hugthebed2

Few things

1. Wow the new embedded youtube player is terrible.

2. That cat is gonna be so many people I knows' profile picture when it comes out.

3. The only show I've watched that wasn't a sequel recently has been "The Demon King's Daughter is Too Nice!" or whateva its called. I still wish to watch more stuff though...

It was the only non-anime show I've kept up with in probably 8+ years. I'm probably in the second boat but there's two more episodes so halfway 1st and 2nd boat.

Always been a big fan of "make your time"

I kinda wish it wasn't possible to see player numbers sometimes, cuz wow am I so sick of seeing comparisons between Deadlock (a game that got a new hero as part of a major update yesterday) and Highguard (a game with day 1 server issues [SOMETHING THAT DEADLOCK ALSO HAD YESTERDAY!!].

Like seriously Valve released a new hero yesterday and you couldn't queue Deadlock for 2-2.5 hours. At the very least you could load up solo/party hideouts and fuck around which was good enough to buy time but man did I feel like a lot of my day was wasted yesterday. (Dear game devs please let me use dev console in your games thanks)

I really don't want to go to bat for Highguard (it's average to slightly above average at best) but just seeing all the disingenuous media surrounding it (since that is what gets attention/views) is infuriating to see.

Not to say it doesn't deserve some of it- Highguard copies the HUD from Apex but only like half of the guns are somewhat fantasy looking. The AK-47 lookalike sticks out like a sore thumb. The character writing quality did not survive, and this game reeks of "Focus M", but at least its mostly ignorable. A few characters are VAs from Deadlock/Apex so they're at least pleasing to listen to, but man does it make you realize how much they squandered the writing.

Whatever, I'll give it a couple more play sessions at least. Have yet to find a hero I mesh well with. Same can't be said for mount choice (#kuma). Also seeing three separate currencies on boot was hecking epic.

I've been falling asleep at 8pm and waking up at 7amish the past few days and I hate it. Waking up at 7am for work is whatever cuz I have to, but I'm getting home and just crashing. Also waking up at that time on weekends sucks since no one is awake. 

Grumble volcano

On 1/2/2026 at 7:20 PM, Huff said:

 

Spoiler

4. Pools

This is a simple one to clear up. You know all those Youtube shorts and Tiktoks and other brainrot that focus on the wrong version of the backrooms. Like haha scary monster shit? Like this, citing one of my favorite videos on the world wide web:

 

As fucking funny this video is, it really encapsulates how the majority of people have misinterpreted what makes the Poolrooms/Backrooms so compelling. I'm in it for the aesthetics, dreamlike absurdity, weird noneuclidean geometry, and feeling of isolation and solitude. I'm pretty sure I started a thread on this very forum like a decade ago called "Loneliness in Gaming" and Raz made a little fun of me? Regardless, that love of solitude in games has remained. And Pools has scratched this itch among others. It's a straightforward and pure interpretation of the Poolrooms with no monsters or jumpscares, just droning ambience and your mind making it creepy. Add in fun Easter eggs and impressive setpeices and you've got a winner. They even added in an extra DLC chapter for free! Looking forward to more from these devs. Only gripe is that the controls and visual settings are sub-par and always feel a little oily to look at.

 

Hmm, what did I play this year...

uhhhhhhhhhh yeah pretty much the same as every year

I guess I played the second half of Ghost Trick, and that was pretty awesome. I already talked about it in January though. I've also been playing through the Ace Attorney trilogy which is also pretty cool. I've come around on Pulsar: Lost Colony after really not liking it at first when my friend asked me to buy it for his birthday to play with him but I don't know if it something I'd recommend. Risk of Rain Returns sure is risk of rain 1, bogus-feeling difficulty and everything. I haven't completed Sonic x Shadow Generations yet but I plan to once I get the new Steam Controller. It's cool but I really never liked boost sonic gameplay. ENA Dream BBQ was cool to get that itch of wanting to play Temptation Stairway but I haven't done a second runthrough yet. I've watched so much Balatro and Nubby's Number Factory gameplay this year and those have also been similarly awesome, but I gotta agree with Corv that Nubbys really lacks a ton of depth/skill that Balatro has making it much less replayable.

I guess my favorite game of the year I've played has got to be Deadlock (aaaaaaaaa a moba) but the reasons why are too complicated to really discuss. I quit it last year in November and started coming back to it around March of 2025 and haven't stopped playing since. I think way too many people that hate-play the game are trying way too hard to want to like it just because its a Valve game (they've still got it with the writing and worldbuilding), or they're just not used to playing a game where there's such high highs and low lows. They've even did some really touching surprise events for Christmas and New Years, with a bunch of new heroes (allegedly) coming in January. I wonder how well this game will do if/when it gets more casual game modes.

5 minutes ago, TheOnlyGuyEver said:

Nahhh, I'm sure it will happen. EasyGameStation knows how large of a following the game has in the west and most of the game material already exists in a translated form. Carpe Fulgur has ceased operation but the other half of CF has said that all rights for publication revert to the original developers. So really EasyGameStation could just use the original translation and hire another company to localize any new material or revised dialogue, hopefully using the original as reference. Of course, what happened is still unfortunate and it would've been nice to have the remaster done by CF as well.

 

If in worst case scenario it doesn't get officially localized, I wouldn't be surprised if the fan community does it, since again, there probably won't be that much new to write. Either way I am optimistic 

Good points. I still never played Recettear so if/when the HD localization comes out that'll be the perfect time.

16 hours ago, TheOnlyGuyEver said:

Played Chantelise. You might recognize Chantelise as the game that the Recettear devs made before Recettear. I was spurred to do this because the upcoming Recettear HD remake (seemingly) contains a character from this game all grown up now, and I wanted to not miss out on the context when I play that whenever it comes out. And if you haven't heard of Recettear, what are you doing?
 

Review below:
 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

First of all, I enjoyed it thoroughly. It's an action-adventure RPG type of game. The gameplay loop is pretty simple: you go to a dungeon, and there are about 5 areas, and then a boss. You can't proceed to the next area until you kill all the enemies in the current area, but once you do that the first time, then you never have to do it again and can just run through if you want. This is great, because the game is classically difficult and you will die often. When you die you aren't punished too harshly however, you don't lose anything. So really your only punishment is having to run back to whatever area you were at in the dungeon and clear it, which is enough.

 

GAMEPLAY

For as plain as it sounds, somehow the gameplay never gets to the point of being boring. The areas and levels are short enough that they end right when they feel like they should, and things are kept fresh by new spells and capabilities unlocked after each chapter. Oh yeah, there's a spell system, which is very cool. Enemies drop money and fire, water, earth, or wind gems. You can hold up to 6 gems, and to start, can cast up to 2 at a time. Combining gems creates varied spells and modification effects. When you unlock the ability to cast 3 gems at a time, you can cast a healing spell with 3 blue gems, which is when the game really becomes interesting because now you have actual options for healing, instead of leaving or relying on rare food drops from enemies.

 

STORY

The story was a bit hard to follow I admit; it gets kind of too convoluted too quickly, but it's arguably worth it for the way it culminates and the emotional moments it creates, which I was not expecting. The synopsis is that your older sister got transformed into a fairy 5 years ago, and you've been on a quest together to turn her back. The game also actually takes place in the same world as Recettear (or vice versa, rather), featuring lots of the same items, enemies, and the same currency.

 

SHORTCOMINGS AND SIDEQUESTING

My only complaint about the game is the final boss. The final boss is grossly more difficult than anything before it, and kind of complicated. For reference, I was able to get all the way to the final boss by just going at my own pace, basically going from one area to the next, with no grinding (because the only thing you can even grind is money, there aren't levels or EXP). But then I got stonewalled pretty hard, with single attacks suddenly taking more than half my health whereas before I might've gotten hit for a quarter at most. So this is the sole part of my playthrough where I lightly consulted a guide, which recommended getting the secret item from each dungeon area.

 

Every area of a dungeon has a secret chest which can spawn once you do certain things. I'd found a few purely by accident. There is a system in-game where you can pay max HP for hints, but the hints are pretty vague. I went and collected all the secret items, and it was primarily a certain life-steal item which made the final boss much more manageable. I still wouldn't say this was grinding, more like sidequesting, but I still had to go out of my way for an hour or so at the very end of the game just to tackle the insane final boss fight. So yeah, I would say the final boss is way overtuned and others seem to share this sentiment. It doesn't ruin the game and I maybe could have done it (with much effort) without the secret items if I knew the boss's mechanics and practiced it repeatedly, but it was nice going completionist anyway.

 

POST-GAME

Speaking of completionism, just like Recettear, Chantelise has a ridiculous extensive post-game for you to play. Did you know this game has fishing? Yeah, partway through you unlock fishing, and you can literally just fish anywhere, any time, in any body of water. It uses golf controls. It's pretty cool and more games should do it. Anyway, you can get exclusive items by trading in certain types and quantities of fish. There are also exclusive items you can unlock in the shop by selling rare drops from monsters. There's also a bonus post-game dungeon, and a 60-floor "survival dungeon" which you must do in a single sitting because save-and-quitting inside a dungeon will boot you out to the world map. I did the bonus dungeon and the survival dungeon, and that was enough for me. I didn't feel like grinding rare loot drops or fishing just to gets items I had no use for anymore (I am not a Japanese gamer in 2004). I wish there was a NG+ feature for that reason and I'm surprised there's not. Recettear has one and yet I would argue it benefits less from NG+ than Chantelise would.

 

CLOSING
In conclusion, I give it a 9/10, for what it is. Game's not too long, the main story took me about 9-10 hours and I got about another 6 out of the post-game. The art is beautiful and the soundtrack is also great. Shoutout to the water dungeon which was the highlight of the game for me with its visuals and music:

 

 

It's quite funny, I bought the Carpe Fulgr collection for Recettear years and years ago, but only ended up playing the other two games: Chantelise and Fortune Summoners. I enjoyed them both a great bit on my school macbook, and Chantelise was the perfect game to play when I had no internet in Washington State's mountains on vacation.

Still open the files to listen to the music loops sometimes, I also considered speedrunning it at some point. I might also remember the bosses being annoying, but I made sure to get most secret chests. It also baffled me how many secret fishing areas there are, but I didn't go too deep into that.

I also don't think we're ever going to get Recettear HD in english, at least from the original localizers since they lost a member a couple months ago :(

Merry Christmas Internet Apocalypse bunker mates

After being roped into playing Vintage Story, and looking at my experiences playing Minecraft modpacks back in the day, I think I just hate complex "immersive" survival crafting games. Why does it take like an hour to get a copper pickaxe? I was barely able to get through hurdles in Don't Starve Together, but the bossfighting aspect is enough to keep me going.

People I get roped into playing with also feel the need to add mods that add more immersion/complexity which just makes it even more confusing for a newbie like me. Ugh.

You know it's actually been 7 years since I've had to do calculus that unfortuantely that video is kinda foriegn to me (and not because its japanese voiceroids). I'd probably be able to get back into it with refreshers if necessary, but I don't really have to do difficult math as a simple lab QC person, thankfully.

38 minutes ago, A 1970 Corvette said:

• Bungie was fucking proud of their water physics. They really shouldn't have been.

The middle of the game is probably the best, I really liked the first Citadel level in particular which had a good flow and a lot of fun combat. The start felt like the mappers were trying to flex how big they could make maps, and the fucking water (see above link). The end felt like you were emptying an entire mag of AR into each enemy because you were.

 

playing scout in a tf2 custom map be like

(for reference, how easy it is to leave water in the source engine is based on how high your eyes are relative to a ledge, unfortunately the scout is cursed to have the lowest view height in tf2 so its fucking impossible for him to leave water on tons of custom maps/some official maps since most people might not test their water with him)

Aaaaaa more AI bullshit I can't disable on my phone. I've gotten so far without rooting but with the potential impending removal of app sideloading I might have to.

Ah Chatchat, the game I had people play because I had just played VVVVVV and looked at Terry Cavanagh's previous games and I wanted to have some sort of SPUF event under my name.

It was neat, I was really worried at first that no one would join, but people slowly started piling in, at least for a little bit.

19 hours ago, Gyokuyoutama said:

Whenever I see anyone comment "savage" I fully expect to see it followed up by "UNATCO?"

 

When it is not, this disappoints me more than anything else on the internet.

Whenever Borreload Savage Dragon is summoned in Yugioh I pester Jay by saying "UNATCO?"

My favorite random 8bit remix is of Duvet tbh 

I too also read the tf2 subreddit despite kinda hating it. I usually peek at every subreddit for games I'm currently playing (besides deadlock fuck that) but I've gotten better because most devolve into whining about monetization or how "buggy" the game is. At least the tf2 subreddit has a bunch of silly clips.

It makes me sad to see the median/average tf2 fan is someone who has never seen a major update, and just parrots whatever dumb takes youtubers have to say. Also holy crap the discouse for the paid engie tauntkill was insane.

Oh well, at least I can hopefully farm them if they're on the enemy team (they will be put onto my team instead am I right gamers?).

Also my main pyro loadout lately has been backburner thermal thruster backscratcher. If the enemy team or map isn't suited for it, I just run stock panic attack and a filler melee (homewrecker/hot hand/third degree) since I have grown tired of the powerjack and suck with axtinguisher. I need my pyro players to learn how strong flamethrower afterburn is against Vaccinator PLEASE.

On 8/25/2024 at 4:35 PM, hugthebed2 said:

this game is powerful 

 

a bit of the charm has died with it going fully public though...

 

No longer will I be able to recognize 80% of the people I fight against in the top MMR brackets.

I basically quit the game for many months for a multitude of reasons (burnout, friends stopped, and I was afraid of running into certain players in matchmaking) but got back into it in the last couple months. I find it crazy seeing my dumb rank in-game (they assigned ranks to everyone in their matchmaker) that I'm better than 98% of players based on someones estimated rank distributions . Absolutely crazy because I often feel so much worse compared to the players in the best lobbies (depending on conditions).

Seriously, is it because of my unique gaming skillset of TF2, CS (kinda), and Smite that I can just demolish people in lower lobbies if I play my mains? I never grind ranked in video games literally ever but dang I must be pretty good...

I ought to make some music playlists on my phone for different occasions. 

Playlist of songs I can play with mom in car.

Playlist for friends.

Playlist for self.

I was cursed to have such a narrow music taste growing up, and I'm too afraid to share what I like with others.

my fuwamoco tshirt is pretty fire tbh

Wild

2 hours ago, Gyokuyoutama said:

I've seen like five different places in the last week use the term "crash out" to mean something like "have a meltdown."

 

This isn't really me bitching about new slang, since it's going to do what it's going to do.  It's more just befuddlement that I've never seen this term before and now it seems to be fairly common, at least online.  Literally like it sprang into existence fully formed on Monday.

 

After a more extensive search, I still couldn't find anyone using it before November of last year.  But if it is that new there should be some obvious origin from it rather than people just using it out of nowhere like they were programmed to do so....

 

...it's a TikTok thing, isn't it?

When I first started hearing it during the Deadlock Playtest in December, I assumed it was some Deadlock-specific term. I was pretty disappointed when I learned it was just some flavor of the quarter phrase.

Unfortunately because Payload Race has no cart retreating I feel like rollback points are the only way to have defendable areas that can't be conquered with chipping away at the cart progress.

Hightower's tower is just way too long though. It's funny that nothing makes people defend more than someone trying to cap on hightower.

Despite Thundermountain having occasional interesting gameplay, the incredibly long setup times and gigantic sniper problem and need for advanced mobility to get anywhere finally killed it for me.

Also Upward last is definitely rough but I really think its biggest issue is that snipers are hard to see with all the shadows. Also it's way too easy for red to Über in and destroy blue's base.