Free Talk Friday - July 17, 2026

[u/AutoModerator]

Welcome to the Free Talk Friday post. This is a place where you can talk about dumb off-topic (or on-topic) bullshit with other Zaibatsu fans.

There's going to be a new post every week, and the newest one will be pinned in the announcement bar for quick access. So feel free to visit these posts during the rest of the week.

Here's a list of all Free Talk Friday posts

[u/DrewbieWanKenobie]

The new season of King of the Hill was great. Felt like old times.

[u/Authorigas]

I really wanna learn to play Pathfinder/Starfinder and Vampire the Masquerade. I think maybe watching some guides and actual plays might really help. Does anyone have some good channels or suggestions for live/actual plays?

[u/Averthade]

Pat deciding to play more Palworld instead of Granblue Relink has devastated me, and my week is ruined, because it's probably going to be forgotten for months again (I'm exaggerating slightly).

On my personal front, I've finally started to rekindle my love of video games again, and it's honestly made me pretty emotional. I didn't realize just how into the depression sludge I had fallen, but getting my hands on some Final Fantasy, WoW and Pokemon/Fire emblem romhacks has been great. Games are fun, who knew!

[u/5YearsOnEastCoast]

So recently I have started playing Final Fantasy X. I am currently early into the game and I have a cold take about it: it is a pretty great game. Graphics itself look pretty good, even now, main party members are already memorable, and indeed soundtrack is good just like many other previous FF entries. The gameplay itself was a bit different compared to previous FF entries. No more ATB system, and now there is a window showing in which order the main party members and enemies attack. And now you can switch party members DURING the battle. The battle-themselves are pretty fast-paced which I do like. During the battles I ended up using Lulu the most currently cause her black magic attacks tend to deal the most damage to the enemies, but other party members aren't slouch either in their designed roles. And whenever I ran out of MPs does not make me worry much here. The battle system here is perhaps the best one in the FF franchise. I can't wait to continue playing it.

[u/ScrumbledTumblo]

Been Getting Into Fighting Games with Guilty Gear Strive, I've played SF6 for a bit but there's some locals near me that I wanted to check out and they mostly play Strive. I've been hitting Ranked with Unika and have been having a good time, I feel like her gameplan is pretty straightforward and its pretty easy to get big damage so it's easier to focus on learning the game.

Started in Iron a few days ago and just climbed into Silver so I've still got a long ways to go, I'm mostly trying to ignore my ranking and not worry about making number go up and focusing more on building skills and fixing gaps that I need to work on, like figuring out the best ways to cash out on tension so I'm not sitting on a full meter all the time.

[u/Own-Sir-9189]

I beat Ninja Gaiden 4 earlier this week, and I'll say it actually give me hope that some talent remains at Platinum Games. That Last Ronin game will probably be pretty solid.

[u/Authorigas]

Anyone know a cool way to display dice? I'm setting up a little nerd nook, three shelves. Board games on bottom, ttrpg books on the middle, and dice on top. I'm trying to find a cool way to display them...or make it a commander deck display. 

[u/Gorfinhofin]

I played Dimhaven: The Lost Source earlier this week, from the developers of Quern. I'd been looking forward to it for a long time, and had backed the Kickstarter before it failed and they got picked up by a publisher. Sadly, it seems like the funding still wasn't enough to fulfill their ambitions, but it was a cool game!

After that I started playing The Mermaid Mask, sequel to Tangle Tower. I think I'm about halfway through at the moment and it has me enthralled. Great characters, great jokes, great mystery so far, and a delightfully spooky atmosphere. Best of all, it seems to actually be tying into the previous games without trying to hide it! I'd say it's a step up from Tangle Tower in most ways, except maybe the music, but only because the music was central to some puzzles I loved in TT.

[u/SlowDancer-001]

Hi second best subreddit. I feel like someone that is losing his mind, and it’s pretty scary. I keep having awful behavior that affects others around me, and I am aware it’s bad, and it keeps being cyclical and happening again and again. I don’t know what to do. I think it’s related to disorganized attachment style.

[u/ScrumbledTumblo → u/SlowDancer-001]

Anecdotally, I was able to recognize how my mental health was affecting myself and others but it really wasn't until I started seeing a therapist that I was actually able to start taking steps to work on it instead of just being aware and stewing on it. I know "go see a therapist" can be pretty reductive when it comes to advice on mental health and I'm not a doctor or a mental health professional so take this with a grain of salt, but at least based on my own experience I think if you are able to recognize how your behavior is affecting others but keep letting it happen then you need someone to hold you accountable towards taking steps to improving yourself.

[u/Triggerhappy938]

https://bsky.app/profile/b0tster.yeag.gay/post/3mqwopergrs2c

B0tster, AKA Bunlith, is needing dental surgery.

[u/WorstCompany]

Early this morning I had an appointment that sorted out some stuff with documents of mine like getting issued an id and all. It's not much, plus there's more step down the line I still need to get around to, but considering all the recent stuff that's on my mind and at times weighing me down, it's nice to hold on to this feeling of having spent some of the day getting stuff done.

[u/Cthulhukitten]

Have had an excellent start to the weekend so far! Saw the Odyssey with my girlfriend and her mom last night, going boxing tomorrow, board game night with friends on Sunday, World Cup final watch party same day, and looking forward to talking with some newly found friends in between all this. Life for the moment is alright!

[u/RocketbeltTardigrade]

Been listening to song covers.

Shin ai naru anata wa kasou by Kagura.

From the Start by Tomoe. This one got a reply from Good Kid on twitter.

numb numb by Nano and Tomoe.

Orihime to Baby by Hinata and Ruka.

[u/LizardOrgMember5]

Anyone who's familiar with Umineko: When They Cry (or Umineko no Naku Koro ni). I have a question for you.

Which detective could solve the Rokkenjima case while believing in witches' existence or not? I made this chart while watching someone else playing it.

Any suggestion?

And also, I released the latest episode of my podcast yesterday! My co-host and I talked about this Mexican horror movie called Santa Sangre, which was directed by our favorite Chilean madman Alejandro Jodorowsky.

https://reanimatethis.podbean.com/e/santa-sangre-1989-is-bleeding-to-el-pueblo/

[u/waxonwaxoff3]

Things remain fraught. Still unemployed, still out of money. Blood pressure is juuuust too high to be able to sell plasma, made a new Facebook account to use Marketplace but who knows when I'll get actual approval/access to do that, still don't qualify for any emergency loans or anything at all. Deeply stressful, and the next two weeks are going to feel like a countdown to doom. But at the very least, I had a bunch of interviews this past week and I have a second-round interview I'm very hopeful about next week, so fingers crossed that something comes of it. Things would still be fraught, but at least I'd squeak by.

Palworld is not a good game, but it is pretty soothing to just wander around and explore and catch Pals. Palworld on one monitor, a podcast or some LP video archives on the other monitor, and I'm golden.

Finally caught up on all five endings of Silent Hill F via Pat's LP. What an interesting game, with a hell of a lot to say. Asking people to play through the game that many times to get the full context for everything going on feels like a bit much, but it's a hell of an experience and it's nice to see the series make such a comeback between that and the SH2 remake.

[u/LeMasterofSwords]

After getting my molar pulled, I just got the implant put back in today. Much less annoying than getting the tooth pulled thankful. Probally will just chill this weekend while I wait to be able to see solid food and workout

[u/japossoir]

I'm playing Hades 2 and OH MY GOD HOW CAN A VIDEO GAME BE SO GOOD

I'm seriously impressed

[u/Polar_Phantom]

The Odyssey is a good film that people are really weird about. Not as weird as with Mixtape, but that's on a whole other level of "why are you so passionate about this?"

[u/bvanbove25]

This is as engaged with the boys (Woolie, Reggie, and Pat) as I've been for a while, and I'm so happy that they're still out there doing what they do. Between Woolie's tour of the retirement home, Pat getting back in and having some other cool games, and Reggie getting through DS2, it's just nice to have a bunch of positivity and legit excitement from all three of them.

Usually at times like these I do find myself playing along with one of them just to (in this case) re-experience a game. I'm still considering catching up in XIV, as I usually get into it every couple of years. But it's just such a commitment. However....I know 100% sure I will not be playing DS2 again, and that makes me sad. I've played Scholar, and it's just at the bottom of the barrel of Souls games I want to replay:

• Demon's Souls is short enough and the remake still feels new
• DS1 is the most calming Souls game for me. It's nostalgic and relaxing to play.
• DS3 does something for me, I just can't explain it.
• Bloodborne is just an amazing gameplay experience
• Sekiro itches the action-game itch without me having to dive into some deep gameplay like Ninja Gaiden
• Elden Ring isn't always a full replay due to its length, but I do turn it on for 5-10 hours here and there just ot mess around

But man....DS2 just really doesn't do anything for me. I don't like how it feels. I don't like having to put into adaptability. The bosses (per my memory) don't do as much for me. I don't like the exploration. I would love to revisit some of the DLC bosses, but don't have a non-NG+ save. I'll just enjoy it vicariously through Reggie.

I also can't recall which one of them had recently played Death Howl, but I gave that game a try per their recommendation. Holy shit that's a 10/10 and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Great tactical game, great deck-builder, and all of the artistic aspects (story/music/art) are top notch. I hope it was successful for such a small team, as I'd love to see more of what they have to offer.

[u/ActRaisins]

A pretty straightforward week here. I made a bit of progress with games, caught a couple of nice music tracks, and am trying to make the best of the summer heat.

I recently checked out a compilation of sorts by earth Hz - Catalyst. A bit of a change of pace from the usual D&B that I would be checking out, but there are some highlights that would make great background ambience for when I'm just vibing. I think "Augment - Plegian" is my favourite at the moment, and the whole thing is on SoundCloud here. For something a bit more uptempo I've been enjoying Warehouse / Routine by Enei - the fuzzy beeps of "Routine" in particular are entirely my shit. Again, Soundcloud has it here.

In games, I got... an ending for Live-A-Live. But not the ending. Basically I completed the individual chapters and then the Middle Ages, and I attempted the final chapter. I recruited all the warriors again, completed trials and got good gear... but I couldn't last against the final boss. I could destroy parts of it and make some progress - but ultimately I'd run out of resources too quickly. I feel like the crew was probably underlevelled, but right now I'm going to look for other things to play, and consider revisiting it another time.

[u/A-O-Craye]

I've been making my kitbashed daemon prince a bit more grotesque, and after the first step I'd say I added enough g-virus.

[u/sorinash]

Tending to my and my SO's community garden plot has been more of a pain lately. It being a million degrees out has kinda sapped the motivation to weed out of me. The smoke coming out of Canada means that we're just gonna hunker down for a while.

In better news, I hit up Chi Hack Night and got to discuss my data analysis project. People seemed to be interested so I might set up a breakout session for next week. Maybe I could spin this off into a job, but honestly I just like talking about my projects with people, so I'm at least getting something out of it even if there's no tangible benefit.

Game-wise, I've been playing a lot of Supraworld. It's the 3rd game in the Supra series by David Munnich of Notpron fame. It's not done yet, and I've gotten through most of the puzzles and don't have any major motivation to finish all of the secrets, but honestly I just kinda enjoy booting it up and roaming around the world for a bit. Something about the level design in that game is really fun.

[u/Head-You5953]

After over a year of being unemployed and desperately trying to find a job, I've finally been offered a full time position.

I'm unbelievably happy. Not to get to personal, but being unemployed for so long and being rejected from so many places was honestly starting to affect my sense of self-worth. I'm unbelievably lucky in that I have family who are willing to help me during this time, but the feeling that I was being a burden for them was getting unbearable.

I know that I shouldn't be so happy about something that I should have achieved so long ago, but it's been a rough year, and I really hope that this is a sign that things are getting better for me.

[u/rsrluke → u/Head-You5953]

Congrats on the job! I was in the same position after I graduated, although that was mainly due to COVID's effects on the job market. Still, it was a relief to finally find steady work.

[u/SilentNarrator]

Saw some body mention they get good candidates from Free Talk cause of vibe of the sub and crossover of interests , so thought I would post it here first.

Anybody Interested in joining a ongoing Pathfinder 2e game TTRPG , the campaign being the Kingmaker Adventure Path.

The campaign is about carving out your own Kingdom in the unexplored dangerous Wild Lands. We are currently around 10 sessions in but not a lot of progress with only last session starting the Kingdom Building stuff. we had some players have life stuff happen, so be nice to get 1 more consistent player for the group. We play over a VTT Foundry and over discord, all you need is a decent mic and to know English. I provide all the books needed to play. New players are welcome if you wanna learn to. We play on Saturdays from 4pm EST to 8pmEST. DM me or write a comment if any are interested in it. If you have questions let me know with a comment.

[u/gothamsteel]

Bit the bullet and got an Xbox One X online cheap, and gonna get ready to set it up as a replacement for my DVD player and basically keep it for my big backlog of Xbox stuff. With my computer and that, I think I'm set for that being my go to set up for gaming.

[u/kodaiiiii_]

I survived my first batch of college final exams with a grade average of 9,3. Way to go, me.

I'm going to spend the free week I have with no university simply sleeping and playing RE9. I have no other desire at this point other than resting.

Not much on my end apart from studying, except that I've been playing a lot of BlazBlue Central Fiction again considering how easy it is to just drop in, play for 40 minutes and go to bed after spending the entire day studying. Turns out, playing a character you actually enjoy using instead of forcing yourself to use a character that you most certainly don't really jive with gameplay-wise even if you love the character itself because it's a more demanding character makes for a much, much, much more enjoyable game.

Going from trying to main Hazama, who is very execution reliant, and I'm someone that SUCKS at execution, to maining Hibiki Kohaku, aka LIVE FAST DIE YOUNG, has been one of the best choices I've ever made. I cannot begin to tell you how much fun it is to play as Hibiki. Every single part of his kit is finetuned to my own personal tastes and allows for some absolute asshole plays or just going with the flow. Also, he has a fucking Izuna Drop. Every time I nail one of these as a combo ender or a callout I just nut on the spot. God, I fucking love BlazBlue, and I fucking love playing Hibiki.

[u/CursedNobleman]

Welp, I'm kinda bored with EU4. Time to pick up CK2/3/Imperator Rome.

Chainsmoker Cat on netflix is still unhinged.

[u/Traingham]

Lessee…

Reading Neuromancer. Marveling at Final Fantasy VII Rebirth running on the Switch 2, and also playing Granblue Fantasy Relink: Endless Ragnarok.

I decided to turn on my PS5 Pro to look at the ocean in FFVII Rebirth for comparison to the Switch 2 because something felt off about it in that version (SW2, I mean), and was caught off guard by the graphics and lighting updates that went into that game. Oh god…that game looks gorgeous on that console.

I was at the beginning of the first Golden Saucer date on my PS5pro save, so I really got to take in the visuals of light and shadows in the spooky hotel setting alongside Tifa. Then I spent maybe a little too long in the hotel room fawning over the Tonberry humidifier as it kept talking in its adorable voice.

I immediately shut it off again and went back to the Switch 2 version. I’ll go back to that version after I’m done with it on handheld.

I never did actually get to look at the ocean in that version of the game. Being locked off from the map because of the date made me give up on the idea.

[u/Amon274]

I’m not in a good fucking mood:

Personal life: I am in a lot of fucking pain and the financial bullshit that I have mentioned before has stopped me from getting my fucking paycheck. I am on the fucking edge of losing my shit.

Conclusion: I am so fucking angry.

[u/Deasmeister]

Watched more of The Vampire Lestat this week. Interview with the Vampire has always been excellent but this season has been particularly good. I'm so invested in the relationship between Louis and Lestat, their actors are phenomenal and the Claudia scene this week was something else.

On top of that the songs they've had for this season are excellent and have really added to my overall enjoyment, self professed musical lover here, Brutal Love was great this week and the Dancing with Myself cover was fun too. What can I say I love my gay vampire show.

Other than that started a new job this week and just delighted to be out of there with my old one.

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[u/Kerrik52]

Second week of vacation. Been lucky with the heatwave that passed after two days, so my days have been nothing but recording for my next video and playing Xenoblade.

Recording is pain, since I need to turn off the fans and I use tea for my throat, but it's been chugging along pretty well. The thread from a day or two back about bad trends in media criticism made me self-conscious, so I adjusted the script a little bit to make the conclusion on the theme of Alone in the Dark more evident. I'm glad that happened, I think I would have regretted it later. The one-man show comes with many hardships, but not having a script editor is one of the more invisible ones.

As for Xenoblade, it's been giving me about what I expected. Since it's so popular and easy to get into, I have tons of friends with various takes and advice. Feels like getting admitted into a little club a decade after the fact. As for the game itself, it's kind of incredible for being both a Wii and a 7th gen game. The hotbar combat certainly kept the budget in check, but I've been expecting the money to fall out under it for hours now. But I will continue in my quest to defeat Black Face.

[u/jitterscaffeine]

Been reading the new PF2e book IMPOSSIBLE MAGIC for a couple days.

- Remastered Magus and Summoner are both solid

- Necromancer is surprisingly varied with options

- Runesmith looks neat but I haven't quite "figured it out" yet. Need more time.

The archetypes in the book range from interesting to strange. I'm not entirely sure what to DO with most of them. Like LIVING NEXUS is an archetype built around buffing off other people casting spells, then spending your buff on big attacks. But I don't know what class it should be attacked to or really what the inspiration is. HEDGE WITCH is a sort of flexible caster archetype where you can choose which tradition you want, and then get like 10+ cantrips out of it. SOUL FORGER is like a weird soul knife redux expect your soul bound weapon has like a curse attached to it with debuffs associated with with power you give it? Some of these archetypes feel like they were made because they seemed cool, but I just don't know what to do with them.

[u/EchouR]

Nothing special, trying to enjoy summer. My local beach got blue-green algae so not gonna swim.

I bought a character slot on Guild Wars and started a Melandru's Accord run (kind of like Ultimate Iron Man (Cant trade, cant buy from merchants whose prices are based on supply and demand, cant use bank, skills are not unlocked so Im at the mercy of skill trainers having what they have) on a Warrior. Warrior was my first character when I played this as a kid, so I'm feeling nostalgic.

The game still holds up and the new pre-Searing stuff is great, I love the new dungeon and the expanded Northlands.

Then I played some Warframe, havent done the Follie and Jade Shadows 2 quests yet, just getting my brain warmed up. Speaking of warning up, Uriel's awesome. Now I just need materialis for the Vinquibus.

Then I finally bought Trails In The Sky 1st Chapter. I played the original up until Ruan and stopped because I wanted to save the rest for the remake. The remake is super charming, the areas are very close to the original and the combat is very good. Also, Matt Mercer sings in this one, the dude's good.

[u/unomaly]

ICE in my neighborhood for a week now hunting people down. Gestapo fucks of human beings.

Try to help neighbors if you can.

[u/retrometroid]

Big move is next week and I'm in a weird place where I feel like im pretty well packed but also like I haven't done enough.

Ive been watching Civvie11 during my pre-sleep wind down and I have to wonder how he landed on a Shuten Douji cosplayer as his example image for the "telling girls you pistol started Plutonia Experiment levels will get you laid" joke. He never struck me as an anime guy or especially a Fate/ guy.

He did get me to finally buckle down & beat Doot 2016. I had a shitty glitch that pissed me off the first time I played it and every attempt afterwards I bounced off for one reason or another. Great game tho. The handful of scenes where someone yaps at you and there's nothing else to do really suck but they're at least rare and bookended by good chunks of game.

And that's led to a replay of Eternal and man really jarring how gamey it is in comparison. It's definitely clicking better than when I originally played it. One thing that my opinion is still the same on tho? Taras Nabad is fucking brutal. I had 10 lives when I started and I lost my last one trying to do that annoying ass secret encounter with the 30 second time limit on killing a Marauder. Genuinely pisses me off the timer fails you even if you're 99% of the way thru the glory kill, which has happened twice so far.

I'm also playing Rogue Trader on Switch 2. Loads are long but it performs fairly well aside from a couple sequences so far. Some of the controls and UI are clunky on controller - a party member with a familiar means 90% of the time my slot 6 member is not visible on the trigger hot bars. The level up screen also breaks a lot where I can't tab over to the "all available feats" tab.

Im so rusty at crpgs I forgot to scroll all the way down and missed that Cassia had a bunch of unique Navigator powers I could get. I ended up respeccing her anyway cuz I didn't like the 2nd tier class I picked for her, too big brain for me.

[u/SamuraiDDD]

This week I've been indulging in reading more fan fiction. I've been reading a lot of Deltarune stuff due to just how much badly I've been addicted to it as of late. It feels... So good just to read stories again man. Like, unbelievably so.

Friends and I watched more Indie Cross and it was an absolute blast. We all ended up staying awake for another hour just coming up with ideas of who'll be in the next episode. It felt so warm and nice, ya know?

Throughout the week, I've been playing a bunch of Dishonored! I only played it on the 360 and never got to play the DLC. But NOW I can since I bought it during the summer sale! Being able to buy and play games I couldn't as a kid is incredibly fulfilling! Next up, I might play MAD MAX!

I couldn't go out to talk with that old friend last week. But this weekend, I feel like it'll happen.

This Friday, I'm gonna treat myself a lil bit then try to figure out some other things.

Besides that, it's just been a hot as hell week. Take care of yourself and PLEASE stay hydrated ya'll!

---

Musical choices of tonight

1. Space Channel 5 - 02 Options - 2002 Remix
   
2. 11. Garden of Hopes and Dreams (DELTARUNE Chapter 5 Soundtrack)
   
3. Mittsies - Magnetize

[u/Gnome_Handler]

I just got back home from trivia night at a local meadery me and some family like to go to. We didn’t win, but it’s always nice to get out of the house.

For about the past few weeks I’ve been trying to figure out the best way to mod Skyrim and other games on the Steam Deck. There’s plenty of guides online so I’m positive it won’t take less than thirty minutes for me to get it done. But I’m also terrified of doing it wrong and potentially screwing up the Deck, even though fixing that would probably also take less than thirty minutes.

I think I’ll continue to live in cowardice for now.

[u/Authorigas]

Testing the 3/3/3 system of only 3 games downloaded on every console to try and encourage backlog completion. Just finished the story of 3D world and I'm juggling Cultic and Shadow Warrior 2, which should be finished by Sunday for Shadow Warrior? I'm uncertain, but I also know the big challenge is gonna be Digimon Time Stranger.

[u/KChasm]

To anyone who knows the term "isekai": I've put together a short poll/survey out of idle curiosity. It's a simple thing: I name a media, and you say if it is an isekai or if it isn't:

https://forms.gle/ZCEXri1oy7Kvtx678

This is the Google Forms link. If it sounds interesting and you have three minutes to spare, throw me another data point. I'm not really trying to prove anything with the data, but I'm real interested in what results I get out of it.

[u/Averthade → u/KChasm]

I would also be super interested in the results to this if you'd be willing to make a post about it or whatever whenever you feel like you've managed to get as much data as you're going to from it.

[u/KChasm → u/Averthade]

So far, I've only had about thirty responses. I'm not sure where else to put it to get more responses; I guess I could make its own thread here but that feels like the sort of thing that would get majorly dinged by moderators.

[u/Am_Shigar00]

Took a brake from FFVII remake this week, though not before trying out the Intergrade campaign and enjoying going through the level 1 Fort Condor challenges, really fun stuff there, and pulled out a game I never beat, Captain Toad Treasure Tracker, via the Nintendo Switch port. It's strange that for whatever reason I never felt the need to go through it when it originally launched on Wii U despite being desperate for new games, but I've been having a good time with it so far. It's neat seeing all this stuff from 3D World recontexualized beyond what the Captain Toad stages in that game experimented with, they made a fun twist with how they structured the game's chapters like individual campaigns in a book. It probably won't take me much longer to beat, but it's a fun time.

[u/FMV_Hell_0]

My brother sent me this video of Lil Wayne ordering general chicken with rice from Elvis (warning: TikTok format) and Elvis saying "eggwuh" just like laser-targeted my funny bone. It's one of those stupid things that just mentally flashbangs me at random points during the day.

We're a week after the steam sale and I've blown the dust off my Switch 2 to play Rhythm Heaven Groove. I think it's the first time this year that I've started my Switch 2. Man what happened to Nintendo's UX design? The Switch has been a thing for 7-8 years and they've never put any sauce on it. Rhythm Heaven Groove's main menu looks like a 2008 DVD menu and it's so jarring. I mean it's more Rhythm Heaven, I like Rhythm Heaven. Also Ado did one of the remixes so that's neat.

Backrooms was a cool movie. I didn't know what to expect because I didn't really think anything was going on other than "hey isn't this space kinda weird?" and, that's kind of the movie. It hits like one of those short Junji Ito mangas that are just like "wouldn't it be fucked up if this happened?" I feel a lot of good influence from it, I was getting some of The Shining through Blair Witch, a little Silent Hill happens in there. It was cool.

I keep starting up the Soul Reaver Remaster but I think I genuinely just wanna watch the opening cutscene and call it good there. That shit rules. Soul Reaver seems so cool and this is the version that doesn't make me nauseous from 5th gen FOV and has normal camera controls so if I'm gonna hit credits on any version it's gonna be this one.

[u/Lucky-Icarus]

Actually had pretty good couple of weeks in a long time. Finally got a new job that works great for the kind of guy I am. Cleaning up tech lab after hours, 6-12, which means I get to chill all alone and work without anyone bothering me or in the way. Tho I am in desperate need of shit to listen to, preferably similar to Dan Olsen/Folding Ideas video essays.

Only games I've been playing are Palworld, Rogue Trader, and Granblue Relink. Nothing to much to say, slowing getting through Palworld and thats fun as fuck, just hit the DLC3 Act 2 mission in RT so Im looking foward to all that(sidenote: Thessera is a shithole), and I immediately bought Fraux and Fiedel in GBF Relink cause they're the only character beside Beaxtrix I REALLY wanted(Fraux is my first and favorite Evoker and Fiedel has a speciel place in my heart as her and Lich were the characters I sparked with my winnings from the INFAMOUS GBF summer lottery, my winning number was no joke 117).

Also, thank god Mesa Heirloom finally came out. Looks fucking great. Bought it, slapped it on what is easily my favorite warframe all time(her release was what got me interested in Warframe the first place, love at first sight), and then deleted Warframe cause I'm caught up, not cracked enough nor interested in becoming a real endgame player, and it took up WAY too much space on my Steamdeck that I needed(for Palworld and Granblue specifically).

[u/ToastyMozart → u/Lucky-Icarus]

Needs things to listen to

Playing Rogue Trader

There's a really good reading of The All Guardsmen Party on youtube that can fill out a few dozen hours.

[u/CaptainJudaism]

Palworld has consumed my gaming time recently. I played the very start, enjoyed my time, listed my complaints/suggestions, got dogpiled on because most fan subreddits suck, and now that I'm playing 1.0 pretty much every single suggestion I had has been implemented in some way so the sheer QoL additions, all the new pals, the way the game flows so much better, all the new tech means there's always something to do, and the talent/passive changes expanding team builds so you don't always just choose the strongest pals or the self-buffs and can instead focus on synergy for some absolutely silly stuff.

While there is a story now... it isn't good but at least it now serves its purpose of pointing you in a direction on where to go next so you don't just wander around and pray you stumble onto the right location. The sheer number of new pals means I'm constantly seeing pals I hadn't seen before so I have the urge to catch them. There's a surgery table now so I can replace trash traits with good ones (for a cost) or change their gender to make an easy breeding pair if I can't be arsed to catch more then 2 means getting useful pals is easier then ever. They also reduced how many Pals needed to "Rank Up" from 116 total to 48 so that again makes getting a strong team together easier then ever.

All this to say that if you did not enjoy Palworld before, you probably still won't. If you did, you will probably fall in love with what they've done since Early Access. There's still some things it can improve on, such as the dungeons, but overall it's a blast.

[u/PowerfulCoward]

Week's been kind of exhausting. I haven't really had the energy for doing much of anything after work, so the past few days have been fairly boring. I tried cooking something, at least, and it turned out decent enough.

I did finish Monster over the weekend, though, and that was fantastic. I really loved those last few episodes in particular. I can absolutely understand why people praise this show so highly.

[u/attikol]

Spent 7 hours driving today so dont have much to say because am big tired. Visiting my dad in Santa monica

[u/EcchiPhantom]

Just bought PS+ for the first time in a while and I’ve been going through the modern Wolfenstein games by release order for the past two weeks. Now I’m about halfway into New Colossus and I must say it feels significantly better to me than the prequels even though I’m still not huge on how these games perform as cover shooters.

I’m still having a great time though. The story is pretty good and fun and B.J is a remarkably thoughtful and human character for such a setting. I can see why Jacob Geller loved the series so much.

[u/MisterOfu]

I watched the Shiboyugi: Cloudy Beach movie. I don't know if that was actually the case, but it really felt like they stretched a ~45 minute final episode to feature length.

For one, literally half of the runtime consists of the protagonist going through a mental breakdown. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the anime and how slow, surreal, and introspective it could be, but 45 minutes is pushing it. Then there's about 30 minutes of action, which is pretty good (I especially liked the way they did the POV change), and a ~15 minute epilogue - easily the best part of the movie. It's the kind of work where you look at the high points and think "man, I wish they did more of that!"

The other thing is, in retrospect, the epilogue of episode 11 really seems like it should have been a part of this movie instead, both structure- and chronology-wise.

Either way, despite the mixed reception I really hope we see more of this anime (they did include a sequel hook, I think?). And if not, there's a romance series by the same director set to release next year, so I guess there's that.

[u/Gorotheninja]

I have a Lenovo technician coming tomorrow to look at my gaming laptop; it's been overheating a lot lately, and I've been having performance issues that I wonder are caused by it (thermal throttling). And on the console side, I accidentally knocked my PS5 off the shelf after I tripped over the plugged in controller cable; I don't think there's any damage internally or externally, but that was fucking scary.

Palworld and Granblue Endless Ragnarok are the two main games of the week; good games to grind out and listen to a podcast (performance issues with Palworld aside).

Oh, also commissioned some more Fakemon evolution line designs: a Normal/Steel sheep and a Water/Fairy Narwal

[u/Ayyyyynah → u/Gorotheninja]

Pokémon design is SICK but the sheep 2nd and 3rd evolution seem backwards for me. Can you explain the logic so I can get it?

[u/Gorotheninja → u/Ayyyyynah]

The sheep evos are alternate evolutions, not 2nd and third stages.

[u/Ayyyyynah → u/Gorotheninja]

That is so sick. Really great designs.

[u/KF-Sigurd]

I finished Suikoden 1 and 2. Previously I had only played 5 so it's interesting to see where the series started and apparently peaked with 2.

1 is incredibly... primitive. Going from the well fleshed out story, setting, and politics of 5 to an incredibly basic story that nevertheless still hits the similar beats as 5 in 1 was surreal. It's fine, but it's really not all that impressive.

2 on the other hand immediately starts showing a much heavy hand with narrative, character arcs, and fleshed out relationships with the Jowy-Riou-Nanami arc as well as the heavy big bad villain with Luca Fucking Blight. What a villain. 2's great, loved the much heavier focus on narrative, twists and turns, and the gameplay got a lot better with three rune slots per character. What I really enjoy about Suikoden is that gets right how much battles are won through trickery, cunningness, and deception. You can really tell the Water Margin inspiration from there since the tacticians are all pulling plays from there compared to the usual power of friendship stuff in other JRPGs.

Unfortunately, there are some bad sides and boy did I not like the war battles in 2. They were incredibly boring and limited. 1 it was just rock papers scissors, but at least that ended quickly and wasn't a total slog like 2. Also, after playing it back to back, I think I've had my fill of the 108 characters gimmick. One of the biggest draws of JRPGs to me is having a fun party of lovable memorable characters and when you're split 108 ways, nobody really stands out that much and there are also some real losers and nobodies in these games. Great games still, but I think it'll be a while till I finally crack open that Eiyuden Chronicles game I backed a long time ago.

I've also played the new Wuthering Waves update and the new Honkai Star Rail update and man. There is few things that give greater whiplash than going between the presentations of those two games phew. iykyk. New China region in WuWa is great but it's running horribly on PS5 and this, among other reasons, is why I'm biting the bullet on buying a good gaming PC. Just need to well, figure out how to do and assemble a PC.

I've also started Octopath Traveler 0. It was a game I bought when I first bought my Switch 2 not too long ago. I'm only a few hours into it but it's nice, the sprite work is pretty, the music is good. I'm withholding my thoughts on its battle system until I unlock more of it. I like it's spin on the 'destroyed hometown' trope since it seems like rebuilding it will be a major factor. But... idk, it's not really grabbing me yet but again, I'm only like 4 hours into the game.

[u/Head-You5953 → u/KF-Sigurd]

I binged Suikoden 1 a few months back with the intent of getting to 2, and I just was not impressed with it at all. I saw a lot of people talk about how well-paced and charming it was, and I just did not get that. It's relatively brief, which is nice, but it is NOT well paced. Characters introduce themselves and dramatically sacrifice themselves minutes apart, none of the characters are memorable at all, and for being the genesis of THE political war story JRPG series, I thought the actual plot was barely above a Dragon Quest in terms of complexity, and had none of the charm or mechanical satisfaction that you'd get out of an actual Dragon Quest. I know it's the first in the series, but after seeing a lot of people talk about how tight and charming 1 is, I was honestly super disappointed.

[u/KF-Sigurd → u/Head-You5953]

It felt like going through an incredibly early prototype of 2 and 5, where you can see all the tropes the series is known for (evil empire, silent heroic prince, castle next to water, tactican leading battles, racist elves, racist dwarves, racist kobolds, runes, a conspiracy, etc) but they're all highly underbaked.

Honestly, most of the games retain that original sin of not very memorable characters but at least they had a far more political war story.

But yeah, I can see why people say you can just skip it and go straight to 2.

[u/The_Draigg → u/KF-Sigurd]

Man, Luca Blight's the fucking coolest evil guy, I love that piece of shit. He's legit one of the best old school RPG villains out there. That's a dude that just fucking radiates pure evil, and he absolutely lives for that shit. Defeating him is an awesome feat in of itself too, along with his final lines.

[u/KF-Sigurd → u/The_Draigg]

His presence in the story is really like nothing else. Part 1 is almost entirely dedicated to establishing, beyond Jowy-Riou's friendship, why you should want Luca Blight dead, and mission accomplished. He's like that King Von meme but 20 years in the past. And there's just enough backstory to make him seem a bit more than 1 dimensional (oh yeah, watching your father cower while your mom gets raped will definitely fuck you up and leave you with a burning hatred for the enemy) And yeah, the peak of 2 is his boss fight. Jumping him with 18 different dudes, he's attacking 3 times per turns doing shit you've never seen before, taking multiple volley of arrows in cutscenes and still 1v1 Riou is insane. The story really loses a bit of momentum when he's out of the picture.

[u/pyromancer93 → u/KF-Sigurd]

I did like the arc where you finally take down Neclord and the Jowy-Riou dynamic was still good, but the consensus that the game peaks with the Luca Blight showdown is 100% correct.

[u/The_Draigg → u/KF-Sigurd]

Luca Blight is so overwhelmingly HIM that practically everything after your final battle with him is just wrapping up the remaining plot points. Pretty much the only thing that comes close to the highs of fighting the canonically strongest human in the Suikoden setting is seeing how your choices affect how Riou and Jowy confront each other at the end.

Also, now that you're finished with it, you can check out this 1999 developer interview where the devs for Suikoden II talk about all the various ideas they had while making it, alongside how much characters changed during development. Like, it's a bit funny to think that Jowy started out looking and acting more like a delinquent than the morally-grey and conflicted guy we wound up with.

[u/Kataphrut94]

Exciting times this week because I filed my taxes and confirmed that I've paid off my student debt! As a result, I'm getting an extra big return this year, which I plan to spend partly on upgrading my PC. I'm getting a new video card, new RAM and a new PSU. It's been about 5 years since my last upgrade, and I think once I do this, I'll be set for a good long time.

I went and saw a Beatles tribute band concert the other night with the girlfriend. The two of us love the Fab Four, but as 30s-somethings, we were very much a minority in the audience. They played great and the audience patter was alright, but the best was when they got the crowd to get up and dance for Twist and Shout and I Saw Her Standing There, and you could see all the old darls in the crowd just kind of shuffling around, trying to boogie like the old days. But there were a handful of the young-at-heart who got up to the front of the stage and really went for it, and I say good on 'em.

On the gaming front, I'm crossing Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy off my backlog. I'm about three quarters of the way through 4 and honestly? I'm kind of meh on it. It's fine, but everything that made the series groundbreaking has been improved on by other games, so what you're left with is just the AAA template. Hell, even Last of Us has survival mechanics and something resembling a melee combat system, whereas Uncharted is just two guns, basic stealth, and mash square to punch. At least it looks great and has some cool setpieces.

Also, I know this shouldn't bother me, but the game is a nightmare for completionists. Linear levels full of missable treasures, journals and optional conversations. Regular points-of-no-return and constant autosaving which make it really annoying to try and scrape a level. And Naughty Dog is uniquely ruthless with trophy requirements compared to other first-party Sony developers. Aside from getting all the collectables, they want you to maintain a 70% accuracy rating throughout the whole game, kill 100 enemies without dying, kill 20 enemies while hanging from a ledge, get 20 headshots hanging from a rope, get a melee, gun and grenade kill back to back in 15 seconds, and all these other ridiculous tasks that are hard to justify in a game as scripted and linear as this.

I know it's all optional, but I think the game would have been perfectly fine, nay improved, without these elements. It's meant to be a linear cinematic experience, and it would feel more like one if you could go through the levels at your own pace without having to worry about hunting for collectibles or killing enemies the right way.

[u/bvanbove25 → u/Kataphrut94]

Congrats on making it out of college debt hell! As someone who works in that sector and tries my best to teach students to be as responsible as possible if they absolutely HAVE TO use student loans, shit is rough.

[u/ToastyMozart → u/Kataphrut94]

Congrats on wiping away the debt! May want to talk with HR about lowering the withholdings next year. What video card are you eyeing?

[u/Kataphrut94 → u/ToastyMozart]

Thank you! Yes, I have emailed them about that. Though I'm planning to put the extra pay into salary sacrifice to help save for a house faster.

The AMD 9070 XT. All my previous cards have been Nvidia, but every tech blog and subreddit I've looked at has rated the 9070 highly. It has 16GB of VRAM so it should be future proof for a while.

[u/ToastyMozart → u/Kataphrut94]

Nice! I picked up a 9060XT a little while ago and it's been doing well, so the 70 should be awesome.

[u/MaelstromTear → u/Kataphrut94]

Congrats on the student loan stuff! It's a weight off your shoulders for sure.

[u/kenshin317]

I've had a bout of depression these past few days and honestly it's just fucking frustrating cause I've not had it in a good while but everytime it happens I just feel stupid and annoyed at myself how I let it happen and why I'm dwelling on it without just getting past it. I also had to send two items back cause of the condition they were in but that's small grapes really and I at least had my 5th rewatch of the Planet of the Apes films from Rise to Kingdom which are always a good time if emotionally exhausting films. 

[u/kenshin317 → u/[deleted]]

What the fuck is your pfp

[u/Mike4302]

Just had a friend who i knew for 4 years block me out of nowhere when I was heading to bed early. Hate my fucking life.

[u/MaelstromTear]

Cat foibles never end. Thankfully it's not Gus this time! He's perfectly content as a cool double-pirate. No, it's the stinker Mona who's lost a bunch of weight fast. I thought it was thyroid shenanigans because my sister-in-law's previous cat also had a sudden weight loss like that. Nope, turns out she's diabetic. Which is not as bad as it could be, but still. I guess this is what I get for taking the animals that come to me!

I've been doing a lot of drawing for character comm stuff in a new book avenue. None of that's ready for primetime, though. Instead check out these full novels, The Demon in Shadow and/or The Demons of Bone & Blood! Not sure why you'd go or, though. It's kind of a set. We follow Ayun, a demon who has the power to will weapons into existence from the shadows but lacks agency herself. While looking for her lost employers she runs into Max, a human who's lost in many senses of the word. As they travel together we learn more about them, the world and a potential path they'll undertake together. Assuming some nefarious groups don't muck it up along the way. You'll also find some awesome artwork either tucked in the pages where it counts or in the back showing off character portraits. I've got one piece that just started and I'm so excited for it.

We did one part of a small Monster of the Week campaign dealing with a haunted Disney World. Land? Florida. I'm not a park-goer. But I am an Action Scientist! ...Or my character Elise is. We had a snag with the train and my thought was using the Sabotage move as a sort of 'junk it, then fix it back up' set of moves. Only to get a critical failure. And as Sabotage says, on a miss it goes bad. Usually, explosions. So the very last thing we did before ending was having my character right in the explosion. I'm sure it'll be fine.

With Pat looking at Palworld's 1.0 release I figured I would do the same and start fresh. And other than fishing and chest sorting... I can't say there's a whole lot different. There are probably new pals and definitely some new items (like a bunch of collab stuff) but otherwise it feels very much like the game I played. I hit a particular ingot-based wall in this fresh save and decided to jump back into the old one. That actually did show off a few changes and additions to the game by way of not having them unlocked. Like wood planks? If I stick with it, I'll definitely just go back to the old one. I think I might've been on a Fate kick, though. A lot of pals named after heroic spirits. And back then I was actually naming everyone, even the base workers. Past me was alright maybe.

I'm sad I never got to finish Magnum PI before it disappeared from Roku. Going to do the smart thing and pick up a blu-ray set but in the meantime why not some other 80s show? I love Psych, so why not go with what put Corbin Bersen on the map, LA Law? And speaking of Magnum, the incredible Mike Post is on the theme song as well! As far as pilots go, this one was fine. It had to introduce a lot of characters and these sets are busy. Small courtrooms and lots of people to keep track of. The first episode pull is that one of the founder of the law firm is found dead (of old age, it ain't that show) in his office. And unexpected is that at his funeral one of the secretaries identifies herself as transexual, that Chaney was a closeted gay man and had a really wonderful eulogy for a guy we didn't know. Then in the next scene, one of the lawyers fires her and calls her a 'freak of nature'. Okay, hate sink firmly established. My worry was that there really wasn't a resolution to this past that. It kind of made me less willing to continue. But thankfully, in the next episode we get Chaney's will and Georgia gets a significant piece, and after the guy insults her she decks him in the face. I'm not expecting every episode to be like this, but it's interesting where topics end up. I'll probably keep going. 'Til that Magnum set comes in anyway.

[u/CaptainJudaism → u/MaelstromTear]

Yeah. the start of Palworld 1.0 is very much the same as it was back in the day. The major additions tend to be more QoL related with the bigger content ones being once you hit Feybreak and beyond. The vast majority of new pals are there but the flow is still very much "Palworld".

[u/MaelstromTear → u/CaptainJudaism]

They're welcome improvements. I was going back to my old save and remembering getting pissed at the lack of sorting. "Why are my chests all full- You idiots keep sticking single piles of string and logs in here!"

[u/CaptainJudaism → u/MaelstromTear]

My favorite QoL is being able to swap out crappy traits with good/useful ones via the surgery table, swapping genders via the surgery table so only needing to catch 2 pals for a breeding pair, the auto-store/stack, being able to craft from chest inventory in bases, and the medal merchant letting you buy Rank up fruit so getting the 4th "Star" is super easy as well as buying Work books to allow pretty much any pal excel at a task if you like specific ones. Okay that's... a lot of QoL but hey.

[u/PomfAndCircvmstance]

So I started playing RimWorld two weeks ago. 60 hours later and I think I'm starting to figure it out. After multiple prior colony wipes while learning the ropes (did you know cave-ins are super dangerous and hypothermia is bad?) I bio-engineered a trio of super colonists to take into my first run on Blood and Dust difficulty (commitment mode, Randy Random because I ain't no bitch).

We randomly landed in a Boreal Forest in summer, rich with plentiful game and surrounded by several very hostile neighbors we'd be meeting soon. For most of summer and fall things were shockingly calm and quiet. Aside from a couple inbred pigmen and some very hostile rodents we barely saw anyone other than the occasional caravan and we used this time to domesticate a managerie of wargs, bears, wolves, and foxes while hallowing out a small mountain to serve as our base of operations while filling our cooler with enough food to survive a long winter. And then as winter began so to did our troubles.

It started innocently enough, we accepted a quest to deal with a group of raiders pursuing a colonist who wanted to join us. We were still stuck at 3 colonists so I figured we needed the man power. Turns out our new guy was very unpopular as he arrived being chased by nearly a dozen naked tribals with spears who descended on us and inflicted injuries on nearly all my animals and colonists. That hurt but its okay, I figured, we have time to recover and get sorted before the next raid. Cue 2 more raids over the next 3 days as our poor colony was assailed by a group of fire breathing impmen who burned down my barn followed up by 8 crackheads with shotguns and machine pistols.

Okay I thought, that was a bad beat but we're okay now right wait why is the ground rumbling? So downside of living under a rock, there's going to be bugs. Really big ones who appeared in the new tunnel we were digging. We survived that by sacrificing all of our foxes and one of my wargs but surely now things will calm down right? Just days later a ship of killer robots crashed on our doorstep, woke up, and promptly began slaughtering all my animals. We overcame this too but lost our wolves and one of our bears.

With the arrival of Spring we hoped for new beginnings, what we got was 4 increasingly large and horrifying raids, one of which dropped in from the sky behind our fortifications while another tunneled through the side of the mountain into our living room, over the first two weeks of Spring by which point we ran out of medical supplies and our doctors were forced to] start healing people with thoughts and prayers. And then we got invaded by giant bugs again and one of our new colonists Mac got eaten by a giant spider on his first day on the job.

And then the raids just kinda stopped which brings us to where we are now. As we enter winter of our 2nd year we've had a very quiet summer and fall that has almost felt peaceful. 2 of my initial colonists got married, the guy we saved and the other starting colonist got engaged, and we even recruited two new members who went full shotgun wedding which is very cute (shes a former crackwhore raider moleperson, he was a vampire thrall we rescued, they do research together in-between raids and the baby is due in a few weeks). We aren't taking this period of peace for granted this time though; we've fortified the base inside and out with turrets and fortifications, armed everyone to the teeth, strategically placed IEDs everywhere, bred a small army of bears, and begun to research new technologies with which to devastate our enemies because once more winter is coming...

So yeah. RimWorld is really fun.

[u/marvel8797]

I bought a loveseat for cheap off of Facebook and my team lost last week's Splatfest. That's been my week.

[u/rsrluke]

I missed last week's FTF thread because I was busy, which is a rare occurrence. That was due to a family obligation, but I'm actually trying to be busier in general — now that I live alone, I should really find something to do with my time besides sit around.

My media discussion points for the last two weeks are almost all related to time loops/travel, with the exception of Battlefield 6, so I'll talk about that first. In brief: bad campaign, fantastic multiplayer. I haven't played a Battlefield game in years, so I was eager to hop back in, but I wasn't expecting it to be a personal GOTY contender for me. I love being able to contribute in ways that aren't linked to my K/D ratio.

I read a murder mystery called The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and thought it was mostly decent but occasionally kind of bad. It's written well enough and the quick pace makes it any easy read, but I found the solution to the central mystery pretty unsatisfying, to say nothing of mechanics and reasoning behind the time loop (plus body swapping) the lead is stuck in. Seriously, either clearly explain the how and why or simply gloss over it, because the middle ground can be incredibly vague and frustrating.

On the topic of glossing over the particulars of time loops: Palm Springs is a pretty charming romcom that never even tries to deliver more than the bare minimum explanation of how the loop works. And that's fine! It's a character piece first and foremost, and on that account it's solid, with good performances all around and some funny bits. Not amazing, but solidly decent.

Finally, I also watched Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice. I thought it was kind of whatever. It's an action-comedy that only has okay action and mostly made me smile instead of laugh (Keith David, who's great in this, got the sole laugh from me). While the time travel conceit is central to the plot, it's not really used for anything particularly fun, either — it feels like this could've been roughly the same move with one Vince Vaughn running around instead of two.

[u/NoodleSnapback]

Hello yes the Deltarune brainworms are still infecting me. I did manage to one-try the Ch. 5 secret boss so that's hype. 

Besides that I’ve been replaying Fallout 4 again trying to build up all the settlements and whatnot. Have a bunch of mods that add new buildings and decorations as well as Scrap Everything, Place Anywhere, and G2M which expands the settlement object limit. Boy I sure hope Bethesda doesn’t make another update that breaks the script extender again.

[u/KennyOmegasBurner → u/NoodleSnapback]

I keep seeing memes of Gaster being a pirate pharaoh bodybuilder. What an amazing game for schizo theorycrafters.

[u/MaelstromTear → u/NoodleSnapback]

Fallout 4 is my brain poison. Like, 2000+ hours in it kind of sickness. My only slight against Scrap Everything is that removing certain parts of a settlement kind of feels like it loses its identity. I don't want every settlement to be Boston Airport flat plains. But it is annoying when you can't get the pieces in the right place just because there's a random unmovable branch or pile of trash.

[u/The_Draigg]

Week of Heat. Man, Central California got hit with the two bad kinds of heat this week. First, incredibly muggy overcast temperatures for the top of the week, followed by 100+ degree weather in this back half. And I'll tell you, it really isn't fun to deal with when your house is out of power for half of the day. I was completely drenched in sweat by the time the power actually came back on and I could run some fans and the AC.

As for games I played this week, I beat the Yellow Deck on Purple Stake in Balatro! It's nice to win one of the non-gimmicky decks on that stake. Although still, it was very much dependent on RNG, since it was a Joker build that had the Pirate and Egg ones from early on, which really did help with racking up mult from the start.

Also this week, I hopped back on Marathon! They've been handing out the Misriah shotgun like it's going out of fashion in the armory this week, mainly because it is. It's going to be nerfed next week, so they're letting everyone have their fun now by having it available for dirt cheap. And man, having just stacks of that thing to use is fun as hell. You can delete UESC in like two shots. Admittedly though, it's a bit funny that Bungie has made shotguns that're too good twice now. First the WSTR, and now the Misriah. But I also get it, because god damn did they feel good to use.

And one final note for games this week, I downloaded two visual novels to try out, since I saw that the Toxic Yuri Game Jam 2 has released their stuff on itch.io. First off, I downloaded I CAN'T CUM UNLESS I GET THROW LOOPED, because man I was sold on the concept and sheer jokiness of the title instantly. I also downloaded OBLIVION 2666 to try out, since the art looks great and I know that fellow subreddit member /u/C-OSSU worked on it. Check them both out, they look really neat!

And finally, in my regular mecha talk section here, I was talking with some friends about music lately, and I got reminded that ILLIT's song Do the Dance outright samples the track Elegant Escape from The Five Star Stories OVA. I can't help but wonder who suggested that as a track to sample, but whoever it was, I have to commend them. That's a good elder weeb choice to make, I approve.

[u/attikol → u/The_Draigg]

Looking forward to seeing what the marathon changes are gonna be. I came close to quitting the game but ran some runs with a friend and remembered how fun it can be when you arent soloing or doing fill. I never messed around too much with the mizzy but I do think the game design means you cant really balance these things. They need to be better at close range than melee or rifles otherwise whats the point. The map design of stuff like cryo or high value areas just overinflate the ability of close range weaponry.

Im in Santa Monica visiting my dad and he doesnt have AC so im learning its not as bad as arizona but its still really hot over here

[u/The_Draigg → u/attikol]

Yeah, it's hard to try and balance the shotguns in Marathon, since otherwise you'd end up turning them into being as useful as a mild slap. Although another thing I'm a bit concerned with is how they're going to change the Battle Pistol, since I think that's on the nerf schedule as well. And yeah, I get it, but it's also a compact Battle Rifle from Halo. Don't take that away from me, it's fantastic as it is!

[u/Gorotheninja → u/The_Draigg]

"I CAN'T CUM UNLESS I GET THROW LOOPED"

This is where my eyes immediately darted when I saw your comment; legit thought it was a podcast title before I read more.

[u/The_Draigg → u/Gorotheninja]

It really does have the energy of a CSB episode title, doesn't it? I'll tell you, it's been a while since I've been sold so hard instantly by a title alone.

[u/Kimarous]

Last Week's Post

Week 124 post-accident

Week of my mother's birthday, coming this Saturday.

Got a bit deranged with my Mortal Kombat mind project last weekend and ended up adding Street Fighter characters to the hypothetical roster, which got my brain on Street Fighter in general, so I resumed playing Street Fighter 6 after not playing for an extended period. Had no idea that certain event skins were currently available. Unlocked, among others, Ryu's Outfit 2 EX 4, which is my new favourite skin for the character. Also spent some time in World Tour and maxed out Juri's and Chun Li's relationships, unlocking their Outfit 2 costumes (finally). Still have a few more to finish up; more specifically: Guile, Dhalsim, E. Honda, JP, Lily, & Kimberly.

Mind Music of the Week:

• Come on, Ring Those Bells (for some reason)
• Fellows of the Hammer
• Hardware Store
• Dig Down
• He Has Returned