#but it really hasn’t!! the design of this game honestly feels almost ahead of its time | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

yeehawfolk · 4 years

Note

Hi! I think yr totally right about Felix's teeth probably not being great and how he and the rest of the crew should have more scars! Do u have any other lil appearance HCs for him/the whole gang? (:

OK! SO! I have a Lot of HCs about the crew, appearance-wise, anyway. Don't get me wrong, I love their canon designs, but I feel like they didn't utilize "Halcyon is fucked" enough with your companions? If that makes sense. I'm going to break this up character by character, so it'll be an easier read!

Also, I'm gonna put a TW on this for slight self harm on this?? It's not emotionally motivated at all, it's like when you'd compete to see who can get the gnarliest eraser burn in middle school, but nevertheless, I want to warn y'all ahead of time, it's on Ellie's part.

Parvati:

-Honestly, her eyes are gorgeous. They're brown, but an amber kind of brown, and very bright.

-I personally HC that Parvati chews her nails when she's nervous, so they're always nubs and usually pretty dirty, bc Mechanic and all.

-Her hands have faint scars from nicks and burns from working on machinery. The skin on her hands doesn't scar easily, but she still has a few gnarly scars from particularly bad burns or cuts that she wasn't able to take proper care of.

-Constantly has bruises of unknown origin on her arms and legs. She bruises very easy, and always has, which is kind of precarious when you're a mechanic.

-This might already be canon and I just haven't noticed bc I'm using the Switch version, but I HC Parv has some freckles sprinkled around her face. Not a lot by any means, but I HC she gets frequent sun when she's working on certain parts of the town, and freckles are a bi-product of that.

-She has a couple small scars on her face; one just below her eye on her cheek, and another on her chin. I like to think she fell on her chin, and the other was from her first project that blew up in her face, literally.

-Her skin is just a bit ashy because she hasn't had access to a lot of good lotions over the years.

-Despite taking a shower every morning, she accumulates grease smudges and dirt from her plants on herself very easily. She cleans up for her and Junlei's dates, but for casual visits both don't really bother. Sometimes they make a game of smudging each other with grease while they work and by the time they're finished their faces look like they were going for war paint.

-I like to think Parvati and Junlei eventually wear rings with each other (like, years down the line) and when Parvati gets deep in thought, she rests it against her lips. Junlei does something similar by turning her ring on her finger.

-Parv has ok teeth, not like great, but she takes pretty good care of them, even if sometimes she has to forgo it for a day or few while out with the Captain.

-When she's in Edgewater, she's always skinny, and if you squinted you probably could pick out a rib or so. But after she moves in with The Captain, she gains weight, and finally has the little pooch of fat that you're supposed to have around the middle. Ellie helps her keep up with nutritional needs (what you can get in Halcyon, anyway) and gets very proud when she makes her goals.

Felix:

-This boy has horrible teeth. His sweet tooth + being an orphan in the Back Bays didn't leave much time for proper teeth cleaning. He probably never really had enough bits to get toothpaste with, either.

-Oh, boy. He has scars galore. Some are from scuffles (he has some on his back from when he was a kid and used to get in trouble for stealing) but a lot are also from getting burned by pipes, or jagged metal. A fair few are from him doing dumbass things in his teenage years ("I wonder what would happen if I heat up these rounds of light ammo with a flamethrower??") because you can't tell me this boy didn't do dumb things like every teenage boy did but with more disasterous results bc SciFi.

-His nose has been broken quite a few times, so it's crooked in a couple spots.

-Can frequently be found with bloody knuckles just because he forgets that punching someone with a mask over their face really isn't the best idea. This eventually culminates into him making the "Millstone Drop-Kick!" his go-to move.

-This isn't exactly appearance related, but I HC Felix has a fucked back from his life of hauling heavy boxes. It doesn't help that he drop kicks literally everything that moves tho.

-Probably has chronic pain in his hands from his hands getting crushed by boxes at some point or another. Several of his fingers are crooked from being broken and improperly set. His bones probably aren't the best bc of poor nutrition growing up, either, so they're a little easier to break.

-Just. Me thinking about Felix in his 40s, or even early 30s: Honey, you have a big storm coming.

-This is also a little random, but I like to think that it takes a long time for Felix to grow any kind of facial hair (he has chronic babyface) so he's super proud of his scruff.

-Max: That's peach fuzz. If that.

-Felix: Leave me alone you big hairy bastard, just bc you have to shave like every other day to keep a clean face doesn't mean all men do!!

-(He's just a bit sensitive about his facial hair)

-(He one day dreams of growing a glorious beard like Sanjar's, but it would take him like 50 years)

-(Shut up Max one day he'll have an amazing handlebar mustache and you won't be laughing then)

-I have no idea if piercings or tattoos are a Thing in Halcyon (probs not, honestly, but I can dream) but if they are, he tried to pierce his ears by himself once, they got infected, and he got really sad when he had to let them close. The marks are still there but the holes have closed by now.

-ELLIE PIERCES HIS EAR AND HELPS HIM KEEP IT CLEAN

-Felix is strong, but he's skinny and gangly as all hell and it's hard as fuck to get him to gain any weight, mostly because he still has his habit of eating only what he needs and stashing the rest. It takes him a while with the crew to get over that, and when he does, he gains a healthy amount of weight around his middle. Ellie teases him a bit, but is 1,000x happier that he's no longer damn near a walking skeleton.

-Listen. Ellie and Felix are bros I don't make the rules. She denies it but she would kill for Felix.

-Usually has slight dark circles under his eyes, because he has nightmares sometimes and can't sleep.

-His eyes are really, really pretty. Like. Super fucking pretty. He has long lashes and they sparkle when he smiles. His eyes are hazel like Max's, but more on the brown side, with streaks of green radiating out from the pupil.

-Speaking of smiles. He has the goofiest and sweetest grins around. A little self-conscious about his teeth, but honestly that doesn't stop him from laughing and smiling with everyone. He has a couple broken teeth, but honestly it just makes his grin a lil lopsided and cute.

-He gets the Worst bed-head. It stands almost straight up in every direction, but it's really easy to tame. Mostly because he just runs his hands through it and calls it a day.

-He found Max's hair gel once and went Ham. He used the whole can sticking his hair up into a mohawk, and proceeded to parade around for Ellie and Parvati. Then bolt to his room and lock the door when Max shouted his name from the bathroom. Max's hair was out of whack for like. A week. He kept blowing it out of his face and Felix and Ellie would giggle like madmen when he did.

-*BANGS FISTS ON TABLE* FELIX IS BABY! FELIX IS BABY!!

Max:

-My MANS

-Listen, I am extremely gay for Max. This needs to be known before I continue, because I have a metric fuckton of Max HCs.

-So, first off, Max takes VERY good care of his appearance. Like. Insanely good. His hair is always perfectly held back by a moderate amount of gel, his nails perfectly trimmed and cleaned. He keeps a clean-shaven face.

-But don't let that fool you, Max can and will get down and dirty when need be, he just doesn't care to stay like that.

-Quite a few scars from his prison and Tossball years. But because of the clothes he wears you wouldn't be able to see them easily. Mostly on his back/sides, though he has a couple on his torso and legs.

-The Captain calls him Bigfoot because his grows hair really fast and his arms and chest have some pretty thick hair. Max is very confused, because he personally doesn't think his feet are that big.

-Not an appearance HC per se, but he smells like soap, aftershave, and books.

-When he doesn't gel his hair, it falls in his face constantly, and it annoys the fuck out of him.

-Fuckin ripped bro. Just. What the fuck. Why is a priest this fuckin shredded. Why make my gay little heart ache more than it already does, Obsidian??

-Despite his arm muscles being like. Huge, he still has a healthy layer of fat over his middle, mostly because being an OSI Priest, he got a little bit better nutrition VS. literally all of Halcyon.

-When his knee gets Bad (like hiking through Monarch with the Captain) he has a slight limp? Barely noticeable, but you can tell he's not putting weight on it. I HC its an old Tossball injury (that might be canon, I haven't played in forever).

-Its hard to tell in the different lights of the game whether his hair is Black or Silver, and I like to think he's greying, but not fully grey yet. He can have a little hair color, still. As a treat.

-Fuckin no lashes to speak of. None at all. Baldy eyes. Its the only part of him that doesn't have really thick hair and ngl he is very salty about it. Tho his actual eyes are very pretty; they're hazel with a lot of green. He has a darker ring on the outside and flecks of brown in them.

-Has very good teeth, whiter than most of Halcyon's because of the OSI providing for him.

-Broke his nose once during Tossball, though he was able to get it set alright. Slight crook in the bridge of his nose.

-He has a lot of those moles from his face scattered around. Particularly his shoulders and back.

-Also have you seen his fuckin canon thighs??? Bro. They could crush a watermelon. Once again, I must say, what the fuck, why is this priest so fuckin shredded.

-Actually takes his physical health very seriously, so I like to think he's in great shape for his age. Seeing him in some of the canon outfits though makes me more inclined to think that's canon.

-Sorry, I have thought about this A Lot, and the gay jumps out of me sometimes.

-A fair amount of scars on his arms. Not as many as Nyoka, but a little bit more than Parvati.

-Has calloused hands, but they've softened over his years as a priest.

Ellie:

-Now I feel like Ellie wouldn't have many scars that she didn't let scar up on purpose to give her an edge. They're essentially superficial; they look cool but didn't do any real damage.

-Also, her skin is very pale, so she doesn't scar easily anyway.

-Though she does have some, and they're more recent. A couple of gashes on her arms, and a bullet wound in her side. She's proud of them.

-The dark circles under her eyes are because she likes to stay up late at night. Sometimes she contemplates her life, but she doesn't like it, and usually doesn't bother too much.

-Her lashes are very thick and full, and they compliment her eyes very well. Her eyes aren't exactly ice blue, they're a bit darker, and have real pretty lighter streaks in them.

-Yes, her lips are naturally that color. Good for picking up women, bad for looking intimidating to marauders.

-Really soft skin, she's always had access to good lotion. After she leaves Byzantium, she purposely looks a bit more grimy than she did then, which is easy to do because of her skin tone.

-Has a few moles and freckles, but not many, mostly on her shoulders and back. She was inside a lot prior to her leaving Byzantium.

-Her hair doesn't really sit down when she sleeps, but it does lose some poofiness, so she has to meticulously push it up in the mornings.

-Not quite an appearance HC, but I feel like when she gets comfortable with ADA, she gives her compliments. Stuff like "Your screen is very bright today, ADA!" ADA does the same thing. "And your hair is looking very bright as always, Dr. Fenhill."

-Muscular, but lean, and puts on weight a little easier than others, so she wouldn't look like she could kick your ass without her pirate get-up, but she could 100%, no holds barred kick your ass.

-Very good teeth. Despite wanting to look like a gnarly pirate she takes dental care very seriously. Tho she thinks about getting punched in the mouth occasionally so she could like break off a piece of her tooth. Not the whole thing, just enough to make her look tough.

-Idc if piercings and tattoos aren't a Thing in Halcyon, Ellie has pierced ears. Three in each ear, and I like to think an eyebrow and maybe nose ring. She doesn't wear them when she's in Dangerous Situations because she firsthand had to fix ears that had their earrings ripped out during rich catfights that she does NOT want that to happen to her.

-She also has tattoos covering most of her back, and some of her upper arms. She got them "illegally" (meaning it's illegal to The Board, but the Groundbreaker doesn't really give a shit) on The Groundbreaker and she's proud as fuck of them.

-I have Feelings about the missed opportunities for illegal tattoo/piercing parlors. Like I know there's not a lot of self-expression to be had and no Art aside from fonts, but c'mon. Humans have drawn on their skin since the beginning all around the world and we WOULD find ways to do it again, even if it's needle-poke tattoos.

-Anyway, back to Ellie.

-You ever hear of a "lighter tattoo"? Basically, you heat up a lighter and then stamp the hot metal into your skin and it makes a mark in the shape of the lighter head. If you get it hot enough and hold it long enough it can scar. They have a similar thing in Halcyon with Plasma Cutters. Instead of Stab, you heat it up, turn it off, and press the blade to your skin and it pretty much scars within a couple seconds.

-Ellie 100% did a few of those when she was in Byzantium as like the "hahaha edgy" thing that teenagers do.

-Like I know technically kids aren't around but... bruh... you can't tell me that teenagers in a SciFi setting wouldn't do dumb ass shit like that.

-Ellie is honestly the baddest bitch and I love her, ok, she just reminds me so much of of those high school delinquent tropes in 90s movies

Nyoka:

-SO I HAVE SOME FEELINGS ABOUT NYOKA'S CANON DESIGN... IN THAT SHE'S ESSENTIALLY A MONSTER HUNTER BUT SHE HAS NO SCARS!

-Listen, ok, she would 100% have a lot of scars from her life on Monarch. I share some HCs with @nyokaacore in that she has three scars over one of her eyes, and a few others around her face, like on her lips.

-The bulk of her scars are on her arms and body, though, as she usually is able to get the Canid or Rapt off before they get to her face.

-I like to think the scars on her eye are from Freida, the first Rapt she ever killed that's taxidermied on her wall.

-But she has a lot of scars from Raptidon claws and Canid mouthplates, sprinkled with some Manti burns and burns from Rapt spit.

-She also has her fair share of bullet scars on her, and definitely has some patches of skin discoloration from incidents regarding the sulphur pools. Chemical burns are a bitch.

-She's tall, and not exactly curvy? But broad. Big shoulders, wide hips, sturdy legs. Looks like she could kill you, could actually kill you alignment.

-The sand and sulphur in the air plays Hell on her skin, so she's got some old acne scars and places that scarred up into moles on her face. Has an issue with dry skin.

-Her skin is also pretty oily, and she washes it when she can, but water is usually better spent being drunk than washed with. However, she does carry a spare bottle of non-drinkable water to wash Rapt acid off in emergencies, so sometimes she'll pull from that to wash her face with.

-Big hands, calloused, pretty scarred up from her time on Monarch.

-I also like to think that she can tell you stories about most of the scars she has, lmao.

-Her nose, like Felix's, has been broken quite a few times and is pretty crooked.

-Most often, you see Nyoka with a slight sunburn on her face. It's hard to see, but her cheeks are usually warm to the touch.

-Her teeth aren't the best, but she does take as much care of them as she can out on Monarch. Still pretty yellow with some cavities, but not as bad at Felix's.

-Honestly the dark circles around her eyes are usually because she doesn't sleep a lot. She has dreams about CHARON, and that's not her favorite thing to do.

-At a pretty healthy weight for Halcyon, and ofc, has muscles as big as your head.

-Surprisingly soft hands, though.

#the outer worlds #tow #the outer worlds hcs #headcanons #hcs #parvati holcomb #felix millstone #ellie fenhill #nyoka ramnarim wentworth iii #vicar max #maximillian desoto #appearance hcs #asks #anon #i need to stop now or i'll never stop

76 notes · View notes

bestworstcase · 4 years

Text

anyways race to the spire is my favorite episode of season three but i think in terms of cassandra’s villain arc and the cass/zhan tiri manipulation dynamic, once a handmaiden is the strongest.

fictional portrayals of “master manipulators” / the chessmaster archetype often get two things wrong: 1) they depict successful manipulators as meticulous planners, and 2) have them emotionally fall apart if their plans fall through, often by becoming enraged and violent. the second is not unrealistic per se, but it does shove the character out of the “chessmaster” category and into the “garden variety emotional abuser” one for me.

the first, however, i think speaks to a fundamental misunderstanding of the way skillful, chessmaster-level manipulation works. there is no plan, and there shouldn’t be a plan. people are much too complicated and unpredictable for any plan built around manipulation to reliably succeed; thus truly successful manipulators have a clearly defined goal, a solid understanding of human nature, and an exceptional ability to improvise. this is zhan tiri to a T, and once a handmaiden showcases this more than any other episode in season three.

let’s break it down.

it’s difficult to say whether zhan tiri intended for cass to find the mirror shard or not. it would have been good for her if cass never saw the missing piece of that memory, because then cass would have continued to trust her; on the other hand, zhan tiri spun the fallout of cass finding the mirror shard to her benefit so effortlessly that it’s conceivable she prepared for it ahead of time. in the end, i think i come down on the side of zhan tiri just didn’t care, because by now she knows cassandra so well that it honestly did not matter whether cass found the shard or not. +1 for zhan tiri.

so here is our starting position. cass realizes that zhan tiri lied to her and manipulated the situation in gothel’s cottage, and she’s furious. she storms up to her throne room to confront zhan tiri about it. what happens?

not only is zhan tiri not bothered, she seems almost pleased that cassandra has finally figured it out. instead of explaining herself as cassandra initially demands (“Do you want to explain to me how this got here?!”) or trying to make up an excuse, she calmly waits for cassandra to finish ranting. her only interjection is actually to goad cass into following the evidence to its natural conclusion:

CASS: Back at Gothel’s, I thought Rapunzel was hiding the one memory that proved my mother loved me.

ZHAN TIRI: And...?

CASS: And you manipulated that memory, didn’t you?! You took this piece out. You tricked me into abandoning Rapunzel!

zhan tiri also physically waits for cassandra to approach her, implicitly positioning herself as the one with all the power in this scene. note her relaxed posture here, also:

then, instead of answering the accusation directly, zhan tiri calmly flips it around to be about cass instead and again positioning herself as an authority, someone who knows cass, and what’s good for cass, better than cassandra herself: “Perhaps. Or perhaps I merely pushed you to become what you were always meant to be.”

this reaction lays the foundation for everything else zhan tiri does in this episode. she shifts the fulcrum of the conversation such that everything rests on cassandra’s identity rather than zhan tiri’s manipulation. she also reveals her true identity to cass in a manner that implies they are fundamentally alike by visually linking them together.

in race to the spire, both cassandra and rapunzel directly touch zhan tiri without getting any “glimpses” like this, so we can conclude that everything here is something zhan tiri consciously showed to cassandra. things to note:

1. the line between what is zhan tiri and what is cassandra in this vision is intentionally blurred. is the reaching hand at the beginning zhan tiri attempting to grasp the original ancient power, or is it cassandra claiming the moonstone and emerging from the sundrop’s shadow as the next piece of the sequence would seem to imply?

2. zhan tiri is depicted as appearing from within cassandra herself, visually implying that cassandra’s inner nature is similar to zhan tiri. this connection is further emphasized by the similar style in which they’re both drawn, silhouetted with glowing white eyes.

again, the purpose of this is to change the course of the conversation so that it centers around who cassandra is, rather than what zhan tiri has done, and zhan tiri’s argument here is that fundamentally, she and cassandra are The Same.

cassandra is shocked, and it is at this point that zhan tiri starts to lay on the emotion; switching from tolerant amusement to chiding cassandra:

ZHAN TIRI: Oh, quit pretending you’re horrified. We’re not so different, you and I. We were both cheated out of our destinies. In fact, we’re more like sisters than you and Rapunzel ever were! We even want the same thing, and we can get it, if you continue to let me help you.

in this little speech, zhan tiri: 1) dismisses cassandra’s fear, casting it as just another lie she’s telling herself that is stopping her from achieving her full potential, 2) leans hard into associating cassandra’s nature with her own, and 3) continues to position herself as not just cassandra’s ally but also her friend—a better friend than she had in rapunzel, even. on the face of it, this may seem a little silly. you may be wondering how zhan tiri could possibly have imagined this would be at all convincing to cassandra.

but the thing is... zhan tiri clearly doesn’t expect this to be at all convincing to cassandra. her goal here isn’t for cassandra to suddenly be all, “you’re right, ancient evil demon who’s been stringing me along for months, we ARE the same.” it’s to provoke cassandra into having an identity crisis.

and it works.

see, the thing is, as soon as cassandra found that mirror shard, it was game over for zhan tiri’s ability to lie to her effectively. the breach of trust was just too egregious. but rather than cling to her old strategies even though they’re no longer functional (as she might do if she were a ‘planning’ manipulator with the inflexibility that implies) or fly into a rage and attempt to force cass to do what she wants (as the possessed-cass theory anticipated), zhan tiri simply moves seamlessly into a different strategy.

she knows cassandra. she’s spent months digging into her brain, learning her weaknesses, familiarizing herself with what makes cass tick. she knows exactly how fragile cassandra’s self-justifications are, she knows how insecure cassandra is, knows how difficult it is for cass to be vulnerable and trust people. and she also knows, because she cultivated it, exactly how volatile and dangerous cassandra’s temper is.

so this:

CASS: ...No. No, I’m nothing like you. Just because I’m pursuing my destiny doesn’t make me a bad person!

ZHAN TIRI: [laughing] Doesn’t it?

is cassandra playing directly into zhan tiri’s hands. this is the Ideal Outcome, from zhan tiri’s perspective, of this confrontation, and that is why when cassandra turns around and sprints out of the tower to have a panic attack in the woods, zhan tiri just laughs and calls after her:

ZHAN TIRI: Run, Cassandra! But you can’t run from who you are!

simply watching the rest of the episode demonstrates precisely why zhan tiri provoked cassandra into having this identity crisis. not only did it divert cassandra’s focus away from zhan tiri’s actions (and motives), it also enabled zhan tiri to exploit her insecurity and volatility in order to get cassandra to snap, destroying corona, forcing an eventual confrontation with rapunzel, and getting zhan tiri one step closer to achieving her ultimate goals.

now let’s skip forward to the the scene in the tent, which i’m just going to quote in full here:

ZHAN TIRI: You didn’t really think your plan to make things right would work, did you?

CASS: What are you doing here?

ZHAN TIRI: I don’t understand. You could have just gone up to her and apologized, face-to-face.

CASS: I said, get away from me.

ZHAN TIRI: You’ve had more than a few opportunities, and even still you haven’t done it. Why is that? I think—

CASS: Because I’m scared she won’t forgive me!

ZHAN TIRI: You’re right to be scared. I’m guessing she hasn’t told you about Project Obsidian. A weapon that was designed to destroy you. Rapunzel just authorized it yesterday.

CASS: What?! No, I don’t believe you. She would never—

ZHAN TIRI: You can ask her yourself if you don’t believe me. You might want something to defend yourself against her; this potion may be your only protection against the princess when she inevitably turns on you.

the brilliance of this is that nothing zhan tiri says here is untrue. she is one hundred percent correct in her assessment of cassandra’s actions in corona: pretending to be someone else while doing vague nice things in no way makes up for what she’s done, and she has been purposefully avoiding the riskier but correct course of action ie to plainly apologize and accept whatever comes.

by playing evil therapist here, zhan tiri goads cassandra into articulating her exact fear that her actions are unforgivable. this is something that cassandra needed to express, instead of continuing to run away from her feelings. it’s a vital moment in her redemption arc, and like zhan tiri’s little speech in the tower it can seem silly or even outright counterproductive for her to push cassandra in this way. after all, she’s literally encouraging cass to go make up with rapunzel for real.

but what she’s also doing here is drawing cassandra’s subconscious fear into the open and putting that at the forefront of cass’s mind. she is forcing cassandra not just to articulate this fear but to intently feel it, which is the key to everything that comes next. this is why, after cassandra admits that she’s scared, zhan tiri moves right into reinforcing that fear—again, by bringing up objective facts. project obsidian does exist, it was created with the intention of destroying cassandra, and rapunzel did indeed authorize it yesterday. cassandra doesn’t trust zhan tiri anymore, but the beauty of zhan tiri telling the truth now is that cassandra’s doubt becomes a weakness rather than a strength.

because she no longer trusts zhan tiri, cassandra immediately goes out to “prove” zhan tiri “wrong” by doing the opposite of what she appears to want cass to do: from cass’s perspective, it looks like zhan tiri is making up lies to get cass to give up on reconciling with rapunzel and go back to following zhan tiri’s plan, so the most logical thing to do is to try harder to reconcile with rapunzel instead (despite the tiny grain of doubt that convinces her to take the potion anyway, just in case).

except project obsidian isn’t a lie, which means that cassandra is actually placing herself in an even more vulnerable position, by walking outside and approaching rapunzel so that they’re right next to each other when zhan tiri pulls the cloak away. and then, when the gun is fired, and cassandra finds herself encased in amber it creates this terrible moment for her of zhan tiri was right. and it’s that that makes cassandra snap. and that’s exactly what zhan tiri intended to happen, and that’s the outcome zhan tiri is working towards from the instant cassandra reveals that she found the mirror shard.

(i think in the end this manipulative strategy wasn’t 100% successful, because zhan tiri’s Ideal Outcome in plus est seems to have been that cassandra really would buy what zhan tiri was selling re: she and zhan tiri being The Same, and that didn’t happen. but again, zhan tiri knows cassandra well enough to see her betrayal coming, and swiftly and easily changes her tactics when it happens.)

so, more than any other episode in season three, i think once a handmaiden shows us not only that zhan tiri is manipulating cass, but how she does so, and just how skilled she is at manipulation in general. it also very neatly avoids the two biggest pitfalls of writing manipulation in stories and in general is a masterclass on how to write it well.

also here is a bonus picture of zhan tiri and her grapes

in conclusion i love gremlin baby and once a handmaiden isn’t about cassandra flip-flopping it’s about zhan tiri seamlessly switching from manipulation with lies to manipulation with facts and cassandra not being able to keep up with the change of tactics and thus falling victim to them again

#rta #zhan tiri #cassandra

118 notes · View notes

teamhawkeye · 3 years

Text

unfiltered and massively spoiler filled thoughts on RE8 below the cut [MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD]:

The Good

The first half of the game

The initial village segment and the castle portion and even “the house in the mist” sections were all pretty taut and well put together. i loved exploring the castle - was more than a little disappointed that you get locked out after Alcina’s boss fight, i didn’t explore it fully D: - and the unexpected terror of Donna’s section really pulled me out of the sense of comfort i had started to fall into, right as i was saying to myself “this hasn’t been scary at all”

The return of some series high notes

Revisiting things in previous Resident Evil games is not always a bad thing. I really enjoyed the return of weapon customization and treasures, those were aspects i enjoyed in RE4 and RE5. The return of the Merchant, in the form of the Duke, was welcome as well. The Duke is a G - he’s a good guy and i respected him most

Graphics, scenery, etc.

It’s a pretty game to look at, there’s no getting around that. I liked the set pieces, especially the Castle portion

Ammo crafting

Now this was something i greatly enjoyed. There are often times you get too much ammo for the gun you use least or you run out of ammo in harder difficulty levels. Being able to collect scrap material and make your own ammo was a very nice addition that i greatly appreciated

The Bad

(some of these are going to be personal opinions about the storytelling and narrative choices, so be prepared for that)

Pacing and direction

RE7 was a return to the series’ “roots”: so back to the footnotes of RE1 and RE2. If that was the case with 7, then RE8 did a speed run of RE3, Code Veronica, RE4, RE5, and RE6 all at once.

I know i said earlier revisiting hallmarks from previous games isn’t a bad thing, and it’s not - but while RE7 did it masterfully with sticking to mainly RE1 and RE2 and pulling in just a few old hallmarks, RE8 went absolutely buck wild in trying to cram in as many past enemy types and encounters as possible. A callback to one standout enemy is one thing, ala the Stalker type that is Mr. X, Nemesis, and Ustanak that Lady Dimitrescu also serves as...but then also the giant water monster from RE4, the Executioner of RE5, the “chainsaw” enemies (here, drills instead) of RE4, RE5, and RE6. hell, even the Lycans after a time started to feel very Las Plagas-esque in their ability to use weapons and track and coordinate. And you can’t tell me you didn’t see very similar designs/similarities between Miranda’s boss battle that you did with Alexia’s in Code Veronica...

The pacing started off solid with the initial few segments, but quickly seemed to lose its footing once it oscillated violently between wildly different styles of play and storytelling and didn’t regain its stride the rest of the game. One moment, it’s classic RE. The next, it’s P.T. + Outlast. The next, back to “a mash up of action and horror, leaning more on action” styles of RE4 + RE5. Then the finale straight up started to feel like an entirely different game before you reached that final boss fight - it felt like i was jerked in one direction one minute, and a completely different one the next

There is a lot of exposition and explaining that doesn’t happen until legit the last 45 or so minutes. Not new for the series to withhold information until the back half of the game, but there was legit almost no build up to the very sudden plot bombs that got dropped successively in the last throes of the story. Previous games rewarded you with fragments at a fairly even pace - i felt like all of RE8′s story gets dropped on you in a single monologue and a handful of notes just before the endgame

I’m not even gonna go that deep into how hard it was to keep up with all the different infection methods the mold managed to have - it was just A Lot and i’ve played a lot of Resident Evil in the past, so i know just how many different ways a single pathogen can have on humans and animals...and it still felt excessive

I honestly felt like the third segment with Moreau wasn’t even necessary. they really played up these “four lords” to not have them do a whole lot of anything. and i know there’s always been mini bosses before you actually reach the final Big Bad, but seriously, Moreau’s segment can be blitzed through in a span of 20 minutes or so first playthrough. the castle segment with Dimitrescu was solid, the house segment with Donna was nightmare fuel, lmfao, but still engaging and challenging. by the time you get to the third and sprint right through, you’re left wondering what the point of it even was. you can tell that was the least cared about narrative arc in the whole story

A giant point of note is that a huge chunk of RE8′s story could have been avoided or altered had Chris just actually fucking spoken to Ethan at the start about what the fuck was going on. And for him not to is completely unlike Chris past RE5 and RE6, that made no narrative sense whatsoever. Just another opportunity to pile on some more trauma and guilt onto Chris’ shoulders by making him “responsible” for Ethan being pushed to far and dying as a result

“Ethan actually ‘died’ when first meeting Jack Baker and was completely taken over by mold, it’s a big secret to everyone but Mia. also, he’s gone too far, there’s no saving him, he had to die”

You’re going to tell me that Ethan still being infected or impacted by the mold from RE7 is some big secret??? did the BSAA not run tests on him and Mia to make sure they were back to normal levels??? how do they not know?!? the government was able to figure out that Sherry’s exposure to the G Virus altered her permanently and study her healing capabilities, how the fuck was that not the same with Ethan???

Also, how is it that the mold’s impact on him is so much higher? he was at the Baker estate for like, 2 days max and while, yes, he did sustain some serious damage, he never fell prey to Eveline’s control and showed absolutely no signs of infection outside of being able to heal/use his hand after it was chopped off. and depending on how you played RE7, the only major injury he sustains aside from probable bruising or broken bones is that hand being cut off as mentioned before

You’re also going to tell me of the number of Resident Evil characters who have been infected with viruses and parasites and what have you and have been cured or had the negative effects negated, Ethan was the only one “too far gone” to be saved??? Jill got infected with T Virus, Claire has been infected by two separate viruses, Leon has survived a parasite infection, both Zoe and Mia were exposed to mold for years and seem to be okay...why is it that Ethan was the only one who couldn’t be saved? because he “died”? how in the world did he get infected so fast - he’d been there an hour, max! - that he was able to be revived in the first place and it wasn’t even noticeable that he had changed at all???

“the BSAA can’t be trusted anymore, they’re involved in shady shit, like deploying bioweapons into battle”

we already went through this a bit back in Revelations 1 with the blackmailed director and double agents. but to full on go “well, the entire organization is now dirty” after it was legit founded by Chris, Jill, and Barry to combat bioterrorism really sits wrong with me. all i can think is that they are running out of villains at this point and now are poising the BSAA to be a Big Bad in the future. which, again, doesn’t sit right with me

Retconning

Tying Ozwell E. Spencer back to Miranda wasn’t such a huge dealbreaker for me, but it is a bit obnoxious to now have to go back and amend “he came up with the idea for Umbrella and its pursuits with Marcus and Ashford, its other founding members” to “well, he didn’t actually come up with the idea for Umbrella and its research with Marcus and Ashford, he already had the idea from his time spent with Miranda uwu”

More so, the retconning around Eveline is a bit of a pain in the ass. So she only came about as a result of Miranda crossing paths with the Connections and giving them some of her mold to work with? And Eveline was only a failed experiment to Miranda in her attempt to be able to transfer her daughter’s essence/subconscious/whatever into a living child? And there are pictures of ‘10 year old” Eveline in Miranda’s possession - how come Evie didn’t have any memory of her at all (speaking of Evie, why the fuck did she appear in 8 briefly as a hallucination [?] to explain to Ethan his condition???)

How are you going to try and tell me that some village from prior to the 19th century was using the “Umbrella” symbol and Spencer just snatched it for himself? that was just stupid, honestly - even more stupid how Ethan didn’t recognize the symbol, despite flying off in a Blue UMBRELLA helicopter at the end of RE7

Mocap and cutscenes

Was it just me or did parts of this game look severely unpolished compared to RE7??? some parts looked good - like the Dimitresus all seemed to be rendered very well. It became very noticeable to me in the back half of the game, mainly with Chris and Mia, but a little with Heisenberg too, where their mouths didn’t match up with the dialogue a lot and they looked a lot less put together than previous scenes and characters. Mia in particular, i was struck by how much better her mocap seemed in RE7 compared to RE8. Maybe because there was a bigger ensemble cast in 8 that they spread themselves a little too thin in that regard?

#i don't know how i feel throwing this in the main tags so i'm only putting my warning on the top of the post and not in the tags

2 notes · View notes

ilikelookingatthings · 4 years

Text

Miraculous ladybug and the love square part 1

there are alot of thoughts about the love square.

I’ve got some mixed feelings about Marinette and everyone in the show pushing for it. especially in the movie.

On one hand I love mari to bits. she’s stubborn, has a temper and can be a little petty and can have ulterior motives that aren’t always the most pure(usually involving adrien). can sometimes be a bit insensitive and not completely think through how others might feel in response to her actions, but thats usually when she is understandable distracted thinking about justice or her own emotions or over whelmed or distracted by something. and when she does realize maybe somethings gone wrong she always tries to fix it.

her feelings for adrien comes from the right place. being impressed that he was wiling to be vulnerable to someone who shouted and accused him and refused to listen to him even though he was actually trying to help. that he was willing to talk to mari and be vulnerable and admit he was new to everything. and then offer a umbrella to mari, who had judged him because of his friend, and risked getting wet himself. and he understood that her judging him due to chloe was justified with her history with chloe.

she wants him to be happy. she is very emotionally invested and observant and cares about his feelings. even helping him with another girl despite her own crush. she went up against his dad and convinced Gabe to let Adrien come. and even if most of her gifts she doesn't actually give to him she does make him gifts and macaroons. and she’s gotten better at not acting on her jealous and trying to separate Adrien from other girls now.

and mari always helps her friends and gos above and beyond. and mari is super talented in gaming, designing, dancing, baking, fencing reflexes, being a leader ect.

but on the other side while she means well and feels deeply...she doesn't exactly handle her crush on Adrien in a healthy way. Like alot of teenagers she laments the friendzone not realizing that friendship is the base of heathy relationships. she struggles to have normal conversations with adrien or staying near him for long periods of time enjoying his company without something else to focus on. We know she means well but some of the stuff she does can be a bit creepy.

like when she broke into his room to deliver a gift and sniffed his pillow. or wanting to keep a hair. the schedule that she memorized is a bit weird but useful since he does have a full time table they need to know when they can hang out. and she is class rep. its not completely unreasonable that she could have it. but her forging a no parking sign with the plan to separate adrien from his driver. knowing adrien keeps his phone in the car so he couldn’t call to check on the gorilla and wanting to concidentally go on a date without asking him out. or that she has followed him on multiple occasion. that time she ditche the girls to try to sneak into the boys only party(which was rude of them to hold without the girls when they were suppoused to work...but the girls have their girls only meetings as well). breakig into his locker to steal his phone to delete the message instead of just asking adrien to not listen to the message and to delete it. she as ladybug has seperated adrien from girls before. like kagami and chloe and even lila(though lila we found out was a double red flag so kudos trying to drive lila away).

she almost doomed paris and herself by trying to give up her miraculous for a illusion of adrien instead of looking for a different way to save him. she attacked a innocentsanta that adrien told her wasn’t a akuma which caused a akuma when she got ahead of herself. and she lets adrien influence her too much. Sometimes that can be good. Mari can be a quick to judge bean sometimes and adrien and chat has helped her realize there can be other routes and that people even like chloe aren’t pure evil.

but he can have too much influence on her. he thinks Mari is honest with him and would tell him if she disagreed with him because she doesn’t hesitate in any other aspect whensaying her opinion. but WE know she wants him to like her. so she fully commited to being class president after adrien said he though she’d make a good one to put the finish touchon alya encouraging class pres marinette. Mari joined the gaming tournament not because she wanted to join the tournament but because she wanted to trian with adrien in the same room to the point mari over looked alya pointing out that max was actually invested in the tournament and had rained for months so of course he’s be hurt and would be more invested. Mari changed her stance on chloe even when she probably coul have gotten adrien to understand her and the clases perspective since chloe sucked around them. but instead mari leaned into adrien was right.

She joined the fencing because of adrien as well. went to chlloe’s I’m trying to be nice party even though she had been determinded not to go because adrien would be there. and even though adrien toldmari to talk to him if lila was still a issue, mari instead focused on adrien telling mari they should try to give lila a chance and never told him about lila threatened her or about lila stealings his book. stuff to show lila wasnt just someone looking for attention.

Mari focused on following adrien’s advice instead of telling him more of her view about lila. or consdering adrin’s asvice was more about mari’s jump on every lie tactic was making lila stronger.

and mari didn’t like kagami for a while due to adrien and kagami hanging out together often. and mari even used adrien being stolen by kagami to japan as a excuse to tam up with chloe to mess with kagami.

and mari has even put down others like the class to raise adrien up like when she said out of the class adrien is the least likly to steal a braclet...accidentally implying everyone else was more likly than adrien. how how sometimes she puts chat down a little to bring adrin up at times in the show.

and mari even helped adrien with kagami even though she did not want to because adrien asked. adrien would hate to make her do something she is uncomfortable with but mari went along with it. and while it was cute with the scarf situation to want adrien to be happy even if you don’t take credit. mari puts herself down when she compares herself to adrien.

Adrien praises her all the time and boosts her up and helps when he can and has expressed how important mari is to him(even if its not romantically like she wants). but mari who is normally pretty confident in herself in the show in her designs and plans and talents that she can standup to people tends to put herself down when it comes to adrien. and tends to put her feelings beneath what she things adrien wants even though we know adrien would want her to be happy to and wouldn’t want to unknowingly hurt her. like in the wax museum situation.

like mari pushed kagami and adrien together with the icecream even though it was clearly not nessacary. Kagami told her she didn’t believe in the romance fate of the icecream for one and both Adrien and kagami just waned to hang out all three of them for a little longer. its why they wanted mari to choose the icecream flavors as thanks. MARI decided to make it a romance moment instead of a friendship moment. and decided to put adrien and kagami together out of her own insecurity that if mari compete’d honestly with kagami and was honest about her feelings...that mari would be rejected.

even though Kagami told Mari that while Kagami didn’t want to give up on Adrien just because Mari liked him, that Kagami also didn’t expect Mari to give up because Kagami liked him. Kagami saw both of their feelings valuable and valid and that its better to be honest and try with no regrets ad still be friends. Kagami eve encouraged Mari to not hesitate and we know Adrien does have a strong soft spot for Mari.

and mari has used adrie to worry about designs that won a contest and that she had been confident in. or that Adrien might hate her over something silly.

Mari does alot for adrien like helped him with parazzi in her pajamas and helped him with a date as well as convincing his dad to let hi come to newyork. and we know about the scarf, the hat on christmas, all those birthday gifts she hasn’t given him and fresh macaroons she hasn’t given him. And we know adrien does have a sweet spot for her so I want them to just be together already. but Mari doesn’t really acknowledge Adrien isn’t perfect. she’s gotten to know him better and they are good friends now. but we also know Adrien considered them good friends even in season one when she could barely talk to him. But she doesn’t really get to see Adrien negative sides. like him being angry, or lashing out or how he can be petty at times or his reckless sides. She even tried to get him to be Aspik and more importantly play guitar when it was clear adrien was a piano guy and luka was the better choice. adrien had to tell her that.

I want mari to be happy but girl can’t really relax around adrien all that much which can be frustrating at times. Mari deserves good things.

#miraculous ladybug #chat noir #marinette #ladybug #adrien #luka #kagami #lovesquare

6 notes · View notes

xb-squaredx · 3 years

Text

B-Squared’s Top 10 Games of 2020

I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that having something to distract me from the genuine horrors unleashed during 2020 was vital to staying alive, and for me that means a lot of video games! I played…a lot of games last year, but I spent a lot of time playing older games, so I didn’t get a chance to check out a lot of high-profile games that launched this year. Still, I do want to shine a light on the games that managed to resonate with me even a little bit, that somehow managed to launch this year. So let’s get to it!

#10 – No Straight Roads

Rarely have I been struck by a single trailer for a game like I was for No Straight Roads. Produced by industry veterans under a new studio, this is a rare game that’s not quite an indie game from a studio full of newbies, but it’s also not produced with the same kind of budget and resources of a Triple-A project. What do we call this? A Double-A game? Single-A? Regardless, I have to give the team at Metronomik some props for delivering a super stylish game in the midst of a very challenging year. No Straight Roads is a rhythm-based action game where two up-and-coming musicians fight to bring back Rock and Roll to the people of Vinyl City. I absolutely adore this game’s presentation, with each major boss being visually unique and having their own feel that compliments the music they bring to battle. There’s some real energy in these animations with character designs that ooze personality, and being a game about music the soundtrack is great! All that being said though, I have to admit I wasn’t a huge fan of the gameplay when all was said and done. It leans way more on the rhythm side of the equation than I was hoping for, and the action felt very shallow. The fixed camera made some phases of some fights a real problem, and the Switch verison, which I played, is plagued with a lot of issues that really brought the game down for me. If the game interests you at all, give it a shot on PC or PS4; I hear those versions are a lot better. Still, I liked the potential I saw in this game and in this studio, so I can only hope they did well enough to continue on. This definitely feels like the kind of passion project that deserves more recognition.

#9 – Streets of Rage 4

OK, so full disclosure: I didn’t grow up with 2D beat-em-ups. I missed out on all of the greats of the genre back in the day. No Final Fight, no River City Ransom, no Double Dragon, and definitely no Streets of Rage. In more recent years I have tried to dip my toe in the genre, as I did in 2019 with River City Girls. However, I came away from that game a bit disappointed by the overall gameplay and wondered if 2D beat-em-ups were for me. Seeing so much praise heaped onto Streets of Rage 4 had me curious, so I knew I had to try it, if only to broaden my experience in the genre. In many ways, this game is the perfect sequel to a franchise that hasn’t seen any signs of new life in years. It retains what made the series beloved with satisfying combat and challenge, but with a modern touch. The overall art style of the game and music work out pretty well, and I found the act of comboing enemies to be really satisfying. It really doesn’t overstay its welcome either, which is very appreciated in an age of endless timesinks. I also struggled a fair bit with the game, even on Normal, and well after some patches that seemed designed for more casual fans like me. Had this game not had online co-op as an option, I don’t know if I could have beaten the final levels. So my time with this game was pretty rough but despite that I can still see this was a game made with care, and if this game DOES do something for you, there’s plenty of reasons to keep playing on higher difficulties, unlocking more characters and even playing online with friends. Let me put it this way; I’m not all that sure I like the genre and I still liked this game, so I think that counts for something!

#8 – The Wonderful 101: Remastered

…this one is kind of cheating, I’ll admit! I had a lot of trouble thinking up ten games that really stood out to me this year, honestly. That said, I’ll definitely use loopholes to plug one of my favorite games from years ago. Seven years ago, PlatinumGames launched The Wonderful 101 on the ill-fated Wii U, where it bombed harder than just about anything on the system. For those that gave the game a shot, however, they were quick to discover a deep, complex, and charming action game that plays like nothing else out there. Controlling a team of 100 heroes at once, players form weapons out of the various Wonderful One’s bodies, smacking around giant robots and aliens far larger than them with the power of teamwork! How could you not love that, right?! Now, years later, PlatinumGames is aiming to become more independent and their first act was launching a Kickstarter as a way to get this game on newer platforms. While we may never know why Nintendo gave Platinum their blessing to release this game on non-Nintendo platforms (being as this is still, as far as I know, a Nintendo-owned IP), I’m just glad more people can have access to one of the most unique action games I’ve ever touched.

To sell it another way, this game combines the overall aesthetic of Viewtiful Joe with the shape-drawing action of Okami but with a bit of Bayonetta flair on the side. Basically, this is the culmination of everything director Hideki Kamiya has ever worked on. The Remastered version fixes some issues present from the game’s original release, and while I do think they could have gone a bit further with some changes, it is likely the best way to play the game for many. All those sections that made heavy use of the Wii U GamePad are a tad awkward though, but that held true even back on the Wii U anyway…d-don’t worry so much about that, though! I’d still recommend this game to anyone looking for the type of over-the-top action that only Platinum (and occasionally Capcom) can provide! So please consider joining the Wonderful Ones and Unite Up!

#7 – Paper Mario: The Origami King

Discourse around the Paper Mario series is…more than a little rough, honestly! Many fans have been quite vocal about not liking the direction the series has been heading with the last few games, but I went into The Origami King with an open mind and ended up really enjoying the game for the most part! What the game lacked in a developed storyline, it made up for with some really strong character moments and memorable setpieces. Bobby and Olivia are among my favorite partners in ANY of the Mario RPGs, easily, and the entirety of the Great Sea section of the game was a really fun adventure. I love the highly-detailed paper-crafted enemies and locales, and the soundtrack really didn’t have to go as hard as it did. While the battles against common enemies didn’t quite click with me, the boss battles throughout the game constantly surprised me with interesting twists on the ring-based combat and are a real highlight for me. I know this game is pretty divisive amongst Paper Mario fans, but I think the franchise has a pretty bright future ahead of it!

#6 – DOOM Eternal

Fair warning here, but I haven’t quite managed to beat DOOM Eternal at the time of writing this, but what I’ve played so far tells me it definitely belongs here. I think Eternal is hands-down the most intense game I’ve played in a long time. It gets my blood pumping as I dash about, shooting and slicing through demons that are extremely eager to rip and tear me to pieces. I don’t play many shooters in general, so I knew I was going to be in for a rough time, but DOOM Eternal brings it to another level right away. In some respects, I don’t quite agree with various aspects of the core game design that makes the game harder than I think it needs to be at times. The scarcity of ammo, and thus the constant need to use the Chainsaw weapon in order to gain more ammo gets tiring, though that somewhat levels off as more weapons are acquired and players learn of more efficient ways to take out the hordes of Hell. The game’s fantastic soundtrack by Mick Gordon definitely elevates the experience, so it is a huge bummer knowing that he and ID Software had a falling out and he won’t be coming back. I really dig the game’s expansive levels and more focus being put on exploring every nook and cranny for secrets, and certain old-school touches like finding extra lives or cheat codes definitely makes the game feel like it was ripped out of a bygone era and given a modern paintjob at times. Doom is eternal, and with it, so is pulse-pounding shooting action!

#5 – Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition

Compared to the other re-release of an old game on this list, I think this particular title had a lot more time and care put into it…and it also happens to enhance one of my favorite games on Wii as a bonus! Xenoblade Chronicles on Wii was a game that almost passed me by but even years later, I still adored the characters and world it introduced, and I’ve been happy to see what started as game that was almost stuck in Japan eventually grow into a full franchise. I consider the first game to the best in the series, though it was held back by a few issues later games would iron out. Chief among the problems was the visuals, particularly the character models and…wow does ten years make a world of difference. The Definitive Edition does more than just clean up everyone’s faces, it also cleaned up the game’s cluttered UI, made it easier to track quests and materials for said quests, and added some fun optional challenge missions for veterans to tackle. The bow that adorns the top of this package, however, is the epilogue story Future Connected that serves to tie up some loose ends and gives a particular character some great closure. If you love massive worlds to explore, a compelling, at times over-the-top story, and a deep, rewarding combat system, I can’t recommend THIS version of THIS game enough. If you’re going to give the Xenoblade series a try, there’s no better place to start.

#4 – Ghost of Tsushima

When Ghost of Tsushima was first unveiled years ago, I didn’t exactly have a high opinion of it. It seemed like a game that put more emphasis on visuals over gameplay, and I was almost certain it would launch as a PS5 exclusive so why bother getting excited when I probably wasn’t going to be an early adopter of the system? To my great surprise, not only was this game confirmed for PS4, it wound up being one of the prettiest games on the platform and well-optimized to boot, even on my old slim PS4. Playing as lone samurai Jin Sakai, players try to repel the Mongel invasion of Japan, but are forced to adopt less-than-honorable tactics to take on this ruthless enemy. Usually when I play stealth games, I find myself frustrated. I feel weak, or limited, and often the games feel overly harsh. If you get caught once, game over and there’s little salvaging being seen. In Ghost of Tsushima however, there’s a great deal more care put into stealth, and at times I’d argue it’s almost too fun to pass up over the sword play. Very few missions in the game force you to go completely unseen, so stealth just because yet another tool rather than a limitation imposed on you.

Swordplay felt a bit less engaging against common enemies (typically just being Simon Says, switching to the appropriate stance for a given enemy), but the one-on-one duels throughout the game were fantastic and I almost wish the game was all about them instead. I can’t overstate how gorgeous this game is either, with a world that feels like it is breathing, as the wind whips through the tall grass, the moon penetrates fog overtaking a creepy forest, or seeing the smoke from an enemy camp wafting over the distance. Hands-down one of the best-looking games on the PS4, and I’m particularly happy that developer Sucker Punch managed to land a hit with a new IP, as those generally feel more risky as times go on. While I’d argue that Ghost of Tsushima doesn’t really redefine how open-world games should be designed, it is an extremely polished experience and manages to do it well, with plenty of opportunities to grow in a potential sequel.

#3 – Animal Crossing: New Horizons

If there’s any one game that people absolutely needed in 2020, it was Animal Crossing: New Horizons. While there are other games of this type, like Stardew Valley or the Harvest Moon (and later, Story of Seasons games), Animal Crossing is one of the few games that gets mainstream attention while simultaneously running counter to most mainstream gaming trends. No conflict, no combat, no overarching story really…just a game that lets you live your live, day by day on your own terms. I tried getting into the series before with New Leaf but just didn’t stick with it, but New Horizons launched at the perfect time in an imperfect world. Being able to escape the uncertainty and dread that enveloped the world as the pandemic spread for even a little while was a necessity, and thankfully New Horizons had plenty to do to keep idle hands busy. Changes like item crafting and eventually limited terraforming of your island paradise give players so much more agency in decorating their homes and building up something they can be proud of.

We all start as nothing but a small tent on a mostly-empty island, but seeing what people were able to do even in the first few weeks or so was nothing short of amazing. We need more unflinchingly wholesome games in the world, and I’m thankful for Animal Crossing for being there when we needed it, and considering how well it sold and how much post-launch content is expected to be added with time, it remains a sanctuary to return to even now. Just…please let us craft in bulk? Pretty please, Nintendo?

#2 – Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Last year, Nintendo released Astral Chain, a game that no one knew about before release, which was revealed and released with very little gaps between them. It was a game I didn’t know I wanted until it was presented to me, and that trend continues this year with Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. The first Hyrule Warriors was a fun, surprising spin-off of the main Legend of Zelda series, and Breath of the Wild was a fantastic game that shook up the core of the Zelda franchise, so in hindsight it really does seem like a no-brainer to combine the two into one package. Age of Calamity, for my tastes at least, cuts down on the repetition and overall stressful atmosphere of the first Hyrule Warriors and instead focused on fleshing out it’s core combat and crafting more creative main storyline missions. It helps that the game reimagines iconic locales from Breath of the Wild from before their destruction, and really makes you feel like you’re fighting through actual places rather than just a collection of random keeps that most Warriors games use.

Bringing in aspects like the Sheikiah Slate and Elemental Rods allows players to control the flow of combat more directly on top of letting them be more creative. Freeze enemies standing over water with the Cryonis rune or burn some grass with the Fire Rod to distract certain enemies, among many other things. Each playable character is also very distinct, even in cases where I could have forgiven the developers for reusing some attacks or traits. For one, Link has different movesets for his Sword and Shield, Spear, and Two-Handed weapons, but none of his attack overlap with the other Champions who use similar weapons. Some people might be put off with certain aspects of this game’s story and ultimately not everyone likes the overall structure of the Warriors spinoffs anyway, but for my part, Age of Calamity was one of the best surprises of the year, unveiled right at the end of the year in the nick of time. Of course, there was one game this year that surprised me more than any other.

#1 – Hades

I’ve known of Supergiant Games for quite a while and very recently began looking through their catalogue of games. They’re known for well-crafted narratives and satisfying combat, and yet when I first saw Hades when it was released in Early Access I was tepid on it. It didn’t look bad or anything, but it didn’t exactly blow me away and even now, I think a random screenshot or quick clip of the game might not do the game justice in explaining the appeal. I already wrote about the game at-length (as my only real non-retrospective blog post of the year, oops!), which you can read here if you want more in-depth praise, but to summarize…Hades is the total package for me.

Playing as Prince Zagreus your end-goal is to escape the puts of Hell, and more specifically get away from your overbearing father, Hades. It’s a rogue-lite, meaning you’re expected to finish the game in one shot and if you die you lose any upgrades you picked up along the way and have to start from scratch…to a point. Hades does allow you to keep a fair amount of items you pick up which can towards small, permanent upgrades or even gifts for various NPCs that can deepen your bond with them. Unlike most other games of this type too, the story constantly moves forward, even after death. The game is about dying over and over and then dusting yourself off to try again, all the while other characters remark on your progress or lack thereof. I grew to really enjoy this cast of characters, a fun spin on the Greek pantheon, paired with excellent voice acting for the entire cast. From the imposing, if somewhat sultry Megaera, to the nervous wreck that is the maid, Dusa, to the pompous ass Theseus, I looked forward to each new run just to learn more about this world and those within it. For once, death wasn’t really a punishment, but a reward, and just part of the process.

Of course, incredibly satisfying combat is ALSO part of the process and it just gets…addicting; muttering “one more run” over and over as you try out different weapons and boons, discovering what works well together and what doesn’t. While at first beating the game felt like it would never happen, I grew from my failures, adapted and eventually overcame. Multiple times. If you want the “full” Hades experience, this game can really demand a lot of time out of you but at the same time it stays fresh, so I can’t really complain. With new gameplay mechanics unlocking as time goes on, to the Pacts of Punishment players can trigger if they want a bit more challenge (or a lot more), Hades is that rare game that just keeps giving and giving. Before I knew it, I had dumped well over 50 hours into it, and I STILL need to get back to the game if I want that epilogue.

Compared to every other game that came out this year, Hades is the one game that grabbed me from moment one and would not let go until I hit credits. When I wasn’t playing this game, I was counting down the minutes until I could play it again, and let me tell you that is rare for me these days. At this point, Hades is clearly the breakthrough hit for Supergiant and I couldn’t be happier. The fact that this game got to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with industry titans at The Game Awards is kind of surreal, but I can’t think of many who deserve that recognition more. It helps that Supergiant is a studio that actually takes care of its employees, which is way rarer than it should be. I don’t mean to hype this game up like it’s the cure for COVID or anything, but I mean it with all my heart that this was the best game I played this year, and I’d recommend it in a heartbeat. I couldn’t stop talking about it for months after playing it, just ask my friends! So yeah, it’s pretty OK I guess.

CONCLUSION

I’m sure my Top 10 List looks a lot different from most out there, but that’s what’s great about games! So much variety and so much quality no matter where you look! Every year, without fail, there’s always at least a small handful of games that come out that I don’t get to, and try as I might I’ll never trim that backlog down. I want to keep playing games for as long as I can, trying out so many different experiences and seeing what this wonderful pastime can offer. For a good chunk of 2020 I was more than a little down, not just because of…you know, but a lot of games that were coming out weren’t appealing to me. That said, seeing as this was the year of shadow drops and announcing things at the last minute, I ended up loving a bunch of games I hadn’t already spend months hyping myself up for, which definitely helped to lift me up this year. Already, 2021 has a lot of titles I’m anticipating though, so it’s sure to be an exciting year.

Happy Gaming.

-B

#top ten list #gaming #animal crossing #paper mario #xenoblade chronicles #ghost of tsushima #doom eternal #no straight roads #hades #streets of rage 4 #thewonderful101 #age of calamity

2 notes · View notes

inikavulpixelreviews · 5 years

Text

New Game Special: Let’s Talk About Pokemon - Sword and Shield

Just as a warning, this thinkpiece WILL contain minor to major spoilers of the newest games.

So. Sword and Shield, huh?

While the Pokemon reviews themselves might not be starting for a while just yet, I think these games and the little discourse that comes with them warrants a little “introductory” thinkpiece to drop my thoughts and hot takes out there. I've played all the way through Sword, beaten its postgame epilogue, and am currently working on a Living Galardex.

Honestly? As flawed as it is, this is the most fun I've had with Pokemon since Black and White. No way I would call it better than BW, or even my second-favorite game HGSS. But it was far more engaging than the Gen 6 games and its ideas felt like a far better way to “revitalize what is familiar” than Sun and Moon did. The Wild Area is a wonderful addition I want to see expanded on tremendously in future games. And I mean like. Almost every route should be a miniature Wild Area in and of itself.

So yeah, I've had a lot of fun with it. It's not entirely scratched the itch that I've been feeling about the Pokemon series taking a serious overhaul to its mechanics (more on that in a bit). And like I said, its flaws are very apparent. Graphically it's still not caught up to modern games, and it's still very much a Pokemon game anchored down by conventions that have been with the series since the very start. And online interactions leave a lot to be desired. The story is back to a much more simple structure, which is a shame since there's a handful of really good characters present between Bede, Hop, and even the game’s main villains that all had a lot of potential. I would love to see them in a story that was handled with the same finesse as Black and White.

But in the end? I did enjoy it quite a bit. A solid 7/10 from me. But with the little micro-review done and over with, we're gonna move onto the two bigger points I'd like to drop my thoughts on.

The Pokemon Themselves:

I mean, what else would it have been?

While Gen 8 is one I wouldn't say is in my top two favorites or anything, it's still very solid and has a lot of fun Pokemon within it. Without giving a ton away, and since I've posted this publicly already, here's a first brush tier list of what I think of em. Though Gigantamax form are missing obviously, and some Pokemon are just not here. For some reason, it's hard to find one of these tier lists with all the new Pokemon on it. Just know that Skwovet and Greedent are around C-range and Galarian Stunfisk, Darumaka, and Darmanitan would be in A.

These can change with time of course, there's quite a few Pokemon that my opinion has changed on once I've examined their design more closely. Yeah, leaning a lot more into the positive! I think Gen 7 edges out just BAAARELY ahead, but 3rd place behind the greatness of Gens 5 and 7 is not bad at all! All that really holds it back are some lackluster cover-legendaries and, tragically, the lack of any new Ultra Beasts.

Figuring out an order to cover these in is gonna be a thing. I'd rather cover new the lines in their entirety, but because some new Regional Variants evolve into entirely new Pokemon, it's puzzling to figure out where they aughta go! In the end, I might go in the order of covering Regionals with no relation to new Pokemon first, then Gigantamax forms, then go through the 810 to 890 in order, plus whatever Galarian forms are related to new Pokemon when they come around.

I’d still say reviews will likely not start until 2020. I’d obviously wanna wait until the official artwork of all the Pokemon in a decent resolution would be available, plus I’d like to put a bit of extra oomph into these reviews. I’ll save what exactly I mean by that for when I start the Gen 8 reviews proper.

But of course, Sword and Shield isn't all sunshine and rainbows. As I'm sure any Pokemon fan has heard, in the middle of this very year, Junichi Masuda himself came out on E3 with the very unfortunate announcement that Sword and Shield will be the first games in the series' long run to not feature every single Pokemon. And indeed, that this will very likely be the standard for all Pokemon games going forward, electing to chose different Pokemon that are best suited to the theme of the region, and all others will be completely incompatible. Fans didn't take this news lightly, to say the least.

And I've thought about it long and hard on my own time, occasionally listening to what others had to say about the matter. Which of course, brings me, the person who mind you hasn't bothered trading their team to the most recent games in a LONG time BUT also had their top favorite Pokemon of all time axed from the Galardex, to my own hot take, gulp:

How badly do we really need the National Dex?

Okay, before I get into it any further than that, I wanna preface this by saying if you're one of the people that are genuinely upset about the National Dex cut, I understand. If you don't think Sword and Shield are worth buying because of the National Dex cut, it's your money to do with what you please. If you think Pokemon from this point forward won't be worth playing anymore due to the possibility that it will never feature every single Pokemon ever again, I totally get it. I'd be a fool to deny that there's a lot to be upset with Gamefreak with at the moment. But I will rather boldly make the statement that, after all the consideration I've done over the last few months, the Nation Dex has been a long-running mistake that should've never happened and the very concept of having every single Pokemon in every single game should've died when Gen 2 ended.

While I have taken its presence much for granted over the years, since it had been such a matter-of-fact thing. Of course every Pokemon would be in every game, why wouldn't they be? Turns out, Gamefreak's insistence on making sure all Pokemon are present for every game could very well be a root for a good chunk of the series' problems, both in the long run and recent.

Implementing the entire Pokedex, for one, is a huge waste of resources and time. People have already proven that putting in the Pokemon themselves doesn't take too long; modders have already stuck their favorites not in SwSh into the games and they are more or less fully functioning (albeit with the need to program your own moves and stats onto them). But to take that as evidence that maintaining the Nat. Dex shouldn't be a problem would be fairly disingenuous. For every single Pokemon, form, ability, move, and whatnot that they add to the game adds to an ever-inflating problem in terms of Pokemon's scope. With how many combinations of Pokemon, moves, abilities, and held items there are, I can only imagine that making sure no catastrophic game-breaking bug is going to happen in-battle due to an extremely and stupidly specific interaction is a QA nightmare that eats up far more of the work force’s time and energy that could be better spent... literally anywhere else.

And all this for what? So that a small and ever-shrinking minority of the fanbase can fulfill the increasingly difficult if not outright impossible dream of catching them all. Especially given how many of said Pokemon are only obtainable during a limited time. Not to mention how you are required to own multiple games to catch them all at this point. And there's obviously FAR too many to reasonably pile into a single region. The other side of that particular coin is the opposite; the people that usually only bring over anywhere between 2-16 favorites. Even that, as much as it is understandable to be upset that Cacturne's biggest fan won't be able to have their favorite Pokemon in the newest game at all, is so much commitment to a relatively tiny part of the game.

...Which is a real shame, since the very existence of the Nat. Dex has only encouraged the deep rut of series stagnation the franchise has suffered. Most if not all other major RPG franchises have had the room to experiment and do major mechanical overhauls because they never have to worry about whether or not the most recent title is reliably compatible with previous entries in their respective series. Because Gamefreak has been so insistent that every Pokemon, move, ability, and item has to be present in all future games, it's lead to a bigger issue in ensuring that everything functions the same way it did in previous games (barring tiny changes made to numbers more than anything). Meaning even the most recent games in the series have been bound to game design decisions made in 1996 on the goddamn Gameboy. Because of Gamefreak adamantly making sure EVERYTHING can function in future games now and forever, the franchise has not been given the room it needs to properly evolve or have a major update to its battle mechanics. For every new major mechanic that's added to the game, they would have to go back and ensure that it works with EVERY Pokemon, their alternate forms, and whatever moves they all may learn. And all the other major mechanical features in the battles. Is it any wonder that it was only twice that an entirely new feature was added that drastically changed the way battles played out? Only twice! Once when Held Items were introduced in Gen 2 and again when Abilities were introduced in Gen 3. There's been other, comparatively tiny updates here and there (The physical/special split in Gen 4, The streamlining of the battle system and the Pokemon themselves finally being animated in Gen 5, etc.) Is it any wonder Mega Evolution only effected a select handful of Pokemon? Or that Z-moves were a feature that affected moves more than they did the Pokemon themselves?

If you chop down the number of Pokemon to say, 400 or so per game, it would be considerably more reasonable to experiment with each new title. It's disappointing that this couldn't be evident in SwSh itself (though I would attribute a lot of that game's problems to questionable mid-development decisions). I personally would just hope the backlash has them listening to the criticism but not take it so much to heart that they backpedal entirely. Otherwise we'll just wind up neck-deep in the first problem again. I really want them to commit to this because it feels like there's a golden opportunity to make a truly modernized Pokemon game.

(A bit of a side-note, but I’m also noticing that now that the Pokedex is down to a much more reasonable number, a lot of people, myself included, are actually attempting to complete Galar’s Pokedex.)

NOT TO MENTION that it'll free up opportunity to make more new Pokemon. A lot of the reason recent gens have slowed down in Pokemon numbers is simply because the the National Dex was getting too big. Now that there's no more National Dex, perhaps we can start having generations of 100+ Pokemon again? In fact, I think SwSh would've been all the better had they pulled another Gen 5 in conjunction with the natdex offing to say that Sword and Shield will ONLY have 200 or so ENTIRELY new Pokemon, and not a single returning one. Fans would've still gotten upset, but the prospect of a game with ONLY new ones in the form of a soft reboot would've gotten people excited to see a sizable generation again. It'd also have shown a bigger commitment to making up for the lack of a National Dex, even before large gameplay changes would be made. (Although again, who knows how plausible that would've been given the implications SwSh had a rocky development)

Could Gamefreak have handled this mess better? Absolutely. I love what y’all do but I’ll give brutal honesty when I feel it’s warranted; they have been ultra trash about communicating with the fans correctly. Between citing “to make high-quality animations” as a reason for the Dex cutting as if you wouldn’t have expected every single animation in the game to be under heavy scrutiny as soon as you said so. Plus rather tone-deaf responses to the backlash. Something that should’ve been communicated was a reaffirmation that this decision was made for the betterment of the series’ longevity, and that it’s a choice that would make the series better in the long run (Even then though, that sounds like admitting SwSh aren’t as good as they could’ve been. And I doubt PTC would ever let anyone at Gamefreak say anything like that.)

This next point is just a personal one more than anything, but it’s a lot better of a solution than the other thing I was fearful might happen at some point: a hard reboot on the National dex. As in, most if not ALL Pokemon get permanently booted from the series and they start over, only keeping a select few. At least with this, so long as they prioritize Pokemon that haven’t been featured in a regional dex in while, I’m all for it. Friggin CHARIZARD aside, the Galar Dex feels like it has a healthy balance of fan favorites and niche Pokemon as far as returning ones go, which is good.

And of course, the Nat Dex isn't the ONLY problems in the Pokemon franchise. For one thing, I'd love it if this annual release schedule just stopped right the hell now. It's hardly a secret that crunchtime because of Pokemon game development is a huge problem at Gamefreak, all because of decisions most likely made by Nintendo and The Pokemon Company, though I'm sure some blame can be shafted on GF upper management as well. It's literally as easy as making the supplemental media stop being so caught up in doing the exact same thing the main series is doing. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the recent anime arc being “Globetrotting with Ash” is a move to distance the anime away from the games so the two don't have to be so coincided at all times. Like, Pokemon can literally do anything and make money off it. Why arbitrarily chain down the main series to a tight one-generation-every-3-years deadline.

Also Gamefreak REALLY needs to expand its workforce. There's evidently only 150 or so employees who natively work for Gamefreak, in which they have to rely on a lot of freelance work. Even so, that's a tiny work force to be working on a game that should be, by all accounts, treated with Triple-A game quality.

And again, let me just say that as much as I genuinely believe that the removal of the National Dex will be better for the series in the long term, nobody is wrong for being upset about it, and nobody is wrong for deciding they don't see the games as worth buying anymore. It's not your fault that Gamefreak made a promise to all of its players that they wouldn't be able to keep forever. And it’s certainly understandable to be upset given the very marketing has trained us to get very emotionally invested in these fictional animals. Like, as much as I saw this day coming, my first gut reaction upon hearing the news was genuine shock. And a slight tinge of disgust that Zorua, my top favorite of all time, could very well not be in the first home console main Pokemon games. At least until I realized “oh wait, I limit myself to only using new Pokemon anyway.”

And obviously this is by no means a guarantee that Gen 9's games will feature massively sweeping changes that fix all the shortcomings of the battle mechanics and will feature the vast Breath of the Wild-esque open world experience that fans have been clamoring for and 250 new Pokemon (plus 75 regional variants!). Gamefreak has been conservative enough about Pokemon to have landed themselves in this problem in the first place. Just forgive me if I hold onto even just a little bit of cautious optimism for the next games.

#Pokemon #Pokemon Sword and Shield #Pokemon Reviews

24 notes · View notes

pandemicthestory · 4 years

Text

10: confused

Fake it til you make it.

In the middle of the City, fairly close to the Academy, there is a chrome-colored building that is taller than almost all of the rest. Night and Sugar stand in front of its doors, wondering how they’re going to get in.

The building is called “Mecca.” It’s filled with headquarters for top companies--mostly builders, but also fashion and interior designers, medical technicians, and game developers. Thousands of civilians report here for work 5 days a week. But since it’s Friday, as soon as it’s 5 o’clock, these workers will leave their desks and head to the top floor.

At the top floor of Mecca is LOUNGE, an exclusive night and day club where windows are always blacked out and the passing of time can’t be measured. A night club meets speakeasy meets casino, this is where the elites go to unwind. After a long week’s work of building, the business men and women of Mecca can swipe their membership card at the top floor and indulge themselves in the darker parts of life.

And this is exactly where Sugar intends on taking them.

“There’s no way we’re getting in.” Night mutters, hitting his forehead with his palm. This situation feels seriously illegal and seriously stupid. As he and Night stood at the front of this massive building, Night begins to wonder if he’s made a big mistake.

“Hold on now, don’t give up just yet, man. Listen, the separation medical facility is in this building.” Sugar explains.

“So..?”

“People think we’re Vacaters. So, we’ll tell security that we have appointments today, they’ll let us in, we’ll head to the facility and…”

“And what?”

“And figure it out from there? Let’s go dude!”

*buzz*

*buzz buzz buzz*

Suddenly, Night’s phone starts blowing up in his pocket. He can’t ignore it, because it just keeps going.

“Hold on a second, Sugar…”

Night reaches into his pocket and sees that he has several missed texts and calls. From Julian.

Oh god, what does he want from her so desperately? What could be so important that it can’t wait?

This is why he’d tapped Emma’s phone. It wasn’t because he’s creepy or trying to infringe on her privacy, though, he’ll admit, that’s exactly what it looks like. No, it’s because she’s unpredictable, and surrounded by people who don’t know what’s best for her. And because he really needs her to make it here.

JULIAN: where are u

JULIAN: stopped by your house and u weren’t there

JULIAN: ur mom said u were out for a walk, but i don’t think that’s true. Tell me what’s happening

(3 MISSED CALLS)

JULIAN: your friend zoe says that you’re out somewhere with her boyfriend. Care to explain? Wtf is going on...we’re leaving in a few days Emma

(2 MISSED CALLS)

JULIAN: we’re leaving tomorrow

Leaving?

Leaving where?

Night had known that Emma was planning something, just not what. Apparently Julian does.

Sugar taps his foot impatiently while Night composes a response to Julian. With the software he installed on his phone, it will be rerouted through Emma’s number. He’ll have no idea.

“EMMA”: Going where?

A pause, and then Julian is typing.

JULIAN: there you are. Fuck. don’t do that to me

“EMMA”: where are we going, julian?

JULIAN: what are you talking about? Are you trying to distract me from the fact that ur out chilling w Gabriel? The fuck?

Now Night is actually confused. Is this why she didn’t answer him? Because she was busy with Gabriel? And for that matter, who the hell is Gabriel?

What’s going on Emma? Everything you need was sent straight to your doorstep. Couldn’t have been easier. All you had to do was get the mail. So what went wrong?

Sugar yells to him, “DUDE, NOW.”

“Ok ok, I’m ready!” Night says, while composing and sending one last text.

“EMMA”: i’m not going anywhere with you julian. I’ve changed my mind. Don’t contact me again

Night runs after Sugar. He wonders to himself...what does such a smart girl see in such a profoundly stupid guy? Is she that starved of attention that she’ll settle for anyone who gives it to her? Note to self: that question will probably be offensive to her if he were to ask it. So he will not.

But hopefully he’ll at least have the chance. Soon.

Sugar storms ahead, and Night basically has no choice but to follow.

Sure enough, they head through metal detectors on their way in, and are then greeted by a squad of security guards. A guard steps in front of them. How many times is this going to happen today?

“Please swipe ID cards on the way in.”

This guard is nicer than the last one, he said please. He’s still in the way though. Sugar steps up.

“Hello sir, we don’t have ID cards because we don’t actually work here. We’re merely here for our appointments at the separation facility. We’re wearing our uniforms to indicate our status.” Sugar says, oozing with professionalism and aggressively overdoing it. Night fights a laugh under his breath (“merely..?”) and Sugar elbows him discreetly. The guard frowns.

“Is that so? We weren’t told of any separation appointments scheduled today...in fact, it’s rare that they’re ever scheduled on Fridays. What’s the reason you’re here for the service today instead of Monday?”

At this moment, both Sugar and Night are hoping that the other one has more knowledge of who the hell Vacaters actually are and what the hell the separation facility actually does. Unfortunately, neither of them do. Night realizes that he’ll have to throw another hail mary pass and hope for the best.

“Well it’s because, the...service...is going to be followed by a session with some other associates at LOUNGE.”

Now it was Sugar’s turn to try not to laugh. That was officially the dumbest ass response ever, which is why he is the resident debauchery mastermind and Night spends every night in front of a computer and a dead plant.

Night tries to remain confident. He couldn’t bank on these guys not understanding Vacaters, like the last pair of idiots, but he gambled that he could bank on them not knowing much about LOUNGE. From the look of it, these guys don’t seem like the type to be invited to an exclusive, glamorous party. They’re wearing jumpsuits.

“What? Really? That’s so...unusual.” One guard says. The other nods in agreement. They actually seem a bit...jealous? As in, why have these two bratty teenagers been invited to the top floor when we who have worked here for five years never will?

“Well yes, my father is a builder and it’s, uh, a sort of rite of passage for me to be vacated, er, separated, alongside him. In a celebratory way. After work.”

If Night got away with this, he’d owe the forces of the universe one.

The guards just nod in admiration while Sugar looks incredulous.

“Well then, good luck young man. We hope your last night will be a special one.”

The guards exchange nods with Night and Sugar, who head forward to the glass elevator.

“Separation facility is on 43!” Calls one of the security guards from behind, almost wistfully. Maybe one day he’ll get the chance to see what’s up there. But not likely.

Once inside the glass elevator, Sugar hugs Night around the shoulder.

“Ok honestly, I’m a bit shook that you’re a bad ass. Was pretty sure that you were just a virgin computer nerd.”

Night laughs to himself. That’s all that anyone has ever expected of him. But right now, seeing himself through Sugar’s eyes as a genius lawbreaker feels good. Intoxicating, even.

“What floor’d he say? 45, was it? Sugar asks.

“Why not go straight to the top?” Night asks, with a mischievous grin.

He hits the number “100” without waiting for an answer.

* * *

Emma crashes through the front door of her house, ready to have to explain herself to her parents and hoping to get through it painlessly.

But they don’t seem to be home. “Mom? Dad?”

They must be out looking for her. Now it all makes sense...her neurotic mother was blowing up her phone because she couldn’t even trust her daughter to take a walk around the damn block. Then her phone got destroyed in the parking lot. And now, since she hasn’t answered, they’re out looking for her. And when they eventually get back, she’ll probably be sent to prison. Cool.

Emma decides to take this time as a gift. Tune everything else out. This is her shot to save Isabel.

Emma runs upstairs to her room and tears the cardboard off the headset. She tosses the instructions aside because she has enough knowledge to put one of these together without them.

Does it need to be charged? It does not. It’s ready to go.

Now, to check on the download…

7 HOURS REMAINING

She groans. It’s speeding up, but not enough. She needs to plug in now, not in 7 god damn hours. She sees on her computer that there are a shit ton of unread G-chat messages from Zoe. Ugh, she’s probably dealing with some sort of jealousy moment right now and Emma just doesn’t have time to deal with it. So she doesn’t open them. Sorry Zo. You’ll forgive me.

Emma wracks her frazzled brain--there’s gotta be a way for her to get online and contact Emma.

Wait.

Emma runs across the hallway to Isabel’s room, carrying the headset and headphones. Isabel is still slumped over in her chair, alive, looking the same as before. Well at least she’s alive, which is cool. Emma examines the game on the computer--scanning the twisted map view of a city for any sign of her sister. None. Hm, guess it doesn’t work like that.

Emma looks at the game settings.

Ah, input/output. Yes. This is it.

If she can’t join from her own game, maybe she can join Isabel’s.

Emma sits down on a pile of clothes in the back of Isabel’s closet. She might as well get comfy, she could be here for a while. She puts on thick noise-canceling headphones and the headset, and everything goes dark and quiet.

Power on.

Emma wirelessly connects to Isabel’s computer, then sees the icon for the Universe game pop up in front of her eyes. With a nod, she selects it.

Black becomes blue.

Silence becomes ambient drone music.

Isabel’s done VR before, so she expects this. She still feels excitement. This technology never ceases to amaze her.

It’s when the feeling of the laundry beneath her fades away into a rush of cold air...

This, she does not expect.

#write #writer #writers on tumblr #writers #yanovel #yanovels #scifi story #my writing #hackergirl #gamergirl #virtualreality #scifi writing

2 notes · View notes

thegeneralsnotebook · 4 years

Text

April Feature: Who Could Use More Friends?

The first three articles of 2020 have each covered relatively meaty topics, requiring a fair bit of research and a lot of writing to get over the line. So this month I decided to try something quite a bit lighter. (Sorry again to folks who may have wanted to see the History of Purple. Again, the next month where I don’t particularly feel like doing anything else I’ll continue the History series.)

Over the course of this month, I’ve been spending a lot of time sorting cards, as in March I had decided to finally take my full collection, which was sitting in the closet in a mixed assortment of boxes, sort everything out, count it all, and put it in a big box together. Or two big boxes, as it’s turned out. This process has brought me face-to-face with a lot of old cards, and it’s filled my head with card names from the hours spent sorting. But it also brought to mind what seemed a curious phenomenon.

As I went through the list of Friends for each set, I saw the same names popping up frequently, and not just because I have way too many of certain commons. No, I’m referring to character names, and how I felt like I was seeing a lot of Starlight Glimmer. And a lot of Trixie, and of Zecora and Luna and Spike. After some thought, and looking at the data on Ponyhead, I realized that I was right. Starlight Glimmer has had a Purple Friend in every set since Marks in Time, Trixie has had one in every set since Crystal Games (except for Marks), Ocellus has had quite a few lately, and Zecora shows up more often than not. I wondered, is it possible that Purple has the least variation among the characters that make up its Friends? And if so, how far behind the other colours is it? And how do the other colours fare? On the hand, we might expect Orange to be a bit behind since the Apple family keeps showing up over and over, while we’d naturally expect Yellow to come out ahead since it’s so full of one-off critter Friends. Well, I thought it would be worth counting everything up.

Sure, this topic is one of pure fluff, but for what it’s worth, we do have a new set that’s probably in the process of being flavoured right now, so maybe information like this will be useful to someone. And, it gave me an opportunity to try out some statistics again, as well as some pretty charts. Everyone seemed to like those the last time that I used them.

Current Core

Wouldn’t you know it, I was right! Purple does indeed have the least variation in characters of all the colours, though surprisingly Yellow didn’t end up on top. Before talking about the numbers, though, let’s break down the methodology.

In order to count characters, I used the Title of the Friend cards in each set. Title, remember, is just the first line of the card’s name, and for most cards it nicely captures the data that we’re looking to compare. I stuck only to single-coloured cards, and divided things up by colours. The percentages you see there are simply the ratio of the number of Friends with unique Titles to the number of Friends in total for each colour, with DE, SB, FF, and LL taken into account.

That explanation alone doesn’t cover all of the possible quibbles, though, as I discovered a number of edge cases over the course of the work that required a bit of thought. For example, as the Transform effect taught all of us, Twilight Sparkle and Princess Twilight Sparkle have different Titles. Or perhaps consider the one “Trixie Lulamoon” from SB. Does one count those as duplicates or unique? Or, for that matter, consider the various Derpy cards that are sprinkled throughout the colours, but are mostly in Pink. They all have different Titles. Then there’s the matter of pairs. If we already have “Snips & Snails”, do “Snips” and “Snails” count as unique later on?

The upshot of all of that is to say that comparing Titles turned not to be quite as satisfactory of a system as I thought it would be. Given that the intent of the experiment was to determine “who has the most Friends”, as it were, then likely all of the above exceptions should have been taken into account. But in the end, I was halfway through by the time that I realized this, and decided to be consistent in the methodology. Thus in this dataset, Twilight and Princess Twilight are considered distinct, and all of the edge cases mentioned above are ignored. The biggest effect of this is that Pink probably has a few more unique characters than it necessarily deserves, as even just within these first four sets there’s Merry Mare, Party Mare, and Cargo Mare to consider.

To return to the numbers in the chart, what surprised me most about the data was actually how close all of the other colours were to each other, with only Purple being the distinct laggard. I had been expecting Yellow to have a distinct lead, but in these sets there hasn’t really been the same amount of one-off Critters that happened in the old sets.

But, is this simply an artifact of the way sets have been flavoured recently? With the first question answered, it was time to keep on turning back the clock.

Older Times

Here, the “Modern Era” is considered to start with EO.

Again, and now even more surprisingly, we’re left with largely the same results. Purple still lags behind the rest, but the other five colours are quite closely bunched in with each other. This is especially surprising when we take into account the differing sizes of the card pools for each colour. While it’s no surprise at all that Yellow has the most Friends over all of the sets, at 151, Purple actually has the lowest number, at 137 (and it still has the lowest ratio!). All of the other colours are in the 140’s somewhere.

The relatively tightness of the band that the other five colours fall into honestly makes me wonder if this was a deliberate design decision on the part of the people who were making the flavours for these sets. There’s certainly an understandable benefit to mixing up the pool of characters forming Friends for each colour in each set. To the extent possible one does want to keep the flavour pool fresh. It’s only Purple that’s seemed to have a hard time finding new background characters and one-offs to fit into its colour identity. So, it seems that Twilight is indeed the pony who could use a few more Friends.

In terms of absolute numbers, the colours with the most unique characters in their Friend pool go like this:

Yellow, 95 (151 Total)

Orange, 90 (148 Total)

Pink, 88 (146 Total)

White, 82 (141 Total)

Blue, 80 (140 Total)

Purple, 68 (137 Total)

Ranked like that, it’s interesting to note that colours with more total Friends always have more unique Friends as well. The Total Friends numbers are reasonable enough to explain, as Yellow and Orange have always been Friend-focused colours, while Purple always had more Events. It’s just interesting that from a flavour perspective it was apparently harder to find unique characters to fill a smaller pool of Friends in the colours near the bottom.

While clearly decisions like these are in the hands of the CiM members today, I’m sure that they could only speculate on the flavouring decisions that were made in the earlier days of the game. Still, I’ll open the floor to such speculation. And also to opinions. Does Twilight need more Friends? Or are we fine with Purple as is, a Starlight and a Trixie and a Zecora in almost every set?

Oh, and here’s the spreadsheet, for anyone interested. Maybe someone is willing to run things again to properly capture all of the edge cases? Or maybe I’ll do that later.

#mlpccg #flavour #design

1 note · View note

genbumble297 · 3 years

Text

Finding Trans On Tinder

Tinder hasn’t generally been a very trans-friendly place. Last year, reports of trans people getting banned from Tinder surfaced. Dating apps for introverts 2021. It appeared that they were getting kicked off the platform because other users, presumably cisgender ones, were reporting them upon realizing they were transgender.

Is This App Good For Finding Trans Women. : Grindr

Can You Find Trans On Tinder

Tinder did a lot of work on its community moderation tools, and now has tools in place designed to detect harassment early on and address it much more quickly. Skout profile search.

Is This App Good For Finding Trans Women. : Grindr

But recently Tinder released one of its update after almost 3 years that seems to help every identity using Tinder .The update makes it possible for people to specify gender identities like transgender, trans man, trans woman, gender queer or any other term that matches their gender identity. No matter how people identify, they can choose to be included in searches for men and/or women.

When I joined Tinder, I was thrilled to see I could identify as transgender. Although I believe trans people should be allowed to exist without constantly disclosing personal information, I also know that it can be dangerous to put yourself in the position of someone finding out on their own, especially in an intimate setting. Tinder offers 50 different gender options, but trans folks keep being banned from the app. “Honestly, I feel like it’s a cheap move and not forthcoming at all,” she said of the gender options.

Actually on Tinder it’s more about your luck and your approach of finding your trans date. People usually hide their identities on social platform as they doesn’t feel the environment there suits them. So it’s upon you to find your kind of match and know them slowly and gradually making steps ahead with them. So you must understand that it is not a one day game if you are thinking about finding a trans person of your choice on Tinder.

Tgpersonal update makes curs possible for trainer to specify gender identities trainer transgender, trans man, trans antrenor, gender trainer or any personal term that matches their gender identity. So tgpersonal must understand that it is not a one for game if you are thinking about finding a trans person of your choice on Tinder. Post navigation.

Many transgender individuals face the possibility of being banned on Tinder for nothing other than being trans. The app is struggling to combat the transphobic actions of some users. Transgender individuals are reported by individuals who do not understand that a they have the right to be on Tinder just as much as a cisgender individual.

Subscribe to my channel: me on twitter: me on instagram: https://www.inst.

All you have to do is swipe screen and make connection. It’s not that hard. You might find someone in a day or two but the thing is it is not the same case everytime. It can be a long process. But yeah Tinder assures you a big user group with potential matches of your choice so that you will be able to find good personalities online. Tinder has also added a feature that will let people provide more accurate information about their gender identity.

Can You Find Trans On Tinder

So just go on there talk to people and see how things go. It is really simple to use app and you can do much better search over here then any other app or sites available. And apart from that it is easy to start communicating with someone you find interesting. And actually trans people are also using Tinder to find trans dating for themselves. Best website to meet new friends.

Tinder is promoting the change with the hashtag #AllTypesAllSwipes. When creating a Tinder profile, you can now tap “I Am” and, instead of having to choose from two male or female options, select “More” to type a word that describes your identity. There are over 35 options for identifying, including terms like “trans” and “pangender.” With this update, the company hopes to show that all users are welcome on the transgender dating platform. Dating is hard enough without being banned from an app for being yourself, so you can imagine how wary users are about hopping back into the Tinder-ing world. https://genbumble297.tumblr.com/post/657661287406436352/free-genuine-dating-sites. So, now things have changed and now it is possible with just little efforts to find the right trans person for yourself. The partner you are looking for and all you have to do is simple communicate with them on the app.

0 notes

destressjournal · 3 years

Text

DCOM Rankings #95: How to Build a Better Boy

Okay this movie was really cute! It’s has a couple problems but it was really cute!

So I thought I was really going to be comparing this to pixel perfect, and it turns out these movies are actually pretty different, however, I can just explain their similarities and get that out of the way first. Cuz it’s funnnnn.

Okay. So I think the intention behind the creation of the non-human perfect being is the same in both movies. The main character (who is a literal genius I mean they have to be), has an idea in their head of the perfect boy/girl and tries to create a digital version of that. The difference is that in Pixel perfect, the main dude creates her for a specific purpose and ends up realizing that he was in love with her and that he programmed her with all the things about a girl he thought was perfect. In this movie, Mae just got rejected (by an idiot), and was hurt and started going on and on about her dream date night and got carried away. Didn’t think that she was creating an actual robot.

The second main comparison is what the purpose of the robot/hologram was. For pixel perfect, the main guy created her just to fill in for a singer/dancer in his friend’s band, (but also to create the perfect girl because he always found flaws in every girl he was interested in). For this movie, the original purpose of the robot was an army soldier that could kill in seconds if he wanted to. But was instead created as Mae’s ideal perfect boyfriend that was overloaded with information. (Like, I don’t understand how that didn’t backfire, he still came out totally perfect)

But honestly I really love both concepts in both movies, even if they are slightly different!

But when the movie gets going, it takes a different approach to discussing perfection that I also enjoy. While pixel perfect focuses on living up to impossible expectations via music industry/Hollywood standards, this movie takes a more personal approach from the viewpoint of a middle/high schooler. Like, how fantasies are fantasies for a reason, and how one person can’t be everything all of the time, and no matter how hard you try to bring your vision to life, real life is still going to happen.

The point of both movies is that perfection is unattainable. People are flawed and make mistakes. That’s how real life works. And if you try to look for one person that checks every single one of your giant list of boxes, you’re going to miss out on people that genuinely like you. If anyone is “perfect” they are either lying, a robot solider, or a hologram. Everyone has shit they’re dealing with. EVERYONE!

Okay I’ll stop making the comparisons now!

The story I feel progressed very realistically. Mae and Gabby were best friends until Mae realized she wanted to pursue a romantic relationship with boys, but never told Gabby because gabby was all about keeping the duo together and had a life plan spelled out. And I can tell you from personal experience I KNOW how Mae feels in this situation. She doesn’t want to upset her friend and wants to keep the friend ship but is worried if she starts having interests besides math and science, their friendship would be over.

I’m going through something similar with my friend. Not going into details though but I’m just saying that’s realistic. And even when Mae finds out the boy she created was just a robot, and she didn’t care, at first I was like wtf? But after I thought about it, we are talking about a teenage girl who just fell in love with the dude because he is EXACTLY, as close as the fucking tee will get, the kind of guy Mae wants. There is literally no one else that’s going to top him because he is made specifically for her. And if that’s the best that she can get, then why look for anything else. Love (or in this case, infatuation) will make people do crazy things….

Can I just take a second to be like wtf no kissing again??? I mean come on Disney channel! maybe cloud 9 was the last movie to feature a kiss?? I have no idea what these censors are about man, but it’s really confusing. Haha maybe I’ll make a game out of it for the rest of these movies. It’s weird there are only like 15 left…

Okay back on topic.

I like pretty much all of the characters. And the funny ones like the dad and the brother were actually funny, like they were cringey but just the right amount of cringey that doesn’t take away from the characters. I even laughed out loud at a scene, which that hasn’t happened in a long time.

The villains were the only thing I had an issue with just because I thought they would be a much bigger threat. But nah they were apprehended like 20 minutes before the movie ended. and that was that. Kinda wish they were a bigger deal. But other than that everyone else was great! The popular girl was annoying but not AS annoying as the one in Zapped. That was pretty cringe let me tell you! But the two leads were great together. I do feel that Gabby was pushed off to the side a little bit though, I mean I get that was the whole story was her getting sidelined because of Albert but I feel like she still should have had a little more depth to her character and more of a spotlight. But that’s just me I guess.

Can we talk about mae’s outfits though? Who the hell was her costume designer? And why do the outfits on Disney channel shows/movies have to be so complicated and almost ugly? Like NO ONE wears these kinds of things to school on a regular basis. Gabby’s outfits, maybe, but Mae’s, like she’s a literal alien from another planet wearing these things. Why do people think these outfits look good? Ugh. I remember when people would wear dresses over t-shirts, oh wait, no I don’t!

Rant over. But anyway, I felt pretty invested throughout the whole thing, even toward the end when Mae’s first kiss was set up. I thought that was really clever because it only further illiustrates the fact that these things have to be planned ahead of time and are fabricated. It’s all for show, none of it was real, and deep down Mae knew that which is why she didn’t kiss Albert. But I will admit that scene had me glued to the screen. It has similar kids the girl vibes from little mermaid.

I’m also SO SO SO happy that Mae did the right thing and stayed with her best friend the rest of the night instead of hanging out with the boy that wanted to ask her out the first time. I was so worried that would be the case but nope, she cares about her best friend and many years of friendship more than one boy that she recently met. That’s a lesson for all you young hetero girls and women out there! Friends are always more important than dumb boys. And this movie gets it right. But it was also sweet how gabby was like “sorry for putting pressure on you” and now it feels like Mae can talk to gabby about anything. If a friend is bullying you into doing something you don’t wanna do, you need to set boundaries! And also dump them if it gets worse.

In some ways I think this movie is better than pixel perfect because it gets its characters so right. But the theme in pixel perfect is so much better and deeper and the music is better. Oh my god that ukulele cover of I love you like a love song by Selena Gomez. That was also kind of cringe but I can’t pretend that I never dreamed about my crush serenading me on guitar or uke. So….fuck you disney channel for getting into my 13-14 year old mind and making this movie.

How would this score against pixel perfect though? I think I gave that one a B+. Oh boy…I think this movie might be A range…because the here is nothing I outright hated about this movie. Nothing frustrating, hardly any flaws. Oh man…am I really doing this to pixel perfect…? I think I am. I don’t think I’ll give it a plus though. Just a regular A. I know I wouldn’t wanna watch this all the time.

Wow that was shocking I scored this movie higher, but I guess when it comes to technicalities, this one came out on top. Now for the next movie, it stars the girl from ally….something…oh man I don’t remember the show name but it has Ross lynch in the show. But he’s not in this one. Anyway yeah this one might be a cringe for me just cuz of the title but we’ll see!

0 notes

aion-rsa · 3 years

Text

Can Aliens: Fireteam be to Aliens What Isolation Was to Alien?

https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The recent reveal of Aliens: Fireteam (a co-op shooter from Cold Iron Studios based on the film of the same name) has quickly proven to be one of the year’s most welcome surprises so far. At a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has left us questioning when previously revealed games will be released, the seemingly simple announcement of a potentially major, entirely new game on the horizon feels much more hopeful than ever before.

Besides, after all these years, there is still a special something about the Alien franchise that has never faded away. Even though recent Alien movies failed to capture even a hint of what made Alien and Aliens two of the finest sci-fi films ever made, nothing has truly diminished the shine of their gold standard status.

Mind you, it hasn’t been all bad. 2014’s Alien Isolation, for instance, is widely considered to be one of the scariest horror games ever made as well as one of the rare instances of a game based on a movie that is entertaining in its own right while perfectly capturing the spirit of the movie itself.

Can Aliens: Fireteam replicate that success by perfectly capturing the spirit of the sequel it shares a name with? It’s an interesting question that forces us to look at the even more interesting possibility that Aliens: Fireteam has a taller task ahead of it than Isolation did. Why? Well, it has something to do with the fact that Aliens has proven to be one of the most influential films in the history of video games.

If you were born in a post-Aliens world and never looked back on the film’s most lasting influences, you may be shocked to learn the many big and small ways that the James Cameron directed sequel to Alien rewrote the sci-fi action lexicon and reshaped our expectations of the genre.

There are few places where that influence is felt more often than in video games. From motion trackers and mobile turrets to alien enemy design concepts and the very notion of space marines, the last 35 years of video games have would have almost certainly played out differently if developers weren’t able to borrow concepts popularized, refined, or invented by Aliens.

Yet, the clearest influence of Aliens can be found in the games that borrow from the movie wholesale. While there is no shortage of games essentially designed as unofficial Aliens adaptations, it’s hard not to think of most entries in the Metroid franchise and Halo: Combat Evolved as the most notable examples of that approach. The former owes everything from its music to its enemy design and revolutionary sense of atmosphere to Aliens and Alien, while the latter was essentially the biggest budget fan tribute to Aliens you could ever imagine. If you’ve only ever played the original Halo and never actually watched Aliens, you’ll likely find yourself laughing at how many little things that game took from the movie.

What about official Aliens games, though? That’s where things get tricky. While there’s no shortage of tremendous games inspired by Aliens, official Aliens adaptations have been noticeably worse across the board. 2013’s Aliens: Colonial Marines is best known for its parade of hilarious glitches while 1986’s Aliens: The Computer Game was an ambitious attempt at an adaptation that tried to do far too much at a time when a simpler “Contra-like” experience probably would have sufficed.

There have been interesting official Aliens adaptations, but many of them missed the mark in lesser ways. For instance, the Metroidvania-like Aliens: Infestation for Nintendo DS is certainly impressive (and hilariously borrows from the game that borrowed heavily from the franchise), but its gameplay doesn’t quite capture the more intense action-heavy elements of the movie. 1990’s Aliens arcade-game is one of the better beat-’em-ups of the golden age of that genre, but it too feels closer to a genre interpretation of the film rather than a game that truly captures the experience of the movie itself. The Aliens vs. Predator games feature harrowing sequences that recall the best moments of the movie, but those sequences share time with other properties and different ideas.

Again, though, that’s the weird thing about making an Aliens game. While there are only a few notable official Aliens game, we’ve seen dozens of titles which offered nearly perfect Aliens experiences that included almost everything you’d want from the concept aside from the license itself. Even Early Access Steam title GTFO features that “Left-4-Dead” gameplay design seen in Aliens: Fireteam as well as some of the most intense Aliens-inspired action you’ll find in gaming.

Yet, there are certainly reasons to hope that Fireteam will honor Aliens in ways that no other game quite has.

First, off, don’t overlook the use of the actual Alien license. Spiritually similar titles are lovely, but only Aliens is Aliens. The designs of the weapons, creatures, soldiers, sounds, and environments in that film have stood the test of time for reasons that go far beyond the fond remembrances of simple nostalgia. Of course, there are also few enemies in all of science fiction more intimidating than the Xenomorph.

You could also honestly argue that for as many great Aliens-inspired games as we’ve seen over the years, we’re still waiting on that one that really puts it all together in a way that more completely captures the experience of watching the film. That movie featured a rarely replicated blend of horror, action, science fiction, dramatic tension, and visual splendor that you can find in a combination of video games but perhaps no single title that satisfies your desire to play your way through that experience of the closest approximation to it as possible. On paper, the idea of venturing into a nest with friends and trying your best to survive against intimidating odds is exactly what many people would come up with when asked to imagine the ideal Aliens experience.

Besides, does it matter if Fireteam ends up being “just” another entry into the proud legacy of games inspired by Aliens? There’s a reason that we’re still playing games inspired by Aliens after all these years, and if Fireteam proves to be another worthwhile entry into that genre, I’m sure many of us will find an excuse to lose hours to it.

Just as the developers of Alien: Isolation recognized that changes in horror gaming trends inspired by the success of games like Amnesia and Outlast created the perfect opportunity to make a horror game that captured the sheer terror of the original film, Fireteam‘s developers don’t need to break the mold so long as it takes the best of what’s out there and adds just enough Aliens to become the game we turn to after watching the movie for the first time or yet again.

Aliens: Fireteam is set to release in Summer 2021 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Can Aliens: Fireteam be to Aliens What Isolation Was to Alien? appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3kJPKL6

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

0 notes

abangtech · 4 years

Text

Dell XPS 13 9300 (2020) review

Another year, another XPS 13. This time around Dell hasn’t exactly taken its flagship ultrabook back to the drawing board – you’d probably still need to set the 2020 model side-by-side with last year’s to even spot the differences – it has made some important tweaks.

They’re all good changes too, with a 16:10 aspect ratio, edge-to-edge keyboard, and Intel’s more compact and power-efficient 10nm processors to keep it even slimmer than before.

Unfortunately, many of the classic XPS 13 drawbacks are still here too, with limited ports and a tendency to run real hot. This remains one of the best laptops in the world, but Dell is going to have to do more to stay ahead of the competition next time around.

Design and build: Bigger on the inside, smaller on the outside

It’s not for nothing that I say that the 2019 XPS 13 was about as good as a 13in laptop got.

Of course, a 13in ultrabook isn’t the best laptop for everyone – others will want the power of gaming or creator laptops, the size of a bigger display, or the flexibility of more ports you get with the XPS 15 or 17 – but for those happy with the inevitable compromises of an ultrabook, Dell’s take on the format has rarely been bettered.

This year’s XPS 13 follows the annual rhythm of minor tweaks across the board, with two bigger changes both taken from the 2019 XPS 13 2-in-1: a larger, taller display; and a larger, wider keyboard. All in a smaller body, of course.

Let’s take the display first. The new 16:10 panel moves into the space previously occupied by the bottom bezel (and Dell logo), leaving a screen that’s all-but-borderless. There’s just about space for a webcam along the top border (which is OK, but the 720p picture is decidedly grainy), but otherwise the display is basically edge-to-edge.

It’s 13.4in diagonally, with the choice of a 1920×1200 FHD+ panel or a 3840×2400 4K HDR upgrade – that’s what I’ve been testing. The 4K panel is only available with touch support, but the FHD+ variant gives you the choice of touch or not.

Every screen variant runs to a respectable 500 nits brightness, with 100% sRGB colour gamut coverage too. You can get brighter screens – and if you’re working out in the garden a lot right now you honestly might struggle with this – but the colour range is hard to beat, and in normal lighting conditions this screen is an absolute joy to use, whether for work or for watching.

The switch to a 16:10 aspect ratio really helps. The extra vertical screen space leaves a little extra room to breathe, especially on otherwise cramped 12in or 13in models, and is especially helpful if you use it to work rather than just watch Netflix. Losing the bottom bezel doesn’t hurt either, adding to the clean, modern impression of Dell’s design.

Then there’s the keyboard. Like the display this is now almost edge-to-edge, which leaves the space for larger keycaps across the board. Even the font’s been changed – it’s thinner and more modern, with a shift to lower-case across the non-letter keys.

The edge-to-edge keys are made possible by moving the fingerprint scanner into the power key – a touch that both saves space and leaves an overall cleaner aesthetic.

Importantly, while the keyboard size was inspired by the convertible XPS, this doesn’t use the divisive MagLev keyboard that model does – instead it sticks to the same rubber dome keycaps as before, with a 1mm travel that’s as comfortable to type on as ever – and more so once you factor in the larger keys.

I feel pretty confident saying that this is the best keyboard in any laptop right now, and I honestly can’t find a single bad thing to say about it.

Despite the larger keyboard and screen, the whole body is about 2 percent smaller than last year’s – not enough to notice at a glance, but every little helps. It keeps the XPS 13 feeling ultra-portable and compact, especially since it’s lightweight despite the sturdy aluminium aluminium construction.

The downside of that is that ports have been trimmed back even further. Two USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports offer power delivery and DisplayPort functionality, along with a headphone jack and microSD card reader. That’s it. For some that will be enough, but others will lament the fact that other manufacturers still find the space for USB-A ports in laptops just as slim as Dell’s – vital when most accessories still use that larger port.

It’s admirable that Dell has found the space to contract the XPS 13 down further, and the changes to the screen and keyboard are entirely welcome. The aesthetic may be more functional than flashy, but otherwise this is one of the best built ultrabooks around – it’s just a shame that as ever it’s marred by the absence of a simple USB port.

Specs and performance: Can’t handle the heat

The XPS 13 also got one big internal change for 2020: the adoption of Intel’s 10th generation 10nm chipsets, which allow for improved power efficiency and performance, along with that slightly smaller body.

While some markets have a cheaper i3 base model available, in the UK you’ll have to choose between an i5 or i7 – the latter is what I’ve been testing. It’s worth noting that these are all quad-core chips, as Intel hasn’t made six-core versions available yet for its 10nm chips – so some may still prefer to opt for the late 2019 XPS 13 refresh that offers six-core processors.

As you’d expect at this size there’s no option for discrete GPUs, so you’re stuck with Intel’s integrated graphics – though there’s now the choice between UHD or its more powerful Iris Plus graphics chip. Meanwhile RAM ranges from 4GB up to 16GB of DDR4, with storage from 256GB up to 1TB – all SSD, naturally, and upgradeable rather than soldered on.

In terms of actual performance, the XPS 13 is predictably strong, but not perfect. In Geekbench’s raw CPU benchmark it shows an expected boost over last year’s model, and perhaps surprisingly the Iris Plus graphics has given it a serious boost in the Sky Diver graphics test.

The telling benchmark is PCMark however, which is the one that best simulates real-world day-to-day usage, and here the 2020 model actually lags slightly behind the 2019 edition we tested. Why? My best bet is that thermals to blame.

A smaller chassis means less room for airflow and heat dissipation. XPS 13s have always run hot, but this year’s is especially prone to overheating – even just running Slack, Spotify, and a few (or maybe a lot of) Chrome tabs is enough to make the keyboard uncomfortably hot to the touch. That kind of heat means throttling and reduced performance, which PCMark does a good job of catching.

This is still a powerful machine, but the thermal issues make me hesitant to recommend the i7 model, as you’re unlikely to get all the benefit of the CPU anyway. If your work is less demanding and an i5 will suffice then this will be a great machine, but if you need the power of an i7 then there are other ultrabooks that can handle the heat better.

As for battery life, the 10nm Intel chips save the day here, with their added power efficiency helping Dell eke an extra hour out of the same battery capacity as last year. This isn’t the longest-running laptop around, but it handled 12 hours of continuous video playback in our testing, and should comfortably last a day for most users.

Finally, connectivity is strong, with both Bluetooth 5 and Wi-Fi 6, the latest standards for each. There’s no 5G support – though Dell did include that in its updated Latitude 9510, so look for it to make it into next year’s iteration of the XPS.

Price and availability

The 2020 XPS 13 is out now worldwide. In the UK it starts from £1,349 on Dell’s own site, but watch out – that’s a model that runs Linux, not Windows. The cheapest Windows 10 model right now is £1,399, which gets you an Intel i5 processor, 8GB RAM, and 512GB storage.

In the US it starts from $999, which includes a Core i3 processor, 256GB storage, and 8GB of RAM – Dell appears to have discontinued a previous model that had a laughable 4GB RAM.

That pricing isn’t outrageous, though the likes of the HP Envy 13 can give you similar specs for less, while you could spend a similar amount on the Huawei MateBook X Pro and get a bigger display, better design, and a discrete GPU too.

Check out the rest of our best laptop chart for more options, and to see how the XPS 13 stacks up against the competition.

Verdict

The XPS 13 was once the undisputed king of the ultrabook world, but the competition has stepped up its game and Dell isn’t quite doing enough to keep pace.

A beautiful 16:10 display and the best keyboard you’ll find anywhere are enough to mean the XPS is well worth a look for anyone considering a Windows ultrabook, but the caveats feel more pointed than ever.

Rival devices have more ports, better thermals, and often cost less to boot, meaning it now feels like you’re paying a real premium for the Dell name alone.

This is by no means a bad laptop, and improves on the previous edition in several ways. If you buy one you’ll probably love it, but poor ports and heat problems stop this year’s XPS 13 from reclaiming its throne.

Specs

Dell XPS 13 9300 (2020): Specs

Processor: 10th-gen Intel Core i3-1005G1, i5-1035G1, i7-1065G7

Graphics: Intel UHD or Iris Plus

Display: 13.4in UltraSharp 4K Ultra HD (3840×2400) InfinityEdge HDR 400 touch display or Full HD+ (1920 x 1200) InfinityEdge touch or non-touch display

Memory: 4GB-32GB LPDDR4 Dual Channel SDRAM at 3733MHz (On Board)

Storage: 256/512GB/1/2TB PCIe SSD

Battery: 52Wh

Ports: 2x Thunderbolt 3 with power delivery and DisplayPort (4 lanes of PCI Express Gen 3), microSD card reader, headset jack

Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5

Dimensions: Height: 296 x 199 x 14.8 -11.6mm

Weight: 1.2kg

Source

The post Dell XPS 13 9300 (2020) review appeared first on abangtech.

from abangtech https://abangtech.com/dell-xps-13-9300-2020-review/

0 notes

rksona · 7 years

Photo

★ — royal survival, episode 4 ;

an interview with nam dawon ! ( with bonus halloween spooks ! )

it would have been difficult for dawon to feel comfortable in such a spacious room had it not been for the beautiful outfits that made up her surroundings. it was easy to get lost in their intricate designs and patterns, meaning the hard work that had gone into making them was not lost on her. she was amazed by each piece, and simply looking at them was enough to ease her nerves to a certain degree. her cousin would have had the time of her life if she were there; dawon made a mental note to tell her about all that she'd seen later on, though she doubted that words alone would do the clothes much justice.

the reporter seemed eager to begin as soon as greetings were taken care of, and dawon doesn’t think she can blame them; interviewing eleven girls would take no short amount of time, after all. she wonders how the other girls had done on their interviews so far, though she doesn’t allow herself to get too caught up in the thought. she should spend this time focusing on her own interview, not theirs. she did her best to politely smile in the reporter’s direction, hands folded across her lap as she waited for the first question, which came not a second later.

“if you were born again, would you want to be an idol?” they asked, and she finds herself grateful that they had started out with what was arguably an easy question. “yes, definitely,” she answered almost right away, nodding her head as the smile from before remained on her lips. “singing… it makes me happier than anything else. i feel like it’s what i was born to do, and i don’t imagine that i’d feel any different in any life. so, even if i was born again, i still think i’d work towards becoming an idol, just as i am now.”

“where would you like to be in five years?” it was somewhat of an easy question, though it was one that required some thought nonetheless. where would she like to be in five years? “i don’t think i’ve thought that far ahead,” she admitted honestly with a soft chuckle, though she’s quick to speak up again before silence manages to set in. “but… i’d like to be performing a group that makes people happy, one that other girls can look up to. i’d be happy with that. my heart is set on debuting at the moment, so that’s all i can think of right now,” she finished, another playful laugh escaping her.

“how is your relationship with your hypothetical group mates?” dawon was almost tempted to let out a sigh of relief, as this was a question she could handle one-hundred percent honestly (she doesn’t, but she’s tempted). “with so many girls, there are definitely a few that i haven’t gotten the chance to know very well,” she began, thinking for a short moment before proceeding. “but we get along well! there hasn’t been any conflict for me, which is something i’m grateful for. i really like everyone here, but i’d say i have the best relationship with seolhyun and eunae.”

“what do you do in your free time?” the reporter asked, and dawon would be lying to say she wasn’t growing nervous. it was easy to assume that there’d be more personal questions coming her way, and she was anxious to hear them, whenever they might come. “besides practicing, you mean?” she asked in response, a soft chuckle escaping her. dawon smiled, thinking for a bit before answering the question further. “i like to exercise! it helps to keep me focused, and i always feel so much better after a trip to the gym. at home, though, i also enjoy gaming. it’s really fun.”

“are you dating anyone right now?” and there it was, the question that had undoubtedly been on the reporter’s mind the entire time. dawon’s grateful that she’ll be able to answer this one honestly without finding herself in hot water, though she also has to worry about making sure that no one suspects that she’s lying. “no, i’m not dating anyone,” she replied, gently shaking her head as she spoke. “there’s not enough time for that!” more light laughter slipped past her lips. there were times that she’d come close to dating, but none of those relationships had really taken off (much to her distress at the time). though, even if she was dating, she doesn’t suppose that she would have answered any differently.

“what do you think of your company’s dating ban?” another dating question, to no one’s surprise, following up the last. it seemed that they couldn’t leave the topic alone. they’d ask about anything that could create gossip, dawon knew. “what’s there to think about?” she questioned, inclining her head to the side ever so slightly. “it’s there for a reason, and i’m not interested in dating anyone at the moment, so there’s no reason it should bother me.” maybe if they had asked her several months sooner her answer would have been different, but things had changed. the only person that tempted her to go against the dating ban was gone, and there was nothing else to be said on the matter. “i’m more interested in debuting at the moment.”

“do you have an ideal type?” they asked, and dawon was unable to stop the smile that was forming on her lips. “aah, i don’t know, i haven’t thought about it,” she answered softly, laughing for a moment before preparing herself to come up with a better answer. it wasn’t too difficult of a question, but she also didn’t want to slip up by accidentally referring to her ideal type as a ‘she’. “someone who is lively! bright, and with a good sense of humor. i’d say that’s my ideal type.” she nodded, the amused smile on her lips shifting into something a little warmer.

once the interview was complete, the reporter, producer, and cameraman proceeded to depart from the room, explaining that they had to discuss her interview further. dawon was left in the spacious room alone, and she didn’t like it at all. she found herself looking to the clothes for comfort once more, as she found solace in the time spent admiring them. humming to herself as she drummed her fingers upon her lap to pass the time, dawon patiently waited for about a minute or so, the thought of standing from her seat not once having crossed her mind. they’d come back for her once everything was sorted, she knew. they wouldn’t leave her alone for too long, right?

seemingly out of nowhere, a nearby mannequin that appeared to be drifting on its own caught dawon’s attention. she didn’t know how to explain it, and, if she were being honest, she wasn’t sure if she even wanted to know what was responsible for the movement. “hello?” she called in the mannequin’s direction, not daring to move from her seat as anxiety began to kick in. silence. “is… uh, is anyone there?” she called out again, only to be met with silence once more. the fact that it was october didn’t help, as this seemed awfully similar to how a horror movie might begin.

not even a moment later the mannequin toppled over, and, having been so startled by the sight, dawon let out a frightened yell. her hands covered her mouth, and she remained petrified, staring in the collapsed mannequin’s direction. the dress appeared to have been torn, though dawon wasn’t brave enough to confirm this. was this some consequence of her bad luck? things had been going arguably well for her lately—she wouldn’t be surprised if the world was playing some cruel trick on her to balance the scale. her heart was racing, though she still didn’t dare move from her seat. she had no interest in dying today, so she wasn’t willing to take any chances.

much to her relief (and subsequent dismay), the designer returned to the room a moment later, along with the producer and reporter. dawon initially took comfort, figuring that there was safety in numbers, though the designer’s expression upon seeing the dress brought made her realize that the ghost was the least of her worries. “what happened? what did you do?” the designer asked, not the least bit amused. dawon slowly lowered her hands from her face, though they continued to shake from nervousness once they had returned to her lap.

“i don’t know how to explain it, the mannequin… it started moving on its own,” she explained truthfully, though she didn’t expect anyone to believe her. “i didn’t even stand up from my seat, i promise! the dress was so pretty, i… it just fell over...” she paused, staring in disbelief as she tried to think through her options, desperate to find the best way to handle the situation. she regretted telling the truth, as she’s almost certain that they’ll think of her as a liar from this point forward; but there was no way to put the words back in her mouth. “i’m so sorry, i… i didn’t mean for any of this to happen. please, i’ll pay for it, if i can,” though in no way did she possess the proper funds to compensate for such a dress.

when did today turn into such a nightmare?

#royalsurvival4 #solo;#royalsurvival;#( wc: 1569 )#( here we go!! a spooked dawon!! )

5 notes · View notes

mobius-prime · 4 years

Text

183. Sonic the Hedgehog #115

Meanie in a Bottle

Writer: Benny Lee Pencils: Art Mawhinney Colors: Jason Jensen

So I haven't really been mentioning them, but in lieu of the intro pages that older issues had, lately most issues have begun instead with a full-page illustration relevant to the story content. This one is no different, except that instead of depicting something that actually happens within the issue, it reimagines Sonic as Aladdin, which is honestly very cute. The actual plot of the main story does involve a genie, but it's a very silly story, a rare thing nowadays. Fittingly, Art Mawhinney is the artist, since his style is very cartoony, but weirdly enough, we've actually got ourselves a new colorist for this issue, one Jason Jensen. I have to say, his coloring style is probably the most interesting and dynamic we've seen so far, and while it looks lovely with its more complex shading and somewhat more realistic colors, the style ultimately kind of suffers from being paired with Art's pencils. Don't get me wrong, Art isn't a bad artist by any means - how could he be, with a name like that? - but his style just clashes weirdly with Jason's colors, making for kind of a jarring combination. But enough of that, onto the story! Sonic is playing fetch with the roboticized Muttski near a lake when he accidentally throws the stick into the water. Muttski obediently jumps in after it, and Sonic, worried for his dog's safety, leaps in after him.

I find it a little interesting, his comment about hating water and the implication that he can't swim. After all, throughout the entirety of the comic 'verse so far, Sonic's and Knuckles' swimming skills have kind of been swapped, with Sonic being a decent swimmer who enjoys a nice dip in the summer, and Knuckles being the one who can't swim and is afraid of water. It seems they're finally trying to align Sonic's swimming skills with that of his game counterpart, but after so many issues depicting him swimming without a problem, it's kind of a weird, sudden loss of ability. Anyway, as soon as he grabs the bottle, it shoots him and his dog safely to the surface of the water. Upon opening the bottle, a genie shoots out, and Sonic excitedly asks if this means he gets three wishes. The genie seems annoyed by this question, and decides to give him a little "present" anyway before flying away, zapping both him and Muttski at the same time.

Sonic realizes in shock that he has quickly run out of energy while Muttski bounds ahead, and gets a checkup from Dr. Quack, who confirms his worst fears - the genie straight up swapped his and Muttski's speeds, making Sonic an ordinary runner and Muttski a supersonic robot dog. Man, what is it about this comic loving to take away Sonic's speed through random happenstance? You'd think he'd kind of be used to it by now. He dejectedly, over the next few days, tries to figure out how to control his dog, who is now racing all across Knothole at ridiculous speeds and even offering some speedy help to people in need. After a few days of these shenanigans, Sonic and Muttski are once again playing a game of fetch in the forest, when Sonic spots the same genie floating around nearby and sics Muttski on him. Muttski swallows the genie whole, because it's the best way to keep him from running (flying?) away, and Sonic promises to let the genie back out if he gets his three wishes, to which the genie irritably agrees.

Wait, Sonic! Are you serious? That's your final wish? First of all I actually kind of find it funny that his wishes in this issue were very similar to the ones at the end of Secret Rings, in that he basically uses the first two as a fix-it for all the stuff that's happened over the course of the story and uses the final one to re-trap the offending genie back into its prison, but second of all, don't you think that third and final wish could be better used on, say, world peace or something? Maybe a guaranteed defeat of Egg… man… hey, wait a second, guys! Has anyone noticed the conspicuous lack of Eggman in the past few issues? I mean, I know his city got blown up pretty hard back in StH#110, but this is a Robotnik we're talking about. He's kind of known for coming back from seemingly certain death to torment the world time and time again. No one seems concerned at all with making absolutely sure that he's gone, but I have a feeling that the destruction of Robotropolis isn't the end of Eggman's story…

The Spaz Sketchbook

Writer/Pencils: Spaz

So here we've got something quite interesting! This isn't actually a story, but rather a collection of concept art by Patrick Spaziante, for various characters and machines of issues past, scrapped concepts that never made it into print, and even a few sketches for some upcoming stories! Unfortunately I can't just post every page here - that would be way too many pictures - but they're free to look at on the Archie Sonic wiki for those who are interested in viewing the full thing. I've decided to only include a couple things here, being sketches that I found the most interesting. First up we have a concept for Rob o' the Hedge that was ultimately scrapped in favor of making him look… well… exactly like Sonic.

Seriously, this design is so much more interesting! I mean, sure he kind of still looks like a recolored Sonic OC with a few details changed to make him stand out, but let's face it, that's what basically every hedgehog looks like in the Archieverse. As it stands, this design is way more unique-looking, and has much more visual interest than just making him a slightly lighter-colored Sonic clone.

A few pages in, we have what looks like a large, segmented train of sorts, which has its description box blocked out with a large "CAUTION: SPOILER INFO" sticker plastered over it. There's obviously relevant text behind it, but only a couple of words at the beginning and end show through, giving us a tantalizing glimpse at something that might come up here in a few issues. There's some references to a scrapped arc that takes place on Mobius twenty years in the future that depicts an older, redesigned Knuckles and Julie-Su - hmm, wonder if we'll ever see anything come of that eventually? - and then some pages devoted to plans for a manga-style alternate universe that never saw the light of day, due to the Sonic Super Special series being cancelled.

I include these mostly because they're really cute! I mean, the series has already been going in a much more anime-inspired direction with its art as of late, so it's interesting to see how that has been an inspiration for the art team for quite a while, even before Ron Lim and Steven Butler started really Nihon-ing it up. We conclude with a final page in which every sketch's text is completely spoilered out, but we can take our best guess at what the art depicts just from looking at it.

Two of those designs are pretty obviously Mecha Sonic and a new Mecha Tails, meaning we might be seeing those two get roboticized sometime in the near future. As for the other robots, given their unique designs, we can safely assume that we're looking at roboticized versions of Flying Frog, Lightning Lynx, and Predator Hawk. The top left robot is a little more ambiguous, but I just cheated and looked at the wiki, which informed me that it's a roboticized Drago. Man, how did this big ol' string of roboticizations happen, huh? It's almost like Eggman might not be truly gone…

Ultimate Power (Part Two)

Writer: Ken Penders Pencils: Dawn Best Colors: Jensen

So, we can pretty safely assume that Mammoth Mogul is up to no good. Harry drops him off at the hospital in Echidnaopolis just as Lien-Da leaves the building, and he walks in, gloating in the doorway over his former enemy lying so helplessly in the middle of all the life support gear.

It's kind of amazing how in the span of barely over a dozen issues, Penders has managed to take Dimitri from a hated villain that we're certain wants to conquer the world, and rebrand him as a tired, ancient old man just trying to do the best for his people using the only means he knows. These issues have really given a much different perspective on Dimitri that we've never seen before, painting him in a much more sympathetic light and even making us root for him in some respects. After all, I know I certainly don't want him to die here, and more and more it seems like the real danger within the modern Legion is Lien-Da, with a whole hidden agenda of her own.

Unaware of the brewing catastrophe, Knuckles, Julie-Su, and the Chaotix are hanging out in a park, generally enjoying the time they have together. Knuckles explains to everyone how his fur color changed from Rad Red to Gross Green, and demonstrates some of his newfound powers by producing a bouquet of flowers from thin air, much to Julie-Su's delight. I can't say she's the type of girl who I would have expected to be so happy with flowers, but hey, I can see her maybe being touched by a gesture that's so normal, in contrast to her messed-up past. Knuckles sobers the mood up, however, by saying that he really needs to go see his father about his powers, which begs the question of why he hasn't done so before now, and leads everyone away to the Brotherhood's new, temporary place of residence, what with Haven being wrecked and all. In the Legion's own secret base within Echidnaopolis, Lien-Da converses with what appears to be her assistant, Gae-Na, about Dimitri's state of being. The base appears to be small-time, something Lien-Da has had recently set up by a few loyal underlings of her own without Dimitri's knowledge, as she discusses that if the echidna's main council votes to not go through with reunification she's ready to go through with her "backup plan." Knuckles and co. enter the temporary Brotherhood base, noting how run-down it seems in comparison, but upon heading into the main room they're met with a nasty shock on screen…

Well, I'm sure nothing but good things will come of this…

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #sth 115 #writer: benny lee #writer: ken penders #pencils: art mawhinney #pencils: pat spaziante #pencils: dawn best #colors: jason jensen

0 notes

recentanimenews · 5 years

Text

Your Virtual Tour of Pokemon Center London

Being a Pokémon fan in the United Kingdom hasn’t always been easy. I’ve spent years watching with envy and emptying my wallet with shipping and customs fees to import the wonders that grace the U.S. and Japan while putting our slim pickings to shame. As someone whose life revolves this monster collecting franchise, it’s always been my ultimate dream to visit a Pokémon Center store—but one out of my reach, due to the sheer cost of flying to Asia. With Pokémon Sword and Shield putting my country on the series’ world map with the Galar region however, a part of my dream was delivered to my doorstep, so while it still feels surreal to write this, here’s my guide to Pokémon Center London!

Open from October 18 until the new games’ worldwide launch on November 15 2019, this unbelievable treasure can be found tightly tucked into the first floor of London’s intimidatingly huge Westfield shopping mall (about a 25 minute tube trip from King’s Cross). After navigating the maze of designer brands, the Pokémon Center is unmissable, because of the cheery, suit-wearing Pikachu waving you in!

I was giddy with excitement before going on, but honestly didn’t know what to expect when I first walked into the store. The first thing I saw was an open space flanked on the right by an ominous warning to my bank balance: the checkouts! To the left, however, was the more pacifying sight of plushies—lots of plushies! The Kanto starters, the vast Eevee family tree, and other popular Pokémon like Gengar were primed for being stuffed into shopping baskets, as were large and incredibly cuddly-looking plushies of Mimikyu, Ditto, and an absolute unit of a Wailord, which I regret not buying despite its near £50 ($65 approx) price tag!

With Sword and Shield being the reason for the store in the first place, I wasn’t surprised to see some Nintendo Switch love, but did items widely available elsewhere really need almost an entire section? Advance stock of the Zacian and Zamazenta Lite would’ve gone down a treat, but alas, that releases only a month before the store closes. I was really tempted by the new purple and orange Joy-Con though, but decided to save my money for the real pièce de résistance: exclusive merch!

Just look at all the dapperly dressed Pikachu! The electric Londoner’s pinchable face also adorned quintessentially British items like mugs (perfect for a cuppa) and umbrellas (honestly the best bit of the range—we “love” the weather!) filled the rest of the section, alongside other bits like badges, tote bags, and even a snuggly fleece throw. As a competitive Trading Card Game player, I need to give a shout-out to that gorgeous playmat that I’ll no doubt rocking at tournaments to come. All items in this range are strictly one per person though, so you won’t be able to pick up duplicates for a friend (or online auction sites… yeah).

After journeying to Galar, you’ll no doubt want to see its native Pokémon! Lurking on the other side of the store’s short dividing tunnel and a small selection of Pokémon: Detective Pikachu goodies, including a beautifully creepy Ludicolo plush (that I regret not picking up) and Psyduck with oddly reflective beaks, you’ll find our soon-to-be partner Pokémon: Grookey, Scorbunny and Sobble!

If you haven’t decided on your Sword and Shield starter yet, forget waiting for evolutions—here’s where you decide. I’ve been Team Grookey since Day 1, so snapped up a comfy varsity jacket, a mug, and a plush. Now that I’ll be showing off the funky monkey whenever I leave the house, I can’t wait for it to disappoint me in the same way Primarina did (it’s not bad, but compared to Decidueye or Incineroar?). They were unfortunately the only Galarian Pokémon on show though, with no big fluffy Wooloo to be seen.

I’d say my only real disappointment with Pokémon Center London, is its throwaway treatment of my favorite merch line: “Sitting Cuties”. With every Generation 1 and 2 Pokémon receiving a plush, I was overjoyed that my underappreciated faves like Primeape and Donphan were finally getting some love. After seeing photos of them all lined up in Japanese Pokémon Centers, I was expecting something similar here. But we didn’t get that.

The only Sitting Cuties to be found were in small baskets in a far back corner, with the 12 Pokémon available (not pictured: Wartortle and Gloom) being so random that I wonder if they’re simply what the warehouses had left over (should Kantonian Ponyta be considered a rare import though?). My adoration of Johto’s forgotten darling Janine meant I couldn’t resist the bug-eyed Venomoth though, and at £11 ($14.28 approx), they’re the cheapest plushies in the store.

Trading Card Game players may want to focus their attention further down the wall though, with a large collection of boosters, decks, accessories and more. Eagled-eyed collectors may even notice that the Pikachu-GX and Eevee-GX Special Collectionhas two boosters of the Cosmic Eclipse set ahead of its 1st November release! After one last push for London themed apparel though, that’s it for the shopping part of Pokémon Center London!

Once your wallet is done crying at the checkout though, you may remember a flight of stairs near the entrance. The second floor of Pokémon Center London is packed with demos of Sword and Shield both docked on televisions, and on bolted down Switch Lites.

The same experience seen at E3 earlier this year, I had three attempts at clearing Nessa’s water-type gym… but timed out each time. You basically need to memorise the puzzle to have any chance at making the ten minute timer, and one playthrough even saw me deliver the finishing blow, before being robbed of the victory! So clearly, I have unfinished business to take care of on November 15. I’m also fully expecting Impidimp to want revenge on me, after repeatedly throwing Corviknight Steel Wings in their faces!

After finally going hands on with my most anticipated game of the year, I have to say it looks gorgeous on the compact handheld’s screen. The 3D models looked crisp and the colors vibrant, but this sadly didn’t translate to my experience on the docked demo stations, which exposed the models’ jagged edges. It is worth noting that this is an older build though, and I can’t deny that I loved the novelty of seeing a giant Dynamax Grookey blow up on the bigger screen! I also really appreciated the little details that really helped the game feel alive, like the crowd cheering whenever a Pokémon was knocked out.

With me having exhausted attempts at finishing the demo though, my time at Pokémon Center London came to a close, and it was time for me to hoist my two bags of shopping home. Overall, I had a great time and it still feels unreal that I had an opportunity to visit a Pokémon Center, on my doorstep no less! This definitely did feel like a more limited, temporary experience though, and it has made me even more motivated to one day visit one of the Japanese stores!

While I wasn’t able to note down the prices for every product, for an idea of how much to budget, the exclusive London Pikachu plush is £20 ($25.97), Galar starter plushies are £18 ($23.37), and the umbrellas are £29 ($37.39) each. If you’re not careful, you could be like me and end up with a £300 ($389.55) bill at the checkout!

Pokémon Center London is open from October 18 to November 15 between 10am and 10pm (12pm - 6pm on Sundays). I’d advise getting there as early as possible and expect lengthy queues, as demand has been unprecedented. On its first two days, the store had to close the lines as early as 11:45am, so keep an eye on Westfield London's Twitter for updates! More information can be found at Pokémon.com.

Have you ever been to a Pokémon Center? And what’s the favorite piece of Pokémon merchandise you own? Let us know in the comments!

Josh A. Stevens is a freelance PR with UK anime industry experience, and a writer at Anime UK News. You can follow him @Joshawott.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

0 notes