Messages

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General Chat / Re: What games are you playing 2020: The true last year of the current decade

« on: April 24, 2020, 05:55:52 PM »

Oh and the god damn camera, holy fuck ...  The game is absolutely crammed to the gill with dungeon crawlers to an almost Dark Souls-esque feel (complete with kicking ladder shorcuts down!) ...

No mention taking to dodge roll and parry.  Not giving the Dark Souls of Final Fantasy 7s its proper due.

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Discussion / Re: Three Houses and Politics

« on: March 13, 2020, 01:03:47 AM »

I am behind because I have been off the forums for a bit so haven't completely read through all of this, but some thoughts I had that I wanted to get out of the brain and stress test by having them in text.

I had a weird epiphany the other day that struck me while I was playing Edelgard's route that seems may be fairly obvious in retrospect, this is without having finished routes other than Claude and Ashen Wolves DLC but generally getting the gist.

I was trying to gather a better idea behind why Rhea consolidates power as much as she does, why collect and then disperse and control an entire continent when she is effectively an immortal nearly unkillable being.  She clearly has some attachments to other people but she also expects to outlive most of them (like even Seteth and Flayn?   What is the lifespan on former saints or whatever?).   Like obviously its Fire Emblem we are dealing with pretty broad brushes even in Three Houses, but even as broad as the Bolshy Edel and Liberty Claude brush, but you get to pinpoint exact points in their narrative that are why they function the way they do.

Rhea's clearly happens back in what is depicted in the intro dream sequence, but that doesn't really answer why she wants to create an autocratic theocracy to keep things in check and to try and prevent things from progressing beyond what she can control vs just like burning the fuck out of everything.

So after overthinking it too much I remembered I was playing a Fire Emblem game and that the reason the dragon wants to consolidate power is because she is a fucking dragon and dragons have hoards.

duh.

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Discussion / Re: DLCon 2020 - Vancouver v.2

« on: March 11, 2020, 11:57:06 PM »

Hey password recovery thing worked.


I know I had said strong yes, but uh last few weeks got me as a strong maybe.   Definitely want to come if I can, but strong Maybe.

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Discussion / Re: An Aesthetic Discussion Spanning 17 Years - Andrew vs Pokemon - DAILY UPDATES!

« on: June 04, 2019, 05:33:35 AM »

I forgot they existed.   I forgot this for a reason.

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Discussion / Re: An Aesthetic Discussion Spanning 17 Years - Andrew vs Pokemon - DAILY UPDATES!

« on: April 27, 2019, 11:41:12 PM »

That is a pic of the band Ghost.  I don't know much of their stuff, but what I do is pretty dope.

Edit - Linking because I think they are just the kind of theatrical stuff I know Andy enjoys in some symponic metal.

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General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: April 27, 2019, 11:30:31 AM »

Lil Dicky - I am not super huge into Lil Dicky.  My brothers like it so I listen to it a bit when we are doing shared music stuff while gaming, but eh.  I appreciate the sentiment but the track is a long whole lot of nothing for me.
Pristine - Yeah classic rock is spot on for this. I was huge into rock revival stuff like 8 years ago so it still hits me pretty decent.  Rates high from me for that
Valshe - upbeat synth track with metal guitar tones that could completely be from Initial D?   Sure, I dig that stuff.   its like somewhere between dance and metal.
Tyga - Yeah there isn't much country to this other than like the instruments?   Its some booty rap.
Mayan - Yeah this is some metal I can kind of get behind.  Its not amazing but I am also way less into this week than Ranran.
Lil Nas X - This... also doesn't have much actual country to it?  Even Billy Ray's verses are pretty straight rap feature spots from a singer rather than a rapper.  Does it more so than the last one but eh?  I dunno, I probably shouldn't complain since I tend not to like Country either?  I dunno.

Pristine > Valshe > Mayan > Lil Nas X > Tyga > Lil Dicky

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Discussion / Re: An Aesthetic Discussion Spanning 17 Years - Andrew vs Pokemon - DAILY UPDATES!

« on: April 23, 2019, 12:55:55 PM »

That is harsh, Ashley.

That is like the whole damn point.

High fives to Ashley as always.




Happiny is a baby egg pokemon that is carrying around a baby egg.   That is some Carolinas shit right there.

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General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: April 21, 2019, 05:37:47 PM »

Aurora - The song is pretty and alright.  I am a bit sketch on use of a "Cree proverb" and tribal inspired fashion in a European artist's video, but hey the song is nice.

Gloryhammer - This is the weakest I have heard Gloryhammer.   I prefer all of their second album, because if you like how camp and popcorn this is, that album is everything this has turned up higher.  This song doesn't even seem to talk about how he is the Hero of Dundee. 

Also for reference, that guy in furs playing the bass is The Hollywood Hootsman, the King of California.

Harris & Ford - It is some seriously big shoes to fill if you are going to be a trashy eurodance track that is going to reference Rock Me Amadeus, one of the greatest trashy Eurodance tracks from the 90s.   This song that is barely over 3 minutes 30 seconds feels like it wants to be 3 different songsand the drop doesn't even have any teeth.  Supremely disappointed because the 30 seconds where it is pushing the hard dance bass and leaning hard into the squelchy synth I am all there for it.   I just want a 12 minute set of that, not 30 seconds.

Midnight - Is this K-Pop doing trap music?  The instruments definitely does, as does some of the aesthetic but it still has as many rough edges shaved off as they can.   Overall it feels weird as fuck, but I am very here for weird music.  I uh don't quite know where it sits right after listening to it, but I suspect this might be a darkhorse for me for the week.

Offset - Hahhaha nope, okay we actually got a video that weirds me out more, so RIP to that I guess.   The track itself isn't that far out, but the film clip itself has me confused.  I am just not really sure why most of it?   That said it works super well for the song, its a pretty basic beat over a short looping piano samples, so a bare bones not much going on video that is just sort of showing off for a standard hype track works.   It is a well put together hype track and yeah if you are going to do a song about how people will do anything for clout and how you are great, then having Cardi B on for a guest verse is pretty spot on.

I don't think it is my kind of thing but it is a spot on example of the kind of song it is?   So that gets it further than my personal tastes for it goes.

MiniG - Okay so we are doing a numetal rediscovery?  Because this is better than most numetal ever was.   The majority of the fashion is pretty period appropriate.  Baggy pants, hoodies and all that are pretty spot on for a numetal band.  Thankfully they have avoided basketball shorts and oversized singlets that Rap Metal bands tended to have.   I really dig the song and the whole aesthetic.   It is basic rap lines over an aggressive Drop D bass line (I hope to gods it is Drop D otherwise I am both losing my ear for it and they have completely missed the inspirations).  I also dig the way most of the outfits are leaning way more into the bondage kink side of stuff, you are taking a musical style that was related but not really there and mixing it up with Marylin Manson and all the bits and pieces that filtered through to mainstream/survived early 90s goth culture in the way so many of the outfits are PVC and plastic.  That is dope and obviously plays with the big draw which is the tilt at your Slipknot and similar bands with similar ideas on the masks.

The bedazzled gasmasks are all pretty rad.  The gold studded one with the chains and the one with the big long streamer beard on a bouquet that makes them look like Cthulhu by way of the creepiest new Doctor Who bit (looking at some other material .   Probably the best ones are the bits where they have her singing through the hole with no filter though, the pink lipstick is a damn good pick.

I dig the track and I have spent a lot of time talking about the fashion, but I really do need to talk more about the song itself.  The choruses are solid numetal mindlessly aggressive crunchy tracks with angry shouting out the chorus.  Works well the upper range of a female lead vocalist the just as well as it ever did with like... say something related in alt rock like Guano Apes.  What this does do that I like that Numetal never could have?   The autotuned verses.  I like that it isn't super good autotun, its sharp cuts on all the sounds and the whiny tones that mash up perfectly  conflicting with the plonky synth tunes.    Yeah I am super into this.



MiniG > Offset > Harris&Ford > Midnight >  Aurora > Gloryhammer 


Edit - They apparently put out a different version of the music video that appears to have been either a proof of concept or made up of establishing shots or something for the actual video.   It is a case where the enforced minimalism I think contributes to an even stronger version of the aesthetic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBGHt4gIELY

Well worth a watch I think.

Edit 2 - Actually it is probably just made up of shots they did for press kits and shit, just throw on your kit and dick around on a set for half a day or whatever.

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Discussion / Re: An Aesthetic Discussion Spanning 17 Years - Andrew vs Pokemon - DAILY UPDATES!

« on: April 10, 2019, 12:30:11 PM »

it grew a tail long enough to try and cover its arse face and it evolves to lose 2/3's of the facebooty.

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Discussion / Re: An Aesthetic Discussion Spanning 17 Years - Andrew versus Pokemon

« on: February 12, 2019, 10:36:52 PM »

Latias has 4 toes flipper feet that you can see quite clearly.

Latios left foot has 5 toes that flare out.

what the fuck

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General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: February 01, 2019, 03:29:38 PM »

Dua Lipa - I had to check who did writing on this because this really sounds/feels like a Sia copy.  It looks like it isn't and it is its own beast, but checking the 6 names associated with writing it (one of which is Dua Lipa so thumbs up), but I did see Thomas Holkenborg, which is cool.  That is Junkie XL.  Junkie XL tracks fucken bounce.   The track is pretty clean and cool which is up my ally.  I have noooooo idea how this is a Battle Angel Alita track though
 

Lord of the Lost - Remember that stuff I say about Rammstein all the time?   That applies here.  It doesn’t quite have the same lyricalimpact that excites me like Death Stars does, but if I want clean vocals from a strong baritone sung over some groans synth and and guitar, this delivers it well.   I like this an unfair amount.

Merk & Kremont - This on the other hand is incredibly slight.   There is not heaps to this.  That doesn’t mean bad just kinda eh.   Some of the verses feel like some Nicki Minaj flow before she really picks up tempo and Nicki is a good thing to remind me of, but that is about all it does.  It rolls into a meandering chorus of nothing.

Sadie Stanley - Usual Disney disclaimer of I am just not the audience for it.  I have no idea what to even do with this.   It is like... a 90s pop song?   With one of the worst endings I have heard this year, the song just hard cuts off.’ Okay

Wolfpack & eastblock bitches - we are doing hard dance again but with trap synths instead of eurobeat and house tones?    I am probably heavily bossing this to my youth, but I prefer it with eurobeat/house style over trap, and that is as someone that never shuts up about dirty trap beats being great.   I dunno.   I wanted to go in o. This dance track only being 3 minutes long, but there is definitely versions of Operation Blade that I known I like that are 1 second longer than this.   So that is overlookinngbyhet obviously there is versions that play our longer thsbrre

Rob lundgren - I dunno it is late and I am tired and just gave hmethisnno time of day

lord of the Lost > Dua Lippa > Wolfpack and Wastbkock Bitches is my top 3

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General Chat / Re: What Music are You Listening To in 2018?

« on: December 16, 2018, 11:49:08 AM »

Camp Cope’s whole body of work, but How to Socialize and Make Friends is getting the most play

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General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: December 16, 2018, 11:47:46 AM »

Ugh meant to get around to typing this up earlier but just cut to the chase since it is late.

Archenemy wins in a walk to me, but I have zero complaints or issues with the TraxX song.  It hits all the right beats.   I am just in an Archenemy mood.

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Discussion / Re: So are video games actually that bad at feminism?

« on: December 06, 2018, 08:48:55 PM »

Well I am pretty sure there is one way to work on that gap in indie stuff that lines up with advice I had been giving you >_>

Now a developer that specifically works towards a feminist agenda is an interesting one.   None come to mind but that is because Dev teams tend to work away in obscurity either by design in Triple A for marketing purposes or just in actual obscurity because of no visibility.

Also there is the question of like, do you put a lower limit on team size?  Like a one person studio count if that person isenrifies as a Feminist?

Probably the noteworthy one is Motion Twin, they are an attempt to run as an anarcho syndicalist collective but they are sort of known for the success of the game (Dead Cells) rather than that.  It is also conflating chunks of my socialism with feminism (though ofc I think they are tightly intertwined)


Some pet favorites from local stuff, Route 59 who are working on Necrobarista generally seems pretty on board, but that is based on hanging out on their discord and them being generally super cool people and being small enough that they can just be social on the internet.

Otherwise you get into smaller teams, I should probably be able to think of more, but from a panel at PAX I can throw a shout out to Glamow who were super cool at the best panel at PAX Aus and a good representation of just how deep the rabbit hole of Indie games expressing a singular idea can get.

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Discussion / Re: So are video games actually that bad at feminism?

« on: December 01, 2018, 03:22:21 AM »

But T-elos is very definitely brown.  And we know exactly the way she is, because she's the cyborg corpse of Miriam of Magdala, a Semitic woman from 1st Century Judea.  So on the one hand, in that time the people of Judea would certainly have been people of color by our modern sensibilities: she's middle eastern.  But... on the other hand, usually when we talk about people of color, we don't include Jewish folk in that calculus, regardless of where they're from, because... well, antisemitism has it's own specific and distinct history.  And for the most part, the bulk of modern Jews are 'white' as the term is usually used, so I rarely (never?) see them considered as people of color.
I guess I mean that really T-elos probably can be thought of in that light, just it's weird because without the visual signifier you'd more readily apply Semitic approaches to how she's used rather than Racial ones.

Definitely room for both of those things to be handled though.   Like especially in the thought experiment Dunie put forward there, regardless of the plot or actual ethnic background, "black" and "white" are pretty demonstrably just visuals when it comes to the way other people treat someone (without wanting to bog down in the valid discussions to be had about self identification and cultural roots).  There is room for a take on her both just as a Semitic woman, a black woman or a Black Semitic woman (replace woman with cyborg? Questionmark?).   Like when diving into intersectionality there is definitely a desire to do the take where you try and get the view of the perspective where you hit all the boxes, but that is kind of not the only valid take.  Sure you take a nod that there is more to this character, but if what you specifically want to view through the lens of then there isn't anything wrong with purely viewing it through the lens of her skin colour and the way/what that presents.

I mean you can most especially do that because because she is just a character, you aren't doing some injustice and erasing part of a persons identity there, it is purely allegory and focusing in on a specific component lets you examine different aspects in different ways.

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General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: November 30, 2018, 09:22:43 PM »

I have no objections to Too Many Zooz and haven't gotten into any new releases in the last 2 weeks (though Camp Cope I linked in Discord if you want some cool Australian stuff is absolutely my jam this week in "Things I Should Have Got Into Years Ago And Their 2018 Album Is Great").

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Discussion / Re: So are video games actually that bad at feminism?

« on: November 28, 2018, 07:48:15 AM »

Dunie as always is carrying the water I am too frustrated to find the words for, can't elucidate or plain don't see. 

Like I think you hit the main thing I had been struggling with (though it isn't your central point) with the exercise in that like, the games just don't need to be/can't be some glorified pinnacle of any Feminist ideal.   That isn't really an achievable goal, though we can talk about games that do well/better with representation, that is both laudable and something we should do, it also misses the way more interesting conversation you have going on here on where you can find good/bad things in the things we already like and consume.

Cause like, to be real, if I am going to find that pinnacle of representation and theme anywhere, I don't expect to find it in decade/s old big budget RPGs coming from such homogenous spaces as game dev were both all the world around.


Your take on Xenosaga is way more positive than I could manage (all of this is after some wiki walking to remember names and plot points), I couldn't really get past the relationship Shion and T-Elos both have with Kevin Wincott and how little agency either of them has the whole time.  So the take on it being about the fight against the influence of technocrats and leaning into the feminine representation is pretty neat thought experiment.

Going to the wiki to refresh my memory certainly didn't help alleviate the knee jerk eye roll at presentation that the series does though (Trivia and downwards on KOS-MOS article are a big W O W).   Returning to Momo's stuff because I remember liking the character reminded me just how ick the stuff in the first game with her and Albedo is and how bad the end of the third game is.  Her outfits in 2 and 3 are still rad as hell and she wears sick berets in both games.



VP hits some interesting notes in the way that like ultimately a lot of the driving force ultimately comes down to the Valkyries and Freya as the actual active participants.   Odin and Surt are barely present on screen and especially Odin are fairly passive (the back half of VP2 I can't speak too strongly for), Lezard is mostly a catalyst until specific key points in 2 where he becomes the primary antagonist and by my reading seems to still be pretty passive?   I don't know how much it says about anything, but it is neat to have a couple of games where at least the camera focus is on women doing things and women being the driving actors in most (?) situations.

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General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: November 23, 2018, 01:46:02 AM »

possibly too late for it but i would link all three and call it "too many Muse"

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General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: November 18, 2018, 02:09:18 AM »

Washington > Masta ace & marco > second Muse > HYO & 3LAU 'Punk Right Now' > Warkings

is probably my pick.

Washington I am obviously super biased for.

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General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: November 11, 2018, 06:35:01 AM »

zaz > Kura >  Clean Bandit  >  Dreamnote > Crazy XGF > Twice

Honestly kinda comes down to, do I want to hear a piano ballad in French or do I want to hear some trap.  French and Piano ballads are pretty good right now.



Edit - It also occurs to me that I should have made sure to pass on this new Washington track this week since she is a good local artist from back home.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mexPH0Pw9P0

Might be worth considering for next week if you don't mind giving it a spin and it competes.

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Discussion / Re: Is there a politics thread? Guess I'm making one

« on: November 08, 2018, 10:04:38 PM »

Senate would have been good to take.  House is a point to start doing lots.   Lots of angry to be had about the super broken process but I don’t have valuable input.   Lots of good stories mixed in with the bad.

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General Chat / Re: What Games are You Playing 2018?

« on: November 05, 2018, 06:58:46 AM »

Ima need some opinions on the music sometime.

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General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: November 03, 2018, 06:13:46 AM »

Either Double Clicks or Too Many Zooz for me.

Looks like pretty right from Alexchan there for top three.

Too Many Zooz > Amberian Dawn > Emigrate > Sigrid > Sick Individuals > Emigrate > The Black Eyed Peas ft CL

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General Chat / Re: Song selection topic for "Kaitlyn's Song of the Week"

« on: October 28, 2018, 10:59:59 AM »

Kesha > Sirenia > Lee Hi > Lindsey Stirling > Ateez > Golden Child

I dig the new sound of Kesha a lot, but I like a strong vocal over an acoustic string lead when it isn't countryish a lot of the time.  If it wasn't for a movie about Women's rights in the states I would swear it was about more recent gender discussions and I would expect the album or Radio version without the movie adverts in there would work as such.   That is kinda what I want to feel this week.

Other notables is Sirenia is good in ways you expect me to like melodic metal stuff.

Lee Hi is a pretty decent Bohemian Rhapsody covers.   It hits that sweet spot of doing its own thing so you don't go "well why don't I just listen to the original" (ie not like Weezer doing Toto) and stands up well enough on its own to be like "hey yeah  this is neat" while being faithful still (ie, not like Weezer doing Toto).

I think its kinda weaker side of Lindsey Stirling's latest stuff, but it is really good.  I honestly just spent more time enjoying the drone shots in the video and being kind of amazed at the budget of her videos and the work she puts in to do it all.  She is still one of the hardest working musicians to be pushing Youtube as her primary engagement network.   Also holy shit that must have been a super brutal shoot with that costuming.  I assume just off camera is like a mountain of blankets to wrap her in between shots.

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Discussion / Re: Is there a politics thread? Guess I'm making one

« on: October 23, 2018, 05:46:54 AM »

Good luck.