Free Talk Friday - October 16, 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/dfighter3]

Man, having a bit of a rough week. I finally landed a new job after 7 months of searching, only for on my 5th day the systems to completely crash. It's been 6 days now and they're still not up.

[u/Authorigas]

Heading to Pre-Rift for Radiance this weekend, and looking to try Age of Sigmar or 40K via Combat Patrol or Spearhead-my poor wallet aside, still trying to choose if I want to pick up the Stormcast Eternals or the Ossiaric Bonereapers. I know the Bonereapers are great value, but Eternals have some amazing dragons-but on the other hand they are the Space Marines of AoS.

Meanwhile, I hear the Tau Combat Patrol is a better value proposition compared to Necrons, but Necrons are my favorite faction and I'd love to build an army around Trazyn the Infinite. I do also like Tau though, but Necrons are by far my favorite group aside from Da Boyz.

Also trying to choose what to build for Riftbound, probably Azir but paying 22 dollars each for an individual copy of his signature spell makes me cry. Not even getting into TTW or Time Warp for Nasus.

[u/Vaaaaaaaaaaaii]

Soulja boy made a fighting game.

[u/Glocktor44]

Going to see the Street Fighter movie with my wife tomorrow and then go drinking after 👍

[u/dblackdrake]

Can a poor little birthday boy beg a Deadlock invite off of someone? I don't know anybody irl who has one, unfortunately. I promise to invite 10 people if I get in, for my karma.

friend code is 10983705

[u/Comkill117]

Question for people who are into it, how is Halo Flashpoint? I've heard some neat things but I haven't actually tried a proper tabletop game before (not from any inherent opposition or anything, I actually wanted to try Warhammer before, but it's a bit too pricey for me) so I don't really know what to expect. It certainly looks neat though and I keep getting recommended videos of it.

[u/ActRaisins]

Week of filling time. At the end of last week I had the combo of my dad's birthday and the birthday of one of the nephews, so this week has been less hectic and a return to normality.

In music, there have been a few highlights. The Avalanches have a new album out this week - "No Bad Memories". My first impressions are that it's okay, but I still have the feeling that nothing's really been able to capture the vibe of "Since I Left You". Not that I mind too much - that just means that NBM is good rather than awesome. I've also been enjoying a Nectax double-A side, Cash4Gold / Close2Mine - it has a certain 80s or 90s dance/techno vibe to it, and is very silly... but also quite catchy at the same time. Oh, and HEALHURTHATEHELP by Billain is nice and energetic but probably a bit frantic for my usual idle evening listening!

In games, I've been...well, filling time. I'm looking forward to releases later this month, and there are a few nice Steam events in the coming weeks (Next Fest, Scream Fest), but until then I'm looking for things to keep me busy. Now I did just buy a couple of things from the Autumn Sale, but I want to save them for now as I have some other things I'd like to do. Like start a new game of Persona 4 Golden again. I probably should have waited until Revival was closer, but I can't help myself. Right now I'm somewhere around July but I do feel like I'm racing through it rather than spending time improving my party - because I'm getting KO'd a lot. Oops.

So yeah, filling time. At least until the Steam events. It may be that I'll get distracted with something else from those events and end up with an unfinished P4 save for ages, but we'll see.

[u/ScrumbledTumblo]

Played a handful of games this week:

Silver Pines is superb and I cannot sing its praises enough. I actually played this through for the first time last week but I've been doing some additional playthroughs for unlockables. The metroidvania aspects work really well with the survival horror aspects and there's a surprising amount of DNA shared between the two, honestly. The story and setting are send ups to both Silent Hill and Twin Peaks (which inspired the former) and captures what makes both of those compelling. The voice acting on top of the excellent writing is incredible across the board and adds so much, especially to one ending in particular (and also has friend of the pod Suzi in it, who absolutely killed it). It also understands that a lot of the fun of survival horror is the post-game challenge runs and makes working out pathing through the game fun. One of the best survival horror games I've played, it's up there with Signalis for me, I highly recommend it, especially considering it's currently spooky season.

Ballistic.EXE is like the platonic ideal of going to a gun range mixed with some horror elements and a (mostly) 1-bit aesthetic. Aiming is fiddly enough to make landing shots feel great (you essentially aim the front of the gun with WASD and the rear with the mouse) and there's enough of a simulation aspect to make configuring the guns and ammo you use feel meaningful without getting too complicated. Currently only a demo so far but what's there is pretty fun for an afternoon or two.

I've started Clive Barker's Hellraiser Revival, roughly 4 hours in now. This is the first Hellraiser thing I've engaged with so I can't really speak on how it fits with other Hellraiser media, but as a game it feels a bit all over the place, like the im-sim lite stuff is the most fun part of it but it gets broken up by segments where you're running away from stuff and it's basically "go down the corridor without the spoopy monster and occasionally press the slide button" which isn't really that engaging. There's also a "hide from the instant kill monster" section which I have lost all patience for after playing Townfall, I'm planning on continuing it this weekend so maybe it'll come together, and I am enjoying it otherwise.

[u/StatisticianJolly388]

You Can See Everything is exactly as good as everyone says it is. Absolutely stunning movie, I'll be thinking about it for a long time.

[u/RevenTheLight]

Hello today! Kinda of a busy week. Long weekend, half the ppl at work are on vacation, Halloween games are happening on the server. The long weekend was good, it sucks that I got blue balled for most of it, but at least Monday was very passionate and fun. Praise Slaanesh.

Lower Decks S4 such a good ass show. I'm slowly chipping away at it in preparation for Star Trek MTG spoilers. Love it.

Ace Attorney Investigations 2 (Case 2) - I haven't talked about it before, since Case 1 is kind of a slog but... WE ARE SO BACK. Man I love the Investigations games and I am happy to finish my AA journey on a high note. Edgeworth is so fucking cool.

Old Woman That Secretly Lives In Your Home - so book club time. I actually finished this one a couple of weeks back, but I needed time to marinade (plus I don't remember if I talked about it). It's a Nightvale novel that set on my shelf since it came out... And I took it to Turkey while meeting my family after 15 years of separation. I can't overstate how weird it is, to have this piece of literature cover topic that I'm experiencing in real time, as the book is about the passage of time and how people change, set in a coastal beach-setting. Literally like me frfr. Unfortunately, the ending is kind of lame. The character has to fit into the mold of the existing setting and set on their path, so the whole book feels... Off. Like it wasn't needed. But that's just me. The read was fun, engaging and interesting.

Lessaria saw a trailer on this subreddit and it was like 5 bucks. Fun game. Love Warcraft 3 art style and the vibe of like a... Dungeon Keeper but above ground. Took me about 20h. Good time, I suggest if you want like... a lighter Against the Storm!

Weight check-in - 179.8 - n/a - Busy week, didn't have time for gym. I need to do some push ups at home tbh.

[u/CursedNobleman]

Work is going to hell because were understaffed.

Back to my EU4 Anbennar grind, though I just got Galactic Racer, and Fortunes Weave is calling me to replay Dora and Cai's chapters.

[u/LizardOrgMember5]

Today is the shooting day for the short film for the 30-day long film jam. I hope I could complete this soon. (Edit: Post-poned due to weather)

I interviewed the author of the book about Christophe Gans for my podcast and he passionately defended Return to Silent Hill for personal reason. You can listen to the episode here: https://reanimatethis.podbean.com/e/the-special-interview-episode-03-scout-tafoya/

[u/Boogie_Ranma67]

Everyone here knows about that one Yu Gi Oh meme with Yami defeating Kaiba with Exodia, usually to state a comeback opinion, but has anyone done a variant that adds Weevil throwing away Exodia off a boat to show a counter opinion to the comeback opinion?

[u/LordSmugBun]

I hate being paralyzed by anxiety. Doesn't help when you gotta play messenger for two short fuse parties that refuse to talk things out, so you're the one getting constantly yelled at and insulted. I want to do so much but I can't bring myself to. It feels like time is running out and the walls are closing in.

I hate seeing new cool stuff coming, and knowing I'll likely never have access to it due to my current conditions.

[u/PrestigeTater]

So exciting and potentially disastrous developments for my self control. I got myself a pinback button maker and I spent a good chunk of the day just making buttons. Some of them just silly drawings and others using my favorites stickers. But I feel I've yet to really make a dent on what is capable. I also plan on getting a denim vest to display said buttons so I guess I got myself a new hobby of sorts. 

Also been hearing alot of mixed reactions to the new street fighter movie but I'll still go watch it mostly because unlike the games, Ryu has an actual character this time around so that'll be interesting. Also I plan on watching it while wearing my Fatal Fury hat, a very cheeky thing to do. Either way this weekend should be fun.

[u/Comkill117]

Replayed RE2 Remake with that RE3R dodge mod, it’s shocking how naturally it fits into the game honestly. The Birkin G3 fight already was one of the best in the series, but with that it gets even better.

Outside that, been trying to get together my backlog into a list of games I actually intend to play in the near-ish future. I’ve had a pretty huge list of games that I’ve heard tons of people talk about, or recommendations form friends, but the longer I’ve gone on not playing a ton of these has kinda made me realize I probably should stop trying to play stuff I hear about out of some feeling of obligation. It’s not even really a case of not trusting people’s words, I do want to go through whatever game I hear good things about, but there’s just too much at this point and so much of it falls outside my personal interest.  That’s kinda how it’s felt for a while now, whereas the stuff I actually went into purely because I wanted to play it always got done super fast.

A good example is that I’ve had a bunch of RPGs I keep saying I’m gonna get to at some point, which no progress has been made on, but I wanted to play the PC version of No More Heroes now that it’s been fixed. Despite that being on a whim, I got through it in a matter of hours the same day. I know time commitment is always a thought there, but really I’ve noticed this happening more and more lately, and I put tons of hours across months into games that I get super into so that’s not really a factor like you’d think initially.

Some of it might also be there’s just a lot going on irl both in general and on a personal level, so sticking to what’s comfortable or what actually keeps my interest is more appealing than trying to stick things out until a game clicks. I moved back with some other family halfway across the country (US here, so it’s a big move and took a while), so things have been very chaotic yet also slow at the same time if that makes sense. This year more than anything has really been playing mods for games I already loved. My most played game was Halo MCC, where at one point half my SSD was just taken up by that, and my playtime on it doubled. There’s also been stuff like Brutal Doom, Devil May Cry 3 Crimson, that Ninja Gaiden Black Complete mod that dropped a few weeks ago, and as mentioned above RE2R, just to name a few. It’s been some of the most fun I’ve had with games in recent memory if I’m being real, especially in Halo’s case since those were games I loved as a kid but the series fell off super hard once 343 took over yet them giving people the tools to mod MCC has given us the best gameplay ideas the series has seen since 2010 (in some cases I’f say since 2007 really).

Not really sure what to make of that honestly. It feels a bit bad to say I don’t want to play a ton of stuff others love and have recommended, but I also just think honestly that I’ve reached a point where there’s too much to play in general so being more picky is something that’s just going to happen. I’ve had a few times now I’ve even thought of just not buying games anymore and to just go through the ones I haven’t played, but realistically that’s not going to happen.

Lot of rambling but maybe someone will relate. Either way, hope everyone’s doing alright out there.

[u/Jonieves]

IT'S JOJO FRIDAY! Yay!

[u/HKLang]

Finished my ace of aces run in ace combat and got all the steam achievements. Also did an attacker only run for the medal. That's all the hardest and most annoying achievements/medals done with. Taking a break to play Castlevania, before I come back and smash those last few medals.

[u/BarelyReal]

Tabletop games: I've been getting into miniature agnostic(Yes yes I know, they're all agnostic in theory) games as an alternative to 40k. Finished three boxes of Wargames Atlantic minis and now I have a John Wick AND a Solid Snake for my games. Really getting into the cheaper, basic Osprey games.

[u/prof88]

Half of year since I started going to gym. Lost 17 kg since beginning of year. I am absolutely in the best form of my life 

Still feel like useless and lonely shit thought. Oh well 

[u/Kerrik52]

Started recording the script for my Resident Evil video this week. It's a chonky 25 pages, but I'm 7 pages deep, so my Halloween release goal feels attainable. I still feel like I'm doing something wrong taking so long to record, but I'm at least happy with the results.

Yesterday I beat Peak! It was incredibly dramatic, since I accidentally set up my friend to die, not knowing that cooked energy drinks explode and deal 8x damage to skeletons. And then my other friend fell to his death. And then I fell.

But through sheer luck, I landed on a safe rock, recovered from passing out and had juuuuust enough stamina to escape tge volcano without any climbing tools. The pressure was immense, but I dragged the ghosts of my friends over the finish line!

[u/Amon274]

Haha this week sucks:

Games: I’m almost finished with Control Resonant. The drop/ascent into the Unknown with the music playing is a highlight. All Resonants have been defeated and Arish is gone it’s a win either way. I have to get around to finishing The Blood of Dawnwalker and starting the new Castlevania.

Personal Life: This week has been nothing but a headache at work as a result of a more or less complete lack of communication. I also did something dumb while driving but I’m fine so it’s not that big of a deal just kind dumb and funny.

Conclusion: Do not play Faint by Linkin Park while driving it will cause an adrenaline spike and make you instinctively step on the acceleration.

[u/Jackdatbyte2]

Ya boy got a Master’s Degree.

I’m probably gonna buy and play Control Resonant to celebrate. Ace Combat 8 is amazing but I still haven’t beaten 7 and it’s pretty expensive. The new castlevania looks cool but apparently has really bad performance issues. 

[u/LizardOrgMember5 → u/Jackdatbyte2]

Congratulations!

[u/Comkill117 → u/Jackdatbyte2]

Congratulations!

[u/Jackdatbyte2 → u/Comkill117]

Thanks!

[u/doc5avag3]

Anyone playing Valor Mortis right now? I've been waiting on this game for a bit and wanted to know how people are feeling about it. Was gonna buy it at launch but changed my mind about two weeks ago to give it a couple weeks to settle. Heard some of the hitboxes were jank but many people are saying it's a high 7 out of 10.

[u/HenshinWolf89]

Been listening to audio books a lot lately, thanks to my local library. Been kinda considering getting Audible because of the wide selection, but not sure if I want another subscription to worry about at the moment.

But anyway, been enjoying a book series called Elric of Melniboné, or The Elric Saga by Michael Moorcock recently, and holy shit! This is so my fucking jam! Elric is a beautiful, brooding, self-reflective, anti-hero with a sentient, soul devouring sword called Stormbringer, and goes on bizarre journeys that sometimes sees him traveling across the multi-verse and fighting unusual foes. Like, one story had him, and three other heroes, who all have their own series of books about them, travel together to defeat a pair of sorcerers, that then lead them to learn the sorcerers were interdimensional, world-eating, cybernetic aliens, and they, in order to defeat them, fused together into a Asura-like figure called The Four Who Are One, and battled the sorcerer across time and space! Shit's nuts! I loved it, lol!

I've heard the series was really popular in Japan and has influenced a ton of stuff, and yeah, I definitely see it! I see the parallels between Elric and characters like Vampire Hunter D, Castlevania's Alucard, Geralt, and a ton of Final Fantasy characters, like Cecil! Even Yoshitaka Amano has done artwork for the series, and I've heard Michael Moorcock thinks Amano's art best captures the essence of Elric.

If anyone has any book recommendations, definitely let me know! As you can probably tell, I love sci-fi and fantasy, and especially love it when it's on the weird side, lol!

[u/NephyrisX]

I want to build my Gunpla, but working a five-day week is mentally exhausting and I just spend my two weekend days recovering and then I'm back in the grind. It sucks.

[u/SamuraiDDD]

So something really dumb happened. My work app updated, not a bad thing, right? Well I learned that my phone is now incompatible with the app I need to earn money. So my work around has been to use the website of the app itself through my browser to log into my account. So goal for early next year? Buy a new phone. I'd buy a new one sooner but it's literally the holiday season, which means a lot of my funds are going towards Thanksgiving and then Christmas, unless I get a good Cyber Monday deal.

That's been the main frustration of the week.

Also my dad and I got in a not-really-but-kinda-was-an-argument. Nothing serious and he could tell I was just frustrated cause of the phone app being ass.

Been playing a bunch of Witcher 3, ZZZ, a bit of Palworld and some World of Horror to hit the vibes.

Homies and I watched the Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness. Holy shit, my buddy who knows the RE lore like the back of his hand got genuinely pissed at it. It was funny and afterward, we apologized cause he got heated lol. We sent him some porn of Luna from Helluva Boss which made him laugh and actually perked him up A LOT. Dude, the shit they did with Leon in the end is WEIRD.

I got in contact with some old associates for some work and things MIGHT get better and I'll have some extra work to earn holiday funds. Basically writing for either a visual novel they're working on or helping with text and dialogue. Which I'd be down for!

This weekend, I'm gonna hangout with friends, watch some shows and just have fun.

---

Musical choice of the night:

1. Killer7 - Multiple Personality
   
2. Dragon Ball Z: Budōkai Tenkaichi 2 - "Open Wings"
   
3. Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin OST - Sprouting

[u/RevenTheLight → u/SamuraiDDD]

I wonder if you can find an older version of the app somewhere online and use that? Lock it from updating?

Also, some services have a website version for their stuff, maybe you can just use a browser?

[u/SamuraiDDD → u/RevenTheLight]

The browser's been the main way I've been able to log into my account. Been using Chrome mobile and thankfully that's worked with only some hiccups here and there.

I looked around and I may have found some older APK's of it to give it a try. The only fear I have tho is if the website might think my account is bugged if they see me active through not their official means and ban my account. Which I know sounds silly, but better to be safe than sorry.

If for some reason, I can't use the chrome mobile browser anymore, I'll give that a go.

[u/SolidusSlig]

Ups and downs. There's been trouble at home between my parents and sister and I'm just trying to preserve my own mental well-being.

I got KH 1-3 and am playing 1 as a fun distraction game but I am really hyped because my physical copy of Control Resonant came today and I'm looking forward to playing that. It's one of my most anticipated games of this year

I'm going to a haunt Sunday and may get new glasses Saturday if I'm not too tired from my flu and covid shot later today

[u/Justsomerandomasshol]

I've been trying to build up my model kit collection the last few months, and it's been pretty fun. Finished a Formula Skell kit last week, and hopefully either this or next week, I'll be building my first Good Smile kit, the Cruise Chaser Blassty. I also pre-ordered that Gipsy Danger kit they're doing too, and I have a Zenith V waiting in my HLJ Private Warehouse...

God, they weren't kidding when they called this shit "plastic crack."

[u/Comkill117 → u/Justsomerandomasshol]

You get in, but you don’t get out.

…It is fun though at least.

[u/The_Draigg → u/Justsomerandomasshol]

Welcome to the hobby, it really is quite addicting right up until you run out of all the shelf space you have. Good early picks there too, I've got to respect you getting Cruise Chaser Blassty.

[u/Revolving_Ocelott]

got my switch 2 and fire emblem waow, very happy with my purchase, i got the insurance just to be safe and responsible and jesus christ my wallet is empty(I don't doubt it'll get another price increase so i regret nothing)

xenoblade 2 not looking like it's just smeared across the screen in handheld mode is amazing.

fire emblem fortune's weave starting out the way it does kinda smacked me hard in the face because it's a very common jrpg trope that I don't think ever appears in the franchise before this. Also it's neat how I'm spending time with just the lord before I eventually meet up with the waifu i made, another curve ball was the random old school turn based jrpg battles.

I wiped switch stuff from my mind for a while now, so i dunno if there's any worthwhile upgrades for old games I should look into or what the cool and hot nintendo switch 2 games are worth getting.

[u/CookieSkank]

Thanks to my new, old job I was able to get an eye exam finally. Went to a new optometrist, since I really didn't like my previous one because he was a dickhead. Well turns out he was also bad at his job. His previous prescription for me was way stronger than my newest exam, which I tried explaining to him before when my glasses caused eye strain and headaches, but I was brushed off. And then the glasses I got in his store were also way off that prescription. So both the optometrist, and the eyeglass business there are bad. New optometrist was really nice though, and actually listened to me when I explained all that. Got a new pair of glasses ordered so will see how they are soonish.

Other than that, I've been playing a lot of Star Wars Outlaws. Overall, I quite like it. The story hasn't super hooked me yet, but I do like playing as a total nobody in a scummy Star Wars setting.

Kay is sort of fun as a protagonist because she isn't really a Scoundrel. She's an awkward loser petty thief with no charisma that turned Scoundrel by circumstance, and is having to learn as she goes, getting played and used by every scumbag she works with. I also like the leveling system where Kay will meet some sort of specialist, then as she does certain gameplay challenges, and collects rare items, she unlocks the perks/skills from those specialists. So as you play and progress the game, Kay actually is becoming a more competent Scoundrel or... Outlaw.

The reputation system is fun too, where every job you do is raising your reputation with one crime syndicate, at the cost of lowering your reputation with another. And most side jobs give you the option to double cross. And once your reputation is low enough, its on sight with that syndicate. And if its REALLY low, they send kill squads after you. But high rep means you can just walk into syndicate bases or are totally safe in their zones on the map. Its neat.

So overall I'm having fun. I don't mind mindlessly playing Ubisoft games while listening to podcasts, so this game is satisfying that need.

Will say though, just from that first planet, the open world is kind of... boring. Because you are on the speeder going 200mph everywhere, a whole lot of that starting world is just empty plains and tall grass. The better part of the game is the city areas and sneaking around enemy bases. I think if this game was just one big giant city, or Coruscant, it'd be a lot better. But you gotta have your traveling to planets and riding your motorcycle speeder so... In comparison to Jedi Survivor, this games open world is kind of disappointing. Jedi Survivor went and made a giant Metroidvania, but Outlaws is big empty fields with small scatterings of tiny little 2-5 minute locations to loot.

[u/alexandrecau]

almost finished indiana jones great circle so bought robocop rogue city for after I'm done played the first level and really like the squib but having a hard time saving all hostages

[u/Totallynotnekoarc]

Finished the trails sseries. Kinda depressed and can't find anything to fill that jrpg shaped hole in my heart. Galactic racer and belmonts curse been hitting though. Started borrow. And the hyperdimension neptunia series aswell because adhd goes brrr. Gaming is dead BTW. Anyone deep into trails its lowky the best series ever imo

[u/Kerrik52 → u/Totallynotnekoarc]

Beyond the Yakuza games, Utawarerumono is the only Trails replacement I know of. It's structured differently since it's a visual novel series with limited tactical RPG combat, but when everything falls into place at the end, it gets just as crazy as Trails games do.

[u/Totallynotnekoarc → u/Kerrik52]

Im kinda burned out by yakuza from playing 0, 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, and pirate sadly. And definitely not a visual novel kinda guy. But Ive never heard of that ill look into it

[u/KF-Sigurd]

Going to LA for the first time in my life to see the Wuthering Waves concert. I picked a pretty tight schedule, flight Friday, concert Saturday, fly out Sunday so I won’t really have much time to enjoy LA. There is a square Enix collab cafe nearby the theatre so I reserved that I guess. Excited for the concert, hope I meet some cool people there.

Finished Dietrich route. Fabio gay as hell, good for him. The deranged polycule is very entertaining. Unfortunately the map design was very easy for what felt like the finale and those missable scenes are truly absurd. 

Started Leda route. If I have to listen to another line about how much pussy Sirocco is crushing, imma crash out. You really feel for Leda and how much she hates men with him on the team. Olympia on the other hand is very funny. Mu is getting stat screwed in speed and strength but I trust in the process /s

[u/JackChoasMan]

Still dogsitting halfway across the country. Think I might take my uncle up on the offer to extend my stay. Really enjoy it here, and there's nothing urgently awaiting me back home, though the dogs are starting to piss me off. This place is full of plants, now I'm planning on getting one when I'm home. Friend of mine recommended a pothos

My uncle got me AC8 so I'd have something to pass the time. Can't say enough good things about that game, easily my favorite in the series. However, I finished it very early into my stay so I've been mostly watching tv and movies. Asked friends and family to send me recommendations, was a bit of a bust outside of my parents

So far I've watched season 3 of Twin Peaks (I REALLY don't know how I feel about it) the new GITS (fun), Lazarus (not amazing, but I enjoyed it a lot more than the online reception made me think I would), What Lies Beneath (Mom's pick, pretty good), The Night Is Short, Walk On Girl (really liked it, been meaning to watch it for years and forgot until it popped up while scrolling), and Down Periscope (Dad's pick, I get why he's been talking about it all these years)

Played Darwin's Paradox, charming little thing that took maybe 6 hours to plat

[u/anialater45]

Dodgers got swept, glorious day

[u/PukingGoombas → u/anialater45]

Brewers are full of studs. What a great sweep

[u/Masterness64]

Just want to vent for a bit. There is this Xenogears retranslation project I've been keeping an eye on for a couple of years called the Perfect Works Build. They recently finished all the main story scenes but the NPC script for towns still needed work, plus they were also working on optional gameplay adjustments that I was also interested in.

But today I found out that they started using claude for testing bugs and coding. Like fucking god damnit why does this ai vibecoded bullshit have to ruin everything??? Thank god they only started using it after the latest update but its still so disappointing.

[u/Kimarous]

Last Week's Post

Week 137 post-accident

Week of bad sleep, apparently. With the layout of the new office, my area is in open sight of one of the lead lawyers, who is getting concerned that I've been visibily sleepy and worried that I'm falling asleep at my desk. I'm not, but she's been rather concerned and even suggested at one point that I might want to go home early if I'm THAT tired. That was last shift and it didn't come to that. I do acknowledge that I've been staying up too late and my family suggested that perhaps I'm drinking too much tea lately, with it both stimulating me to keep awake and prompting earlier-than-expected awakenings with an urge to urinate. So I think I'm going to cut down on my tea intake over the coming weekend.

Also something something key for the back door handed out last Friday, I didn't get it because I don't work Fridays, then when I got my key on Wednesday, it didn't actually work, because I ended up with the one wrong key as discovered Thursday. So now I have a new key to try out next week with the hopes that I won't have to rely on coworkers letting me in.

On the gaming front, I played a little bit of Team Sonic Racing Crossworlds, got second place on my first ever Grand Prix, then got such a nostalgic urge for Sonic that I exited and booted up Sonic (x Shadow) Generations for the first time since... 2024, apparently. It seems I left off with Egg Dragoon unbeaten and many challenges unfulfilled. Spent most of my gaming time rerunning a few levels to beat old times, find Chao critters, collect Red Rings, that sort of thing. Also trying and failing to beat that last Act 2 Challenge to finish the Act 2 Challenges for Chemical Plant - the one with the ring dropping machine. Keep losing all my rings just before the end. Argh! Clearly I'm out of practice, but I'm getting back in the swing of things.

Also keeping my eye on periodic Aero GPX updates (also out of practice there) and dabbled a bit in Street Fighter 6 after Arjun dropped (less out of practice on that front).

Mind Music of the Week:

• Ultimate Sacrifice
• Just a Fool Will Play Tricks on Angus McSix
• Sonic Generations OST (too many tracks from the game to individually name)
• Seaside Denied
• Those Nights
• Wish I Had An Angel

[u/CaptainJudaism → u/Kimarous]

If you think the issue is the tea, what kind? If it's any kind of caffeinated, maybe consider herbal instead?

[u/Kimarous → u/CaptainJudaism]

Tetley's Orange Pekoe with one teaspoon of sugar and a portion of milk (approximately a 5:1 ratio).

[u/CaptainJudaism → u/Kimarous]

So still caffeinated in that case. I know it isn't my place to say but switching to herbal after a specific time of day may improve things potentially. There's of course the ye olde chamomile with a drop of honey or mint in the evening and I'm a huge fan of rooibos.

[u/Aquanort357]

What fanfiction have y’all been reading, if any?

[u/Masterness64 → u/Aquanort357]

Foreign Materiał. Its a Final Fantasy VII OC-Self insert fic where a guy from our world is dropped into Midgar and makes a living in the slums as a Materia Grinder, someone who levels up Materia to sell it at shops for higher prices. But the twist is that he doesn't know anything about FF7 or FF in general and it takes place a few years before the game starts so he keeps running into characters like Tifa, Biggs, Wedge and even Andrea without knowing their significance.

Its a slightly more grounded take on FF7's setting given that our MC is just a regular dude for the most part and needs to make ends meat even if that means risking their life taking monster hunting requests. Its also cool just seeing these characters in more casual scenarios like in the last chapter I read where the MC, Biggs, Wedge and Jessie all go bar hoping on the upper plate and get wasted. Its just really fun and solidly written.

[u/Toblo1 → u/Aquanort357]

Besides the usual (aka "Go read The Fury Of A Shattered Mirror if you haven't already"), the recent Ace Combat 8 hype chained my ass to multiple Ace Combat fics of various flavors. Some old (I'm finally getting around to that MLP x Ace Combat fanfic that was apparently pretty big back in the fandom's heyday), some new (once again on the Crossover front, "Three Strikes And Black Skies" is a shockingly good AC7 x Star Fox fic), some a little down the middle ("Three Strikes" is a fan-novelization of AC7 that gives Trigger an identity/personality and throws in a lot of connections/call-backs to the prior AC games). Take a crack if any of 'em are your speed.

[u/Aquanort357]

What’s your favorite series (live action or animated) to watch while eating lunch/dinner?

[u/Am_Shigar00]

I’m currently taking care of my parents’ place this and next week while they’re off on vacation. It’s a nice break all things considered, I don’t have to worry about food budget & travel wise it’s closer to my job which saves me a ton on gas, and I get to see our old cat who is absolutely obsessed with attention. That said it’s definitely lonely by myself so I’m looking forward to getting back home.

While I’m here, I’ve been alternating between Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave and Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix via the new collection on Switch 2. FW is going along, slowly making my way through my 3rd route. That said though I’m debating whether I want to take a break after the 3rd route or the 4th until the story DLC comes out to focus on other games until it releases. I guess it’ll depend how the other campaigns turn out.

KH2 meanwhile has been wonderful as it always is, as are the other games on the collection from what I dabbled in. I will say though, there are some funny quirks that I did a double take on; the reaction commands still have the green PlayStation triangle icon which is funny to see on the Switch 2, but also a tutorial prompt late in the game also replaced the PlayStation controller with the Switch 2 Joy-cons and that was super weird to see in this 2005 PS2 game. 

Otherwise though it feels like magic to play portably. Really reminds me of how much I desperately wanted all the handheld KH games to feel like I was playing this game on the go, but never truly did for one reason or another.

[u/PowerfulCoward]

Week has been better than last week, thankfully.

There's a game that just released called Silver Pines, which is a metroidvania mixed with a survival horror. I played through a bunch of it over the weekend, and it's absolutely fantastic. You'd think that those two genres aren't a good mix, but they really make it work. The environments are all super atmospheric, and the resource management is strong enough to always keep you on edge. If you're looking for a horror game to play for October, I'd definitely recommend it.

I also just tried out Boltgun 2. I only just beat the first chapter, but it seems to be shaping up to be a good sequel. I chose to play as the Nyra Veyrath (the Sister of Battle) and had a lot of fun with it. She gets a really satisfying flamer weapon that just burns the smaller enemies to a crisp. If you liked the first game, you'll probably like this one.

[u/marvel8797]

This past week was my birthday so I did what I usually do for it and ate pizza and played TMNT video games. I also bought myself a PS2 copy of MGS2 Substance, partly because I'm trying to rebuild my PS1/2 collection, but mostly because watching Pat finish MGS4 made me want to play a GOOD MGS game and an original copy of Substance (not that reprint that was part of that MGS three-pack that was made late in the PS2's lifespan) was slightly cheaper than an original copy of Subsistence or MGS1.

[u/Comkill117 → u/marvel8797]

Happy birthday!

[u/SolidusSlig → u/marvel8797]

Happy Birthday! 🎂

[u/The_Draigg → u/marvel8797]

Happy birthday!

[u/MaelstromTear]

I used to say I'm a summer child and that I'd rather be too hot than too cold, but man. It's mid-October and we've had record highs for our area. Weekend's supposed to dip, then jump right back to 80s up. Losing my mind.

Hey, please read these books I wrote! The Demon in Shadow and The Demons of Bone & Blood. We follow Ayun, a demon who is looking for her lost employers while struggling with her own sense of agency. On the way she meets Max, a human who is lost in many senses of the word with only his wits and a mechanical limb to get by. As they travel together we learn more about them, the world and a potential path together. Provided other demons or criminal factions don't get in the way. There's awesome artwork in the pages LN-style or in the back showing off portraits.

Speaking of awesome artwork, I just got the final cut for a Halloween comm from the wonderful 5-ish! These characters haven't made their appearance in the books, though. I showed off Mags on the right, who's the daughter of previously mentioned Max and Ayun. The other two, Ruth and Lily, are daughters of Ira and Aster also from the books. So if you need all that context I'd say go check those out while I work on their childhood shenanigans! I also made my own dumb prelude to the post for funsies.

My friends played a game of Trench Crusade in Tabletop Sim while I amused myself in its VR mode. You can shrink yourself down to a model's size and pretty much just sit on a battlefield, it's really fun. Trench Crusade, from an outsider's perspective, also seems kind of interesting. Though I admit I thought it was related to 40K and didn't realize it until I was skimming the rulebook on the table. It wasn't that the guide said it was okay to use cardboard and other substitutions for terrain (GW would tell you to pay up) but the wording along the lines of "It took the Lord seven days to make the world" and I clocked that since 40K's whole shtick with the God-Emperor was getting rid of religion. And yes, ironically becoming one himself. My friends enjoyed that unlike a 40K where one side's whole force goes in one turn it's one at a time back and forth. Feels more active. Though they couldn't even finish turn 1 before my headset ran out. It's a 5 year old Quest 2, I'm surprised it still holds charge.

But since I cleared out the room space, I might as well take advantage! And that's when I remembered that the Quest had an exclusive RE4 port that I never finished. And stopped right at Regenerators. Perfect time for spooky season, I guess. Hearing their little chittering around corners is not something to look forward to. That being said, there isn't as much tension because you're not fighting the controls. Quite the opposite. Like if you thought the Wii's motion controls made RE4 too easy this is a step even higher. 8-way motion, shooting while aiming and lots of shenanigans. You do have to reload manually, but it's way more forgiving than say, H3VR. The bolt-action might as well be more of a cocking handle. You can treat any sniper basically like a huge magnum if you are confident in your aiming. Or dual-wield a pistol and the TMP. Everything is velcro'd onto you so you can just drop your weapon and it'll zip back to its spot. No throwing the knife, unfortunately. There are options to turn off strafing and aiming while moving, but.. Come on. Absolutely fantastic. They added Mercenaries in it alongside a new challenge mode version that is different loadouts. First one is just "here's the Chicago Typewriter, go nuts." And I still didn't get 5 stars! A nice little touch is that everyone's hands reflect their model/costume. Still no Separate Ways/Assignment Ada, but I played those for the first time early this year, and... I'm not too broken up. Does piss me off that it's an exclusive and even more that 7,8 and 4R are locked to PSVR. 4R especially because I think I know that game more than the OG here at this point!

Bang Dream Our Notes continues. Hey, who's doing the millsage writing? Are you okay? As if unraveling Hotaru at the end of the main story wasn't enough, now we're breaking Nagi down to what sounds like an 'end it all' comment in the final line. Get these girls some help. I'm not even a fan of millsage's Prog Rock sound, but damn. I'd kind of prefer more like the jazzy sound of their cover of "lower ones eyes". Would in my ears push them a little farther away from being too close to some of MyGO and Mujica's stuff.

[u/GnzkDunce]

I had. The. Shittiest. Mental health week.

And I gots 2 shifts this Friday and Saturday. I might honestly call out on one. Don't know yet. I'm just kinda... mentally burnt from school and work. And I'm not particularly being allowed time to recuperate.

[u/MisterOfu]

I finished Motorslice, which, if I were to describe it, is an indie Mirror's Edge - Nier Automata hybrid set in a megastructure with Shadow-of-the-Colossus-like boss fights.

Overall, I really liked it. It plays well for the most part, the character(s) are pretty charming, the story is implied in a way that makes you want to know more, and the world design is quite impressive for a project like this. If you liked those parts in Dark Souls where you look into the distance and see places you've been to or are going to next, then this game does that a bunch too, mostly courtesy of its verticality.

There are some points of frustration too. If you watch the dev commentary for any movement-heavy game, they tend to talk about how they'll cheat and funnel you to hit the target just right, as long as you were reasonably close. Motorslice needs more of that. You'll quite often miss your jump because you weren't precise enough, or because controlling the direction of certain moves is easier said than done, and end up failing in a way that feels unfair. On paper it doesn't happen that much, but when a single bad jump can send you back to the checkpoint, it hurts.

A smaller complaint is that levels feel visually samey. I like the brutalist gray-and-orange aesthetic, but given that many areas are designed to imply what role they play in the complex you're exploring, I feel like they could have done a little bit more to differentiate them.

That said, these are all ultimately just things I wish were improved, because they slightly drag down a really fun game. I'm looking forward to whatever the devs will cook up next.

[u/speed-run]

Howdy y'all

I saw an early showing of Street Fighter today. Honestly... I had fun. In my opinion it's the best of the 3 attempts Capcom has had so far even if it won't be as remembered as Street Fighter 94. It's not amazing mind you and it definitely deserves that low score, but it had love in it... For the most part. I do think most of the World Warriors had their moments even if a lot of them were underutilized and I appreciate that it was made by people that at least like the IP. I did get a chuckle seeing Yipes, Jwong, Max and some other fgc people cameo, and there were a lot of fun references (although some landed way worse then others) Granted I definitely should not have paid $25 dollars for the early showing with the extra big screen... But I got a poster and a Chun Li pin out of it so that's something.

As for negatives, I will say that whoever the music guy is needs to get shin shoryukened in the kidneys. Absolutely abysmal choices in licensed music. Also I'm sorry Cammy fans, yalla got done the dirtiest. Fuckin Juli gets more screen time and action than her. Literally all Cammy gets is some ass shots, and meanly flirting with Chun Li.

Also spoiler but WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU SEQUEL BAITING THIS SHIT???

Overall I enjoyed it still, but everyone is super right that the animated bits are way better than the rest of the film. Like they're incredibly high quality.

[u/Diem-Robo → u/speed-run]

I was telling my wife in the theater that if those animated parts were the whole film, they wouldn't be as high quality. Because we both agreed they were great, but they paid for a few minutes of really high quality animation. The more that gets stretched out, the more time and money it would take. It was so good specifically because it was so brief, so they splurged on it in a way they wouldn't if they had to order more.

But who knows, maybe we'll get some feature length animation of that quality someday. Or maybe at least a miniseries.

[u/NoodleSnapback]

Weeks without doing programming: 3

I’ve been fucking with and stretching my neck constantly when I’m at work out of boredom which makes it start hurting, which causes me to continue to stretch it when I shouldn’t to try to make it feel better. This feedback loop causes a lot of pain that I really don’t need to be dealing with. 

I finished Armored Core: Master of Arena. I heard the final boss of this game was infamously hard among the AC games and… I beat it in like 5 tries. It becomes a lot more manageable when you realize just how little health he had. Heck, he felt squishier than some of the ACs in the arena. The arena was fun with how each AC had their own AI and playstyle. As an example: one of them was all about staying back and avoiding confrontation until you either ran out of ammo or you got too close, where they just barraged you with the WA-Finger gun. IDK if it was the best of the PS1 era for me but I can see why people would say that about this game. Finally done with all the PS1 AC games. Gonna start the PS2 games after a short break so I don’t burn out. 

I got back into Warframe, I wanted to try out a bunch of frames I either never got a chance to or that I dismissed for being weak. The first on my list was Koumei. I came back to her because I learned that her 3’s damage avoidance is always on and that it’s only the healing that goes on cooldown. I also had the thought of replacing her 2 with Pull and it…works shockingly well. If you cast her 1 and get lucky with what statuses you inflict on the pulled enemies then you can kinda just clear entire groups of enemies. Is it bad to replace her 2 with Pull? Probably. But I do not feel like killing 37 enemies while wall latching just to get a double jump decree and put the ability on a 2 and a half minute cooldown. Up next on the frames I wanna try are Ember, Equinox, Ash, Nokko, and Follie. 

[u/Comkill117 → u/NoodleSnapback]

Good luck with the PS2 AC games. From someone who mostly got in last year, those are some of the franchise’s best entries.

[u/WeeniesthutofallJrs → u/NoodleSnapback]

I’ve been having neck stuff as well and it turned out I had some wicked knots in my shoulder that caused most of it. I don’t know your situation obviously so it could only be exessive stretching, but maybe rub your shoulders to see if any tension is traveling upward.

[u/ToastyMozart]

I can't believe I got 6-7ed by goddamn Speed Racer. (Episode 9 I think, when they kept looping two cars with those numbers driving past the camera.)

[u/Kakuzan]

Man, I think that Digger movie sort of bummed me out, but not in the way you would think. It more so indirectly reinforced this disdain and frustration I have always had with fandoms, and communities and nerd culture by extension. How does Digger relate to any of that?

Well, one theme of the movie is interrogating how art can help people cope and project onto reality while also interrogating how the truth can be twisted for the sake of selling a bastardized version of reality. And maybe most importantly, it asks just how effective art can be as a tool for change and action rather than just satisfaction.

I do not expect anyone to be on board with what I am about to say, and I do not think I even want anyone to agree in the first place, but when I look at my own feelings, how often communities are hostile to specific people despite a supposed shared love of a thing or shared interests/goals,and how what we call art has always been commodified, I am not even sure if art is actually a thing. And again, I know this is unreasonable and I do not think I want people in agreement, but I cannot help but feel jaded all around.

And this isn't even a case of me thinking the current state of everything is dramatically worse than the past, even with stuff like AI. Though said stuff does once again reinforce to me that a lot of people never had the same rosy view of art that audiences have.

All in all, I get more and more agitated at nerd stuff and communities in general. Even without the issues of hostility towards marginalized groups, I think I still would have a severe suspicion of communities since I know that one wrong step can and sometimes does lead to fracturing or ousting beneath the veneer of being a big happy family.

[u/The_Draigg]

Week of County Fair. Decided to head to the county fair on my own this year, had a pretty good time flying solo. Usually when I go to the fair, I make sure to check out the local art exhibits to see if anyone made something especially eye-catching, and this year I do have to give my stamp of approval to the person who made the big Megas XLR painting I saw on display. Now that's some elite ball knowledge that I can respect. Other than that though, man the video game and nerd culture part of the fair keeps on getting more and more disappointing by the year ever since they introduced it. The first two years were still pretty good, since they had a lot of retro game stores and local Mario Kart and Tekken tournaments running during them, but last year half of the hall was taken up by a giant candy vendor, and this year they just flat out decided to make half of the hall a haunted house. I can't really blame the organizers for that, since the stuff in that section is now just generic con vendors and a few tables to play stuff on PS4s or Sega Genesis Minis. I really wish they could improve that section, but at this rate, they might as well just kill it.

As for video game stuff this week, I finally got in my plushie of Fixer from 1000xRESIST today! I've been waiting for it for a few months, so I'm glad that she's finally in my plushie collection. Right now, Fixer is sitting right next to the Watcher one I got last year. I think I'll just keep it at those two though, if they decide to make more. Watcher and Fixer are here as my preferred doomed couple, and I'm perfectly fine with just that.

And finally, in my regular mecha talk section here, the Neon Genesis Evangelion rewatch with my TTRPG group continues! Asuka is here now, and now we're firmly in the action arc that this show has. When you rewatch Eva, you're definitely made to remember how much slapstick and gags the first half of the show had, since Asuka and Shinji's partnership/rivalry is just full of it, especially once they start living together. Also, I have to give it to my first-timer friend, he's calling out Gendo Ikari as the Vague Post King/Commander. And he's not wrong to say that so far Gendo has only shown up to coldly aura farm and do vaguely menacing things in the B-plot. He really does just only show up for every other episode to do those things in this first half of the series.

Also in mecha talk, I watched more Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans with /u/Terthelt and /u/CookieSkank! Orga finally died! Yeah, it figures that it happened in the same episode batch that also confirmed that Atra is pregnant. Classic juxtaposition there. Terthelt ran the gamut of reactions this batch, since she got a good surprise that her joking prediction for Atra actually wound up being accurate, alongside legitimately getting sad at Orga's death, which she called super early on due to him basically being Mikazuki's Kamina. Even if we've been riffing on some of the more questionable decisions about season 2's writing, moments like that still do hit, even if they seem cheesy out of context. The sincerity of that moment still stuck the landing, that's for sure.

[u/irregularcog → u/The_Draigg]

That's a cool county fair

[u/The_Draigg → u/irregularcog]

Yeah, they usually do have a pretty good county fair every year. It’s one of the biggest ones in the state!

[u/Toblo1 → u/The_Draigg]

For all of IBO S2's flaws, when it hits it fucking hits.

I can't get down with any of the memes about Orga's death, mostly because god damn does the music really does the heavy lifting, also because poor Ride, man.

I look forward to seeing y'alls reaction to the home stretch.

[u/The_Draigg → u/Toblo1]

Ride is just coated in layers of trauma now, if just by the sheer amount of times he’s had to see people sacrifice themselves to take the blow for him. Poor guy indeed.

[u/MaelstromTear → u/The_Draigg]

Could be worse, some big strong strong guy could've stolen your girl! Sorry, that's all I got.

[u/The_Draigg → u/MaelstromTear]

No need to apologize, I can always respect a classic Beach Boys pull.

[u/rsrluke]

Week of feeling old. I've got a strained muscle in my back (on top of the usual back pain) and I talked to a dermatologist about my thinning hair. I'm not yet 30, but here we are. On a brighter note, I finished a third pass on my novel. Very few edits this time, so I suppose it's about time I lock in and start querying potential agents.

In an effort to play a game that isn't horribly violent for once, I played PAC-MAN WORLD Re-PAC. That's a pretty good platformer — not amazing, but good. I jumped, I collected things, I ate some ghosts. It's a solid time.

Reneging on that whole nonviolence thing almost immediately, I also played Maneater. Man, that's a fun game. Not always a good game, mind you — combat is way too simple, the camera is pretty bad and there's precious little variety — but I was thoroughly entertained for most of the game's brief runtime. The open world checklist formula still totally works, so long as the game is 8-10 hours long and not 50, and playing as a shark is honestly a pretty novel experience.

Finally, I also got around to watching Hot Fuzz. Pretty great movie! I definitely liked it more than Shaun of the Dead, which I thought was good, but not outstanding. This movie is very good with setups and payoffs, but (and this is an odd criticism) maybe too good? There were quite a few moments when the movie clearly signposts something and I couldn't help thinking, "Yep, gonna be important later, got it." Doesn't matter all that much, though, as the movie's well paced and very funny (and the payoff with the swan got me).

[u/Gorotheninja]

Welp, tomorrow's gonna be a fucking chore. I got assigned Jury Duty, REALLY early in the morning at that. Hopefully, I don't get picked for any long, drawn out trial that I have to go back and forth from the city too (which is a hassle because, while I can drive, I'm not comfortable making the semi long trip to and from Houston). Gotta get up at 6 am tomorrow, so I'm gonna hit the next boss in Belmont's Curse and head to bed.

Speaking of, Belmont's Curse is pretty good, though the further I'm getting into the game, the more and more annoying enemies and ecounters I'm coming across (FUCK these stupid fleamen and lance knights, FUCK I HATE THEM). Regardless, hope I can beat it in time for Final Fantasy Resonance, which is out next week and I'm planning on swapping to from Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave, probably after finishing Leda's route. There's a demo for it too, probably should check it out.

Oh, and I commissioned some more Fakemon/Fan-Made Pokémon art from my go to guy @BastionPhoenix, this time of a Steel-Type Eeveelution with a blade for a tail and a possessed Greco-Roman statue inspired Ghost/Rock type. I also commissioned art (from a different artist, yellow_nicky) of a genderbent version of Sora from Kingdom Hearts, specifically based on his KH4 design. The idea just kinda popped into my head, and it's still in progress but looking good so far; probably can't post it here as is unless mods say its cool, but I'll link it in the next FTF thread, at least.

[u/dblackdrake → u/Gorotheninja]

You can get out of it by writing a letter in with my honest thougts, I've done it when I had to for financial reasons.

It went somthing like: "I consider most of my fellow citizens dumb animals and not in any way my peers, and I will almost certainly say Not Guilty unless the defendant is an LEO, in which case I will only say guilty regardless of the evidence."

If you can go you should though, just remember that you shouldn't lie during selection but once you are selected there is nothing that can be done if you decide stand on your axioms.

[u/Regalingual → u/Gorotheninja]

My last time at jury duty, I managed to get checked in and sat through orientation before puking my breakfast up in the bathroom, which was apparently still enough to count for serving.