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thedegenerateasexual · 7 years

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just for funsies i checked the air dates of the seminal episodes 3.19 Letharia Vulpina and 3.22 De-Void and they are february 17 2014 and march 10 2014

with that knowledge in hand here are some fun facts, come down nostalgia lane w/ me:

i started shipping this stupid thing on march 10th 2014 and i can feel nice and superior about being here ALMOST from the get-go

prior to 3.19 only SIXTEEN ENTIRE FICS for that pairing had been published

when i got on AO3 immediately after the ep aired to look for derek/chris there were 23 fics published

there are now 158, but most of them have kn*tting or other ships/tropes i don't like, so i'm STILL #suffering

i've now read the first Ever derek/chris fic and it's not actually too bad! tho i prefer them set after allison dies just to spare her the trauma

less than one short month later i got distracted by some whackjob named barnes and his pretty blonde wife which is probably why it took me this long to get around to writing this shit

speaking of that shit i wrote, i sighed longingly about wanting to catch up on some Bad TV back on may 1st, and had the entirety of the show on my HD by may 3rd

on may 10th i confessed to reading some Bad TV Fic (i'll be honest, i tried some st*rek furst because they write a good derek, but...i can’t deal he’s a MINOR so eventually i went back to looking for fic of my Real Preference. sadly there was very little)

i half-heartedly began an outline file of the fic i sorta-kinda thought about writing on may 30th, but it was just a list of bullet points about my particular interpretations of their characters, no real plot other than "catch kate together"

on june 12th, while making a sandwich, i was ruminating on chris argent and trying to decide if i could make him more interesting to me since currently his main role was just being kind of horrified at his sister and a good character that does not make, when Suddenly i had an idea about a story he tells in season 1

i immediately flew to my computer, messaged @marcusanthotius, and said something like "emily can i tell you about this idea i just had it might be a little bit of a text wall sorry" and she was like "sure" and then i told her and over the course of the conversation she went from "damn that sounds neat" to "I'M SO MAD I DON'T EVEN GO HERE BUT I REALLY WANT TO READ THIS NOW"

i know it was on june 12th while making a sandwich because i saved the conversation for future reference so i wouldn't lose the idea and i said "suddenly while making a sandwich my brain threw me this idea" and she said "it's always mid sandwich or laundry isn't it" which is a very correct observation

(completely forgot until i reread it that one of my points of beef with chris's first version of the story came from someone nitpicking wildlife facts on tvtropes, which i had been reading the previous night - not only do bats that bite not live anywhere near but that's not actually how rabid dogs act; the story was probably done that way to make an obvious comparison to werewolves, factual shit be damned. considering how the show always points out otherwise when the wildlife is acting weird, like when wolves or bioluminescent fireflies show up where they aren't supposed to)

(spoilers: it worked & he’s pretty interesting to me now)

anyway she was like "not to be a bad influence but you should write this" so i made my story doc on june 12th also, but it stayed empty for five days because i was busy perfecting my outline and pacing and shit

on june 18th, 3 years, 3 months, and 9 days after 3.22 De-Void aired, i started writing thing. talk about playing the long game

i poked and prodded at it off and on until june 21, which was my birthday, and got distracted by other things (presents!) and kind of half-gave-up on it because Sex Scenes Are Hard To Write, Okay

on july 9th the 6B trailer dropped. the very last thing i said before i watched it was "yeah i heard a rumor derek's coming back but i'm not holding my breath lol" which frankly is fucking iconic

im gonna take a small moment to send silent appreciation for those 5 seconds of derek hale footage in which i was truly, unironically, living my BEST possible life

NEEDLESS TO SAY i was pretty fucking excited bc my wordcount for that day was 1800

(started this blog on july 14th which just goes to show you im incapable of writing something without also blogging about it, posted this gem one week later on the 21st which goes to show i’m bad at having a secret ship, though i guess keeping it a secret for 3+ years isn’t too bad)

& the rest is history i wrote over 1k for nearly every single day between then & aug8, which is when i finished my rough draft, posted that shit 24h later

which means from conception to posting it took 71 days but from the time i wrote the first word to the time i wrote the last one, 51 days, just under 2 months, and if we don't count the piddling done prior to the 6B trailer it's more like 31 days

anyway those were the best 31 days i've had all year, wouldn't trade 'em for anything

#///#////#/////#anchor #anyway i love emily shes a supportive friend i would have chickened out without her encouragement #dargent #personal #teen wolf #this whole series of events truly set into motion because on april 21st i decided derek hale was asexual #writing talk

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stompsite · 7 years

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Im-prey-ssions

So, I started Prey 2017 up around midnight last night. Eleven hours later, I had to stop playing because I needed sleep. The only reason I’m not playing Prey 2017 right now is because I promised you I’d blog once a week, every week, and since I was busy apartment hunting, playing Prey 2017, and going to the hospital.* I still feel awful; I need several treatments, not one every six months, but dang it, I told you guys I’d write something this week, and I’m gonna do it, even if it’s just one draft. Then I’m going to go play more Prey 2017.

So, right off the bat, this game’s like a 9/10.

Like, if that’s what you want to know, there you go. I love playing this game. Now to get into the nitty gritty. I’ll be talkin a lot about positives and negatives, and I’m trying to be somewhat comprehensive. Just bear in mind: from what I’ve played so far, I like it as much as Dishonored 2 and Doom, my favorite games of last year. It’s Extremely Good.

As some of you may be aware, I really did not like Prey 2017’s demo. There are a few reasons for that, chiefly the fact that I desperately needed to go to the hospital. Literally everything was irritating me and getting under my skin. Everything. This includes Prey 2017’s melee system. Now, let me be clear here: I don’t like the melee system. I didn’t like it in Dead Island, and I don’t like it here. But the melee system is a small part of a huge game, and I happen to enjoy that game a whole heck of a lot.

Would the game be better without a stamina bar? Yes. Absolutely. 100%. The stamina bar adds nothing but annoyance to the game. It does not benefit Prey 2017’s design in any way. If they patched out the stamina system tomorrow, Prey 2017 would only benefit.

So, after the demo, I was pretty worried.

Now, something like 10 hours in: this game is a delight. I love how the station feels persistent; leave a room, come back later, find all the bits you moved right where you left them. It’s WONDERFUL!

The level design overall is Extremely Good Stuff. So far, my favorite level is Psychotronics. It feels the most reminiscent of System Shock 2, and it has two of the my favorite moments in the game so far, which I won’t spoil here. There’s an area above two big metal pods I’m still trying to figure out how to access, so I’ve got reasons to go back.

The Arboretum is fantastic. Crew quarters are ace. On and on I could go; I like every single level in this game with the sole exception of G.U.T.S., which is a long tube with zero gravity and some annoying enemies with it. Zero G outside of the station is super cool. Zero G in G.U.T.S. isn’t my thing. As a System Shock 2 comparison, G.U.T.S. is The Body of The Many. But this is one level out of like... a dozen, and as far as I can tell, you don’t have to use it again once you unlock the elevator.

One of the coolest features of Prey 2017, which I hope everyone copies in the future, because it’s great, is the crew tracking feature. Everyone who dies leaves a corpse behind. You can use computers to pick a person to track, then find their corpse. Doing so can net you things like key cards and supplies, which opens up more of the station, allowing you to explore.

There are two kinds of Looking Glass fans, those who prefer Thief and those who prefer System Shock. I’m one of the fans who prefers System Shock; I enjoy exploring more than sneaking. It’s why I prefer S.T.A.L.K.E.R. to System Shock. It’s why I’m enjoying Prey 2017 so much. Finding a keycard and having that ‘oh yeah, I remember where that is!’ moment, going back to that spot, and finally getting to open a locked door you’ve been keeping in the back of your mind for the past few hours... it’s a great feeling.

One of the issues I had with Bioshock is that you rarely had a reason to navigate Rapture. Bioshock 2, my favorite game in that series, went in the opposite direction, turning into a series of linear sandbox maps, like Thief. Dishonored and Dishonored 2 do the linear sandbox thing too. It’s perfectly fine design, but I’ve been hungry for a game world that I really felt like exploring.

Prey 2017 is the first truly satisfying game world I have explored since S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky in 2008. The entire thing is open, you just have to find the right keys and hack the right doors and lift the right crates. It’s a game that rewards exploration, not with a “+100 XP: Crawled a vent” popup, but because as you explore, you get this really satisfying sense of “oh, this goes here, and that goes there, and it all works like this...”

Prey 2017 satisfies my exploration itch. You have no idea. It’s why I didn’t want to stop playing until I physically couldn’t play anymore. The only games that have held my attention so strongly in the past few years were Dishonored 2, Doom, Metal Gear Solid V, and Mad Max.

The symbiotic relationship between “hunt for crewmembers” and the station’s many locked doors creates this insatiable urge to explore. I love it.

Do I have complaints? Yes. The stamina system doesn’t benefit the game. G.U.T.S. isn’t fun to explore or traverse. The dudes who stop you from moving are just Not At All Fun To Encounter. The combat is something where I sigh and go “oh well, here I go again.” Great combat should be emotional combat; there should be highs and lows, a great rhythm, elation and relief in victory.

It’s not like a great stealth game, where you don’t want to enter combat because stealthing is more satisfying. It’s not like System Shock 2, Alien: Isolation, or STALKER, where combat can be thrilling and terrifying in equal measure, due to player vulnerability. It’s... just kinda there. It’s easily the game’s greatest weakness.

Prey 2017’s combat is annoying. The enemies feel samey (they’re all fast, teleporty, and take a bunch of shotgun damage before they die) and are way too visually consistent to be exciting. If you look at System Shock 2′s enemies, there’s a lot more interesting visual variety in the designs, which makes the experience more enjoyable. There was a lot more tactical/strategic depth in System Shock 2 as well.

Fortunately, you spend far more time exploring than you do anything else. It’s so effin good, man. Like... I’m over here writing about Prey 2017, when all I really want to do is go hop back in Prey’s world and explore Talos I some more. The level designers outdid themselves.

Even fundamental, basic stuff like mantling and crouching feels super good to do. The game world is just a joy to exist and interact in when you’re not fighting dudes. The only problem I have with the game world is that certain areas (especially the maintenance/labs area) have really predictable enemy spawns, which makes the world feel a lot less ‘real’ than it might otherwise.

Basically, I like the game. I like it a lot. I like it better than every game that has come out so far in 2017. It’s right up there with Dishonored 2 (which I adored) for me. It’s engrossing, thrilling, and awesome.

With some better combat and enemy design/spawning, Prey would be as close to perfect as a game can get. If my opinions change significantly as I continue the experience, I’ll probably right a review. If I was the scoring type, it would be an easy 9/10 for me.

So, one last thing: the default settings are a bit strange.

Change mouse sensitivity to 50, turn off Damage Numbers, rebind ‘tab’ to inventory, and bind your mouse wheel to weapon changes. It’ll feel a lot better. It’s still kind of weird to navigate menus (you can’t use the scroll wheel to scroll down lists?), and for some reason, moving your mouse moves your ENTIRE CAMERA when reading computers (compare this with Doom 3′s more satisfying implementation of computer screens). Sometimes, clicking works, other times, you have to press F, and sometimes, you have to press G. It’s kind of strange. It makes sense to use G to, like, repair items in the world, but less sense to use G on a menu where it seems like F or Mouseclick will do.

The game has a ton of these weird little UX issues that, if tweaked, would significantly improve the game. I wish they’d been caught prior to release, but I hope they get patched.

There’s no FOV slider, but that should be coming soon. For some reason, the intro videos are unskippable. You can’t click through them or anything. You can, however, turn them off by editing your game files.

I do have Extremely Negative Impressions about how the game’s been handled, though. You see, I like Prey. That’s the Real Prey, the 2006 FPS Prey. The one with Blue Oyster Cult and Art Bell. I liked that Prey a lot. If you install Prey 2017, and you have Prey installed, 2017 will be installed in Prey’s directory. It’s frustrating.

It’s also frustrating that the game is named Prey at all; did we really have to lose the original game on Steam for THIS? Did the sequel really get canned for us to play this? I can take Prey 2017 on its own merits, and it’s a great game, but the way Human Head was treated, and the way the original game is being treated leave a really bad taste in my mouth. I love Arkane. I love Bethesda. I don’t like how the whole “Prey” situation has been handled. They could have given this game so many names and avoided the problem entirely.

The Prey for the Gods Situation is really bad. Some Bethesda PR dude said somethin on GAF about “we have to protect our trademark,” but that appears to be untrue. Here’s CDPR talking about that very subject. So it seems like folks at Bethesda are being dishonest, and that really rubs me the wrong way.

It sucks that a game I’m loving right now is associated with so many negative things.

Overall, best game I’ve played since Dishonored 2, appeals to my personal sensibilities a lot more, I don’t really like the combat so I try to avoid it as much as possible, I love this world so dang much.

*I was in the hospital because of my illness.

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