hugthebed2

I always wanted to play a Pikmin game, but never could, so I was very happy when it was announced, and thus Pikmin 3 Deluxe was my first one. From what I understand, it's less of a huge bombastic expansion on the previous game like the 2nd one was to the 1st, and more of a return to form that anyone could play without previous knowledge or experience. Something I really appreciated was how smart the Pikmin AI was -- like 90% of the time doing exactly what I meant it to do -- and how many tiny QoL things there were. Like for instance, if you're spamming throw, then captains and bomb rocks will get skipped so that you don't throw your captains into danger or kill your entire army of Pikmin with a bomb. Or how if a Pikmin is working and you whistle them, instead of coming straight over, they'll sort of stop and look at you; if you whistle them twice or whistle them once for long they'll get the message and stop what they're doing. All sorts of tiny things like that made the gameplay feel very smooth, smart, and refined.
 
The campaign was very fun the whole way through but I did find myself yearning for some more challenge in combat, even on Hard, which is why I'm gonna 100% it on Ultra-Spicy. All the Mission Mode levels were super fucking challenging though to get platinum on and they were very fun. The prologue Side Story was pretty short and basic and didn't give me high hopes, but then the epilogue was actually way longer and had some really cool objectives and gameplay twists; I liked it a lot. I really want to play the 1st and 2nd games someday; it'd be awesome if Nintendo didn't do away with Virtual Console on the Switch, but that's not the case, so it looks like I'm getting a Wii.

Games today are separated into four categories or so, and I've found people generally can only take on 2 at a time. The categories I can really think of are:
 
1. Live Service games. This includes battle royales, MOBAs, and MMOS. They generally have a battle pass, take up a majority of time. Played by people all the time but are generally not talked about, take up a large chunk of gaming time for a lot. Some play these as their default, and often feel like these games are "crack" and play it even if they hate them.
2. Fad games. The games played by online influencers, currently would be Among Us and Phasmaphobia in my recent memory. I think Call of Duty falls into here too. Really don't take up a lot of time for more than a month at most.
3.  "Completable" multiplayer games. Thinking stuff like minecraft, terraria, factorio, monster hunter worlds (is this an mmo?). Kinda replaces live service games for a lot of people, as you can dedicate a lot of time into these for weeks at a time, but you eventually complete a session. 
4. Dense singleplayer experiences. An unsustainable source of gaming, but people make time for if a game is good enough.
Exceptions would be stuff like counter-strike, l4d2, old games with dedicated community servers.
 
I write this up to ask, what games are y'all dedicating your time to right now? I only really play 4 games right now. SMITE, Apex Legends, Final Fantasy XIV, and a little bit of L4D2. My steam "recently played" list is honestly pretty sad compared to the past.
 

 
If I wasn't forced onto being the head admin of a Left 4 Dead 2 league, I probably would've dropped that after the week of the Last Stand update. Talking to the community update team has been fun though.

Greetings my SPUFFriends! It’s me, LordCOVID Monkey! I know I’ve been gone for a while, but believe me, I have a good reason. As we all know, there’s been a lot of craziness in the world, what with the pandemic, and I, a responsible citizen, have done my duty of social distancing. As a matter of fact, I socially distanced myself so far that I didn’t have an internet connection. Thankfully, I was able to upgrade to 5G, and now I’m able to come to you today to present an all new TF2 Halloween update idea! Wowie zowie, I sure can’t wait! 
 
A little disclaimer before we begin. I chose to pick the low hanging fruit for this year’s Halloween Update. What I mean, of course, is that we’ll be bringing the pandemic to TF2! Afterall, nothing is scarier than a widespread virus. (other than spiders) So let’s see how everyone’s favorite mercenaries handle the situation in this exciting new content. But as I always say, before the CONtent comes the CONtext!
 

Wowie, this update is going to be... sick!
 
 
Tl;dr version, the mercs all contract a deadly disease from a bunch of sick crows controlled by some plague doctor guy
 
Uh oh! Our favorite mercenaries have all gotten sick! This is a disastrous and most terrifying thing indeed. But it’s ok, because our mercenaries are HEROES and they’re also FIGHTERS, so they’ll be just fine. But their first order of business is to kick this crow guy’s ass. But who is this crow guy? Why, he’s the criminal master mind, Doctor CORVID-19. His evil goal is to use fear to keep everyone at home, so he can go out and about and use his army of crows to steal all the most valuable items in the world, such as diamonds and toilet paper, without any resistance!
 
Our exciting new game-mode takes us to a new map, plr_quarrytine, where our mercs must battle it out against the other team in order to deliver the new vaccine that the Medic has created (the payload cart) to the giant syringe (final capture zone) located on the other side of the map. The team who makes it to the end goal first wins the round and also a Nobel Peace Prize because they cured a whole pandemic.
 
Well, that sounds pretty boring and simple, doesn’t it? You’d be right, if it weren’t for all the wacky Halloweeny things you’d find in this map! The first, most obvious one is that every now and then, Doctor CORVID-19 will spawn, serving as this year’s Halloween boss. He’d have many devastating and deadly attacks that are sure to send the mercs social distancing to another server out of frustration! One such attack would be unleashing a swarm of crows that’ll peck you to death, another would be slapping you with his Infection Stick that’ll cause you to bleed to death unless you receive medical attention! One other attack to note would be throwing highly dangerous, highly explosive, and highly explosive VIRUS BOMBS! When he spawns, the payload carts will be halted and may not be moved again until he is defeated! But just when you think he’s finally be gone, he’ll come back in an even more deadly and infectious second wave! OH NO!
 

"I am about to social distance you mercenaries six feet down under!" -Doctor  CORVID-19
 
He’s a real deadly boss, but even more deadly would be the universal changes we could expect to see in this update. Yes, all these changes I am about to list below will be applied to ALL EXISTING MAPS AND GAMEMODES! These are changes to encourage social distancing within the world of TF2 to encourage people in real life to be safe, because we all know that the mercs are very good influences!

 
 
And with an exciting new update, we can expect exciting new weapons, right? RIGHT! So let’s have a lookie at what we can expect.
 
 
And so, that’ll be it for today’s EXTRA SPOOKY Halloween update! I must apologize for it being later than I had hoped, but this monkey has been a busy-bee, and Halloween has snuck up on me like the mud-man from the scariest swamp! Anyway, that’s all! Have a happy Halloween, and I’ll see ya’ll next time. But until then, this is LordCOVID Monkey, signing out!
 

I couldn't find any pictures of sick crows... so just use your imagination, ok?
 

I wish I had something to say, because complaining is always entertaining, but the truth is that I don't really mind Steve in Smash these days! There's no denying how big Minecraft is, so it totally deserves to be represented in some way. The only thing I can really complain about is how I find him to be kind of an ugly character... and more importantly the fact that he isn't Poochy.
 
But truth be told, I'm looking forward to his inclusion much more than any of the DLC characters we've gotten so far. He looks pretty neat and is like, the only one who I really gave any rat's ass about at all before they were revealed, even if my thoughts on him were overall negative. Not that I don't like any of the other DLC dudes. They're cool too, I guess, and all brought a fun new universe and unique concepts to the table. Except Byleth.
 
(Also, totally unrelated but the reason I haven't posted in so long is because I forgot my password and was too damn lazy to try to recover it. I'll try and get around to posting more 100% real Smash leaks and soulless tier lists now that I'm back. And hopefully a spooky TF2 update sometime soon.)

Every piece of information that comes out regarding the L4D2 community update in a week makes me extremely excited. As someone who spent 200+ hours fixing up the maps, seeing the tools that I will have access to in the future is extremely awesome.

moshi moshi virus desu

https://twitter.com/sgmobile/status/1294347711983030276
 
 

Act III W H E N
I do love Light Up the Night, but this is their actual best jam.
 

I've always been a firm believer in using the disciplinary action over the escape plan. Being able to whip a teammate and then go into a fight with a few seconds of speed can give you the opening edge in a fight.
 
I agree with you that there aren't really any weapons that scream out "I'm overpowered!" whenever I play. Though I'm still sad about some of the weapons that are underpowered.
 
The Dragon's Fury  got over-nerfed for sure in the Blue Moon Update. I heard it best from someone else that requiring hitscan-level-accuracy on a projectile-based weapon (you have to hit center of mass to get the extra pressure cooldown) is just extremely annoying. As it stands now you're better off using the Phlog if you want high damage with weak/no airblast.
 
The Fists of Steel are also kind of annoying because they way they implemented it's nerf is actually broken, and the reduced healing gained only applies if a medi-beam is attached to you while you have the fists out, so if a medic starts healing you when you have your minigun out and you later swap to the fists of steel, then the nerf doesn't even exist as long as the medic doesn't break the beam. In the same vein, if a medic starts healing you when you have the FoS out, then you'll be stuck at 390 overheal (if you swap to the minigun in this state, the medic gains max Uber rate as long as he doesn't break the beam, so heavy is the best Uber builder).
The second part of the FoS nerf was the slower holster speed, but that doesn't matter because you can just swap from FoS to sandvich to minigun and only add like 0.01 extra seconds to your switching time. The one exception is when your sandvich is on cooldown.
 
Also apparently a hot take is that the ambassador nerf isn't even that bad. It removed some fun from the weapon but where it really shined was 102 burst damage which can kill any light class if you hit the headshot and butterknife them. People compares its DPS too much to the stock revolver even though it should be a discussion about burst damage.
 
Regardless of my qualms, I still think the game is fine weapon wise. I am an Iron Curtain purist (die tomislav heavies).

Also lol at how blk_mage's post in the video is the longest and most rambling.

A blast from the past I found: 
 
 
(There I am!)

https://datastudio.google.com/u/0/reporting/1WSF8Apsintie0ZKPo9avN9rEODR8JgBR/page/QPwWB
 
Hollar hollar get dollar

I like how upbeat this song is.
 
Re: Out of Touch, I honestly never expected that to be something that blew up on twitter months after I first saw it.

At long last! Inspired by Lord Valor's cool pirate outfit, I decided to make pirate outfits for the rest of his underlings. Something about a bunch of knights wearing pirate gear is really conceptually pleasing to me:
 
Knight puts on a red polkadot bandanna, torn (and slightly too small) red striped shirt, and black boots; basic swabbie look, fitting for him:

 
Might puts on a tricorne, one of those frilly neck things, black boots with folded cuffs, and a comically large, stretched out belt to emphasis his greatest asset:

 
Height gets a green bandana with a neat little knot, and to emphasize his long legs, big pantaloons with a big strap belt, as well as spring-loaded peg legs instead of his spring shoes. Don't worry, they're only cosmetic!

 
Flight gets a complimentary orange version of Knight's outfit under his normal clothes, seeing as he's just a normal Knight with fancy clothes and a helipack (and technically a differently-shaped faceguard to resemble an oxygen mask). I'm pleasantly surprised with how this one turned out, since I really didn't want to take away his identifying pilot clothes:

 
Bite wears a tied red sash and skull-shaped knee/elbow pads, a peg leg (it doesn't impede his leaping ability, I swear), and a gold tooth for extra stylish chomps:

 
Bight gets the same, minus the pads since he doesn't wear any, and plus a rope strap and sheathed knife. Since he's an underwater enemy with a big teeth-shaped faceguard, I originally wanted him to hold the knife in his mouth like pirates are often depicted doing, but it couldn't work out:

 
Airtight swaps his trident for a harpoon, and wears a torn naval officer's uniform with a medal and folded epaulets. The starfish also moves from his head to his hat, and some seaweed is thrown in too. I've always thought Airtight was really mysterious and eerie looking (he's the only enemy with his face fully covered, and I imagine all the cyan parts emit an eerie glow), and since he's an underwater enemy too I went for sort of a sunken/ghost pirate feel:

 
Ignite, inspired by his already barrel-shaped design, puts on a barrel full of explosives. Does the XXX mean it's alcohol? Maybe. Is alcohol still flammable or explosive? Yes:

 
Subnite does the same, with his own deep teal-colored barrel of explosives. Originally I had him wear an oil drum, which, while not exactly "pirate" I felt was associated with water enough, but I scrapped it because the colors never complimented his own, and like I said, it wasn't exactly "pirate":

 
Fright wears a black bandanna, a black striped shirt, maroon vest, and belt. He also gets two hooks for hands (again, purely cosmetic, don't worry!) which oughta make him a bit more frightening when he's chasing around with his arms outstretched. I'm really happy how the emphasis on his cylindrical shape came out; he's very cylinder-shaped, since he has to fit into holes in the ground to pop out from:
 
 
Sight loses an eye and a hand (he's still got his good ones though!), mounts a telescope on his musket, gets a brown glove and brown cavalier boots with folded cuffs to replace his black ones, and a fancy feathered cavalier hat to match:

 
Bonus! My rendition of the Ball and Chain Soldier from Link's Awakening DX. Unrelated to the above, just always thought this was a cool enemy and I've always imagined him looking cool, so I wanted to draw him:

 
From humble beginnings:

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I'm very glad this project is finally finished! Trust me, I'm as tired of reference poses as you are! But I refuse to draw any new character or outfit without first having a proper reference -- it's the absolute most important drawing. But, these should be the last references I'm drawing for the foreseeable future, and any that I may do DEFINITELY won't be huge batches like these. I'm very eager to draw things with a bit more substance now that this is finished, flex my background skills and whatnot. Already got a few drawing ideas loaded up!

Working from home is the worst idea ever created in the history of mankind.

Get to know them better! With fun and tasteful backgrounds, too:
 

 

 

 

Lord Valor's back with a slightly new, slightly more menacing appearance:

 
His captain costume in all its glory:

 
...And wielding his Handcannon, a weapon befitting a pirate captain:

 
Projection of the Handcannon itself (minus the sight cause it looks weird on a projection like this):

 
These were really fun to draw, and I learned a lot drawing them too what with the 3/4ths perspective. The captain coat and the Handcannon were real challenges, but I learned the valuable lesson that, if you are drawing something comprised of both organic and inorganic shapes on a perspective like this, do not start with the organic ones.

Titanfall 2 because goddammit more people need to be playing it.
 
Honorable mention goes to Overwatch for reminding me that competitive gaming is, and always will be, cancer.

One thing is eternally constant. I will at least once a month get to a point here I stay up to an absurd time with the end of it being Mario Maker 2 videos of family friendly youtubers I normally wouldn't like.