For Pat pre-empting the stream with "this is the worst part of ARR", there was plenty of content to be had with this latest stream. These are actually in opposite order of what I was drawing, fully expecting them to wait 'til next week for Haukke. But since I was already doing it, might as well make it now!

Source (it's me!): https://bsky.app/profile/maelstromtear.bsky.social/post/3mrbl55naak2l

Earlier this week, a podcast appearance by GSC Game World founder Sergiy Grygorovych brought about claims that Xbox paid more than the cost of STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl’s development.

Speaking with OLDBoi, Grygorovych said that the money taken on from Xbox paid for the game’s costs “before the first day”. Now, in a statement provided to Insider Gaming, developer GSC Game World is refuting those claims.

GSC Says The Claims Are Untrue

Reaching out to Insider Gaming, a representative for GSC Game World said the company didn’t want to respond to Grygorovych’s comments, but felt it was now necessary “as continued silence may be perceived as confirmation of information that is simply not true.”

The company says his claims don’t contain the facts behind the deal.

“In accordance with the agreements reached between the parties, Sergiy was not involved either in negotiations with partners regarding S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 or in the actual development of the game throughout its full production cycle,” they said. “We have always fully honored these agreements on our side. For this reason, his comments regarding the company’s activities cannot be considered an accurate reflection of the actual state of affairs.”

They continued: “The development of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 became one of the most challenging projects in the history of the video game industry. We believe the story of this game should be based on facts, not on assumptions or subjective opinions.”

GSC Game World says they are “sincerely grateful” to everyone who made the release of STALKER 2 possible, including players, partners, those defending Ukraine, and owner Max Krippa. Krippa, the company says, “funded the majority of the development budget.”

“We hope that such public statements will not distract attention from what truly matters to the team today,” the studio said. “GSC Game World is currently putting the finishing touches on a significant update for S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, as well as its first large-scale story DLC. We will be sharing more details very soon.”

The footage comes from the Pokemon Diamond and Pearl: Behind the Scenes DVD – Make All. It covers the two-year long development history from Game Freak. While it was never released publicly, a version of the DVD was posted online to the Internet Archive courtesy of neos_tcg and Lewtwo.

In addition to general behind the scenes stuff like development footage, a bunch of scrapped/beta designs for Generation 4 Pokémon are included in the documentary, alongside early Beta build footage of Diamond and Pearl. Images of bunch of the concept art for Beta Pokemon are included in the article itself, alongside a link to the full documentary (embedded in the article, as far as I can tell). Really interesting to see what a bunch of the Gen 4 Pokemon were originally gonna look like, and a bunch of designs (including starters) that never saw the light of day.

Seeing how much attention this discovery is getting and knowing the Pokemon Fandom, there's probably fanart of these designs being created as we speak.

These redesigns almost feel like Final Fantasy inspired, I want to say FFX. I like his Mumm-Ra with that transformation based unstoppable villain half monster villain feeling. But I do wonder why an Ape. Sources in the forbidden website formerlly known, as Twiter:

franck_sabatier/status/2074186847840825664

franck_sabatier/status/2076694399916900694

franck_sabatier/status/2077451932268986501

Modern is in quotation marks because it's not official. But I like it, very anime but done well, better to me than his Saiyan He-Man, which I didn't hate but felt like an uneeded spin.

So lately, Emperor forgive me, i used the excuse of a new 40k edition to start a Tau Army. I've been playing since before they were introduced but around the time they were introduced so were the Necrons and you expect a kid to pick anything that isn't robot skeletons that use tombs as space ships? for a kid that grew up on Stargate? it was no contest. I always planned too but just never got around to it. Stuff like Genestealer Cult or Admech kept stealing my interest away.

But i finally get The Farsight box and a Combat Patrol and after building my models sit down to read the codex because lord knows its week 4 of heatwaves here and you cannot prime in this weather. I tried a tester model at sundown and it still turned into wooly flock!

Anyway i get to the bit about how the Tau expand. Because they can't travel through the hell dimension known as the warp and do not have true FTL they expand in waves called "Spheres". The 4th sphere is painted as disastrous and little of note but in a suspicious way. So i ask my only Tau playing friend whats the deal and he goes "oh you mean when the Tau Goddess appears in the warp?" to which i went "i'm sorry what?".

So they explain the following: At the start of the fourth sphere expansion the Tau engineers test some new engines mixing human and kroot engine tech. While having no knowledge of the warp. Or Gellar Fields that protect the ship and allow the laws of reality to maintain upon it. Woops.

So as you might imagine things go full Event Horizon and the Tau cotton on that its the none Tau auxillaries from other races creating warp spawned nightmares and they begin to systematically kill them as they are all going stir crazy. The auxillaries pray in despair and suddenly things change. Something appears and saves them, getting them out of the Warp and many arms of the milky way galaxy away. When interviewed later after making contact again the Tau survivors explain that outside the ship was a colossal presence. The body of a Tau woman, a featureless mask for a face and many arms, including Kroot and Human. They instinctively knew what she was and the fact horrified them. She was Tau'Va. The Greater Good summoned into being as a Goddess like an FFXIV Primal. But not by the Tau who have no connection to the warp. But by the other races they taught the concept too. The none Tau races in the empire actually summoned a god based on the belief of the Greater Good and in their horror they killed all their auxillaries and do not trust any of them anymore.

Apparently this has gone on to include stuff like revealing on a Tau world besieged by the Death Guard that they set up churches to her that repelled Nurgles Rot and performed miracles because belief in this setting, as shown by the Orks in general, shapes reality.

Now i have been playing 40k since 1999 and i had never heard of any of this before and it happened multiple editions ago.

Granted in my area Tau aren't that popular but even online this new warp spawned god was something i have simply never heard of. Which is like suddenly finding out there was another member of the core X Men team i had never heard of. Have you ever had one of these moments where its an IP you know a lot about but something completely passed you by?

I personally want madworld for the wii to get a re release and a sequel,

its vibes, its artstyle, its music is too beatuiful to be left in the wii era.

also unless its for the switch i dont think you could even play it with its dedicated motion controls.

If you don't know what Stylized Realism is, it is when a piece of media looks realistic but has more exaggerated features. I was made more aware of this art style thanks to this Backloggd list.

My favorite example of this art style in action would be with most of the 3D Final Fantasy games (except Final Fantasy VII, which looks more animesque and blocky than the other games, and Final Fantasy IX, which is more cartoonish than the other games), with the best examples within the series being FFX, FFXIII, and the VII Remake games.

Alt title: Marvel Superheroes and a Big Bad hit the DBZ. I think he's normally not like this, but it's always fun seeing a villain be noble or merciful in some traits.

Admittedly I don't fully hate the name "The Mandarin" but like thinking of a villain called "The English", "The Nihongo" or "The Espanol" it does sound kinda silly. Plus this is one of his many real ones, but also a spoof on Genghis Khan like his backstory.

From Bionicle, "Piraka" is a Matoran expletive/vulgar insult refering to a raving, thieving, violent murderer.

A band of ex Dark Hunter made up of only Skakdi with bad attitudes, crashed upon, looted and brainwashed people the Lands of Voya Nui. Seeking the remaining powers and trinkets of the believed to be destroyed Makuta Teridaxa and would discover and seek there the Mask of Life.

The Matorans of this land called them, Pirakas and though the villanous band at first didn't understand it since it's not a word in their langauge. Once they did understand it however, they came to really like the word and started refering to their little group gaining legendary power as,

"The Pirakas!"

My two go-tos are Homer's "in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics", and Sonic Boom Knuckle's "what, I can't be a meathead AND a feminist?"

One example I can think of is the scene in Toy Story 2 where Woody is being restored. All the little bits in it combine to make a scene that still holds up really well. This includes stuff like the eyeballs moving around when the drawer is opened, the use of shadows and reflections on different objects, the pretty heavy focus on the humans, whose designs have improved heavily from how they looked just 4 years earlier, the magnifying effect when the restorer uses his glasses, and the individual threads on Woody's stump. It's still extremely impressive even today.