanging like this would bother me extensively, but because I'm drafting the Tozer/Irving fic as we speak, I'm comfortable just letting all of this just hang for a bit. These plot threads are important to include because they happened, but they're not important to resolve, because Edward doesn't give a shit.

Nothing fancy—just Ned, with a little handwritten squiggle next to it that’s almost a heart, if you squint.

It's definitely a heart. Jopson just channeled the patented Francis Crozier technique of 'if I make a vague line here, people can interpret it how they want'. Not very characteristic of Jopson--but, as we discussed last week, poor boy is carting around some baggage re: his affection, so we’ll just let him have this.

It’s probably the goddamn bruise from yesterday’s fuckup. Well, that, and the fact that Tozer isn’t there. Or maybe Edward’s just fucking up something else that he’s completely unaware of.

I'd like to propose option four, which is that Edward is hot as fuck, dressed in leather, and was part of a scene that gathered a respectfully distant crowd in the dungeon the night previous. Edward is not aware that option four is an option, but I would like to reassure him that option four is, in fact, an option.

“What do you do for aftercare?” Jopson asks curiously. “Like—what did you do last night, after you walked me home?”

Bold of Jopson to assume that Edward spent two seconds looking after himself. (He won't make that mistake again--Edward's blog entry on aftercare was detailed enough that last-night!Jopson made the endorphin-blurred call that Edward had his own routine sorted, and is now finding out that Edward has no such thing.)

Edward sighs, starts to mentally assemble an apology. He’s done it again—let his guard down, said too much. The apology has never worked in the past. But he’ll have to try. There’s always a chance Edward will get it right this time, even though he’s not remotely ready for this (it was going so well), but he has to, he has to start, he’ll just—he’ll start by—saying—

In true Ed Little fashion, Edward is assuming that the reason this conversation has never gone well in the past is because of him, instead of the more rational suggestion that perhaps he's just trying to hook up with people who aren't actually compatible with him.

Jopson’s face is very pink. “Quite the mental image,” he says. He swallows, visibly. “You and Tozer were, uh. Both holding back during the demo yesterday, then.”

Ah, yes, the look and sound of a man who is rather quickly realizing that a wank fantasy he'd watched unfold in real time yesterday was actually just the tip of the iceberg.

Jopson’s eyebrows shoot up. “Why?” He scrunches his nose, frowns. “Was that meant to be a joke?”

Can't get all sad about Edward's past of attempting to have relationships with people he wasn't compatible with until we also get sad about Jopson's history, which apparently includes men he thought were tapping into his fantasies, only to find out that they were kidding. Ouch, my heart.

“Only if you want,” Jopson adds. “We could also, um. Go for a run?”

I don't believe that Jopson has ever gone for a run in his entire life. I appreciate that he's trying to help, though. That's very kind of him.

Jopson turns. “Hi, yes.”

Jopson cannot let a customer go unserviced, and I, for one, admire his dedication to looking after other people's booths as well as his own. I also think, although this action here is entirely instinctual, it's also a good checkpoint--had Edward reacted poorly to Jopson stepping in, well, that might not have been awesome. As it is, Edward is grateful, so he just keeps landing in Jopson's long-term prospect box.

“You know that huge guy they have on security?”

It's Tuunbaq! Also, Tozer should cool it on the whole "he doesn't speak English" thing, because it's not like Tozer speaks Inuktitut. (And while we're talking about Tozer, yes, he is wearing the equivalent of his mutineer hoodie.)

“And I’m like, yeah, I know him, I was drinking with him last night. And they just look at me. And they look at each other. And then the doctor guy is like ‘we had some concerning reports about his behaviour’, but I don’t know who would have said anything, the only other person there was Irving. Fuck, man, I was answering questions for an hour.”

Tozer, look, buddy. You can have a pass because you're as hungover as shit and I'm sure you've been contemplating death since you woke up, but you answered your own question there. The only other person there was Irving.

The only other person there was Irving.

One would hope that this might, you know, cause you to rethink your association with Hickey, considering that someone else's assessment of his behaviour has resulted in all of this, but I guess we'll have to chill on that for now until we get some Tozer POV.

Edward frowns. “He doesn’t drink?”

Pulled this bit directly from canon, and because I also think it's a fascinating bit of character development. Adam Nagaitis had such insights into his character in the AMC interview (https://www.amc.com/shows/the-terror/talk/2018/04/the-terror-qa-adam-nagaitis-cornelius-hickey) and I really think it's interesting working with that in a modern AU as well. So--this version of Hickey doesn't drink either. I think it's also interesting in how Edward and Tozer deal with this--Edward has known Hickey for years, and never noticed. Tozer knows--and still gets shitfaced anyways, even though he's drinking alone.

Tozer’s eyes go distant. “It’s the weirdest thing,” he says after a moment. “I think I told Irving about Heather.”

We can assume, for better or for worse, that Tozer's memory of last night is a bit spotty. I am sorry, though, that this is one of the things Tozer remembers. It's further away in kink!AU than it was in canon, but I don't imagine Heather's death was any easier for Tozer here than it was canonically.

(Also, the choreo of Tozer physically shifting Edward's hand off his arm was a late addition, and I hurt my own feelings adding it.)

Tozer raises his eyebrows, and then winces, goes back to squinting. “Hanky code,” he lectures. “Black is for S&M. Your proclivities aside, I don’t figure you meant to flag sub. And stuff it if you tell me it’s a fashion choice, I ain’t got headspace for that bullshit today.” He glances upward. “I swear they turned the fucking lights up in here, Jesus. I’ll see you after, I gotta go.”

Edward, you absolute himbo of a man. Jopson has been trying so hard, and I'm sure that you have a blog entry about hanky code buried somewhere back in your archive, but you also buried the information in your head, and thus did not access it, and all of Jopson's efforts were wasted.

“No, you misunderstand me,” Edward says. “I love that. Christ, the fuck did he finally do?”

Edward, Edward, Edward. Jopson has the right of it with his missing stair comment--but you're just as complicit as Tozer is in this, because by saying nothing and waiting for the problem to go away, you've been rubber-stamping Hickey's behaviour. I feel as though there's going to be Discussions about this in London.

“Honestly, Thomas, after all we’ve been through.” Sophia sighs, and then turns to face the table, braces her hands on the edge of it. “You know you can still call me Sophy.”

One of the things that really sucks about breakups is the part where there are ripples out into the rest of your social circle as well. I have the feeling that Jopson and Sophia might have gotten along really well--but Jopson's loyalties are with Francis, and so he's been pulling back since the most recent breakup in an effort to, you know, not hurt Francis any more than Francis is already hurt. I think it's significant that Edward is allowed to see this interaction, to be honest--because this is insight into who Jopson is as a person when he's not working or submitting.

Ross has a firm handshake, and a bright smile. He’s dressed casually—jeans, and a tshirt—and Edward feels horribly, awfully overdressed.

Edward is not appreciating casualdom!JCR nearly as much as I would like him to, and this is really, really upsetting me, because I would like to appreciate casualdom!JCR a lot.

I also really, really appreciated the opportunity to include some platonic kink here, because platonic kink is really important to me too. Sometimes you’re just in it for the experience, you know? And there’s no additional emotional or sexual connection there.

“Some kind of a multi-tailed flogger,” Edward says. “Little polished leather cord knots on the ends? Punches like a son of a—er, it’s a fairly sharp sting.”

Look, I wanted to include a reference picture for this. I did some googling. I like this style of flogger. But in the course of my googling, I found out that Walmart sells a twenty four dollar version of this in the states (I’ve since been informed it’s a third party seller BUT IT THREW ME OKAY), and I'm too Canadian to handle this, I can barely even handle American Walmarts selling alcohol, okay? So there's just. There's just no pictures. Anyways, good ball end floggers start at about two hundred Canadian, and they punch pretty fucking hard.

Good, Edward thinks. “So, the shower. I went up to the hotel room, figuring, ah. You know. Strip naked, step under the water, all that. And that’s what you should imagine, because I opened the door to our room, and...well, yeah. I’m here.”

Edward is going to need to update his dirty talk game, because this is Not Great, buddy. It's Not Great. And, let's be honest here. I'm sure you have years and years of filthy stories. You're going to need to learn how to tell them, because Jopson will appreciate and value every single one.

Phew. That's it for this week! Chapter five, Aftercare, goes up next Friday, and it is the very last chapter, can you believe. That's not it for this verse, though--I'm starting work on the Tozer/Irving story that runs parallel to this story. There's also a Fitzier that takes places in six months' time (during the winter conference). I have things to say about that Gore, Le Vesconte, and Cracroft situation. I have a story about Peglar and Bridgens. I might have some things to say about Goodsir. I could talk about Edward Little and Thomas Jopson until my tongue falls off. I just have a lot of feelings about kink, okay? And we're very lucky with The Terror because we have an extremely rich background of source material, both historical and tv show.

And if you have questions or anything in the meantime, you can always drop me an ask on tumblr or Curious Cat.

See you next week!

#the terror #the terror fic #fic: closer #joplittle #fic breakdown #ktula writes #fic: the terror kink au

[watermelinoe]

I think I’ll try to get his flute on my next replay, it’s about high time for one anyway. I liked the original LA graphics better tbh, but that might just be nostalgia speaking, haha. The remakes biggest upgrade was the shell thing, I always messed that up in the original. The dungeon maker didn’t really add anything and got boring after the first five minutes but I liked seeing Dampé and his career change. (1/5)

I won’t lie, I kept getting lost in LoZ1, but I did finish it. LoZ2 is close to impossible imo without saving, but I did beat it once. Only to never ever play it again. Would you consider those two the older games or would you add ALttP too? I remember watching my mom play that one on the SNES and wanting to play it too only to get terrified by the icemonsters in the Ice Palace. (2/5)

WWs remake was good but I feel like they did very little beyond cleaning up the graphics and making the boat go faster. What I hated about the MM remake was how they changed the bossfights. The fight against Goht was awesome as it was, rolling around as a Goron and launching yourself into his face was so cool. But instead they added an eye? And they did the same with Gyorg changing the bosses from being able to be fought solely in Goron/Zora form to having to switch back to Hylian. (3/5)

For TP HD they should have cleaned it up a bit, you’re right. A bigger difference between the Twilight realm and the normal world would have been cool, but I can’t see TP with a SS like color scheme. Some areas that popped with color though, like Zora’s Domain could have been much bluer and shinier, that would have added a lot. Though I wouldn’t be surprised if TP was remade/actually cleaned up and released for the switch or the next main console. So we might see it yet! (4/5)

I’m so excited for BotW2! I wish they’d release more info. I love traveling through the Akkala region and I want to go back there to see what happens after Calamity Ganon died. But please no redeads, I’m still traumatized from walking into Castle Town after the timeskip in OoT and being screeched at. The choking noises still haunt me. Sorry about the length! - Pokenon (5/5)

i like the og graphics a lot, but i felt like the style they went for in the remake worked really well. i don’t really like how most of the “next gen” top-down games look tbh, like especially with pokemon, i prefer the pixel art to the 3d models. a link between worlds is super fun but the characters look like chipmunks lol, with the link’s awakening remake i think the simplicity worked really well and i’d love to see a more stylized pokemon (tbh i’d love to see a new pixel-art nintendo game)...

i used a guide for part of loz1 when i played it, but i think the idea was to tell your friends about secrets, do a lot of trial and error, etc. i feel like there was a map or guide that you could get when the game first came out but maybe i’m making that up lol. i beat zelda ii once and haven’t touched it since, it was too frustrating for me. never got the hang of the hitboxes. i gave the final fight a good ol college try and then resigned myself to poking dark link to death from the corner rip... i would group the first two together, but to me the “older” games would be up to oot when they went 3d for the first time. i’m on the younger end though bc i wasn’t alive when the first four games came out lol

i should replay ww hd, i thought they also gave you the gale song earlier but i could be misremembering... and yeah it’s kind of weird that they changed the mechanics of the boss fights in mm. it seems like they were trying to emphasize that the creatures were just infected, not actually evil, but they could’ve just made it an aesthetic change.

and no, i don’t think tp would look right with ss colors or even the oot/mm colors... imo if the greens and blues were a bit more saturated that would be enough. and i think they could render link’s hair and face much better now. they used a loooot of textures on basically everything (link’s hair, the grass, water, stone, etc.) to make up for what they couldn’t really do yet for “realism” and the effect didn’t really work for me, but i think touching up select things, esp character models, would make a big difference. i hope they give it another go for the switch, and of course i want ww on there, too....

yesss i hope we get to see the aftermath of defeating the calamity in different places, some scenes of zelda and link working to rebuild... the redeads scare the crap out of me but i love them! if we have a zombie ganondorf we deserve more zombies lmao. don’t worry abt the length, i never get to blab abt zelda so it’s fun for me <3

#answered #pokenon tag #long post #loz #imo tp starts getting really good around arbiter's grounds bc that place is badass #there's an hd render of tp link floating around and i'm like.... this is what i wanna see!! tp was too ahead of its time.... #imo cell shading usually looks better bc it's cleaner and it's really hard to execute a 'realistic' look. esp not in the gamecube/wii era #but now..... it could be done.......

[shirtlesssammy]

9x02: Devil May Care

Then:

Ezekiel is totes on the up and up helping out the Brothers Winchester.

Now:

Dean fills Sam in on where Cas is (far away and human and without wings or money or ANYTHING and they’re not going to pick him up. GOD, do I love Supernatural post-season 11 SO MUCH.)

I mean, I guess the brothers have to worry about all the fallen angels out there (heaven forbid you include a FORMER ANGEL in on the mix!) They also have Crowley captured and as Dean so eloquently puts it, “He’s the junk in my truck.” (Lol, not until season 10, buddy!)

In an old, abandoned house, a demon performs a spell over a bathtub and out pops Abaddon!

Dean comes back to the bunker to a seriously freaked out Kevin. He’s been alone for too long. The bunker was acting weird when the brothers were gone. Dean fills him in on what’s happening. Dean is just a jerk here, wtf? I know he’s under some stress but let’s be nicer to the poor kid prophet, at least.

The brothers haul Crowley to the dungeon. They want demon names. He’s not going to cooperate. Torture isn’t going to work.

Kevin demands to know why Crowley is there. He killed his mom. Dean promises that if Crowley gives them what they want, they’ll let Kevin knife him in the end.

Abaddon starts to build her faction of demons. She finds Crowley’s level of leadership to be lacking. “The king is dead. Long live the queen.” And with that Abaddon is going to lead Hell.

Dean tells another hunter about the fallen angels and tells him to pass it on.

Meanwhile, Abaddon is fulfilling one of her first goals, getting better vessels for demons. Her first recruits possess some army dudes on a bus.

On the side of the road, a woman looks over the engine of her broken car. A man in a van pulls up and offers her a ride into town. She gladly accepts (BECAUSE THAT’S A SMART MOVE). Bonus on the gross predator man? He’s also a vampire. But the young woman is a hunter and dispatches him with ease. 

She’s captured by the army demons though. Wherps.

Dean and Sam arrive at the bus. They get a little pushback about investigating —it’s a military case, not a federal one. They have their supervisor, Kevin Solo, give the go ahead. Kevin does his own little investigation and the boys get their clearance.

Once inside the bus, they find the wounds on the dead bodies to be old. Demons. They also find surveillance video of Abaddon.

Abaddon has the other hunter in custody, and she wants answers about Sam and Dean. She gets Dean’s number and Kevin answers. She tells him that she has hunters in her clutches. She’s going to kill them if they don’t come for them.

Sam and Dean task Kevin on learning everything about Knights of Hell and they head to rescue the other hunters.

Crowley continues to sit in the dungeon, reflecting on his brush with being cured and human again. Kevin walks into the storage room by the dungeon. Crowley starts taunting him and Kevin opens the doors.

Sam and Dean find a ghost town. Quick! Somebody find Dean a long coat and a cowboy hat! 

They find the hunters trussed up in one of the abandoned shops. Tracy seems nice and would make a great Wayward Sister JUST SAYIN’. 

Crowley does what he does best and starts to twist Kevin around his finger. He implies heavily that Kevin’s mother isn’t actually dead. 

The Winchesters and their hunter buddies set up for Abaddon’s assault as the army-demons approach. The demons get tricked by the old phone-playing-a-recording trick, buying the hunters a little time to sneak out the back. We learn that Tracy is NOT looking to be BFFs with the Winchesters. Her parents were killed by demons throwing a party commemorating Sam’s release of Lucifer. Uh. Whoops? 

Crowley lays out his bargain: if Kevin frees him, he gets his mother back (she’s imprisoned, not dead). Kevin can’t help but listen to it all, including Crowley’s assertion that the Winchesters don’t care about Kevin beyond his usefulness. And honestly at this part of season 9 I gotta say that Crowley has a point.

The hunting parties split up. Dean defends his brother to Tracy. “You gotta know who the real monsters are in this world, kid.” Sam and Irv approach the demons. Irv confesses that he revealed the identities of a bunch of hunters to Abaddon one sad, drunk night. He’s looking to go out in a blaze of glory. His confession earns a shot through the heart from a demon sniper. 

Sam gets knocked down by demons and on the other side of the stakeout, Dean gets chucked to the ground by Abaddon. 

Tracy fires at the knight of Hell but Abaddon’s suited up with a bullet-proof vest to defend against devil’s trap bullets. Dean sends Tracy to his car for a resupply, then gets ready for a heart to heart with Abaddon, angel blade in hand. 

Sam continues to have a no good very bad day, up against the rest of the demons. (Don’t worry, he’s Sam Fucking Winchester, so we’re good.) Abaddon gets a good hold on Dean by the hair (BRB off to write some Abaddon/Dean fanfic!) and compliments him on being obedient AND “suicidally stupid.”

“Are we gonna fight or make out?” Dean asks, “‘Cause I'm getting some real mixed signals here.”

Abaddon wants Crowley on a plate and she’ll kill Dean quick. OR she’ll peel off Dean’s tattoo and possess his ass. She taunts him with all the horrors she’ll inflict on others while possessing him - and making sure he’s aware of every last bit. 

Sam’s doing poorly. Apparently he forgot his middle name at home that morning (the trials are still affecting him, poor lamb). But not to fear! Ezekiel pushes his way forward and Sam’s eyes flash blue. It’s time to smite some demons. (LOL remember when angels were super powerful creatures that everyone feared and nobody could kill? Those were good times.)

Abaddon witnesses the angelic explosion, chucks Dean through a shop window, and disappears. 

Back at the diner, Ezekiel surveys his demon-killing work and defends his smiting to Dean. He was only protecting Sam. Dean looks like a spooked cat talking to him. 

Ezekiel insists that Sam is fine and won’t remember anything. Dean feels regrets about...everything. (It is his number one personality trait.) Maybe they should have closed Hell - all the demons running around the world are his fault because he wanted to save his brother instead. Ezekiel (Dean: “I’m gonna call you Zeke.”) insists that Dean did it out of love. Dean stops looking like a scared cat and starts blustering instead. “I'm not really with the whole, uh, love, and... love.” DEAN BEAN. (Praise to season 14!)

A little bit later, Dean packs up weapons in the diner while Sam wakes up. He tells Sam that he killed all the demons and Sam’s shocked. “You killed three demons? Alone?” LOL season nine! Tracy pulls up with Baby and DAMN GIRL you got to drive her. She checks on Sam’s welfare in a reasonably friendly manner. Dean, you won her over with the power of FRIENDSHIP! (Shut up, I have not seen too much My Little Pony.) 

The Winchesters arrive at the bunker with some booze and a bucket of chicken. They call for Kevin immediately and when he doesn’t answer they race down to the dungeon. They find a very pissed off and somewhat bloody Crowley. Crowley immediately offers up names of demons and gives them a deal - they scratch his back, he scratches theirs. But the first demon names are because playing with Kevin was so much fun for him. “Wind him up, watch him go.” Dean races upstairs to find Kevin walking out of the bunker. To convince Kevin to stay, Dean delivers such compelling arguments as:

Crowley lies

If Kevin’s mom is alive, then she might as well be dead

It’s dangerous outside the bunker

They need him

Oooof Dean. Not a winning argument, there. Kevin jumps on the last point. 

Dean insists that they need Kevin because he’s family and they’d die for him. He successfully talks Kevin into staying and meets up with Sam. Sam’s reflecting on Tracy’s dislike of him. Dean tells Sam that he’s done more good than bad. “Here’s to now,” Dean says. The bold future! 

“The fallen angels?” Sam asks. “Abaddon? Cas losing his halo, Crowley in our basement?”

“Crap. We're living in a freaking sitcom,” Dean says. UH I would watch the HELL out of that show. 

Sam decides that he’s feeling good and life is good. I’m so glad to see Sam in such a healthy place! Thank goodness both Winchesters are in a good mental state. LOL, kidding, Dean drinks his feelings as the episode fades to black. 

______________________________

Everything’s Fine and Nothing Quotes:

Can't wait to see Sam in stilettos and a leather bustier, really putting the S A M into S & M

Then we all go out for ice cream and strippers

What's the matter, hellhound got your tongue?

I'm Kevin freaking Solo

I torture all my friends. It’s how I show love

______________________________

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

#spn recap #spn rewatch #spn 9x02 #devil may care #dean winchester #sam winchester #kevin tran #abaddon #crowley #supernatural season 9

[askroahmmythril]

Thoughts on the Nintendo Direct

So a lot of people asked for my thoughts on the direct, so I’m just going to give my summation here on various levels of excitement I have for things.  And honestly?  This one gave me a good bit to be excited about.

Excitement Level 1 : Cautiously Optimistic

“The Hero” in Smash - I don’t really have much connection with the Dragon Quest series outside of liking the monster designs (really wish Slime had been the rep instead), and not really a fan of the art style the character uses (I don’t know the artist’s name, I know they also do the DBZ stuff, just don’t really like their style, purely personal preference).  The character looks like they might be fun though, I’ll be interested to see how the command menu aspect works in full.  I just hope they don’t get as badly shafted as Cloud did as far as content.  “Oh, by the way, this character doesn’t get any new spirits because Squeenix.  Oops!  Enjoy your two music tracks.”

Breath of the Wild sequel - I can’t really call BotW my favorite Zelda.  It was good for what it was, but what it wasn’t was a Zelda game.  Your mileage may vary.  I’ll still probably want to play it though, I just hope it feels a bit more like a traditional Zelda game in some aspects.  More actual large-scale dungeons, please.  And gimme back my Hookshot.  Also hopefully, don’t just front-load me with all my abilities to where I don’t really feel like I have much to look forward to gaining for the rest of the game...

Animal Crossing : New Horizons - I’m not really sure how I feel about the deserted island thing.  Is that the entirety of the game?  You actually have to build your entire town from scratch?  If so, that seems like a lot of work just to get to where the other games already basically start you.  It’s one of those I kind of want to see more.

Excitement Level 2 : Casually Interested

Contra Rogue Corps. - I’ve never been super great at the Contra games, but have always enjoyed playing them, and this cast looks pretty crazy and fun.  I’m also considering picking up the Contra Anniversary Collection later.

Luigi’s Mansion 3 - This looks pretty solidly good.  I still need to play through 2 though, and kinda want to go through the first again.  I do have both those on 3DS.  3 looks good so far though.

No More Heroes 3 - This is kind of in the same situation as LM3, I need to play the first two.  I never finished the first, and never played the second, though I do have it.  I found the games interesting to play, definitely wouldn’t mind a third.

Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo Olympics - I’ve never actually played one of these, they always had a goofy sort of feel to them that made me WANT to, they were just never high priority for me.  Still looks fun though.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance - I’m not big on superhero stuff usually, but sometimes a good game will make me want to play it, see the Arkham series.  This one looks like it could be fun, Kit’s been pretty interested in it.  Probably a major thing that would tip the scales for me is if Gambit’s in there somewhere.

Excitement Level 3 : More Solidly Interested

Cadence of Hyrule - Can I just say, Gohmaracas is amazing.  I’ve never played the original Crypt of the Necrodancer, I kinda want to get both, really.

Link’s Awakening - I’ve embraced the art style, i wasn’t sure at first, but it’s grown on me.  The dungeon creation thing looks interesting, I still really want them to make a Zelda Maker or something, haha.

Mario Maker 2 - I’m pants at designing levels, but I’d like to get this so I can play my friends’ levels.  Still a bit disappointed costume collecting seems to have been cut in favor of janky multiplayer.

Trials of Mana / Collection of Mana - Having an actual, official translation of Seiken Densetsu 3 would be REALLY nice, so I’m definitely planning to pick up Collection.  Trials looks pretty nice too honestly.  I kinda wonder if the Switch will ever get the Secret of Mana remake?

More Resident Evils on Switch - I picked up RE4 last night, and honestly would be interested in getting the other REs for Switch if only for the sake of later recording.

Excitement Level 4 : Legit Hyped

Spyro Reignited Trilogy - I was hoping we’d get confirmation on this one at some point, and finally, there it is!  My only worry is, due to things I’ve heard about it on other systems..... how big is the required download portion of things gonna be?  I’ve heard it’s over 50 gigs on some systems, which is actually more than my monthly bandwidth allowance...

Hollow Knight : Silksong - We didn’t see much new, but heck yes, I’m excited for this one.  Hollow Knight was a very fun game, and Hornet was one of my favorite characters, so I’m all for this.  I want to know more!

Pokemon Sword and Shield - A few “blink and you’ll miss it” details like two more breeds seen I think, but I’m a Pokemaniac, so definitely looking forward to these.  Gimme dat fire bunny.

Banjo & Kazooie in Smash - YES!  ALL MY YES!!!  This was one of my last big wants for Smash, and here he is!  Bear and bird coming home!  Now we just need an announcement for them getting a new actual B&K game on Switch.

So that’s basically my summation of things.  A few things I wish we’d heard about that weren’t there (Bayonetta 3, King of Cards, Metroid Prime Trilogy on Switch, Pikmin 4), but the stuff that WAS there, I’m pretty pleasantly happy about this direct.

[greenmagic-oilspill]

Shb thoughts/review (major spoilers!) I wrote this as I was playing through weeks ago, left this in my drafts, and forgot all about it. Guess I’ll get to posting it now~~

I was totally making these notes as I went along so bear with the disjointedness of it.

-soooo much exposition in the beginning. It had this weird mix of feeling rushed but also really slow and clunky at first, as far as pacing goes.

-The reunion with Alphinaud was kind of underwhelming and felt rushed even though it’s been a year for him. Eulmore was appropriately creepy and I love the Red and Blue clown ladies. Definitely something Zorn and Thorn like up with them. Oddly enough, my Ronso is also a jester in Eulmore and that was decided way before this!

-Alisaie’s reunion was better as far as the emotional impact was concerned. And I really, really loved Ahm Araeng. Major Dalmasca desert vibes there. I think my Viera is gonna be someone who took up work here. That shit with Tesleen was crazy and I loved it. So dark and creepy - this really set the tone for the expansion. I did Alphinaud’s quest first, but I think Alisaie’s was meant to be done first instead.

-The first dungeon was neat, as was the trust system! I didn’t expect to bring Lyna and the Exarch along for the first dungeon as trusts, but I liked it. For some dumb reason I didn’t bring Alisaie the first time, and thus I missed the opportunity for her to react to the first two bosses in real time. The Lightwarden was awesome!

-Loved the scene when we brought night back for the first time.

-Also loved the scene with Gaius and Estinien! That was unexpected, and I’m glad we are still getting plot developments on the Source. But I really, really want the two of them to team up with Tataru and Krile. Pleaseeee. Edit: really disappointed that Tataru and Krile were left out. Sad we didn’t see Lyse or Hien this whole expansion either. Kinda bummed that Varis was killed, I was looking forward to Zenos being more interesting but he let me down hard.

-Il Mheg’s aesthetic is everything I’ve ever wanted! The scenery, the music, the characters and all the fae lore and the accents... I loved the Nu Mou village, giant mushrooms are my fave... and while the amaro were ... creative?... I wish we got something else, like salamanders or something, to keep with the theme. They were mentioned by some pixies in expressions or something though.

-Dohn Mheg was amazing and gorgeous. Prob one of my favorite dungeons in the whole game. And while I loved the Titania cutscene that happened during our Minfilia convo (she was so creepy!) the battle itself was kind of underwhelming? I was expecting it to be creepier. I was also expecting her to be a Primal. Are there any Primals on the First? (Edit: apparently not. And no dragons either. Guess it makes sense!)

-Oh, characters. Ranj’it was cool, I like how he’s some MNK/NIN hybrid. But I don’t get why he’s so powerful and terrifying when we’ve faced much worse than him (I had the same thoughts when we first met Zenos, so I guess I just need to separate game mechanics from story a bit). And we never really found out what Gukumatz is. I like Minifilia so far, but Thancred is being an asshole to her and I’m kind of over it. She’s a lil too passive about it but I guess she will develop, so we’ll see. As a side note, I love how she’s a Rogue who uses light magic like Banish III. Later edit: she developed, everything worked out, I love them both.

-I like everything with Ardbert so far (also he’s so dumb for using Arbert as an alias in the Source I love him). The role quest for tanks was neat and had some great lore! Though I won’t be able to do them all on one character, I know it... I’m so mad that’s a requirement, so unfriendly to altoholics like me. :/

-Rak’tika was a fun segment of the story! I loved all the Viis and their lore and the Ronkan Empire aesthetic. So good. Didn’t care much for the Night’s Blessed tbh, but Runar was sweet.

-Ahm Araeng was surprisingly one of my favorite areas. I LOVE the night theme, one of the best in the game. Kholusia, on the other hand, is just sad La Noscea and prob my least favorite zone of the expansion except for the dwarves. They redeemed it singlehandedly. Mt Gulg was a fun (if blinding) dungeon and Innocence was a fun fight and I love all the Christianity symbolism.

-At first, I thought the Tempest was really underwhelming for a final zone. Kinda had to suspend my disbelief about the whole Bismarck thing, that kinda came out of nowhere and was super convenient. But once they got to the Amaurot portion I changed my tune - everything about that was great. Loved the dungeon, loved the trial afterward. I’m reading about all these Emet-Selch interpretations and reactions and I’ve been getting some pretty good insights about him. He was a really well written villain, and I enjoyed the segments of the story where he was kinda just hanging around. Still got plenty of questions about the world before the Great Sundering, but I assume they’ll all get answers. Just loved all the complicated moral relativism stuff.

Story got wrapped up perfectly and I had no complaints whatsoever. Really excited to see where it’s gonna go from here.

-Misc: I did the trust system through every first run of all the dungeons. It worked out perfectly, I loved it. But... post game, they all get reset to level 71? And you have to grind in Holminster Switch until you can level them up to do other dungeons? What gives with that? I wonder what the reward of leveling them all up to 80 is... cause I don’t really see the point. EDIT: I found out what the reward is. Sounds kinda neat, but still not enough to warrant that intense grind for it.

#5.0 spoilers #shb spoilers #Shadowbringers spoilers

[acetrainerwitch]

in case anyone has been waiting for me to talk about nintendo’s e3

the direct itself was fantastic. there was something like 39 games showcased with gameplay footage, release date updates, and or announced to be coming. i’m only talking about things i am interested in at least passingly. (bolded all titles and italicized those i am 99% sure buying on release)

smash bros had two character dlc announcements. both sets aren’t particularly interesting to me and i do not currently play smash, so there’s that.

THE SKIT WITH BOWSER WAS SO CUTE OMFG

i was a touch disappointed we didn’t get a date for luigi’s mansion, but the new gameplay and multiplayer details were all excellent and i am so looking forward to what looks like a cute and fun time

i immediately recognized the dark crystal design and was excited until i started noticing it was a tactics game which isn’t my thing. looks super cool though and maybe this’ll be the one that gets me to give it a try again lol

link’s awakening continues to look fantastic! i’m not big invested in the dungeon builder, but it is a neat addition and i def appreciate the replayability it adds. added the release date, sept 20, to my calendar immediately

i’ve never heard of the mana games, but trials of mana looks gorgeous and has my interest. my backlog is ridiculous, so the collection of mana drop doesn’t really interest me

the witcher 3 announcement basically just confirmed some rumors that have been milling about for a few months, but i am EXCITE

no more heroes 3 has me vaguely intrigued. i’m not a fan, but this trailer looks interesting and may be what gets me to check out the series

panzer dragoon, i guess a remake, was announced and that gameplay has me interested so much. an alien dragon flying game??? yes please!

empire of sin teaser, probably not gonna actually play, but it certainly has my interest as we wait for more info

i haven’t played crypt of the necrodancer, but cadence of hyrule got a release date for june 13 and the series def looks fun

mario and sonic at the olympics announcement, who doesn’t want another multiplayer party game tbh?

animal crossing was pushed back to next year, but we got an adorable teaser, a title, new horizons, and a date, march 20, which is my BIRTHDAY. i’m p pleased tbh

we finally got a spyro reignited port for the switch announce with a release date of less then three months on sept 20 and had me tearing up ngl

silksong was announced coming to the switch though no one is suprised. i still haven’t played hollow knight, but the art and reviews for this indie darling means at some point i will shove my money at it

ni no kuni, a game i hadn’t heard about before but that is getting remakes on other systems and a port to the switch on sept 20, caught my eye because it looks like playing a heckin studio ghibli movie as a game and i am here for that. unfortunately it is turn based battle which is one of my least favorites. i might give in regardless

the sinking city teaser has me super fuckin interested even though it is a game with so little handholding and guidance, so i doubt i’d properly enjoy playing it. also leans more towards horror which i don’t enjoy. but the premise and setting?!?!?!? ugh

new super lucky’s tale announced for switch - gonna keep an eye on gameplay for this but likely gonna pass

botw 2 teaser, need i say more??????

did i not mention pokemon??? yeah, that’s gonna get it’s own post because of course it is

[sorio99]

Nintendo E3 Direct 2019: Reaction

I decided, for the second year in a row, to write my reactions to this years E3 Direct for all of y’all. Before the show starts, a couple predictions/guesses:

Obviously, we’re gonna get Smash Fighter Pack 2. I doubt it’s gonna be Banjo-Kazooie, just because that seems a bit too “Grinch-Leak”-esque to be realistic, if you know what I mean. That reveal will probably be either the first or last thing in the direct.

I imagine, like everyone else, we’re gonna be seeing a fair amount of Animal Crossing, just because there aren’t many other huge upcoming games we haven’t gotten exclusive directs about.

That said, we’ll probably learn a couple more things about Super Mario Maker 2, and maybe even Pokemon Sword and Shield. Nothing too huge, or game-changing, but a few additional details and maybe some later update stuff for SMM2.

We’ll probably hear more about the Link’s Awakening remake for Switch, just to tide over Zelda fans until Nintendo comes up with the next big 3D game (no disrespect to the 2D Zeldas, but the 3D titles are definitely big landmarks and game-changers).

Beyond that, some cool looking indie titles, even more ports, maybe a couple decent-sized 1st or 3rd party reveals, and that's about what I’m expecting. See y’all on the other side of the break.

So, before the show even starts, the YouTube live chat is memeing about tilt controls. Off to a fantastic start.

Ah, so mainly gonna be Switch. I’m down with that.

Like I said, starting with Smash. Though, this is definitely not framed how I expected.

Dragon Quest! Really? Okay! Wasn’t expecting it, but I’m sure this will make some people happy! Plus, as a sword myself, can’t say I’m too disappointed to have another.

Wait, are those three other skins? Like with the Koopalings? Cool.

And some magical abilities, looks cool to me, yeah! I imagine some will be disappointed, but I like it.

And, of course, they follow it up with the game the new guy’s from. So that's two characters who appeared in Smash before their game appeared on Switch. Odd.

Okay, starting with Mr. “Hired Just For His Name” himself. Gotta admit I found that entrance funny.

He’s...okay. Not the world’s most charismatic, but it’s fine. Koizumi is the hunk these days.

Ah, LM3. Should’ve figured.

Oh god, it’s Hotel Mario again.

Looks fun! I’m sure I’ll have fun with this.

Also, does this all mean Arlo was right?

Ah, so, Gooigi is an actually, like, thing? I guess that makes some sense.

And of course ScareScraper returns. It fits with the hotel theme.

Oh! It’s Tower of Terror! So, is this Rod Serling, or Jordan Peele?

Yeah, Doug Bowser is fine. He’s no Reggie, but then again, who is?

Ooh, Netflix? Whats this? Something from The Dark Crystal? Okay.

Ah, Link’s Awakening! This should be interesting.

I actually really like this chibi-esque art style. Seems like sort of an expansion on the style Link Between Worlds Used.

Wait, it’s Zelda Dungeon Maker too? Huh. That’s...unexpected. I dig it!

Alright, September! Sounds good.

Square Enix is doing a thing. What is this again?

Trials of Mana, huh? Fair enough.

...yeah, that’s about my feelings on the Mana series as a whole.

Okay, so Witcher? I guess. Why not? Seems weird to bring 3 over first, but I’ve heard good things.

Ah, more Fire Emblem stuff. Not much interest, and I feel like last FE direct did enough to advertise it, but I guess it makes sense. Odd we aren’t getting one of it’s characters in Smash soon, but I’m not complaining.

Yes, Mr. Koizumi, we all agree the Switch is an amazing piece of Hardware. No one is denying this.

So, play Resident Evil in an evil residence? Because it wasn’t scary enough to begin with? I guess?

Why does the guy sound surprised there are zombies in this game?

So they left went to a haunted house to play the haunted house game. Okay.

Why bother porting 5 and 6 over? 5 was generally regarded as average at best, and the less said about 6, the better.

I’m sorry, what?

No seriously, what the hell is this?

Wait, what? No More Heroes?

Didn’t we just get one of these?

Okay, so it’s officially 3. I guess that makes sense.

A Contra reboot?! Okay?! I mean, why the hell not?! Konami is officially insane.

Okay, seriously, what is up with Daemon X Machina? This is the third time I’ve seen this in a direct, and all I get is “Mechs blowing shit up.” Is that, like, just it? Whatever.

What the fuck, is this Joust or some shit?

Panzer Dragoon, huh? Looks like a Star Fox rip. Cool.

Ah, more Pokemon SW&SH. Pokeball Plus is always fun. 

Okay, so there’s more than one Gym Leader. It looks like things are still good. 

Okay, this is definitely a shift in gears.

So, there are just, like, two twins in this game? I think?

Looks like the Crash Titans games, but a sci-fi Hack & Slash ala other Platinum games.

Astral Chain. Forgot the name. Looks decent.

What the hell is Romero up to now? 

What? 

Ah. Marvel Ultimate Alliance. Still looks better than the new Avengers game.

Ooh, Ultimate Spider-Man AND Spider-Gwen AND Kamala Khan’s Miss Marvel? Looks cool!

Ah, Expansion Passes.

Ooh, Cadence of Hyrule. Nice to see Nintendo be friendlier with their IPs.

More Mario and Sonic Olympics? Was anyone asking for this? Wasn’t there a reason they didn’t make a 2018 one?

Holy shit! Already!?

So, there’s voice acting?

Deserted Island? This looks...interesting.

Okay, it looks like we can have at least eight players at once.

Ah, that Tom Nook. Always putting us in irreconcilable debt.

Damn, we have to wait until 2020? Ah well, as they say, a late game is eventually good, and an early game is always bad.

Woo! The quick montage! Yay

Spyro Seems fun.

Hollow knight sequel, natch.

Ni No Kuni, okay.

Can’t keep up, but wasn’t that the free-to-play Elder Scrolls game?

Alien Isolation anywhere, because we should be in mortal terror on buses.

Okay, was that a Stranger Things game?

The weird totally not Conker game, alright.

Just a few seconds of Mario Maker? Okay.

Wait, more DK? Smash?

Holy Shit, WHAT?!

No, seriously, what?!

Okay, I didn’t mention it, because it felt like that much of a long shot, but I figured they might reveal two fighter packs, since it’s been so long since Joker’s reveal, but...

BANJO-FUCKING-KAZOOIE?!

HOLY SHIT?!

Okay, so one last thing. Wonder what this’ll be.

Green squiggles?

Wait, is this...

Holy shit.

Holy Shit.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

WHAT.

NO.

NO FUCKING WAY.

DID THEY JUST.

ARE THEY REALLY.

OKAY.

NO.

I’M NOT RISKING SPOILING THIS BUT.

HOLY SHIT.

HOLY SHIT.

HOLY

FUCKING

SHIT.

...

So, yeah, I enjoyed that.

#nintendo #nintendo direct #e3 2019 #nintendo direct e3 2019 #sfw #tw: swearing

[umbrahighpriestofgiratina]

Gen 8 Predictions/Hopes List

Okay, as a successor to the trailer analysis it was only natural to do this, plus I did something like this three years ago for G7. This is where I extrapolate on everything I think we'll get in Sword and Shield and everything I want to get. In no particular order:

-First off, I'm not demanding some Breath Of The Wild or Super Mario Odyssey-esqe leap forward like a lot of people seem to be doing, and I kind of side-eye those people (including some Youtubers I'm disappointed in because I know they're better than that). That's not sustainable for every single Nintendo franchise or hell every single video game franchise period. What I do want is a smaller advancement that keeps the franchise what it is while adding plenty that is new and interesting and not too gimmicky - to quote @enigma-boi on my Discord server more like the difference between Splatoon 1 and Splatoon 2. I want it to be like the breath of fresh air Unova or even Alola were.

-On the note of those two please have a good plot. It's not a dealbreaker but please.

-Also less of a focus on gimmicks. Mega Evolutions and Z-Moves and such are cool but if you try to top them every gen things get... bloated. This is part of why I don't like the Armored Evolution rumor.

-There's probably going to be at least one Eeveelution. Give me Dragon or give me death.

-DITCH THE CATCHING TUTORIAL. LET'S GO HAD A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION THERE. PLEASE.

-Hopefully HMs are gone for good too. I'm optimistic they are but.

-Also put your PC in your bag like Let's Go but make it more like the PCs from Hoenn to Alola.

-Nicknaming your Pokemon on the fly should come back too. And LET US NICKNAME TRADED POKEMON FOR GOD'S SAKE

-I feel we'll get it but give us the Pokemon Amie equivalent. Let me pet my Arceus on my big-screen TV.

-On that note. They said this would be a more handheld-oriented experience but I think when docked there will still be motion control some places like the Amie equivalent and in minigames, which are replaced by the touch screen and/or buttons in handheld mode.

-I'm a little sad gyms are back because the island trials in G7 were a nice change of pace but given that weird logo that's showing up everywhere I still have hope Galar's gyms are unconventional. We'll see.

-Minor nitpick but I hope Pokecenters and Pokemarts are still merged here. I know they've only been unmerged in remakes of games predating that concept but still.

-I'm pretty sure it's not coming back this time but I want co-op to make a return. That was fun in Let's Go, even if most of my experience with it was forcing a RL friend that knows jack shit about Pokemon to play with me.

-Speaking of multiplayer! Go back to an online experience more like G6's. Please. I'm begging you Gamefreak.

-Regarding the Galar region and its UK-y nature my one wish is that we get a bunch of pesudo-Arthurian bullshit as part of the setting lore. If there is none I will be forced to make some (and probably do some silly Fate series crossovers while I'm at it).

-References to UK pop culture would be delightfully silly too.

-For the cover legendaries... the logos make me think twin wolves. There's a rumor that it's a metal snake and wooden horse and while I would be 100% down for the metal serpent and the inevitable Metal Gear Solid jokes it would attract that leaves the question of what the wolf heads represent so I'm currently banking on my first guess.

-This makes me think the third legendary is a cat. Possibly a lion because Britain but we just had Solgaleo. Maybe a Welsh dragon instead. Or a third option of dragon cat. I suddenly want this.

-As for other Pokemon... I'm not really picky as there's no Pokemon design I outright dislike and I doubt that's gonna change, so I'm cool with whatever. But I hope because of the setting we have lots of Dragon types. Also a gryphon/griffin Pokemon. Maybe with a hippogriff as a counterpart

-Also this has nothing to do with the setting but I want a hummingbird and a dolphin

-As for the final forms of the starters... I'm guessing/hoping Grass/Dark for Grookey, Fire/Electric for Scorbunny, and Water/Dragon for Sobble

-On a minor note I hope they either make the Escape Rope a non-consumable key item or have a HM equivalent that lets you nope out of dungeons.

-I assume Trainer customization is back but I'm gonna put it as a request anyway. Additionally, for when we do get it, diversifying hair and eye color beyond "natural" options as much as possible (if the NPCs can have blue hair why can't we? We're the protagonist! We're supposed to be more special™ than they are!) Gen 7 had headway for this but I want MORE. Also a skin tone slider.

-More events that let you catch and name the Pokemon yourself

-There doesn't seem to be a Dark gym on the map so... Give us a lore reason there's not a Dark-type gym. (Is there some Defense Against The Dark Arts bullshit going on here? We need to know!)

-This one is a bit weird but bring back something like the Friend Safari? That was fun.

-Random encounters are back. Sigh. As a hope I hope we get a key item that replaces Repels and lets you toggle them on or off.

-Upgrade a lot of the more held-item-based, out-of-battle-use only, or otherwise lackluster/situational Abilities to be less so.

-Fill out the unused type combos. Especially the unused Fairy combos. GIVE ME FAIRY DARK AND DRAGON BUG

-There will inevitably be cameos of characters from other regions and one of them is going to be Looker. Looker is omnipresent. Looker is omniscient. Looker is a being too powerful for this world. Arceus looks upon Looker and quakes in fear at what they have created.

-And last but not least I think we'll get at least one new hot female NPC and at least one new hot male NPC, because I am a bisexual mess.

Whew! That was mostly hopes because I feel like we could get just about anything this gen but it was fun to write. But that's about it. If anyone wants to throw predictions of their own at me feel free to do so.

#pokemon sword and sheild #pokemon #predictions #i have Strong Feelings about Pokemon that frequently clash with other people's Strong Feelings about Pokemon #if you can't tell

[sirbadgerduke]

Retrospective Thought: Top Ten Games of The Year 2018

Oi! 2018 was pretty good year games, innit? Maybe not as consistent as 2017 for quality, but I reckon it’s still a damn great year! Anyway, now that all the other Game of The Year stuff has happened, I think I’m going to do my own list, which I’ve done for a couple of years now. Well, let’s get to it, which games blew my socks and which 3 particularly royally blew my socks off!

10) Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth - Hacker’s Memory(PS4/PSVita) Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth is basically Discount Persona with a Pokemon battle system(only with a cooler way of switching moves via a skill bank of sorts). The story, however, is not a follow up from the previous title but a companion story of sorts. You play as a Hacker whose account has been stolen. You embark on a journey to regain your account and to stop the person responsible for the whole thing. The story pretty much opens up as you progress, taking some of the previous game’s plot with a dash of “Alternative point of view” to boot. Hacker’s Memory has it’s downtime moments, sometimes it can feel like a real grind, but leading a team of your suited up fave digimon has never felt better, definitely worth picking up if you like Persona and Digimon!

9) Dragonball Fighter z(PS4/XBO/PC/NS I enjoyed both Xenoverse games, they aren’t perfect and the RNG is real ass with a side of cancer thrown in. People clamored for a new Dragonball Z flavoured, bonafide fighting game. ArcSys delivered on that front, and boy did they really deliver the goods! The gameplay is frantic, epic and balls to wall bonkers. It’s easy to pick up if you just want to fight around with your favourite characters, whilst also in-depth for those seasoned fighting game maniacs. The gameplay is top tier and an absolute pleasure to play. Pick it up if you’re a Dragonball Z, Fighting Game or both fan!

8) Darksiders III(PS4/XBO/PC) I love the Darksiders franchise. I enjoyed the first game, adored the second one, and now I really like the third iteration. Is it perfect? No, is it the best one? Not by a loooong shot, but the game is a blast to play. Following on from the previous game’s style, it’s a companion piece that follows Fury’s side of things during War’s trial at the Charred Council. Fury is one of the Four Horsemen, badasses that do badass shit when and how they see fit. While the first one is a more Character Action experience with Zelda-isms, the second being a reverse of that with a Open World and Dungeon styley, the third, is a smaller game that focuses more on a “Metroidvania” like world with combat feeling a tad like Soulsborne stuff. The bosses are all a treat to fight(well, except one), the world is aesthetically gorgeous despite not exactly being on GoW or Red Dead’s level. Pick it up, give it a whirl and enjoy!

7) Yakuza 6: Song of Life/Yakuza Kiwami 2(PS4) I can write a whole retrospective on this series, I absolutely adore this franchise with all my heart. Yakuza follows the life of Kazuma Kiryu; a form Yakuza big dog trying to live an ordinary life with his adopted daughter Haruka. Now, the story is a rollercoaster of badass moments, heartwrenching scenes with a dash of twists and comedic parts in all equal splendor. The combat, is easily a star alongside the story, solid, fun and very in-depth yet easy to learn. Kiwami 2 is a remake of the second game whilst the sixth game is the final part ot Kazuma’s story. I’d wholeheartedly recommend these titles to those who either have just got into the whole franchise or are veterans to the Yakuza Franchise. Kiwami 2 is also a remake of possibly the worst part of the series. Pick it up if you love great crime dramas with twists and turns around every exposition dumping corner!

6) Hollow Knight(PS4/XBO/NS/PC) Now, I know it came out in 2017, but I only played this game this year, so it still counts for my list. Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania with a Dark Souls-esque style of worldbuilding and story. The gameplay is a pleasure, and the each zone, each area is both unique to one another yet seamlessly interconnected and not too “wild” in the vein of being out of place. The bosses are both horrifying and cute, same goes for the enemies and NPCs you encounter in the game. The music, the art design and the gameplay are all fantastic, quite possibly my favourite indie title since Pyre. You play as a wanderer that happens upon Hollownest, a small, almost empty little town of critters, below lies a dungeon thwart with danger and a terrible past. Any further, and we are heading into spoiler territory. I hugely implore you to pick this little treat up, you will not regret it at all.

5) Fist of The North Star: Lost Paradise(PS4) From the developers of Yakuza, comes an adaptation of a fantastic little Manga called Fist of The North Star, basically Mad Max but with anime martial arts. You play as Kenshiro, the Successor of Hokuto Shinken, a martial arts style of deading folks. While not a completely panel by panel adaptation and more of a single one shot story using the world and characters of Fist of The North Star, the Yakuza style gameplay really lends itself for adaptations like this. The story could easily be just fanfiction, they really made it something more than fanfiction level fanservice. It’s a really good single story set in it’s own little world. The gameplay holds itself perfectly for this adaptation, with a few added crazy kill techniques that you can level to deal out more damage. Buy it if you are either looking to get into this series, or are a long time fan.

4) Super Smash Bros:Ultimate(NS) The flagship “Not a Fighter” fighting game that started as a Nintendo Legacy series brawler to becoming a huge flagship of a video game legacy brawler. I’ve always adored Super Smash, even the previous one(though it’s not particularly jam-packed with content). Ultimate brings back EVERYONE and even includes some newcomers(Who really should’ve been here since at least Brawl), more content than you can imagine, a reimagined classic mode, a new single player and a fun little collecting system called Spirits, this game is a fanservice love letter, and a big one too. It is worth the price, pure and simple, buy it now!

3) Monster Hunter World(PS4/XBO/PC) I only ever played the first one to completion, tried to get into the 3DS titles and thought “I don’t like it” despite loving the shit out of the monster designs. On a whim, decided to World at launch, and boy was that a fantastic decision. I fucking love this game, from the story(simple but fun) right down to how the monsters are programmed to be as naturally animalistic as they’ve ever been, all the while adding in some old and some new beasties to hunt!. I’ve had fun with friends, on my own, raged at certain monsters(LOOKING AT YOU, BEHEMOTH) and spent hours farming for the material to craft weapons and armors I really want. I’ve spent over a hundred years into this game, and will gladly spend the same in the upcoming expansion! Get this game NOW, you will love it, I assure you!

2) Marvel’s Spiderman(PS4) Spiderman is one of my favourite heroes, he’s grounded, he’s tragic, and he feels like a real person. It would stand that a game based on him, would’ve been a huge success(Spidey 2 was great!, Ultimate and Web of Shadows were really good! The others? Eeeeeeehhhhh not so much). Developed by Insomniac, this return to form for the webslinger is a helluva return! The combat is fluid, fun and fantastic, the story is great whilst the City That Never Sleeps is a nice if pricey expansion. But the webslinging, the bread and butter of any Spidey game, is quite possibly the best, better even than Spidey 2 in my honest opinion. The story is superb, and when *that* scene happens? It will hit you like a ton of bricks. The bosses? Probably the best of this year honestly. This is a must buy for any spidey fan, marvel fan, hell, superhero fan of all kinds!

1) God of War(PS4) Usually, a soft re-imagining can be as well received as a Gary Glitter Comeback Tour, but this one? Boy oh boy, this game is a masterpiece. You play as Kratos, older and wiser since his temper tantrum trilogy in Greece, he’s a father again and now must take the BOI on a journey. I really don’t want to spoil it any further for people who haven’t played it yet. The combat is a great revamp overall(I miss doing juggling combos but eh, the rest of the game is steller), hard hitting and brutal like you’ve known before whilst adding a more personalised flair to it. The soundtrack and audio design is steller, as well as the voice acting. Boy oh boy, the story is fantastic too, following a journey of growth(not just for Atreus) and facing one’s demons, it truly is the highlight of the game. More boss variety could’ve been added, maybe a little more enemy variety too, but these are just minor critiques by the most minor of things. Get this game now, you will enjoy it!

So that’s my list, yes i didn’t include Red Dead 2, haven’t completed it, but I’d gladly do a review once I’m done. Another good year of games has ended, roll on the new year, with another batch of stellar games(I’M LOOKING AT YOU, RESIDENT EVIL 2 REMAKE, DMCV AND HOPEFULLY GHOST OF TSUSHIMA!). Hope you have a happy new years, and had a great Christmas!

#video games #games of the year #games #God of War #spiderman #spiderman ps4 #Marvel Comics #marvel #darksiders #monster hunter #monster hunter world #sony #yakuza #fist of the north star #Dragon Ball Z #dragonball fighterz #nintendo #super mash bros #smash ultimate #hollow knight #digimon #cyber sleuth #metroidvania