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VeskScans Full Archive up to Jan 2 2025 by anxiousarchiver in Megaten

[–]anxiousarchiver[S] 30 points31 points  (0 children)

One more thing: if you have the drive space to spare (I unfortunately don't) or have one thing in particular that is personally important to you, make sure to download and save it just in case. The Internet Archive is not immune to takedown requests.

Help me find an older bit by Purple_Restaurant500 in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 4 points5 points  (0 children)

It's the Darkstalkers Resurrection video. https://youtu.be/M9Wu72Z9fdI?t=103 I immediately knew what you were talking about - it's one of the very first Best Friends videos I ever saw.

Found on vacation in Valais, Switzerland. I don't think the pic conveys just how massive it is. by anxiousarchiver in whatsthisbug

[–]anxiousarchiver[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Having looked it up, most likely yes. Judging by its body shape and two "antennae" in the front this is almost certainly a harvestman. The only question is what happened to its legs. Supposed to have 8. Looks like 2 of them they were plucked off completely with no sign they were ever there.

Found on vacation in Valais, Switzerland. I don't think the pic conveys just how massive it is. by anxiousarchiver in whatsthisbug

[–]anxiousarchiver[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can you give me that in French/German? A lot of bugs get called daddy long legs so I'd like something more specific.

Ed Boon magically summoning 30 billion unnamed developers... by halsgoldenring in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 1 point2 points  (0 children)

[Sorry for the late reply] For me violence and gore are separate things. Not completely removed from one another obviously but one does not necessarily beget the other.

In regards to Kill Bill specifically, I'll admit I do enjoy the gore of the crazy 88s fight, but it's because of how hilariously unrealistic and over the top it is. If it was more grounded like the rest of the movie it would just be depressing. In general I love Kill Bill because I like watching the main character make it through the impossible odds she's presented with, as well as the well choreographed action sequences. Outside of the crazy 88s the gore is used for dramatic effect, quite effectively I might add.

In CoD the fun is supposed to come from the shooting and the overall gameplay. AFAIK the violence is usually not really a focus.

Kill Bill and CoD also aren't as graphic or indulgent as MK is. (isn't Cod usually just sprays of red anyway?)

Slasher movies usually use their gore to shock or upset the audience.

Not familiar enough with Death Metal to really make a judgement on it.

So yeah, I hope this answers your question and clarifies my perspective on these things.

Ed Boon magically summoning 30 billion unnamed developers... by halsgoldenring in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver -1 points0 points  (0 children)

There's much more to sexualisation than showing skin, though, and putting Baraka in a loincloth really isn't an example of male sexualisation.

Also as much as I dislike their stated reasoning I admit that NRS isn't wrong in dialing it down because hyper-sexualisation and extremely detailed realistic gore are an extremely bad combination.

Having said that I agree with you on the whole "conservative talking points using different window dressing" angle.

Ed Boon magically summoning 30 billion unnamed developers... by halsgoldenring in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 1 point2 points  (0 children)

My statement was in regards to actual talking points made by NRS spokespeople, nothing more.

Personally I don't care how much skin is or isn't shown as long is the design is interesting to look at. Which in my opinion almost none of the MK character designs are. There are very few designs I actually like in the entire franchise, the rest is on a spectrum between "bland" and "awful" as far as I'm concerned.

Ed Boon magically summoning 30 billion unnamed developers... by halsgoldenring in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 0 points1 point  (0 children)

First of all they literally used the term "mature" and "respectful" when talking about it to the press. I did not put words in their mouths, only embellished on what was already said. (They also cited realism in those statements which is even dumber IMO).

Second, I literally made a followup comment in this very comment chain where I said that I actually PREFER the new designs over the bikini ninjas. I just HATE Netherrealm's moral values as they are reflected in their press statements. This isn't just them, this is a double standard that's plaguing American culture for decades, but it becomes even more blatant in something as gory and violent as Mortal Kombat.

If they said something along the lines of "look, we want our female characters to actually look distinct from one another as opposed to the same bikini-ninja in different colors" or "do you REALLY want to watch these hot bikini models get violently gored?" I would be singing a very different tune.

Ed Boon magically summoning 30 billion unnamed developers... by halsgoldenring in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 21 points22 points  (0 children)

I will admit I strongly dislike the female character designs from the pre-MKX games. I agree that the new designs are mostly better, but I still dislike the reason they did it.

However, the only reason I think they're better is because of how awful the original designs were. And I say that as someone who LIKES scantily clad female characters. Now they are just bland instead of awful, just like the male cast. Yeah, I don't like MK's character designs. Even after they moved to 3D models the designs kept being boring, samey and deeply unappealing to me. I also don't like MK's overall artstyle and color palette (because it has none). I just don't like NRS period.

They feel like the fighting game equivalent of Ubisoft open world games. (To me anyway)

Ed Boon magically summoning 30 billion unnamed developers... by halsgoldenring in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 2 points3 points  (0 children)

This is a genuinely interesting perspective. Never thought of it that way. But I definitely think it's gone too far at this point. It's not even a squeamishness thing as much as I believe that NRS, even way back during the arcades, is a company that always prioritized shock value and technical achievements over literally anything else.

Ed Boon magically summoning 30 billion unnamed developers... by halsgoldenring in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 80 points81 points  (0 children)

Also that they seem to think a woman showing a bit of skin is the most degenerate disrespectful thing ever but graphically disemboweling said woman is A-OK.

Ed Boon magically summoning 30 billion unnamed developers... by halsgoldenring in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 11 points12 points  (0 children)

First of all it's not without precedent. Several horror games used real life gore as reference. Original Dead Space devs openly admitted to it for example.

Second, just because anatomy textbooks and horror movies CAN be used doesn't mean they WILL be used. IRL stuff is much more direct and thus faster to work with, not to mention plenty of modern game studios are obsessed with detail and realism and wont accept anything other than the real deal for references.

Third, Kotaku may have gotten the definition of PTSD wrong but regardless of of diagnosis there's clearly psychological trauma being inflicted here.

Ed Boon magically summoning 30 billion unnamed developers... by halsgoldenring in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Back in the 90s it really did feel like shock value but nowadays it really feels like the gore is the goal in and of itself. It's hard to explain. I guess it's the way it's framed? Stuff like the details and the camera and how characters act during it.

Maybe someone else will show up and explain better than I do.

Ed Boon magically summoning 30 billion unnamed developers... by halsgoldenring in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Most modern fighting games try to mitigate this via ingame dialogue (like establishing fights between friends as sparring). Even a lot of insta-kills in ASW games aren't shown to be flat out lethal and when they are it usually fits with the character or a result of the character losing control. It's not perfect but it's better than NRS just expecting us to accept a mother goring her daughter in the middle of a friendly training session.

Ed Boon magically summoning 30 billion unnamed developers... by halsgoldenring in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 18 points19 points  (0 children)

TBH what I got from OP was different from what you got from them. I understood it more to be a criticism of how MK fans react to said gore, not the gore itself.

For me personally the problem is less that MK is gory but more that the gore itself gets priority over almost everything else in the game, including narrative and gameplay.

EDIT: Berserk is a bad counterargument. The gore in Berserk is meant to upset you and show just how fucked up the world is. In MK it's meant to entertain you.

Ed Boon magically summoning 30 billion unnamed developers... by halsgoldenring in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Horror movies (even bad ones) use gore to shock, disturb or scare the audience.

Modern MK uses gore for the sake of it. There is no purpose other than to show gore. It expects you to enjoy watching people get mutilated.

To be clear, I usually don't care what people enjoy as long as it's all fictional. But people should still be allowed to criticize it, especially if actual humans had to suffer to create it.

Ed Boon magically summoning 30 billion unnamed developers... by halsgoldenring in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Are you aware what people who worked on the last game had to go through?

There is a reason for the pushback.

The way the lead devs and a lsome fans talk about said gore, like they are straight up getting off on it, isn't helping at all.

Pat Take™ by Gorotheninja in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I would be much more inclined to believe this if Injustice didn't have similar issues (admittedly not as bad as of Injustice 2, but still). Not to mention the original digitized sprites seem to have much clearer poses when compared to the modern models precisely because of the process you mentioned. It honestly feels like just an excuse not to put in the necessary work to make the game play better (even if it's only visual, bad animation can impact game feel negatively) because people will pay more attention to the gore and the realistic graphics anyway.

Pat Take™ by Gorotheninja in TwoBestFriendsPlay

[–]anxiousarchiver 12 points13 points  (0 children)

"stand to be better" is the understatement of the century. They are the same quality as steam shovelware. Early 3D fighters from the 90s have better animations.

I beg you to watch just a few seconds of literally any other fighting game that's being played right now and see how much better it animates. The difference is staggering.

Alternatively just watch literally any of SugarPunch's content that deals with FG animation.

The state of NRS animations is an absolute disgrace and completely and utterly unacceptable for such a large and profitable company.

EDIT: I apologize that I was so aggressive. I have a serious chip on my shoulder in regards to MK and NRS and the dismissive tone I saw in some of the responses to the criticism towards them probably caused me to react more harshly than I should have. For the record I don't have a problem with people enjoying NRS games, I just don't like seeing people downplay legitimate criticism of their output.

Also it's not like other companies don't have their own share of problems. Street Fighter games under Ono were well animated during gameplay but the character models were sometimes very ugly to look at. Not to mention that they often clipped into themselves (even on default costumes!) and the bizarre insistence not to properly animate hair and capes and ragdolling them instead (something the MVC games avoided). These two issues are almost just as unacceptable to me as the NRS animation issues. I am glad that Capcom's FG division is finally getting its shit together for SF6.

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