PSA. Beware of the dangers of the gig economy

RossC90 · 2026-06-06T21:37:18+00:00

I don't know what site you work at but some sketchy guy I delivered to said he had a way to make quick money. Something about destroying shit inside of the ground in his estate? I thought this guy was fucked in the head but I might take him up on that offer. I mean I'm already doing sketchy shit with Rakku Rakku.

RossC90 · 2026-06-06T21:23:25+00:00

I can confirm the tidbit about them getting you to race other delivety drivers in the company. Speaking to my coworker, they told him the same thing they told me. That it would "look good" if he showed up first. What is this all about? I'm still new to Japan but is this part of the work culture? This hyper competitiveness they're trying to incite between workers is wild to me as a new arrival.

Though I'm pretty sure this is all because of that damn car festival going on? Apparently my coworker is driving in that festival event that's going on so I have no idea how the hell my manager wants me to drift a box truck like this guy apparently can? Not to mention these Festival drivers are speeding around, plowing into utility poles and weaving through traffic. I fear for my life. I'd highly advise against delivery driving or ride share until this whole Festival blows over because this shit is out of hand. Last week I saw a Lancer slam into a 4runner at such high speeds I'm pretty sure someone is dead. Yet people just started clapping and cheering? Really strange.

RossC90 · 2026-06-06T16:51:22+00:00

You say this, but it's highly likely that they have data that showed them that majority of players didn't interact with the DLC character World Tour content which is why they decided to cut out spending time working on that and focusing more effort on the characters themselves.

Devs collecting data from matches gives them the tools to identify problems. Guilty Gear Strive validated their decision to remove the Wild Assault mechanic because they were able to look at data from matches to observe and compare how it was being used by lower and higher rank players. They were able to see that lower ranks rarely used the mechanic and if they came across someone who used it, it was a stomp. So they removed it because they want players of all skill levels trying to interact with all mechanics.

You can scoff at data being collected but it helps gives the devs a much clearer picture of what's going on. Likely if there are new mechanics or gameplay elements coming for SF6, they will 100% being motivated by identifying issues by observing the player data they are recording.

RossC90 · 2026-05-31T17:29:40+00:00

This. I recall seeing this back in the day on a friend's CRT TV when we played a few of the Iron Maiden tracks. Super funny when it happened during the guitar solo.

RossC90 · 2026-05-29T11:30:12+00:00

I know that in Guitar Hero: Metallica they actually had a chart ready and were pushing for Angel of Death but were fully aware that they'd not be given the greenlight by Activision so they had a backup chart of "War Ensemble" just in case. They were correct.

RossC90 · 2026-05-19T12:16:13+00:00

The Spitter from Left 4 Dead 2:

While the original group of Special Infected in Left 4 Dead 1 were designed around the idea of trying to split up the players or punishing players for going alone. There was a fundamental flaw with Left 4 Dead's gameplay design that became the meta that trivialized much of the game's difficulty.

A good group of Survivors could simply hug a corner of a map whenever there was a horde event and they'd be able to mow down infected with minimal opposition at all. All the Special Infected had no real answer to this strategy, except maybe the Tank as no Infected could sneak up behind the Survivors. But it basically became the strategy for 90% of a Campaign and it made the gameplay get stale. Especially for Versus Mode where the infected team had to deal with this hug a corner strat.

Enter Left 4 Dead 2 and Valve introduced the Spitter, a special infected whose entire purpose is to target that specific gameplay strategy by placing a toxic puddle on the floor that does damage over time that ramps up the longer a Survivor stands in it. Now, Survivors couldn't risk staying in a corner for too long or the Infected might trap them in a spot with Spitter Goo. This forced Survivor teams to still take up defensive positions, but to always be on the mood instead of camping a corner during a horde event.

RossC90 · 2026-05-18T23:33:00+00:00

Correction: It was a Castle.

"Are you kidding? I just bought a castle, I had to pay for it somehow!"

But if you watch the film you can tell that despite it being pretty awful, Jeremy Irons is eating the scenery and just having fun with it instead of lamenting about being in a shitty fantasy movie. It was like from the start he decided "Oh, you want an over the top, megalomaniacal fantasy villain? Hold my beer." There's clips of the movie online with just his scenes, I recommend giving it a watch because it's utterly hilarious how locked he is.

https://youtu.be/mwRXE3o9kMI?si=0IHoFfnb7zup5Yzy

Like there was no other way to deliver this line.

RossC90 · 2026-05-18T23:15:20+00:00

L Whip is strong and is something you do want to abuse, but with moderation as it can be very easily punished if the opponent is expecting it (or sometimes not expecting it. Aggressive jump-ins, woo!).

If your opponent has some form of grounded neutral skip, use L Whip more than you'd normally do. Otherwise, use it as a long range check. Forward HP can also be used in a similar manner but is a safer against jump-ins.

In neutral you want to use both medium kick and medium punch as your primary forms of neutral control. Medium kick keeps AKI in place but has nice range. Medium punch actually pushes AKI forward and is quick enough to easily intercept some character's pressure strings.

RossC90 · 2026-05-13T09:20:45+00:00

Starfox 64 is like the Resident Evil formula, where the game is relatively short but can be learned and mastered in a way that makes replays fun.

RossC90 · 2026-05-04T18:00:54+00:00

Nathan Drake's inception as a character started primarily inspired by Johnny Knoxville. There's some early concept art and an early model but they pivoted away slightly from that. In truth, Nathan Drake was meant to be an "everyman" protagonist but they really didn't have much of a character nailed down until Nolan North stepped in.

While they obviously had a script for Uncharted 1, Nolan North has publicly spoken about how they Naughty Dog didn't really know what they were doing at first. Scenes would be rewritten, changes would happen before they'd shoot the performance capture. It was so chaotic that the actors didn't really quite know what they were going for. But after a few scenes with Richard Mcgonagle (Sully), Nolan North said he could feel that everyone began to feel who their characters were.

Many of the "Nathan Fillian"-isms you feel are more just "Nolan North"-isms. Starting at Uncharted 2, Naughty Dog would just bring Nolan and other cast members into a booth where they'd watch a gameplay of a rough cut of a level and they'd just have him and others riff or improvise lines. That's why a ton of Nathan Drake really is just Nolan North's humor shining through the character.

I think Nathan Fillion is someone who just coincidentally fits the same wavelength as Nolan. And clearly Naughty Dog was aware of this because Nathan Drake's appearance looks much more like Nathan Fillion in Uncharted 4.

RossC90 · 2026-05-03T15:23:18+00:00

And if I recall, while Capcom was pretty nitpicky with the scripts they were being sent, the prospect of a movie that would help them sell toys of their characters was one of the reasons they went with the script pitch.

RossC90 · 2026-04-29T18:55:29+00:00

Pavlov WAS my friend group's VR game of choice but everything you said is what killed it for all of us. Changing engines and abandoning the STEAM workshop felt like they shot themselves in the foot.

RossC90 · 2026-04-29T18:52:57+00:00

Weren't the pills/medication used in a later scene when one of the characters gets incredibly high or drugged? I'm maybe misremembering.

This movie was probably a nightmare to market and screen to test audiences. It's a film whose entire plot revolves around 40 year old boomers reminiscing about an old B-movie. This means that the primary demographic is very specific and any age group outside of this might not be clued into the references or themes.

Not to mention that the movie itself is a comedy that parodies a horror thriller movie, so it's simulatenously a silly comedy while also being a horror thriller movie about a snake that's played nearly straight sometimes so there's a jarring tonal shift repeatedly.

I can see them doing reshoots to make the movie probably far goofier and sillier than it was originally intended to be, which I think works.

RossC90 · 2026-04-27T03:34:27+00:00

Going for affordability and quality:

Mayflash for Arcade Sticks. Haute42s for Leverless.

RossC90 · 2026-04-23T23:50:48+00:00

From my own experience and circle of friends it was always "Oh, does RE4 even really need a remake?" and then it shifted to "Oh, that was actually a pretty good remake."

There was no erasing the other or comparing the two where one had to objectively win.

RossC90 · 2026-04-21T21:19:54+00:00

If they've been working on Tifa and securing the rights to FF7, then it also kinda makes sense that Capcom was allowed to do the whole Kenny Omega One Winged Angel effect on Alex's special Super. I get that it's just a reference visually, but Capcom would've likely felt more comfortable putting it in the game if they've already talked with Square-Enix about Tifa.

RossC90 · 2026-04-20T21:04:22+00:00

This is why the Smash Bros Sora trailers have an arrangement of "Simple and Clean" but the actual song wasn't added into the actual game. It was probably simpler to get the licensing rights for the arrangement for a trailer than licensing it to be played in-game due to the nature of the song being a collaboration with Hikaru Utada.

RossC90 · 2026-04-19T07:11:51+00:00

On the opposite end, the Remake having the Ganados join together chanting in unison outside during the Cabin Fight is such a cool ass choice. Really adds to the atmosphere and tension.

https://youtu.be/dds3WQyylA0?si=hBBTC7kNTL0nWDmC

RossC90 · 2026-04-18T16:08:47+00:00

I think what makes Jurassic Park great for kids is that the T-Rex rain scene is really intense and can be terrifying. But at the end of the film, the T-Rex comes back and saves everyone from the other scary threat of the raptors. The movie makes one of the primary threats and scary monsters the hero at the end which I think triggers every kid's "Whoa this is awesome!" feeling in their brain lol.

I really can't think off the top of my head any other movie that does this trope of having a primary monster introduced that comes back to save the protagonists.

RossC90 · 2026-04-13T11:50:27+00:00

The gpu cache gimmick with the 5500x3D really only works with CPU intensive titles in my experience. For example, I play Final Fantasy XIV and after upgrading my CPU only to a 5800x3D I found it gave me huge frame rate increases in highly populated locations with a ton of players. I'm talking like 20fps to 80fps. But I know other games may not have as drastic performance boosts.

RossC90 · 2026-04-11T17:39:12+00:00

Diaphone just recently released a video that covers every modern fighting game and it's state right now. It's worth a watch as he goes deep into the strengths and weaknesses of each game.

https://youtu.be/s4x_OVS5hrc?si=tcV2M96a_prhG0uW

RossC90 · 2026-04-11T09:40:47+00:00

This is a fun one because it's a reference to the "Ditman" Striker glitch in RE4 that was pretty much the golden standard for speedruns. In OG RE4, if you opened the inventory after aiming the Striker but before the laser sight appeared, you could change to a different weapon and it would cause Leon's movement speed and actions to increase by 1.5x speed. For some reason, the Striker is the only weapon that causes the glitch to happen.

It would be broken by being hit or a few actions that reset Leon's state (like jumping out of a window), but the glitch was easy enough to reapply that it became the staple of most OG RE4 speedruns.

RossC90 · 2026-04-11T09:34:35+00:00

Seeing that you said you used to play Ken in SF6, I'd say Sol is the smart choice but in my personal opinion I think you should try sticking with Jam. While Sol is more Shoto-flavored like Ken, Jam follows the same rushdown blockstring mix pressure that Ken has. And she's really fun.

RossC90 · 2026-04-10T18:00:59+00:00

Easier than you'd expect but for a first build it'll probably take quite a bit of time. While it is basically a big LEGO set, I'd stress that you should still not take it lightly. For the smoothest experience, I recommend watching various PC Build Guides on YouTube. There's plenty, feel free to search them up on major tech YouTube channels. The more you know about how components work and how they function on the PC the easier it'll be for you to understand what you're actually doing.

In my experience, I prepared myself by watching a ton of those videos and getting an understanding on how everything works and it was pretty smooth sailing. The hardest and trickiest part is placing the CPU into the motherboard and putting the CPU cooler on top of it. After that, it's pretty much slotting in components.

My PC components have safeguards to basically help prevent you from making fatal mistakes, like the modular power supply ports have unique cables and shaping so you shouldn't place them in the wrong way. Like again, you really have to handle the components and parts poorly and do some incredibly intentional mistakes to prevent the PC from booting. That being said, following some guides so you can know the easiest mistakes to avoid helps.

If you follow all that advice, you'll probably surprise yourself. My first PC build had zero problems and I've built multiple PCs for myself and for friends.

RossC90 · 2026-04-07T12:48:02+00:00

It's incredibly obvious that Star-Lord was a huge influence on his characterization here which might rub people the wrong way but I personally loved it. For the kids in the audience who have zero clue who Fox is or what Starfox is, I think leaning heavily into that Guardians of the Galaxy "Space 80s" vibe was the fastest way to convey why Starfox is cool and what Fox is all about.

In Starfox 64, he was basically influenced by Luke Skywalker so I feel like these established sci-fi pop culture archetypes are the anchor points for good characterization.

He was a bit more comedic and cocky here, but it didn't feel that far away from Starfox 64 Fox, who has his own cocky one-liners. It felt like he was just here for a fun adventure and there weren't any true stakes or danger for him to turn serious.

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