#i just so adore me2 and its the one i get the most excited to replay and i just i could scream about my love for this game forever

[captainderyn]

Now, if I may be a lil greedy in return, lol, 3, 19, & 20 from the AO3 wrapped <3

Absolutely lol it's only fair xD Thank you for the asks!

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3. What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)?

Lol so I have two answers, both of which no one has seen yet ;--; the first one is my original novel, titled Deeper Waters right now, that is probably a solid 75-80% of the way through its first draft right now. I took a break to write Fictober, but plan to pick it up again in the new year as I settle into my new place and the dust starts to settle. It's the first original work I've been able to make it this far into and actually feels like I might want to take it somewhere. I've written close to 73k on it since February and that's a massive achievement for me.

The second one is a prompt-fill gone wild for Ryn and Garrus that got way too long to even fit the prompt fill anymore and has taken on its own life that deals with the very real impact the Reaper War starts to have on Ryn post Thessia and its consequences and kJDHFkfhs I'm excited to share it so here's a snippet:

“Garrus.” she said with the sort of calm that put him on immediate high alert. All the color had drained from her face, leaving her eyes wide and stark against her pallid skin, “You need to call the Normandy.”

“Tali’s working on it--” Garrus followed Ryn’s hands, body going unnaturally still.

The Phantom had worked a long, black blade between the fibrous parts of her armor and the carbonized plating. It blended into the dark metal of her armor at a first glance.

Ryn’s hands flitted around it, “Suit deploys medigel.” She reasoned with that too-calm voice, “Medigel can’t fix that.”

Honestly it's got a lot of extremely raw emotion in it and tension that I feel like I haven't been able to capture very easily recently in my writing and kjsfhkjdf I'm so excited to share it.

For stuff that y'all have seen lol...definitely Dog Tags as I feel like its the most comfortably and correctly I've been able to capture the complicated mess that is Ryn and Garrus' feelings at the beginning of ME2.

I dunno, this year I finally feel like I've bounced back from a lot of stuff that happened previously and finally found my place here on tumblr again. I finally feel like I'm getting a bit of my Just Deryn identity back :') it's quite pleasant.

Read more because whoopsies

19. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

Shakarian! Lol for realsies I have so many more fics for Ryn and Garrus in store. So many ideas for them have started flowing that I just don't think I'll be able to stop writing them xD

Not a pairing, but I want to get back into writing Five and Era as a team, whether that's in their Imperial Agent format or adapting them for Cyberpunk 2077. I guess we shall see :P

Ngl there's part of me that wants to get back into the interacting-more-with-other-people's-characters side of things as these last few years I've been playing in my little sandbox of Wulf/Raenor and Garrus/Ryn but I don't even know how to reintegrate myself there lol.

20. Which work of yours have you reread the most?

Is it cheating to say Dog Tags? Because the answer out of fics from this year is Dog Tags. I do regularly go back and reread Under the Party Tree as I really like how some of those turned out, but it hasn't been long enough for me to fully enjoy going back and rereading those yet. They're still too fresh.

That being said of all time, the fic I go back and reread the most is fictober '19 Moments in Time. The adoration I have for the fics in this collection is nearly unmatched and I reread them all the time. I think it might be because it was my step back into writing fic after quite a long break and my first time back to writing two characters that were fully mine without the support of someone to bounce ideas off of and hash out all the details with.

#captainderyn answers #AO3 wrapped #this would be longer but my laptop battery is dying and plugging in my charger is Too Much #I also have another Ryn based fic I'm very excited to share titled Reunification #which takes place right after that first mission in ME2 when Shep wakes up #and her little crisis about being alive again

[x-nephophile-x]

yknow, after replaying all three games again, Mass Effect 2 is still my favorite out of the three (no disrespect to 1 or 3, I enjoy them both as well) but 2 just hits me different. It just... ugh, it slaps so hard. The score, the characters, the innate sense of forming a team and befriending these people and inspiring them against a collective (heh) enemy, and knowing that its do or die, and even if its death then you go out with a bang, saving more colonists from being taken, stopping the reapers again because fuck you Harbinger, and its just so damn good. Its like, yea, a companion recruitment simulator but also, it is so intense and so good.

Every mission, recruitment and loyalty, slaps, the characters are so well written and endearing, the opening cutscene is iconic, the final mission, even when you *know* you did everything right, still puts you on the edge of your seat because of the stakes. Like y’all ever look at the math that game is pulling when its deciding who lives and dies because of what actions you took? you ever look at that pain in the ass hierarchy? What is dependent on the upgrades, the right crewmate for the jobs, the point system at the final segment? The ILLUSIVE MAN?? He deserves his own little spot here because he is so ???? Like That ??? Anyways, I just want to say I love Mass Effect 2 immensely, and its likely for the same reasons as I love DA2 and its because bioware gave me the ability to form a rag-tag group of the most badass and capable idiots and said “theyll follow you to the ends of the earth if you love them” and i said “they are all my family now i love them immensely”

#misc tag: Cas Rambles #mass effect 2 #mass effect legendary edition #i just so adore me2 and its the one i get the most excited to replay and i just i could scream about my love for this game forever #dont mind me rambling i just needed to scream into the void because im thinking about the space game again #long post #long-ish anyways

[kaidaned]

Anyways, ten hour trial is over. Absolutely adored every second.

(Mostly) spoiler free review below! (I say mostly because I talk about things vaguely that aren’t referenced in the trailers. No story details are spoiled)

First off: the character creator. It’s limited, yes, but I was able to make a set of Ryder twins that I was very happy with. 

Next, the opening mission. You’re thrown right into the action, and the combat is fun as hell. The mood is tense and unsure, but a hell of a lot lighter in tone than the original trilogy.

The writing is relatively simple at first, since the game is meant to be friendly for fans and newcomers alike. But for the most part, it’s typical Mass Effect. Walk up to a character, ask questions, get more questions off of those answers, etc. As things progress and the story starts getting more complicated, so do the character interactions.

The dialogue wheel is FANTASTIC. It does a muuuch better job of fleshing out your character. I found myself reading all four options and really role playing, rather than instinctively picking a certain emotion.

The Nomad takes some getting used to at first, but it drives very well. There are two modes, four and six wheel drive, as well as a speed boost and jump jet. As expected, it’s the Mako with far better controls and no gun. The open environments are massive, but the Nomad makes them feel perfectly manageable. 

I was able to explore two planets, but the trial is gated, so I wasn’t able to progress super far. What I did explore, however, was beautiful. The environments in this game are absolutely breathtaking. 

There were multiple structures and outposts on the planets I explored that I was able to enter. The interior is a huge improvement. I couldn’t help but be reminded of ME2, when you’re on Freedom’s Progress, and they claim it looks like everyone just up and left. But every single room is bare minus a few plates and cups. The rooms and buildings feel actually lived in.

The indoor environments, such as the Tempest, the Nexus and Hyperion, are large and feel very Mass Effect. The Tempest is smaller than the Normandy, but feels a lot cozier. It’s more lived in and homey. The Nexus/Hyperion are essentially one large monster, and feel a lot like the Citadel. Although I could delve into spoiler territory if I talk too much about it, I’ll just say there is a very large portion of the Nexus that I wasn’t able to access yet.

The scanner is a blast. I found myself running around scanning everything I possible could. It’s not nearly as much of a burden as people have feared. 

I encountered two glitches: for some reason, there were frequent times when Ryder wouldn’t stop sprinting, and the scanner wouldn’t open. However, at the end of my trial, I realized it was happening every time I checked the trial countdown timer on Origin, so it was an Origin Access issue, not an issue with the game.

Beyond Origin being its typical awful self, not a single aspect of the game glitched in any way whatsoever. Literally everything worked as intended. 

As for the weirdly controversial facial animations, I’ll make an entirely different post about that, haha.

Overall: this is a BioWare game. One by a brand new studio and a team consisting of Mass Effect veterans and fans alike. The resulting game is beautiful, fun, exciting, and definitely Mass Effect. I really loved everything that I got to experience, and I barely scratched the surface. I can’t wait to delve further into this world they’ve made.

If you love Mass Effect, you’ll love this game.

#mass effect #mass effect andromeda

[krokonoko]

Man you've played a lot of games. Do you have a favorite game?

I’ve got a lot of fav games actually!

First on my list has to be Skyrim. There’s never been a game that drew me in so much, inspired me so much and that felt so much like home. But I’m constantly rambling about how much I love Skyrim so yes. Skyrim. Good shit.

I love, love, LOVE Ace Attorney 4, it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played. I love every single character in it, the dialogues are amazingly witty, it’s only flaw is that it never got a sequel.

ALSO MAN Monkey Island 3 is WHERE IT’S AT that game is fricking AMAZING! Been playing it since I was a kid! I already talked about it at length over here, about how much effort they put into the graphics, into the soundtrack, how the riddles are the most well-structured of the entire series… Believe it or not I’ve played this game SO many times by now, I can give you a complete walkthrough from the top of my frickin head!! Haah I gotta replay it some time soon, I miss it sometimes~

Of course Dragon Age 2 is on here too because MAN I ADORE that game to bits and pieces. The combat is TONS of fun, the dialogue system is the absolute pinnacle of what Bioware can do, there’s just the right amount of companions. I love the severity of consequence in this game (some of your friends will just ditch you if you’re not nice enough), I love the story, I love the atmosphere of Kirkwall, I love the menus, I love that there are just enough but not too many side quests and how a lot of them are running through the entire course of the game… DA2 is awesome.

Same goes for Mass Effect 2. By far the game I love most out of the series. Of course its got its flaws like every other Bioware game, but there are some of my favorite ME characters in it! I really liked the dialogue options (it’s very important to me that in a game that boasts about giving you freedom of choice, there is ALWAYS an at least somewhat pacifistic solution, something that’s becoming less common for some reason), and honest to god, the Suicide Mission is the BEST final level of any video game I’ve ever played. Also for some reason the sound design really sticks out in this one for me. Picking up ammo, launching probes etc, everything feels SO SATISFYING thanks to the sound design!

Pokemon in general is something that makes me feel happy, especially the 2nd and 3rd gen, but at the moment, my favorite game is Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire (…especially Alpha Sapphire tbh… I just really love Team Aqua, they’re hilarious!) Not only is the 3rd gen awesome, the remake made it even better! The graphics are neat, the dialogue is funnier and more on point than in any other Pokemon game, and there are endearing NPCs all around.

Also it’s been a while, but I remember really liking Metal Gear Solid 3.

Yeah and I think that p much concludes it. …Jesus, MI3, AA4, DA2, ME2, ORAS, MGS3… seems like I’m somewhat of a middle ground kind of guy? Idk I often feel like the first few games of a series are awesome, but they’re only the starting point. Often they’re a bit awkward and it takes the developers a couple of tries to really figure out where they wanna go and realize the full potential of their game. …Until the series starts floundering for one reason or the other, maybe cuz the game series has overstepped its reasonable lifespan, maybe cuz too many cooks spoil the broth, maybe cuz the higher ups dropped the ball on reasonable money management, maybe cuz the developers are losing sight of what their game oughta be cuz they are jealously ogling the money other developers are making with different games… and we get clusterfuck disasters in game form like Andromeda, ESO or *shudders* Monkey Island 4.

But hey, all hope is not lost! There’s always the possibility that the developers drag themselves up by their own bootstraps, straighten out their game concept, remember what it is that makes their game special, add improvements that actually make sense, and bring us new, fun games in the spirit of their precursors, but with the excitement of ingenuity!

(Games that I never played but I love nevertheless: The Last of Us has some of the best writing I’ve ever encountered in the video gaming world period.)

#cal rants #gaming #gaming industry #skyrim #tes #mi #da #me #pokemon #mgs #tlou #anonymous #ask