Hey, folks. My weekend got offset by about 8 hours, and it has pushed my scheduling off by a workday. I will have Episode 3 of Girls und Panzer ready to go tomorrow. Thanks for the positive feedback, it’s been a lot of fun!
Paige
My understanding of when Flandersization kicks into The Simpsons was faulty. I was led to believe that as early as Season 4, Ned Flanders had become a complete caricature of himself. In fairness, it’s not as though somebody directly told me this, but it was the information that I sort of gathered by discussion. I was wrong. It seems that the consensus is that the true distillation of the character didn’t happen until far later, and I can see that now for sure. To be honest, I got into the show long after the golden years were over, so I have always had a few ideas of what the characters were like and didn’t think there was any sort of great shift.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Simpsons Catchup Binge: I Spoke Too Soon”
Not a whole lot going on this week.
I’ve (for some reason) decided to make a new Terraria world, in master mode, with the Zenith seed. It’s bad. Bombs can drop from pots and trees, traps are many times more common, and many other terrible features. One of the (very few) upsides is that most blocks take less hits to brake, so I guess that’s nice.
I have no idea how many times I’ve died so far, but it’s at least in the triple digits.
How’s everyone else doing?
As promised! Episode 2 of Girls und Panzer: Tanks, we ride them! We learn almost everything we “need” to know about Sensha-do, or Tankery; in this episode. “How does this thing even work, anyway?” is kept appropriately vague, because there are certain story beats that require more suspension of disbelief than others. But ultimately, how precisely the tank-shaped hole that contains this show is dug isn’t really the point. Our guiding principle is friendship, and “finding your own Tankery;” a concept that will be brought up a couple of times. But while Tankery in the world of Girls und Panzer may be more gimmick than mechanic, the tanks themselves flip that situation. Mostly outside of battle. This episode ends in a cliffhanger that marks the transition of the series from something like the “slice-of-life” style we’ve seen so far, to; early in the third episode, something closer to a sports anime.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Girls und Panzer: Tanks, we ride them!”
With Mother’s Day around the corner I find it an appropriate time to consider an archetype that is often missing or ignored in video games… mothers. I sat with a couple friends and tried to think about the most interesting mother characters in video games and it was weirdly hard to come up with many. Story spoilers for: God of War (2018), Resident Evil 7 and 8, The Binding of Isaac, and Undertale.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Mommies in My Media? Maybe”
This week I played a few different games.
I finished my skyblock Terraria world. After it got into hardmode most of the difficulty of it being a skyblock disappears, you can get wings, and you’ll probably already have a few mob farms set up so it’s just kill a boss, farm some loot, kill a boss, farm some loot.
I also bought a small game called Scritchy Scratchy. It’s a short idle game about scratching scratch cards, it was $7 and I got a few hours of fun out of it.
I also learned that Rimworld has a multiplayer mod that just works with minimal hassle. I don’t know how well it works on the newest version, but it’s not given any trouble in version 1.5 so far.
Anyway, How’s everyone else doing?
Girls und Panzer the anime debuted in 2012. It was created or conceived sometime in 2011 as a TV series, with ideas likely originating a few years earlier. Takaaki Suzuki, who is variously listed as an assistant-producer, advisor, or consultant; had previously acted as a military history advisor for Strike Witches and Upotte! before 2010. Strike Witches and Upotte! featured high school girls (Japanese) as the personifications of World War II aircraft and guns, just as the slightly-later Kantai Collection starred high school girls (Japanese) as the personifications of WWII warships. All of these series achieved success; wide and outrageous success in every case except Upotte! But Girls und Panzer did it differently, and is the only property still working with the original plot and characters.
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Girls und Panzer: Isn’t This Series Fifteen Years Old?”
Ever wonder how seemingly sane people can hate popular games? It can happen!
So what happens when a SOFTWARE engineer tries to review hardware? This. This happens.
Who is this imbecile and why is he wandering around Europe unsupervised?
Back in 1999, I rode the dot-com bubble. Got rich. Worked hard. Went crazy. Turned poor. It was fun.
An attempt to make a good looking cityscape with nothing but simple tricks and a few rectangles of light.
The product of fandom run unchecked, this novel began as a short story and grew into something of a cult hit.
Which would you rather be: A king in the middle ages, or a lower-income laborer in the 21st century?
What is a skinner box, how does it interact with neurotransmitters, and what does it have to do with shooting people in the face for rare loot?
Did you anticipate the big plot twist of Batman: Arkham City? Here's all the ways the game hid that secret from you while also rubbing your nose in it.
Crysis 2 has basically the same plot as Half-Life 2. So why is one a classic and the other simply obnoxious and tiresome?
T w e n t y S i d e d
