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Heres hoping Gears 4 gets you guys some more attention again...

[[ It’d be nice. Recently Gears was trending on Twitch, when normally there’s only about three people playing at any time. Gears has always been kind of the underdog for Microsoft… ]]

fyi Black Tusk Studios is now The Coalition.

[[ Oh, thanks for letting me know! ]]

Gears of War 4 E3 Demo Dissection

This is gonna get long, and geeky, so hold onto your butts! I’m going to try to break this into two sections: What we know in-game, and what we know from a technical “This is a game” view point.

The selling point of this demo are Sera’s two unnamed moons. Pay attention to them. You’ll sell them for a straight six minutes--okay, five, since we minus the time our heroes are indoors. There’s something going on with them. They’re huge, meaning they’re close to the planet, and they just happen to be full. Something is going on in the atmosphere... and Kait happens to point out “Wind flare incoming!”

This crazy thing is a tornado that shoots lightning. I’m not saying the moons have anything to do with this phenomenon, but the moons have something to do with this. From the weather, we could place the game somewhere in Storm, Gale, or Heat; three of Sera’s months.

After watching this trailer back and forth, pausing and unpausing, I’m not convinced we’re in Tyrus. It certainly draws inspiration from New Hope and Seahorse Hills (the ornate fountains that I can’t get shots of) but nothing screams Tyrus. It’s not regal enough. There are statues and pillars everywhere in Tyrus, even rundown cities have memorials and busts and flags. JD and Kait are going towards a fort. Know what COG state has forts? Kashkur. The flag in this fort is the biggest convincing point.

It’s really hard to see. I’ve boosted the brightness, maybe I didn’t get the right shot, but I will say that I watched and I focused on pixels and strained my eyes so bad... but there’s no eagle and there’s no gear. There are none to be found in the entire demo. NO EAGLE OR GEAR IN COG STATE? BLASPHEMY. But truth, as far as I can see. Because although Kashkur aligned itself with the COG during the Pendulum Wars, they don’t necessarily have to rebuild their entire cities/towns to include all the COG regalia, where regular Tyrian cities already have it built it, proven with the current four games.

Here comes the troubling bit. Glowing pods. Immediately we think of the Lambent and all the crap we had to go through with them. But if JD’s story is placed after GoW3, then we have a problem. The countermeasure Adam created, and successfully deployed, killed off all Lambent creatures. Does that mean all Locust went with it? Not necessarily. Baird asks Adam if the countermeasure will do anything to him to which Adam replies, “Nah, you’re cool, bro” because unless it’s colonized the cells and you’re experiencing the side effects--intense muscle pain and fever--you’re good. Who’s to say some Locust weren’t completely infected? We don’t know for sure. We only know that Adam wiped every Lambent possibility from Sera. He shot himself up with imulsion to test the effects, which is why he went with the countermeasure, proving (to the players) it worked. Unrefined imulsion is gone.

If the game is placed before GoW3, then there’s no concern necessary. These aren’t lambency pods. They’re organic. Although the Lambent were organic, they were mutated to a point that was reflected in their very beings. The stalks they used to travel were hard as rock--the pods were not fleshy like these. And JD proves that you can touch it without it exploding, a sure sign it can’t be Lambent.

“JD, don’t touch it!” “Lolololol, I’mma touch it.”

Time for a lesson! Before the Locust started all this uprising nonsense, the Hollows were known to hold some of the strangest creatures and plants. During Operation: Hollow Storm, we get to see some of this flora for ourselves. Glowing fruit. Glowing fungi. Hmm, sound familiar? Most of the creatures found in the Hollows have a tough carapace--you know, the creatures that were already there before the Locust started training/harvest them? Hmmmm.

“So many things to touch!”

Looking at these new creatures, Pouncers, it’s obvious they’re indigenous to the Hollows. Does that mean they have connections to the Locust? Not at all. There were plenty of things in the Hollows that weren’t connected to the Locust. And there’s something about the mouth that says THIS IS A NATURAL SERAN CREATURE. But I can see people getting up in arms about it’s tail. “IT SHOOTS GLOWY THINGS. GLOWY = LAMBENT.” Yet when we look at it, it’s a natural glow, much like the pods and fruit and mushrooms. Lambent is glaring yellow and orange. This is a natural luminescence.

And it doesn’t shoot gunky lambency slime that we’ve seen before. It shoots spines. The shot after this, a Pouncer embeds the car JD is hiding behind with it’s spines.

As the title appears, there’s once again a large influence from the moons. This could be a sign from the developers. Remember in GoW2 how little Carmine said “This one guy in basic, he thought that [Locust] came from Risea or one of the moons and that they feed on imulsion”? Remember that? That could be a thing. We already know the Locust don’t come from another planet, that they’re related to the Sires found in New Hope, but there’s something about these moons. It would be a stretch, since Gears has planted itself in “AU science fiction” rather than “THAR BE ALIENS IN DEM HILLS.” But it could happen.

On the technical side of things, it doesn’t look like Black Tusk has brought anything new to the table graphically. This could be GoW3. And for fans who are super excited that JD and Kait could be the babies of the originals, this is where I dig in my heels and say calm down. Gears is not known for it’s amazingly diverse cast. I’d take lots of screenshots and play “Who’s jawline/nose is this?” but we’d all lose because they’re almost all the same. All the women resemble each other; all the men resemble each other. That’s just how Gears has always played it.

I will say this, however... JD’s ears are lower than Baird’s. His noise is rounder (although painfully obvious it’s been broken somewhere along the way), where Baird’s has a beak or a hook. Just because he’s blond doesn’t mean he’s Baird’s kid. In fact, JD shows more Fenix traits than anything (round face, round nose, squinty eyes). However, assuming it’s Marcus and Anya’s kid... Anya couldn’t bear children; it’s why she joined the army. I can’t see Black Tusk disrespecting that.

Kait is Sam’s daughter? Well, that we don’t know, but she does have Kashkuri features. Does it mean they’re related? No. Don’t be rude. We see her up close for two seconds, if that. And the more you look, the more you could even say maybe she’s from the South Islands. Galangi, Kaia, Noroa? I’m kinda annoyed she’s going to act as our guide through the game (over here, look at this, enemy spotted, where are you going, MARCUS IT’S YOUR DAD).

But until the developers officially say it, I’m not buying into any of it. It’s fun to speculate but don’t cling too hard until we have official word. Let’s all believe he’s you’re all-Tyrian white country boy!

We can see that the Pouncers are organic and feral. They resemble Locust machines because they took existing creatures and created materials to fit around them. It’s possible the developers are showing us “wretches” in this demo, trying to lead us off a trail, but even wretches had an obvious connection with the Locust because they were... Locust. One thing I will point out is that Skorge had at least two tongues; these Pouncers have ten thousand and one. So there’s a Locust connection if you’re reaching.

Really we can only wait with bated breath. The developers can easily pull out an excuse of “there are some Locust still alive and they’re trying to make an army” but we know the Locust need a monarchy. Maybe Black Tusk would say “Myrrah cut out her ovaries and put them in imulsion and it made a baby!” but that’s... yeah, that’s not gonna happen.

Personally, I hope for the idea that the natural creatures are starting to get antsy since their home was flooded and just want to take things back to the caveman days. The pods we see are just breeding grounds of the Pouncers. Giant creatures will rise out of the background and suddenly you’ll find yourself in a boss battle. Leviathians for days!

I’ll close with two things:

Kait mentions, somewhat with surprise, that there’s water. Is there a drought?

JD’s armor is similar to the armor Kilo wore in Judgment--there’s almost no similarity to the armor in GoW3. We know Judgment took place during the beginning of E-Day. So where does that put JD?

#ooc #Gears of War #Gears of War 4 #rumor mill and dissection #long post is long

♬

[[ Iron Man - Black Sabbath; Paranoid - Black Sabbath; YYZ - Rush ]]

#damon baird #answers #headcanon

☾and ♪

[[ Any chair. Literally. Even in the mess. During boot camp he fell asleep on a sidewalk and rolled into a gutter.]]

[[ Baird doesn’t sing out loud. If he does, it’s jokingly and horribly. He never mastered rhythm… ]]

#damon baird #answers #headcanon

astriiformes

headcanons

send me a symbol and i’ll tell you: ♬ 2-4 songs that are probably on their iPod ☾the one place they sometimes end up falling asleep — where they’re not supposed to ✖the game they’d destroy everyone else at ✌ the emoticon they’d use most often ☠ what they act like when they haven’t had enough sleep ☃ their preferred hot beverage on really cold nights. or mornings. or whenever. ✿ how they like to comfort/care for themselves when they’re in a slump ✪ what they wanted to be when they grew up ☁ their favorite kind of weather ♪ thoughts on their singing voice (decent? terrible? soprano? alto?) ✎ how/what they like to draw or doodle

Btw, I´m not a sadist but I find some types of bruises (hickeys, ect.) kinda attractive and I gotta say you sported that black eye Loomis gave you pretty nicely.

Thanks... I guess? I was running off some crazy adrenaline at the time. Although I gotta be honest, it stung by the next day...

chairman-prescott replied to your post

[[Write it all! All of the things!]]

[[ Don't you tempt me, you devil! Talking about that Alex stuff yesterday, I saw a scene in my head and my first thought was "I could do this" and then my hand slippedoops.... ]]

#ooc #a2897

[[ Oops, I wanna write a trashy snip of a younger AU Baird. Oops, I wanna write sciency Baird. Oops, I really need to resize a lot of these images now that Tumblr is poop. Oops, I gotta do adult stuff first :( ]]

#but wowie wow I'm having more fun than ever

Exactly. You were in a /tank/. Somethin' that's designed /not/ to break, so you had no reason ta worry.

Obviously you don't know how gravity works...

Big thing experiences dead drop. Gains speed. When big thing hits the ground, your knees go into your skull. We can find a cliff, alright? We can test this. I'm all for it. I'll even give you the honor of going first!

Hi hi. Sorry to see someone's bashing you =C I think you're super fabulous! <3

Why thank you, gray-faced not-such-an-asshole. But, you know, my personality is like honey and I attract all the wrong things. Not that I'm complaining. Steel skin, you know?

At least I don't wet myself while drivin' down the road.

Goddammit, who's been censoring the field reports?

Down a tunnel. In the Hollow. Across a ravine in a tank

Hey, if talking about thermodynamics makes your day, then be my guest. I did mention how science talk makes me sleep well, right? Besides, I understand it way better when it´s spiced up with sarcasm and cool goggles. Everything is more fun with cool goggles.

"Makes me sleep" means "Bores the shit out of me"... you know that, right? Although I'll agree on the second part. Life is far better with cool goggles.

Darlin' if anyone's ego needs a leash, it's yours. But it's okay. Ego can look good if done right. Too bad I don't go for blondes.

My ego does just fine. It only bites when its threatened--which is never. Because I'm on a completely different level than anyone else.

And hey, lucky me! I don't go for gray-faced jackasses using voice changers or whatever. You look like an idiot, by the way, great job

[[Since I don't see anyone else asking]] ♣ and ♦

[[ A mistake/regret - joining the army. I honestly, truly believe this bothers the heck out of him. Yes, he’s okay with it, he accepts it, he learns and grows during it, but it’s not what he wants. I think he agonizes over the “could have been”s if he had gone to engineering school. I think most of his nightmares focus around this whole ideal that if he had what he wanted, the Baird we see in the games and novels wouldn’t be his end product; he would be someone completely different, and he desperately wants to know who that is. It drives him crazy that he’ll never know who he could’ve been. Also, he would’ve had the chance to fight the war from the other side. What if he created something that could have stopped the Locust? ]]

[[ Bad luck/superstition - For a while he was superstitious about working with women; they seemed to only bring bad luck for him. And yes, he does have lucky underwear but he doesn’t like to wear them often in case, one day, they don’t work ]]

#answers #headcanon

Oh yeah, I totally did get that part, but then it turned into all kinds of laws of whats and what-nots and as a non-native English speaker it all kinda blew right over my head. But hey, it´s good to have dreams. So dream on, dude!

Then I won't bore you with thermodynamics--although I kinda want to, but just because zeroth is fun to say. But anyway...

We all have to strive for something, right? Since I already achieved greatness, it's time to achieve the impossible

Your hands are shakin'? Oh dear, don't tell me I'm makin' you /nervous/?

Hell no. You better put a leash on that ego before it bites someone. I'm just saying, daily explosions, a chainsaw gun that trembles so fast it leaves your arms tired, and, oh, facing death every day--yeah. You try walking away without some kind of negative reaction. I've saved your life, asshole, just remember that while you're comfy on your computer. You probably browsed the GCN for porn the entire time (not that you really could; the bastards took it down on E-Day)

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