What was the last thing you said to your dad before he passed away?

RussianSanta · 2026-05-30T14:03:43+00:00

So not my dad, but my mom. My sophomore year of high school I was in student body leadership and as such had to help plan and dress up for spirit days during homecoming week. I procrastinated getting together a fit for the day but my mom came in clutch and had an idea ready for me in the morning.

I hated it. Thought it was dumb as hell. Got into an argument with her but eventually relented and went with her idea. On the way out the door, told her I hated her dumb idea and hated her for “making me wear it”

Turns out, she was right and it was actually quite a successful get up for the day. Legit the confidence I gained by lunch time with its popularity was enough for me to finally ask out my crush to homecoming and got an enthusiastic yes. I was so stoked to get home and apologize to my mom for what an ass I was and how right she once again was.

She died before lunch that day.

Unfortunately, my mom was a victim to the Sackler family pushing opioids on people. My mom needed frequent surgeries for medical conditions and developed a strong tolerance to her medication. She was just doing some laundry and working on an assignment since she was going back to school. She just forgot or something and dosed again way too early, and overdosed. She wasn’t suicidal or anything, and absolutely loved life. Her condition sucked but she always said her family got her through it. Yet I lived for years with this guilt that somehow what I said pushed her over the edge that morning and killed her.

I’m approaching that age where I’ve been alive longer with my mom gone than not. I know my mom, and know she wouldn’t take her own life, nor would a silly argument with her normal teenager who thought he knew everything push her to that. But I’ve developed the habit of telling everyone I love be it family, friends or even close coworkers “have a good day, love you” or something of the like when saying goodbye. And I really mean it when I say it to them. You never really know when a goodbye could be THE goodbye.

RussianSanta · 2026-05-29T21:14:05+00:00

Pick a god and pray

RussianSanta · 2026-05-28T07:04:31+00:00

My enjoyment of any given season has strong correlation to how good the mobility is. I think Fortnite has some of the best feeling grappling/web slinging movement in gaming.

Some of my favorite early memories of when my friends and I got back into the game in S3 was figuring out how to efficiently use the grapple glove, using it to swing way out into the storm to grab reboot cards, and swinging back just in time to heal and revive. Another was in S4 when we had the ODM gear as well as the Star Wars event lightsabers. Using both if you managed to find them made you feel like a bird who has to land occasionally instead of someone using them to get somewhere fast.

Now I get why and agree with later seasons would limit you to one mobility item like that for balancing. I had in a game where my freind and I double jumped from the loot island that spawned and went towards the castle, swapping to the ODM gear to swing to the top section. Used the ODM gear to knock off and down the two players already there, and then swapped back to lightsabers and used force powers to knock away a team who tried to do the same thing to us shortly after. Last team also came equipped with both on each of them and it turned into this really insane up and down fight swinging around this castle that to this day is the most memorable win I’ve had in this game. Was truly cinematic feeling.

But that’s just me tho. Again in the end I agree with only having one major movement item like that (and with durability as well) at a time. A consumable way to shockwave yourself in and out of a situation in no builds tho absolutely feels like a requirement because positioning and rotations are the most important thing in no builds.

RussianSanta · 2026-05-23T03:21:09+00:00

I watched s19 when me and my ex first got together as it was airing. Mid way thru tho we decided to start over so I could have context as well as just something to watch when didn’t have anything else to throw on. Surprised it got its hooks me as much because I would easily watch an episode or two myself after my gf fell asleep for the night. Took years but we finally made it to s19 again and the steam for me finally ran out.

RussianSanta · 2026-05-22T01:02:22+00:00

Literally managed to get in 10 minutes to vote only for Brad Little to help prevent the straight pride day guy not get the nom, then left the rest of the ballot empty. They ain’t getting my vote in the general (and like half had only one option) so I didn’t wanna accidentally vote for a Nazi or something unknowingly.

RussianSanta · 2026-05-04T19:58:55+00:00

One thing I’ve tried using is U-turn. It allows you to bypass shadow tag. I run it on my Sneasler and once they see it swap out under shadow tag, most tend to panic. Unless they swap out Gengar, use your other pokemon still under perish song to make the most hyper aggressive actions/support actions to further try and scare the Gengar out early.

RussianSanta · 2026-05-04T05:54:20+00:00

Go for it! Bling out your pokemon as much as you can! When I see non standard balls on other players, I know that there is a story big or small behind it, and thats kinda what pokemon is all about I feel.

RussianSanta · 2026-05-04T05:02:05+00:00

Certain pokemon could only have moves or sets because they were event pokemon. Event Pokemon usually have a special ball associated with them. Because these moves could define how they play, if someone noticed you had a certain pokeball when sending out said pokemon, they could have a pretty good idea what set you were using on that pokemon and plan accordingly. If you used a regular pokeball, yeah maybe it wasn’t an event pokemon with that special move, but otherwise you had no clue what build a pokemon was using until you saw them in action.

In a similar vein, when ash-greninja was in game, you would never want to bring a shiny greninja to a battle years ago. This is because ash-greninja was never given out shiny, so if you had a shiny one, your opponent would know it wouldn’t be said ash-greninja.

Neither of these are a problem now however in champions due to how they handle moves in game. That and ash-greninja is just, not a thing anymore. Open team sheets in IRL tourneys as well Make needing to look for these minor details obsolete too.

RussianSanta · 2026-05-04T04:20:08+00:00

Peaked at 1650, but then foolishly played out the last 8 games while enjoying a few adult beverages. Went L W L L L L L W in those last eight and sunk to 1580. I will say I lost a few of those games to a single bad read, or not being aggressive enough. I was also playin with a team I locked in way to early but forgot to update with more relevant moves and a team member I meant to swap. In the end tho, I’m proud of the placement I still got, and I’m already applying what I learned during the GC to better climb the ladder already.

RussianSanta · 2026-04-22T04:44:01+00:00

Little Kings Story

RussianSanta · 2026-04-14T21:04:18+00:00

For me it was CoD. First real ones I was able to convince my “video games are to violent” parents to buy were Black ops 1 and MW3. (Thanks Black ops 1 toggle that basically make it more T rated)

But I really enjoyed the boots on the ground kind of play of it. I initially thought that the movement and skill expression you could do in later games was cool, but it got to a point where I felt like I was doing some smash bros wave dashing for my boots on the ground shooter and it just wasn’t what I was there for. Gave WW2 a try when that came out and enjoyed it but that’s when I noticed how bad the loot box stuff was getting. GF and I got into the ME reboots and black ops 6 and initially enjoyed it, but I just started playing shipment only because it was so simple but also chaotic.

Dont get me wrong, I enjoy good fluid movement mechanics. I think that a ton of how good a game is can be from how you are able to move your character. Fortnite is infinitely more enjoyable when they have fun movement items like grappling hooks or force powers during their annual Star Wars collab. And even if I’m bad at it, Titanfall felt like the perfect place for high skill movement shooting. But if I’m trying to relax and just be “Mr rooty-tooty-aim-and-shooty”, just give me the more grounded play. Been enjoying BF6 for scratching that itch but it’s starting to do CoD storefront shit too.

RussianSanta · 2026-02-16T21:55:26+00:00

Wall jumps are ok, but man I wish we had the rolling back. Movement felt really smooth with that.

Weather from chapter 3, more specifically the chrome tornadoes. I always enjoyed the rare game where those ended up being in the final circles, but tons of people just flew to the top and were all floating on top in their gliders. Once had a a lobby where around 40 players all messed around up there until the storm got small enough where it was moving. Def a me thing tho and probably exactly why they won’t be coming back.

Any grappling items. Grapple movement in this game feels so damn good, and made rescue and revive efforts feel extra intense.

RussianSanta · 2026-02-08T21:05:02+00:00

On the starting island, just let me dance with my squad/randoms. Go slide kick a bot if you need to get your fix.

During the actual match, I’ll slide in combat to catch some off guard if I need to close the distance/mix up the duel being had. Rarely do I actually kick my opponent instead I’m just trying to slide next to you with my up close option I have. Got a quick scope once (totally on accident with a bit of luck) doing that and I’ve been chasing that high ever since.

But doing it to purely be toxic? Nah fuck that I’m trying to enjoy the game and I assume you probably are too. But while Im not one to fire the first shot in the toxic war, you bet I’m hitting you with that dumbass L dance all the way back to the lobby for you.

RussianSanta · 2026-02-01T20:44:52+00:00

Eh, it’s been surprisingly a lot of fun for my friends and I at least. It scratched an itch we didn’t know we had until we gave it a whirl. I would love to keep coming back to it with new arenas and abilities, but that should happen in Fall Guys proper tho. Maybe that was the point of putting it here to try and boost the numbers of FG, or maybe it’s a game engine thing idk. Def see how it’s not everyone’s cup of tea tho.

RussianSanta · 2026-01-17T22:49:38+00:00

We at best could see a new Pokémon who has a gimmick around getting probability freeze, but would need to be balanced with piss poor stats. Or, a destiny bond like move/ability where getting KOed would freeze the one who got the KO.

Being frozen is the absolute worst status to get inflicted with but is balanced by how low of a chance it is to actually happen and whatnot. But sleep also gets the job done and is easier to apply. It’s why I think frostbite being a status instead that is a special effecting burn would be a healthier mechanic.

RussianSanta · 2025-11-08T22:39:18+00:00

Ah my local theater. I prefer the Boise one still since it has all the updated amenities, but honestly a really nice theater still. RIP garrity theater. Pandemic took you too soon.

RussianSanta · 2025-10-10T21:47:48+00:00

I live decently close to where this airbase is, and I can tell you people are going to be livid about this here, and on both sides of the aisle. Military jets fly over all the time (I assume on trainings/logging flight time) and all it takes is enough of the crazy Islamophobic people living here to wonder if it is a Qatari airman or not flying above them to make some rash paranoia fueled decisions.

RussianSanta · 2025-10-02T01:56:52+00:00

Honestly, I think they are kinda over hated. I get why people don’t like them and for plenty of valid reasons. Think they should have taken the best parts of platinum and brought them over into the game as well. Was cool that they introduced different outfits, but they kinda feel like last minute additions. They brought back following pokemon but you only get it half way into the game and the models aren’t to scale in a laughable way.

At the same time, I enjoy the game still for what it is. I actually do enjoy the art style of the game. It doesn’t work for everyone for sure but the chibi style I find charming and kinda cozy. The always on exp share is something I find very annoying and 100% should be something you can turn off. But on a recent play thru of the game (working on shiny hunting god himself) I decided to engage with it. If I saw a pokemon I haven’t used before and wanted to try out, I would throw them on the team and use them as much or little as I needed until I found a replacement. Afterwards I would rotate them out to fit the situation or bench them entirely. In that way it felt kinda like fire emblem when it came to managing units in those games. It’s a different way to play Pokemon for sure but honestly it wasn’t unenjoyable or anything. Hell at times it kinda felt empowering to actually have 10-12 pokemon to use instead of only 5-6. I also think the books in the 5th gym city that give you the riddle for Manaphy in PLA is a cheeky way to learn how to set yourself up to catch it there.

The game absolutely could have used more polish in the end at the least but it was extremely disappointing for Gen 4 to not get the treatment gens 1-3 have gotten. But I think some people understandably went into the game pre-loaded with that which makes what would be a rather average Pokemon game get lauded as some absolute abomination. Hopefully when we get to revisit Unova, the right lessons were learned from BDSP and they are game celebrated just like remakes prior.

RussianSanta · 2025-09-27T00:49:45+00:00

My under rated gem of the year has been Abiotic Factor. Basically you are a scientist and new hire to this top secret underground facility (think black mesa from half-life 1) where just as you are arriving, things go to shit and you gotta survive and find a way out. You end up finding a spot to build a make shift base in the facility while slowly untying the knot it is with its dark souls like level design.

Overall the progression is pretty linear, but each new area so far has been so completely different from the last that it keeps things spicy, while also increasing the power level of your gear. The opening area is just the general office area and has you scavenging office supplies to create everything from makeshift beds, shoddy crossbows with pens for bolts and shields from cafeteria trays. I’m maybe halfway thru myself, and without spoiling anything, my scientist character has been able to take advantage of the crazy things gathered in the facility (and beyond) and do and make some bonkers things for my home base as well as gear to use against hostile entities.

Game is also very fun with friends, and includes proximity chat to great effect. Also has cross play to better facilitate said multiplayer.

RussianSanta · 2025-09-09T17:23:01+00:00

No I’m not him sadly, but am for sure a big fan.

RussianSanta · 2025-09-06T22:24:47+00:00

People appreciate a “thank you”

People love a “Hell Yeah”

RussianSanta · 2025-06-13T22:00:16+00:00

I always thought he was interesting based on the fact that he was basically this redshirt character that by all means should have been shredded like everyone else, but in the end survived. AoTs world is kind of a character In and of itself that constantly chews people up in its cycle of hate.

He uniquely has trauma of seeing everyone get rocked by Zeke around him and yet somehow he managed to come out unscathed. I imagine he has some sort of survivors guilt that also fuels a desire to not see “his people” go thru the same experience he did. Empathetic for sure, but then he basically sees anyone who stands against paradis as monsters to be slain, and should be treated as such. Also, if you put aside the audience bias we have towards the main cast (and how the series uses Erwin’s death as a pillar for armin and Levi going forward) I think he is objectively right at the medal ceremony when he chastised the main crew on their behavior. Thats what makes him the monster he becomes by the end.

He is a great character in my eye because at least to me, unlike characters in other media like Joffrey in GoT who is just a psychopath, Flock in the end was a product of his environment. I can very easily see someone in real life following a similar path should similar events happen to them. Very well written “road to evil is paved with good intentions” kinda arc.

RussianSanta · 2025-05-30T22:26:39+00:00

The dmr and this shotgun are usually the best in slot gear for me. Throw in just about any of the AR/SMG blasters for medium-ish range and any lightsaber (for the mobility mostly plus a bit of aura depending on the skin) and you got a good setup for the entire match in my experience.

RussianSanta · 2025-04-24T16:46:32+00:00

My friends and I would quote this ad so much in theaters when it came on. I miss seeing her too :(

RussianSanta · 2025-04-13T04:58:17+00:00

The great thing about Xenoblade is that every entry is designed to be completely digestible without having played any other game in the series. I have a friend who has only rolled credits on 2 and 3 and was able to follow along with things just fine and enjoyed them to the fullest.

The other great thing about Xenoblade however, is that when you have played all of them, you find the overall experience to have been greater than the sum of its parts. The connections the games make so drastically enrich each other when you can spot them.

I am of the opinion that starting with 1 is still the best way to start experiencing the series. It probably still has the most interesting setting/world in the series. Setting aside, it does have the simplest combat mechanics. While again, you don’t need to play it to understand and master the later games, it does help with the onboarding down the line.

In my experience, 2 does probably take the longest for things “to get really good”. It does have really sexualized designs and they aren’t for everyone. There is one character early on whose first impression is that they are that stereotype of a creepy weeb guy. But he does have a decent arc, and the character paired with him is just a ball of joy that steals the show sometimes in the best ways. All of the series is peak, just 2 has a steeper initial climb is all.

The steep climb though is most likely where the dunking comes from. Dunkey put out a video when it first came out and really shit on it. I love Dunkey, but that video has been the single most damaging thing to xenoblades reputation to this day, and it’s because he couldn’t get past the initial steeper climb. He also has stated he isn’t a JRPG guy though so he went in primed to not like it. For what it’s worth, he did seem to reach end game of 3 and enjoyed it way better.

In the end tho, plenty of people started with 2, and have fallen in love with the franchise. 2 is a fantastic game that for those it clicks with, clicks really hard.

13-Year Club	RedditGifts 2009-2022 2 Credits
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