Community Showcase - February 2021

Hello gentlemen. I have some more perler bead art this month for you, this time for Breath of the Wild. Please enjoy! 27 colors, 11,830 beads. https://photos.app.goo.gl/u77GDeYbCERAJacj7

Nathan Codiroli

Test

Mellow Felloh

Hi Brandon and Ben! I started making a Time Capsule of sorts of things in Video Games and Anime I enjoyed for every 6 months (starting last January) so here's Part 2. Also HUGE thanks to Ben for introducing me to the Yakuza Series. I played 0 for the first time last year and it has a very special place in my heart now. YAKUZAAAAAAAA!!! L&R JD aka Mellow Felloh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiYJth9iNP8&feature=youtu.be

Mellow Felloh

safety post... 60 frame Golden Eye is awesome.

Tegan Combatti

Gentlemen- We are talking Street Fighter today. Covid 19 was absolutely destructive to the Capcom Pro Tour this past year with many tournaments adjusted for online play or were out right canceled, most notably EVO. For the record, playing online is far from ideal, and cancellations always suck. Heck, even Capcom Cup, the crown jewel of competitive fighting e-sports was canceled. However in lieu of the “Cup”, and attempting to bring the 2020 season to an exciting conclusion; Capcom will be having a “Season Final” Event on February 20th & 21st. A collection of players from all over the world, who mostly won Premiere Tournaments, will be invited to face-off in epic regional Prize Fights. But before that, prepare for the “Street Fighter V Winter Update” streaming on February 11th- showcasing everything in store for Street Fighter V’s season 5. During this stream Capcom will premiere the self-proclaimed “Saikyo-ryu” / “Stongest Style” master “Dan”, the first new fighter of five new characters released this season. Secondly a new "gameplay mechanic” will be revealed…. Street Fighter V is already a mixed bag-of- “gameplay mechanics” for each individual character. Let’s just hope it’s some form of defense, something the game still needs way more of in my opinion. We will also get info on the upcoming season 5 Balance Update, yearly gameplay changes and other relatable mechanics for all the characters in order to improve the game’s overall balance. …Which is always exciting…. Finally Capcom will issue some sort of statement for the upcoming Capcom Pro Tour, which would start after February. Covid-19 is still a major factor for the fighting game community, and full transparency from Capcom is vital in this matter due to the worldliness & in-person nature of Tournament Competition. Overall the “Street Fighter V Winter Update” should be an exciting stream, with lots to look forward to. Also- side note: A Way cool “Avengers War Table” is happening on February 16th, and will show off Hawk Eye, more single player content, and the next-gen upgrade. Finally, this past Hall of Greats was awesome; but it also reminded me of how many incredible games are missing still… …..And I know only so many can get in at a time, but since Ben is here, please let me speak directly to him now. …Ben lots of games need to be inducted into the Hall of Greats; including many fighting games. But before "Mortal Kombat II”, or “Tekken 3”, or “Garou: Mark of the Wolves” and one of the “Marvel’s”…. Please I ask you, since I believe you above everyone else would realize it’s importance most of all— Please Ben, at some point, if you don’t mind, and you feel up for it, (and Agree- duhh sorry)……..Please consider bringing “Street Fighter III” to the Hall of Greats. …It needs to be there, look into your heart and you will know this to be true. Thank you. That’s it for now. Stay Good Gentlemen, till next time. Love & Respect Tegan Combatti

Tegan Combatti

Did somebody say KOTOR 3?

Master Pantz

Hey Easy Allies, Got an update for you from the Q&A. I asked for assistance in picking an RPG to play and The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky ended up being selected. I'm happy to report that I'm 17 hours in and it was very easy to get into. They had me at "Space Magic". Playing the PC version and it was a nice surprise to see that it fully supports 21:9 widescreen. In the Q&A I said they were intimidating RPG's but what I should have wrote is that making the choice to play one over the other was the intimidating part. The unselected games had to be sent back to the pile :( So I appreciate the assistance in selecting one and this is a good pick! In other sad news, my PC of 6 years is dying. It's making the tell-tale sounds, grinding, tapping, uneven whirring of the fans and kicking it no longer seems to fix the problem. It's had some crashes and things aren't looking good. I feel like it could go at any moment. The good news is I put an order in for a nice new $3600 PC from Digital Storm with a 3080 and all that good stuff. Yes, they overcharge but I feel like they do a quality job and I have no idea how to build my own so it's cool. It may be a few weeks before it arrives though, so I hope my current PC will survive until then. Side note on Cyberpunk 2077: I agree with the score of 7.5 and I still choose it as *my* GOTY. Side note on 2021: Final Fantasy, Halo, Gran Turismo. That's my personal trifecta of game series. I don't know if FF16 will make it out this year but I'm really excited to see upcoming news on these three all in the same year. Alright, keep up the good work at Easy Allies, I'm off to play more Trails in the Sky!

Master Pantz

Hello Ben & Brandon! January just flew by, didn’t it? Hopefully the following months waiting for the vaccine to find my arm will fly by just as fast, but in the mean time; stay at home, wash your hands and don’t hold or attend Super Bowl parties. I made a resolution this year of NOT posting my showcase submission minutes before the deadline, and of course it’s only February and I already failed. A habit of almost 5 years is hard to break. January was a month of progress but little credits. The only game I beat was Minesweeper Genius. Shout-Out to Alex_AI for mentioning on last month’s showcase. I don’t know how a Minesweeper & Picross crossover flew under my radar; but, lucky me, when I went to the eshop to get it, it was on sale at 75% off, and even more lucky me; I had enough gold points to pay for the remaining 25%. Since the points were going to expire this March, it was a no brainer; and good thing that was because I had to use my full brain to get thru the game. I consider it the birthday present from the EZA community and Nintendo to me. Another one that has been played a lot on the Switch is Overcooked 2. I almost feel bad of waiting for it to be released with all the DLC and, on top of that, bought on a sale back in November. This game has a ton of value! Seriously, we have been playing almost every day and still can’t manage to finish the whole thing. At first I thought it was way too easy compared with the original Overcooked, since we could get the 3 stars on many levels on the first try; but after beating the whole campaign and unlocking the fourth start I realized I would have to eat my (overcooked?) words because, damn, those are hard! What a fun and chaotic game. And just to finish the Switch trifecta, I’ve been playing Ring fit adventure for the past couple of months; and I find it so funny that either my scale is broken or I haven’t lost a single gram during that time; but hey, the game is fun and that should be enough, right? And that’s it for this Month. Take care and be safe, allies. Estamos en Contact, César.

César Villa

We'll see if Patreon eats my comments again....

Jason A. Sackel

Didn't buy anything new this month, but I did check out a few of the PS Plus titles that were made available. First up was Maneater. Aside from a brief trailer, I hadn't heard or seen anything about the game. I wasn't expecting much to be honest. Maybe a kill an evening and move on type game. I... was pleasantly surprised with it. It had more depth than I thought it would, the writing wasn't terrible, and it just had a nice flow to it. It was a fun little game. Next up was Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Now, I did play the first two games in this new series. The first thing that stuck out to me was... I don't remember a thing about either of them plot or character wise. I remember the really boring dialogue reads for descriptions of items you picked up in Rise... I think it was that game at least. Seemed a bit better in this one. This game felt a bit rough. Part of it might because the game starts off in this beautiful Day of the Dead festival setting. You don't spend long there and then the rest of the game is just mostly jungle. I kept just wanting to go back to that part of the game because at least it looked interesting. Honestly, outside of Lara, can't tell you the name of a single character in that game. Really, really glad I didn't pay any money for this one. It had a few fun moments. There was one death animation where blood would splatter on a rock before Lara actually hit it. I then died purposely by jumping down at different angles, and always the same result. One time when I spoke to an NPC, mid conversation, another NPC walked right behind me and flailed his arms like he was talking to the same NPC. Also, if there is an NPC that you can talk to, maybe don't duplicate that character model and have them sit on a chair in the same area. Shouldn't be duplicating models that close, wearing the same clothes even. This isn't a musou game. Speaking of, after completing Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, I decided to check back with One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4 for a bit. I hadn't checked out any of the DLC characters, and I had gotten the digital deluxe edition when it originally came out before finding out how lazily it was slapped together. So, yea, why not check out some of the new characters. You would think being able to transform into a giant dinosaur and destroy thousands of foes would be fun, but no, the game still managed to make it boring. Anyhoo, back to PS Plus stuff. I am genuinely looking forward to playing Control. I did play Destruction AllStars. After a little bit, I sat at the character select screen and realized... I hate all of those character designs. So, yea, all good on that one.

Jason A. Sackel

Greetings from Seattle, Brandon and Ben, Things have still been a bit crazy the last few months, covid plus mental health stain, plus moving into my new apartment all makes for a big cocktail of stress. Be that as it may, I'm still enjoying getting to Dungeon Master for my group of friends, and for nearly a year I have been at the loom of creativity, weaving a hopefully compelling story for my friends to explore. With this month's submission is an update to an earlier submission I made months ago about where my players had gotten to, following in the wake of the launchpad of their story, now see which route the Heroes of Saga take to explore the long-forgotten secrets of the floating continent of Elantris. Enjoy! With all the love and respect, Eric Jackson, AKA Jacksondeck in the twitch chat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-4MMSojPd0&ab_channel=EricJackson

Eric Jackson

Hi Ben and Brandon, For my first community showcase I'd like to show some art I did this month. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Khr_b1VsYPty1GXcWevquu3ILFQFMssM/view?usp=sharing Lagiacrus is the flagship of my first Monster Hunter game (Monster Hunter Tri) so I hope he returns in Rise after being cut from World. Give me that turf war vs Anjanath! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_oSn5iMN3I_0pN1dzqF4E7_6NdW7uqhB/view?usp=sharing Xenoblade Chronicles DE is one of my favorite games last year and Melia is one of the best characters in the game. Here's hoping we hear something about Xenoblade Chronicles 3 this year. Xenoblade Chronicles crossover in Rise please Capcom! L & R, Sam

UndercoverShiekah

Hopefully you won't hold for too long, you've only got a few hours left.

R.F. Switch

saved

Chris Park

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFNzRMOtZvI&feature=youtu.be Here's some more Fate since Ben requested it.

Chris Park

Hey Ben and Jones! Been pretty busy recently, and I haven't had much time to play new games or find new music. So, I decided to go with a David Wise piece that's been on my list of songs to record for a while. All of Wise's soundtracks are legendary, but none get stuck in my head quite like the catchy tunes from this game. Hope you enjoy! L&R - Ben F. https://youtu.be/xPhHaQyTdu8

Ben Fitter

Safety

Nextgenheff

Hey Ben and Jones, So... back in December I shared the adventures of the overpowered king of Ireland Donnucan. It involved the black plague, my wife becoming an independent duchess (said she was a queen, I was mistaken, she never formed the kingdom of wales), and my attempts to install an Irish heir of my dynasty as the king of England. I wanted this post to detail the second part of my life up and till I died. Well, I lived to be 110... a lot happened. 1. My wife and queen died, passing her duchy to my son and primary heir. 2. I was happy with where my kingdom was, so I passed out most of my land to my male heirs to make them happy. 3. Installed my puppet king back on the throne of England, my heir will be king!!! 4. Lived a peaceful life until I got involved in an English/French war. 5. King of England died!!! A member of my dynasty is king!!! (Sadly though he disregarded his Irish roots and became anglo-Saxon) 6. Infighting in Ireland ended with my primary heir (who had no land in Ireland and was just a third party) scarred and one leg. 7. Failed to assist my grandson, the king of England, in defending his title. It was lost to some English woman, who immediately died, passed it to some other guy, who also died and passed it to his son. 8. His son was dethroned by his vassals, who installed my grandson's younger brother as the king of england. 9. My primary heir died before me (in fact only three of my nine children lived past me), so his son became my new primary heir (more on him later). 10. England has become fractured, with bits taken over by Brittany, France, and my new primary heir. 11. Also, the king of England (my grandson’s younger brother) converted from Catholicism to Adamite, the nudist Christian faith. 12. Finally, after my death at 110 years old, my titles were passed to High King Rodan Mac Liam, a sadistic excommunicated murderer who is suffering from the great pox and hated by everyone. Who knows what is next for Ireland or England. I thought the second half of my life would be peaceful. It turned it to be even crazier than the first half of my life with future generations of my family kinda being huge disappointments. I will either continue this world state, or start over somewhere else in a future showcase post. Have a good February guys, L&R Nextgenheff

Nextgenheff

Hope it stays.

Nik Gothic

Hello, Brandon and Ben. It brings me no pleasure to say that I'll be showing no artwork this month. Tragically, my dear mother passed away in January, after a hard, 8-year-long battle with cancer. I had the fortune of being with her ’til her last breath and spending as much of my time with her, bring many things to closure and cement that we both love each other. She was the kindest, gentlest and most radiant person I’ve ever known, and I’m scared because I don’t know if I can live up to it. I’ve inherited the family flat and now I live all alone. When it comes to my own survival, I’m not terribly concerned: I know how to cook, clean and earn money for myself, and these are all amazing life skills to have which my mother lovingly taught me in her final years. Continuing my mother’s habits and sticking to my daily routines really helped me compose myself and get back on the ground. Really, what I’m most afraid of is the loneliness. There’s a deathly silence in the home now and I have a really lousy habit of being nervous and never reaching out to friends and asking them to socialise with me. I’m 28 years old and have never had a girlfriend, or have had any romantic experiences before, and I find this really alarming because I’m not getting any younger. Thankfully my relatives came to me in droves to support me, but this event is a massive paradigm shift for me as it reminds me that I’m independent now and that I get to call the shots in the house, and from now on this newfound independence and „socialising“ now have to become skills I need to practice. Now I share my fate with some of my heroes: John Lennon and Paul McCartney both lost their mothers when they were very young, and though I always felt I could relate to them, I never thought it would be like this. But they did have each other, and I feel like I’m a step closer to the allies who have suffered their own great losses. I love all the EZA members and community members from the bottom of my heart and every showing of love and respect from them made me feel validated and accepted. To all allies listening, please, remind your parents and family members to do yearly ultrasound checkups, and especially remind the women in your life to do breast cancer screening, because early interception makes a world of difference, and if only had my mother done her screening a couple of months earlier, all of this could have been avoided. I promise everyone that I’ll be alright. I believe in myself and I have many good things going for me, though it’ll be extremely challenging. I’m going to honour my mother by being the best person I can be and be someone she can be proud of. Love & Respect. Nik Gothic

Nik Gothic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdiOTjg5bmg Hey allies, i quickly spliced this together from an interview series called War Stories on the Ars Technica channel, which itself is an edited down video from a 1 hour and 10 minute interview. I do recommend watching original video if interested as there is plenty more where this came from.... enjoy!

Alex Stories

Links to crochet patterns on Etsy: - Moogle: https://www.etsy.com/listing/761089833/moogle-ffxiv-crochet-pattern - Chocobo: https://www.etsy.com/listing/478361823/crochet-pattern-no-1630-choco-bird

kbhomes

Safety post

Samo Rozman

(Aloha, Firstly I would like to ask if you could quickly cover my Jan 2021 Showcase post that was unfortunately skipped over last month. Its right at the end. I would really appreciate it. Now on to this month.) Aloha Brandon and Ben, I hope 2021 is treating you well so far. I am still extremely excited from the LucasFilm Games announcements from about 3 week ago. LucasArts and Sierra used to be my favorite publishing companies growing up, with the 90s being an amazing highlight of back to back hits: the Monkey Island series, Fate of Atlantis (Special Edition remaster please?), Day of the Tentacle, Sam & Max, Full Throttle, The Dig, Grim Fandango, the Super Star Wars SNES games, the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series, the X-Wing/Tie Fighter series, Rebel Assault 1 & 2, Shadows of the Empire, and Rogue Squadron (Racer and Phantom Menace were pretty good too). To have all of that in one decade is just incredible. The decade after would of course add the KOTOR, original Battlefront, and Force Unleashed series, along with the Rogue Squadron sequels, Republic Commando, and the crazy Armed and Dangerous. Recently, we have had a small resurgence after all the tragic cancellations in the last decade (RIP 1313). Fallen Order, Battlefront 2 (after the initial problems), and Squadrons have all been really great, and SWTOR has always been extremely fun. I played all 8 class storylines to completion. Imperial Agent, Bounty Hunter (Jawa Companion!), and Trooper (especially the Female one voiced by Jennifer Hale) are an absolute highlight, and supposedly the Jedi Knight class storyline was the main story thread of what would have been KOTOR 3. So I am really hopeful for the return of LucasFilm Games. Both announcements sound really promising with the Bethesda Indiana Jones game being only a tad worrisome after the lackluster gameplay of the last 3 games especially Staff of Kings. The stories for the most part were pretty good though. Plus they have some more things to announce this year from what I've read. I would probably look out for the Disney Shareholder meeting on March 9th for some of the first news regarding this along with Marvel, Disney, Indiana Jones?, and other Star Wars media info. Lastly, I would like to quickly share two things. A couple of Lego Star Wars battle packs I built last month from Solo and The Mandalorian? respectively. And something I found in my room that I forgot about, that I think Ben would love. Originally it was a gift for a friend over a year ago, but he bought it already, then I was going to return it, then forgot, and then just found it. No real issue though since I always kinda wanted it. As always, Mahalo nui loa for everything you do, L & R, Samo Rozman @Namzor https://imgur.com/a/8aXDxE7

Samo Rozman

Someone put Huber on the phone.

R.F. Switch

Hello Ben and Jones, Can you hear it? Can you hear the menace growing? Can you hear His evil consuming the land? Can you hear Him corrupting everything he touches? Can you hear… the Madness heralding the Fury? Love & Respect Kévin Gillet Link to the music: https://youtu.be/Sp3iof_bMuI

Kévin Gillet

Õkami>Twilight Princess. Don't @ me

Trung Nguyen

Hi Ben and Brandon. I have never played Õkami so I put it as my priority for 2021. Really liked it even if I disliked Issun (your companion) 80% of the time. Can't believe it took me this long to get around to play it so next one on the list is another Kamiya game i never played - Wonderful 101. Here's some stuff I did: https://twitter.com/tearjuengi/status/1348088906110164993 https://twitter.com/tearjuengi/status/1348253941717479426 https://twitter.com/tearjuengi/status/1356921939328192512 https://twitter.com/tearjuengi/status/1356922984943005696 This is the 2nd version and different phases I did since I really wasn't happy with 1st one (which is on my Twitter account) Simple work using my watercolor pencils Early work for next month when the game turns 30. https://twitter.com/tearjuengi/status/1356685392788025346 PS 2020 Wrap-Up. Put english text to translate some. Don't think I put that much hours on MHW like it says there and online hours being less than half when I put probably 30h on Fall Guys. Comparing it to 2019. Same amount of games played(19), 5 more throphies, 157h more playing and Tales of Vesperia was the only over 100h game at 114h in 2019. https://twitter.com/tearjuengi/status/1349242986618642432 All Top 3 are equal for me but I rank them on the impact they left. P5R I already mostly played even if I liked added stuff. I liked everything I played last year even if there were things I didn't like in the game so it was a very good year in gaming for me. That's all Love & Respect TearjuEngi

Trung Nguyen

Hello Jonesy, Ben, and fellow Allies. Didn’t get a chance to post last month so I will talk about Cyberpunk this time around. I enjoyed the game in a few ways. Most specifically Johnny and the world they created. It was so fun to exist, in and around Night City. The characters were especially great and their side quest arcs were fascinating and fun to go through. But fuck me if it did not constantly take me out of the game. Glitches every few minutes, random deaths, flying vehicles, your car spawning in the floor, your penis poking out of your pants in the first mission for fuck sake. The random activities around the city were rather boring, especially when compared to the POIs that littered the map of Witcher 3. Even the gig jobs were mediocre at best only falling into a few stereotypes that were only interesting when they played on your morality. The worst of all was just how bad the game ran. According to my Playstation wrap up, I had 137 Hrs played before I quit. This was across two characters. In that time, more than 40 crashes on my PS5. It is the biggest disappointment in my recent gaming history and that is so frustrating because it has its good points but it is just marred by far too much to be worth it. With that out of the way, I want to talk about my 2 GOTYs from last year, Ghost of Tsushima and Persona 5 Royal. I spent over 160 hours with Tsushima across 1.5 playthroughs and plenty of multiplayer. To me, it is a perfect game. I have heard a lot of discourse relating to how it does not excel in any one area and I would argue, that is where this game does excel beyond most anything else that came out this year. How complete the game is and how well it runs. I could not get over how good this game looked or how well it ran on my launch period PS4. The load times were mind-blowing even then and every few minutes I would be taken aback by just how beautiful the game was. Best was the feeling of the Katana at every moment I was in combat. Then there is P5R. Ben, I know you have probably tortured yourself over not completing it yet. Take it from someone who has platinumed both versions and has close to 400 hrs across both. It is FUCKING WORTH IT. They took my Tied Fav Game GOAT and turned it into my hands-down favorite. The added content throughout the game is amazing in and of itself with the numerous improvements to the base game but where it all comes together to blow past any and all competition is in the added final arc. A 1000x more satisfying than the end of the original with the villain of this making Yaldabaoth akin to a Shinnok level chump. Team Kasumi L&R Allies

Desquick

Safety

Asbo Zappruder

Good afternoon gentlemen, I hope you’re both doing well. Things have been pretty quiet on the island of Poppleton but there’s always at least one thing that captures everyone’s attention. 1. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dkAKGEuf7TWkrs3QXXj-HnDiBDXMn19x/view?usp=sharing It all started when the poster for the annual Snow Ball appeared on the bulletin board. The whole island became abuzz with talk of what everyone was going to wear and who was going to go with whom. 2. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j4NRPv7InjYwN1U50HVCqDmfLjNglhfX/view?usp=sharing Of course, no one was more excited than our self-proclaimed resident matchmaker, Patty. While at the gym, she noticed Merengue talking to Elmer and decided they would be perfect for each other. 3. https://drive.google.com/file/d/17dpWl18UoK38w-llbbj95f7Bpzaa5wAy/view?usp=sharing However, the next day, I was visited by Merengue. She told me she had a crush on Frobert but I had to pinky swear that I wouldn’t tell anyone. She asked me to deliver a note, addressed to “My Dearest” and signed “Your Secret Admirer.” In it, she asked him to meet her at the diner the next day at noon. 4. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UNnuCOwlyjMatBqiNBJjFPA9yXX2Z2zt/view?usp=sharing Merengue had barely left my yard when I received another visitor: Patty. She immediately saw Merengue’s note and assumed I was helping her with the matchmaking. Before I could say anything, she left to deliver it to Elmer. 5. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OIPH6gGZS4cdpGh84598TZbCe4EFiAaF/view?usp=sharing The next day, I decided to go to the diner to avert any crisis if I could. To my surprise, when Elmer arrived, he sat down across from me and said he got my note. I asked him why he thought it was from me. He said it couldn’t have been from Merengue because everyone knew she was sweet on Frobert. Not wanting to hurt his feelings, I agreed to go to the Snow Ball with him. 6. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IWYwi3yms_UBfm1-nSrk6FBHyBC0en1M/view?usp=sharing Of course, the first person I saw when we arrived was Patty. She said she hadn’t realized that I wanted to go out with Elmer and that I should have said something to her. It was shaping up to be a long night so I didn’t even bother to try to correct her. 7. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_tfD8g3JKA9HwgSapoZvc-T3-51IV0pS/view?usp=sharing As the evening was coming to a close, Elmer asked me to sit down. He said that he had a lot of fun but he just wanted to stay friends. He went on to explain that he waited until it was late to tell me so that it was dark enough to hide my tears. 8. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wdWoNuMjxnV7dUVErW6l7oRSB1QRFgSL/view?usp=sharing And with that, I decided it was time for me to go home. But even in my annoyance, I was pleased to find that Merengue and Frobert had managed to work things out for themselves. 9. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1aM-Wy0U8NT4jGTNlCNlbagFDQzl44ELp/view?usp=sharing A week later, Merengue stopped by again. I asked her how Frobert was and she said they had broken up. She just couldn’t compete with his obsession with sports. In fact, the reason for her visit was to ask me for help with her new crush: Elmer. So that was January on Poppleton. I’m sure February will be much calmer. Until then, Asbo Zappruder / screaming_argonaut

Asbo Zappruder

SAFE

Parasitepaladin

Hello guys! Your friendly neighborhood parasitepaladin here. Here yet again to show you another video from the mobile game the Battle Cats. You might see some familiar faces. The battle was easy, so I used the extra 30 seconds to show off the normal-type cats along with various upgrades that you can level up. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1BgGVW4fGkq6JUYw6NXrafca4WuboYqFT/view?usp=drivesdk

Parasitepaladin

Safety comment

Hey Ben and Jones I last wrote in for the December community showcase showing off my video review for Nayuta no Kiseki. Since then I’ve had my head to the grindstone working on a few different styles of videos testing the waters to see what I like doing whilst also getting a better understanding of the tools I’m working with. It's been nice to see a steady improvement with my skills and my general confidence since working on these things. I’ve gone from feeling emotionally drained after a recording session to waking up in the morning eager to force my mediocre opinions on the world knowing I finished up the script the day before. The video this time was an extra video on top of the 1 video a month I promised myself as the idea was a sort of flash in the pan. I’m a huge fan of both bravely default and bravely second on the 3ds but every time I saw trailers or played the demos for bravely default 2 over the last year I always felt like something was wrong, particularly with the games art style but in other ways too. However I was never sure why and looking at opinions online didn’t really give me a definitive answer to why either, so I broke out my copies of the games and flipped through my art books to get to the root of my feelings myself and decided to make a video to share what I thought. It's honestly a really weird feeling how I’ve been able to take stuff like this and put it online and have had so many people interact with it as I’ve always seen sharing thoughts online like screaming into a void. And between stuff like that and stuff like emailing publishers and getting review codes it's starting to feel like I’m not just playing pretend and I’m actually doing this stuff for real. Sorry if that last bit was a bit weird but regardless I hope you enjoy the video Link: https://youtu.be/q8dHx-YwXOY (3:06 - 6:06 lacks a bit of context has the main point of my argument.)

You know how in modern Rockstar games if the player character is having a conversation while traveling during a mission but then they audibly react to something that happens like, say, a car crash, and then they say something like "as I was saying-" and then restart the last sentence of dialogue before they got cut off? Well, something like that happened to me during Red Dead Redemption 2 and I laughed about it for way too long. Just a heads up that this 20 seconds clip takes place during the epilogue so if you don't want any spoilers whatsoever please don't watch. https://youtu.be/qd5ciQ_putw

Joseph Caruso

Safety!

Mason Victoria

Hi Ben and Jones! I'm doing something I thought I never would be doing by myself - I'm making a VR game for my masters thesis! It's about an alien life form named Borf Clorgman as they try to get a space janitor job on the most prestigious space station in the galaxy. It's silly, adorable and an homage to space quest and monkey island story telling - and I can't wait to share more later! In the meantime, here's the main theme of the game. https://soundcloud.com/masonvictoriamusic/the-adventures-of-borf-clorgman-space-janitor L&R Mason Victoria @masonachu

Mason Victoria

Safety reply.

Small Leviathan

Evening, Allies! January's come and gone and I just wanna say I hate studying from home. Admittedly beginning the course in the middle of the holidays probably didn't help either, but it's been a real struggle and I'm probably gonna have to retake it. That's fine, though! This was just a warmup, and I'm ready to give it another go. Anyway, I've got a couple of different things I wanna talk about this showcase, so let's roll. Last week I picked up Ori and the Will of the Wisps since it went on a whopping 67% sale on steam, and I finished it this Monday. This is probably an unpopular opinion but I have to admit that I came out of the first game, Ori and the Blind Forest, feeling pretty lukewarm. It was a gorgeous game with an equally gorgeous soundtrack and had some pretty darn good platforming, but it's world design was so bland for a metroidvania that it might as well have had a level select screen instead and the combat might as well not have been there. Additionally, while much has been made about the heartrending story there's a series of baffling narrative decisions that completely undercut all the emotionality and leave the story with basically no stakes by the end. It's all the more impressive then, that Ori and the Will of the Wisps is quite genuinely one of the best metroidvanias I've ever played. Clearly borrowing a lot of ideas from the best games in the genre (Hollow knight, it liberally steals ideas from Hollow Knight) the sequel fixes all of the original game's issues, goes even further with all of its strengths, and wraps up its story in a way that feels cohesive and complete. Moon Studios showed a seriously impressive amount of growth with this game, and I can't wait to go back and finish those last couple of objectives for 100% completion. So here's something I don't do very often: An anime recommendation! I don't watch a lot of anime as I prefer to read, but there was one new anime this season that caught my eye, namely, So I'm a Spider, So What? The show is about a girl who is caught in a magical explosion and reincarnated in a fantasy world, so it's an isekai, except as the title implies she is not reborn as a human but as a low-level spider monster. It's an adaption of an online novel of the same name, and I was initially a bit sceptic of it because I have actually been reading the manga adaption for like three years now. Thankfully the anime is actually pretty good as well and does some things that almost made it feel like I was experiencing the story for the first time again, which was a pleasant surprise. Additionally, the original author, one Baba Okina, is a co-writer for the anime, which increases my faith in it by a lot. Give it a shot if you want a fun underdog story with some surprise twists along the way! Whoops, out of words already. Love & Respect, Small Leviathan

Small Leviathan

You're gonna let them and chat drop dad jokes? What have you done.....? ... ... ....Also, did you hear about how Sweden is going to put QR codes on all of their ships? One official stated it was because they wanted to "Scan da navy in"

R.F. Switch

Warmest greetings Ben and Brandon, Again, nothing concrete for a reoccurring theme for the community showcase. Personally, I like to spark conversation, so I have some questions for the both of you to hopefully mull over. L&R Morgan Mohalla 1- What kind of personal topics do you like to hear from the audience and which ones are more difficult to handle. During the community showcases, there have been some deeply personal revelations from the audience. I am not sure if you have ever had the chance to respond with how it makes you feel, so please let us know if you enjoy them or find them uncomfortable and where the limits are (if any). 2- Brando Please read the following to Ben "Now the commencement speakers will typically also wish you good luck and extend good wishes to you. I will not do that, and I’ll tell you why. From time to time in the years to come, I hope you will be treated unfairly, so that you will come to know the value of justice. I hope that you will suffer betrayal because that will teach you the importance of loyalty. Sorry to say, but I hope you will be lonely from time to time so that you don’t take friends for granted. I wish you bad luck, again, from time to time so that you will be conscious of the role of chance in life and understand that your success is not completely deserved and that the failure of others is not completely deserved either. And when you lose, as you will from time to time, I hope every now and then, your opponent will gloat over your failure. It is a way for you to understand the importance of sportsmanship. I hope you’ll be ignored so you know the importance of listening to others, and I hope you will have just enough pain to learn compassion. Whether I wish these things or not, they’re going to happen. And whether you benefit from them or not will depend upon your ability to see the message in your misfortunes." 3- Agree or disagree to the above? 4- Please ask Ben at what level he thinks this commencement speech is being given. (Excerpt from Supreme Court Justice John Roberts commencement speech for his son's 9th grade graduation.) https://time.com/4845150/chief-justice-john-roberts-commencement-speech-transcript/ 5- What are your favorite dad jokes please? 6- Did you hear that they gave this years prize to the guy who invented the knock knock joke? (What prize) The no-bell prize!

Morgan Mohalla

Safety comment.

Ciaran Lyttle

(I think my original post was deleted) Hi Brandon, Ben and Allies! For my submission this month, I'll admit, it's not tailored to any one ally, I just really like the Legacy of Kain! Specifically Blood Omen, the first game in the series, which feels like the under appreciated entry, in an under appreciated series. The dark/gothic fantasy setting, colliding with intrique, incredible voice acting, near Shakespearean dialog, and of course, incredibly fitting music. No track on the OST is more fiting for a damned and hellish world, than Nupraptor's theme. As the guardian of Nosgoth's pillar of the mind, Nupraptor's psyche is inexorably linked to the world of Nosgoth, and when his lover is murdered in a nefarious plot, it drives him, and in turn the entire world, to insanity, sparking off a series of events, and lore that span a millenia. This is not an easy feat for composer Steve Henefin to have put to harmony and rhythm, but he did an excellent job. I'm rambling. I will simply sign off for those in the know, with: Vae Victus! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYcaei8dCAI

Ciaran Lyttle

Hola Ben y Jones, Now…I know Ben gets this a lot and I’ve heard him mention it before, but I want to sincerely thank him for all the praise he’s give Yakuza over the years. I never got into the series before, but I appreciated it from afar. Every it would come up during a Frame Trap, the conversation would always leave me with a huge grin on my face. I was fine with just loving it from afar and leaving it at that. Between last year’s Father’s Day present (Yakuza Remastered Collection), PS+ (Kiwami), and Christmas sales on PSN (0, Kiwami 2, and 6), I decided this was the year I would get into it. I am currently 19 hours into Yakuza 0 and I’ve only just finished Chapter 2. Yakuza does absolutely everything I want in a video game, an amazing and dramatic story, interesting characters, mini games galore, and side missions that I can spend all day doing. No 2 side missions so far are alike, and whether it’s me stepping in as an emergency producer for a shoot, helping a rock band fit their persona, becoming a motorized car racing champion, or keeping my eyes open for the gargantuan Mr. Shakedown so he doesn’t leave me yen-less, I’m always on the lookout for more to do. It feels like there is so much thought, and at times bat shit craziness, put into so much of this game and it makes it so much better. Right from the very first chapter, the game had pulled me in with the story. I racked my brain trying to remember why the story points weren’t spoken about much before, but I can see there’s no way to do it true justice without experiencing it. Whether it’s intense drama, or crazy anime vibes, I can already tell that this series is going to continue to be the highlight of 2021 for me. Before writing this submission, I JUST hit the beginning of Chapter 3 and the way they introduce Majima is amazing. It’s literally a 20-minute cutscene with about a 1-to-2-minute break in between and can already tell I’m going to love him just as much as Kiryu. I’ll shut up now so I can get back to the game, but thanks again for consistently promoting this series, and I hope you both have an amazing rest of your day. Amor y Respeto, Juan

Juan Rolón Jr.

post protection :P

Alex_AI

Hi Ben and Jones, How are you doing today? Hopefully fine. Last year I manged to finally beat Trails in the sky 2, child of light and get through FF XIV Heavensward, Stormblood and even saw the first creditroll in FF XIV shadowbringers. What to tackle next? Do you remember those cool star wars the old republic cinematic trailers? I sure did and was always curious about the story behind those twin brothers and their sister in „the eternal empire saga“ and so on january 1st 2021 I started a new character. I am not new to this game, so far I finished the class stories of the imperial agent, sith warrior, jedi councilor and republic trooper and this time I chose the smuggler. Right now the game offers the following: - 3 Arcs of your class story that span over 12 planets. Some shorter than others. - the original endcontent - First epansion - second expansion - The two expansions worth of Eternal Empire stuff. - the current expansion „Onslaught“ With a bunch of optional side content thoughout all of it. On January 29th I have reached the start of the current expansion Onslaught. While the vanilla content was great already the two following expansions were „alright“ so i did not know what to expect from the Eternal Empire. Luckily bioware did not dissappoint here at all. The Eternal Empire Saga is basically a singleplayer episodic RPG within swtor. It has laods of showpiece moments, the well known great music and great locations that you get to visit plus it adresses one of the biggest complaints with prior story quest lines - the boss encounters. The design was always to make it possible to finish your class story without other players help which resulted in the bosses being relatively weak despite what the story might let you believe. In the Eternal Empire content, not only do you get three diffuclty options but the fights themselves are deeper and more mechanical making it feel right as you encounter those challanges. Overall if you like Kotor 1 and 2 you should give this one a chance. It is currently free to play so you can try it out and if you like your characters story i do recommend spending for 1-2 months of subscription as it permanently unlocks all expansions and gets rid the any f2p limitations for the subscribed time period. Thats it for now. I hope you alle have a great february and i would not dare to break my personal tradition of annoyingly reminding Ben of shining force 2 and that 2021 feels like the right year to try it. While I will never stop to champion this game still let me know if I should cease this Ben :P L&R Alex

Alex_AI

commenting to stick the post

FromTheVoid

Hello Ben and Jones, Long time fan of you guys since the GT days, really appreciate your work. I am starting my channel on Youtube soon, which will focus on lesser known games that deserve more recognition. I created an intro to the videos, and would really appreciate your comments and criticism. The music in the video is of my own creation, so no copyright issues. By the way, I think this song is well suited to Ben's tastes as I think he really enjoys some hard rock. Hope you two as well as the community enjoys this intro and in the near future can appreciate my channel on Youtube. Thanks for this space to share our stuff. love & respect, FromTheVoid, a.k.a. Arthur Henrique Chinaglia https://youtu.be/_Uhxd8PT36k

FromTheVoid

...Believe it.

R.F. Switch

Hello Ben and Jones So its that time again to talk about some anime I’ve watched over the past few months, So some quick updates on my weekly seasonals, January I started 3 new shows! Along with the 3 I’m still watching from last season! They are Sk8 The infinity, Promise Neverland season 2 and 2.43 Seiin high school boys volley ball team, while still continuing Higurashi, Dragon Quest: Adventure of Dai, and Jujutsu Kaisen. Next update! I've Completed Food Wars Season 2, Natsume’s book of friends S1, My Hero Season 1, Free season 2, also the feature film Free! Take your marks. I did start some new anime as well, Berserk 1997, and Natsume’s Book of Friends S2. Also I did end up Getting to ep 94 of yu yu hakusho, I should be done very soon. Finally for my last big update I made it to episode 100 of Naruto so much has happened since I last mentioned it. I gotta say im surprised on how much I adore this anime! Just got through this awesome ark with Orochimaru and tsunade and oh boy was that a treat! I really enjoyed seeing her come to terms with her past and taking responsibility for the leaf village. I also wept seeing whats happening with rock lee I have no clue what's going to happen to him in future episodes! I feel so much for the poor kid. Got a great ark with Sasuke as well, seeing his brother return and have this insanely emotional battle! Even the Garra fight was epic as fuck! I loved learning about Gaara's past and I’m actually surprised on how dark Naruto can get with some of its storylines with its young cast no less, it isn’t afraid to be dark, and I love that about the show! As far as where the characters rank for me now, id say Naruto at the moment has had the most screen time in this particular ark and I really enjoy it, this is kinda been the first big chunk of being with Naruto mostly on his own, I really love Naruto A LOT I think right now he is my favorite character, seeing him train and how much he has developed I can’t help but love the kid especially in that last battle he showed so much of his unbreakable spirit, so good. I really like Shikamaru also, To be fair I haven’t seen him in a while but his actions have stuck with me so hard ever since the Gaara battle when he risked himself to hold the enemies back, He grew on me loads. Unfortunately running out of room so I gotta leave it here, so much I haven’t mentioned but ill make sure to update everyone next time. I’m writing this at like 2am so I’m sorry if this is rambling, I promise next time I have a Naruto update for you guys ill have a better structure. See Ya & Stay safe!

Megan Linart

Audio file (should be categorized as "Music" this time) sent via patreon as usual

JessieBlu

I made a Cyberpunk 2077 logo out of perler beads! https://photos.app.goo.gl/kRAu8xq7cawnj65K9

Nathan Codiroli

I've been saving this video for 6 months, waiting for Ben to come on the show again. The man would not stop talking about DMC5, so I tried it out. Then this happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9CSAYqKUqQ (Song credit: “LeadCrow misc.” on YouTube. He gave me permission to use it. The rest of the video is... a transformative parody/commentary on the gameplay, and clearly fair use.)

Daryl Rodriguez

Hello Brandon, Ben, and Chat, Greetings from the Midwest. We just got a foot of snow dumped on us, literally, so be glad you don’t have THAT to deal with. I actually had to go into the office (end of month in accounting, you know), but I was able to work on something at home while I was waiting for the weather to clear up. I spent last week enjoying your GOTY deliberations and was so glad you all settled rather quickly on a game, that I didn’t even care what it was. There was only one game that consumed my time (over 1,100 hours of it) but I’m not here to talk about Animal Crossing: New Horizons. I’m here to talk about my soundtrack of the year. Last year when everyone else was working from home and on lockdowns, I was still commuting. Between that, the fear of catching and passing along Covid, and the reduced hours and extra work, the stress was weighing heavily on me. One day Ben decided to stream Persona 5 Royal. Between the chatter and the music I was lulled into a calm I hadn’t felt in months. The upbeat, bouncy rhythms, the angelic vocals and the hard-core thrashing, this soundtrack has music for every mood. I put the Persona5 OST 3-cd set in my Amazon cart and never looked back. I don’t even remember what I paid for it but it was worth every penny! Whether it's chill songs like Alley Cat or Have a Short Rest, metal jams like Keeper of Lust or Blood of Villains, or jazzy tunes like Last Surprise or Butterfly Kiss... I need to be cheered up, revved up, or calmed down, I just pop in a CD or pull out my phone and earbuds. Thank you Ben for streaming and I look forward to what the next year brings. I hope you will enjoy this sampling of some songs I pull up when a particular mood strikes me. The vocal stylings are provided by “Yours Truly". (Side note: I got a dynamic mic this time which unlike my VO mic didn’t clip the high notes as much as when I recorded the piece for Ian a couple months back.) Take care everyone, vaccines are right around the corner! L&R Jessie Blu [song list in order to be read after playing so Ben can be surprised: 1. Wake Up 2. Blood of Villain 3. Crossroads 4. addendum to Interrogation Room 5. Hymn of the Soul 6. Beneath the Mask]

JessieBlu

Hey Jones and Ben. It was a good month for making music (I think), so I’m sharing 2 of the songs I worked on. P.S. Jones, please tell Ben that Ignatz is a good Fire Emblem character. https://youtu.be/a_pr1Z4Zb-s

Michelle Jackson

Safety post for me photo mode shots :)

G'day Allies, last year I was playing Ghost of Tsushima and my roommate noticed that every time he saw me play it I was in photo mode. He jested that I should create an Instagram account called Dougs_shots and post them there. Well, I did just that. The VP community is full of great people and I'm really loving sharing in my love for games there. Here are a couple of my own favourites: https://www.instagram.com/p/CEXeREWHLN_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link https://www.instagram.com/p/CDw7KASnnPE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link https://www.instagram.com/p/CE7il3cHI-h/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link https://www.instagram.com/p/CEC05jcnUGE/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link https://www.instagram.com/p/CGVj6t4nJ3B/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link https://www.instagram.com/p/CJHYEh3nqjW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ0DSZ9nHzI/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link https://www.instagram.com/p/CJoyifynnd3/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ4GnkWndaW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

L&R

Sage_Mode_Q

Hey Brandon and Ben so last month I asked on a cup of Jones what sort of comments people leave on the community showcase because I had been a member of the community since the beginning but had never got into the community showcase because I never really had any special talents to promote but was always curious about the comment section and what that entailed. So Jones cleared that up for me telling me that most people just talk about games they’ve been playing, opinions about games or even personal things that are going on in their lives, so I thought for my first community showcase post Id do something special and share something very personal but very good! To start I guess I should go back to the beginning. Almost 4 And a half years ago my father was diagnosed with stage III pancreatic cancer. Cancer would obviously be scary for anybody but there was an added sense of fear because very sadly my grandfather my dad‘s dad had passed away just one year before my dad was diagnosed from the exact same form of cancer. I am very proud to say after two years, over 30 rounds of chemotherapy and one very successful surgery my father is now cancer free, and just last week he got back from the hospital for his monthly check up with a clean scan and a certificate marking his two years cancer free achievement. I would just like to say that over the past five years there’s been some very dark days in my life but being a part of this community and supporting you guys has got me through some of those darker days so I just want to let you guys know how much you mean to me and how much you have helped get me through all of this. Was planning on telling you guys this story in person last year for the annual get together but unfortunately that didn’t happen so I’ll have to settle for the showcase and hopefully next year we can all get back to normal and I can come shake your guys his hands in person and thank you. Thanks for reading this super long kinda serious comment and next month I’ll come just with some video games I’ve been playing and make it a little less heavy. Love and respect as always Quinton

Sage_Mode_Q

...................I don't know how to feel about getting "Barenaked Ladies'd" during the Showcase.

R.F. Switch

👅

ZatVunDoot

Hi Ben and Jones! I've been a Patreon supporter since 2017 and at the showcase tier since 2018, but this is my very first post and I'm extremely excited! My wife and I started to learn how to crochet a little over a year ago and have been doing tiny projects here and there. A few months ago we decided to try our hands at amigurumi (which means "crocheted or knitted stuffed toy"), so we purchased some patterns on Etsy of two of our favorite little creatures in video games and got to work. At long last they're complete! I present: Chocobo and Moogle! https://photos.app.goo.gl/jaETg6D28nD5Gnyb7 Also pictured, these two buddies being terrorized by Orange the Big Cat, and taking refuge with their pal, Wing Gundam Zero. 😯 Love and respect! Kupo!

kbhomes

Howdy Allies! Just wanted to share my growing collection of Final Fantasy 9 figures. I currently have Steiner, Vivi, Amarant, Kuja, Freya, and Beatrix. A few more hopefully by the next time Ben is back on a showcase. Also this Snom plush I got for Christmas from shout_out_to_yoko_Tato to fill my 9th photo slot. [don’t read in brackets. Couldn’t figure out how to rearrange the photos in the album so, after sorting from Oldest to Newest, if you could share the Snom photo last that would be great. Thanks!] Thanks for your time; Love and Respect! https://www.amazon.com/photos/shared/4PgrJoqWS5y9FfO9pQ_DuQ.opX_Oh_33Gz_ckPsBLZVWb

ZatVunDoot

Comment will be below 😁

Juan Rolón Jr.

Despite January being a slow month, it at least had a ramp up of news which, individually taken are interesting and exciting, all combined actually leave me annoyed to a trend that has been, in my opinion, out of control for a while. Starting with the release months of several games from Sony’s CES presentation (which they removed the third party ones after the fact, meaning Sony now has messed up release messaging AGAIN), the three that stand out to me are Kena in March, Ratchet & Clank no longer being “release window” and Pragmata now being in 2023. I’m happy for the short wait regarding Kena, and while I’m curious about R&C’s release change, I’m BAFFLED by Pragmata. Why do we know about this game’s existence? Its unveiling at Sony’s PS5 reveal event last June said 2022, and we’re already in quarantimes at that point, so if a game was THAT far off to begin with, now factoring in the delay, we should have heard about it for the first in the summer of 2022 at the EARLIEST. I’m convinced we’ve seen Pragmata TWO ENTIRE YEARS too early. Speaking of hearing things too early: LucasFilm Games. Knowing there will be a Ubisoft/Massive Entertainment open world Star Wars and a Todd Howard produced, MachineGames developed Indiana Jones game is great and all, and believe me when I say I’m as happy as Coruscant when the Empire falls now that Star Wars is no longer EA exclusive, but there is absolutely no reason to know all this when we won’t see or hear about these things for years, much like IO Interactive’s 007 project and ESPECIALLY the next Mass Effect before even the next Dragon Age has come out. I mean for crying out loud, in Mr. Howard’s case, we haven’t even seen what Starfield LOOKS like and they announced Elder Scrolls VI to be after that. Even Square Enix’s trademarks fall into this trap: Ever Crisis and First Soldier sound awesome to an FF7 shill like me, but let’s be honest, these could ultimately mean NOTHING, and unless there’s something MUCH more concrete than what’s equivalent to a press release for all that I’ve touched on, I refuse to get excited for what amounts to fan theories at present. I get you want to build hype, but look what JUST happened to CyberPunk. When will executives LEARN?! The nice exception to all this has been Resident Evil Village. The Showcase was good, with interesting updates, and look at that, a relatively close release date! I’ve said in the past the only Resident Evil fandom I have has been formed watching the full playthroughs via Misters Huber and Damiani and the upcoming Village is no different. I’m excited to experience it with either or both of them for the first time (Side tangent: Full playthroughs of Dead Space 1 & 2 are games I would like to experience for the first time via an Ally playthrough. Just throwing that out there.).

Brandon K Gann

It's been one week since you looked at me Cocked your head to the side and said, "I'm angry" Five days since you laughed at me Saying, "Get that together, come back and see me" Three days since the living room I realized it's all my fault, but couldn't tell you Yesterday, you'd forgiven me But it'll still be two days 'til I say I'm sorry Hold it now and watch the hoodwink As I make you stop, think You'll think you're looking at Aquaman I summon fish to the dish, although I like the Chalet Swiss I like the sushi 'cause it's never touched a frying pan Hot like wasabi when I bust rhymes Big like LeAnn Rimes, because I'm all about value Bert Kaempfert's got the mad hits You try to match wits, you try to hold me but I bust through Gonna make a break and take a fake I'd like a stinking aching shake I like vanilla, it's the finest of the flavors Gotta see the show, 'cause then you'll know The vertigo is gonna grow 'Cause it's so dangerous, you'll have to sign a waiver How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad? Trying hard not to smile, though I feel bad I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral Can't understand what I mean? Well, you soon will I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve I have a history of taking off my shirt It's been one week since you looked at me Threw your arms in the air and said, "You're crazy" Five days since you tackled me I've still got the rug burns on both my knees It's been three days since the afternoon You realized it's not my fault not a moment too soon Yesterday, you'd forgiven me And now I sit back and wait 'til you say you're sorry Chickity China, the Chinese chicken You have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin' Watching X-Files with no lights on We're dans la maison I hope the Smoking Man's in this one Like Harrison Ford, I'm getting frantic Like Sting, I'm tantric Like Snickers, guaranteed to satisfy Like Kurosawa, I make mad films, 'kay, I don't make films But if I did they'd have a Samurai Gonna get a set of better clubs Gonna find the kind with tiny nubs Just so my irons aren't always flying off the back-swing Gotta get in tune with Sailor Moon 'Cause that cartoon has got the boom anime babes That make me think the wrong thing How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad? Trying hard not to smile, though I feel bad I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral Can't understand what I mean? You soon will I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve I have a history of losing my shirt It's been one week since you looked at

Safety post

Happy Gaming

Hello there Ben and Jones, I’m back again with my latest review for you two to enjoy; this time it’s for Mega Man 11. Over the last year or so I’ve been going back to play through every Mega Man game, X included, after I got the Legacy Collection bundles on sale. As a lifelong Mega Man fan, I was very excited going into this entry, and though the game is imperfect, it really gets me excited about where the next entry could go. By the end I came to the realization that Mega Man shouldn’t need to change what it fundamentally is in order to do what it already does best. As you may remember, I shared some passages from reviews I wrote in the past the last time that Ben was on. His enthusiasm for my writing was really encouraging, especially given that his own writing, articulation and reviews have been some of the biggest inspirations to me for years. Thank you so much Ben for giving me the positive feedback to help me get started doing what I've wanted to for so long. The review was a little rushed this month because I really wanted to be able to get the Mega Man one out just in time for Ben to be on. Forgive the audio peaking in a couple places; I’m using a new recording setup I still need to tweak. Other than that, as always I’d be especially appreciative for your and Chat’s constructive criticism. Bran-Man, please cut the video off at 3 minutes. If anyone would like to check out the rest of it, or my other work, you can check out my Patreon to see all of those for free, as well as an upcoming podcast I did interviewing fellow patron and friend Mister James Davey. Thanks always, and Love and Respect, Brian from Happy Gaming https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbHSgRryv64&feature=youtu.be

Happy Gaming

.

Adam Hentschel

Hey Ben and Brandon! Originally, I had planned to finish this video around Age of Calamity’s release but as you may know, shit happens. Nevertheless, here we are a few months later with a little rendition of Breath of the Wild’s main theme. As for the arrangement, inspiration was taken from both the original recording as well as the remix found in Smash Ultimate, particularly the key change heard towards the end. Anyway, thanks for listening and have a great February!
 Adam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoTvn1rV8KE

Adam Hentschel

This story was made to be 9001% Anime. If Patreon deletes it, it's because their body couldn't take it

R.F. Switch

Greetings Jones and Ben, Unfortunately, this short story will be my last for a little while, as your girl needs a break to 'refresh her spell slots,' so to speak. That said, I have one hell of a way to finish this “season” of Themis the Catgirl stories, not to mention righting a serious wrong. You see, the first showcase I joined was last February, which Ben was on, in which I dumped quite a bit of negativity on everyone. This was followed by the last time he was on in July, when I talked about a panic attack I had. No more! As an empathetic person, I cannot allow this pattern of BM to continue! To make up for my transgressions, and to give an offering worthy of the mighty Kaiju of Frame Trap Island, I've gorged on Maximilian Dood videos, read up on my fighting game lingo, and binged several Shonen Anime to make possibly the best short story I have written so far. This story is about martial arts, badass girls, fighting games, and was specifically designed to be as Weeb-y as possible. Our clip, set 8 years before Book One, is about a 15 year old Samantha Garrett having a kickboxing sparing match with her eternal rival Ashley Rothschild. How will our heroine fare? Well............ Love and Respect, R.F. Switch P.S. For the full story, Ben, check twitter later. By the time Jones finishes reading this sentence, I'll have tagged you in the link for it. I really hope you enjoy it. Also, I apologize if this clip sounds a little janky, I had a lot of issues putting it together. *Note for Jones: Please read the following sentence in your Golden Voice* And now, a World Premier Excerpt from "Grudge Match", Written and Performed by R.F. Switch

R.F. Switch

Here’s my ranking of all 2020 games I’ve finished. Remember: every statement is an opinion. 35. Bugsnax. Couldn’t care less. 34. PHOGS!. Significantly overstays its welcome. 33. Streets of Rage 4. Slow movement makes everything annoying. 32. Battletoads. What was it? 31. Ghost of Tsushima. Disjointed game design. Lifeless settlements. Copy-pasted quests, cut-scenes & environments. Dull story. Underwhelming visuals. Only co-op campaign is enjoyable. 30. Carrion. Quickly gets boring. 29. Carto. Starts strong, evolves in frustrating direction. 28. Iron Man VR. Flying feels good. Bad visuals, terrible loading times. 27. Paradise Killer. Feels like early prototype. 26. Astro's Playroom. Constant controller vibrations are incredibly distracting. 25. Relicta. Decent puzzle game. Needs more development. 24. Gears Tactics. Nice, but too repetitive. 23. Hades. Great art style. Lack of checkpoints wastes too much time. 22. Maneater. Controls could be better. 21. Immortals Fenyx Rising. Stamina-based traversal and manual point-of-interest filling hinders exploration. 20. XCOM: Chimera Squad. Decent. 19. Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition. Interesting story, great locations, distractingly bad visuals. 18. Tell Me Why. Nice visuals, awkward animation, good fairytales. 17. Röki. Nice, but inputting puzzle solutions takes too long. 16. 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim. Character names are too complicated to remember, so following fascinating story is nearly impossible. 15. Desperados III. Good. 14. Journey to the Savage Planet. Nothing special, but fun. 13. Mortal Shell. First satisfying Souls game. 12. DOOM Eternal. Good game, great engine. 11. Dreams. Great, but extremely short. 10. Marvel's Avengers. A bit repetitive and short, but fun. Great visuals. 9. Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Navigation and difficulty could be less frustrating, but I loved it. Good music, great visuals. 8. The Pedestrian. A bit short and easy, but wonderful. 7. Haven. Very relaxing and endearing. Great characters and music. 6. Watch Dogs: Legion. Fun and playful. Ends too fast. 5. Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Wonderful exploration, great side quests, beautiful vistas, perfect world scale. Combat, setting, lead & main quest are a step-down from Odyssey. 4. The Last of Us Part II. I wanted to kill Abby. Then I wanted to kill Ellie. Then I wasn’t sure which side to take. Only masterful storytelling can change my mind thrice. Great performance capture, sound design & fabric simulation. 3. Filament. Best puzzle game since The Witness. Excellent music. To learn more, watch my review on June’s Community Showcase. 2. Half-Life: Alyx. The best VR game and probably the most immersive game I've ever played. Masterclass in game design. Visuals are better than in many non-VR games. But story is forgettable. 1. Cyberpunk 2077. Mind-blowingly deep lore, amazingly dense, diverse & believable world, best ever visuals, incredibly complex animations. And powerful character moments. And soundtrack. And languages. And so many other things. I wasn’t playing this game, I was living in it, up to only wearing clothes that V would put on. Despite non-random bugs, Cyberpunk 2077 has set the bar for all future games. That’s why I’ve already completed four playthroughs. That’s why it’s my GotY.

Alexander Zyryanov

Bring a chair when waiting in line for the vaccine.

Sara Knite

Hello Brandon and Ben, This month I feel compelled to talk Resident Evil. I'd like to know more about Ben's favourite RE games and the origins of his love for the franchise. I remember playing Resident Evil 2 as a boy and being genuinely frightened of the zombies because their gargling groans when out of view thanks to the fixed camera angles made the dread so palpable and nightmarish. I was a tad dismayed that Resident Evil 4 disposed of the shambling hordes but was won around by just how much of a game changer it was and how it moved the franchise forward. RE6 made me question whether survival horror lost its pulse and RE7 won me back and revived my faith in the franchise. What is your favourite RE save theme? I particularly enjoyed RE0's, RE4s and the RE5 Results music. I find that me and Ben are quite alike when it comes to videogames. We're both videogame writers, we both play just about any kind of game and we can both be wordsmiths too-though Ben's articulations are unmatched both in writing and in voice. How do you prepare for reviewing games? I have a gift for Ben-the gift of words-here are a few you may or may not know: -Axiomatic-unquestionable -Fugacious-fleeting -Scurrilous-Humorously insulting I think parallels can also be drawn when it comes to our enjoyment and fondness for Japanese games such as the Danganronpa series. I find it to be a demented laugh honestly. Danganronpa has had some many wonderful and twisted moments I would like to know what some of Ben’s favourite moments are in any of the games. Myself and HappyGaming have recorded a podcast together where we've discussed our favourite games of 2020-giving me another chance to express how much I love Huntdown, but also talking about why Hades is so damn good, why Wintermoor Tactics Club is so cozy and why Animal Crossing: New Horizons should merge with Doom Eternal. Is there any possibility of knowing which Allies will be available for the Q&A each month before it goes live? Lastly I want to end the showcase with something a bit more cogent than my usual ramblings. I find that when I put too much stock into what I think should happen I feel salty or annoyed when those things don't happen, where I expect too much or allow myself to get carried away with the opinions or actions of others. We humans are usually too caught up in expectations of others and misunderstand that people have different value systems to us that we form judgments on others because they’re different. In addition, I believe that getting yourself down about what others think about you isn't worth the effort because haters in this life are an inevitability and you need to be headstrong in order to contend and flush out those negatives so you can embrace and savour the positives. Thanks for all you do. Love and Respect.

James Davie

Hey Ben and Jones! Hope all is well with you guys. The progress on my webcomic is still going now that I’ve finished episode 5, started storyboarding episode 6, began a new character design, and continuing to redraw episode 3. In the meantime and after getting a mini depression from the last portfolio day on Twitter, I decided to take up a new hobby. It started as just a random thing where a YouTube recommendation popped up for me and I’ve been not only curious but also thinking this looks like fun. So, after doing a bit of research, I went and bought an app called Forger and started doing 3D sculpting. For my first sculpt, I decided to make a bust of my main character in my webcomic. Just for clarification, no, I’m not doing the webcomic in this format because of how meticulous and very high attention to detail this whole process is that it would take FOREVER to do the whole comic this way. So, here’s a set of screenshots of my progress in creating Sophie’s bust. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ltvRnMisQya58wepyVWywmhC0YBtu9kW/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rn6_CTTigsm3AVCgvq4sroWBaZHgUK-1/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1o9sfjvAfKqI6mjeZkVYQsUUxEfhk8aTO/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mm9GXNnjxX7AbamaYDfrKw3eBxrSZ66K/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1OP4rxg068QOM7UOpumz0snsbLCfJVejr/view?usp=sharing I had a lot of fun making this and it helped in motivating me to continue the webcomic. So, here’s a preview of something that I’ve been chipping away at and since I’m a huge Avatar nerd, I couldn’t resist making one of my favorite airbenders. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PXfi-ZmyA5hpMHUFA8iImaxs1WxnDB9V/view?usp=sharing Hope everyone is staying safe out there, wear a mask, wash your hands, and find a way to get vaccinated as soon as it’s available to you! Black lives matter! Much love and respect, SaraKnite P.S. A little thing that happened. I was having dinner with my dad when you guys were streaming your GOTY deliberations and he said “I can see why you watch these guys, they have a lot of fun and they let everyone talk.” I then told him, “they also have a really good community.” Love and respect everyone!

Sara Knite