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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   989 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for September 26, 2025

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Video games thread:

Back to Silksong after a few weeks break. A difficulty tweak mod made the game much more enjoyable for me. If you're in a similar boat to me — if you enjoyed HK1 but thought the Radiance ending challenges were too much, enjoyed the difficulty of early FromSoft games but thought they crossed a line around Sekiro/Elden Ring — I recommend the following changes to the config file, as the defaults trivialize the game a bit too much: 2x -> 1.5x Player damage, 2x -> 1.6x rosaries, disable Tool regen. On the other hand, consider changing the health regen to every 1 second; it only starts after you're 12 seconds damage free, so it won't make the boss gameplay much easier, but will make runbacks less tedious.

On my first post I complained that there's not enough exploration in Silksong. I'm glad to say the situation improves a lot once you read the Citadel at the top of the map. It acts as a massive hub area disconnected from the main fast travel network, with many hidden areas you can discover and tackle in different orders, lots of unlockable shortcuts, etc.

I can now recommend the game with a few reservations.

Hades 2 came out yesterday! I just got into Act 3 on Silksong but........ now I have Hades 2!

Like Silksong, I find difficulty in describing it other than "more of the same game, in a good way". New enemies, new weapons, new buffs, new mechanics, but the same general gameplay loop and overall feel. I especially like that since the main enemy is Chronos, there's a rare event where he ambushes you and temporarily sends you back in time for a level. And back in time is the first game! It's only happened to me once so I'm not sure how robust it is, but it was an instance of an old map with old enemies that would be in the same spot in the run that I was when I got ambushed. That's definitely a cool throwback mechanic.

I will note that the artstyle and characters seem a little bit.... woker? It's nothing too egregious, and it was a little bit like this in the first game, but just the levels of androgyny, the ratio of more female characters, the lore of being Witches, and the weighting of visual sexualization weighted more towards male characters than female ones generally gives off lefty vibes. Heck, Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation, and is straight up naked in the game (though conveniently self-censoring with arms and hair) looks like a lesbian.

Again, it's nothing too egregious, and the gameplay and story are still good overall so far. It's just a mild annoyance.

How do you make the goddess of beauty look that ugly? She looks like someone drew a man and then added breasts. It's truly a remarkable feat of bad art.

...she's fine? Like I can normally see where female uglification complaints are coming from even when I disagree, but I have no idea what you're on about here, she's perfectly goonable as is. Is it the shadowing on her face making her features too angular or the bracelets accentuating her pointy elbows or what?

I couldn't care less about elbows. The problem is that is straight up a man's face on a female body.

I think it’s broadly the total lack of anything approaching softness or sensuality. Hades 1 Aphrodite I’m not super keen on either but she has a coquettish pose appropriate for the Goddess of Love and Lust. This one in holding a sword and shield and looks like she wants to beat you up. Aphrodite is always dangerous but not like that.

I’m reminded of a previous post saying that one reason people liked Sydney Sweeney was that she’s one of the only models to have doe eyes and look soft and approachable rather than glaring at the camera.

Is it the shadowing on her face making her features too angular?

This, IMO.

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