Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 7h

Confession time: I generally do not find Perry Bible Fellowship to be funny. Except for Skub, which is one of the greatest webcomics of all time

Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 9h

I just learned about this somewhat obscure GBA game last night and thought it seemed interesting. This morning, I learn there's a remaster coming. What a coincidence.

Trailer for Scurge: Hive on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Windows

Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 10h

Thanks, I completely forgot about Jimi Hendrix

Your forgotten favorites

Electric Ladyland
Jimi Hendrix

Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 20h

America seems to be particularly far gone on this issue. Rishi Sunak was the leader of the Conservatives in the UK while being openly, proudly Hindu. Vivek tried to pretend Hinduism is just crypto-Christianity but these guys will never accept him.

Khashoggi's Ghost @urocklive1.bsky.social · 20h

Vivek was apparently shocked to learn that the kids in Charlie Kirk's TPUSA groups are Christian Nationalists who will never accept him. They want the entire country to be white Christians, and the very idea that he could hold a position of power offends them.

newrepublic.com/post/201664/...

Surprise! Vivek Ramaswamy’s Turning Point Event Derailed by Racism

Event attendees asked Ramaswamy why he felt he could be the governor of Ohio even though he isn’t Christian.

newrepublic.com

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 20h

Imagine explaining to someone what progressive rock is, and they respond with "oh, bands like Led Zeppelin and Queen." You try explaining that no, that's not quite right. Maybe they listen, maybe they don't care, maybe they yell at you for gatekeeping. Who knows?

Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 20h

Cultural phenomenon I've observed and don't like: some people, when learning of a new genre/scene, do not take it as an opportunity to learn new things but instead just try to square what they already know into said genre. Even if they're not wrong, it's still a lack of curiosity.

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 21h

I feel like one of those slots should be a catch-all for the stupid spicy novelty peppers of the world. "We've invented a pepper 200 times hotter than a jalapeño" no thank you. I don't believe in any of that

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 21h

It reminds me a lot of Returnal, except Housemarque had the sense not to present that game in first-person perspective.

Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 21h

Tried the demo for Void/Breaker. The execution of the concept is very good. Unfortunately, I just don't care for the concept.

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 1d

But if an artist or group has some meaningful connection to rock music, I think it's fine. Public Enemy and Run DMC both played important roles in bridging the gap between rock and hip-hop, but I don't think you could say the same about Tupac or Outkast.

Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 1d

After all the culture wars have been fought, I don't think you get to decide that hip-hop has always just been a form of rock music. It's disrespectful.

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 1d

The boomers who complain about hip-hop acts not belonging are annoying but they're close to being right, albeit for the wrong reason. I don't think their presence is an insult to the Hall of Fame, but rather it feels like a sort of cultural imperial.

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 1d

I know having any sort of opinion on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is stupid. That being said,

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 1d

Even more pedantic take but your list of the greatest songs of the 21st century should not include anything from 2000 because that was the 20th century

Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 1d

Pedantic take but something that annoys me about greatest song lists is that they always feel like lists of greatest singles. Which is fine, but just say that up front and stick to it. Including one or two long album cuts throws the whole thing off and invalidates the overtly mainstream picks

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 1d

Similarly, there's a real jumpscare in the first minute of this song
youtube.com/watch?v=-O5Y...

King Crimson - The Great Deceiver

YouTube video by King Crimson

m.youtube.com

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 2d

I seem to recall some documents from the Activision-Blizzard acquisition suggested Sony and Microsoft were both looking at 2028, but even that seems unlikely. And unnecessary, honestly. Tech wise, the PS5 is holding up quite well five years in.

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 2d

I don't think the game sounds all that good, I just think people are drastically exaggerating how offensive this final boss is from the description, and I'm also exhausted by people making blanket statements about old vs new game design that just aren't true.

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 2d

Oh, so it's even more forgiving than it sounds?

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 2d

Not stealing a life, but you can't even fight the final boss if you don't have one specific item. Furthermore, the quoted passage of the review even says you can buy the extra life from a merchant before the boss and they just chose not to.

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 2d

Cool

Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 2d

The quotes passages of the review do not describe anything like the latter

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Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 2d

I'm sorry but it's extremely funny to chalk this up to modern game design being inherently manipulative. This is just Ghosts n Goblins

TESTAMENT✙ENJOYMENT @testamentenjoyment.net · 2d

Spoilers for Absolum, but you actually might want to spoil yourself on this, because this is some of the worst meta-progression bait I've ever heard of

(Also a great review overall, one that's for once made from the perspective who gave beat 'em ups a deeper shot)

If you don’t believe that Absolum prioritizes the grind above all else, then I’ll have to pull out my trump card and talk about the last boss of the game. Don’t read the next paragraph if you don’t want that spoiled. Or do, honestly, because I recommend knowing this ahead of time so you don’t make the same mistake I did.

Once you complete the game once, you find out that actually you need to beat the game again to fight the real final boss. Kind of obnoxious already, but sure. I immediately started another run, but died early due to the game introducing a new extra-hard challenge that I wanted to try out. No problem, I had unlocked one extra from the progression system. I decided to carry on and actually ended up all the way at the end to fight the final boss.

Just before the fight, a merchant warned me that the boss had a fatal scream and recommended that I purchase an absurdly expensive extra life. I kind of figured that merchant was referring to some difficult to dodge attack and braced myself for it. No such luck - the final boss seemingly just instantly and unavoidably kills you at the start of the fight, so my run where I was otherwise super powerful and at full health ended right there. This more or less killed my interest in playing further.

The goal of this decision seems clear enough: the developers didn’t want you beating Absolum too fast and this insta-kill gimmick was a good way to keep you in the hamster wheel. Wouldn’t you know it, my very next permanent upgrade gave me another extra life on top of the two I had, so my next run would have definitely been the run! If I were the kind of person who got addicted to the progression system, I could easily see myself getting sucked by this bait, hook line and sinker. Sadly for Absolum, I am not that kind of person. I don’t have an addictive personality. Most of the psychological tricks that modern video games employ don’t work on me – I don’t need things to be addicted to, I want things that enrich my life or give me some personal satisfaction.

6 10 36

Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 2d

That's what I've heard from a lot of people. Thankfully I didn't have to buy either of them due to both being on PlayStation Plus at various times so I'll get around to them soon.

Noah @smellycandle42.bsky.social · 2d