Lamp, broken circa 1988

one of my closest friends from high school is in mortal danger and there's nothing anyone can do and I'm in just enough shock to be able to write this but not do anything else

how rude

Nah, it was because that felt like a statement of intent of the mechanics of the game. So when I asked myself if that's something I wanted to do for dozens of hours, the answer was "no." That choice + that tone = pass.

here's a pile of reviews that reach back to like January. some are territory I'm gonna be rehashing, I'm just going through this so I can put these ratings in my ratings thing as I remember what I played this year. A large amount of these reviews are negative, so heads up for that if you're not in a place to deal with negative energy. RED DEAD REDEMPTION 2 [1] when it asked me to cock the pistol myself was when I began to suspect this game was not for me. I did not play much further than that, because the last time I attempted to make myself play a game that was popular in the zeitgeist that I suspected was not for me, it was God of War, and I was unable to play a singleplayer game without stomach pains for the rest of the year. THE ETERNAL CASTLE REMASTERED [2] INCREDIBLE first impression, less than incredible rest of the impressions. I got my hopes up when I ran in here yelling about it, because directly after that the tone started adding in a layer of camp I found completely unnecessary and ultimately deterring. APEX LEGENDS [3] So, on my personal scale, 3 means "I Don't Regret Playing It." This can obviously mean a wild array of responses from "it was good but not great" to "it had a lot of problems but god it had heart." This 3 means something specific. When I bounced off PUBG and Fortnite, I had individual reasons. PUBG is aesthetically empty, Fortnite is mechanically dull. So when Respawn- arguably one of the best FPS developers in the world- made a battle royale, I got to learn for myself that no, the problem is I think battle royales are fucking boring. The problem is the looting. I do not find trash collection to be a necessary addition to the action game genre. Obviously, the business has shown me that I am wrong, so whatever. At least through Apex Legends I learned that I have no interest in any battle royale ever, because if fucking Respawn can't move me, I can't be moved. On the plus side, this did lead to me pushing a bunch of my friends into Titanfall 2 and playing a bunch of that with them, so that's also a net positive. BABA IS YOU [3] Similarly, Baba Is You taught me that I have no interest in puzzle games unless I'm doing them with a friend. The reward of just like one brain suffering directly at a puzzle game by itself doesn't do a lot for me. The times this game was the most fun for me were when I was talking with someone over the phone, staring at the same puzzles, and one of us would solve it before the other and try to like help them get through. So I might revisit this with someone else, but I'm pretty much done playing it solo. TRIALS RISING [3] everything I said above about Baba is You but replace "puzzle games" with "tandem bikes" and "solve it" with "compensate for the landing" RISK OF RAIN 2 [n/a] i played it and i'm not gonna talk about it because i don't like helping gearbox SEKIRO [4] So I've said what I loved about this game earlier in the thread, and those feelings have just expanded, so instead I'm going to give you a pithy hot take idea that I used to annoy some friends: If people think game difficulty is bad for the Fear of Missing Out, wait until they hear about foreign languages! Anyways, the next game I'm gonna be getting is the Nintendo Labo VR kit, so I'll keep you posted with how that stuff goes. I'm saving the one where you look into the bird's butthole for last.

a brief overview of the extremely good weekend that just passed Still going through mental health stuff during all of this Discovered that multiple members of my friend group were literal fascists, a bunch of drama ensued and now the group is divided forever in the process of the above, got accused of being in a cult While all that was exploding there was a death in the family of a friend's husband this was all saturday The next day, one of my friends workdays starts with watching a driver hop a median and clobber a roadworker at 40mph Another friend's mother went missing and, after several phone calls, turns out she's in prison and she forgot to tell either of her children. While being unable to sleep, I ended up rehashing what happened to yet another friend that came in late on the whole thing, and then to cool off after finding that out, checked the news and learned one of my favorite musicians and composers had passed away. man, therapy this week is gonna be a blast. "So how've you been?" "SECRET NAZIS EVERYWHERE"

I literally have no idea if this is a big enough name around here for their own thread. Scott Walker passed away today. He is a central figure in the development of my songwriting style, the patron saint of the idea that your instrument choice is your message. I could spend the rest of the year praising him and might never run out of things to say. Discovering Scott Walker was like having a door in my head kicked open. I would be sadder if the work he left behind wasn't such a dense monolith that I'll be unwinding forever.

You're farther in than me. However,

Is there a source for that? I've been unable to dig anything up.

I assume they're an alarm system of some kind? I've been unwilling to touch them. Now that I've had a night to sleep on it, here's the difference between Sekiro and Souls games: with the Souls games, you have a lot of bullshit you can use to get the advantage. Your roll has invincibility frames. You can get loot. You can grind experience or money, because they're both the same stat. You have magic. You have a lot of healing options. You can upgrade your loot. You have loot. You can call in other players to help. Other players can leave hints as to what might be happening around the corner. In Sekiro, you have you, your sword, and your understanding of the combat system, and That's Fucking it. You have to do everything completely honestly. Your side step is for moves you don't know the parry pattern of yet. You only have the one sword, because the point is not doing damage: it's knocking them off balance and landing killing blows. There's nothing in Sekiro but yourself. It is maybe the steepest ask I've ever seen in a From Software game, and I am fascinated by it. I've never beaten a Souls game. I feel compelled to beat this.

a friend got me sekiro i played an hour and a half of sekiro tonight it good i like

As someone with interest in owning games, archival of games, and destroying algorithmic tech bro culture: Fuck All That Shit.

So I don't know who has the Junior Heavyweight storyline DLC (i know it's not on PS4 yet) but if you're on the fence, it has the Flair Flop. Here's the complete list of all the moves in the DLC, compiled by someone else who's name I forgot to grab.

Kakuryu won today by pulling, and it made me feel like some kind of awful Groundhog's Day where now that it's finally worked it's another five years of Kakuryu pulling against thrusters and getting launched off the dohyo. Godspeed, Kakuryu.

I am totally here for a Kotoshogiku revival. He looks like he's in tremendous shape this basho so I have high hopes, although not necessarily championship hopes. I just like to see my guy doin' well. Also, Hakuho almost bringing the Slap & Elbow back is an interesting development, especially against a lower tier opponent that he still almost lost to. I wonder if Hakuho's playing for winning records now just to make it to the olympics like he's stated he wants to. Otherwise it's just a hell of a reflex that he might just occasionally bring back that particular tachi-ai

AHH AAAAHHHH AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH

Look at what I just found: A video no one else will care about because I dont think anyone but me heard this record on here. Even so, Dawson will probably never tour the US and certainly hasn't for the Peasant record so this is about as good as it gets for me getting to see this material live. Oh, backstory: his album Peasant was my vote for the best album of 2017

now we are all sons of flavortown

December 29th I had an enormous fucking breakdown, which is fair because I have been through a massive amount of trauma just recently. It appears that stage two of the breakdown has begun, but at least I'm cognizant of it so I'll get to warn everyone instead of just hiding and then being odd and dark to everyone who asks me any questions. Looking forward to therapy day!

HELL YEAH IT SUMO TIME -Good to see Ishiura back. The small skill guys like him are always a delight. It's a one bout sample but it looks like his defense has improved considerably. -I swear, Ikioi could show up at one basho with tape on every limb and will still get at least 5. -KAKURYU: STOP PULLING. STOP IT. Overall I didn't find a lot to gleam: everyone expected to be in the hunt looks like they're in good form, a lot of the new guys got the "Welcome to Makuuchi" treatment, nothing out of the ordinary. Still, extremely excited for the tournament.

look, i love deathmatches, but ian rotten is The Definition Of Indy Sleaze. if people want to yell at Ian Rotten for being Ian Rotten, I'm not going to stop them. Unless they're going to say he never did anything good in the ring, at which point I am going to point them towards that one match he had with Tarek The Great that's fundamentally a BattlArts match. as for the thread itself, I am interested to see where it goes because I have noooooo attachment to modern wrasslin outside of Puma King and Joey Janela, so if I come away from this liking a few more wrestlers I'll be stoked.

yesssssssssssssssssssssss

Negan is out in Tekken 7. He hits like a truck and has massive wall carry. God help everyone that chooses to play online for the next week.

that looks amazing and thank you for posting about it

as a san diego resident who is not a padres fan, whose brother IS a padres fan, and who has been strident among friends in my desire for the Phils to sign Machado, this is basically my nightmare.

Today I accomplished two things. #1: WIN #4 #2: I just got eliminated by KevinDDR, THE American Tetris Grand Master. I placed 6th, and he got win number 185 of 259. The fact that I could hang with him and fight him off, even as briefly as I did, feels like a fifth win.