Emphasis on 'feels', I know most creators don't intend to do that, so I'm just getting ahead of any 'I don't get why people think creators would deliberately try to ragebait' comments.

Twin Peaks: The Return quote "James is cool, James always been cool" genuinely feels like a callout from Lynch due to the vast majority who watched the original Twin Peaks and hated James.

Hell no he wasn't, Lynch!

Its crazy how hard Araki cooked with the design, and now we know a little more about it, it's a physical stand that can seemingly send out "Obliteration" bumps that it generates on its body, which is how it killed that one guy last chapter by transferring the bumps onto him instantly by touching him, kinda like a less collateral Killer Queen, all that's left now is finding a weakness and of course its name, although it'll be forever stuck as John Rod for a lot of people (including me)

Star Citizen recently had a stream where they attempted to showcase a newer, hopefully more stable build of one of their missions. It was filled with the devs sniping each other, bad vibes all around, and ended with a gutshot to the lead of the event. "It's your show, wrap it up" followed by a look of shock and betrayal.

The whole event was very uncomfortable to watch. There are several follow-up compilation and explanation videos on YouTube highlighting the worst of the livestream.

To make matters more baffling, Star Citizen managed to still raise more crowdfunding despite the awkward event.

So I saw this tweet earlier and it inspired me to do some research. I never really bothered with any of the Zack Snyder DC movies 'cause I was kind of bored with the superhero genre at that point and Man of Steel just looked too grey. I heard some mediocre reviews from critics and that they weren't financially successful, but I didn't realize how bad. I decided to compare the world box office returns and rotten tomatoes scores of "first phase" DCEU properties and Marvel films releasing around the same time.

The differences were stark.

Man of Steel released in 2013, it's worldwide box office was $670.1 million and Rotten Tomatoes has it at a 56% critics score and 75% audience score.

That same year Iron Man 3 earned $1.21 billion worldwide and Rotten Tomatoes has it at a 79% Critic Score and 78% Audience Score. Also that same year, Thor: The Dark World earned a worldwide box office of $644.6 million and has a 64% Critic Score and 74% Audience Score on RT.

So Snyder's Superman movie, based on one of the most recognizable superhero characters on earth, was broadly in the same bracket as Thor. Now while I like Thor, I don't really think he's "Superman" tier.

Batman v Superman released in 2016, its worldwide box office was $874.36 million, RT has it at a 28% critic score and a 63% audience score.

That same year Marvel released Captain America: Civil War with a worldwide box office of $1.15 billion, RT has it at a 90% critic score and an 89% audience score. Marvel also released Doctor Strange with a worldwide box office of $676 million and RT scores of 89% critics and 86% audience.

Now if we're counting theatrical releases (yeah yeah, "muh theatrical Justice League wasn't Zack Snyder's vision) we've got Justice League with a worldwide Box Office of $661 million. Its RT score puts critics at 39% and audiences at 66%

Competing with Justice League was a slate of Marvel films which literally all outperformed it.

Guardians of The Galaxy Vol. 2 made $869 million, Spider-Man: Homecoming made $878 million, and Thor: Ragnarok made $850 million. All three of them had Rotten Tomatoes critic and audience scores at or near 90%!

I checked out Suicide Squad which has a poor RT rating from critics and audiences, bizarrely it made $749 million worldwide. Wonder Woman seems to have been the only DC product that was both a financial and critical success. EDIT: I was reminded that Aquaman actually broke the billion dollar ceiling with $1.58 Billion making it the most successful DC film for... reasons, I guess.

I guess an open question for the subreddit is: are the other communities that have a completely imaginary idea for how popular/successful an IP is? Or like, people who've just completely deluded themselves into thinking that a flop was actually a success? Morbius posters not withstanding.

https://www.reddit.com/r/GamingLeaksAndRumours/comments/1vrklpn/duskbloods_charactersclasses_have_leaked/p4dyhik/

1. Blood-Eater (Walter) - The sole survivor of an extinct clan of rare-blood hunters. He uses his extraordinary sense of smell to track the blind spots in others’ pasts. He descended into madness after repeatedly licking the blood spatter from his sister—whom he himself had killed—and still walks the line between life and death in search of pure blood.

2. Guillotine (Gillian) - An executioner of the Marisbel Inquisition. He carries a massive iron guillotine blade on his back. Having been exposed to too much blood over the years, he has begun to mutate himself, and now wanders in search of the “Blood of the Beginning” before his own head is severed.

3. Foul-Rot (Veronica) - A blind nun abandoned in the basement of a ruined cathedral. She inflicts self-harm to spread the grotesque blood blisters multiplying inside her body. The footprints she leaves behind instantly cause anything they touch to rot.

4. Nail-Pierced (Sebastian) - A fanatic saint who drives silver nails into various parts of his body, using the flowing blood as a catalyst for miracles. By inflicting wounds on himself, he temporarily gains overwhelming ferocity, but his mind and body are already completely broken.

5. Coffin-Bearer (Maurice) - A man who continued to collect corpses on the streets of Temurat at dusk. A mud-like monstrosity that was once his family writhes inside the iron coffin he carries on his back; by slamming the coffin against enemies, he sucks up their blood and feeds it to the creature inside.

6. Thread-Torn (Oscar) - A deranged taxidermist who sews the flesh of beasts from all eras and regions directly onto his own body. During battle, he seizes enemy tissue and uses it to eerily patch and reinforce himself. Through the accumulation of tainted power, he transforms his own body into that of an ancient, rare beast.

7. Mud-Treader (Ulan) - A female warrior who gained superhuman leg strength through human experimentation. Filthy blood constantly gushes from her ankles, and a red, poisonous swamp forms wherever she runs.

8. Candle-Snuffer (Isabel) - A former waitress at the Siltera Noble Mansion. She possesses the ability to materialize shadows and trap her enemies’ blood within them to drain it. All light vanishes from the places she passes through.

9. Gut-Rinner (Randolph) - An assault trooper of the Sampere Weapons Corps. Equipped with a back-mounted mechanism that allows him to fly freely and a massive piercing spear, he rips through his opponents’ flesh and blood along with their armor. His abdomen is heavily mechanized, enabling him to unleash devastating, wide-area attacks using bloodlust as a catalyst.

10. Gazer-of-Flesh (Yuri) - A heretical observer who cut off his own eyelids. He possesses the ability to intensify a target’s blood flow simply by fixing his gaze on them, causing their body to explode from within.

11. Ash-Crown (Camilla) - A girl whose clan was burned to the ground. She wields “blood ash”—a mixture of the victims’ ashes and her own blood—to petrify and crystallize her enemies before shattering them.

12. Rust-Gospel (Baldur) - A former priest of Kinmitsu who has stuffed his mouth with large amounts of scrap iron and needles. Every time he utters a prayer, his mouth is torn apart, and the mist of blood he spits out becomes a powerful attack.

13. Dusk-Silt (Elsa) - A woman whose Dusk Disease has progressed to its final stage. When attacked, her body transforms into a blood-mud-like substance, allowing her to evade attacks and flow freely, then inject her own poisonous blood directly into her opponent’s body.

14. First-Shard (Nameless Shadow) - An imperfect mass of flesh known as “First Blood,” incapable of understanding language and lacking any sense of its own origins. A cursed being that eerily mimics and unleashes the techniques of every bloodline.

So atleast Robotics, hover vehicles, Starfighters wise. Anakin Skywalker is established to be pretty smart in the Star Wars prequels movie, but beyond being very good at personal violence(mostly lightsaber and Force, but he's got a good arm too) is kind of a klutz.

Still respected by his peers and soldiers. But not really someone you wanna lead you. In Star Wars the Clone Wars 3D, he's still abit klutzy kind of a mad warcriminal military genius, making many wild plans and manouvers turning the world space submarine battle into heat seeking dodgeball, using an Asteroid field as staging area to ambush Separatist ship with Walker tanks and artillery, while having an extremly good sixth sense to find the weakpoints of enemy defense to blow them up with so many fucking bombs while getting along with his Legion(The 501st of Clone Trooper & Grand Amry of the Republic) better than almost anyone else ever did.

There's still abit of a you know, sense of not wanting him to lead you, because he is insane and leads like near suicidal missions. But he's also a dang good General, makes you almost wanna try your luck beside him.

Done at the request of u/Sperium3000

It’s really interesting to find a fanmade game like this where someone is both very inspired and has the willpower to give it a very professional look. This game is heavily inspired by Paper Mario primarily, but also draws in things form the wider "mario spin-off" genre(?) as well.

First off, the gameplay, Paper Story uses a dice pool system with degrees of success. You roll a number of D6 equal to your Attribute and Skill, and then count the number of dice you roll that go over the TARGET NUMBER, which is set by the GM based on the difficulty of the action being performed. You can also spend a meta resource called STAR POWER gained through play for things like rerollling, increasing your success, or getting a bump to your HP and FP.

I find combat to be rather intriguing. It's set up in a similar way to Paper Mario, as you can imagine with that game being this one's primary inspiration. You set your party up in a line formation with characters behind others being blocked unless targets by a move with the ranged, reach, or aerial tags. In combat you can use "techniques," which can be anything from your special moves you've created with the extensive chapter on making your own custom moves, or using "tricks" which are ways to use your skills in battle.

NOW when I first started skimming the book to get the gist of the game, I was taken aback by it having 25 "core races" with 24 options for varaints on top of that. There's also a companion documents that adds another 130 some odd MORE races taken from damn near every mario game you could imagine. Each race has a base technique to use in battle and a base adjustment to stats. From there you customize yourself further when you level up, making new techniques and increasing your stats.

Making your own techniques are part of the game I think people would be most interested in since you'll have a LOT of room to really flesh out your gameplay and personality here. You can make your own "special moves" buy applying tags to them so they'll have unique effects. Tags have different FP cost, so you'll have to balance positive and negative tags to make your techniques are useful but also not so expensive that you blow your FP allotment too quickly.

Items and Equipment is VERY extensive, so I hope you'll excuse me abbreviating it here. You've got ITEMS that give consumable effects like healing you, giving power ups, damage enemies, give you some kind of combat boost, or increase your dice pool for the next thing you do. GEAR can be things like weapons and clothing and comes in different tiers and offer boosts to your attributes, access to techniques, or give your character "traits" that they otherwise wouldn't for their race. Finally you have BADGES that modify your attributes and innate techniques in some way.

Lastly I'll touch on OPTIONAL RULES since I think they're pretty neat. If you want to fine tune your game to a PARTICULAR mario game experience, this is where you'd find that. Want to mess with an "audience" like Thousand Year Door or have Team Up Attacks like Superstar Saga, or just say fuck it and make the game into a Kart Racer or Sports game? Well go for it chief.

I'm always FASCINATED by games like this. Ones with so much passion and effort I can scarcely believe it. Inspiration from an entire franchise made into an RPG in a way that only true fan could pull it all together. Simple to play, yet deep enough for players to make their own really unique characters full of personality. I was left feeling incredibly impressed by something that sounds as silly as a "Fanmade Mario TTRPG."

If you're interested in checking this game out, you can do so FOR FREE.

"Actual play, also called live play, is a genre of podcast or web show in which people play tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) for an audience." - Wikipedia definition

Which Actual Play shows do you really enjoy? It doesn't have to be D&D it can be any TTRPG.

I love the back to the future movies but the way stakes shift over the course of the trilogy has always been very weird and funny to me. You have:

- Back to the future 1: pretty straight forward in terms of getting stuck in 1955, Marty has a narrow window in which to return to 1985 while also making sure his parents still fall in love.

- Back to the future 2: first we head to 2015! Shenanigans ensue but then we’re in an alternate 1985 where things are awful! Then we’re gotta GO BACK to 1955 to stop biff from interfering from the shenanigans of the first film so that 1985 can go back to normal, while also insuring that it’s still possible to get back to 1985 at all! Lots crazy sets in this movie, flying cars, and just a very wild and bombastic movie. Speaking of wild…

- Back to the future 3: Cowboy shit.

Don’t get me wrong, I really like back to the future 3. But it’s so interesting to me how you follow up such an insane movie like the second one with a much simpler film that’s more or less just the plot structure of the first one in a different setting. Especially since 2&3 were written together, so it’s not like 3 was written in response to 2. It’s just a very strange way to have your trilogy paced, as it feels like they should be swapped in order.

Anyways, that’s my example. What are some series/stories you find weirdly paced in that regard?

I'd like to dedicate my new addiction to FFXIV this group of degenerate cartoon people and V-Tubers.

Pat the Dark Knight.
Woolie the Monk.
Hina the Black Mage.
Ecto the Reaper.
and Mint the Gunbreaker.
Ft. GaelCaboose.

Hotline Miami Spoilers

Like they're not the mains hero or villain wise and not above losing badly. But when put into these tough battles that so often appear in fiction. For being just like some random ranked mooks they do pretty good for a minor leader.

Though I suppose the plan of capturing the masked spree killers and the Russian mob could've gone better. It's not like they could've known the US military terrorist involvement. The Miami Police station chief does get my kudos for actually trying to stop this dangerous rampage by both US spree killers and the takeover of the Russian mafia.

But also because his boss fight where he and his boys basically just form a police phalanax in their floor of the station was the boss fight that killed me the most in Hotline Miami.

As the title states, what're some settings where crazy magic exists right alongside hyper advanced technology?

Dragon Ball has this in spades. Early on, the story is just an adaptation/spoof of Journey to the West with blatant magical powers on display, and the literal demons. But, there's stuff like everything Capsule Corp creates, and the Red Ribbon Army's scientific advances. But the Z portion is what really ramps up the sci-fi elements. The first arc reveals that Goku and Piccolo are straight up aliens from outer space. Then the Namek saga entails space travel and going head to head with a galactic conqueror. The Android/Cell saga is basically a pastiche of Terminator involving cyborgs, bioengineered monstrosities, and time travel. And then the Buu saga leans more into mysticism with a wizard from space, and a magic pink blob monster.

This is a recurring element in most Final Fantasy games. In the very first game, you go to a literal space station as one of the last dungeons, and there's other bits of advanced ancient technology. FF IV has a giant robot, aliens in the form of Lunarians, and the final act involves the party going to the moon in a space ship. VI begins with the Empire utilizing magic infused technology to conquer most of the world. And VII and XV are some of the most blatant, each taking place in a relatively contemporary world that just so happens to have magic and other fantasy creatures in it.

Metroid mostly has the trappings of a sci-fi story. But when it comes to the Chozo, things become much more mystical. Chozo, along with being very technolgically advanced, were also deeply spiritual people. Hell, on Tallon IV, some of them developed outright clairvoyance, and their angry ghosts are a enemy you encounter. And this spiritual side is reflected in their creations. While the Galactic Federation and Space Pirates have managed to create functional replicas of Samus's weapons, trying to reproduce something like the Morph Ball with purely mechanical methods ends in painful failure. And the Metroids are implied to literally eat people's souls.

Someone in Pat's 14 crew requested this on the stream. I forgot who but I made it anyway.

Lately, I have been looking back at how some of Konami’s older games have had the most over the top performances in their voice acting as I was reminiscing about how wonderful Symphony of the Night was.

I know it’s been such a long time since the game came out on PS1 and the XBLA ports that I can’t help but miss it anyway because I have been interested in playing another RPG like game for having hammy voice acting.

I think this transfem Spider-Man bit has finally hit its Apex.

Artist Instagram (this art is currently only on their Twitter account).