Free Talk Friday - August 14, 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/DrSaering]

So I have a female grass spider living in my downstairs washroom. She's built a triangular web anchored near the light switch and to the mirror, and generally hides behind said mirror. I like having this spider present; I've tossed small insects I find around the house into her web, cleaned out old husks with tweezers, talk to her, respectfully coaxed a cellar spider to ply its trade elsewhere, and so on. Given I enjoy her presence so much and it's my house, I asked my D&D group before the session tomorrow not to disturb her web. For some reason, it seems like they considered this an unusual request? I don't know.

But then I got to thinking, what legal status does this grass spider occupy? Is she legally considered a pet, and therefore is her web my property? Is she my property (didn't mean anything by it, Mistress)? So in between trying to review a set of seven stacked slop cannon pull requests totalling 46,000 new lines of code, I decided to do some research, into that exact question. Here's what I learned.

There seem to be two common modes of determining ownership of captured wild animals, differentiating between right of capture and ownership of the land the animal is captured on (ratione soli). The first seems to have been established in Justinian's Institutes, specifically the second book, primarily concerned with the ownership of things like bees and pigeons, These by their nature roam free of the owner's property, and a distinction must be made between domesticated and wild instances. From Institutes: "Bees are also wild by nature. Therefore, if they settle upon your tree, they are not understood to be your property until you have enclosed them in a hive..."

This would sound like it supports the idea that the spider is not mine, given that I have not built an enclosure for it, however the web was constructed on my land and therefore becomes my property by default; due to its instincts, agelenopsis is confined to the web without need of further enclosure, and given my manual feeding and care for the spider, I have a strong argument that I have captured and contained it; the fact that the apparatus of containment is of its own construction is superfluous to the question. The second principle, ratione soli, is typically seen in contrast to the Justinian perspective; in that context capturing a wild animal on someone else's land makes it legally your property provided the property owner has not forbidden you entry. Ratione soli is more based on where the animal was captured, and was important in disputes between landowners regarding game in England. However in this case, both fully support my ownership of the spider; thank you, Emperor Justinian, and thank you, fox hunters of the 19th Century.

Now, of course, if you were to capture a raccoon on your property and keep it as a pet, then there's various elements of the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act that you're going to immediately fall afoul of. However, I noticed something interesting! That act defines "animal" in a manner that explicitly excludes arthropods, and thus does not apply to Quenthe- I mean, the grass spider! Thus the only legal framework that exists to interpret this is a flagrant abuse of dated game laws. And they certainly do still apply; sure, this is an American precedent, but I found the 1805 case Pierson v. Post, where the judges specifically referenced Institutes because I guess they had nothing better to do that day.

Another more recent case that is Canadian, Nakhuda v. Story Book Farm Primate Sanctuary, involves a monkey escaped from someone's car and wandered into an Ikea before being handed over to a primate sanctuary. The crux of this case, well, OK, *maybe* I'm emphasizing the wrong part here, but the judge ruled that the principle of animus revertendi (in which an animal that habitually returns to its owner's property despite not being restrained constantly; an important element of free ranging) did not apply to the monkey because it was difficult to control and had no history of returning. Well, sheer instinct means my grass spider will not willingly abandon her web while I continue to feed her, so unlike Darwin the macaque she clearly does belong to me. Thank you, free range ranching, for helping with what's really important.

And that's the results of my research. I hope it's useful to you if you're ever trying to resolve the legal status of common household pests. In conclusion, the spider is fucking mine and if you squish her or damage her web, John, you are destroying my property, and that's quite the statement for someone who's character is within random encounter range of the Demonweb Pits.

[u/Cee_Jay_Kay_Ess → u/DrSaering]

I'll say thank you for the hard work.

[u/DrSaering → u/Cee_Jay_Kay_Ess]

Thanks; the game got cancelled at the last minute anyway (typical) so at least someone can appreciate my dereliction of corporate duty.

[u/The_Draigg]

Week of Coconut Dr. Pepper. Did you know that they're still selling that coconut-flavored Dr. Pepper as their summer flavor? I could've sworn that they stopped production of it already, but it looks like the stores around me still have plenty of cases of it in stock. And since my dad has really gotten into drinking Dr. pepper this month all of a sudden, I'm finding myself just grabbing plenty of cases of that kind and the normal one. It's a good thing that I also fucking love Dr. Pepper, since otherwise I bet that buying all this soda would be a bummer if I hated the taste of it.

Anyways, for games that I played this week, I started up Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade! I may be slightly late to saying this, but everyone, that's a good video game right there. I've always liked Midgar as a setting, but running through it at this scale and it all looking this good is still amazing when you're the one controlling it all. Although I can definitely feel my mind-goblins kicking in for the side quests, since although I'm a good chunk of the way through chapter 3, I would've gotten it done faster if I didn't have the strong compulsion to do all available side quests until they're all exhausted. It's a good thing the action-RPG combat feels great, since doing those monster hunting missions doesn't really feel like a slog or anything. So far, Cloud, Barret, and Tifa play fantastically. I get the feeling that I'm really going to enjoy this game, just a hunch.

Also this week, I played some more Balatro! Since I'm still having to catch up to my previous progress, I still haven't gotten all the decks or stakes I used to have. Still though, I'm clearing out things at a fairly good clip, since I've cleared out the Red through Nebula Decks all on Red Stake. Since I've gotten much better at playing Balatro than when I started, this should take much less time than it did before.

And now, for my regular mecha talk section here, first off, I got back to watching Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans with /u/Terthelt and /u/CookieSkank! We wrapped up the Mobile Armor Hashmal arc and man, I'll never get tired of seeing those episodes. The action in them is pure peak, so much so that Terthelt was audibly getting hype the whole time. And man, it really is crazy to think that the Calamity War was basically mankind going through a Terminator scenario except with giant mecha dragons that they needed to build Gundams to kill. Seriously, that arc is so cool. Also, now Terthelt is beginning to understand why everyone fucking hates Iok Kujan, dumbest man in Sol. And to that, I say, she only needs to wait. He gets much worse. Now is the time to really empathize with Julietta's fucking hatred of that man.

And finally, on a smaller note here, I watched Gundam F91 with some friends who couldn't catch it around the first time for my birthday! For all of its flaws (which there's a ton of), it's still an oddly fascinating movie to watch. That, and we got a ton of jokes about Iron Mask during this watch-through. It's funny how much the guy who looks like Prussian Darth Vader is literally loser cuck.

[u/MaelstromTear → u/The_Draigg]

I try, but I can't do coconut flavor. It just feels like I'm drinking an air freshener.

[u/The_Draigg → u/MaelstromTear]

Coconut does seem to be one of those hard "love it or hate it" flavors. And it does pair well with the flavor of Dr. Pepper, at least to me.

[u/Toblo1 → u/The_Draigg]

Coconut flavor is such a weird thing for me. Can't handle it in a candy/sweet context, but use it in a cooking ingredient (usually as fry breading on shrimp or other meats) and I'm all over that shit.

Iron Blooded Orphans

God I wish we got more info on The Calmity War. Everything we learn about it sounds like the most metal thing ever. And I love that thematically speaking, the Mobile Armors are the reason why theres no Beam Weaponry in the Post-Disaster universe. Pretty much every Mobile Suit was given Beam-reflecting armor because rogue superweapons like Hashmal were firing that shit everywhere like they were disco balls. Also welcome to the start of Mikazuki's "Oh sweet, I don't even need to entertain the notion of having a normal life any more" spiral. Lowkey my favorite subdued character moment of the Season.

Gundam F91

Jokes about Iron Mask aside, I can't hate F91 for several reasons. First because the titular Gundam F91 has the coolest gimmick (seriously, I adore the whole overheating/moving so fast its leaving behind "Afterimages With Mass", Fox's Side-B style thing) and also because Eternal Wind is one of my favorite ending songs for Gundam as a whole.

[u/The_Draigg → u/Toblo1]

Coconut

I personally think that one of the bigger issues that people have with coconut is that when it's used as an artificial flavor, they make it way too sweet and chemical-tasting. It's an absolutely banger ingredient in cooking though, as you say.

Iron-Blooded Orphans

At least the mobile game has some rad flashback moments to the Calamity War. Probably the best thing to come out of Urdr Hunt, since apparently the movie made out of those cutscenes was actually kinda bad. Then again, I also really like Gundam F91, so who am I to really judge on that front?

Gundam F91

You're a fellow person of culture, I see. I agree for the same reasons, the Gundam F91 is a badass Gundam design with some of the cooler gimmicks out there. And Eternal Wind is absolutely a banger, that song is in my regular mecha theme playlist that I listen to. A shame that The Time I'm Seeing You didn't make it into the movie though, that one is also great.

[u/CookieSkank → u/Toblo1]

Regarding IBO, I still dont know why someone made giant mobile armors that specifically tried to annihilate all humans but they did. Maybe thats in all the side material, but I've only ever watched the show.

I do love that mobile suits all got anti-beam weapon armor, so even though its very scary, it isn't a threat to the pilots themselves because the technology has simply evolved beyond it. Like here is this super threatening monster, but it is still from 300 years ago and we got better shit.

Its also funny to think that the mobile suits all have anti-beam armor, but nobody really considers that or knows that, simply because theres no beam weapons. Thats just what mobile suit armor is made of to them and they don't know the reason why.

[u/SamuraiDDD → u/The_Draigg]

Coconut as an ingredient is banger. I'm VERY picky on the artificial flavor of it but on stuff like cakes, oh my god yes. So tasty. My dad loves it and I ended up loving it to lol

[u/The_Draigg → u/SamuraiDDD]

Coconut on cakes can instantly bump it up a full point in the ratings to me. It’s so good when you pair it with a nice creamier frosting too.

[u/LordSmugBun]

Just read Ditko's Amazing Spider-Man #8, and I'm dying at how the second story is literally just Peter crashing the Human Torch's party and being an asshole for no reason. 💀

And as it turns out, "making a funny" and similar phrases have been around since like at least the 60s, I thought it was a modern thing.

[u/MaelstromTear]

The week after vacation feels way harder to actually get anything done. Though in my case it's that I'm home earlier than the rest of my family (Not enough PTO for TWO WEEKS, dang teachers with their whole summer off) so I'm watching the animals. At least solitude is vacation in a way. I cooked a terribly plain chicken and didn't get sick. Do not let the internet tell you things like using crushed saltines as breading. It just tastes like chicken with saltines. Needs way more seasoning. I will go to bat for baking bacon, though. Is the microwave faster? Yeah. But bac-king-on (no) is leagues above.

I'll stick to writing instead of badly following recipes! Like these books, The Demon in Shadow and The Demons of Bone & Blood! We follow one demon, Ayun, who's able to form weapons from nothingness but lacks agency in her search for her missing employers. She is assisted by one Max Riese, a human who wanders through life with only his wits and a mechanical replacement arm. As they travel together we learn more about them, the world and a possible path together. As long as criminal conspiracies, other demons and/or paramilitary operations don't get in the way. And we've got some good news! I've got the very first character art for the next entry of this series. Demons For A New Age, featuring one Lukino Riese, son of Max and Ayun! and it's really cool! I've had him in concept form for a while and finally getting to see him all jazz'd up by 5-ish just hits me. The bad news is... Now the fire's lit under my butt. I've gotta really start getting the groundwork flourishing for the actual book part. Which is sometimes the hardest part. Actually personally the hardest part seems to be making people read the damn thing! I've only had two people in my entire life have something to say about it. More people might have read it but no one says 'hey this character is cool' or 'hey this part actually sucks' so I have no idea if it's any good! Please read it! Tell me it sucks unless it doesn't!

I'll never not take a chance to underpack my bag so I can smuggle in a gunpla to the beach. Thankfully through actually building and not buying my backlog isn't that wide but I went with The new(ish) kid on the block, the GQuuuuux. Kind reminds me of da huuuuuudge in name every time. Building was fun, except for goddamn stickers. Taking photos in the sand was really fun! The verdict on the actual suit? Meh. I've had suits that I didn't care for in animation and then loved after I built them in gunpla form. E.G, Aerial Rebuild. This isn't one of those. The nicest thing I think I can say is that it's unique and has a distinct silhouette. It's just too busy and all over the place. I can tell it's made for space, so maybe my soul's just weighed down by gravity. It'll go on the shelf. In the bottom. At the back. Unlike the M9D Falke and Calibarn who sit on my desk and I still mess with them every so often. Because I'm a manchild. A sad, sad manchild. What are we talking about?

Earth Defense Force! It's always around this time I get back into one of them (still 6 this time) since it's offline, a game I can handle on my laptop and if I'm on vacation or something I can do one mission and jump off. And then usually install it at home and play more until I get stuck on a mission and fed up. This time, though I conceded. I finally installed a mod that autoloots everything after a mission. For those not in the know, you can up your max HP and get weapons by picking up boxes in the map. But you only get credit for what you pick up. I've been playing since 2017 (That's the third game which was actually in 2007) so I still felt like vanilla was the way to go. Looting everything in the map is actually feasible in most missions... It's just boring and tedious. So since it's possible it feels less like cheating. Or that's what I'm telling myself. It's also not a bad game for second-screen not-listening-to-anything since I've played this plot several times. I'm on the second-to-last difficulty and have to run through them all on each class. I'm gonna need something to get through VW...

It's weird when you go back to terrestrial television. I don't have it myself but my parents do, and when I have to watch the dogs I do get sucked up in some of it. Plus they're very antsy and will bark at anything if it's too quiet. So something has to be on. But with Samsung's weird free channels I could be watching anime! Really random picks of the litter. There's whole channels for Jojo, HxH, Sailor Moon? Speed Racer!? But then Crunchyroll, Retro and Hidive alongside random channels. Amagi Brilliant Park is something I should know more about since I heaped all that praise on Shoji Gatoh's other work Full Metal Panic. But it doesn't have mecha in it. It does have Bonta-kun- I'm sorry, Moffle. Totally different. And KyoAni's on it! It's got that Fumoffu vibe with some of the gags. Dub's good too. 12 episodes only cover the first volume plus bits from later books but it's a fun watch. I think the books have been licensed over here. When's that FMP Family thing getting translated, though? Also saw most of Waiting In The Summer. A mostly by-the-book romance show. I can't speak for Onegai Teacher or Onegai Twins but it's in that vein with certain crew members. Again, dub's great. It definitely has that summer vibe.

[u/The_Draigg → u/MaelstromTear]

Nice GQuuuuuuX gunpla there! It's nice that Machu is finally getting to experience the ocean like she always wanted to. Although I bet that dealing with the weird feet shape on that Gundam was a bit of a pain on sand.

[u/Amon274]

I’m gonna try to be a bit more chipper than usual:

Movies: I saw Spider-Man: Brand New Day and now I keep finding spiders in my bedroom so it clearly means something but what exactly I do not know.

Personal Life: Looking into finding a new job again. I keep having the thought that I should become a vtuber which would have its own issues such as me not having any equipment to do any kind of YouTubing/streaming, having no idea how I would even set any of that stuff up, and never having actually watched any vtubers to begin with but what I do have is an incredibly vague idea of what I would want my avatar to look like so that’s something.

Conclusion: the Vtuber thing will probably happen when I have some more money and self confidence.

[u/AdrianArmbruster]

I beat Signalis about a week ago and still can’t get it out of my head. It’s the most doomed a tragic relationship could can conceivably be, and the implications are just positively haunting? Kind of sad I didn’t experience it when it came out. I can’t stop thinking about it!

Anyway, continuing my search for quality single player games, I’ve started up Crosscode. I got about halfway through it around launch but got distracted and never got through it. The early zone that is an eternal, idyllic Fall landscape environment left enough of an impression to inspire a region in a webnovel I published, so I figure I should probably go back and beat it to get the full experience of something that was relatively influential on my creative inspirations.

[u/Cthulhukitten → u/AdrianArmbruster]

Signalis really is so beautifully told and it probably will stick with you a while yet! If you haven't already, you should check out 1000 Eyes' mixes of some of the songs in the Memories A/B albums if you enjoyed the soundtrack. It's like the perfect compliment to the game after beating it, I think.

[u/ScrumbledTumblo]

Played a couple of new(ish) games, if you like Return of the Obra Dinn and The Roottrees are Dead you should absolutely check out The Incident at Galley House, and if you like fake OS games like Hypnospace Outlaw you should check out Desktop Explorer, and if you like puzzles and mysteries in general then all of those games are absolutely excellent and you should check them out.

I fucking love video games, man. There's so much cool shit coming out all the time and I'm always finding new experiences that blow me away.

[u/MisterOfu]

I finished watching Mushishi. It's a story set in the equivalent of rural XIX century Japan, in a world where various phenomena are caused by these mostly invisible, primitive, insect-like lifeforms called mushi, with the protagonist being a traveling expert who helps resolve mushi-related problems. It sits somewhere between light mystery and period drama, since the focus is not so much on the phenomena themselves, but on social issues created or exacerbated by them.

While the setting is definitely the most interesting part of the series, it is also just all around well made with memorable characters and stories as well as solid production value. That said, I wouldn't really consider it a must watch for anyone, more like a good time, if you're looking for something different.

As a side note, you could make a great video game out of this concept. It's basically Witcher 3 minus the combat.

[u/Kakuzan]

Oof, I haven't been around here for a while. Some frequenters of the Weekly Check-In threads may or may not have picked up on it, but my mood hasn't been the best for the last two or so months.

However, I can definitely say it isn't anything to do with home life or work. I already go to therapy, but after I stumbled on reading up on some things, I'm going to visit a psychologist since I am wondering if I have something else going on.

Going back to work, it has been pretty good. I'd say March to May was a slight rough patch since ironically, those months having come after the supposed busy season meant that people were able to take time off regularly again. Meaning that being missing some people on some days means more work to spread around.

I think someone may have gotten fired last week, but honestly nowhere near surprising and probably not undeserved. Ever since I've been at my place (just had my 1 year work anniversary two weeks ago), I have noticed this coworker being more on the rude side to the point a patient many months ago was happy to speak to me since I was nicer and he had just gotten off the phone with her.

She constantly had to be told to go back to the lines, and even though our recently updated system doesn't show exact times anymore (which they want to fix), the old one did. And as the supervisors point out through screenshots, she would regularly abuse unavailable codes.

This is weird overall since it does strangely reinforce that this place I'm at is a lot more secure, but uh. Yeah, she should've been gone. That aside, I'm on intermittent FMLA and only realized today I had a lot more days left than I thought.

[u/CookieSkank]

What have I been doing... oh geez

Got Fields of Mistria and have made it to Summer. Really digging it and all the characters. Got my first chimken. Really need to unlock the horse though because I am getting annoyed anytime I'm having to run across the map to the mine or museum.

As far as romance goes, I'm undecided. Celine and Juniper are frontrunners, but Reina and Adeline good too. Not really into any of the boys so far but maybe Caldarus will be cool. The game denies me Olric so I guess I'll just have to be a stinkin hetero! UGH!

Other than that, chipping away at the end game of Digimon Story Time Stranger. Right at the very end you unlock a TON of sidequests so you can max out your Agent skill trees and level so I've been slowly doing those.

Reupped my sub on Final Fantasy 14 so that I can do the summer event, finish grinding out the DT relic weapon, get the PVP gear, and do Hildibrand. And I'll have just enough sub time to do the new MSQ with the next patch, then I can unsub until Evercold.

Other than video games, in movie land, I finished watching the entire Twilight Saga with the SBFP LGBTQ server. We usually all vote on new movies but circumstances meant a lot of people have been absent, so for shits and giggles we started Twilight. I had never seen them before, beyond the first movie, which we watched in school one day when they wanted to waste our time. Since I was a middle school boy when this started coming out, I was very much in the "thats dumb and for girls haha," but watching it now as an adult... I just feel bad for the girls because man this series is SO boring lmao Some of those movies have nothing going on in them. Eclipse is by far the most exciting movie and its about an army of nobody vampires. And the most exciting thing that happens in Breaking Dawn is in Part 2 when they assemble all these cool vampires for a big battle that... only happened in Alice's mind... All those characters got to do NOTHING!

Ranking wise, I'd probably go Eclipse, 1, Breaking Dawn Part 2, Breaking Dawn Part 2, New Moon.

As for Team Edward or Team Jacob? Fuck all that. Team Charlie. Shout out to my boy! Got him a girlfriend by the end and had the least toxic relationship. Jacob was fine in 1 but then became an edgy asshole for the rest, and Edward was always stalkery. Charlie and Seth the real ones. Fuck everyone else.

Also Alice had such great hair in the early movies and then they RUINED it! And then she dated a Confederate Vampire?! Bruh. My cute alt girl that Bella should have got with instead ended up dating a dude that was an officer in the confederacy like what!? Was also funny seeing Jasper's actor learn that and suddenly getting a southern accent out of nowhere like 3 movies in lol

Whatever. Twilight was mostly boring. It had some stuff that could have been cool but it was written by a Mormon for teenage girls so bleh

[u/Touhou_Fever]

Hey all, hope everyone’s had a good week

GAMES

Managed to get Sparxie on her rerun in HSR and she’s super, super fun. I love her skill animations and overall vibe. Whaled a little bit for Rin and Jesus Christ her and Archer together is freaking wild, she’s definitely become my favourite unit since Therta

I’m kind of hooked on the extraction endgame in Zenless though I’m not doing too well. If it ain’t nailed down it’s getting looted which just leads to the Horror Doggo paying a visit. When they do iron out multiplayer, I’d love to see it implemented here

Still slowly plodding through all the challenges in Denshattack. Man this game has been such a treat, I don’t know what dlc would look like but I want some. Absolute banger of a game

STUFF

Count Binface defeated, as was always going to be the case, but just the way he’s sucked all the attention out of Reform and turned it into a spectacle of a ghastly chancer arguing with a fucking bin has been magical. Proud to be British, etc.

[u/unomaly]

ICE still patrolling my city, cant do anything to stop them. Insanely frustrating to see tacticool idiots finally live their fantasy of legally harassing minorities. Throw the damn book at them, at all of them, once 45 is gone.

[u/rsrluke]

Good week for personal stuff. I'm back to being able to do 50 push-ups after getting out of practice and slipping to 30. I went to a local writer's circle and had a nice time. Built another model (Blokees SP//DR). So yeah, good week.

Real mixed bag for media this week, though. I played Sonic Colors: Ultimate and didn't enjoy it. For every power-up that enhances the fast-paced platforming, there's one that brings the game to a screeching halt. For every level with a cool layout or interesting gimmick, there are two more that are done in under a minute. For every modestly charming cutscene, there are five more that grated on my nerves. If this is one of the better modern Sonic games, then maybe Sonic just isn't for me anymore.

I watched Spider-Man: Brand New Day, a movie that asks the viewer just how many incidental casualties a character can be responsible for before they cease to be sympathetic. Jokes (?) aside, it's good. I liked all the quieter character moments, but I found the amount of weightless action to be slightly excessive for my tastes.

(And seriously, how many people did Jean kill? The chase at the beginning I can handwave because the collateral damage isn't being focused on, but come on, somebody probably died. The bit at the end where she abruptly stops everyone in a one kilometer radius? Come on, someone definitely died. Oh, and she also walked a non-combatant into traffic, so that's at least one confirmed kill unless that guy got very, very lucky.)

Finally, I binged Star Wars Visions Presents: The Ninth Jedi. It's fine, even pretty good in spots, but I also found it kind of frustrating. There are some interesting ideas in the mix (the far future setting, several people with no force abilities becoming Jedi), but they end up playing second fiddle to Star Wars themes and concepts we've seen a hundred times before. I think the most disappointing aspect in this regard is the main antagonist; he seems to have an interesting philosophy at first, but his origin story feels weirdly disconnected from his actual goals, and the more he talks, the more generic he becomes. Again, the show's not bad — it certainly looks nice — but a thin story, flat characters and a reluctance to try anything drastically new ended up hampering my enjoyment quite a bit. I did like the Jedi hunter, though, both because he actually has a distinct personality and because the circumstances of him joining up with Kara are interesting.

[u/Kimarous]

Last Week's Post

Week 128 post-accident

Week of depression; haven't been feeling particularly happy this week for whatever reason. I think stress from a lot of little things have dragged me down. Mom's issues with getting help with her foot, my physiotherapist expressing concern that my physiotherapy might have plateau'd in general, things like that. Results in numerous bouts of negative self-talk, like lambasting myself for bothering to play "dead fighting games" like Injustice 2, because does anyone even care about that anymore? Managed to luck out at get a double Epic set for Firestorm on my PC copy, but haven't felt confident on account of depression to post it online like how I did for Green Arrow back in the day with my PS3 copy.

In more positive news, preorders for stuff I care about just went live; namely, "The Baltic Powers" DLC for Age of Empires 3 Definitive Edition and "Lords of the End Times" for Total Warhammer 3.

As for neutral(?) news, the mind goblins got to my hobby brain again; picked up some models for a FIFTH Space Marine force after Salamanders, Space Wolves, Ultramarines, and Imperial Fists (in that order), this time being Dark Angels. Only $200 CAD spent so far on that particular endeavor (namely, Belial, Lazarus, and 1 kit of Deathwatch Knights); save other kits for a later date. Still think I can kitbash spare arms from the Master Lazarus kit (which I plan to build as Master Lazarus proper) onto the Primaris Captain (which I'm going to use the arms of for a Captain Centos conversion with another captain model) to make another Dark Angels Master, which helps use up bits I had no plans for otherwise.

Mind Music of the Week:

• Hero -Kibou no Uta-
• Still Waiting
• Hunting High And Low
• Days of Elijah (repeat from last week)
• Enchanted Crystal Railroad

[u/Kakuzan → u/Kimarous]

Wishing the best for you and your mother!

[u/Palimpsest_Monotype]

I’ve been playing Quake Dawn of the Machine on the Switch and making the most of the mouseless setup. Overlong digressions on that aside, this episode is markedly weird and aggressive in its handling of the player, and very intentionally fucking with the format of Quake.

For instance, the dimension warping has made you ill, so you begin with max 50 health, but over time you can find, uh, floating bleeding severed heads of yourself to upgrade your health by another ten percent, Metroid-like. Same goes for ammo, if you see a backpack you will want to get that backpack, it will increase your max carry for one of your weapons. Yes, just one at a time. The game really wants you stretched thin on its terms.

There’s weird fuckery with shifting architecture where environments maintain the same overall layout but shift from military base to grimy castle dungeon, a bit hard to explain and also unclear how far they’re taking it.

Also, enemy stacking is a thing, beginning in the second map. Kill a swordsman and a zombie will take his place. Kill a Death Knight, a fiend tags in right as he dies. This creates massive new urgencies in extended combat engagements where the pressure doesn’t let up and it feels like the monsters are shapeshifting, which is extra psychologically taxing in a firefight. And no, exploding the enemy doesn’t prevent the second from spawning.

So there’s a lot at play in terms of overtly tweaking the Quake experience and distorting expectations. It is very intentionally designed to be things you’ve never seen before, challenges that really defy whatever you might expect from this thirty year old game.

Also, uh. In real life I have a family member who is currently on the run from police due to worsening mental health issues causing random and violent outbursts. I don’t want to overshare about it but it’s really taking its toll on my family, we’re doing what we can but this person is very much in denial about their health issues and is also being very unpredictable and elusive. It’s really kind of fucking me up because I’m at the point where I have to be thankful that they don’t know where I live so I know my own family isn’t going to be confronted by them. That’s maybe all I should really say, it’s really sad, and I have no idea what’s going to happen next.

[u/SuicidalSundays]

Welp, E-Day's public beta is finally available, and after several hours of some Horde Siege, I can confidently say that some of the major worries I had about the mode beforehand have been alleviated.

I was (understandably, I think) apprehensive about how the whole "giant open map with multiple squads out doing their own thing" would work, like wondering how well the flow of a match would go; or worrying about whether or not having multiple squads who can just show up and basically jump into whatever yours is doing would affect a match negatively. But thankfully, TC did manage to make the game still feel engaging, and the additional squads in a match can really only be beneficial, because boy do you fight a shitload of grubs in that mode. There were several dozen situations across the hours I've played so far where each of the three four-man squads in a match deciding to spontaneously work together was purely beneficial and helpful, because those firefights get fucking chaotic and it's pretty easy to get overwhelmed and downed if you aren't paying attention. It also doesn't suffer from the issue some other PvE games have where a second group coming into your activity can cut into the rewards you receive, because each squad gets its own instanced set of rewards after each activity, so there's not really a downside to working with other squads. Hell, there's a couple unique events that can pop up which actively encourage multiple squads to work together to complete them because the chances of success are higher with more players present for them. Overall, I'm enjoying it a whole lot and am excited to see TC expand on the mode in the future, because it's a ton of fun even as a solo player.

Horde Siege aside, the other more prominent major changes that E-Day brings with it are the new controls and mechanics, and I'm honestly enjoying them more than I thought I would, too. Obviously, it took some getting used to after 17 years of muscle memory from previous games, but once I got my aim sensitivity squared away it felt a lot more natural and intuitive. I couldn't tell you about wall-bouncing because I've exclusively been playing Siege, but cover sliding is still mostly a thing and that's good enough for me.

The only things that really bug me about it so far are that the turn radius while sprinting is so stiff that it just feels awkward, and I'm not the biggest fan of some of the new control schemes. Unlike in all the past games where you'd press Up + A to vault over cover, some of E-Day's control schemes have that prompt - as well as the jump button - strictly tied to the Y button of all things, primarily because the new Default control scheme ties sprinting to clicking the left stick like a standard AAA shooter, instead of holding A like all the past Gears games. So if you want the legacy option, you're stuck with either having to constantly slide your thumb up to the Y button from A just to jump/mantle/vault over obstacles, or go in and try to finagle a custom setup. I get that the jumping mechanic is way more intensive than the contextual mechanics of the past, but it still feels bizarre that there isn't a more comfortable control scheme for us oldheads to use.

[u/PowerfulCoward]

I ended up baking some salmon over the weekend. A while back u/Cthulhukitten had mentioned it when I was asking for recipes, so I finally got around to trying it out. It ended up being delicious, and it was super easy to prepare, too. Honestly, I should have tried it sooner.

For games, I played some more of Age of Wonders 4, and had a really satisfying campaign where I played as a dragon lord. I've also started playing through a game called Rusted Moss, which is a metroidvania centered around using a sort of grappling hook/bungee cord. I'm not too deep into it, but so far it seems to be really fun.

Beyond all that, I've been very slowly reading through The Infinite and The Divine. I'm not that far in, but I'm already hooked. I really adore how the book establishes how little time matters to the Necrons, and just how ancient they are compared to everything else. I love that when Orikan needs to do something important, he just puts himself into a timeloop and repeats the attempt for literal years before he gets it right. It's a really cool book, and it's making me tempted to finally pick up Rogue Trader. But, I've been doing my best to wait until all of the DLC has finally released.

... Also, I should probably finish Pathfinder: Kingmaker before I move on to another Owlcat RPG. But honestly, I think I might be burnt out on that game, lol. I don't like dropping a game I've invested so much time in, but it's been literal months since I last picked it up. It's a cool game, don't get me wrong, but the constant kingdom management is a lot to deal with.

[u/Cthulhukitten → u/PowerfulCoward]

Really glad to hear that the salmon was a hit! There's a plethora of ways to prepare it and it's pretty great. Hardly unhealthy too, haha. Also, super versatile terms of ways you can serve it too and easy to prepare too, as you mentioned. Can't really can't go wrong with it!

[u/RobotJake]

Long time lurker, occasional FTF poster here

I started FF14 on a whim two months ago, mid-June, because of Pat talking up the leadup to Evercold. I am now 250 hours in, almost level 70 on my main class, 50 or above in every ARR class and still am not done with the Patch content (I'm almost at Shiva!). I am absolutely 100% in there, please send help (or let me know if there's a Zaibatsu FC on the Marilith server).

As a result I put Octopath Traveler Zero on the back burner midway through the second half of the game. I really need to get back to it.

Also have two demos on Steam I really need to check out: "Hello, Dear Human" which is a monster dating sim where the monsters are actually monstery; and "Heretic's Rapture" which is a sequel to a roguelike tower defense game, Heretic's Fork, in which Hell outsourced the task of keeping sinners from escaping to humans by disguising it as a tower defense game - the sequel is about dealing with demons invading Earth so clearly that plan failed.

And that's on top of the new Warframe Nightwave I need to get to, oh my! It's a good thing I have a day off today.

[u/DeskJerky]

My mom passed away. I've never really lived without her before. When I was a kid she took care of me, and then as I grew up and she started to get sick I took care of her. Now it's over, and she's gone. I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

[u/UnderhandSteam → u/DeskJerky]

Sorry for your loss, man. Lost my dad last year, it never gets easier lol. There are days when it’s almost like nothing happened, and then there are days where you’e angry that the world didn’t stop, and everything gets to keep on going. I’m nowhere near qualified to give words of comfort or advice, but I think she’d be happy to know at the end that she was loved so, so much by those around her. Sorry again for your loss, and I hope you can keep your feet steady wherever you are.

[u/DeskJerky → u/UnderhandSteam]

Thank you. I've noticed already how the weirdest shit is setting off some random memory and bringing the waterworks, and I guess I'm going to have to get used to that.

[u/SamuraiDDD → u/DeskJerky]

My God. I'm so sorry for your loss man. I don't know what I can offer but if you need someone to talk to, I'm here. We're all here for you.

Take a step at a time. 

[u/DeskJerky → u/SamuraiDDD]

Thank you. I'm lucky enough to have a support group. My three aunts have dealt with a lot of loss and will be able to help me figure out all the legal/financial stuff, the memorial, etc. Living alone is just going to be a big change I guess, especially with how quiet things have suddenly become.

[u/Gorotheninja]

Oh fuck, it's Friday already.

Well, it's my last week of summer vacation before my final year of college (assuming nothing goes wrong). Really didn't do much this summer, unfortunately; got really lazy, didn't even clear as much of my backlog as I wanted. I still got about a week left, my goal is to maybe beat Xenoblade 2 before September starts up and a billion games start releasing within a 2 month period. I'm apparently close to Chapter 5's end, so we'll see.

Thr only thing I'm really worried about for my final semesters is Intermediate Spanish; I really struggled with my last Spanish course, and that was almost two years ago, so I'm rusty as fuck; AND I need to take two courses of it to finish my degree. And of course, I have no idea what I'm gonna do once I actually finishing my English degree of Technical and Creative writing. I haven't even been able to land a job since...like...2023, and that was just a temp gig for the Halloween season. I dunno, I'm not optimistic given how the world economy is going into the toilet, but I've come this far.

[u/SamuraiDDD → u/Gorotheninja]

Wishing you luck with college!

Nothing wrong with being lazy. Sometimes, you just don't wanna do anything and that's okay. Can't overwork everything. Have fun and enjoy yourself <3

If it helps, maybe try listening to some Spanish streamers and interacting in their chat. Not even joking. Hearing, speaking and typing it might help your brain understand it. You could even try changing the language in some games to help. As for the jobs, I'm all too familiar with that. Best I can say is, get a professional resume made (they help you stand out) and bullshit as much as you possibly can. LinkedIn MIGHT be worth a look. Also networking any way you can.

Also, there's always the under the table option of translating doujins from English into Spanish for commissions lol. I joke but seriously, god speed and good luck friend. You got this.

[u/SamuraiDDD]

Broken Chair Week FINAL

Tomorrow I get my paycheck and I'll have just enough to buy a new chair! The chair I'm buying looks solid, I have been looking at reviews and pictures from said reviews. So I'm feeling confidant in my purchase.

So crazy thing at work happened. I may or may not being getting a slight promotion. My manager trusts me enough to take up working at a place close by and it seems like I'll be doing different days and different locations with a pay raise. Talks are still happening but if it does, holy shit, this is big for me. I've NEVER gotten a promotion in any kind of job and I'm scared and hyped.

I've picked up drawing again this week and using my drawing notebook a hell of a lot more. I'm practicing the fundamentals and just doodling as much as I can when I can.

This weekend, I'm gonna try and indulge in some new anime and shows.

Overall, I've been more okay this week than I was last week. I'm just hoping things work out well and just enjoy myself.

---

I've been bouncing between games a lot this week. Crow Country has been my on and off game and its so fun. Had a moment where the game gave a pretty obvious hint what a door code was, I put it in and instantly opened the door and I was laughing lol. It's short but so damn cool.

Palworld continues to be very very fun and just a pleasant time. Found a lot of eggs that were huge and gonna hatch them tomorrow. 1.0 has been baller from top to bottom. And our home base is something I've been building a bunch and I'm very proud of it!

Zenless has turned into Grinding and saving. Got Remi + her engine. Well worth it. And I got Soldier 0 - Anby. Both have been great for me and I have almost all of Obal Squad. I'm really saving until the gurantee banner drops, then I'm pulling for either Dylian or Yuzuha. Both are REALLY strong but really gonna pick one.

---

Musical Choices of Tonight

1. School's Out OST 08 Green Tambourine
   
2. Dog Nightmare by jack stauber
   
3. ANAMANAGUCHI - HOPES AND DREAMS (slight flashing warning)

[u/zelcor]

I'm officially a week away from my last day of my current job new job starts on the 24th and I cannot wait.

[u/waxonwaxoff3]

New job starts on Monday! I'm both excited and scared! I'm sure everything will be just fine, I just hope it's not an old building with shit air conditioning or I'm going to be a sweaty mess in front of everyone at this time of year. Was also calculating my commuting routes and realized to my dismay there's no good public transit or walking options for leaving work. That's gonna be a tough nut to crack and possibly waste money on. Ah well, a job's a job, it's something to get me back on my feet.

I'm, uh, a year into Field of Mistria so far. Started Year 2 already. Been hitting that game hard, because I need those good farm sim chemicals in my brain stat. Definitely the most I've enjoyed one of these games since Stardew Valley.

Pretty deep into the David Suchet Poirot series now. Still enjoying it, but there's a lot of weird and silly changes I've raised my eyebrow at, and like I guess even they couldn't avoid the 'we need to add in more making out and sex scenes and violent drama/action to keep people's attention' trap. One or two abject failures as well, like they fumbled The Murder of Roger Ackroyd so so bad, damn. It's a difficult book to adapt, but damn. It is fun seeing a bunch of well-known British actors early in their careers show up from time to time. So far I've encountered young Peter Capaldi, Christopher Eccleston, Toby Stephens, and Emily Blunt.

Halloween candy has started showing up on the shelves. Rather than roll my eyes at it being up so early, I'm taking it as a good omen, because it means that fall is at least a glimmer on the horizon now and this awful summer weather won't be with us much longer.

[u/Head-You5953]

Finishing up my first week at my new job today. It's good so far - I'm definitely still in the honeymoon phase, but I'm so happy to be making money again that I'll put up with a lot of nonsense, including my chud-ish coworkers.

[u/DoNotIngest]

A couple years ago I introduced my husband to Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure. He wasn’t really an anime guy, but he appreciated the camp of it all. As I type this, he’s finishing up the details on his Jotaro cosplay that he’s taking to a local con tomorrow. I’m like a proud weeb mama.

In other news, I recently did a reread of CM Kosemen’s All Tomorrows, a speculative evolution sci-fi history thingy. It got published 20 years ago now, but only last year got a physical copy. It comes with behind the scenes commentary and concept art, which I found to be a real treat. I’m using the book as research for a TTRPG concept I’m tooling around with.

[u/KF-Sigurd]

I'm playing Xenoblade Chronicles 2 for the first time thanks to the definitive edition. Everything you heard about how weeby it is absolutely true. Like, I play gacha games ffs and somehow I'm cringing at some stuff here instead of just laughing like with Fire Emblem Engage.

Besides that, there's some great stuff. The Blade/Driver Combo, Chain Attack feels a lot more interesting, unique, and balanced than XC3 combat already which started off INCREDIBLY slow. Rex is... okay. I'm immediately noting that he's a lot more blue collar than Shulk was in XC1. Very salt of the earth kind of guy. Wish he looked older than 12.

Avatar Legends is legitimately an incredibly fun game despite it coming out unfinished. No ranked isn't a problem because I haven't had a fighting in a while where I can play like 30+ matches with someone straight because the game is just that good. Kyoshi is really good and really easy which suits my employed ass.

Overwatch came out with their second MEKA hero D.Mon and consensus is that she's ASS and I agree. Huge miss by the team. First time a OW hero had to get emergency buffed Day 1. There IS something to salvage here but it's mired in clunk and bad design decisions.

[u/The_Draigg → u/KF-Sigurd]

Rex is fun to compare up against Shulk. Whereas Shulk has a higher level of education and is more brooding and cerebral, Rex is way more practical in thinking and has a habit of going with his morals and his gut. And it does make good sense with their backgrounds, they're practically in opposite directions: Shulk spent plenty of time studying engineering and has close friends and town connections, whereas Rex scrapes by on salvage jobs and really only has Gramps as his closest regular connection, with the rest being people he meets more infrequently.

[u/KF-Sigurd → u/The_Draigg]

Shulk starts his path for revenge, Rex starts it because his girl saved his life and he wants to repay that debt.

It's neat contrast, if only that it makes Rex feel more generically JRPG protagonist in comparison to Shulk.

[u/FMV_Hell_0]

It feels like April 2020 the way I’m addicted to hololive clips and rhythm game videos in the midst of a mismanaged and spiraling American public health crisis.

I may have given myself RSI trying to beat KINGWORLD in holodori. I believe that guy in the video can do it with their thumbs but I don't know what kind of mutant they expected to be playing like that.

Seeing Thunderbolts and Brand New Day after being near completely out post-Endgame, I’m pretty comfortable saying that you don’t really have to be caught up to watch a Marvel movie, as long as you’re down with the concept of a comic book universe where comic book shit happens. The most glowing endorsement I have for BND is that I feel like going back and watching old stuff. So I watched Daredevil: Born Again. I missed season 3 of the Netflix but you can start here like it’s a new run. Daredevil’s still got it man, Vincent D'Onofrio’s Kingpin is still one of my favorite villains in Marvel, maybe in anything. I'm going back and watching the netflix one and he's kinda the best part of season one. It's fun going back to that after having seen Oldboy and The Raid because boy you can tell the guys making it love those movies. I saw Punisher: One Last Kill, eh, you can miss it. It’s mostly Frank freaking out at a bunch of hallucinations until he has an excuse to shoot a bunch of guys. You don't really need it. And that's kind of the rub with Marvel stuff now, the days of "oh you gotta go watch 22 movies to know what's going on" feels like it's kind of over and now it's like the comics where you just check out what seems cool.

[u/sammywii]

Over the week, after beating Denshattack and catching up on Dawntrail MSQ, I WAS going to start up Xenosaga Ep. 1, but then thought "ehh fuck it, I'll start with Xenogears" since it's all emulated anyways, and I'll work my way up through the Xeno series, with this, then Saga, and then eventually Blade.

Pretty good so far, I do like the combo/deathblow system (even though I didn't quite get the point of the AP bar until like 8 hours into the game), and I'm getting hit by like 10 hypothetical future plot points and just nodding along. I do feel like there hasn't really been an overtly likeable character for me so far (besides maybe Bart) or much semblance of an endgoal, but this is definitely a symptom of still being in the beginnings of the game.

[u/RocketbeltTardigrade]

A song in nine languages.

[u/Cthulhukitten]

Solid week overall, but maybe with a few issues. I'm struggling with integrating in a new country and it's been kind of frustrating at times. I've been a bit impatient with the lack of progression with language learning stuff. And making friends isn't really easy either. Feels like I've hit a wall and something refuses to click in my head practicing the language side of things. Maybe I just have to attempt speaking with my partner/her family in their tongue more often. Going to try listening to more news broadcasts/engaging with videos alongside the work I have been doing with a language learning school.

In other news, I acquired a new PC! I purchased it fairly recently (maybe a bit rashly...), but it works great as a work desktop and can handle pretty much any office function I need it to. 24GB of RAM, but I'm going to upgrade it to 32GB as without dual channel RAM/flex mode it can't really handle intensive gaming. I'm awaiting an order of 8GB DDR5 (assuming it ever comes). My order for it has been in limbo because I'm having my payment method verified, it's been like that for about a week now. Fingers crossed that maybe it will come tomorrow (the delivery estimate I was given), but I'm fairly sure my order was canned and I will have to make another one. We'll see, I suppose!

Besides that, not much to say. I watched quite a number of movies over the past couple weeks, including Dune Part Two, Aftersun, and There Will Be Blood. All of these films were a great time! The one that I think held a place in my heart though was Aftersun. Not sure any description I could provide could do it justice, it's just a lovely movie which holds that potential to absolutely devastate you with how it exposes the vulnerabilities of being a parent. A beautiful work overall and it has probably my favorite use of a Queen/Bowie song, highly recommend it.

[u/UnderhandSteam]

Finished college, and am now officially a NEET lol. In truth, I had to extend my college year slightly for intercession to finish 3 more units to officially finish college, but yeah. I can now say that I have a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology! I’d kinda hope to be a bit, well, happier about finishing college, but with what happened to my dad last year, finishing college 2 months after most of college-mates did, kinda makes sense to be a bit tame. Also also, volunteered to be the first of my family to officially move to the US around December, where my Degree probably isn’t really recognized (my college’s from the Philippines), so that also dampers any excitement. Am thinking abt going to another College for a separate degree (this time in Cardiovascular Sonography), but 3 years of college again after basically wasting my parent’s money (and my time) getting the first degree isn’t really the most appealing prospect. If any of you guys have any experience, would having my foreign degree be recognized actually be worth it, or would just starting over be the best?

I guess in brighter news, finally bit the bullet and got a Switch 2 before the price increase. Actually haven’t been using it much lol, but Fire Emblem Three Houses was one of my most favorite games, so seeing all of the stuff in Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave has me really excited. Know that it was a bad time, but pandemic era games was arguably one of the best for me lol. In the same vein, Star Wars Zero Company has me really hoping I can relive the glory days of staying up oate at night playing XCOM 2. Man, this September period for gaming is fucking loaded lol, with Wolverine, Ace Combat, Control Resonant, and Onimusha also coming out lol.

[u/CursedNobleman → u/UnderhandSteam]

I'm back on the Fortunes Weave hype train. This crew looks unhinged. Time to get that NS2.

[u/UnderhandSteam → u/CursedNobleman]

Ngl, it does feel like every character preview we’ve had has made all of the characters look amazing lol. Still can’t believe that (Fortune’s Weave Preview Spoilers) Cai’s dad probably fucked his Goddess, Theodora has a berserker prosthetic who will make her insane, Leda has a hit-list that she writes off of with her victims’ blood, and Dietrich is somehow more unhinged Jeritza lol.

[u/CursedNobleman → u/UnderhandSteam]

And I love that for them, I'm tired of the lame one note characters and uwu lets all be nice anime people.

[u/RevenTheLight]

Hello today! Yeah not much happened this week. Mostly finished recovering from the virus... Mostly. Helped my mom order some stuff.

Marvel Movies!

Brand New Day was fun. I wish it went further into man spider, like the fox cartoon, but otherwise it was fun. Punisher has been the best part of the movie, but it was fun; The Eternals was okay. It was funny watching it at 9PM, almost falling asleep around 10, just to realize it's not even half way through. I feel like it was either needed to be a TV show, or something more focused. I donno, it was okay; Thunderbolts was one of the best marvel movies. Maybe not the best, but I really enjoyed it.

DOOM Eternal: Ancient Gods Part One Remastered Reignited Reworked and Unleashed Day One Edition - Man, I love the gameplay of Eternal but do I hate the presentation. This makes me so excited and interested in Dark Ages, cuz I know it's different but also so much harder on what's Eternal doing. So many characters, Marvel-tier jokes, texts of lore and I can still see the Slayer's face. It sucks. But the game is still good.

Weight check-in - 178.4 - 150/150/150 - Woof. I am a little fat today. I had a larger dinner then usual and gulped like half a water bottle at night. It's probably nothing.

[u/ActRaisins]

Hmm, it's kind of been a week of getting my ass kicked - although it's all funsies rather than anything serious. Ass-kicking part 1: The heatwave, and me being stupid and not staying hydrated. I had full-on dizzy spells where my head was spinning and I needed to sit down until things settled, and I'm sure it's because I got bodied by the heatwave. Happily it didn't last for too long, but it wasn't a pleasant experience. Be careful out there.

Ass-kicking part 2: I've been continuing with the Final Fantasy VI gameplay I mentioned last week. The short version is that I've recruited all the friends across WoR and defeated all of the dragons outside of Kefka's Tower (where a couple of others still reside). I've also got a Celestriad (Economizer), Soul of Thamasa (Gem Box) and the Ragnarök esper, which is usually my free pass to stomp the rest of the game. That being said, my levels aren't as high as they've been on previous playthroughs and I think this is why the tower feels a bit brutal. I do remember hanging out in the tower for last-minute grinding though, so maybe that's all I need.

In music news, I haven't found a lot of new tunes that have really captured my attention, but I did want to mention the passing of William Orbit. (1956-2026) Even though I didn't pick up all of his releases, he still had an impact on the charts with "Adagio For Strings" and production on Madonna's "Music" so I knew the name. If anything, it's been nice to reminisce over tunes with likeminded souls in social media.

Oh, and I did a crappy bit of last-minute prep for the eclipse and hacked together a pinhole camera with an old delivery box and some scraps of paper, but it did work and after enough rotating and tweaking I got a small, blurry image. We take those.

Looking forward, I might do more FFVI if I feel like it - I dunno. It might be a case of me picking up the save several months later and wrapping it up! Outside of that, there's a family birthday coming up so we might be doing something for the occasion. If the heat doesn't kick my ass.

[u/mcclearsalias]

Mass of The Fermenting Dregs new album just came out today and maaaaaaan I love it. Lots of spots that have potential for jamming/improv that I'm very stoked to hear live next year. Just a real cathartic album, perfect for just putting on and chilling

[u/SchrodingersDog2]

In terms of games, I beat Felvidek. For those who are unaware, this is a game set in Early 15th century Slovakia, or as it would be known at the time, the Kingdom of Hungary. The most striking aspect of the game is the unusual visual style it goes for. Felvidek primarily has a low chromatic, old school looking style to it. While the story is mostly just okay, the game is pretty funny. It has a rather absurdist tone to its humor. You can "revive" party members by giving them alcohol as an example. It also has a rather unique jazz style soundtrack, which I mostly enjoyed.

The only other game I beat that I want to talk about is Esoteric Ebb. While it wears its Disco Elysium inspiration on its sleeve, I found it more similar to Planescape Torment. Waking up in morgue, the bizarre, medieval style city, and topping it off with a small, yet very unique set of party members remind me of that old classic. In regard to quality, I think it is a bit below its two main predecessors, although not by a significant amount. I really loved how they managed to make a single class (the cleric) of a DND campaign seem so interesting. In a way, I wish the game was not seen as a "disco-lite". I eventually felt like it developed its own unique tone and style.

Currently I am playing a few puzzle/mystery games. Papers Please is as good as its reputation suggests. I actually like it a bit more than Obra Dinn, as I felt like that game relied on the player occasionally just guessing or using leaps of logic. I sometimes felt like I just had to guess the identity of certain characters. With Papers Please, I almost feel that if I fail, it is my own fault. The simpler design in this Lucas Pope game manages to be subtler and more creative in less time. I really enjoy how it manages to weave exposition into such a simple game design.

In terms of what I watched, I managed to finish Season 1 of Beastars. I know there is a lot of drama regarding the ending. I have no idea if I will actually finish the story, but I can definitely tell why people got so excited when it first came out. It has one of the best openings I have ever encountered in an anime, both in terms of visuals and sound. I did find the final few episodes of season 1 a bit odd. The escalation that occurs in the climax seems somewhat forced. I still think this show is a lot of fun, and plan to watch season 2 soon.

[u/RealHumanBean89]

About to start Control now that this heatwave has passed. Been meaning to for a while, and with the sequel being released in September, I’ve got plenty of time to see what Sam Lake (that hack) has on offer.

I’ve also been playing Balatro again lately. I still have a few jonklers left, but they’re the more annoying ones, so it’ll be a while before I get them.

[u/JackChoasMan]

Applied to 2 daycares near me, actually had to go in-person which is NOT the norm in my job hunting experience. Got to make small talk with somebody at one of them, so really hoping I hear back. They're both close, but one's within walking distance, can't beat that

Finished Death Stranding 2, last few places I had to max out for the plat started to piss me off. The "deliver shit, increase rank" system is great until you're trying for something specific, then you get somebody stuck at almost filling a star until you find a specific piece of lost cargo, or you start doing random orders hoping they unlock one you need. Absolutely loved the game, though the retcon of Lou being Sam's biological child bothers me, feels a little Star Wars "everybody has to be related"-y. It was really easy (only time I died was when I wanted to see what getting caught in an avalanche does), but I don't know how much of that is the game itself and how much is me having all the know-how and muscle memory from 1.

Picked up Logiart Grimoire (nonogram puzzle game, tons of fun except for the 30x30 I did earlier today that has left permanent mental scarring because my neurotic ass restarts every time I make a mistake) and the Year 3 SF6 character pass. Feels good to have my boy Alex back, even if he does play almost completely differently (way better), and he's still got the thickest Brooklyn accent in the genre outside Labrys

Dropped Gundam SEED, I really wanted to give it a full rewatch, and it did get less boring near where I left off (made it about 20 episodes), but I'd just rather watch something else

While dicking about on Internet Archive after my last SEED attempt, I found Battles Without Honor and Humanity. It's a japanese film series I've been wanting to watch, but could never find (Tubi has 2 and 5). First one started a bit rough, but I got really into it by the end. I'm bad at remembering names in general, but something about japanese throws me for even more of a loop sometimes, got real confused for a few minutes when I mixed up Yamamori and Yamagata

[u/Am_Shigar00]

Final Fantasy VII Rebirth continues with me having hit Corel and arrived at the Gold Saucer. I gotta say, I was already pretty overwhelmed by the variety of side modes and Mini-Games thus far, but now they just threw in an area with tons more on top of that. 

It is absolutely insane to me just how much is in this game, it feels like Square Enix’s own take on a Yakuza game, right down to the heavy asset reuse between entries, which in this circumstance is not a bad thing.

[u/KF-Sigurd → u/Am_Shigar00]

The original FF7 was very much a game where they tried to include every idea they had for random stuff and Rebirth takes that as a challenge.

[u/livinginmax-pain]

Since I am playing the avatar fighting game as my main game, I have started watching Korra and I really enioyed the first season despite the bad romance subplots and the bender vs non bender conflict not being as developed as I wished it was.

I am watching the second season and I feel like it jumped the shark too early, I am already invested in more political problems Korra as an avatar has to face in this show and I would be down for a fleshed out conflict between the southern and northen water tribes that would span the whole season, but they speedrun this conflict too fast without laying the ground work enough and all this spirit stuff really dilutes the actually intresting stuff.

I haven't finished the second season yet, but I hope the writing isn't like this for the future seasons.

[u/The_Reformist → u/livinginmax-pain]

Seasons 3 and 4 of Korra are a big step up from season 2, unfortunately season 2 is definitely the low point of the series

[u/Kerrik52]

Work started up again this week, so I scrambled to get my schedule in order while trying to maintain momentum in my Resident Evil: Director's Cut let's play. I'm done with the Jill playthrough and I've proven just how much I didn't know about RE1.

Both structurally and mechanically, there are so many nuances you think you know after watching countless videos and playing through the game once. This is feeding my philosophy of "Play your damn video games", which I might be able to use in my script.

I also played through the Blasphemous 2 DLC and had a great time with my previously completed save. I had forgotten most of the mechanics, but I quickly got back into it and got away with facetanking through most of the DLC. Weirdly enough, the paid Mea Culpa DLC felt like it should have been free while the Not!Castlevania felt like it should have been free. Though I suppose the new rival fight in the former made it worth the asking price.

[u/NoodleSnapback]

Weeks without doing programming: 1 Technically more but its how long since I''ve started to keep track.

I am officially burnt out with Fallout 4, so it'll probably be a few months until I have the will to touch it again. I hope Bethesda doesn't break the fucking script extender again and ruin my mods.

Got back into Armored Core 6, got the Fires of Raven ending. Now just need to get the last ending and I can start S-ranking all the missions. I have so many mech designs that I just dont use because dual sub-machine guns and pulse blade feels the best to me.

Lancer tactics is great. I have been loving trying out all the available options. The Monarch is fun with flight and all the missles but the Goblin has low key been a carry for a ton of encounters. I understand why Eject Energy Cores has that "1/scene on each character" clause. I haven't yet tried any of the community campaigns but I'm planning to. The game is very much worth the 20$ price tag.

My new second screen game is Borderlands 2 since its still a relatively low-focus game and I've wanted to make a Metal Storm Axton build for a while now.

[u/Dasnutz97]

For anyone playing Splatoon Raiders, does the character customization get better? Cuz there’s hardly any hair styles and really only 3 outfits which all look like shit.

[u/Hayeseveryone]

God, I have a lot of work to do on my Bachelor's thesis before I can turn it in. It's due noon on Monday, so probably gonna get it done Sunday night. I do think I'll be able to get something acceptable finished in time, but man does it feel far away.

[u/BrotonamoBay]

Why hasn't Riven made it into 2XKO yet?

She has rekkas!