With the rumored story details of Mass Effect Universe, and Edgerunners Season 2, it's been fun seeing what the creative team had to come up with to allow the story to flow after a game in which the players can radically change the geopolitical landscape of their world.

Mass Effect Universe, in theory, would have a time jump to justify the galaxy eventually getting to the point they wanted to, avoiding directly trying to tell a story after Mass Effect 3, while also returning to the Milky way, unlike Andromeda.

Edgerunners 2 is set in 2078, but the anime avoids saying anything concrete about the events of 2077. Arasaka took a big hit, from David Martinez to whatever you did in the game, which can be the big heist, the meddling mid-campaing or killing Adam Smasher, a condition that was more possible of getting it, but became more easily avoidable with the new content added in Phantom Liberty.

I will give no context for this and neither will you(unless you know you spoiler it).

Anyways from this is from the Jojos anime, Steel Ball Run. Though I kinda get it, I also wouldn't know how to react if that happend to me.

Being and Becoming will be released in 2027 for PC, Xbox, PS5, and Nintendo Switch.

I remember way back when I was youngin' I was watching one of the Paranormal Activity movies, I think it was the third one?

I'm not sure, but there's a scene the babysitter just does like a jumpscare to scare the houseowners, she basically goes BOO! to the camera just to troll the people who put the cameras there.

It was a cheap shot, but I have this vivid memory of like in the movie theater someone saw that jumspcare and yelled "YOU MOTHERFUCKER!!!"

Like really loudly after the troll jumpscare.

In a private setting, this would just be a cheap jumpscare, but watching in theaters, it was a hilarious experience, seeing someone react so strongly to the jumpscare to yell "MOTHERFUCKER!" that kind of made everyone's day, it was so oddly fitting for that cheap jumpscare.

The person who yelled probably doesn't remember, but it stuck in my mind because it was so funny it made the entire theater laugh.

Couldn't find any alternate links to share besides Twitter; I hope their user tag will suffice.

Hey better ask reddit, this post is inspired by two things I got to within the same week that made me go "Huh... that's lame." Going to have to spoiler out these since they're both relatively new.

Example A: Street Fighter (2026):Given how the actual game ends, I really thought they were going to have the cast struggle against Bison, only for Akuma to show up and be the real problem. Then have them tease Bison coming back in a new body in the sequel. But I guess to be subversive or something, instead we got this weird "We have to go ... save Akuma?" damsel ending. That feels weird. It feels weird that Akuma lost so easily. It's weird he got caught by Bison. It's weird the stinger is "Hey we didn't forget Sagat." Again, given the way the game ends, I can't tell if they were trying to subvert expectations, but it feels much less cool than if Akuma showed up and immediately killed Bison and it became "Everyone vs Akuma" just to drive him off, while maybe simultaneously dealing with Satsui-No-Hado Ryu in like a three way climactic fight between Chun-li and Ken fighting together against, Ryu, and Akuma.

Example B: Onimusha:Way of the Sword:So... Okuni's friend, Hina. They spend the whole lab segment foreshadowing she's going to end up some kind of Chimera experiment. They setup that the Nue are one of those experiments. They show a flashback of her tendons being cut and how she despairs no longer being able to dance. Then one of her basically giving herself over to some tigers in despair, right before you fight a pair of Nue. Then you get to the Greater Nue, the real boss of the area... and it stands up, much to Musashi's surprise as the other Nue couldn't stand on two legs... Hey, you kill the Greater Nue... turns out Hina's been made into an unrelated tentacle monster. It seemed so fucking obvious that the Greater Nue's phase two would have had it stand up and move like a dancer, and it clicks that "Oh shit! Hina's been turned into the Greater Nue!" Nope, instead she's some random new mob-type enemy. I couldn't believe it. It felt like the most obvious reveal that would have been a sick boss fight. You would go from fighting basically a wild tiger in phase one, to this graceful dancer of a beast in Phase two, and the reveal would be entirely through gameplay. It blows my mind they didn't go the infinitely cooler route that seemed super obvious.

Anyway, thinly disguised excuse to rant about recent media aside, any other interesting examples of authors/writers/media makers seemingly going out of their way to choose a worse/less interesting option?

From Star Wars, Colicoid Creation Nest also known as: Colicoid Creations , is such a fun title.

They're a surprisingly minorly involved corporate group that mostly sided with the Separatist Systems, made up mostly of big bugish aliens that sort of resemble Sebulba, built some of their most dangerous and useful warmachines like: the Droideka, the Sniper Droid built on the base of the former, the Tri-Fighters, the Tridents, kraken shaped sea assault ship droids and the big Turret Droids.

It's that time of year once again.

Welcome. This is a sister thread to last month's Bi-Monthly LFG thread I made. Essentially this month, and every month after an LFG thread, instead of looking for gamers, we're now hopefully discussion the results of that LFG and other Tabletop games ya'll have been apart of for the month just for fun (you are free to ask for people to join games or to look for games of your preference of course, I ain't stopping you).

This month I shall describe the fact that the group I formed here is well on it's way to a Season Finale, where-in I temporarily unlock enhanced moves for everyone, since Season Finales are always reserved for when shit goes fucking crazy. They're fighting a Mountain, which of course is filled with all the dangers they have fought until now. Aliens. Cryptids. Magic. Explosions. They will have to use every skill in the book to try and defeat this thing, else the town is doomed.

As well as that, occasionally when certain players are unavailable we've started a couple new side campaigns. Such as my Bloodborne game, where-in they defeated a monster inspired by Bloodborne Kart on a horseracing track (designed after Lilith "Bunlith" Walther, with her permission as well as her really liking the design I commissioned from another artist when I showed it off in her server).

And tonight.

Shadow Wizard Money Gang vs. Dracula Flow 3 ft. WEEN

Anyways it's Halloween again next week. Any tabletop plans for ya'll?

There's been some pretty incredible mods released the last few weeks for both new and old releases, so I felt it warranted a thread to bring more awareness, and maybe share some I haven't discovered.

Goes without saying, but SFW suggestions only (or put a warning if it's something besides a nude mod) and preferably keep the debates on what "tools" used to make the mods on the down-low.

Some notable recommendations on my end:

1. Tales of Symphonia Finally Gets a Working 60 fps Mod: Does exactly what it advertises, no notes. Works perfectly even in a beta and adds some other nice additions that don't break the game at all. I've always wanted to go through the game to completion (only ever got through the "game opens up" part from the GC version), so finally there's an ideal way to do it.

2. Castlevania Belmont's Curse Realtime Weapon+Arcana Switching: Also works as advertised and feels like one of those "should've been in the actual game" mods. Only downside is that I wish there were more options besides sacrificing the d-pad or right analog: if there was an activator like "hold button to bring up weapon wheel" while keeping both inputs, then it would be perfect.

3. Adding to the above, there's also a recently released Outfit Switcher that let's you change skins on the fly. I can't tell you how much I adore mods that let you swap community created outfits within the game itself. The Dresscode mod for FFVII Rebirth alone is one of the greatest technical achievements I've ever seen, refined perfectly to coincide with celebrating the wedding of everyone's favorite couple. If only someone could get this working with Street Fighter 6.

4. Beardmo's Immersive World (The Witcher 3 Remastered): I've seen Beardmo tinkering with this in the Discord, and it's really impressive how quickly they update this. It's a simple concept, just having grass react more realistically to wind and character interactions, but it's cool as hell to look at.

5. Final Fantasy Resonance just released, but modders have been actively working on it since the demo. The awesome thing about Brave Exvius is how there are tons of unused Visions that can be slotted into the game, Ariana Grande included. Plus a bunch of other smile niceties like hiding quest markers, FFVI-style font replacements, and so on.

And also, a special shout out and infinite thanks for the modders who continue to let us skip the logos and boot right into the game. Extra special thanks for those who manage to have the game auto-load your last save right when you boot up.

Read a bit about the yuzan vong in star wars and how they were obliterated from cannon in the new lore (partially because they made the death star “somewhat” justified) and I wonder if anyone has any similar examples

So I've been thinking about Mass Effect Andromeda a lot today.

I think because the last official thing we got for Mass Effect before Bioware's closure was a trailer back in the Milky Way where you could see Angara walking around.

And I just keep thinking back on my playthroughs of the game like. . . there are a lot of REALLY cool ideas and characters in that game.

The Angara were cool as a new alien species. Bunny Cobra people with a fun religion and culture, sexy voices, with cool representatives you could meet and interact with like Jaal and the Monshae and the Gruff Resistance Leader.

The Kett were really interesting to me as a kind of Organic version of the Reapers, A Eugenicist Empire who maintain client species to harvest DNA from because their own Genes have become unable to be traditionally passed down, and how they have formed a whole Eugenics religion out of converting other species into their own in a Ascension ritual, and weird powers that differ from everyone in the Milky Way galaxy because of how biological they all are from galaxies without Element Zero.

How the Precurser race of Andromeda made the Angara before vanishing with only their ruins and the Dark Energy Cloud left as proof of their existence.

Varied Environments, power struggles between the Colonial Ark Pathfinders and "Council" of already established colonies, A power struggle where you have to choose between a Human pirate or a local angara backed by what may one day become similar to the Shadow Broker.

The Combat when fully upgraded is fun.

I liked how your Ryder's personality profile actually changed how companions reacted to you and how you acted in cutscenes. (I liked the Professional and Emotional combo).

The Kett have a genuinely fun design where you can see the results of the Ascension process on the local wildlife and compare the altered and unaltered forms.

Even the companions I liked. Vetra is one of the best companions in the setting, Jaal is like a cooler Garrus, Drack is the Krogan Grandpa we've always wanted, and I honestly liked our non-Squad members of the Tempest more than I ever liked Joker. Especially Kallo , Suvi, and Lexi.

There was so much cool and genuinely good about it.

So why did the game as a cohesive whole feel like it fell flat? What was missing or what could have been changed to make it all come together to a proper 8 out of 10 Mass Effect game instead of a 6 or 7?

https://bsky.app/profile/kujikawaii.bsky.social/post/3mymufz5vk22u

Odd question, and just a heads up but I'm gonna be talking about Harry Potter really quick. I've seen a lot of threads about how Snape's story is not romantic, and that he himself is a bully and a bigot who never got over a single girl and made it everyone else's problem. But despite this, he still has fans, and I think that ties back into a saying I've had:

"You don't like Severus Snape, you like Alan Rickman." An extension of my old theory about how most Harry Hermione shippers are really just Radcliffe/Watson fans, but in this case, I think the films played a vital part in how Snape was viewed by the fandom.

For time of course, the films cut out a LOT of Snape's worst impulses and moments of cruelty from the book. Which I think helped with downplaying how bad he was in the eyes of people who only saw the films, never the books. But I think another part of it had to do with Alan Rickman himself.

I'm not trying to blame Rickman, far from it-the man was a legendary actor and a personal favorite of mine. But I think he just brought way too much charisma to Snape as a figure, his remarks became less cruel and more dry, sharp wit. I think his charisma had an effect that warped how a lot of people saw the character.

This got me interested in other phenomena where an actor being far too good was actually a DETRIMENT to the overall story. Whether it's a snape situation, or people liking Cristoph Waltz a little too much in Inglorious Basterds. What are some times where an actor being likable led to the audience getting the wrong impression of a story or character?

"...and Cancel Christmas!"

A24’s Elden Ring adaptation is reportedly its most expensive film to date, with a nearly $200 million budget and a planned 2028 release. A24’s previous most expensive release was Marty Supreme, with a budget of around $70 million, which surpassed the previous leader, Civil War, with a budget of about $50 million.

The movie has a March 3, 2028 release date, and a new Wall Street Journal report says it will cost around $200 million to make. The report highlighted how A24 has become a major player in the film industry, with many now trying to copy its formula.

"Major studios, meanwhile, are increasingly trying to copy the A24 playbook. Online horror properties that seem like they could become the next “Backrooms” have sparked multimillion-dollar bidding wars. Universal is backing a big-budget movie from the “Everything Everywhere” directors. “They’re a Goldilocks company. Just the right amount of people doing just the right amount of things,” said Julie Huntsinger, the Telluride director."

Approximately $190 million of that is going to CGI for the giant crawfish and Miriel the Turtle. Everything else is secondary.

EDIT: figured this was a better topic

Tyranny is questionable, but Kyros is basically the God Emperor, and his first edict will kill you and everyone in the continent if you dont do your job. He’s not just unkillable, you cant ever even meet him.

Netflix Castlevania’s Dracula is so fucking OP that he bitch slaps our protag team with basically no effort. They only win because he gets sad and gives up

In Lobotomy Corporation, the main character interacts with everything through a computer interface with a cognition filter. Mostly, it makes stuff look cute and simple, but there's one exception

Censored. It is highly hazardous to the psyche, so it is covered in cebsor bars, abd so is its offspring when breaching. Logs are also heavily censored. Since the rest of the project moon games and media don't involve characters in such heavily controlled situations with protections, Censored has never appeared again

Which is a shame. It is a rather cool concept and mystery. I personally think it might be some representation of the horrors and exploitation of the City that no one can fully bear. Would explain the human sacrifice to appease it, the sort of epiphany an employee had in the logs.

This post was inspired by comments I saw in this previous post.

Okay so I'm not entirely certain if this question is accurate cause its something that I've heard second hand, so I'm gonna need a second opinion from Comic Book readers.

I've heard that the X-Men have a problem with rarely interacting with other Marvel heroes outside of their own "sphere", (sphere meaning a specific corner of the Marvel Universe centered around a team or a superhero) why is that? Does no one at Marvel have any desire to see X-Men characters interacting with other non-mutant heroes, do the X-Men have to be a certain level of not-accepted at all times so that the allegory makes sense, are the X-Men weirdly isolationist and keep to themselves, does Cyclops not want to join the Avengers cause he doesn't want more gorgeous superheroines chasing after his dick, do the X-Men have beef with non-mutant superheroes, or is not just an X-Men thing and everyone has to stay in their own sphere?

They seem to make an exception for mega-popular X-Men like Wolverine or Beast.

This question probably relates to the discussion of whether or not it makes sense for X-Men and Mutants to exist in the same universe as other superheroes, it's probably even more egregious in Crossover Earth (the world where Marvel and DC have always been one universe) at that point wouldn't it just turn into the My Hero Academia universe?

What's your take?

The first: Bioware has ended to cut costs from a terrible acquisition and it really sucks

The second: You NEED to hate EA more than you currently do

The second video is the more interesting one since he goes through EA's, and others, studio killing history and goes into some of what was going on with Bioware and EA behind the scenes during the development between Mass Effect 1 and now.

Bricky has a document with his sources in the description of the second video, and timestamps if you just want to see the Bioware stuff