#its not worth the pricetag
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Marvel's Midnight Suns Deserved Better
I finally finished my second playthrough of this game, with all the dlc. On stream, and after a disaster dumpster fire of the game and stream obs lagging as hell, I just want to jot down all my thoughts.
Marvel's midnight suns is a perfect example of the modern gaming scene and why it's failing so many gamers.
The core concept of this game, the story, voice acting and gameplay are great and fun- but it has so many fucking problems.
From being visually buggy as hell- to optimization issues in the final fight- characters having soulless faces and textures going missing at random.. To the DLC and the price tag.
If you buy legendary edition, for 99,- (season pass, plus all the extra cosmetics) I'd say its not worth it.
The dlc add 4 characters, one of which has a bugged steam trophy- It adds extra story missions (which are fun, but they don't add much more than there was) and some more cosmetics for those characters.
Out of every dlc character, Storm felt the least developed. Storm has a similar problem to Steve in this game- in which their personalities are not really shining, and reduced to a singular character trait they have. The voice acting not being the problem- but the writing. While I can remember Venom's story, Deadpool's banter, and Morbius' emo shit making me laugh and tear up like hell- Storm really deserved better. All I can recall is saving the morlocks and doing one final mission were she happened to also be.
Steve is ''Mr leadership man''- Storm is ''hold your emotions in'' Lady.
Villains and dialogue- all the little things in the cinematics. It was great. You really care for Wanda- You worry about Hunter and their horrible family dynamics. You're concerned for Tony and the avengers when the Hulk gets caught- You mourn with the midnight suns when Wanda screams ''You will never hurt me again''
Corny superhero banter (which i love, but sometimes repetitive mid-battle lines get old.), cute evil devil doggo. Very sexy mephisto. Magik is frigging awesome. Blade x Captain marvel- Epic frigging final moves- and cool fighting animations. This game has so much going for it.
Sometimes dialogue will not match the subtitles, I assumed at first this is because you have a female / male voice actor depending on the bodytype you pick- so the dialogue must be different yes? But no- even all the other heroes have mis-matching subtitles to different dialogue lines. It's minor things usually- Like a word or sentence being said very differently than how its written.
But its essentially a cashgrab with texture bugs, deadpan doll expressions- visual glitches (enemies not disappearing after they're slain sometimes), copypasta idle animations and bodytypes- the further you go in the game, the more there seem to be of these little things. First they're funny- then it gets a little too distracting.
This game had all the building blocks of a great game, but it comes with the typical dlc problem too- and just doesn't deliver. It feels very empty promises eventually. It drops a nice typical after credits cutscene that teases Dr Doom and a potential sequel. And I wonder if there's even going to be one at all. Or an expansion instead.
I love each and every character brought into this game. (except for Steve and Storm, they just weren't done much justice.) This game made me like Captain marvel while otherwise I dislike how she is portrayed personality wise in other media.
The final mission should've felt like the most epic conclusion- and by how laggy and sparkly it is it feels like it just explodes in your face with what its been build up towards. A child and mother reunite- but they meet an open end. All after defeating the longest- laggiest- spammiest battle.
It's quirky, it's silly. It's got all the feelings. It has cool things in it and yet it feels very cheap. It should've been cheaper. But its still treated as a finished product. It did not feel finished. Even if I loved and enjoyed this game to the end.
My stream recording literally contains frozen visuals while the audio is in tact. I can't even. Sure my pc isn't the best but this is beyond absurd.
Voice acting 9/10 Majority of characters are great- everyone has a fitting voice. Some lines could've been better. Characters will banter and sometimes have unique dialogue for certain team combinations but not much.
Writing 7/10 A bit corny and predictable at times, but enjoyable nonetheless. Flawed stories tend to be easier to absorb and follow- Superhero stories follow such recipe.
Wish they added pronouns- To save on voice line costs they made hunter standardly nonbinary regardless of bodytype- so Hunter only has ''they/them'' pronouns. Isn't referred to as son/daughter, only child and gender neutral terms. This is completely fine, but I personally like to be able to customize my character more. This game offers no romance- but hints that Wanda may have a crush on the player character. You can't tell her you're not interested but you can joke that you're a couple with one dialogue option.. (I tend to make my PCs gay because I am a gay dude myself.)
The lore they used for this game was really intriguing. Chthon and Atum have some more appearances in the comics from what I can remember, so learning about The Blood and the Old gods mythology in particular in the game's universe did make me really like the backstory they gave the PC. Caretaker x Agatha lesbian witch moms. The hunter has three mothers canonically if you don't think too hard- but both Caretaker and Lilith are horrible people lol. Wanda is definitely the best character in this game, if not for the rest of the midnight suns- (Nico, Robbie, Blade and Magik are AWESOME) The avengers are here too, but they don't outshine the rest. Oh- and spider-man gets kind of adopted into both groups.
Gameplay Loop 6/10 Combat! It's fun and challenging sometimes but gets eventually and quickly repetitive. At some point you'll get more and more copypasta enemies with just different textures slapped on and similar animations. The DLC enemies are not worth it and don't offer much more. The dracula boss fights were the most interesting and felt a little rewarding once dealt with. Exploring the abbey with stale walking / running animation does not feel smooth. Crafting potions or items doesn't feel like it adds much sometimes. I've not used items often in my gameplay. The chests make me wonder if at some point they wanted to put more micro transactions in this game.
Pricetag 2/10 Honestly- Get it on sale. Big sale. Legendary edition is not worth it.
DLC does not add much to the core gameplay unless you really want those character interactions and dialogue. The side missions are fine story wise, but they aren't attached to the main campaign. Deadpool and Eddie have the most additional dialogue during abbey time and other interactions- Morbius has unique dialogue during a very few main story quests- and Storm just has the least. They slipped in the morbin' time meme.. I just.. PFFF its time to morb everyone- 20 bucks worth at least. If not less.
TLDR Game funny, characters great, fun but very repetitive, very buggy, not worth 99 euros- 20 maybe, stop making dlc with texture swap enemies please. I love deadpool. Great design but very unpolished in places.
#midnight suns#marvel midnight suns#marvel#video game#review#my thoughts#final thoughts#its not worth the pricetag#its worth the experience#good gameplay#questionable dlc practices#get it on sale#dont bother with legendary edition the cosmetics arent worth it#finished not perfect#polish it please#yet still feels unfinished#it sequel baits but do people even know if its getting one?#funny banter and silly superheroes#theres no romance its all about friendship
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always amazed at how some games microtransactions are objectively not worth it. Like I play fire emblem heroes on the regular but even if i wanted to spend money its so disproportionately priced. Why yes it is worth spending $4 to pull ONE character meanwhile events and login bonuses the past 3 months have given me enough summoning items to get well over 100 characters and i didnt put a cent in for that let alone more then 5 minutes of playing per day on days i actually play.
Dont get me started on the scam pass, for the low low price of $9 a month you get to do a FULL summoning session as a bonus (and a few extra items but nothing of consequence), some reskinned character, and a slight stat bonus to a character. I want to emphasize how little this impacts your progress in the game and how most of this is cosmetic and just bullshit priced. For 12 months of this you could buy two mainline games second hand which has far more content then what you get from the scam pass.
I am losing my mind at how obviously predatory these things are priced at, even at half the price i dont think any of it is worth it. Every so often i see deals and think “maybe they made it worth my while” but no its just enough items for maybe a stat boost or one summon for $15
#im f2p as hell on mobile games lmao#but no way in hell is any of this worth the pricetag#come at me when its 70% off and ill actually consider it#feh#feh pass#feh scam pass#shenanigans
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Finished the Mario + Rabbids last sparkhunter dlc yesterday and I'm still thinking about Mario bowing to the warden they didn't have to make him so cute like that ;.;
#that clip was worth the $15 pricetag alone waaaah#but now i cant find the gif of it to reblog :(#i saw it on thursday!!! but its gone now :(#anyway i guess i have to teach myself how to gif things lmaoo#i want it on my blog!!!#mlv.txt
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Horrorfest: To Make me Fret or Make Me Frown [Yandere Scaramouche x Reader]
Title: To Make Me Fret or Make Me Frown [Yandere Scaramouche x Reader]
Synopsis: You bought a life-size puppet in terrible condition and restored it. But now it doesn't want to let you go.
For Horrorfest request:
Might be cheesy, but Scaramouche haunted puppet for horrorfest? Maybe reader inherits an uncannily lifelike doll, or finds him as an antique?
Word count: 1156
notes: yandere, puppet shenanigans
“He’s creepy,” your friend says. Her nose crinkles and she puts a hand up as if she can ward away whatever haunting abominations she imagines must be inside the doll, waiting to slither through her nostrils. “And weird,” she continues. “And broken.”
The doll has colorful blue hair and most of his strings are missing; one of his eyes is missing its pupil and an arm is cracked, a jagged wound that goes all the way to the fingers. If the doll were to be lifted, the damaged pinky on that arm would probably come right off--maybe the forefinger, too. He’s dirty and wearing only some cast-off shirt, itself probably too damaged to be sold by the secondhand store.
Your friend moves on, eager to head to the second floor where all the nice, expensive secondhand goods are kept, often behind glass cases so they don’t get damaged by looky-loos.
But you stay where you are.
Because the moment you took one look at the damaged life-size puppet propped up at the back of the store, in the same pricetag-less limbo as piles of tupperware with no lid, ripped books and ugly dolls missing arms, and your heart swelled.
“He’s perfect.”
--
The pinky on the damaged arm did come off before you even left the store, but you were able to salvage the original forefinger. The pinky, sadly, couldn’t be repaired--but you made a new one using the original as a mold and unless you’re staring quite intensely (which to be fair, you often do, when working on the puppet) you wouldn't be able to tell that it’s not original to the hand.
“I’d like to keep all your original parts as much as I can,” you murmur in the direction of the puppet, currently propped up on a chair you’d dragged into your workroom for the sole purpose of letting him have somewhere to sit while you worked. “You really are exquisite, you know? I can’t believe someone let you get into such rough shape.”
You sigh, lamenting the treatment of such a unique piece of craftsmanship, and place the finishing touches on the puppet’s repaired eye. The pupil needed to be filled in with new material but you went ahead and refreshed the iris of both eyes to make them look newer.
“Good as new, see?” You hold up both repaired eyes to the puppet, but realize your mistake when you’re greeted with a prim looking puppet with two black holes where his eyes should be.
“Oops.” You carefully slide the eyes back into the socket, fiddling with your finger until they slot right into place. “Sorry about that. I wasn’t thinking. There!” You grab the magnifying mirror from your desk and hold it up in front of the puppet. “Now, see? Much better.”
It took a few months of work, but the puppet was just about restored, in your view. You’d even bought a new outfit for him, a simple white blouse with ruffles and plain trousers. It wasn’t exactly what you imagined he might have worn originally, but that was fine.
“I’m glad I found you,” you say, to the puppet--and to yourself. “I’ve had a really nice time working on you!” You hum to yourself and start tidying up your work bench. “Now all that’s left is attaching your new strings, and I can have you picked up.” You smile, to yourself, to the puppet, to no one in particular. “I can’t believe that antique shop gave you away for free--they had no idea they were sitting on such a rare item!”
But you, who repaired dolls and the like for a living, immediately knew what the puppet was worth; and who to contact as soon as you were able to get it home, as you knew a friend with an antique shop that took special requests, and he had a particularly wealthy customer who was dying for one of these rare life-sized pieces.
The puppet with freshly painted eyes stares back at you and says nothing.
--
Something is sitting on your chest. Something heavy and cool to the touch.
Sleep paralysis? It wouldn’t be the first time. You did sleep on your back, after all, and your nights were sometimes restless.
But you open your eyes without trouble, and the sensation does not go away. It takes a few moments, blinking in the dark, to realize who (no--what) is sitting on you.
It’s the puppet.
Freshly painted eyes stare down at you, a face framed by the carefully sewn-in hair. In the dark, you can’t see the wood grains of his skin or the repair marks that you’d buffed until smooth. All you can see is his human shape, the gleam of glass eyes.
“What--” you say, before a wooden finger presses to your lips.
“You were going to sell me.” It’s the puppet--the puppet is speaking.
You nod, terrified, every nerve in your body inflamed.
This can’t be happening, and yet it is.
“Why?”
Your lips are dry and you stutter out an answer, hoping to wake up from this dream at any moment. But the more time goes on, the more you realize that you’re living in reality. An awful one, but reality all the same.
“I-I needed the money, you… you’re worth a lot.”
There’s a sound that comes from the puppet’s wooden throat, but you can’t quite place it.
“You can’t sell me,” he says, simply. If you weren’t sure that you’d lost your mind, you might say that he sounds upset. Not just angry, but--hurt.
“I-I won’t.” You swallow. “Just um. Get off me and I can…”
“No.” The glass eyes bore down on you, and you wish your eyes weren’t becoming accustomed to the dark. It was better not to see the cool stillness in them, unmoving, unblinking.
It’s then that you notice the strings.
Not on the puppet--but on you.
The strings are wrapped around your wrists, tight, pinching into the skin. When you look up you see he’s attached them not to a marionette control bar, but to his own fingers. To himself.
He raises his repaired pinky and your wrist goes along with it--too fast and harsh, nearly flopping over your face.
”Ah.” He regards your flopped appendage with curiosity, before simply lifting it himself and placing it back on your chest. “Well. I’ll have plenty of time to figure that out.”
He leans forward, pressing his weight down on you, until his face was close enough that you could spot your own work; spot the little fine details in the paint, the grooves of his wooden flesh, the way his hair fell in a certain manner thanks to the placement of your carefully created knots.
Oh, you thought, as his face came closer to yours, as he kissed you with puppet eyes wide open and wooden lips stiff.
The paint on his lips needed to be touched up.
#yandere scaramouche#yandere genshin impact#yandere#afterwitch writes#aw horrorfest#scaramouche with abandonment issues but in puppet form! dun dun dun
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I'd really like to play Baldurs Gate 3, and i'm sure it's worth the money,, but the pricetag is making me hesitate so much. its that kind of money that i dont really spend freely;;; hmm maybe sometime soon!
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Game Spotlight #6: Burning Rangers (1998)
Acquired Stardust tackles another Sega Saturn-exclusive title in 1998′s Burning Rangers! Come along with Ash as she takes a long look at a Sonic Team project from the very tail end of the Saturn’s life in America and some of the circumstances the platform was in at the time. An interesting game that has one foot firmly rooted in the past with Sega’s specialty in arcade gaming and one foot in the future with more experimental and narrative-focused games, it’s definitely a game worth your time with plenty of interesting history!
The year is 1998, and as the console wars of the time rage Sega finds itself a company in crisis. Multiple hardware missteps (iterative add-ons to their Genesis platform), internal divide between Sega of Japan and Sega of America over everything from release dates, hardware specifications and the purported “unsalvagability” of the character design of Sonic the Hedgehog according to Sega of America before the release of Sonic 1. There was also the matter of the looming release of Sony’s Playstation, a system Sega itself had a hand in creating after having previously declined working with Sony. It was a stunning reversal of fortune for Sega, who for a time seemed like they might just manage to steal the crown from Nintendo, particularly in the west.
It was this environment that lead to then-president of Sega Japan supposedly forcing then-president of Sega America, Tom Kalinske, to announce the immediate release of the Sega Saturn in the west at E3 1995, less than a year after its 1994 Japanese release. The surprise drop was handled in such a way that angered retailers, many of which refused to stock Saturn consoles and games, and the announcement of the immediate release and its pricetag lead to one of the most famous E3 moments of all time when then-president of Sony America Steve Race (himself a former employee under Sega’s Kalinske) walked on stage for a “brief presentation” and merely uttered “$299″, the price of Sony’s upcoming Playstation which was a whole hundred dollars less than the Saturn, before walking away, leading to an eruption of applause from the crowd. The feud between Sega America and Sega Japan didn’t end upon the 1996 resignation of Tom Kalinske either, with his successor Bernie Stolar (a controversial figure in his own right even beyond his time at Sega) famously saying “the Saturn is not our future” in an interview with EGM in 1997, two years before the launch of the Dreamcast in late 1999. Suffice it to say that the Saturn had a troubled lifespan, and that’s to say nothing of the lack of a mainline Sonic the Hedgehog release for the platform.
Sega America might’ve given up on the Saturn long beforehand, and indeed never wanted it in the first place, but it saw a stable stream of releases in Japan and even managed to sell better than its successor, the Dreamcast, in total lifetime sales by the end of both systems’ lifetimes. It is this environment that saw the release of Sonic Team’s Burning Rangers in 1998, one of only a shocking seven games released on the Saturn that entire year in America compared to a much larger number in Japan, which saw releases well into 1999.
Sonic Team may not have released a mainline Sonic the Hedgehog game on the Saturn, but we did get two non-Sonic releases from them in the form of NiGHTS into Dreams and Burning Rangers, two experimental titles that definitely saw Sonic Team testing out technology and ways of doing things that would find their way into the later Sonic Adventure series. Having felt that gaming had become too centered around killing enemies, Sonic Team set out to create a game in which the player would be tasked instead with saving people, and the result of that was Burning Rangers. Set on a near(?)-future Earth where most of our problems and differences have been solved (boy is that an almost depressingly optimistic vision of the future, huh?), humanity’s main source of danger comes in the form of fires, which the titular Burning Rangers fight as something of a special taskforce comprised of what are essentially charismatic superheroes. The whole thing has an odd Overwatch vibe to it, right down to the design of one of two playable characters, Tillis, who resembles Overwatch’s Tracer to a really uncanny degree.
Speaking of the design of characters, the art direction in the game is pretty awesome, possessing a certain anime coolness that the late 90s oozes. You know the time and vibe, right? Goggles, characters having poses with oddly specific hand gestures? That sort of aesthetic and energy is all over Burning Rangers, and it’s glorious. Along with the very ‘of its time’ vibe comes character names like “Lead Phoenix” (pronounced in the English dub of the game as ‘Reed Phoenix’), and one of the most insane and incredible names I’ve ever heard for a character in “Big Landman”. I’m not joking, that’s his actual name. And it’s great.
Along with the excellent art design is the animation, which is super high quality. In an odd coincidence, Burning Rangers was released on the exact same day in 1998 as Tenchu: Stealth Assassins which features a similarly beautifully animated array of acrobatics realistic and superhuman alike, though it’s worth noting that while Tenchu: Stealth Assassins was largely mocapped (by Sasuke/Ninja Warrior competitor Kane Kosugi and his father), Burning Rangers was supposedly mostly hand-animated. Helping to round out the presentation of the game is the audio design, which is purposefully minimalistic only featuring a few songs (one of which is sung in Japanese by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi). Seeking to immerse the player as much as possible, audio consists mostly of ambient noises of footsteps, fire and the chatter between the Burning Rangers taskforce over radio, and the intention definitely pays off because it really is rather immersive.
After selecting one of two playable characters (aforementioned cool anime hand man Shou Amabane and Tracer-before-she-was-Tracer Tillis), players are tasked with exploring a facility that is beset by fire, attempting to stop the blaze and rescue civilians along the way. In lieu of a map, Burning Rangers actually features a voice guidance system which has team leader Chris Parton give the player specific directions on their next destination along with the general radio chatter, which creates a surprisingly compelling and immersive experience, helped along by a voice cast that’s generally pretty good (though can be rough around the edges in English at times, mostly due to what seems like direction issues). Characters sound like just the right combination of charismatic, larger than life superheroes and real people doing their best to solve real crises across both languages.
Despite the serious nature of the story and the very real, relatable threat of fire and needing to rescue civilians from it, the difficulty of Burning Rangers is actually shockingly low, though your mileage may vary on whether that’s a good or a bad thing. I personally found it to be a very fun experience and was glad to not have to try excessively hard to get through the game’s four stages and four boss fights. Both playable characters also have different NPC civilians to rescue, with each civilian rewarding you with a followup email that contains more lore, simple banter about their lives or passwords for use after the game is beaten. There are also plenty of easter eggs in the game, such as being able to rescue various members of Sonic Team as in-game civilians, and the aforementioned password system that unlocks after the game is beaten which allows you to play as various otherwise unplayable characters like Lead Phoenix, Chris Parton and yes, of course, Big Landman.
Burning Rangers also bears a lot of hallmarks of Sonic Team, particularly the work they would do in the Dreamcast era. The player swims with a dolphin (Tillis can also inexplicably talk to animals), the final stage features Chaos-like blob monsters with it also inexplicably and very suddenly slipping into Sonic Adventure 2-style space colony scifi complete with a Maria analogue. It’s interesting to see some of the roots of Sonic Team working with these ideas and themes that resurface in later works, even with things that are more likely coincidences like another character named Big, a year before Sonic Adventure’s Big the Cat debuted.
The Sega Saturn may not have ever saw a mainline Sonic the Hedgehog release and although that absence is felt, in my opinion Burning Rangers is a very worthy title in the Sonic Team library and legacy, both contemporaneously and in retrospect. It’s a game that was incredibly innovative for its time in so many areas (interviews have since confirmed it was meant to be even more innovative, featuring 4-player online cooperative play in the year 1998), including managing to achieve transparent graphical effects which was thought to be extremely difficult to do if not outright impossible on the Saturn. It has unfortunately not ever received a port and therefore remains locked away on the Saturn, but its legacy lives on in things like the Sonic Adventure series, and even Overwatch which seems to pay homage to it in its premise and character design. It’s also an incredibly high note for the system to go out on in America, a justification for the Saturn’s existence despite Sega America’s reluctance to embrace it and at times hostility towards it.
A gem hidden among the stones, Burning Rangers is unquestionably stardust.
--Ash
#Game Recommendations#video games#retro games#retro gaming#sega#sega saturn#sonic team#burning rangers#ash#Acquired Stardust#game spotlights
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week of august 28th, 2022
aries: be ready for one of the more aries weeks on record. you may have been told you have a temper, but this week, so does everyone else. you can use these short fuses as a mirror for yourself. if it's driving you crazy in them, does it drive them crazy in you too? can you alter it?
taurus: keep your money on your mind this week. saving is okay, hoarding is not so much. your money likes to be in exchange, in flow. give it to worthy causes as well as you can, and buy for yourself things that you like and that are valuable to you regardless of their pricetag. and if money is tight, simply be as generous as you can with your other resources.
gemini: expect some tension this week. depending on your more recent decisions and paths, this could be fun, perhaps sexual tension, or it could be, you know, arguments and stuff. you may not know it until you see it. but for now, you are stuck with it, and later you will not be. so do not wallow and do not cling.
cancerians: you are probably accustomed to having big feelings and having them diminished or discounted by other people. this may be the sort of week where that is extra likely and extra annoying. so start it off right, by knowing your own worth and reminding yourself of it throughout each day, so that these offhand comments or rude behavior from other people don't hurt so much. wait until later if you need to have a "discussion" (which at this time would lead to an argument) about it.
leo: make good use of your last week with venus in your sign! this has surely been a shiny, glamorous, sparkly, vivid period. venus in virgo is much more understated. but this moving on also isn't bad, she will be great for you in financial realms and sticking to your truest values. for now, though, stay big and bold as much as you want. it is still auspicious, even if some think it's gaudy.
virgo: this week, especially toward the beginning, can have you feeling a little bit on edge. so go to extra lengths to keep your nervous system regulated, regardless of what's setting it off, or even if maybe you haven't noticed it being set off.
libra: even with mercury in the shadow of its retrograde, this is a pretty good time to send a fairly daring text (or whatever) to a romantic interest or sort of estranged partner, especially if you can keep from investing too much in it. just say how you feel. it magnifies and amplifies. so anything you need to keep quiet, keep quiet about, but anything you want to be heard and understood, all it takes now is a whisper.
scorpio: scattered/frantic feelings even out by the end of the week thanks to the help of the steady and rational capricorn moon. meanwhile there is a lot going on that is stimulating intellectually and neurologically, but you may be able to mine good resources from it as it occurs to other people just as much as it affects you.
sagittarius: if you're looking for romance and/or adventure, especially a combination of those things, you are more likely to find that in this week than usual. the only way it doesn't work is if you stay home keeping to yourself. it's okay right now to go looking for trouble!
capricorn: the week features intensely tense cardinal energy between libra and aries, which for you marks a critical need for work-home balance. keep your sanctuary in order, be kind to your body, and prioritize your private life at least as much as your public life. it is your nature to focus on your legacy, but right now you need to be firmly grounded in the present.
aquarius: lots of air vibes bodes well for you, but the catch is that you can't let it go to waste by sitting and only thinking about it. inspiring/inspired action will need to take place; your impulses will lead you in the right direction.
pisces: although we are living in a very fixed-cardinal time, the week takes on an unusually mutable tone. while this can cause some tension with your natal piscean planets, it is also a vibe that you naturally flow with. whatever tension results ultimately serves you well.
#horoscopes#weekly horoscope#astrology#transits#signs#zodiac#aries#taurus#gemini#cancer#leo#virgo#libra#scorpio#sagittarius#capricorn#aquarius#pisces
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y'know, I've been hearing about the new Zelda's $70 pricetag a lot -- but I've also been enduring a rough patch at uni, so I haven't been able to do any of the thinking or researching that I'd want to do before throwing my lot in there. regardless, there are two... fragments of points that I've had bouncing around in my head for a while, and I never see anyone getting close to them, so I figured I might as well lob them out to the internet to see if they'll bounce around enough to inspire some completed thoughts in anyone
the first thing: while Nintendo was the one that decided to take the first shot here and now, with a very highly anticipated title in one of its absolute flagship franchises, the matter of fact is that bumping up the Standard AAA Game Pricetag -- and to $70 exactly, even -- has been a talk in the industry for many, many years now. it's not a coincidence, or even just the industry's typical unparodiably vulture-like behavior, that as soon as Nintendo took the first shot, other studios were tripping over themselves to pin their next big releases at $70 as well.
(if you ask someone speaking for the studios, they'll probably tell you that $60 has been a downright generous pricetag for a long while now given how much production costs have soared in that time, and even $70 is still a steal all things considered. a less charitable point of view would invite you to consider why production costs are increasing so much anyway, despite that consumer satisfaction has long stopped increasing proportionally to that metric. is it an oversight, or a decision in the service of someone besides the consumer? that's not a rhetoric question, incidentally -- I did say these aren't finished thoughts.)
the second thing: first worlders have been much worried about what a price hike in games would mean for children, and to that I say: you may have more insight on the present situation if you look to countries where this sort of thing already has or still does happen.
I can say at the very least that, for a solid while here in Brazil -- that solid while having peaked around the 00s -- economic factors made the seemingly reasonable pricetag worldwide an oft-unthinkable one for most consumers (and the few that could actually afford videogames straight-up were still a stingy lot regardless). and what we did about it was... rampant piracy. and I don't just mean downloading shit, I mean that parents were buying their kids the sketchiest disks you can imagine to pop into their PS2s at home that probably weren't 100% the legit article either. owning a completely legitimate copy of any game was seen as some sort of Collector's Edition kind of rarity, even. anyway, I'm not exactly making predictions about how your first-world markets are going to adapt when/if videogames seriously slip out of the average consumer's grasp -- again, unfinished thoughts here -- but if you've been thinking about it, then this kind of thing may be worth studying up on.
#my stupid text posts#and in case anyone's wondering how the situation developed since that peak:#the local economy was steadily improving right up until certain foul political developments of the mid-2010s#and with some delay this trickled down to the consumer base -- although whether this will perdure or improve or reverse... depends a lot#anyway the intl gaming industry also started to realize that this country is absolutely chock full of people who want to and will buy games#just so long as they can be reached with anything remotely resembling sane prices#(not to mention other possible adjustments; more and more games are starting to include Portuguese language options to name another thing)#and last but not least the people who can actually afford legal games have also been growing too Gentry for the Sketchy CD Stand#so all put together our days of rampant piracy in broad daylight are past us now#but y'know. we still never became TOO loyal to the idea of paying full price.#so it's going to be real interesting seeing how the industry decides to play it next around here#one wrong price hike and I bet a lot of us still know a guy who knows a guy.
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i am shit tired SO tired so i cant word this as well as i like but its so interesting how vg games are so influenced by the need to sell more copies like they must be this specific way to be worth the price they were sold for and also to bring in newer consumers like zelda's development history is so interesting bc every game they make is a response to the previous games sales + whatever level of burnout the creators were facing like ww is like that bc they were burnt out from mm and its lore had to be intricate to a degree to justify the extreme artstyle change (i saw someone word this way better) and like albw + oot3d + mm3d being rehashes of older titles possibly as a fear to not repeat the failures of ph + st so no need to pour an immense amount of resources to make new games for a handheld, and when u compare the way these games exist to how freeware exists its sooo interesting like i think of games like ib and fancy pants adventures and haunt the house and all these games i grew up playing for free and they were good games but they didnt exist to make a profit not to say freeware is necessarily better than a game w a pricetag but its just.... interesting to think about hmmmm 💭
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OH WAIT i should clarify i dont know if fates is truly a Bad Game i just had the worst impression ever because i was 14 and forced to spend $90 of my christmas savings on three separate DS games. because i had no way to bootleg them. im sure if you didnt have an almost $100 pricetag it may be WAY more enjoyable. i did not mean to be an unprompted hater in your inbox my apologies
hehehe no yeah I get it, if it wasn't "actually really easy to hack your 3ds" there's no way in hell I would ever try this 80 dollar chimera of a game. That's not even factoring in the paid DLC, and I'd say something about how I know I've heard this game was a victim of the "waifu emblem" trend becoming real, I also heard the same about Awakening and it wasn't that bad so I'll give that the benefit of the doubt.
even then, trying to play Conquest first is so butt frustratingly annoying that if I had paid money for that on its own I'd be pissed, though maybe that just says something about how bad I a at strategy games despite liking them.
also never apologize for being a hater, that's what makes living worth while don't cha know
#dashingposts#asks#dashingreplies#meenah#dashingplays#dashingplays: fire emblem#dashingplays: fire emblem fates
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Sour Diamonds // Closed w @galaxies-unknown
It was supposedly the color of the darkest midnight. Faceted to perfection and still an enormous size for a jewel. Those prospectives looking to buy it lorded this black diamond in particular to be the pinnacle of mysterious beauty, but all Rind saw from the skylight earlier that day was another target.
She had a thing for jewelry, its glittery stones and shiny metals attracted this Eevee's gaze. But when she laid her eyes on the diamond on display at the auction house, Rind felt her nose crinkle in disgust. This jewel was big, yes, but it was awfully drab. It was opaque and not clear at all, it barely sparkled when the moonlight hit it! For a gem these rich folks believed to be worth so much, the vixen thought it was awfully dull.
She would have skipped out on this heist and found something better to do, but Rind couldn't pry herself away from this opportunity. She wasn't here for the gem itself, but for its pricetag. The diamond was apparently worth over one million dollars to them! What fools!
But oh... Wouldn't it be something to see their faces when they came back in the morning to find it gone?
It was late into the night. The janitor was just finishing up his shift and would soon lock up the auction house. They were going to begin bidding on that ugly diamond the next day, so tonight had to be the night. It was now or never.
She hid by the front door, quietly waiting for the janitor to exit the building. When he finally did, slipping by his feet and getting inside was simply done with her small size.
It would have been easy. In and out, just as she did with other heists. But of course things got complicated minutes in. The gem was there, right there! But an unfamiliar scent was brought to her attention. Someone else.
A flash of brown dove away from the diamond and hid behind an antique rocking horse. A narrowed eye peeks out.
So much for in and out.
#rp;#galaxies-unknown#rind;#((clasps hands on rinds ears#((you. are. a little. theif.#((let me know if anything should be changed or clarified!
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I couldn't identify my hang up until it was brought up here - choosing to make only X amount of custom copies and then acting like its invented "exclusivity" warrants a disgusting pricetag IS ludicrous. Why is it worth 1,000,000p or 50 bucks? Because you decided not to make more? What... You literally determine its "worth"... God. It's not even their art to be "selling" for fifty bucks. It belongs to the site. And now they're opening a bank...? Surreal. So much for fantasy escapism lol!
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DOOM II - John Romero's One Humanity
Romero stop requiring the player to navigate narrow ledges challenge: failed.
<cough>
John Romero's One Humanity by John Romero (with help from John Romero) is a map released with something of an optional pricetag in the form of a donation to aid Ukraine relief in the wake of an unprovoked beating from Russia. The textfile states that this can be distributed for free, and that's how my broke ass got it.
So, it's a DOOM II map, then. I've no idea whether this was for the in-development SIGIL II originally or made bespoke, but it's a neat little map in the 'nuRomero' style. It plays out on high walkways and platforms above a non-threatening (to begin with, a Cyberdemon prowls later) pool of water around which most of the map circumnavigates. Players progress by once again shooting the 'evil eye' marker to raise platforms to new areas; if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Combat is restrained and in tight quarters once more; another thing I'm beginning to associate with the nuRomero style, it grates a little but not enough to ruin the map -- which is actually a fun time.
If I had to level a criticism that wasn't about narrow movement spaces, it would be that the DOOM II 'brownness' rears its ever-so-ugly head here with a vengeance and even those Romero flourishes can't make it any more appealing to look at.
Not the best nuRomero map by a fair chalk, but worth a play. 3/5
#fps#boomer shooter#classic fps#doom#first person shooter#id software#john romero#classic doom#retro fps
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Found a copy secondhand for 10$ off already. Debating whether it’s worth it.
i think overall no game is worth the 60 euros nintendo consistently asks for except perhaps botw. im hoping for 45 euros or less but i think getting it with 10 off is already better than paying the full amount. and getting it at 50 now means you'll still be playing pretty shortly after release if you care abt that sort of thing. i don't think people are going to go much lower than 40 at the very minimum anyway because of the game's pricing. hard to say whether 50 is 'worth' it - it's still a lot of money but on the other hand you're probably not gonna get that much better until later. and it also depends on your eventual enjoyment of the game bc if you really like it it might just be worth its pricetag, but otherwise it's like "well if this had been 30 it would be closer to what i think it's worth". but you can only say that once you've bought and played it lmao
#whichever way you look at it it's just a lot of money tbh#but one sixth off of the price is decent#im gonna stay on the lookout for myself too you never know what pops up#asks
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Margo Price - Strays
Fourth studio album from the Nashville-based singer-songwriter produced by Jonathan Wilson
7/13
Margo Price doesn’t give a damn what anyone else thinks, which is what makes Strays the best album she’s ever recorded. There are no longer any boxes she’s trying to fit into. Less country and more rock influenced, this newest release covers so much ground there are points where you have to check to make sure that you’re still listening to the same album.
Produced by Jonathan Wilson, Strays is as clean and clear as a spring day. Every note rings true and the vocals are as distinct as if you were in the room with Price, reading the lyrics off the paper she has them written on. Recorded in Wilson’s Topanga Canyon studio where he’s recorded Angel Olsen and Father John Misty (he also has played in Roger Waters’ band and made a number of terrific solo outings), the album’s attention to detail is incredible. And in addition to Price’s band, the Pricetags, a number of guests add to the fiery proceedings.
While much has been made of the psilocybin mushrooms Price has incorporated not her creative process, it means nothing in the scheme of things without songs like “Been to the Mountain.” Rocking out for all its worth, Price spits out the words with urgency, “I got a mint in my pocket, got a bullet in my teeth/ I’m going straight in the fire, I’m gonna talk to the high priest.” As she begins to list all the things she’s been, what you realize is that you can’t tell her anything, she knows it all, she’s seen it all and she lays it all out with passion to burn.
The light acoustic strumming of “Light Me Up” sets up the change that comes two verses in when Mike Campbell’s wah-wah solo brings the song to an incendiary level. Price brings things back to a gentler level before going stratospheric once again. The contribution of Sharon Van Etten on “Radio” rocks with a near perfect sound, and then you realize this is a song biting the hand that feeds: “People try to push me around/ Run my name straight in the ground/ I can’t hear them, I tuned them out.” The only person you need to listen to is always the one in the mirror.
Initially sounding like a song from Joni Mitchell’s Blue, Price’s “Country Road” ends up taking on a more Fleetwood Mac-ish persona, although at points it rocks like Led Zeppelin. The song itself continues to get heavier and heavier as it relates the tale of Pricetags drummer Ben Eyestone, who died of cancer in 2020. Making the song so moving is the notion that the tale is being told from the eyes of one now dead. Chilling stuff.
Instead of singing “Lydia,” Price spends most of the song speaking, relating the tale of a Marlboro-smoking woman on the wrong side of gentrification, abused and wondering if life holds anything besides being taken for trailer trash. The music, a combination of acoustic guitar strums and cinematic strings, plays out while Price continues the tale of a woman trying to deal with an unwanted pregnancy, knowing that regardless of which way she turns no one will be there to support her decision. It’s an American struggle played out against a decaying Vancouver landscape.
Throughout Strays, Price looks at the world and points out how some of the brushstrokes are not what they should be. Some of it is intentional while others just end up that way. It’s as if there really was no masterplan being used. Some things just can’t be controlled. Likewise, one part of “Landscape” seems to say more than words are supposed to say, “I put myself in my own painting/ Those mournful blues and a blood red rose/ Know the picture’s always changing/ You can’t change how the story goes.”
These songs share an ability to tell tales that relate to the human condition, which Margo Price has seen firsthand. That she has found the way to sing these songs with such candor only proves how much of an artist she truly is.
youtube
https://spectrumculture.com/2023/01/18/margo-price-strays-review/
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Vice Script Acid Gardens
Event Model
Location: Global
Time of Event: Year Round
A menswear show during which some of the biggest brands in the world gather to display their new selections to buyers, writers, and lovers of menswear from across the globe.
House of Chaárms: Day 1 Tattoo Artist Convention and Shoes & Accessories, Day 2 Clothing and Mecha & Cyberpunk Video Games, Day 3 Resale Market and Jeweler Show, Day 4 Art Show and Tagging Clinic, Day 5 Barber Convention & Fintech Investment Fair, Day 6 Redbull BMX Flatland Freestyle Showcase, Day 7 Mecha & Cyberpunk Video Game Debut ESports Tournament
Influence
Pitti Uomo is one of the world's most important platforms for men's clothing and accessory collections, and for launching new projects in men's fashion. It's held twice yearly in Florence, at the Fortezza da Basso.
A trade show is an event held to bring together members of a particular industry to display, demonstrate, and discuss their latest products and services. Major trade shows usually take place in convention centers in larger cities and last several days
Items showcased at Pitti Uomo can only be bought in Bulk and Wholesale
Business Model
Victoria Secret Fashion Show Business Model Highlights
By featuring young, popular models with huge social media followings, such as Gigi Hadid and Kendall Jenner, plus buzzy pop acts like The Weeknd and Selena Gomez, Victoria’s Secret ensures they appeal to an ever-fickle young audience
“It’s about newness so every year this is updated with the latest music and trends,” notes Oliver Chen, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst covering retail at Cowen and Company. “This is a way to keep up with millennials.”
Still, that appeal comes at a price. A 2011 estimate pegged the fashion show’s cost at some $12 million; a far cry from the $200,000 to $1 million pricetag of typical fashion shows .
“We don’t disclose [how much we spend],” says Turney. “It’s not as much as you would think and it actually pays for itself five times over.”
Part of its recuperation comes from licensing the show to CBS for an estimated $1 million-plus. Over 9.1 million viewers tuned in to the show last year, according to Nielsen, down from 9.7 million in 2013 . Reports peg 30-second ad prices during the event at some $200,000.
Victoria’s Secret also earns back from corporate sponsorship–six different brands including Swarovski and Fujifilm sponsored this year’s show. For the honor of having your curling iron or chocolate backstage with the models–and accompanying media circus–companies are willing to pay upwards of $25,000.
Victoria’s Secret does not sell tickets to the live event–the 2,000-odd passes are handed out to select celebrities, journalists and corporate guests in an attempt to bolster its scarcity value.
Instead of using human models I'm using luxury goods models
Customer Obsession
Dress Code Competition
Creative White Shoe dress code allows for some swagger
There's an anonymous judge who attends the event and chooses the winner. Winners (one male and one female) are announced at the end of the night. Have social media take on if the right winner was chosen. Cause a debate
Prize
Donation to foundation or charity
2 week full access stay at the Events Host Hotel
Shoes Competition
Shoes Competition
There's an anonymous judge who attends the event and chooses the winner
Winners (one male and one female) are announced at the end of the night. Have social media take on if the right winner was chosen. Cause a debate
Prize
Donation to foundation or charity
2 week full access stay at the Events Host Palace Hotel
Investment Fairs
Organize Investment Fair for entrepreneurs to bring ideas forward for real estate opportunities
Make this a public event with a minimum net worth criteria
This leads to more connections
Cross Industry Involvement
Graffitiwear Trade Shows Include:
Graffiti Artist
Models
Gamers
Extreme Sports Artist
Fashion Designers
Tattoo Artists
Jewelers
Realtech & Fintech Entrepreneurs
CHIGGA PROPERTY
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