#Yes its the game Vampyr | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

vermutandherring · 1 year

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No spoilers

It's funny that despite all my love for the game, I didn't have any inspiration to write a review. Because how can you put into words the feelings it causes? Yes, the gameplay is like an endless dance that flows and twists the player into its vortex. Yes, every second in this game is melodious like a song, cutscenes are apt like rhymes in poetry, and the outcome suffered in the battle with the last boss gives a feeling of exaltation. And although each work is a matter of taste and everyone sees something different in the game, it seems that the audience has finally matured to understand the genius of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

It's a bit unfortunate that the game is mostly recognized by memes, which makes its perception superficial and not serious. On the other hand, a meme can only be understood with full context, which requires playing through the game. The context, in turn, gives a deeper understanding of the work. And therefore, even such popularity can attract new fans of the series. I also think that the example of this game shows how much the game industry has in common with high culture, not mass culture. Most games acquire their meaning over time, rather than gaining popularity as a phenomenon of consumer culture, quickly fading into obscurity. So in this review I will try to explain why MGRR will remain a classic for generations of gamers to come.

I'm happy that Metal Gear Rising was my first MG game. It does not require extensive knowledge of the history of the franchise. Therefore, discovering the character of Raiden and the meaningful content of the game, you want to get to know this universe more closely to understand its essence.

There is a perception that MGRR is not Hideo Kojima's canonical Metal Gear, so you won't be able to touch his genius in this game. In fact, it is not quite so. Although at some point the project was given to PlatinumGames, its initial idea and main character remained in the spirit of the good old Metal Gears, which is felt if not in the combat system, then certainly in the ideas, narratives and used means of artistic expression inherent to Kojima. In the game we have some elements of stealth, expressive cutscenes with unexpected angles, the philosophical basis of the plot and, of course, the codec - Kojima's greatest invention in video games, in his own opinion. It is interesting to observe how his principles continue their life in subsequent projects, changing and adapting to the needs of the time and the content of the games. Yoji Shinkawa, an integral part of the tandem, also contributed to the creation of the game. So if you look at it from a certain angle, MGRR is pretty much canonical Metal Gear.

Yep. I spent 20 mins of my life to find Kojima and Shinkawa in credits. They both are present.

One of the key features of MGRR, inherent in the MG series in general, is its ability to combine very different and, at first glance, absurd things. The game constantly balances between philosophy and satire, cringe and seriousness, kitsch and incredible aesthetics. This feeling is very similar to the first experience of getting to know anime. To a person out of context, individual episodes of anime can seem strange and wild, and a single series can make the entire industry seem like low-level geek culture. In short, this cultural phenomenon is shrouded in a lot of prejudices and stereotypes, which is caused by a different cultural context than yours (unless you are Japanese).

MGRR feels very Japanese, even though the setting of the game (like all the games in the series) has nothing to do with Japan. The very first mission resembles a traditional Japanese engraving, on an endless sheet of which heroes from ancient myths confront each other. I love finding parallels between games and art forms. Vampyr similar to a theater play, L.A. Noire is to the detective film, and Mafia is to the noir novel. And although I have repeatedly emphasized that Kojima brought video games closer to cinema through MG, I want to go deeper in the search for aesthetic parallels in Rising. This game resembles a mythological epic with its inherent trope about the hero's journey, the endless fight against evil and, of course, the worldview of a particular people, its philosophy.

In many mythologies, events take place in 'eternal' space and stretch endlessly in time. A dark force always appears to destroy the world, a light force always accepts its challenge. After all, the world is maintained thanks to their balance, the delicate balance of yin and yang, which should not be disturbed in any way. That is why evil exists. And that's why good always wins it. In general, most games with a plot, having a certain literary basis, use this pattern. But in MGRR, this principle seems to be embodied literally, only the actors are changed: robots and cyborgs take the place of deities and spirits. Powerful forces converge in a predestined battle, but we know its outcome in advance. Therefore, the most interesting part of this whole action remains the confrontation process itself. What is heard on earth when the titans are fighting in the sky? What does the Dragon say when he meets the Tiger?

Doan (Yamada Yorikiyo), Japanese. Tiger and Dragon, ink on paper, around 1560. The Minneapolis Institute of Art. Source: https://www.roningallery.com/artists/Kuniyoshi

'RULES OF NATURE'

The rules of nature are one of the key elements of the game. The problem of the main character's struggle with the natural state of things and their phenomena is embodied in many details and in the mythological background in particular. In primitive beliefs, people of all cultures addressed the forces of nature that they could not directly change, but that they could influence and interact with. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why Raiden fights not with abstract thieves, but with destructive, unpredictable and dangerous natural phenomena. In the game, we have a group of Winds of Destruction - cold-blooded mercenaries who do dirty work. In the system of Japanese beliefs, in particular Shinto, spirits-deities called kami have a clearly defined good/bad characteristic. At the same time, they also have an opposite side to it. Therefore, people can interact with kami in different ways depending on their needs. Before his battles with the Winds, Raiden has moments of revelation with each of them, through which he discovers new truths. These conversations also show that if you judge the state of affairs from the point of view of the criminals themselves, their views also have a grain of rationality. They have come to choose their craft in a certain way, have their own beliefs and principles, and therefore it is difficult to call them unequivocally bad. Raiden himself is more like the Winds than he would like.

One of the most magical and, at the same time, one of the most dangerous and destructive forces of nature is embodied in the image of Raiden. In Japanese mythology, Raijin is the god of lightning. A variant of Raiden-sama's name can literally be translated as Mr. Lightening Bolt. But the most interesting thing is not that. According to the tradition of Japanese Buddhism, Raijin and his brother, the wind god Fujin, were originally evil demons who fought bitterly with the Buddha. As a result of the battle between the Buddha's heavenly army and the demons, Fujin and Raijin were captured, repented and now serve good as Buddha's guardian deities. To say how brilliantly accurate this tribute is - is to say nothing. Like Raijin, in the MG series, Jack went from a punishing dark force to a protective light force. At the same time, he does not depart from his original nature of destroyer and killer, but only directs energy in the right direction.

Folding screen depicting Raijin (left) and Fūjin (right). Tawaraya Sōtatsu, 17 century. Raiden-sama usually depicted as white demon, which also resonates with one of Jack's names - White Devil.

One could say that such a similarity between the fates of Raijin and Jack was only a coincidence. After all, this is where Joseph Campbell's theory of the monomyth, laid out in his 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, takes place. Campbell, researching the myths, fairy tales and legends of the peoples of the world, came to the conclusion that most of these stories rely on a common plot structure, which he called the monomyth. Since the modern literary tradition is drawn from the oldest literary forms, it still retains the most common and established models, albeit in modified forms. And therefore, the similarity of the paths of heroes in myths or literary works is only a consequence of an established tradition.

But Metal Gear wouldn't be Metal Gear if it weren't for its attention to details. As we know, in myths, things are rarely clear-cut. Raijin often fights with his brother Fujin. He is also depicted in the company of Raiju, a thunder beast or thunder demon that also acts as his animal totem, usually appearing in the form of a dog or wolf. Does this remind you of anyone? Another minor but interesting detail is that Raijin has a son, Raitaro, who is another deity of thunder.

Although Raiju is a companion of Raijin, it can act independently. During thunderstorms, Raiju descend from the sky, accompanying lightning to strike at trees and houses, causing disasters. Thus, Raiju attacks were also believed to be a form of divine punishment: those whose homes were struck by lightning were “suffering the wrath of the Raiju”.

The dystopian environment of MGRR tries to imitate the natural state of things and imitate nature itself not only at the expense of the mythological core. There are more direct allusions embedded directly in the design of robots and cyborgs. The most obvious is the already mentioned Blade Wolf, in which the prototype of the dog is easily guessed. Amphibians and insects, dinosaurs and birds, ungulates and predators inhabit the unexplored hostile spaces of MGRR. It is noteworthy that some of the mechs in the game are present in the MG series not for the first time. Even in previous games, you could find numerous modifications of Metal Gear RAY, Gekko or canine-like robots. The entire MG series in one way or another introduces allusions to the animal world into the design of the characters. On the one hand, this is a fairly obvious design approach. On the other hand, it adds more depth to the game's lore. The concept of human imitation of nature is a red thread through all Metal Gear, opening a kind of philosophical questions, and also conveys the idea of "naturalness" of those changes taking place in the alternate reality of the game.

Animal traits are evident in robots' behavior and appearance, such as design elements, mannerisms, sounds, etc. It would seem that this is enough to give the player information about what they are dealing with. But the designers give a deeper explanation of how these mechanisms work. They are endowed not only with the features of living beings. They have a similar 'body structure' and even blood likeness. From a practical point of view, most of these details do not make any sense.

From the perspective of game design, this is one of those elements that works on a subconscious level with the player's imagination. Blazing his way through enemy valleys, Raiden destroys more than just robots. They bleed, suffer and make shrill sounds like living animals. They seem to embody the next, albeit artificially created by man, stage of evolution. They are only a part of the usual state of things, where "wind blows, rain falls, and the strong prey upon the weak". Obviously Raiden is a predator in this story. Kill or be killed. At the same time, he is a victim. A victim of his own beliefs and memes, obeying them, he tries to change the natural order, to destroy long-established truths for the sake of the highest good. But, as we found out, good and evil will always exist side by side. Because as one little-known philosopher once said,

About memes, honor and war in the next part of the review~

Credits:

Japanese Tiger and Dragon. Minneapolis Institute of Art

2. RAIJU: The Thunder Beast Yokai

3. Gekko. Metal Gear Wiki

4. Raijin. Wikipedia

#metal gear #mgrr #metal gear rising #metal gear rising revengeance #raiden mgr #mgr raiden #video game review #video games #gaming #japanese mythology #mythology #my articles

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see-arcane · 2 years

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The Underappreciated Undead Squad: Clarimonde, Lord Ruthven, and the Family of the Vourdalak

If you’ve been keeping track, you’ll know I’ve been getting sucked into a resurgence of old school bloodsucker literature. Not just with the fun of Dracula Daily—thanks again, Matt Kirkland!—but revisiting some even older vampiric favorites who have been kicking since long before the Count started planning his English holiday. From left to right above, we see Gorcha, patriarch of Aleksey Tolstoy’s, “The Family of the Vourdalak,” (1884), Clarimonde, of Théophile Gautier’s, “La Morte Amoureuse,” (1836), translated into English as ‘Clarimonde’ or, ‘The Dead Woman in Love,’ and Lord Ruthven, of John William Polidori’s, “The Vampyre,” (1819).

I’ve been dropping hefty blurbs about each of them, but I figured a master post was in order. Much as Dracula Daily is/will continue to pick up its pace as autumn ticks along, I know there are folks out there itching for a broader classic vampire fix than just another reread of, “Carmilla.”*

*Who does not get to sit at these guys’ table, considering she has a web series, a movie, and a number of animated cameos (hi, Vampire Hunter D and Castlevania babes), while everyone on this guest list has no mainstream spotlight, period. Sorry, Millie.

Assorted Synopses and Story Links Below!

1. Clarimonde—“La Morte Amoureuse” (Post) (Story PDF)

POV: You’re a newly minted priest doing priest stuff in the middle of Le Bumbfuck Village in Nowhere, France. You fell in love with the hottest party girl in Paris. She dies. She resurrects herself and appears in your room looking like this ^^^ saying she came back to life because she’s into you. She asks if you’re down to run away to Venice with her. Wyd?

Oh, Clarimonde. She’s probably the best way to (un)die you’ll ever meet in classic literature. Gautier wrote her story with all kinds of ribald and religiously risqué (if not damn near blasphemous) joy, and managed to sneak a genuinely heartstring-tugging romance in. She’s probably the first vampiric character to ever be written in a truly sympathetic light, while also being one of few early seductive/bawdy female characters to not be given the ye olde ‘EW NO EVIL POWERFUL LILITH CHARACTER BOOO’ treatment.

2. Lord Ruthven— “The Vampyre” (Post) (Story PDF)

POV: You’re the tenth adulteress tonight to try to get with the sexy stranger who lives to make everyone around him miserable (sexily). All you’ve managed to do is interrupt his game, in which he plans to bankrupt a father of seven, followed by maybe hunting down his innocent daughter to stick a dagger in her for a midnight sip. Oh, you were after a blood sugar daddy? Too bad. Take that thirsty bullshit to Carfax and duke it out with Renfield.

Lord Ruthven is the original undead bastard. His hobby is ruining the lives of good people, driving virtuous girls to madness and/or murdering them for a drink, and collecting fancy bejeweled blades for a little flair with the latter. Our guy is Not Interested in romance as anything other than a performance to get close to a young lady for the purposes of either ruination or slaughter. Nor is he about to churn out any more of his kind willy-nilly. Why bother? Maybe that shit flies for those needy Transylvanian hoarder types, but he prefers to go solo. He seems like a unique polar opposite to most ‘teaching a moral’ monsters—in his story, only the purest of pure mega-good characters suffer. If you’re anything less than saintly—see: horny chicks, folks with personal vices, et cetera—Ruthven either ignores you outright or tosses you some cash to aid your selfish aims. Thanks, man.

3. Gorcha and Kin— “The Family of the Vourdalak” (Post) (Story PDF)

POV: You are a traveler meeting the dead and knowing eyes of Gorcha and his family. This ends one of two ways. Version 1: Gorcha and his family decide they hate you. There is only room for murderous hate or consuming love in their still hearts, as is the condition of the Vourdalak. They will nail your head over the door. Version 2: Gorcha and his family have decided they love you. So much so that they must empty your veins and welcome you into the family. Forever. What’s that, traveler? You’d like to leave before they decide either way? Who said that was an option?

Vampirism and love have always managed to overlap throughout the genre. But the condition of the Vourdalak flavor is especially fixated on it. The gist is that where ordinary vampires will target whoever, whenever, Vourdalaks are driven specifically to drink from their loved ones. Family, friends, lovers. It’s how whole villages have gone underground, with kin and neighbors preying on each other in a warped display of grim thirst and affectionate preservation. On the flip side, those not loved get put down. Messily. It would almost be sweet if things like ‘consent’ or ‘neutrality’ could come into it, but no. You are loved and kept or unloved and slaughtered. The only third option is to run—if they let you.

I really recommend giving all these guys a read. Right now, we’re enjoying a bit of a vampiric/Dracula renaissance. Silly stuff like the What We Do in the Shadows series is going full blast, Castlevania is entering another run, and the Count has a whole slew of movies lined up. While I very much did not care for this year’s, The Invitation, 2023 is due to dish out a fun dark comedic romp called Renfield centered on our favorite inventor of the Victorian small-scale turducken (with Nicholas Cage as Dracula!), and a genuine horror movie offering with, Last Voyage of the Demeter, directed by the same man behind The Autopsy of Jane Doe. Promising stuff!

My fingers are crossed that between all that and the clear popularity of Dracula Daily, we can dust off some other coffins and, maybe, give these older undead characters some overdue love. (At a safe distance.)

#before anyone comes at me about Clarimonde's period inaccurate dress #1) I know.#2) Her introduction has her wearing the most VIVID rainbow palette finery I've ever read. She deserves color!#3) I always mentally tied her with the Psyche myth #the Goddess of Soul with the butterfly motif and a whole story dedicated to love and th breaking of trust #also death and resurrection; so you know--I have my excuses #4) I can't not picture her being a carefree trendsetter hedonist #if she wants her bosom up and bodiced with gold jewels butterflies and ye olde gauzy sparkles all over?#She Will Have It #Ruthven just always struck me as a russet/old bloodstain palette kind of guy so ^^^#Gorcha's tale paints him as corpse-colored and the story takes place in the cold #lots of grays and deep unhealthy blues/silvers seemed right #plus a stylish accessory head #anyway #vampires is fun #and there's more than Dracula and Carmilla to play with in the classic lit #go meet them and get inspired #clarimonde #la morte amoureuse #lord ruthven #the vampyre #gorcha #the family of the vourdalak #dracula #dracula daily #carmilla #reading recs

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ascalon-club · 6 months

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It’s been years and I still enjoying playing Vampyr. I think for me it might be because of the dark academia vibe and of course Jonathan, Geoffrey and Elisabeth. Just really good characters overall. I hope one day we get a sequel to the game and get to experience Jonathan’s maker (forgot his name) new champion

I love Vampyr so much and I wish there were more content. it's not perfect or top-tier gameplay-wise but its aesthetic and worldbuilding is so incredible. Vampyr is genuinely one of the best games I've seen when it comes to atmosphere, and there are a lot of really, really complex characterizations too (though I do think certain prominent characters should have received much more development). I just [clenches fist] the worldbuilding is so good that it gives the game such incredible potential. I want to play as Geoffrey running around fighting vampires! I want to play as William Marshal fighting the Black Death! I want to know what Emyrs got up to as Myrddin's champion way back during the 5th century and how King Arthur plays into all of this- did Myrddin have two vampire champions at once? Idk what's happening but MAN would I love some Arthurian vampires because I love vampires in historical settings.

Also in the epilogue, Jonathan exasperatedly lists off a bunch of historical figures and Myrddin confirms that YES, one of those figures is a vampire and is still alive (as alive as a vampire can be), which kills me because one of Jonathan's suggestions is my Unproblematic Historical Fave and the idea of him being a vampire is incredible. I'm tired of all these viking-centric depictions of my boy Alfred the Great as an antagonist (cough cough AC Valhalla and Vikings). I'm tired of the slander. I want Alfred the Great to be a vampire king leading the West Saxon fyrds into battle. Do you see my vision

#ask #angelclots #sorry Jonathan mentioned Alfred the Great and he's my historical blorbo #no such thing as an Unproblematic Historical Fave. except for Alfred #Alfred was perfect

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orionali · 1 year

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SIMS 4: PEMBROKE HOSPITAL — VAMPYR — FULL CC LIST

Disclaimer: I “ranked” the CC that had been used in order of relevance — from “you can technically play without this but the Hospital is going to look abysmally half-assed and will be missing heaps of assets” to “you can play without this and most you’re going to be missing is a few clutter items.”

All CC that I used is free/not-early-access.

A big thank you goes to all CC creators; you’re the reason this game hasn’t died yet!

FIND THIS BUILD ON THE GALLERY, ID: a_orionali

~[THIS POST AS A GOOGLE DOC.]~

1. MUST-HAVE CC:

⟹ Syboulette

LOFT BRICK BUILD. Used for the fencing around Pembroke and is its main outside wallpaper. The inside columns are from this pack as well.

HIPPOCRATE. The required hospital pack.

⟹ TheJim07

MANSION PANELS - PART 02. The entire second floor of the Pembroke (sans Edgar’s office) uses this CC wallpaper.

OFFICE SET FROM TS3. Edgar’s (fancy) desk is here. Attention: if you don’t download this, all the vast clutter on the said desk will disappear into the ether.

⟹ Sixam

SMALL SPACES: PANTRY. Uses many clutter items from the pack. Edgar’s leftmost office shelf is also from this pack.

SMALL SPACES: LAUNDRY ROOM. The basement laundry room is functional and decorated thanks to this pack.

HOME BASICS COMPLETE COLLECTION. Lots of excellent deco-clutter here (books mostly).

WEDNESDAY GOTH BEDROOM. Edgar’s favorite papier mache skull is from here. Yes, I’m putting that skull alone in the must-have section because, woah, does Edgar love it.

⟹ Felixandre and/or Harrie

OCTOBER 2017. The statue in the Pembroke plaza is here.

JANUARY 2018. A few windows and the two back doors are from here.

ORJÁNIC, PART 1 AND 2. Some trusses/windows were used and the main doorways are from here too.

LONDON EXTERIOR. Nearly all of the exterior doors and windows are from this set and that shouldn’t come as a surprise.

KYOTO, PART 2. The planks from this pack form the cosmetic “lines” you can see on Pembroke’s facade. The same planks have also been used as boards for the windows of Jonathan’s office.

BERLIN, PART 2. The dome sitting on the topmost platform of the hospital is from here.

APRIL 2018. The extravagant chandelier that’s on the second floor in front of Edgar’s office is here.

MAY 2018. The main door is from this pack.

⟹ Pierisim

WINTER GARDEN PART 2. The complementary tile/floor for Pembroke’s first floor.

MCM, PART 1 — 5. Ditto.

MAISON MEULIÈRE. Another excellent pediment for the hospital’s roofs is here.

DOMAINE DU CLOS, PART 1 — 4. Some windows/doors that have been used are from here.

COLDBREW COFFESHOP, ALL PARTS. Clutter again, but also the arch that has been used as the elevator “door” (linking the third floor and the attic) is here.

⟹ Various Creators

BATHROOM MIRROR TILES by pralinesims. Main tile/floor for Pembroke’s first/third floors.

VARA OFFICE SET. The cozy chairs for other doctors’ (not Edgar, not Jonathan) offices are here.

2. GOOD-TO-HAVE CC:

⟹ Syboulette

IN CONSTRUCTION. Clutter from this pack fills the plaza in front of the entrance.

IMPERIUM CONCRETE. Uses the minimalistic but lovely frieze from this pack.

CURVED STAIRS. Uses the stairs from this pack to join the second and third floors because Sims 4 stairs cannot be spun diagonally and, in Vampyr, the stairs are nestled in the nook of the “tips” of the structure. If you can somehow fit a vanilla stair there (I couldn’t) or when EA gives us the power to turn the things 45° you can toss this CC.

ATTIC. Used to clutter, unoriginally, the attic of the hospital where Geoffrey tries to punt you.

A LA FERME ROOF. Uses the cute white pediment to support the Pembroke roof.

⟹ TheJim07

IONIC ORDER SET - PART I AND PART II. Uses miscellaneous decor from these two (like the pedestals that adorn the plaza statue).

FOUNTAIN EDGE SET. Uses the arched trim from this pack to mask the frankly atrocious way circular platforms interact with anything in the Sims 4.

LYON WROUGHT IRON FENCE. The pillars from this CC bracket the main entrance of the hospital.

⟹ Pierisim

OAK HOUSE, PART 1 — 6. All around great series. Tons of clutter have been pulled from here.

⟹ Felixandre and/or Harrie

LIVIN' RUM. Quite nice clutter objects are here.

HALCYON KITCHEN. Cute barstools for the staff's third-floor kitchen are here.

PARIS, PART 1. A few interior doors are from this pack.

FLORENCE, PART 2. Some elegant main entrance door decor is from here.

BERLIN, PART 3. Some lovely shelves and pretty books for all the doctors’ offices.

BERLIN, PART 1. Some interior trims and windows can be found in this pack.

MARCH 2018. Some decorative spires for the hospital’s exterior are here.

⟹ Various Creators

(NOT SO) VAMPIRE BATHROOM by simsinwonderland. Recolored plumbing items from Vampires never looked so good before.

FLAGS!!! by SimPlistic. Slapped on some Union Jacks onto this build because of reasons.

APOTHECARY CABINET, BOTTLES, LEDGER, AND CHEST by magnolianfarewell. A very thematic set that I use here.

TS4 VINTAGE GRAMOPHONE by HappyLifeSims. To period-appropriately fill Pembroke with music. Irrelevant, but I strongly recommend HappyLifeSims’s entire Patreon catalog. They make the best 1920’s CAS clothes.

H&B STORE STUFF by littledica. Used the Simlish alphabet from here to spell out “PEMBROKE HOSPITAL” on the building’s facade.

SCHOOL SPIRIT by hula-zombie. I pulled the bulletin boards from here (you can add your own Spanish Flu-esque posters on it too!)

INTARSIA - WAINSCOT WONDERLAND SET by Lili's Palace. The hospital's foyer has a coffered ceiling so I tried to incorporate that into the build.

HOSPITAL BEDS, VENTILATORS, AND AMBULANCE STRETCHERS by anothersimsstory. Supplemental hospital items.

3. CAN IGNORE (BUT IT’D BE GOOD TO HAVE THESE NONETHELESS):

⟹ Syboulette

WORK IN PROGRESS. Clutter from this pack reflects the dilapidated state of the hospital.

COLETTE COTTAGE BATHROOM. Uses a couple of clutter items.

CAROLINE BATHROOM. Same as above, but this one also uses the tiled walls for Pembroke’s first floor.

OCÉANE. Some more random bathroom decorations.

⟹ TheJim07

VICTORIAN SET FROM TS3. Uses the cute end table from this pack in the nurses’ quarters.

⟹ Sixam

PRIVATE SCHOOL. Uses the skeleton prop from this pack. Yes, I know there’s a skeleton in GTW, but I wanted even more skeletons in my build.

LUXURY BATHROOM. Misc bathroom decor in here.

HOME IMPROVEMENTS. Misc decor again to make the Pembroke more homey/lived-in.

⟹ Pierisim

TIDYING UP. Bathroom clutter.

THE OFFICE. Office clutter.

⟹ Felixandre and/or Harrie

KYOTO, PART 3. Some minor cups and teapots are here.

FLORENCE, PART 1. Candles and candleholders are here (because, apparently, Pembroke burns candles still despite having electricity).

COLONIAL SET, PART 2. Another gramophone for your pleasure.

⟹ Various Creators

DECO SWORD CANE by plumbobteasociety. There’s a cane on a shelf in Edgar’s office, so I decided to include it in my build.

HINTERLANDS DINING by peacemaker. Some wine bottles and a bar cabinet. Because if you were a doctor at Pembroke, you’d start drinking too.

MASTER BEDROOM by Max20. Just some cutesy paintings/clutter.

BOOTLEGGER PARADISE by SimDoughnut. Used this pack for its crates, barrels, and Roaring 20’s posters.

IMPORTANT: If it turns out I accidentally omitted some other CC pack and a part of the build looks unfinished on your end, please make a screenshot and send it to me and I will update this post. The same goes if there’s a broken link somewhere around this doc.

#vampyr #sims 4 #cc list with links #and description where I used each cc piece #I will upload the build itself later tonight #so in a few hours

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allycryz · 3 months

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Back on my Strahd hyperfocus planning for a possible campaign this summer and am once again annoyed at Tracy Hickman's foreword to CoS 5e.

I'm going to paste it below in full under the cut so no one can say I'm taking it out of context, but I will bold the parts I find especially annoying:

----

We turned the corner, and there was a vampire.

I groaned and rolled my eyes.

It was 1978, and I was playing in one of my first dungeon adventures. It was being run by a friend I had known in high school, John Scott Clegg, and it was typical of the type of adventure that people played in those days. It was all about exploring a hodgepodge collection of rooms connected by dungeon corridors, beating up the monsters that we encountered, searching for treasure, and gaining experience points.

Now we were face to face with random encounter number thirty-four: a vampire. Not a Vampire with a capital V, but a so-many-Hit-Dice-with-such-and-such-an-Armor-Class lowercase vampire. Just another monster in the dungeon.

I remember thinking at the time, What are you doing here? This creature seemed completely out of place with the kobolds, orcs, and gelatinous cubes we had seen thus far. This was a creature who deserved his own setting and to be so much more than just a wandering monster. When I came home from that game, I told all these thoughts to Laura.

That was when Strahd von Zarovich was born.

Strahd would be no afterthought—he demanded his own setting, his own tragic history. Laura and I launched into researching the mythology and folklore surrounding the vampire. We started with the vague, black-and-white image of Bela Lugosi in 1931, but found so much more.

The first "modern" literary foundation of the vampire was penned by John William Polidori based on a fragment of a story by Lord Byron. It was while at the Villa Diodati—a rented house next to Lake Geneva, Switzerland—that Byron and Polidori met Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin and her husband-to-be, Percy Shelley. One night in June, Byron suggested that they each write a ghost story. Mary Shelley's contribution to the effort would later become Frankenstein. The short story "The Vampyre," published in 1819, was Polidori's contribution. He was Byron's personal physician, and the first of the so-called "romantic" vampires under Polidori's hand was actually modeled after Lord Byron.

Byron—like the fictional vampires that he inspired, from Polidori's Lord Ruthven down through the penultimate work of Bram Stoker—was a decadent predator, an abuser hidden behind a romantic veil. He was a comely and alluring monster—but a monster nevertheless. The romantic vampire of the earliest years of the genre was not just a spouse abuser but a spouse killer, the archetype of abuse in the worst kind of destructive codependency.

For Laura and me, those were the elements that truly defined Strahd von Zarovich—a selfish beast forever lurking behind a mask of tragic romance, the illusion of redemption that was ever only camouflage for his prey.

Initially we were going to title the adventure Vampyr—one of a series of games we called Nightventure that Laura and I were self-publishing back in 1978. The castle was called Ravenloft, and when Halloween came around each year, our friends asked us if we could play "that Ravenloft game" again... and so the better title won out. It was, in part, because of this design that I was hired by TSR, Inc., to write Dungeons & Dragons adventures in 1982. Soon thereafter, I6 Ravenloft was published.

Since then, fans of Ravenloft have seen many different creative perspectives on Barovia (a country which, by absolute coincidence, is featured in a 1947 Bob Hope movie called Where There's Life). It continues to be one of the most popular Dungeons & Dragons adventures of all time. In its various incarnations, each designer has endeavored to bring something new to the ancient legend of Strahd, and to each of them we are grateful.

But the vampire genre has taken a turn from its roots in recent years. The vampire we so often see today exemplifies the polar opposite of the original archetype: the lie that it's okay to enter into a romance with an abusive monster because if you love it enough, it will change.

When Laura and I got a call from Christopher Perkins about revisiting Ravenloft, we hoped we could bring the message of the vampire folktale back to its original cautionary roots. The talented team at Wizards of the Coast not only graciously took our suggestions but engaged us in a dialogue that delivered new insights on the nightmare beyond the gates of Barovia.

Now we invite you again as our guests to pass through the Svalich Woods if you dare. For here the romance is tragically dangerous... and a true monster smiles at your approach.

----

It's just so

Patronizing

It would be an entirely different post to talk about the meaning of the vampire figure in folklore and literature and what it represents; because you cannot pin it to simply one meaning. Vampiric folklore can speak of fears of disease and death and plague, Dracula can represent xenophobia AND classism AND sexuality, Polidori's Lord Ruthven can be a high society predator AND an emblem of repressed queerness

But even if Tracy was correct that the vampire has one specific meaning...so what? Why can people not subvert and change the stock characters of fiction? Is there really a problem if Interview with a Vampire turned tropes on their heads? I'm no fan of Twilight but its sin is absolutely not "it made Vampires hot and romantic"

This is especially galling because when you release a ttrpg story or system out into the world, it's going to be changed at every table. For every group that runs a module as is, there are dozens making it their own.

I do think Strahd as written, as a monster who cannot recognize his faults is fascinating. I also think there are a lot of possibilities to mine if you have a table who likes romance and intrigue. My most frequent table plays a lot of Good Society and they get very excited when similar options show up in other systems.

And, honestly, at the end of the day Tracy just sounds like every guy whining that they made vampires sparkly and those aren't reaaalll vampires and every internet user handwringing over oh no there are people who find villains hot

#curse of strahd

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torpublishinggroup · 2 years

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How Long Our Fav Characters Would Survive in a Horror Novel

In the spirit (ha) of Halloween, we're asking "How long would our fav's survive in a horror novel?"

Also, we’re answering! Check it out 🎃

(and super thanks to @omni-scient-pan-da for the Halloween-tastic banner)

Talasseres Charossa — The Unspoken Name by A. K. Larkwood

My favorite character / unrequited love interest Talasseres Charossa is as petulant and grouchy as he is brave and gay. He’s gone toe-to-toe and steel-on-steel with god(s) and garbage wizards, but would he survive a horror novel? Unfortunately not. Let’s be real. He’s gonna trip and fall into a patch of evil quicksand, or willingly surrender to a hot vampyre lord of advanced age.

— Andrew King, Digital Marketing Coordinator

The Demon-chicken — Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

Would this chicken survive? Absolutely. This chicken would be the VILLAIN of the horror movie. But just as the protagonists wipe the blood off their brows and the sun breaks over the horizon and hope seems to burn anew, the camera would slowly pan to the side until we are greeted with the beady black eyes of the demon-chicken. You will gaze into those eyes and witness the abyss, understanding that the true horror is that we will never escape from its fowl [sic] clutches.

— Yvonne Ye, Ad/Promo Assistant

Viv — Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

So I know my favorite character and general light of my life, Viv from Legends & Lattes, would absolutely DEMOLISH anything that came at her in a horror novel. A bad-ass orc barbarian who’s spent years on the road packing steel and raising hell as a sword for hire? Yeah, she’ll be fine. PLUS she has a cozy coffee shop filled with lattes, giant cinnamon rolls, and other treats to make it home to. What other motivation does she need?

— Rachel Taylor, Senior Marketing Manager

Charlie Hall — Book of Night by Holly Black

Back again with another character because authors are simply too good at their game and have created too many favs. Next up, I’m choosing Charlie Hall from Book of Night and I’m saying she’s Final Girl™️ material and she’s going to survive. So Charlie occupies a world of devious shadow magic practitioners and they’re all kind of in competition with each other to access more techniques, knowledge, and power. The presence of supernatural powers puts vanilla human Charlie at a disadvantage, but that’s why she’d survive a horror novel. She’s used to this shit, y’all. Also she’s really cool and Book of Night makes me want to buy goth clothes and get another tattoo.

— Andrew King, Digital Marketing Coordinator

The Demon-chicken (again) — Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

For me, T. Kingfisher is the ultimate horror author. Whether she’s writing low stakes fantasy or high stakes horror, you know it’s gonna be spooky and that I’m gonna be wrapped in a blanket with a cup of tea in my paw and it’s GONNA be raining. Therefore, I choose the chicken familiar from Nettle & Bone. This chicken is literally possessed by an evil entity but only helps our protagonist princess to her end goal. The chicken only uses her evil powers for good. In conclusion, the chicken familiar is quite literally a horror novel unto herself; not only would she survive, she’d help her friends along the way, and maybe even lay an egg or two.

— Jordan Hanley, Senior Marketing Manager

Victor Vale — Vicious by V. E. Schwab

Cold, calculating Victor Vale is as ambitious as he is intelligent. He also has a tendency to be ruthless and obsessive, willing to push the limits of his own body to the brink of death in the pursuit of powers beyond imagination. With his ability to manipulate the pain of others he may last until the grand finale of the horror movie, but his tendency to adopt kids and dogs with his former cellmate will inevitably get him killed. The real question is whether he’ll stay dead or if he might rise up in the post-credits scene to star in a horror movie of his own.

— Becky Yeager, Senior Manager of Ad/Promo & Marketing

#halloween books #vicious #v. e. schwab #the unspoken name #a. k. larkwood #legends & lattes #travis baldree #nettle & bone #t. kingfisher #ursula vernon #tor books #demon chicken

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all-rock-and-roll-is-homosexual · 2 years

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The first chapter of my new Vampyr fic is up! It's self indulgent OC/Geoffrey stuff, as a heads up in case you're not into that sort of thing.

Big thanks to @terioncalling for being my beta reader

#why yes of course it took its title from a Manic Street Preachers song #vampyr #vampyr game #I'm sorry it's not a follow-up to Less Than Human - I genuinely tried to work on that and my brain just went NOPE

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thetrashsean · 3 years

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“Why wasn’t Life is Strange 2 as popular as the first game?”

A lot of people like myself have wondered what exactly made Life is Strange 2 go so relatively unnoticed compared its predecessor, Life is Strange 1. And when you think about it, you may come up with the few obvious generic answers, such as the lack of Max and Chloe and just the original cast in general. However, I think there was a lot more at play here that prevented Life is Strange 2 from reaching the amount of success/popularity the first game had. So I want to take the time and break down what exactly happened to Life is Strange 2 and the things that hurt the game’s ability to really connect with the audience of LiS1.

Disclaimer: We do NOT know how well Life is Strange 2 was for Dontnod and if it was a success or not. No sales numbers have been given out to the public so there’s no way of knowing for sure how well the game did. What we do know is that LiS2 did not receive the same amount of attention/popularity as the first game. That can’t be denied, it simply didn’t. However, based on the fact that Dontnod have recently announced they are working on six new games at the moment and are now expanding their studio, even if LiS2 was a “flop” it doesn’t seem to have had much of an effect on them (most likely due to the success of Vampyr). Dontnod is going to be fine either way. Another thing I want to mention is that this is not a anti-LiS2 post and that I am a fan of the game. I’d consider myself a pretty big fan actually. I have my problems with the game of course and don’t agree with a lot of the writing decisions but I enjoyed the game very much overall. But for the sake of this post I will try to be as unbiased as possible, giving out only what I’ve observed when it comes to reactions from the fandom on different websites and forums. So with that all being said, let’s dive in to this.

Here I will be listing the many different reasons as to why Life is Strange 2 failed to reach the same amount of popularity as LiS1 or even BtS managed to achieve. This list isn’t in any particular order but some reasons are bigger/more important than others.

For some background, there was a lot of hype going into Life is Strange 2. The teaser trailer for it with the cop car trended at #2 on YouTube, a huge feat for the series. It generated immense amount of views and comments in a short period in time, completely surpassing Before the Storm’s announcement trailer in just a few weeks. So what exactly happened to all that hype? Where did everybody go? Well, let’s break everything down.

1. The lack of Max and Chloe: Yes I said that this list wouldn’t be in any particular order in terms of importance but I think it’s obvious this one is one of, if not the biggest reason as to why LiS2 failed to match LiS1’s popularity. When the protagonists Sean and Daniel were first revealed, the reception was pretty divisive. Specifically, a very vocal part of the community were baffled and disappointed at the lack of Max and Chloe present within the trailer and subsequently the game itself. This instantly turned off a lot of people from the game, as they couldn’t connect with the new characters or simply didn’t want to. At that point in the franchise Max and Chloe as well as the original cast from the first game had been the face of the series for almost three years. It’s understandable why it was hard for people to just…move on. To this day people are still asking for Max and Chloe to return. The Life is Strange subreddit is still dominated with Max and Chloe fanart. Whenever the social media accounts for Life is Strange post anything Max and Chloe related it gets way more attention compared to a post about Sean and Daniel. Whenever a post online goes viral about Life is Strange you can bet it’s most likely about Max and Chloe. Hell the only reason why episode 5 of Life is Strange 2 trended on Tumblr was because of the fucking picture of Max and Chloe. On the releas day of episode 5 of LiS2 the top post on the subreddit was the Max and Chloe picture. It was almost as if that one photo of them completely overshadowed the entire episode. Point is, Life is Strange 2 lost a lot of momentum the moment it was revealed Max and Chloe would not be present. Case closed, let’s move on.

2. The release schedule: Words cannot describe how frustrating the release schedule was for LiS2 when it came to it’s episodes. For those reading this who didn’t follow LiS2 until the game was finished, each episode took around 3-4 months to be released. This was because Dontnod bit off a bit more than they could chew with the road trip story in having to create new locations and character models from scratch. The reason why this wasn’t a problem for LiS1 was because Max was for the most part always in the same locations around the same characters (I’m pretty sure you roam around Chloe’s house like 4 times throughout the season), which made development a lot easier since the devs could just reuse a lot of the assets. Unfortunately, this wasn’t possible for LiS2 due to the nature of it’s story. The wait times between each episode made a lot of people leave the fandom due to loosing interest or simply forgetting about the game altogether. This also impacted youtubers/streamers as many of them either stopped coming back to play the new episodes or they’d not be as connected as they were in the previous episode due to the amount of time that had passed. One of the reasons why LiS1 gained so much popularity was because of youtubers/streamers and how they would bring in their audience and would pretty much make them fans of the series. With quite a handful of youtubers/streamers quitting LiS2, the game was not able to draw in as much of an audience as previous games did. This is how detreminetal the release schedule was for LiS2.

3. The marketing (or lack thereof): Square Enix really fucked up on this aspect. Due to the ridiculous wait times you would think Square Enix would try and advertise the game heavily when a new episode was about to be released, right? Well they didn’t. Not at all actually. Throughout the games release schedule from September 2018 up to December 2019, I had not seen a single ad for the game. Nothing on YouTube, nothing on reddit or any other websites, it was like Square Enix had completely forgotten about the game’s existence. Now don’t get me wrong, SE did do a few things with LiS2 like starting up the community series on their YouTube channel and also the dev updates that came after episode 1 (that stopped after episode 2 for some reason) but these went relatively unnoticed to people outside of the fandom and did pretty much nothing. I believe SE was trying to wait until the game was fully complete with all of it’s episodes released before actually marketing the game (and they DID start advertising the game after episode 5 came out) but that’s just WAAAY too long to go without any type of advertisement. I understand marketing teams have budgets and what not, but you’re telling me there was no way for SE to market each episode in anyway as they were about to be released? Seems a bit ridiculous, don’t you think?

4. The road trip story: I completely understand why Dontnod wanted to branch out and do something different with the story of Life is Strange 2 and I respect them for stepping out of their comfort zones. However, it can’t be denied that the road trip story where characters are cycled in and out as Sean and Daniel make their way to Mexico was a very…questionable decision. Seeing as how LiS1 was loved for it’s world filled with a reoccurring cast of characters that developed as the story went on, it’s really easy to understand why LiS2 was so off-putting for a lot of fans. It was off-putting for me, even. It just…wasn’t fun having to leave these truly interesting characters behind because the plot demanded it. This left a lot of characters feeling underdeveloped to many people and by the time you meet new characters you already know they’re most likely gonna be gone soon anyways, so it made it even harder to connect with them. Couple this with the fact that LiS2 lacked any type of mystery unlike LiS1, speculation and discussion fizzled out a few weeks after each episode was released. LiS1 kept people speculating and wondering about what would happen next, while LiS2 left a lot of people struggling to care.

5. Politics: Yeeeeaaaaah I think I had to put this somewhere on the list. While many of the people who tease and mock how LiS2 handled its political topics were most likely not fans of the series anyway (the type of people who called LiS1 “Life is Tumblr” and hate Chloe), I do think it’s important to realize that some people just don’t want politics in their games, period. I’ve seen people online come out and say that while they agreed with what the writers were saying when it came to the political topics, it overall still came off very forced and one-sided to them, lacking any type of nuance or subtlety. I could write an entire essay discussing if the politics in LiS2 were handled well and whatnot but this is not that post so I’ll just leave it at that.

6: Lack of a prominent female cast/wlw: This is a bit more tricky to talk about (for the record the person writing this is a black gay guy) but I will try and write about this the best way I can. For many women, specifically queer women, Life is Strange was a series they could expect representation from. Max, Chloe, Rachel, and Steph are all popular characters amongst the fandom and even other wlw ships such as Marshfield, Chasefield, Chaseprice, etc are popular. So when LiS2 was revealed to be about two (hispanic) males, the queer women within the community were understandably upset. It felt like DN were simply throwing away the community that for the most part made up the entire fandom. At the time I simply found the situation ridiculous and overblown as many people were dismissing Sean and Daniel as “generic straight males” (even though it turned out Sean was bisexual in the end) before really getting to know them. However, looking back I totally get why people were upset. A lot of the fanart/fanfiction that was made for the LiS series was mostly created by queer women, so when the franchise pretty much stopped giving them representation, they left in search of other media (like She-Ra, which honestly has better wlw rep anyway). LiS2 is also mostly male dominated in terms of its cast, and features no queer women as well, which is really disappointing in my opinion.

7. Price: This one is pretty simple. When Life is Strange 2 was first released the full season costed $40. This was a pretty big jump in comparison to LiS1’s $20 price tag (original price was $25 however) and BtS’s $16. Obviously people would be more skeptical about buying a sequel that is pretty much double the price of its predecessor and has completely new characters. With the pretty mixed reception from gaming communities I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of people saw the price and decided to either watch a playthrough or simply not check out the game at all. With the first episode now free the base price has been lowered to around $30-32 I believe so yeah.

8. Daniel Diaz: Some people just don’t like kids, and I wouldn’t be surprised if people grew easily frustrated with Daniel early on and once he got more irrational and bratty as the story progressed they just stopped playing altogether. Even if you do like kids, or at least don’t mind them like myself, Daniel can still be quite a pain.

9. Not having control of the powers: This one is honestly really disappointing and I know it was to a lot of other people as well. In LiS1 Max had the ability to rewind time and do certain scenarios and conversations over and that basically acted as the more interesting gameplay segments. In LiS2 Sean doesn’t have the power, his brother Daniel does. This leads to the gameplay feeling much more boring and mundane. There are also no interesting puzzles this time around, most likely because Dontnod didn’t know how to implement them without the rewind power so they just…didn’t even attempt to add any. The power itself, telekinesis, is also much less interesting compared to rewinding time, according to a lot of people.

SO YEAH that’s basically it for me. I know this probably came off a bit rambly/incoherent but I tried my best to be as clear as I possibly could. I don’t doubt there are other reasons at play as to why LiS2 failed to meet LiS1’s success (such as liscensed music not being quite as good as LiS1) but I think I hit the main points I believe were key reasons. And the thing is, there isn’t just one main reason why LiS2 didn’t do as well as LiS1. It’s overall very unfortunate so many things went wrong with it that ended up making people lose interest in it. I think the lack of Max and Chloe hurt the game the most right off the bat, but the other reasons just led it to do even worse. Oh well.

I hope any of the people who read this enjoyed it (it was a BITCH to write). I’ve been wanting to get my thoughts down about this for SO long but just never had the motivation/time but I finally did it!

Again, thanks for reading! If you have any disagreements or just thoughts in general don’t be afraid to reply or dm me about it and I’ll be sure to reply! Now back to reblogging Marco posts….

#lis2 #lis #life is strange #life is strange 2 #max caulfield #chloe price #sean diaz #daniel diaz #lis2 spoilers #pricefield #amberprice

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deusexlachina · 2 years

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The worst vampire ever saves and/or butchers London

The game Vampyr is largely distinguished by its gimmick: you’re trying to save people, but you have a perverse incentive (disproportionate exp) to eat them.

I played on hard mode, where the incentive is even greater, because I want the True Vampyr Experience. At the same time, my mischievous instincts demand that I don’t eat people. More than anything just because the game really wants me to.

When I encountered a boss I couldn’t beat, I was determined to get stronger without eating people. The method I decided on was improving my hacksaw - crafting a weapon boosts its damage a great deal, and edged weapons can be upgraded to draw blood. (Yes, that’s an upgrade. Blades normally don’t).

Here’s why that’s an absolute must: Blood in this game is mana. The way the game teaches you to get blood is through a bite attack that gives you health and mana. But to do that, the target has to be stunned, and if you can safely stun a target it wasn’t that dangerous in the first place. So the bite is terrible, and so you can never afford spells. A blood-drawing saw, plus self-healing spells, allows you to completely ignore your worst ability!

The trouble with upgrading the saw is that the materials - despite being literal junk - are scattered across London, which is somehow lousy with vampires and vampire hunters. And you can’t grab items mid-combat, so you need to fight. Of course, the reason I was looking for hacksaw parts was because I suck at fighting, because I’m not eating people...

I eventually decided to aggro all the vampires I could find and then lead my vampire army into vampire hunter territory, resulting in a bloodbath. With this strategy, I was able to get through the nastiest parts of town and ransack the neighbourhood.

The upgraded hacksaw was even better than I’d hoped - getting it early cheeses the game very hard. Though I can’t help but realize that, not only was this endeavour longer and maybe even harder than just beating the boss, I killed many more people than I would have killed if I’d just eaten some...

#vampyr

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killyourrdarlingss · 3 years

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*A LOT OF CYBERPUNK SPOILERS BUT THIS IS TO EXPLAIN MY STANCE ON THE GAME SINCE I'M REBLOGGING STUFF, I would appreciate the read since yes, this game is not perfect.

Okay so while people see me reblogging stuff from cyberpunk, let's get some things clear:

The homophobia was disgusting especially for a game that was "so advanced!!" Like no I see through this also gross that there was a lot of biphobia too! (Looking at the interaction with River DIRECTLY.)

Not to mention the endings where your s/o (mainly in this case m/m) breaks up with the MC. I only played male V with Kerry so anyone let me know if it gets worse I guess (?) But there was no need for it. It could have been left out, worded differently, V could have had ANY other lines besides an argument just... no.

Uhh this game was not as woke as it thought it was. As in, a lot of stuff... predictable. I felt kind of bummed by the end when I just kept going "Yeah.. ok. Cool. Next thing. Take down corporation's... of course..." just. God. Someone told me this was 8 years in the making?? Fuck.

Also the character dying stuff got old. So. Fast. A great way to make you never get attached to characters is to have them DIE everytime you meet a new one? Yeah. Bad writing. Jackie I can understand and I hated it. I absolutely despised him dying but Takemura (yes I know you can save him but I only learnt this AFTER the fact 10 hours later.) It made me not care about anyone ! (Evelyn, Placide, Maiko... etc.)

So now we have the romance options, I played male V, I romanced Kerry and holy shit I actually liked him? His missions were fun, it was ridiculous, soft, the /boat/, Dang everything I loved and then.. I do the ending and get broken up with...

Fucking/what/.

Next up is Johnny!

What happened to the story here... like. Listen.. I loved Johnny, probably the best character but the cop out ending of "you only have 6 months to live, oops its because the pills!! Or let Johnny take over :)" after V gets their life figured out ?? Absolutely made me want to just turn the game off. In every ending, it's that... you'd think it would change depending. But no.

In conclusion, they needed more work on this. They needed more love for the m/m character relationship. They needed so much backstory for Johnny that we didn't get, V was HORRIBLY stale and two directional, either hate Johnny or love him. We needed backstory for V besides 20 minutes of "this is how you met Jackie." Like, no this isn't right this is just bad writing.

The main story is basically only 4 MAIN missions if you think about it, and if I hadn't done any sidequests, it would have been worse than it was already.

All I can do now is give my official rating like I did with far cry 5, I'll put it at the end after my ending analysis.

Basically my pros are here: there's a lot of good side missions and not to mention Keanu's performance is also very good. (Although I wished they fixed his audio because it was super low.) I just really wanted more out of this game yknow!! is it the worst game ever? No Vampyr is the worst game ever... but it did sadden me to see it so hyped up, and I'm sitting here not struck by anything, for 8 years I expected so much more, graphics wise, performance wise, and especially writing wise too.

Also no, I'm not going to comment on glitches in this game because frankly I couldn't care less about a car or motorcycle spinning in circles, at least that was amusing.

PLEASE DO NOT ARGUE WITH ME ON THIS POST, THIS IS MY OPINION AND I'VE STATED MY RATING AND REASONS WHY IT'S SO.

Below is my ranking of the top three endings and my overall rating of the game. Suicide will be mentioned so you've been warned.

After doing every ending:

The three endings I'll be talking about are Temperance, Suicide and Sun.

Johnny's is the best in terms of "I liked this one actually, this makes sense."

(Everyone kinda is mad, at the end of this one. There's maybe a few characters who don't care and some who take it more personally.)

Suicide ending has a pretty cutscene with V and Johnny beforehand where they talk about everything that's happened, so I guess it's my second favorite for that, gives a LOT of emotions.

(Everyone is pissed at you if you choose this ending, Panam screams at you, everyone thinks you suck says you're selfish/a coward... which I find unfair? But oh well.)

Sun is middle ground. You get to stay with your S/O, I don't have many notes on this besides its the best... okayish ending of the two others.

(If you romance Kerry or River you stay with them, female romance options will leave you. People at the end are mostly sad you're super busy and want you to come home.)

SO, LET'S TALK ABOUT THESE ENDINGS IN TERMS OF THE STORY:

In terms of story, Johnny's is the best in terms of making sense to the story, Suicide is the best for both V and Johnny having a heart to heart before it's all over, Sun is the best for wanting to ignore the problems and just live on-- ex. Basically to write fix it fics off it it.

So, best endings ranked by me!

#1. Temperance: Johnny takes over and lives out Vs life, memorializes V by placing the necklace of the bullet at the cemetery with all their friends who have passed along the journey, then he leaves night city. Best ending in my opinion and really makes the game just, good.

"I couldn't forget you, even if I wanted to, V."

/that line made me tear up, thank you Keanu;;

#2. Suicide: Sadly I just thought it fit even though everyone is pissed. Yes we go through everyone calling you sad and or angry to a point that's... honestly not normal. (Panams screaming really freaked me out LOL) But yeah. V throwing the pills off the roof, leaning back and just going

"How much more bloodshed does there need to be over me Johnny? I'm tired."

REALLY got me... okay? Yeah it's a good ending and whatever I liked it.

#3. The Sun: the secret ending where you infiltrate the tower as Johnny with Rogue, and Johnny forces V to keep his body. You choose as Johnny. This ending is basically, the middle ground. Being able to stay with your S/O (if you romanced either of the two male options) and them not being mad at you is one of the nicest things about it. You become the legend of the afterlife you're the boss now ! Woo-hoo! I could care less-- lmao. But it's an okay ending and isn't as bad as the other two.

Wrap-up, for real this time, and game rating:

So there you have it, i gave cyberpunk 2077 47h10m of my time, and I give it a 2.5/5. Buy it whenever it's on sale, have fun with some of the quests and Keanu Reaves but I dont think it's worth it at the moment, they still have A LOT to fix.

Anyway hopefully since we heard notes on a potential DLC, maybe they'll fix things then. Anyway, see ya guys later and this is my explanation about my cyberpunk stuff !!

If you got this far, thank you a lot and you'll see me posting!

#gothiespeaks #spoilers #i wanted to make a post explaining my views on this game... i really didn't want to let slide a lot of issues and just reblog stuff.#anyway please read lol #long post #gothie plays video games

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compte-jaques · 3 years

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Fuck humans i played your game far to long now let's play mine its called "bunnie running from the wolf" it's where we see how long you can try to escape me until I devour you cuz im done playing "tame the wolf" you don't deserve to walk all over me like you have i am far more superior you are just my food source ,darling

(Yes I'm aware im hinting at the mixture of lycan and vampyr in my dna

#vampire #vampirecore #vampyr #ftm vampire #male vampire

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orionali · 1 year

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Vampyr: this game certainly deserves it, but it won't have a sequel

We, beyond any shadow of a doubt, desire a sequel to Vampyr. I myself feel like the game's endings – yes, all four of them – are open-ended and many questions, to this day, remain unanswered. And even from a classical gameplay standpoint, I feel this game deserves continuation.

However, after doing some research I have come to a conclusion: the chances of us getting a sequel are slim. Like, exceedingly slim, judging from the language Don't Nod's been using in their financial documents.

More under the cut.

Yes, they want to grant us a total of eight games from 2023 to 2025. These are Projects 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, Project M1, and two external co-production publishing projects. We now know that Banishers (Action RPG co-production, slatted for late 2023) is Project 8, and Harmony (visual novel, June 2023) is, presumably, Project 7. Project M1 is a mobile game that's being developed in their Montréal office, and the two external games I do not view as a “genuine Don't Nod product.” Banishers is the only game in their line-up that's a co-production; all leftover projects will be self-published.

Why is this relevant? Vampyr is a co-production. 40% of the IP belongs to Don't Nod and 60% belongs to Focus1. Focus is the one calling the shots. And since 40% of the game belongs to Don't Nod, Focus cannot just waddle over to another developer and get them to pump out a sequel. And Don't Nod hasn't publicly cataloged any more co-productions, so I think it would be safe to assume Vampyr 2 isn't being worked on.

From what I can gather, taking into account every piece of information above, Vampyr 2 could still technically be a thing if Focus outright sells its share to Don't Nod. Then Don't Nod would own 100% of the game and would be able to list it as a self-published title on their next earnings call.

I think the most mystifying part of all this is the 'why?' If the game had bombed then I'd understand the lack of a follow-up. But it didn't. In fact, it sold over 2mil units – at a median price of €352 it's still over 70mil in gross revenue – drew in over 6mil players, and Don't Nod had proudly called it their “biggest financial success since LiS1.” In this day and age, common sense dictates they'd be more than interested in creating more of the thing that sells. Back in 2019-2020 when I got to interview one of the writers on Vampyr, I was essentially told that the game's finale had been reworked due to tight budgetary constraints and that they wanted to bundle the missing "chapters" of the game where you get to play as McCullum as DLC.

So, either Focus is not letting them for some ungodly reason3 or something's cooking behind the scenes. It depends on what you want to believe. If I am disproven one day, then I will be the happiest person on this earth.

1 I can no longer find the source for these numbers, but that doesn't change the fact Focus had slapped a “Vampyr and its logo are registered trademarks of Focus Entertainment” all over the only piece of merchandise we've got: the vinyl record. On top of that, in all their presentations Don't Nod has depicted themselves as the “minority” when talking about Vampyr's ownership.

2 At release the game was €50, but I'm considering all the sales the game had gone on since.

3 Focus had commissioned Asobo to make a sequel to the Plague Tale game, and the first Plague Tale game sold less than Vampyr. At least to my knowledge.

#vampyr #a meta post wow #but I spent this whole day pouring over legalese and I need to talk about it #because I feel things about this #I hate this lack of transparency so much ugh

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