comically_cluttered
@comically_cluttered@beehaw.org
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of June 8th 1 day ago:
Marvel Snap.
I don’t even know why. I have no interest in spending money on it so I’m locked out of most decent cards and I don’t even like card games/deckbuilders that much.
Maybe it’s just because it’s quick rounds and with characters I love and am relatively familiar with.
- Comment on Self insert power fantasy recommendations? 1 week ago:
I’d rather not wade into the larger “CDPR is transphobic” debate, but here’s an article from Polygon from a few years ago detailing some stuff, including the cosplay contest controversy:
polygon.com/…/cyberpunk-2077-marketing-cd-projekt…
To save you from reading the whole thing, basically, during the run-up to Cyberpunk’s release, CDPR got very… edgelord with their marketing.
One of the more controversial pieces of marketing was an in-universe poster advertising an in-universe drink called “Mix It Up”, which depicts what appears to be a trans woman in a highly sexualized manner. (They’ve stated their reasoning for this more or less being something like “it’s satire reflecting the corporate exploitation and commodification of sexualized bodies in marketing”, but some people perceived that as a bullshit excuse.)
They then organized a cosplay contest and that resulted in another controversy because it was related to the poster.
Again, the larger issues with the poster itself (and CDPR as a whole) are in the article, but the cosplay thing really comes down to this bit in the article:
CDPR also included a cisgender cosplayer as the Mix It Up girl among their cosplay contest finalists. Even if you buy the company line that the poster represents how queer bodies have been appropriated for marketing, their entire argument is negated when they have a cis person dress up in that queer body as part of their own video game marketing.
If you’re thinking perhaps the model was well-meaning, attempting to create a trans-positive cosplay, trying to further highlight queer commodification CDPR spoke of originally, or just a misguided ally who got it wrong this time around, I have bad (yet predictable) news for you. Yugoro Forge, the cosplayer in question, tweeted that her costumes are “beyond politics,” and when pushed on the fact her Cyberpunk 2077 costume dehumanized trans people who are already subject to violence so frequently, she replied, “many cis men and women face acts of harassment and violence on a daily basis as well.”
So you’ve basically got them saying the poster is satire, but then they’re not only doing exactly what they’re satirizing, but doing it in a way that can be seen as rubbing salt in the wound for people who were already disappointed in them.
My personal opinion on the whole thing is that they really just fucked up and couldn’t read the room, but they do also have a history of being less-than-kind to the queer community themselves, so I can understand why people view the company as hypocritical in regards to the whole thing.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 25th 2 weeks ago:
I’m thinking of going back and replaying the original Watch_Dogs with The Living City mod.
Looks pretty fun and breathes a bunch of life into a game I actually really enjoyed, which I know others found boring or disappointing.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 25th 2 weeks ago:
I envy you. If you ever decide to get into the mods, I wish you well on your extended break from literally everything else.
Also, the Dawnguard DLC is pretty fun and you don’t have to do much of the main quest line to start it.
I say this mainly because Serana’s awesome and out of all the vanilla companions, she’s one of the few with an actual personality. And Laura Bailey always gives a great performance.
She’s just fun to have around. Plus you get crossbows and some cool armor not in the base game.
Lol, sorry, I just really enjoy that DLC. You play however you want, but I need to just point in her direction because I love her.
- Comment on Skyrim-style open world RPG Tainted Grail: The Fall Of Avalon releases out of early access today 2 weeks ago:
I mean, part of that popularity is the modding community (and also re-releasing it a dozen times). It’s not like Elder Scrolls has the best gameplay around. Always been a bit clunky. Narrative is hit or miss, but the lore and worldbuilding is what saves it, along with some great environmental storytelling.
But in general, Bethesda games live and die based on how strong the modding scene is. It’s why a fair portion of people are still playing Skyrim and Fallout 4 instead of Starfield. It has its mods, but the community isn’t as interested in it as they are the others.
That said, I’d say Breath of the Wild has some classic Elder Scrolls moments. The world has a lot of “hey, what’s that over there? Oooh, new unmarked side quest/cool thing to do!” experiences.
It can be a difficult thing to replicate.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 11th 4 weeks ago:
Decided to replay Prey 2017 after… 8 years? Good lord.
Anyway, going in with New Game+ makes things so much more interesting.
- Comment on I'm looking for the Holy Grail of multiplayer gaming 4 weeks ago:
Don’t forget about the great bonuses for participating in the community forums, such as classified documents, toxicity, classified documents, and classified documents.
- Comment on What are the best gaming moments of the last decade? 5 weeks ago:
A little bit of a different type of game…
Not For Broadcast, Day 296: The Heatwave.
It starts off with a slight shift in tone from the earlier broadcasts, you feel the tension ramping up, and then you know exactly what’s coming, but it’s still a fucking gut punch no matter what choice you make.
Day 371: The 20 Week War adds on to that with this underlying tension from the last broadcast, broken by some hysterical nonsense and then hits you with a sobering end to the broadcast which plays out three different ways depending on earlier decisions you’ve made. All three are devastating in their own right.
Beyond that, the lockdown broadcast is fucking hilarious and came out of nowhere. The sheer absurdity of it caused a “wait, what the fuck is even happening?” moment every single time something new happened.
Honestly, that entire game has so many of these moments, but those are the ones that have stuck with me. I often find myself singing “Mr. Bear (What’s That Over There?)” for literally no reason whatsoever.
- Comment on Open World Games: yay or nay? 5 weeks ago:
Used to be my thing, but not really anymore.
Haven’t been super interested for a while. Occasionally I’ll find one that stands out, but I’m not out here looking for it anymore. I’ll take a tightly crafted linear game over than any time.
Usually, if I play open world games now, it’s a “point A to point B” situation. I don’t explore the entire world unless I’m really taken with it, and even then I’ll lose interest after a while. (And if there’s no fast travel or some equivalent in-game method to traverse across the map instantly, I very likely won’t bother.)
What I do enjoy, though, are kind of “open zone” games.
A lot of immersive sims fall into this category of “wide open levels, separated by narrative chapters”. Think Dishonored or Deus Ex.
I like that approach as opposed to “here’s everything, go anywhere”.
- Comment on Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a Masterpiece, Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is an Indulgence 2 months ago:
I enjoyed BotW, but I knew from the moment I saw the “let’s go Lego!” mechanics in TotK that I probably wouldn’t enjoy it at all.
Just really don’t like building mechanics. Or crafting. And the crafting was already pushing it in BotW. This is just amped up to eleven.
- Comment on Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of March 9th 2 months ago:
After a two-ish week break, I’m playing Marvel Rivals again. Completely disabling all chat (mainly text because I never use voice anyway) does wonders. (The fact that I never had to disable text chat on Overwatch perplexes me. Even when it went F2P, I didn’t have to deal with half the shit I see in MR.)
I don’t play comp, so it doesn’t really matter much.
Might start up Reviver or The Operator later. Loved both demos when I played them a while ago, so I think I’ll enjoy those.
Also considering buying, uh, Paradise Lust, which is on sale for like another 30 minutes. I played an early unfinished version two or three years ago and liked the general vibe and art, so yeah. There’s that as well.
- Comment on Firefox deletes promise to never sell personal data, asks users not to panic 3 months ago:
It’s not in the official repos, but it’s really simple to add the LibreWolf repo and use that.
Other than that, there’s not really much in the way of Firefox forks. I believe the Debian builds have their own configurations as well, but I’m not certain.
Off-topic, LibreWolf uses the
extrepopackage to add their repo which is a great third party repo management program for Debian. It has a curated (by members of the Debian packagers) selection of other third party repos for some popular software that either doesn’t make it into the official repos for whatever reason or aren’t kept super updated in Debian Stable. - Comment on Firefox deletes promise to never sell personal data, asks users not to panic 3 months ago:
What do you mean? Firefox alternatives in Debian/Debian-based repos? Or just an alternative for
aptin general (in which case, I think you’ve replied to the wrong post)? - Comment on Let's discuss: Pokémon 3 months ago:
I mean, the Z-A previews definitely showed a similar art style, but the battling gameplay is completely new. Dodging out of rollout
If it’s in Lumiose, I really hope the “you’re not the one” hex maniac girl is back and they actually resolve that plot thread. I doubt it, but who knows.
- Comment on Let's discuss: Pokémon 3 months ago:
If you ever want Emerald with some quality of live improvements (e.g. HMs not being necessary to actually teach; you can use them in the overworld as long as anyone in your party can learn whichever move), I’d highly suggest the Emerald Seaglass ROM hack.
I’m mainly bringing it up because the art is absolutely gorgeous. So if you ever want to dive into Emerald again, give it a shot.
You can play it on a variety of GBA emulators, so it’s pretty simple to get running. A few good Android ones, I believe there’s one called Delta on iOS, and there are several for most desktop OSes (included Linux).
- Comment on Let's discuss: Pokémon 3 months ago:
Lol, I’m actually playing through Violet right now. I don’t even know why, since I finished Scarlet a few weeks ago and they’re basically the same. I think I just like Miraidon more than Koraidon.
But man, I started playing the series when it first came out. I think Red was my first, but I’ve had long periods (like almost a decade) in which I never even bothered, then eventually came back to it and finished what I missed. It’s a series I just kind of bounce between.
Honestly, getting back into it after a long break last year with Shield surprised me. I get why some people don’t like it, but I really had fun with that game.
As for similar games, Cassette Beasts nearly ruined the entire series for me. Such a great game that did so much right and so very little (if anything) wrong (in my opinion, at least). Art, music, creature designs, battle system, and especially writing. All fantastic.
I’m eager to try out Beastie Ball when I get a chance as well. Looks fun.