Devlin Burgess

9 July

Ah, right, birthday means updating the account info. #Promosky I'm Devlin Burgess, 29 years old, cis male (he/him), straight, white as a sheet. Recent graduate from Grad School, military historian. American, lives in Oregon in the Portland Area. 1/13

Here's the start of my little #Halloween week horror movie thread. Decided to go with Swedish Shudder entry Skinamarink first. Has a simple sounding concept-a father of two vanishes, leaving the pair alone in a nightmarish house- which is good, as I gravitate to the simple but evocative approach.

Devlin Burgess@devlinburgess.bsky.social

So, none of my potential horror games are really grabbing me this year, and Dragon Quest 7 has been eating up way too much of my time to do the Marvel marathon I was thinking of (I'm over 40 hours in and maybe only halfway?😩) So I'm going to pivot my Halloween plans to something more conventional.

12h

I really like the actress who plays the lead's best friend, Sarah Goldberg. Great facial acting, very emotive. Really feel her heartbreak when the lead's engaging in unhealthy behavior.

11h

Finally a real home run! The Night House was great! Acting, atmosphere, effects, concept, all excellent. Not extremely nerve racking or nightmare inducing, but it's a creepy, effective and relevant story. #Film #Horror

Devlin Burgess@devlinburgess.bsky.social

The acting on display was the highlight, I think. Maika Monroe is really great here, and most of the supporting cast really show up as well. The musical score also grew on me, even if I thought it sounded like a cheap NES ost at first.

12h

Tonight's (first?) #Halloween #Horror film, The Night House. Is this the home of the infamous Night Man? Is it a stop on the Night Train? Am I stalling because I know basically nothing about thos film aside from its release date (2020)? All these questions and more will not be answered!

Unfortunately, it appears that it is time to relinquish my iron grip on #ZeroCompany and let some other *UNDERSERVING* members of the library have their turn. Definitely my favorite game of the year so far, and I truly hope it gets some performance updates abd additional content. Thread below/🧵

Also, the bond system, while mostly simple, offers a lot of benefits if you engage with it, and since the characters are all fun and likeable (minus Cly and Luco), there's no reason not to. The character creator is also fun, with a good amount of options.

TL:DR, despite some performance hiccups, Zero Company is exactly the kind of tough but fair experience you want from a tactical game like this, with enough depth and diversity that repeat playthroughs on tougher difficulties are still fun despite the shorter, more focused runtime.

Enemy variety is also good. The Imperials are bogus standard but tough and numerous, pirates tend to be scrappy, Separatist droids are weak individually but have diverse platforms that can be dangerous together, and the Coil are tough and get tougher as their numbers decrease.

Mission types tend to be simple, with some extra mix-ups in the story missions, and they thankfully forgo any stealth (at least, *player* stealth), but the maps are all well designed which lends some complexity to your approach.

Which is another thing in its favor-ZC feels *far* less arbitrary and RNG dependant than XCOM. It makes the game feel much fairer and allows for a building up of skill and knowledge, where even a decade later I still feel at the mercy of probability with XCOM.

All the soldier archetypes are useful and can be customized in enough ways to create a wide variety of builds, while still having unique units like Tel, Cly and the occasional guest member. Base-building and progression is simple but requires decision making on what you want to focus on.

All the actual mechanics work as they should, and mechanically, ZC is a tight, focused game. On one hand, it's far less punishing than your XCOMs. On the other hand, there's far less leeway given. You can't just indefinitely stall the game to build up-there's always a story mission on the cards.

Which means that, even though you're less likely to lose any soldiers or botch a mission, it's significantly more damaging when you do, a resources are always a lot more precious. It helps that the story missions are well designed and never feel arbitrarily easy or difficult.

I've already spoken about how well the story works, so; the gameplay. First, the Bantha in the room-yes, there are definite performance issues. Awkward camera, framerate dips, ect. But those are problems *endemic* to this genre-XCOM 2 barely functions- and it's rarely more serious than that.

23h

So, I was trying to put in my morning horror movie, only to find, to my own horror, that the disc became stuck in my PS5's drive for about five minutes. When it finally ejected, I found that the reason was that someone seems to have rubbed their oily hands and fingernails all over the damn disc.

23h

Please take better care of library items, anonymous culprit! This thing we've got going only works if we cooperate.

Devlin Burgess@devlinburgess.bsky.social

Tonight's horror film, It Follows, one of....I think two on my list I've actually heard of? Anyway, really hoping this one works out. It wouldn't be the most encouraging sign for my Halloween marathon if the first two days both were write-offs.

I really liked the first half of this film, and it's definitely the most watchable of them all so far. But the second half really gets bogged down by inconsistencies in how the "curse" is supposed to work, to the point of being really distracting. Felt like an Elm Street or Ringu sequel that way.

I mean, your town and family were so ashamed of your lack of wings that they pretended that you were an orphan for your entire life. And some kids almost killed you by throwing you off a cliff. ....It's a testament to how much Vogograd and the Gardens suck that this isn't #DQ7's worst village.

Devlin Burgess@devlinburgess.bsky.social

I guess we can add frogs to the list of things horror movies want to be atmospheric but really aren't. Frogs, Lego bricks, Fischer Price toy phones.....

Sad to say that La Llorona is probably the worst film so far. The main political point is fine, but it feels like the horror elements were added last minute to try to elevate a script that otherwise had no hook or draw. No real standout performances either. Very "Criterion" in a pejorative sense.

bit.lySerbia’s strongman leader Vucic concedes defeat to student-led movement in seismic political shiftThe long-serving strongman leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has conceded defeat in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting his government.

Hell yeah. Hope some football hooligans are weeping into their booze right now.

The Associated Press@apnews.com

The long-serving strongman leader of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic, has conceded defeat in an election that pitted him and his right-wing party against a diverse student-led opposition movement that spent two years protesting his government.

Devlin Burgess reposted

The Associated Press

@apnews.com

Devlin Burgess reposted

Oz Katerji

@ozkaterji.bsky.social

Vucic concedes defeat! Political earthquake in the Balkans!

Devlin Burgess@devlinburgess.bsky.social

Alright, the horror pick for this morning is one the #Criterion Collection has deigned to acknowledge: La Llorna. One of *several* films about the infamous ghost of Mexican folklore. Also I guess there's a frog involved? Will it sing Hello My Baby? Is it a transformed prince? One way to find out.

Quick correction *again* (really batting a thousand here, Devlin.😧) La Llorona is actually a regional legend, not just a Mexican one. This version is Guatemalan! I've only ever heard the Mexican versions. Also I spelled it wrong, missed the other O. The real horror is my shoddy proofreading.🫣

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Replying to @devlinburgess.bsky.social

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Marika Mikiashvili 🇬🇪🇺🇦🇪🇺

Devlin Burgess@devlinburgess.bsky.social

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@marikamikiashvili.bsky.social

“Georgia Without Ivanishvili” march. Tomorrow, Oct. 26, marks 2 yrs since GD rigged the 2024 Parliamentary elections, and eventually unleashed hell on Georgians. People keep protesting ever since then, & daily since Nov. 28, 2024 (it’s Day 697). 2 important points: 📷 @rusudandjakeli.bsky.social

Devlin Burgess@devlinburgess.bsky.social

Ugh. Second film of the night is Malum. Reimaging of an earlier film called Last Shift, which I haven't seen either. Hopefully this can pick up the mood a little, or is at least bad in a more straightforward way so I don't feel compelled to watch to the end. #Horror

This one was better (and, more importantly,shorter), but ultimately still not really successful. I think the biggest flaw is the very grim ending, where it feels like the whole story was pointless. It's not really scary, just kinda nihilistic. I hate these kind of endings in horror films.

Devlin Burgess@devlinburgess.bsky.social

It's been a while since a movie made me genuinely mad, but with this much potential wasted, it's just really drove the Butchers Nails into my brain. Blood for the Blood God, Proper Editing for the Proper Editing throne. (It's soooooo long folks, so long.)

And one last thing; charming Danish icon Lego Bricks are a great many things, but eerie is not one of them. Every one of the *many* scenes that focused on them completely killed the tone.

Devlin Burgess@devlinburgess.bsky.social

Correction, it's Canadian. I don't know where I got Sweden from.😅

Arrgh! What a frustrating, frustrating film. There's clearly enough good horror sensibilities there to make a potentially magnificent short, but a full feature length? 100 minutes? Utter shipwreck. Way too long, way too self-indulgent, constantly undercutting every good idea it has. Argh!

I've gotten a whole bunch of horror movies from the library, and I'm going to see if any of them can capture my imagination in the coming week. I'm really not one to get scared by fiction anymore (I used to be a real coward😁), but I *can* still appreciate a good horror story if it ticks my boxes.

I'll start a little megathread about it later tonight when I decide which one I'll start with.

share.googleWhy Serbian elections are so important - as students challenge 12 years of Vučić ruleAfter two years of student protests, Serbians vote on Sunday in elections that could bring down the ruling party.

Considering Serbian conservatives still cling to the memory of genocidal war criminals like Milosevic and that fucker Ratko, I dearly hope this student movement can bring them down. A less sociopathic Serbia would be a genuine decades long achievement.

Filthy Morlocks wander our streets because of DEI. Thanks Obama. -This Message payed for by Bolivar Trask(R) for President-

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If I want to access media from outside America I have easy access to a number of high quality options, rather than a poorly translated fansub or a limited movie ticket to a small art theater two towns away that normally shows borderline porn.

Michael Druker 🇨🇦@mdruker.app

Social media loves talking about how everything is getting worse. But what’s something that you’ve seen get _better_ in your lifetime?

I don't usually do the one like= posts....but I'm feeling in a musical mood today and I generally like to talk about my largely incoherent taste in music anyway.

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youtu.beIni Kamoze - Here Comes The Hotstepper (Remix) (Official Video)YouTube video by IniKamozeVEVO

Let's start off with a classic combination of a great song and a bad, goofy ass video.

Devlin Burgess reposted

AltWatcher

@altwatcher.bsky.social

As we approach the midterms, remember that the Alt National Park Service is a merch sales operation claiming without evidence to be a group of federal employees, and is not a genuine source of news about elections of any kind. Please get your election info from a local, reputable source.

This is how every conversation in Zeta Gundam ends.

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