cmdonovann | Entries tagged with quantum break

This was originally posted to

First things first. Quantum Break: What The Hell Is It?

Well, it's a video game. If you've heard of Alan Wake (2013) or Control (2019), you're already familiar with Remedy Entertainment. They also made Quantum Break, and while it's not the same genre of weird as their other, more popular titles, it's got some weirdness going for it that I really enjoy.

So what's the appeal? To me, it's the combo of characters who are all flawed in various ways, a focus on relationships and interactions between those characters, and the epic drama of closed loop time travel wherein nothing can be changed and no tragedy can be prevented because everything that's going to happen has, for all intents and purposes, already happened.

I've already written a couple of posts on Dreamwidth about Quantum Break, so you can always check those out if you want a straight-up elevator pitch for why this game is good. But right now, I wanna talk about why this game is worth your time. I wanna talk about the parts of it that I've invested my time into. Fair warning, I'm gonna say some spoiler-y things in here.

( A Quick Summary )

( The Pitch: Why You Should Play It Yourself! )

So! If you've been looking at my other Quantum Break posts and thinking "wow, I think I'd like to play that game, but I'm not entirely convinced it's worth my time and/or money yet" then here's your excuse! There's so much to dig into in this game, and while Let's Plays and walkthroughs are great, they're not quite a replacement for playing it yourself, if you can!

In short: Quantum Break is a good game! You should play it!

I wanted to make a little reclist for folks who might be new to Quantum Break, since I've been here forever and I'm always trying to drag new people into this fandom with me.

I've done my best to link to the original posts for art and edits, but as most of those come from Tumblr and people change usernames on Tumblr a lot, breaking reblog chains, some will be linked from the nearest to the original source I can get. For all other fanworks, I'll provide direct links.

Additionally, I'm aware that my recommendations skew heavily in the direction of Jack/Paul. Yes, I know I have a bias. I've tried to include some gen stuff and some other ships as well, but be aware that that's my OTP here, so it's over-represented, lol.

Also, some of these are very meme-y and some of them are very serious. There's a thorough mix of vibes here. I never said this was a GOOD rec list, it's just things that I like.

Lastly, I also wanted to provide some recommendations for Let's Plays and walk through videos that people can watch to get the full game experience, even if they can't afford to buy the game itself. Those recommendations will be listed first!

( Read more... )

I'm just archiving this comment here to make it easier to find later, for myself, ahaha. Originally posted here as a reply on this post in the

yuletide comm. I nominated Quantum Break for the yuletide exchange! >:3c

Title:
Quantum Break

Media: Video Game

Approx length: Approximately 8 hours for a full playthrough on average, in my experience; it's shorter (about 5 hours) if you look up a story-only or story-focused Let's Play on YouTube. I have some recommendations for good ones in a post on my journal, here, as well as a more in-depth pitch for how good this game is, lol.

Where to find it:
You can buy the game for Xbox One via Microsoft, or anywhere else you can order games online (Amazon, Best Buy, etc). It's also available for PC on Steam and a couple of other platforms. If you want links to Let's Plays or walkthroughs, I mentioned those above.

( Read more... )

This was originally posted to the

smallfandomfest community here! I'm crossposting it because I just love to yell about Quantum Break.

First, the basics. Quantum Break (2016) is a single-player narrative-focused third-person shooter game from the creators of the (much more well-known) Alan Wake and Control games, Remedy Entertainment. At its core, Quantum Break is about time travel and the futility of trying to change things, so I personally classify it as a tragedy, though I don't know if that was the intent of its writers. That's what makes it such a tasty story to me, though, and it's a big part of why I've been obsessed with this game pretty much nonstop since its release.

The plot of Quantum Break, in a nutshell, is as follows: the main character, Jack Joyce, returns to his hometown for the first time in many years because his best friend, Paul Serene, has asked him for help with something secret. Jack, loyal to a fault, flies back to his hometown on a day's notice to learn that Paul's secret project is a time machine, and together, they test the machine out, trying to prove that it works so that Paul's project doesn't lose its funding. It all goes horribly wrong, of course, and the fabric of the universe itself is broken in the time machine explosion (a "fracture in time," as the game says), and Jack has to find a way to fix things and prevent time from breaking down entirely.

( With the elevator pitch out of the way, now let's talk about the parts of this game that make me insane. )

Does any of that sound interesting to you? Well, you're in luck, it's not super expensive to buy a copy of the game these days, since it came out in 2016. I highly recommend playing Quantum Break yourself if you can, but if you can't (I know not everybody has an Xbox or a PC that can run games), here are a couple of playthroughs that I quite like on YouTube.

This one and this one are both just the story bits, though obviously neither of them can show all the possible story branches and choices. They're about five hours long each, and contain basically the same stuff, so pick whichever one you like better and you'll get a good idea of the game's story.

This is a playlist of a no-commentary playthrough that's also quite good. It leaves in the gameplay, unlike the previous examples, which cut a lot of gameplay out and just leave the plot-relevant stuff. If you want to watch the gameplay to get a better idea of what Jack is like in action, this is the one for you. It's a lot longer, though, but it is broken up into small chunks in the playlist.

Finally, if you're really interested in the game and want to talk to other fans about it, I run a Quantum Break discord server that you can join here if you want! I'm also currently running a BINGO challenge for Quantum Break fanworks, if you're into that sort of thing.

It's open! I've got a permanent invite link for it now! You can join here if you wanna talk to me (and other fans) about Quantum Break >;3c

this was originally posted to my tumblr on September 19th of 2023. i'm crossposting it here to archive it, and because i wanna drag more people here into liking quantum break with me XD

I’m running another Quantum Break fanwork challenge! And you (yes YOU) can join it, if you want!

Fracture Day is coming up (the day that time breaks! hooray!) on October 8th/9th (weird canon discrepancies my beloved) and I wanted to do something fun for it! Sooooooo I’m running a BINGO challenge!

You can sign up to request a BINGO card anytime from Sept. 19th to Sept. 26th. I’ll send everyone their cards on Sept. 27th, and then you’ll have until Oct. 8th to finish your card! Winners will be announced on the 9th :3

EDIT: The schedule and deadline have been updated! Since many participants in the QB Discord didn't have enough time to complete their prompts, the challenge has been extended to Friday, October 27th!

The sign-up form can be found here, and the rules (and other various info) can be found here! Basically, when you sign up, you’ll get to add a bunch of Quantum Break-related prompts to your own custom BINGO card, and then you have a little over two weeks to try to write, draw, and create things to fill those prompts and get a BINGO!

I’ll be playing too, obviously. As an example, here’s my card:

I’ve sorted the prompts into three categories: Characters, Ships, and Tropes (and other miscellaneous ideas). When you sign up and request a card, you can choose what kind of prompts you want, and pick a few specific ones too, if you like!

What counts as filling a prompt? Basically anything, as long as you post it somewhere that I can see it! :3c Fic, art, meta, edits, fanvids, cosplay, anything goes! Your fics can be short drabbles or long epics, your art can be just a doodle or a whole painting, doesn’t matter to me! I just wanna see Quantum Break stuff! That’s the whole point of this challenge!

Aaaand of course, this wouldn’t be a challenge if I wasn’t offering some kind of prize. Yup, the first people to get a BINGO or a full card blackout will win something! You can check the info document (linked above) for specifics, but basically, it’s these:

Alright, that’s all I got for now! Good luck everyone, I’ll see you on Fracture Day! ;3

(Bonus: if you wanna join the Quantum Break Discord Server to chat with people and get ideas, I now have a permanent invite link set up for it! You can join here!)

this post was originally posted to my tumblr on May 1st of 2023. i'm posting it here as well to archive it, basically. also, i like showing off my quantum break stuff :3

so, first of all, wow, it was WAY more effort than i thought to just POST SOMETHING EVERY DAY. i put a lot of pressure on myself to only post The Good Stuff to this blog, and boy golly is my standard of “good stuff” higher than it ought to be! so this has been great practice for me in “finished is better than perfect.”

second of all, i wanna put together a quick rundown of everything i did this month!

Announcement post
April 1st: My Bleeding Clock (My Immortal AU) fanfic for April Fool’s Day
April 2nd: Playlist to go with My Bleeding Clock
April 3rd: Sketch of 2010!Beth
April 4th: Sketch of Jack and Beth
April 5th: Reblogged my old post about last year’s anniversary zine, as well as a new little sketch to celebrate the 7th anniversary of the game’s release
April 6th: Doodle of Beth in a skirt (with pockets!)
April 7th: I literally just posted a passage I like from the QB:ZS novel
April 8th: Started posting old art… completed set of the halo series here!
April 9th: More old art (Jack/Paul this time)
April 10th: More old art, LNEHH edition
April 11th: More old art, Will Joyce edition
April 12th: Some Jack/Paul art to celebrate me and my husband’s anniversary :3c
April 13th: QUANTUM BREAK HOMESTUCK AU!!!
April 14th: Surprise! it’s even more old Jack/Paul art!
April 15th: Wow! I can’t believe it’s more Jack/Paul art!
April 16th: Apparently I was busy this day because I just reblogged LNEHH, lol
April 17th: Quantum Break characters, but as Skyrim characters
April 18th: Some blinkie gifs I made using blinkies.cafe
April 19th: A sweater I made using the linocut stamps from last year’s anniversary zine
April 20th: Another blinkie gif, hehe
April 21st: Meta post about color palettes and color usage in Quantum Break
April 22nd: A little QB divider I made for my fansite (WIP)
April 23rd: Some terrible glitter gifs, also for the WIP fansite
April 24th: Minecraft skins of a bunch of QB characters!
April 25th: I was also apparently busy this day, cuz all I did was make a stupid phone background for myself XD
April 26th: Took a swing at pixel art
April 27th: A promo for the Quantum Break Discord Server I run!
April 28th: Wrote another chapter of My Bleeding Clock…
April 29th: Art of Jack and Paul :3
April 30th: Started a new longfic: The Symmetry of Fear!

holy shit. that’s a lot. i am retroactively impressed with my past self for doing all this, lmao. nice.

third of all! i wanna note that i started several projects this month that i have yet to finish. of course i’m not confining my quantum break posting to one month of the year (impossible) but i will take my time finishing the… uh… three fics and two meta essays i have unfinished, as well as the fansite i am working on. i want these to be GOOD, so i’m not going to rush them. i’m glad this month gave me to juice to finally get these projects started, though!

and lastly… why did i even do this project/event in the first place?

well… good question. i imagine i’m not the only one who has been Going Through It for a while now, and i just… really needed a big project to focus on for a while. and quantum break is like, one of the only things that i never get tired of thinking about, so… are you seeing my logic here?
all that said, i do genuinely want to work on putting more love out into the world. and i love quantum break! i want other people to love it too! (or at least, i want other people to look at my passion for it and be like “i dont go here but you keep doing your funky little thing my man,” you know what i mean?)

so, big thanks to everyone who has encouraged me this month, whether it be in reblog tags, in the quantum break discord server, or elsewhere. also, big thanks to my husband, who i would not have married if not for our mutual obsession with quantum break, and who is always down to listen to me talk about my various theories and fic ideas. and finally, a big thanks to remedy, for making this dumb game that i love so so so much.

Well, I removed Tumblr from my phone to prevent me from wasting so much time there, which means I now have nowhere to easily and quickly post my inane thoughts (at least not without feeling like I'm bothering people on Discord or in direct messages, though perhaps that's something I should work on). You know what that means! It means I'm probably going to try posting them here instead.

Thing I want to post about: I'm making a Quantum Break fansite! I've been wanting to do this for ages, and actually started putting together a couple of little graphics for it during the "Quantum Break Appreciation Month" event I ran on Tumblr in April, but I hadn't made much progress on the project since then... until the past few days, anyway, when I started brainstorming what I actually want to do with the site, how I want to lay it out, and so on. Yesterday I put together some CSS for the site, and today I did The Hard Part: I set up a git/GitHub repo for the site, and got the "deploy to neocities" script working for it, so I can easily and quickly make updates to the site in VSCode, then push from there to GitHub to neocities all at once, like I do with my personal site.

Was this an absolute pain to set up? Yes! Somehow, it took me even longer to do it a second time than it did the first! But I did it myself, with a lot of encouragement and rubber duck-ing from a few very helpful people in the Fandom Coders chat. Can't say I'm not proud of myself for that. I would not have had the skill or confidence a year ago to do something like this, especially not all the mucking about I did in the terminal trying to set up the git repo in the first place.

Anyway, I am, to put it mildly, extremely fucking excited to continue working on this site. I've got big plans: first order of business is to get an archive set up of all the Quantum Break fanfic I can get my hands on (and get permission from the authors for). After that, I'm probably going to do the same for fanart and image edits like photosets and gifsets from Tumblr, since the CSS page styling for those will likely be similar (though I expect to run into some attribution problems with older Tumblr posts, what with so many deactivated or moved blogs post-2018). Once that's sorted out, I'm considering looking into the best way to archive fanvids, but honestly that might be put off for a while longer, as video hosting and video players are way out of my skill level currently. Maybe I'll import some of my Quantum Break playlists from my personal site, too? Oh yeah, and at some point down the line, I want to make a searchable wiki with transcripts of all the in-game narrative objects. But "searchable" is probably going to be a stumbling point there, and transcribing takes ages, so this will be last priority, I think.

Wow, that's... a lot, actually! Damn! This is gonna take a while. Not that I mind spending a couple of years poking at a project, obviously. *Gestures at my longfic that took four years to finish...* I've been neck deep in this fandom for over seven years, what's another five or ten? XP

[EDIT JUNE 15th 2023: I also crossposted this to Tumblr, with some additional commentary and a screenshot of one of the WIP pages. You can find the post here.]