What are dire beasts? I have seen you mention them in some of your posts and was wondering what they were.

Excellent Question!

Dire Beasts are essentially animals where, instead of a temporary transformation with a catalyst much like humans/werefolk, they have a gradual, permanent transformation that alters their bodies toward obtaining colossal sizes.

It is also a potential double-edged sword, as dire beasts can be divided to "naturalized" and "feral".

Naturalized dire beasts are ones that, after reaching a certain size, their metabolism stabilizes and becomes just one with the environment, like the Dire Elephant and Dire Sperm Whale depicted here.

Feral dire beasts never stop growing, and a continuous competition between the need to eat to maintain its size and the energy burned to maintain said size eventually creates a very vicious, very aggressive creature, causing erratic behavior eventually leads it to fights that it either just cannot win or starves to death.

Not counting the stardock bs with origins, do you feel that star control 3 or star control origins is the worse game?

Hmm...

Well, I think Origins is more fun to play than SC3... it’s hard to explain if you haven’t actually played SC3, but SC3 is just so boring. There’s practically nothing to do but fly around and set up boring little colonies, and sometimes do melee but I never really enjoyed it in SC3. You spend the vast majority of your time talking to people which is fine! But in terms of actual gameplay, Origins has more to do and is a bit more engaging on that front. I mean, at least in Origins you can collect minerals on planets. In SC3 you couldn’t even do that. In SC3 you are also heavily crippled by how much fuel you have (and it’s hard to get in SC3) so it’s very hard to explore, which thankfully was not a problem in Origins so it was much easier to go poking around in new places. There are some nice quality of life things in Origins too, like a quest log to remind you of what you were doing or being able to buy things at any alien planet you go to.

I think Origins is generally better to look at, although there are still a lot of ugly or stupid designs in it. SC3 has a very washed out color palette... things are often muted or gray, they don’t really feel like they have a lot of life to them. A lot of the puppets are... awkward looking, although some of them look kind of neat. But on the whole it feels kind of drab. Origins at least is more colorful, I can give it that much. Both of them suffer from limitations in expressing emotions with their aliens... the Origins aliens seemed locked into a generic idle animation regardless of what they were saying, and the puppets in SC3 only had a few different poses they could go in and out of. To be fair, SC2 had stationary pictures with a few bits here and there moving, but given the technical limitations at the time, it felt more understandable to me. The fancy 3d models in Origins feel weird when they don’t actually do anything to emote. I think the Tywom are the only race that even had a second animation? That feels like a massive waste of a complicated model. The puppets in SC3 at least had the excuse of being puppets.

I think the original aliens in SC3 are more interesting than the ones in Origins... most of the aliens in Origins either irritated or bored me, I can’t really think of any that made me smile at all. The only one I had any kind of fondness towards was the Pinthi, even though their incredibly slow voice-acting drove me nuts (see also: Trandals), and I didn’t even like them that much. They weren’t interesting, I just didn’t dislike them. In comparison, SC3 had its share of duds in terms of aliens (cough the owa cough), but there were some I thought were fun - the K’tang or the Daktaklakpak come to mind.

SC3 also had a thing where it actually did have aliens from SC2, and the characterization of the old races is a whole thing. Some of them I liked, some I did NOT like. But there isn’t much of an equivalent for that in Origins, except that Zoq-Fot-Pik easter egg which really ticked me off. There was one for the K’tang too, but only in name...

The plot in Origins sucks. SC3′s plot was a mess and very passive, but it’s way more interesting to me. SC3 talks a lot about how to define sentience, where it comes from, what it means, that kind of thing. It had an overarching mystery the entire plot tied into that you slowly unraveled step by step. All the races in it felt very connected to each other and were often all up in each other’s business. There was a lot of bickering among your own party, and a lot among the other party, which could be a bit tedious but at least it felt somewhat realistic - a lot of races just have fundamentally different ethos that would naturally lead them to get into conflicts with each other. I liked how slowly you sort of ate away at the Crux’s power base by taking away their allies one by one. I thought having them really get into trouble when you finally lure away their production base was a nice touch. You had to really work to convince a lot of them to join you.

The big mystery in SC3 is the entire point of the game, everything ties into it, while the Lexite “mystery” in Origins is just a macguffin to get you into space. And I guess you’re supposed to find it out in the DLC but if you put the answer to a supposedly important mystery in the DLC then that’s just bad writing. In a plot-heavy game, it kind of ticks me off that Origins presented this big mystery that affected nothing and didn’t go anywhere and wanted me to pay more money to resolve it. I’m not doing that. Eff that. I shouldn’t have to pay more money to finish the plot of the game I bought (well, I didn’t buy Origins, someone gave it to me as a gift, but you get the point).

The writing in SC3 could be dry and expositiony, but it felt like there was some thought given to the aliens and their history, and how they related to the Precursors, and their mindset and beliefs, and how they felt about others. Origins felt a lot more flippant and silly - most of the races barely seemed to care about or interact with each other at all. In SC3, you get to dismantle the Crux’s empire piece by piece through diplomacy and little quests, it’s a very satisfying progression as the dominos start falling. In Origins, there really wasn’t any of that. Two of the... god, I can’t even remember their name. Two of the... SCRYVE that’s it, the Scryve slave races fixed their deal OFF-SCREEN!! WHEN THE GAME WAS OVER!!! That is absolutely outrageous, particularly when the game harped on you dismantling the Scryve’s empire over and over. I never got the feeling I was doing that, and apparently I didn’t do that because THEY DID IT THEMSELVES WHEN THE GAME WAS OVER. It felt really sloppy and rushed.

I’m not saying the plot in SC3 was great, it had a lot of problems and boy the ending was anti-climactic and disappointing. It did try to tackle some interesting philosophical questions though (at least to me), and it felt more intricate than the plot in Origins. Everything did feel connected and it had a uniting theme throughout. Origins never felt cohesive at all. It felt like a bunch of random things sort of shoved into the same box. The Scryve empire felt so cursory, it didn’t even feel like it was there most of the time. That’s not something that happened in either SC2 OR SC3... the Ur-Quan were always a threat, and the Crux in SC3 was a constant obstacle to anything you wanted to do.

Come to think of it, Origins and SC3 both have some similar plot points - there’s a big mysterious galaxy ending threat you only really see near the end, you have to dismantle an evil empire by gradually winning over their allies - but SC3 did both of those things better than Origins did. I think the Ploxis in SC3 had a more interesting history and motivation for their evil empire than the Scryve did, too, as well as sneakier ways to keep that empire tied together. I also think SC3 had higher and more interesting stakes right from the beginning and a better general plot hook to get you invested in what’s going on.

The ships in both games weren’t very good, most of them were pretty ugly. I did like that Origins had multiple ships for each race though, like a scout or a freighter or a cruiser. The music in Origins was better, the music in SC3 SUCKS. It’s barely even music. After the great music in SC2 that was a massive disappointment. The melee in Origins is better I think. The voice acting in both games ranges from okay to bad, although in Origins I really felt like it actually dragged the writing down. Like, some lines I did think were funny didn’t land right at all due to the VA’s delivery, which instead made them come off as try-hard and annoying (I liked the Measured if only because they just sound so tired while they’re talking to you). I don’t really remember that happening in SC3 for me, but to be fair, SC3 wasn’t really trying to be silly or irreverant most of the time. sc3 is the straightlaced older sibling of the starcon family

I think what really matters (at least to me) is the story and characters, and for all its faults and stupid choices and plotholes (I can’t believe you just find the sun device on a random planet HOW DID IT GET THERE) and repeated conflicts from SC2 (the Ultron, the Sun Device, the Chmmr, the Ur-Quan), and even recycled dialogue at points... I think I like SC3 more than Origins. Origins does have some things going for it over SC3, but so much of Origins just low-grade irritated me. SC3 could be boring, but I didn’t hate anyone like I hated the Tywom. Like, I wouldn’t laugh gleefully about letting an entire race die purely out of spite in SC3 but I definitely did that in Origins. Some of the races in SC3 could be very annoying (the Exquivan, the Daktaklakpak) but not because they themselves were annoying, but mostly because they were doing annoying things (in most cases, blocking off planets I wanted to go to). It’s a small difference but it’s one that adds up for me.

I think Star Control Origins is the better game in terms of general gameplay and presentation. It has a lot of positives going for it in that department over Star Control 3, although it has its faults too (if you want to watch me react in real-time to said faults, check out my big video about it). In terms of story and characters and themes though, I like SC3 better, even if as a game it’s pretty bad.

(And of course, Star Control 2 is better than both of them)

As one final note - both SC3 and Origins have weird vore sequences, and I mention this not so much because of the vore itself but because of how weird that, of all things, is for them to share. The one in SC3 is a secret at least, the one in Origins is a plotpoint.

Yugioh is like if magic diden't care about complexity creep or power creep at all. And the only format is incredibly money hungry. Whenever a new set comes out or new gimmick they make sure to ban the good older that was pricey and overpowered so you have to buy the new stuff that is pricey and overpowered. The only good ways to play yugioh are on simulators like tabletop simulator or in the video games, specifcially the non-mobile ones since those charge for packs. The switch one is fun

idk if youre familiar with magic formats but is there like a pauper equivalent? like exclusively using common-rarity cards

the game apparently freezes if you don't beat a gym leaders gigantomax pokemon before it goes back to normal

remember in pokemon x/y when there was a gamebreaking bug where saving in lumiose city would render ur save file unloadable? and lumiose city is like. a main major location in the videogame that you’ll use often? cuz i remember that and how much outrage there was.

can... can gamefreak not do what the animal crossing dev team is doing and take an extension on developing the game for like another year so we don’t get something so raw it’ll give folks salmonella.

data mines starting, bulbasaur, squirtle, and alolan starters have icons along with a lot of old legends,

I’m going to be honest, we half expected them to have hidden models of all the pokemon like they did for Sun and Moon’s pokewalking animations

Since bidoof are so common and their evolution can actually build unlike most other pokemon, but more like people they are regarded as minor holy pokemon

thots on the new starters?

sobble’s the best, but i’m kind of indifferent on the others

“scorbunny” however is one of the laziest names i’ve ever heard though

“scorch” and “bunny” don’t even blend together, it’s like they went with the first thing that came to mind and didn’t bother trying to come up with anything else

Is soul eater a good anime? I watched the first few episodes a few years ago and it felt like one of those animes that are pretty fan servicey, which weirds me out

SOUL EATER IS AN EXTREMELY GOOD ANIME 

ok, listen, the first few episodes are KIND of dumb and throw a lil fan service at you because back then thats how they hooked in an audience, but once you actually dig into it, the fanservice mostly goes away and is replaced by like Actual Stuff Happening and its just REALLY good, i love the characters and the aesthetics of the show and please watch it everyone should watch it

stay away from the manga tho its extremely excessively horny, like i promise u no matter how bad the anime gets its been toned down so much compared to the manga, we dont acknowledge the manga 

but YEAH if you can stomach like getting past the first episode i promise the fanservice shit mostly goes away

the entirety of the anime is available for free on youtube courtesy of funimation, OR alternately the whole thing is also on Netflix! (i like using netflix personally bc they mess up some of the episode descriptors hilariously badly)

The teen titan thing is a fake

awww :((

//sigh ok i did a small google search and its fake buh

thanks for telling me man

Archen?

not my favorite │ average │ cute │ adorable │ best │ ultimate fave

hell fuckign yes

Complete set of dinosaur king tcg cards

this is more acceptable

Whose Ian J?

ian j used to be one of the storyboarders (iirc) for steven universe, and now is running his own show (ok ko)

The tyrannosaurus parents from the lost world with the title of Jr. builds a time machine

I’ve been looking at this all day and I legit can’t think of an extended text summary lol.

The best I can guess is that it would be hard crack where the T. rexes are somehow extraordinarily intelligent, and Jr. builds a time machine to take them back to the Cretaceous, only the family find they’re not really that fond of it and return to present day Sorna.

Unfortunately, I don’t tend to write hard crack xD

Aragonite

... I’m not sure what this is about.

some moves also got dexited hidden power and pursuit are gone apparently

pursuit: thank god

hidden power: well rip like 100 pokemon

Spec Idea for Ultra Sun and Moon: Guzma is the professor and Kukui is the leader of team skull, Or Guzma and Nanu trade professions

This idea is somehow both blessed and cursed. There is great power in this idea.