Free Talk Friday - October 02, 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/LilBroWhoIsOnTheTeam]

wtf is the sub banner

[u/SkinkRugby]

Just want to note. 

Ac8 is REALLY good.

Favorite campaign they've ever done even if I think that Project Wingman still has the best individual mission. 

[u/CloneOfAnotherClone]

I put on some Weird Al as background music. Tabbed over when this song came over and could not figure out why he was making fun of Super Eyepatch Wolf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwvlbJ0h35A

[u/Gorfinhofin]

I discovered The Message From Deep Space earlier this week. I played the demo, which turned out to be like 2 hours long, and knew I had to buy the full game immediately.

It's a puzzle game where you're tasked with decoding a radio message that's being transmitted from a teched-up meteor sent by aliens. If you reply with the response the meteor is looking for, it sends the next transmission for you to work out. It starts off with simple numbers, then starts to convey basic math principles, and gradually builds toward more and more complex ideas. All the while it's up to you to assign definitions/words to each of the signals, and to customize their formatting. It's really cool seeing a totally coherent translated message made out of terms you came up with and thinking about how it would have been a meaningless series of numbers at the start of the game.

[u/KennyOmegasBurner]

How about that Belmont's Curse demo? I was a little bummed at first how different it is from the Igavania formula but once I got the whip I started enjoying it as its own game. There's Bloodstained 2 coming to satisfy the Igavania itch anyways.

[u/Glocktor44]

Ordered some infernus marines and the paints necessary to do muzzle burn. Excited to try it.

[u/Duke_Tuke]

Spooky month, excuse to draw Darkstalkers fanart again.

Life has been pretty good lately. New job means less time to draw, but I also have way less stress so woohoo!

[u/attikol]

finished void stranger last night. I dont think this should have been 20 hours. I like a lot of stuff in this game and it does have some genuine surprises but its VERY punishing. Some gripes and praise to follow.Optional storylines that one mistake requires a total reset. I was playing lilith and could not get a cool npc to spawn because I had warped past them. I went backwards but apparently that despawned them. I didnt feel like completely restarting just to see what is apparently a very interesting thing. The meta stuff is really cool in this game but there just isnt enough. Its very limited in how you can mess with it. Theres so much time inbetween anything besides puzzling. The story trees are very nice and a good motivator but once youve seen them its less of a motivator. The themes are very well realized here in how humans will roll that boulder uphill for any chance of their desires or even just to live. That doesnt mean it has to be this punishing. I appreciate the void system giving you unlimited lives though. Screw trying to do bee and cif without locusts. I ended up using guides for the last couple puzzles I just wanted it to be over. Until the shmup section which VERY unexpected but I guess I should have expected one after the ending of Cif which was sweet.

[u/Qryn → u/attikol]

I missed a prompt in the final sequence that had no foreshadowing which cut me out of the true Ending. I couldn't be bothered to climb back up for just a few more cutscenes. The game was just too punishing and I wish I had at least 1 save slot to use, even if it was limited to 1 room.

[u/Own-Sir-9189]

Recently beat Ace Combat 4, not my favorite in the series, (Only played 5,7, and 1) but Ace Combat is always a good time. Mission variety was kind meh, but at least the story of the kid growing up in a militarily occupied country held my attention. Started a replay of 5, but then decided on playing 1-3 before 5, Zero, 6, 7 (⁶🤷‍♂️⁷) then 8.

[u/Shiro2809]

Woo, got a pc today. Did first few levels of ace combat 8 with no issues so very happy! Only a handful of things keeping me tied to consoles now, and hopefully we can get cross progression in things like sf6 so I dont have to rebuy all of the dlc.

[u/GIJose65]

I love how aggressively “late 90s” the opening for Batman Beyond was.

Could be my humor is broken but seeing CGI Bruce always cracks me up.

[u/Aggressive-Bike407]

High ranking Armored Vehicles in Peace Walker truly are a weapon to surpass Metal Gear. It's amazing how nimble they are. They are just schmoovin around at incredible speed.
This means they can also just run you over repeatedly without you being able to do anything about it. So that sucks.

I suppose treating Peace Walker more like a Monster Hunter game, it has a decent amount of big baddies. 3 vehicles types. 4 AI weapons. Metal Gear Zeke. Rathalos, Tigrex and Gear Rex. 11 in total, not counting variations seperate.
It's just, the game does not have Monster Hunter's amazing progression system of turning the monsters you kill into gear to kill stronger monsters with. Only the AI weapons actually have "drops", but upgrading ZEKE does not really do anything for you besides making it stronger in a mock battle.

[u/Cthulhukitten]

Orientation week for my university starts this upcoming Monday and I'm internally screaming due to the anxiety. I'm excited but also dreading it since I suppose I just don't know how my studies will go and how I'll end up securing work. While it's fairly worrying, I guess it a problem for me at least two years from now... so I'll just worry about immersing with student life/studies for now.

For the moment I'm going to try to not think too hard about it though because OH MY GOD ACE COMBAT 8 IS HERE. Downloading now to my partner's PC! I can say I am truly excited to play today. Granted, I'll probably end up disabling ray-tracing because seemingly with it embedded it may not run well on her rig with a 2080 Super. Honestly though it has the potential to be one of the best entries in the series from what I was seeing of Pat playing. I hope to use some rad harriers and the Gripen, eventually the SU-57 too (my beloved).

I do have my qualms with a fair few decisions behind it, like the insane file compression issues, them switching to Unreal Engine 5, and some other things but I'm still eager to try this title and actually give it an honest review on Steam and talk about it here too. Worst case scenario though, I may have to refund it and wait to get a better GPU later down the line (or hold out for a patch).

Also since the autumn sale is here, I picked up Rogue Trader + the Void Shadows DLC and Umineko Answers Arc too on sale. Probably won't be playing through another CRPG too soon after Pillars of Eternity 2, but having Rogue Trader in my library will be nice for the future. And I finished Umineko Questions Arc a while ago, but for god knows what reason didn't conclude with Answers Arc. I will be rectifying that after Ace Combat 8 if my scatterbrain doesn't forget.

[u/Kerrik52]

I have finally completed Metaphor. That final boss at full strength was a true-to-form Atlus bastard, took me the entire day. The depowered version might as well not exist. My funniest takeaway on the story is that it's themed around the importance of media literacy, since by misreading things, the entire plot gets as dire as it does. Maybe this was a cry for help before they release the remake of Persona 4 and resummon the discourse.

My let's play of Resident Evil is also complete! I put in a little extra at the end by parodying the Gore Ending Credits, amusing myself to no end. Really proud of that entire series, its quality sneaks up on you if you stick with it. But the script for my video remains unfinished, so I gotta get on that.

[u/ActRaisins]

Week of "spooky month starts". I've had a curtain of pumpkin LEDs hanging up in one of the rooms already, but I probably won't get massively into spooky stuff until later.

In games, I've been fooling around with an old retro handheld I've had for a while. It's called something like the RS-97 V2 and it's pretty modest in terms of performance, but I enjoy it as a means to play 8 and 16 bit games. It has an app where you plug it into your PC and can transfer games to and from the device, but I usually just change game libraries for the emulators that came with the device. However, after the "THEC64" handheld (yeah that's what it called) got delayed into 2027 I started looking at opk files and installing new emulators. Since then, I've now got the C64 emulator Vice running, so I've been enjoying the likes of Uridium and am keen to test more games. Also, if I'm happy enough with this as a solution then I'll potentially save the cost of buying a new handheld.

I also took a look at the Steam Autumn sale yesterday evening, picking up Pepper Grinder (2D game about burrowing and shooting) and Spiritfall (roguelike with Smash Bros-style arena battles.) I haven't tried either of them yet but they should keep me busy for a bit.

A couple of notables from me week in music - Embers by Loudrise is a bit of a vibe - lots of layers and nice echoes and things... while Scartip's Admirer - well, it might be a bit too disjointed for some, but it has some fun chopped up beats and bleeps. It sounds like something I'd play in Sound Shapes or something.

Anyway, this weekend and next week may be more of the same - trying out "new" Steam games and seeing what I can emulate.

[u/Head-You5953]

I ended up leaving my job this week. I feel bad that I couldn't tough it out longer, because I know that people tolerate way worse jobs all the time, but I couldn't stand to spend another second in the same building as my manager. Being around him was acively bad for my mental health.

I'm very lucky to have family who are willing to support me now that I'm back on the job hunt, and I feel more motivated now to actually search for something that I'm at least qualified and a good fit for, if not passionate about.

[u/RevenTheLight]

Hello today! October time! Things are finally going back to normal more or less. I even finished some fun stuff this week too!

Netflix's Resident Evil was super fun! The internet masses saw "Zootopia Porn" line and tapped out but not me! I squeeze so much juice from it with my buddies. Did you see Lance Reddick wears the classic Wesker costume making him look like BLADE?! And talks with his own clones?!. Bet you didn't! It's a mess, it's horrible, the characters are super unlikable, the writing is horrible, it needs to make a reference to something pop-culture, but it's so perfect. I love it.

Forbidden Solitare was fun. Needed something turn based to play, as the work week was rough. It's fun. Love the art style, love seeing Xalavier Nelson in games - that's why I got it. There was a funny moment where the story was telling me to stop and i was like "nah, this game is super good, I will beat it!!". It's fun! I really enjoyed it!

Weight check-in - 181.0 - 180/180/180+ - Woof. The number is going down, but damn.

[u/Chared945]

I’ve been looking after my dad officially for 3 months now. This has been being at his side in the hospital every day 5-8 hours and then assisted living when we’re home

The only time I’m free is when mums home to fill in

We’re half way through curative radiotherapy for his lung

So far we’re on heart surgery, lung biopsy, lung drain, radiotherapy, dealing with fluid in his legs

I’ve been given a 300 one time grant for being a carer. Gonna put that towards a rare nerd book

And I’ve been working my way through the Discworld books in a weird order depending on what covers were available from the book shop because those penguin versions where they put a beige bar across the top and you lose out on the artwork can go to hell

1,2,7,8,3,6,12,33,4,11

It’s been an interesting reading order

[u/AutummThrowAway]

Reddit will now phase out acces to old reddit if you don't use it for 6 months. Probably gonna retire it eventually

I hope communities move somewhere else, tge current interface sucks, its search is bad, and it forces ai stuff

[u/nykopeeps]

Two weeks of Fire Emblem.
In the middle of Theodora's route and already feeling the urge to replay Leda's because it is only now that I see everything I could have done better the first time around.
I don't think I'll need another game before GTA.

[u/BarelyReal]

I tried out some miniatures from Wargames Atlantic, specifically their Pulp line. I love how they give you the option to build a special character in some kits, like Solid Snake or John Wick.

Warhammer is just too expensive for me at this point and it looks like it's going to get pricier so I've been looking at mini agnostic games from Osprey. So far I have Black Ops, Last Days, Stargrave, and Gaslands but I want to check out Doomed.

[u/HiroProtagonest]

Been playing a city-builder game called Ixion, which seems more inspired by Frostpunk than anything else but isn't as... cynical. You are (likely) humanity's last hope, and have to find the FTL jump coordinates for the one viable exoplanet discovered. The main gimmick of Ixion is your "city" is a spacecraft colony, which can move but also is in need of constant hull maintenance. It's also a prototype craft, so you start with most of its interior unoccupied and have to open it up more over time (this just takes some resources, a bunch of which you get back from the storage boxes in newly-opened areas, but the main thing is each new area makes the hull need more maintenance). The ship can also fly, but that diverts all power generators so you have to rely on battery storage to keep the interior running during it, and the hull takes more damage too. The main way star systems are explored, though, is by sending out a fleet of smaller ships to investigate planets, mine asteroids, and retrieve resources. Also, there's space weather once you leave the solar system!

Anyway, I've never managed to get into a city-builder before but this one's been nice. I think the aspect of unlocking an entire section of the ship at once as a milestone helps me feel a big progress leap, as often a lot of the other stuff just kinda blends together and barely feels like I've done anything to the city even though I've certainly made it more efficient. There's also the continuous story, sending explorers out to learn things about the places you visit and advance your ultimate goal. This is stuff I get the feeling Frostpunk did as well, but Ixion lets me win with, as a friend put it, "socialism and sports" where Frostpunk demands you became an authoritarian society. You can still play that way if you want, focusing on propaganda and cops to keep people in line who'd otherwise be restless while you cram the population into tiny living quarters to maximize space. It lets you play into a cult forming on your ship which views the ship's journey as a profound religious experience. But you can also give people comfortable living quarters, build train stations between all the sectors for their convenience, adopt a dog, and build a boxing arena to make everyone really happy.

[u/Mousefang]

This last week I watched The Fury (1978) and after about 3 years I’ve finally seen every film directed by Brian De Palma! Far and away my favorite director after David Lynch, I just adore the way he handles paranoia, and camp, and balancing eroticism with guilt in voyeurism, and exploring how he fits into that equation as a filmmaker and how we do as the audience, and most of all finding humor and humanity and tragedy in all of it with so much style it hurts. I love him and am dying for him to make his long-rumored “one more movie” but I mean I’m gonna be watching a ton of these films for the rest of my life lol

[u/JoaquinHawkins]

I try to read at least one fiction and one nonfiction book every month and my choices for October are kinda on the opposing ends:

In the blue corner, Deeper Ground Darker Shadows: The Making of a Mindanao Rebel by Eddie Quitoriano, a memoir of a man who joined the Communist Party of the Philippines - New People's Army at the height of the Ferdinand Marcos' Martial Law in the 70's, went globetrotting to sympathetic countries and cells abroad in the 80's and came home in the 90's intact.

Disco Elysium talks about how much of communism is about failure and I started this curious about how someone in the NPA must have felt during People Power and the end of the Marcos regime, to watch all those people come out for change in their country, only to have rich oligarchs take the reigns of power again. That must have sucked and I want to see if there was anything in the book about that.

In the red corner, American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. I want to read Patrick Bateman's droning, vapid inner monologues about clothes and music.

[u/SamuraiDDD]

Mom is finally back home after her surgery. It's been a hell of a couple weeks of anxiety, worry and stress but overall, things seemed to be better than they were 3 weeks ago. Mom is still recovering of course, and we're gonna order her a recline of sorts so she can be comfortable in bed. Thankfully, we can do that pretty easily. By the end of the month or her birthday, she should be back to 100% or close to it.

Throughout the week, I've been gaming a bunch to relax. I've bounced around a bunch of stuff and I think It's time to hit up my library. So next up: WITCHER 3. This one modded to hell as well like Darkest Dungeon. Speaking of, I'm starting a new game. I lost my first Crusader and I wanted to get the trophy where he and my Highwayman survive.

Friends and I FINALLY finished watching all of Netflix Resident Evil. Lance Riddick saved that show, I'm telling you. The girls, the most unlikable characters. Even when they're adults, they're both still just so bad. But now we're watching the thing my friend had been hiding. It's the Resident Evil Stage play lol

This Friday, friends and I will be gaming with more Halo: Reach Co-op campaign! Had a blast last week so i'm very much looking forward to playing more with buddies! I gotta tell you, I never really played too much multiplayer with friends growing up but now? It really hits better than I could imagine.

This weekend, I think after some rest and time to myself, I'm gonna try my hand at freelance work again cause BOY, the end of the month sucks. I used to write articles here and there for people, be a ghost writer and sometimes and so on. Wish me luck!

Take care ya'll and may things improve for us all

---

Musical choice of tonight:

1. Killer7 - Sweet Blue Flag
   
2. Paranoia Agent OST - 14 - Escape
   
3. Days of Sisters - Persona 5

[u/RevenTheLight → u/SamuraiDDD]

Oh hell yeah! Love to see your mom being back! Good luck!!!

[u/alexandrecau]

Finished bouncer by makoto mizuta, typical edgy stuff you can find in seinen but some really cool action scene

[u/MrCorazon44]

Started Kingdom Hearts 3 late last month and honestly been enjoying it. The Disney worlds are definitely hit or miss, both story and level structure wise, but none has made me upset or anything. Gameplay is stellar too. Was expected to get bored or annoyed based on how many people love being angry at it but nah it’s been a fun time. I’m at endgame right now and just managed to make Ultima Weapon. Looking forward to all the many final fights and eventually Re Mind (Which I’m sure will make me suffer).

[u/FMV_Hell_0]

It's interesting that I have almost zero cultural osmosis for Ocarina of Time. One of the most popular games of the 20th century, top 1 in many Best Games of All Time lists, and all I’ve got is “Hey Listen”, Water Temple, and a mechanic from Brawl. I can appreciate the day/night mechanic for what it was at the time, even if it does lock you out of the mandatory stealth sequence depending on when you get to Hyrule Castle. For how open the game is it's actually a very linear sequence of events; "go here, do this", someone shows up to tell you "go there, do that", at least early on. You guys should’ve talked more shit about the owl. Navi at least tells you how to deal with enemies but this fuckass owl stops you in your tracks to explain things that you’ve intuited 20 minutes ago by just playing the game.

Leaving me in charge of any regular media viewing long enough ultimately turns it into Anime Night. Once or twice a week my siblings and I get together to watch TV shows and anime. As it is now officially Spooky Month we loaded up two episodes of Zom 100 - Bucket List of the Dead. It's such an upbeat view of a zombie apocalypse, and because of personal context, reminds me of the vibes of early Covid. There's so much Sauce on this show, it's so bright and colorful, which is a really welcome visual from the more muted palettes I expect from zombie media. It's fun to note that Zeno Robinson also voices the hopecore anime protagonist in this as well.

Speaking of Sauce, we also watched the first two episodes of The Ghost In The Shell. It's a different type of cool compared to Stand Alone Complex. The soundtrack's jazzy, the animation is stellar, they added in film grain and frame jutter to evoke an older show, which I really appreciate. It's nice to have the manga vibe of GitS no longer limited to the PS1 game. They really thought we'd have way more wires and use way more payphones in 1989.

[u/JackChoasMan]

Beat Snake Eater for the thousandth time. God damn I love that game, and GOD DAMN does it look good with the resolution cranked. For some asinine reason I decided to do no continues or alerts (not even playing on Extreme, so this wasn't for the ranking), that bit me in the ass a few times. Jumped right in to Ghost of Yotei after that. On paper it's a better Tsushima, but something's not grabbing me as much. The Watanabe Mode (replaces the soundtrack with Champloo-esque lo-fi hip hop) is a really neat idea, but the execution's lacking

My uncle's staying with us for a few more days, having him here is always fun because he throws on a bunch of tv shows or movies and suddenly everybody's watching. Never compared him to my grandpa much, but they're the only two people I've ever watched tv with for hours on end without talking to

Tried the Dynasty Warriors 3 demo. It's a weird uncanny valley of looking and sounding like Origins (minus the legendarily terrible dub), but the gameplay is so much stiffer. The Elta: Defy All Gods demo was way better than I expected

Watched Sukiyaki Western Django, there was fun to be had, but it mostly sucked. Tarantino somehow speaks worse english than japanese actors, it's great

Had a really weird job interview, sort of. Turns out the "hiring event" is actually just them interviewing people who already applied online (sitting in the break room and a guy working there told me to apply online, I nearly took a running dive through the window). Got to my interview and the lady mentions it's a company-wide event, and I could've gone to the one 10 minutes from my house instead of that one, so she (very nicely, can't stress that enough, it was super friendly) tells me to get the hell out of there. I get to my local store... and they have 250+ candidates so they're having people fill out an application and they'll call them later. THE WORST PART IS I DON'T EVEN WANT THE JOB, I'M JUST DESPERATE

Finally filled out the therapy paperwork my mom and I agreed I would... 4 months later. 8 month waitlist, but a lady called yesterday morning and gave me some recommendations to look into

[u/Crossfeet606441]

So, two things:

1. I finally got a 650cc bike. Yes, somehow this is related to Umamusume. And I'm gonna name it Manhattan Cafe because of the color scheme (it's not even a cafe racer).

2. I learned how to knit as a skill and make an entire beanie as my very first complete project, all in less than a week, so I can cosplay as Bryan from the Resident Evil 2026 movie at a cosplay convention tomorrow.

[u/Kimarous]

Last Week's Post

Week 135 post-accident

The office move has been happening this week and I went in to the new location on Tuesday under the impression from last week's office banter that I was supposed to do so and that my new office space would be set up. Neither of these things were true and I evidently missed an email memo telling me to take the day off because my office space was still being set up. So I showed up in good time (arrived with 10 minutes to spare for my new shift), was let in by workers who were still working with no fuss on their part, went to my area, saw that:

• Some of my stuff was brought over but not set up
• My chair had not yet been brought over
• None of the file boxes had yet been brought over

So yeah, big telltale signs that I wasn't supposed to arrive at this location yet. So I opted for a looksee of the in-progress work and came across the single employee who'd already been moved over. She cleared some stuff up for me, gave me a tour of who will go where (to which I acknowledged that none of this info will stick in my head until we've fully moved in and I can physically see who goes where), shared some contact info to the higher-ups via coworker proxy, expressed a positive first impression of the new office space (incomplete as it was), then walked down to the same bus exchange I got off at to catch the next bus back home.

So yeah, paid week off. Yay! Slightly screwy for my brain (went to retrieve the Thursday garbage bins, which I normally bring back after my work ship is over from my bus ride home; wires crossed in my noggin and I briefly opened the garage door to retrieve the still-there RECYCLE bins before closing it again with a "whoopsie"), but otherwise doing fine

On Wednesday. the cleaning lady we hire helped me retrieve some papers from a high shelf, allowing me to sift through them and find my autism assessment papers, which I suspected were up there this whole time. I've been meaning to get reassessed in a more comprehensive analysis with both more modern terminology as well as checking for other factors like potential ADHD, which I've lately been thinking I might have as well. My brother is helping me arrange for this reassessment and said a while back that my old assessment should help on this front, so when he visits next Saturday, I can pass that along to him for that purpose.

On the entertainment front, the originally planned big update to Aero GPX has been changed to a more drip-feed of content over the rest of the year; full details here, video explaining today's patch here. Essentially, each "business day", a stage will get a visual overhaul; that's the plan for October, with additional stuff for November and December with a planned 1.0 version come January 2027. Played a bit around with the updated map and MAN am I out of practice! Will likely play more of it again and get back into the swing of things over the next while as we get this drip-feed of minor updates.

Also, picked up some additional MTG cards when I was last in to my FLGS... and my first ever Pokémon cards, which has reactivated my Poké neuron, so also getting the urge to play the relevant Switch games again.

Mind Music of the Week:

• Volt Tackle feat. Hatsune Miku
• Makafushigi Adventure
• Anima Perduta
• (numerous other little ditties I forgot to write down / haven't identified the names of)

[u/midnight188]

Finally completed Dragon Quest XI and had a great time. Now finally starting Triangle Strategy and forgot that tactical rpgs are mostly visual novels with occasional battles. I just know I'll have to cheat about halfway through to ensure I can nail the "perfect ending". Because of course it has one of those. Not replaying a game 5 times to get there I prefer it being a one-and-done thing.

Anything with a morality metric split the way it is, I just know I'll have to slam those numbers to the max so Secret Option C: Don't Get the Bad Ending becomes available. Hate when games do that shit.

[u/GordonWolfwood]

I've been overweight my whole life (Last month I was 197kg/435 pounds) I had a health scare and my doctor said I should start using Mounjaro as a medicine to help me lose weight, it's been a 33 days since I started and went in to check again and I'm now weighing 165kg/364 pounds my doctor was a little bit worried but said it should be fine since it's just the beginning and I probably had a bunch of fluid retention? Idk but I'm really happy and hyped to see if I can get to 110~130 kg which I feel it's a good spot to stay.

This month I went back to the gym, it's been hard but fun however I felt super lonely, like it's kinda of a lonely hobby since I just plug my headphones and start training but it's weird going to a place with a bunch of people doing the same activity and not speaking with each other I also wanna get back into boxing, I trained for 2 years back when I was 15 and I'm now 33 so it's been a while but sadly I can't find the time yet.

For gaming I went back to Ragnarok Online, a private server called Nightmare to, it's been fun trying some classes and leveling, I also got the new onimusha and monster hunter wilds but my cat broke my PS5 controller and I couldn't get a new one yet so I'm just waiting to try them.

All in all it's been a fun and good month, I hope you guys have a wonderful week/month/life we all deserve to be happy and to have a good time while we are here

[u/eddieskacz]

I think I finally have a job after a year of unemployment. Yay me! Just have to power through the ADHD mindblocks.

I have read the first 3 Dungeon Crawler Carl books in 2 weeks. I really like them, they're a fun read. Though that third book made a strong choice with it's level layout, for lack of a better word. Donut is the best character, Mordecai is also pretty good.

Just entered Act 3 in my one year anniversary Silksong playthrough. Man that game is good. Maybe I'll actually fill out the journal this time. I'm blitzing through it compared to my first playthrough.

[u/attikol → u/eddieskacz]

Nice I caught up on that series a few months ago. Dungeon crawler carl is really fun. Im looking forward to seeing the TV show when that drops

[u/eddieskacz → u/attikol]

I'm surprised they decided on live action, and not an animated show.

[u/attikol → u/eddieskacz]

I would prefer that as well book 3 sounds complicated to try and show in live action

[u/DaleRVParty]

T minus less than 4 weeks until the move. I’m moving essentially cross country. I didn’t exactly picture this stage in my life, picking up to move and live with my family again/still. But it makes sense cause I already have my own place lined up. And I’ll be right there with family. Plus. Much much warmer winters. Big hurdle is dogs. So we have 4 dogs total. And we were thinking of renting an RV. That way don’t gotta deal with finding hotels that take dogs. And I don’t think any will take 4. but we’re having issues finding places for rv rentals. Especially that will let us drop off somewhere near there and not have to bring it back.
So right now during the day it’s clearing out the home, at night time I’m playing away at whatever I’m in for. Tonight it’s First Light’s DLC. I knew the game would be good, so I got it on release, I didn’t know how good. Absolutely a GOTY contender.

[u/Am_Shigar00]

Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave continues. I have finished two of the four initial routes, Cai and Dietrich. Between the two, while I enjoyed the character arcs of Dietrich & Fabio, I felt Cai's was overall the much better route both in overall narrative and handling of the hubs. Right now I've stared up Leda's route and plan on ending on Theodora's.

As for the game itself, my mixed thoughts on it continues. I do really appreciate how different they've made every route so far, and they've done a great job of not repeating major content outside of shared arena matches. Unfortunately, I can't say the same of the side content which has started to become incredibly fatiguing in how repetitive it all is. The core SRPG combat has in turn been something of a mixed bag. It's fun for what it is, but the difficulty has felt incredibly wonky, jumping up & down for not always the right reasons, and there's a lot of aspects that I don't really agree with or find much interest in that does hurt it. So far I'm expecting this to be a game that I like, but not especially love, which is both somewhat comforting considering my initial concerns and sad considering it isn't something I like as much as I would've wanted.

[u/waxonwaxoff3]

I haven't mentioned it previously, but in addition to financial woes and other stressful things going on, I've been dealing with a crazy case of elaborate identity theft that tanked my credit for several months now. I won't go into particulars just in case, but things are finally starting to move, and today I got the news that a request has officially been put in to remove the offending entries from my credit profile. Hooray!

It's my birthday today. With everything going on, I'm just going to spend it sleeping like the dead, finally watching the Get Back documentary, and playing video games. Maybe I'll finally check out Esoteric Ebb.

[u/The_Draigg → u/waxonwaxoff3]

Man, dealing with that level of identity theft is rough, you've got my sympathies there.

I hope that your birthday improves things for you from here!

[u/waxonwaxoff3 → u/The_Draigg]

Thank you, so far so good

[u/guntanksinspace]

I've been somehow deep into Tekken 8 in spite of the weird balance changes. Turns out that in spite of no nearby locals, I was able to make do when peers started just doing occasional group lobbies. Getting put in versus people well beyond my rank and skill level has apparently also sharpened me enough to be able to deal with shit, but also reinforced my stance of "online rank at the end of the day is just a funny shiny PNG" as I've ended up learning to value more being able to keep up with these killer players enough that I can take full sets off them from time to time.

Conversely, I've also been popping up in Akai_VF's Asia Lobbies every other Saturday night whenever possible. I get cooked by people beyond my level, but it feels good when I actually even just get a round off them with stupid shit, and I also end up yearning for having also a local circle I can regularly play and learn from, just like the TK and SC circles I've been into.

On a more somber note, It's gonna be roughly 5 years now since both my dad and dad-in-law had passed. Sometimes I still wonder how my dad would react to me finally figuring out to drive (and getting the funny small Suzuki-branded hatchback, but not exactly the one we saw when I was way younger) among many, many other things. But we continue on.

And especially in light of the really, really sad stuff that has happened in the wrestling circles as of recent, it's a good reminded to, you know. Call or check on your loved ones. Give them a hug if you could. And let them know you care.

Take care, everybody.

[u/Kakuzan]

Well. This week was certainly something.

Not really for me personally (aside from having Covid last week), but I have heard about Jacob Geller. I have watched maybe one or two videos of his and never got that on board since I was a bit bored by his style, but man. This isn't even an accusation so much as his past SA record in university (which he confirmed is indeed true) having been found.

Often, people go and try looking for signs that may have foreshadowed someone's bad behavior, and I myself am inherently distrustful of communities and parasocial relationships. But I can honestly say this is indeed a huge shock to me. It feels even more icky and surreal with the other case of alleged SA happening over at Cornell.

This is an inherently jarring switch of topic given how dark this is, but in much lighter news, I decided to get a PS5 Pro. I had the base PS5 already which I will be sending to me sister soon. I mostly got this because I am seriously thinking that I won't bother with the PS6 since aside from diminishing returns, the physical disc thing while not exactly a deal breaker makes me 1000x less interested in being loyal to Sony.

The upgrades to a bunch of games have been nice so far, and I finally picked up Spider-Man 2 again after literal years. In fact, I have a huge backlog of games that I need to get through now that console space is no longer a giant issue.

[u/marvel8797]

Been playing more Control Resonant. I'm in the last third of the game and I'm still enjoying it.

Also this past weekend I got in the mail an OG Fat PS2 console and some games with it off of ebay. Bought the lot because I've been meaning to rebuild my PS1/PS2 collection and it came with a copy of FF8 and an old Brady Games player's guide for FF8. Also came with a few other games but they werent anything I was interested in so I traded them for credit at my local retro place.

[u/UnderhandSteam]

My departure day for the US is confirmed early December this year, which is actually a lot more than I exoected, so I’m happy about that, although it’s been difficult coming to terms with me leaving behind my mom & siblings behind for my cousins in the US. Also, all the troubles in the US hasn’t exactly comforted me, especially since I’m a minority there lol. Honestly, probably an unhealthy mindset, but trying not to think too hard on it in case I start to get too anxious or panicky about the future. It’s not like my country (Philippines) can really talk abt corruption lol.

Really want to play more of Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave, but unfortunately due to family sharing agreement, can only really get it on the weekends lol. Am honestly worried a bit abt it because I have the bad tendency to not play a game anymore if I spend too long not playing it, but what can you do.

On the other hand, I did pre-order Ace Combat 8 (and 0) today, so I can still play that today, just trying to finish up Star Wars Zero Company and it’s respective Long War Mod first. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a full XCom like to play, and it saddens me that the genre is so limited nowadays.

[u/Cthulhukitten → u/UnderhandSteam]

Yeah, it's definitely saddening XCOM titles have not become more prevalent. Hopefully the success of Zero Company will encourage some other developers to try their hand at making a title like it.

Also hope you enjoy Ace Combat 8 too, friend! Likewise picked it up today and downloading it now. Very excited for it. If you haven't already you should definitely consider playing 0 afterwards, it's an excellent entry in the series.

[u/UnderhandSteam → u/Cthulhukitten]

Thanks! Am honestly considering playing Zero first, considering how jarring going from modern to “old” controls can be. Also somewhat scared that Zero Company may have underperformed still considering the cost of the game (think they broke 1 million sales only a week back) plus EA shenanigans, but I guess that’s out of our hands regardless

[u/Amon274]

Another week down:

Games: Still playing The Blood of Dawnwalker which I now occasionally refer to as “The story of the most locked in man to ever exist” I’m on day 11 and have finished most of the quests relating to the sword of St. Mihai and the Arbiter Armor. One of the three Boyars are down and I now have an incredibly useful heal on perfect block. I’m currently at level 29 with Corruption at level 14. I went to Vampire Hell. The Ghost of Yotei DLC released so I’m going to check that out soon alongside the new 007: First Light update. I intend on getting Control: Resonant before October is over and a part of me wants to try Dune: Awakening’s single player. I have to get Fortune’s Weave before the year is out.

Personal Life: Things have actually been on a sort of upward trend lately. I don’t really have much to say.

Conclusion: I think this is the most upbeat FTF post I’ve made in a while.

[u/Gorotheninja → u/Amon274]

I'm really happy to hear things are look brighter for you, especially seeing all your prior FTF posts; you deserve a high note in your life.

Also, fuck me, the Yotei DLC is out?

[u/Amon274 → u/Gorotheninja]

Yep came out October 1st

[u/Gorotheninja → u/Amon274]

sigh

Add it to the list.

At least I'm gonna have most of October through December to clear the backlog, maybe even half of Spring, depending on my next semester of classes

[u/Spiral_Tori]

weird pull, but is anyone playing diablo 4? i just started around blizzcon, and i don't give a shit about the story but i'm in love. given that i'm already at torment 6 (barbarian go brr), it's definitely scratching the itch that destiny 2 scratched for a while, and will again Soon™️

[u/squidpeanut]

Man, limbus company continues to deliver. Canto 10 was very good and I’m interested in seeing where the game goes next!

[u/AutummThrowAway → u/squidpeanut]

Smoke war 2 Yay

[u/Atraxa_]

Just finished up a couple of work projects, just need to prep some stuff for the sales team but I should be mostly good.

Had a lot of PTO days saved up so I will be able to have half of december off thankfully. Definitely has been a wild year so far, both personally and economy wise. But working in a stable industry definitely alleviated a lot of my fears.

Its a shame to say I do not regret leaving the games and media industry at all after all this layoff news

[u/MisterOfu]

A bunch more anime ended this week

• Iruma-kun season 4 - the series continues to show other action slice-of-lives how it's done. New characters and plot threads get introduced, old characters and relationships get developed, the status quo steadily moves forward, and all that in an engaging and often hilarious package. Full marks.

• Magilumière season 2 - another solid sequel. With the basics established, we now get to see more of the wider picture and the evil masterminds behind the scenes. At the same time strong character focus and the overarching message keep the series true to its heart. I'm especially digging Kana's gradual development into an unassuming prodigy.

• Sparks of Tomorrow - no surprises here, unfortunately. Fun characters and good production value don't really make up for the mediocre story.

• Re:Zero season 4 - after quite an uncharacteristic season 3 we're back to classic Re:Zero - engaging plot derailed by a surprise arc, confusing twists, endearing characters and amazing payoff. I just hope the author actually remembers to eventually resolve all these hanging story threads, because this entire arc fixed a whopping 1 out of 3 major crises that the crew is currently facing.
  I also want to specifically shoutout all the cute character animation this season like Meili riding Shaula for 2 episodes and Subaru and Beako's sibling energy, as well as Emilia's new fighting style of getting thrown around by Subaru clones which is simultaneously awesome and sweet.

And in music news Asu released another fantastic cover and I discovered a surprise banger while going through Love Live Hasunosora songs (that breakdown is chef's kiss).

[u/MaelstromTear]

I've been doing a personal project cataloguing weapons in the 1860-1930 kind of range. I started it when we did a MOTW game in that region but now I'm just having fun. Right now just pistols and revolvers, but that's still a lot of stuff. Rifles are gonna be a crapshow... But it has been really interesting! A lot of weird variations until somebody comes along and makes "the" gun that everybody else copies. Sure, John Browning's M1911 was one of those but he already had a lot of the important points down with the FN Browning in 1903. My personal favorite so far is the Mauser C78, the "zig-zag" revolver for its funky cylinder design (thus the name) and unique break action. This one tilts up, which maybe helped with getting spent cartridges out. Our GM wants to do a Metal Gear of the Week kind of thing but we have to agree to a time era. Once we get that, I'm totally going full SIGINT for that.

Hey, please look at these books I made! That's The Demon in Shadow and The Demons of Bone and Blood. We follow Max and Ayun, a human and demon respectively, who bump into each other while on different paths. Ayun's looking for her missing employers, and Max is just looking for a place to go. So he assists her and finds that the task is much more than he bargained. It's got action, heisei-era romance and attempts at humor. Plus, some amazing artwork all light novel style! Speaking of artwork, I have the latest character portrait from the wonderful 5-ish. We've had Max and Mags, now it's Max...imus! Maximus Bosch, the first human/demon child! Ignore the fake arm. Actually, don't. It being shiny is its whole shtick. Make you think he uses that for fighting when he just has that half-demon strength! I've also got her cooking up something fun for the 'ween, so looking forward to that.

Yo, that Ace Combat. I've only played up to Mission 3 before getting some breather. Fantastic so far. And I got AC0 as well though it's really weird that you can only launch it through a secondary menu on Steam. I know licensing junk and all that. I know how much I'm relying on the hard-brake since it doesn't have it. The first time you go up against "real" enemies I was struggling. Not to evade, but to friggin' get in. Not sure if that was the intent, maybe. I also thought that my head was buzzing from all the flying, but it's just a storm going over us. FUN.

Bang Dream Our Notes is here. And at the same time, the original game Girls Band Party is celebrating their 8.5th anniversary and seemingly going strong. But like most mobile games with that lifespan, there's a lot of aging and creaking. Our Notes updates a lot of the menu guff and focuses on new bands. Three of which already got anime series, but two actually new ones. I've only gone through those aformentioned three stories, and I'm mixed. MyGO has some melodrama, but is still compelling enough. Ave Mujica is a freakin' soap opera in bost the best and worst way. Up to and including, parental abuse/neglect, poverty, Dissociative Identity Disorder, some weird cousin incest in there and of course, angst. There were some serious stories in the original GBP bands, but not to this level. Maybe I just like Hello Happy World more because they're goofy. (And if we're going by one of the Ganso shorts, HHW would fix EVERYTHING. Too powerful.) If you're into it, cool. But I much preferred Mewtype's story about online toxicity.

But who cares about the talky bits! This is a ryhthm game! How's that part? Well if you've played Holodream, it's taking a lot from that. Which to be fair, feels like it borrowed a lot from GBP. The notes are no longer usually trapped to one section, the hold notes don't need you to jump off at the end (which is actually tripping me up more) and "GOOD" notes no longer drop your combo. Sounds easier, but man some of these charts. There's some devious mixes of holds and swipes in some songs, and I feel like maybe it's being early days but the difficulty ratings sometimes feel off. I had a few MyGo and millsage songs that kicked my butt and needed to make a team of recovery units just to survive. Which I guess means I'm playing with the mechanics?

MyGO is... Fine. I'd called it punk pop but I haven't really loved any of their songs. There's like four songs in a row where Tomori has a spoken word at the front and that's neat maybe... Once. Twice. I don't want every song to become Day for Decision. I don't ANY song to be Day for Decision. Rot in hell, Johnny Sea! Got sidetracked. Ave Mujica is well performed but the gothic metal isn't my scene. The Lada Gaga cover, of all things, was neat until the challenge mission made you play it 20 times. Mewtype's vary in genre which is fun and I really dig Arale's voice. My only hate against millsage is that the charts have been awful and that hatred bleeds into not wanting to hear these songs. Ikka Dumb Rock is the last one and the one I'm most interested in because they could be the HHW goofballs of the game. They also have a cover of AiNA the End's Dandadan song which while can't compare to her amazing vocals is still fun to play. Outside of a few cover songs to 'buy' with in-game currency and the ones that unlock from stories, I have played everything at least on Hard. Some Expert which has been interesting. Not fair to compare it to GBP's like 700-something songs, but still. You're either gonna like it or play the four songs you like unilt you're sick. Who's got the Love Live label? Can we get them in here for a crossover? I just want some Takaramonos or Mermaid Fes! And only learning later that there was an attempt at an all-guys Bang Dream and it had a ska band... Damn you!

Finished West Wing season 2. There are a few episodes in the last half that are the best hours of television. 17 People is a bottle episode with like, 8 people and it shines. Two Cathedrals as well. Go watch it.

[u/AutoModerator → u/MaelstromTear]

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[u/PowerfulCoward → u/MaelstromTear]

Yo, that Ace Combat. I've only played up to Mission 3 before getting some breather. Fantastic so far.

I'm in the exact same boat. By the end of Mission 3 I was already completely hooked. Everything about this game just feels so incredibly cool. Really excited to play more of it.

[u/Gorotheninja]

Not really much gaming apart from more Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave and starting up a Dark Souls 3 playthrough (and restarting twice after getting frustrated at losing a bunch of souls). I do have Gears of War E-Day downloaded, but it's finals week, and I wanna finish my Poetry Portfolio assignment first, which shouldn't take too long. Beyond that, nothing to really report.

Though, I have to say: to any Jacob Geller or OneyPlays fans here...

Yeah, sorry, it's been a rough few days for both of you guys.

[u/The_Draigg]

Week of Tri-Tip. I've eaten almost nothing but tri-tip for my meals for a good chunk of this week. Like, I haven't eaten it in ages since it's gotten to be too expensive, but a family friend gave us here a full roast of the stuff, and that's on top of the restaurant lunch order that my workplace did this week also had plenty of tri-tip on the menu, so it really is like a ton just got dumped on me this week. Not that I'm complaining though, tri-tip is an excellent cut of beef. I'm just surprised that so much came to me all at once.

Anyways, for games I played this week, I put more time into Marathon! I'm definitely getting better at Solo Queue Outpost Sponsored Survival now, I actually managed to extract with some rare loot this time around. In this case, I got some archival PSA audio that the colony used during the time that the UESC Marathon was being attacked by the Pfhor. It's nuts how much the UESC tried to cover up a fucking alien invasion going on by saying that it's just a security incident and that people are being released from cryostasis on a staggered schedule now. Then again, given how the UESC are strongly authoritarian in nature, that does track with them.

And finally, in my regular mecha talk section here, I rewatched more Neon Genesis Evangelion with my TTRPG group! My friend who is watching it for the first time remains uncannily observant on some stuff, it's still pretty impressive. We ended off on Rei I, and he's already intrigued by why Rei seems to open up only to Gendo and why Gendo only seems to care about her. He said semi-jokingly that it's maybe because of Gendo wanting a daughter instead of having Shinji as a son. Oh man, they're definitely in the right ballpark with that idle speculation, that's for sure.

[u/irregularcog → u/The_Draigg]

now these are the sort of problems I wish to see more in free tak Friday

mmm tri tip

[u/The_Draigg → u/irregularcog]

Probably the most delicious thing to hit me in a while, that’s for sure.

[u/NoodleSnapback]

Weeks without doing programming: 1. Aaaaand we’re back to this. I feel like I have an excuse though, I had a pretty bad panic attack in the middle of the week and I still have not quite recovered from it. 

I actually found some more youtubers that I like. MajinPhil and SimplySnaps both do a lot of Zelda related stuff, including randomizers and challenge runs and I just really like watching 3D Zelda randos. So I spent way too much time this week watching them. 

In terms of games, I finished Armored Core Project Phantasma and started Master of Arena. I somehow made it all the way to the end of AC1 and Project Phantasma without knowing that the bumpers let you strafe left and right. I only found out at the last boss of Phantasma. Oops. I think Phantasma is an overall better game than AC1. I like the missions a lot more and they’re a lot more cinematic with in-game cutscenes, friendly ACs that help during the missions, and just better variety in those missions. Though the game really feels more like a DLC than a standalone game. It was like half the length of AC1. Even with the Arena it was way shorter. 

Haven’t gotten too far in Master of Arena. The missions seem like what you would expect from AC1 and Phantasma. The Arena though already seems a lot more fleshed out. The enemy ACs have actual gimmicks and unique AI to each of them. My favorite so far was “Frog Man”. Which was a quadruped build that just kept jumping around trying to melee me. It was really stupid because it was so fast that he could outrun my turning speed and dodge my shots before they reached him but I had enough travel speed that he couldn’t actually catch up to me to hit me. There was also “Noble”, who did not move at all and just shot you with the heaviest and most powerful weapons possible. But he was a lightweight build so he was easy to take down. Definitely way more fun than fighting someone who can just out-tank and out-damage you no matter what. (Looking at you Pickle.) Especially now that I know you can actually strafe. 

And finally my second screen game for the past while has been Borderlands 2. Finally trying out that Metal Storm Axton build I wanted. It’s really friggin fun, especially paired with a Torgue AR since he gets boosts to his grenade damage. I don’t think it's quite as fun as Zer0 or Krieg but it's still a good time.

[u/SlaterSev]

Anybody know or remember Mark Zhang? The animator who made the famous “Team SLVR” rwby fan fight animations?

I worked with him as an animator on his latest video:  https://youtu.be/5sLS8xixJeY

When I first graduated Animation Mentor I contacted Mark on a lark and here we are, been a very cool experience and so glad it’s finally out.

Raxacory did the fight scene, and if you miss Monty/rwby style action then for whatever it’s worth it recommend checking out the full ep:  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jZz4_Xk5WE0&pp=0gcJCYsCo7VqN5tD&ra=m

[u/Gorotheninja → u/SlaterSev]

I remember those SLVR animations. They were good to the point that I wanted a whole series based on them.

[u/SlaterSev → u/Gorotheninja]

Funny you mention that, it’s a low stakes tournament arc thing, but this animation is from him turning it into a series. It’s called Odyssey Club Tournament. My work was on episode 2 which came out after 3 do to lots of tech issues. But yeah if you wanna more SLVR, just click the second link I posted then his channel page to find episode 1.

[u/The_Draigg → u/SlaterSev]

Hell yeah, that's a cool guy to work with! I remember his SLVR stuff from back in the day of the old RWBY fandom.

[u/rsrluke]

It's finally October, so it's time for festive Halloween activities! I painted a pumpkin (and received a lot of compliments on it) and figured out this year's costume (a cowboy, because I'm cheap). I can also really get to work planning the office Halloween event, which is always fun.

So hey, I finally sat down and started playing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League because I wanted to know. That game's weird. There's so much that doesn't work — poorly executed (no pun intended) story, chaotic UI, unbelievably repetitive missions, the works. And yet... I think I kind of like it? The longer I played, the more things clicked into place, and now that I've reached the endgame, the fun traversal mechanics (Captain Boomerang's teleport is my favorite) and solid enough combat make for some fun, mindless action. I don't know, maybe I'll get bored, but I think I'm gonna stick around a while longer.

On a much less perplexing note, I watched Wonder Man and that show's just straight up good, easily my favorite Marvel thing in a hot minute. It's a little too on the nose sometimes, sure, and I think the last half of the last episode is kind of superfluous, but it's got two great performances at the center of it and an interesting angle on living in the MCU.

Oh, I also redownload Destiny 2 because my brother wanted to play it. I have nothing left to grind for except fashion, which is honestly kind of freeing.