Welcoem to posts!!
in the future - u will be able to do some more stuff here,,,!! like pat catgirl- i mean um yeah... for now u can only see others's posts :c
Hello all. Quick update on where we're at, since I've been radio silent for a skosh.
I apologize for that silence, by the way. I've been very busy between entertaining out-of-state family for a week during thanksgiving, an early Christmas party due to scheduling (and I baked... I think four pies? Plus some banana puddings, I am the designated banana pudding maker in my family), to say nothing of my theatrical obligations. I volunteered to be in a live radio play performance of It's a Wonderful Life, where I did some sounds and a decent amount of the supporting male parts. Our showing unfortunately wasn't recorded, but there are plenty of recordings of it on YouTube, if you have any interest. It's certainly a novel way to re-experience a Christmas classic if you haven't had the pleasure.
Which isn't to say I haven't been doing anything channel-side, though! I've been writing in my spare time, and I currently have a couple of scripts waiting for footage, with two more ideas percolating (but nothing solid yet). My first video back (or what I hope will be...) is VERY footage intensive, so I've been "gathering" (playing games) for that in whatever spare time I have. Hopefully you won't have to wait too long to see it! I'm also planning on restructuring the Patreon so the tiers are a bit different from here on, so if you have interest in seeing videos early, reading smaller essays I make that I can't really turn into videos, or whatever else, I encourage you to give it a looky (link is in my channel description).
TL; DR: I've been very busy with societal and holiday obligations for the past month, but I've been writing, and I'm getting back in the saddle soon after Christmas. I look forward to speaking with y'all again soon! And if you celebrate, Happy/Merry/Cordial <Insert Holiday Here>!
110 - 6
In my most recent video, I talk at length about Girls Band Cry, noting that despite the show being great, it didn't perform very well in English territories due to releasing on some odd platforms.
Well... days before the video was finally released, it was announced that Girls Band Cry would be streaming on Crunchyroll. So, although it's a full season out of alignment with its original release, it will soon be possible to watch Girls Band Cry in a much more normal location, starting November 6th on Crunchyroll. I hope y'all take the time to watch it, cause it's a great show, and also, of course, see what I have to say about it, cause god that show cooked.
63 - 1
So. I've finished writing the script for my next video... and it's big. The page count is over two times the length of any video I've made previously, meaning this is about to be the longest thing I've ever made. Recording the voiceover today, footage collection on Friday, and a LOT of editing for the intervening weeks. I am going to be writing some other things in the background, so I can release videos at a quicker clip after this MONSTER comes out, but I'm saying all of this publicly to note:
The next thing I'm gonna make is gonna be very big. Big takes time to produce, so you won't be hearing from me for a while. I promise I'm not dead. I promise I'm working. If you'd like smaller writings or more consistent updates, my Patreon has those things. Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you sooner rather than later.
217 - 5
Hey everybody! The second half of my wild podcast journey just released, where I was asked to guest on Castaway Anime and watch, no joke, 37 different pilot episodes of anime. Maybe more? I dunno, some of them are a blur.
The first episode focused a lot on fantasy/isekai and some of the perceived highlights of the season before we started. This second episode has more romance, slice of life, and the shows that were seen as standouts AFTER some of the dust has settled (like with the deer girl show... who coulda saw that going off?). Since this features more romance and slice of life... I'm a lot more talkative and opinionated in this portion, so make sure to give this (and the first part!!) a listen/looky. Juuuust a quick 7 hours to hear what we think about all these season's new anime. Who knows? You may find something great you wouldn't have tried otherwise!
24 - 2
Hey gang, got a question for ya that loosely ties into the next video I'm working on (working as a teaser AND a genuine question)!
Is there a game that you've found yourself returning to again and again over the years? What game would that be? What draws you back to it, and how long has it been since you've last "gone around the bend?"
For me, for the longest time it was Mass Effect 2. I have, no joke, beaten that game over 15 times, though I did most of that when I was a child and I was simply bumrushing the story to play the shooting. I was crazy for cover shooters when they were popular; I would probably still play them now, honestly.
So yeah, what are your Ol' Faithfuls? And have any been dethroned in recent years? Would love to hear what your die-hard titles are!
102 - 110
An image I made for my upcoming video. Take my evil cat into the world and wreak havoc.
Yes, this will be a sillier video.
101 - 3
So, I think itâs important to note up front that the type of person yâall see in my videos and the type of person that I am are two different people. Parasocial relationships and whatnot.
My content on this channel has been overwhelmingly positive and recommendation heavy, in an attempt to both bring a lot of positivity to a tumultuous medium, as well as because sometimes itâs nice to just look at the bright side of things. But this can be to the detriment of the greater context of a topic, like if I were to talk about how interesting the setting and design of Darkest Dungeon is without telling you that itâs a grindfest slog that punishes you severely as a consequence of its design. If I were to just leave that out, some people would feel tricked by what Iâve written, and thatâs obviously no bueno, right?
If thatâs the case, then⌠how is the greater games industry different? Can I really just go on talking about how great video games are when the people who made them are burning the candle at both ends and being laid off in the thousands? About to reach over 10,000, and weâre not even halfway through the year? It feels neglectful and disrespectful to talk about how great video games are while the foundation of the industry is rotting under our feet.
As of two days ago, on May 7th of 2024, Microsoft committed what may be the ugliest of these layoffs by shuttering three of Bethesdaâs studios, and relegating the fourth to live-action support status for the foreseeable future. Arkane Austin was one of two studios in the greater Arkane Studios ecosystem, and helped with Dishonored before making the likes of Prey, and the unfortunate Redfall in recent times. Tango Gameworks made The Evil Within series, which I greatly enjoy, to say nothing of the breakout hit of Hi-Fi Rush, a game which we were told was successful. Profitable. Regardless of profit, it was a critical darling, winning many awards, including the BAFTA, or as I call it, one-of-the-only-game-awards-that-really-matters. The other two arenât covered as much, but Roundhouse Studios made the original Prey, and now theyâre folded into TES: Onlineâs ecosystem, and Alpha Dog made a couple of mobile games. I find it darkly humorous that any studio that touched the Prey IP now doesnât exist.
I know intellectually why this is happening. During the COVID years, everyone was inside. Games and screens represented your only real third space, so everyone flocked to the tech industry to keep sane. Profits blossomed, and loads of investment went into the market. But then⌠things returned to a version of normal, and people went back to work, kids back to school, and the computer and console returned to their typical place in our lives. The bubble had burst, but as with all things in love and Capital, the money people wanted the growth to continue, and they simply Could Not Have Seen This Coming. Now weâre in free-fall; investors are drying up, everyone is becoming more (economically) conservative, and somehow we need to maintain good numbers for our precious stock holders. So we cut. These are the facts of the case, we could say; but emotionally, I donât think this makes this time any less cruel.
The reason why this particular set of closures and layoffs feels so damming is because it happened to Arkane and Tango. Arkane, who historically made loads of wonderful immersive sims and brought a new generation of gamers (including me) into the fold of Immersive Sims with the likes of Dishonored and Prey, is now at half strength. Redfall doesnât even represent what Arkane Austin was good at, they made IMMERSIVE SIMS, not Live-Service co-op shooters, for Christâs sake. I wonder why they wouldâve pivoted towards making that type of game (sarcasm).
And fucking Tango. Say what you will about The Evil Within, it was an odd series, and Iâm not sure if any of those games were successful. But Hi-Fi Rush was beloved, so soon after its release. It was well received, and according to Microsoft, it was financially successful. So why? Why close Tango? And from the devâs perspective, why make video games? Why work for anyone else, when even your greatest achievements arenât good enough for the higher-ups? If a success like Hi-Fi Rush isnât enough to keep your âbettersâ from shutting your doors, why would anyone work for Microsoft. Why would anyone feel safe to try something new?
Microsoft has existed in this content desert since the Xbox One, and I cannot see how this decision solves their problems. A studio with historical talent, and a studio fresh off their big success are both cut in the process of pitching new games. According to Bloomberg, Tango was pitching a sequel to Hi-Fi, and Arkane was pitching, if you could believe it, an immersive sim. But despite current and past successes, Microsoft dare not let them cook. I find that infuriating.
Underlying all of these layoffs, for me at least, is a fear for the future of published video games. I donât imagine thisâll come as a shock, but games take time, money, and people to make. From pitch to finished product, published games take two to five years to release, and killing these studios now represents a dearth of new games in the following years, to say nothing of the loss in talent. Studios filled with institutional knowledge about their niche? Seniors to advise up-and-comers? Thatâs all gone too, and with investment being the way it is, itâs not like these displaced employees can make their own studios. This is talent that is either on its way to the indie space, or much more likely, gone. I wouldnât stick around for an industry this hostile to me either.
I understand that we are entering a tight period; Iâve stated multiple times that thereâs a lack of new investment, and budgets have to be slashed everywhere. But cutting the studios, cutting developers? The very people responsible for making the product that pays the bills? It doesnât make sense to me, and cutting Tango Gameworks even less so. Microsoft is shooting itself in the foot, ass, and head by cutting the talent it bought for 7.5 billion dollars, and I donât imagine theyâll fix their no-games issue by cutting the people who make those games. I have similar fears for the rest of the industry.
If you want to read more, here is an opinion piece by Chris Tapsell over at Eurogamer detailing Xboxâs decision and history of decision making, and his thoughts on this mess. You can find other less subjective articles linked within for further insight, but his anger at this moment reflects my own, so it was cathartic for me to read, and perhaps it will be for you too.
www.eurogamer.net/what-is-the-point-of-xbox
EDIT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZM8Bd...
248 - 14
Howdy and hello, Superdude here informing you that I am RAPIDLY approaching 50k subscribers... so fast that just like the last time I did one of these, I am woefully unprepared to do anything spectacular in terms of editing or anything like that. Soooo I thought I'd do a Q&A of sorts for you guys.
Feel free to leave a comment asking me anything on any subject, assuming of course that I WANT to answer the question. Questions on my process, opinions on various media I haven't talked about, some mysterious and evil third thing; feel free to ask, and I will answer (in video form) hopefully soon! :)
Also, if you ask the question on patreon, I am more likely to answer it, so there's an incentive, I suppose. Thanks for your questions and/or interest!
91 - 15
Geoff Keighley's crawling out of his hole to throw more game commercials at us! The Game Awards is three weeks away, and y'all can vote for your own choices here. thegameawards.com/
It's been a pretty stacked year for games, so I'm wondering what you guys think is 2023's Game of the Year (and yes, this does pertain to my next video)? The options are taken straight from Game Awards, but feel free to grab others if you think they're more worthy. I barely consider Game Awards credible anyway, so it's not like they're the authority on the matter. Go nuts with it.
41 - 27
Those of you who watched to the end of the last vid know I was playing Alan Wake 1 in preparation for Alan Wake 2. Well, I started AW2 yesterday and it is SO GOOD. It's actually scary (unlike AW1), and the lighting is genuinely stunning; my fiancee and I were just staring at this point in chapter 2 like, "How did they do that." It's genuinely good.
I will most likely be making a video in the coming months synthesizing (maybe Max Payne?) Alan Wake and Control so anyone who isn't caught up has a quick place to get caught up, cause this game is very pretty, and if you're invested in Alan Wake, it does NOT disappoint (in the early game, we'll see from here).
73 - 3
Saying what I'm thinking, but putting more effort into it.