#still like kotor 1 and its characters best but it's fun to find out some wonderful moments in k2 as well

[dairine-bonnet]

Onderon playthrough seems endless... even though there are interesting plot twists, this part of the story is still too looong. If it had been shorter, Onderon could've become my favourite planet. I'm also a bit fed up with Kreia's intrigues and manipulations...

#some thoughts about kotor 2 playthrough #while kotor 1 plot is gripping almost all thetime for me #kotor 2 has a pattern like: gripping boring gripping boring gripping boring... #nothing happens then many stressful situations in a row and nothing interesting happens again afterwards... #like the narrative is unbalanced... #idk how to explain it... yet... #still like kotor 1 and its characters best but it's fun to find out some wonderful moments in k2 as well #i haven't been playing kotors for 15 years... can't believe it!:D #kotor #knights of the old republic #kotor 2 #onderon #k2 playthrough #k2 thoughts #star wars #kreia... *deep sigh* #i've never been a big fan of her tbh:D #my complaints?!

[jackalopey]

im bored so im going to write up my rankings of the class stories, with my reasoning. please keep in mind this is just my opinion and no hard feelings if you disagree. going from my worst to best

8. bounty hunter

i simply did not vibe with it. to be fair, im not a fan of bounty hunter stories unless theres a twist, and im definitelyy not a fan of mandalorians (generally speaking), so it was pretty much set up to fail from the beginning. i did like most of the companions (skadge do not interact) though

what i disliked the most about it was the choices, though. i was trying to play a mostly light side hunter, and while i know that imp side characters are still going to make fucked up choices, i just really did not vibe with a lot of the options given

like, the one i hated the most, was having to kill that jedi at the end of chapter 1. like. it did not make any sense to me why the mandalorians wanted him dead. they were mad that he killed a bunch of mandalorians during the sacking. which was in warfare (and a dishonourable strike, on the mandos part). i didnt like that my choice was basically ‘kill him while laughing maniacally’ or ‘kill him but say its nothing personal’. i also disliked that even though i spared his padawan, it still made me kill her later. i dont know what they were going for with it

im hoping ill enjoy it more on a replay because im playing my character as dark sided and stupid bc its literally the only way i can make some of the choices make sense in my head

also while i liked most of the companions i hated how torian’s backstory was handled. i didnt mind makos though. i thought it was hilarious that we didnt find out why she had clones (unless i missed something ????)

7. republic trooper

it was fine. i didnt dislike it. im just not a fan of typical war stuff (yes i know the franchise is called star wars. you know what i mean). there was nothing specific that i didnt like, it just wasnt to my tastes

that being said, i did like that one mission that was a ladies night out, and i liked that it gave me a choice that actually took me 5 solid minutes to work out what i wanted to do. ik a lot of people dont like evil choices like that, but i do

i liked both of the romance options, and some of the other companions, but some of them were just kind of bland to me, personally. there was nothing bad about them, they just weren’t as interesting to me

6. jedi knight

i was extremely disappointed by this one. it wasn’t awful, i just had higher expectations, and i dislike how some people try to sell it as ‘kotor 3′ when it. isn’t. at all. i also don’t like that it’s considered the ‘canon’ storyline when it’s so average compared to some of the others

it’s not bad or anything. it’s just a typical jedi knight story. it’s exactly what it says on the tin. which is fine. but it’s not very interesting, i prefer stories with more twists

i do love kira though, so that gives it a lot. i also like the personality of the jedi knight, i like how they’re so full of themself, i think its very funny

i do think that there was a lot of wasted potential though, which is a shame

5. sith warrior

okay now we hit the ones that i actively like

my first impression with the warrior’s story was very bad because i tried to play it pure dark side and then panicked because i didnt want to shock vette lmao. i restarted with a light side warrior and had a very very fun time, the story was very unique to me, and i really like the ways you can characterise a light sided sith

im not a big fan of how a lot of the dark side options appeal to... a certain audience. if you know you know. but outside of that i enjoyed this story a lot, i didnt know what to expect going in but it was very good

i dont like quinn much though lmao dont kill me

4. smuggler

it was fun! i don’t really know how to expand much more than that. it was really fun to play. the smuggler is fun. risha is the love of my life. i simply had a very good time playing this one

personal fan of how inherently funny an outlander smugller is conceptually, also

3. consular

i feel like i’m betraying myself putting the consular at only 3 because it was the first story i played, it got me hooked onto the game and i really really really enjoyed it. but alas i must be honest

anyway. i enjoy the consular’s story i lot. i love the choices, i love the story, i love the puzzles. i love nadia and yuon and syo. the story was really interesting, engaging and emotional to me, i don’t know what to say. it just really hit me, so it blows my mind when i see that isn’t a common response to it. i also really loved the sages playstyle back when the classes were connected to the stories

also f!consular’s voice acting is soooo good, as a voice actor i’m impressed by like. the subtlety of it? the way she emotes but it’s so lowkey is hard to do but she does it really well. i vibe with it a lot

2. inquisitor

i feel like such a traitor putting this above the consular

but the inquisitor was just so fun. i know that it’s a story where a lot of the plot could be avoided if the character was less of an idiot, but unlike the bounty hunter’s, that really worked for me here. i thought it made a lot of sense for the inquisitor to make the mistakes they made, and i found them constantly just tumbling into the next problem really fucking funny

also how disconnected it is from the war is really funny to me. quizzi’s just out there trying to not get killed while a war goes on in the background

ashara is literally one of my fave star wars characters, i loooove her takes on jedi and sith philosophy so much, she’s so interesting to me

1. imperial agent

i mean. it’s a given, isn’t it?

i played it last and i’m glad i did. i like how everything came together. the story was very engaging, and it gave me multiple villains (zhorrid, hunter) who made me Feel Things and i’ve spent a lot of time thinking about afterwards

the agent is also, in my opinion, the smartest of all of the class story protags. and while i found the inquisitors mistakes very funny, something i enjoyed a lot about the agent’s story was the agent’s choices were consistently smart, often the things that i’d thought ‘oh she should do [x]’, and the plot progressed anyway. it felt like being outplayed, instead of having a limited protag, and i dont mind limited protags but idk it just made the whole thing really fun and imo fit really well with an agent

i loved kaliyo, also. her refusing to hook up with an f!outlander because ‘sorry i actually like you and i dont want to traumatise you’ is so fucked up but so funny

...and now i want to continue my swtor replay gdi

#.txt

[maskydoolovesmasseffect]

Mass Effect Tag

Wellio, I’ve been tagged by @berryshiara. Passing this on to @grummel83

Gunna answer my questions now. Y’all feel free to tell me what you think of these answers. ​

I’m a fan since: 2008. I was just out of high school and still not over KoTOR. I was fresh in the army and got to talking to some other dude fresh to the army about video games. He asked me if I played Mass Effect. I said no. By the next day I just about totally forgot about him, then he suddenly appeared out of nowhere sat in front of me in the chow hall and pulled a copy of ME1 for Xbox 360 out his pocket like he was a magician doing a magic trick (ACU pockets are huge.)

Anyway turns out that guy was a romance option and I must have picked the right dialogue options. I’m still with him, too.

Favorite game of the series:

Mass Effect 2. It seemed like that’s the one where choices mattered most and you really got to know your squaddies. Also MAJOR gameplay improvements over the first game. And that game gave me the most freedom to do basically whatever I wanted and wasnt afraid to give me consequences for it.

MShep or FShep:

FShep. Nothing against MShep, but for me the real Shep is FShep. Can’t beat Jennifer Hale’s voice. 

Earthborn, Colonist, or Spacer:

Colonist. I like having the background of knowing just how dangerous the galaxy can be and how the Alliance can’t be everywhere at once so sometimes you need to manage your best on your own.

Biotics or Tech:

Both.

Paragon or Renegade:

Paragon, mostly. I tried being renegade but some of the actions are just so pointlessly dickish, or even outright unhinged in a way that would make it impossible to believe the Alliance would ever promote Shepard as an officer or even keep her in the Alliance at all, especially in the first game.

That said, there are times where a renegade action is more expedient and practical than a paragon one, like in 2 when you stab a dude in the back to prevent him from repairing an enemy gunship, so even with a paragon playthrough, my Shepard will have no issues taking that opportunity. She’s already seconds away from betraying all those guys anyway.  

Paragon in treatment of others, renegade in combat pragmatism.

Favorite Class:

I play as infiltrator and vanguard.

Infiltrator is great for using a sniping and opening loot, and then for going invisible, and if I remember right AI hacking too. That’s cool and I wish there were more genuine opportunities for stealth.

Nowadays I play as Vanguard in my playthroughs mainly just so my Shepard can be canonically biotic for story reasons. From 2 on when looting no longer needs a special skill and I get to charge around the map. I don’t really care much about using biotics (that’s what the squadies are for) but the movement is super useful (when Shepard actually does the thing instead of just standing out in the open soaking up bullets until the ability decides to actually work.)

Favorite Companion:

Garrus. I like to set him up in sniper positions. When he actually STAYS where I put him instead of running straight up to enemies to try to snipe them at point blank, he’s great.

Also his quips in 2 on are pretty entertaining.

Least Favorite Companion:

Garrus, Oh my god. Go back to the sniper position where I put you. Leave tanking to krogan; you do not have the HP for this.

Also Kaidan in ME1. He can not shoot to save his life - literally.  

My Squad Selection:

For all ME1 playthroughs after my first one, Ashley and Kaidan, just of their comments and because... well... I only have so much time with them.

Apart from that I mainly just pick my team based on who’s likely to have the most interesting commentary on whatever the mission happens to be, squad balance be damned. 

Favorite In-Game Romance:

Garrus X Shepard is my favorite love story. They are just so adorable together and always supportive even when they disagree.

But my cannon romance is Kaidan X Shepard for the drama and angst.

Favorite NPC:

In ME1 there’s this random Turian on Noveria who randomly has like a New York accent and I absolutely adore him. He plays basically no part in the story other than some minor information but he’s just so pleasant to speak to.

“If you need anything, I’ll be here.”

Favorite Antagonist:

Morinth, the Ardat-Yakshi daughter of Samara. Yes, she’s a murderous vampire who will absolutely kill you given the chance... but like, it’s a medical condition. And I really can’t help but feel for ardat-yakshi in general when their only options are to spend their whole lives on the run from justicars out to execute them, or waste their entire 1000 year lifespan imprisoned in a monetary unable to experience the world at all. Yeah, Morinth is evil, but Ardat-Yakshi don’t exactly have a good deal.

Favorite Loyalty Mission:

Grunt’s loyalty mission is the best. I get to help my baby boy, reunite with Wrex, enjoy krogan society being fleshed out, have a kickass battle against a thresher maw, and get a breeding request. It’s nice to have a quest that isn’t about family drama and genuinely gets a happy end.

Favorite Mission:

Despite Citadel DLC requiring everyone to have a deathgrip on an idiot ball, and also basically gloss over some really dark stuff, the whole clone storyline with the whole crew is an absolute ride all the way though, with lots of interesting and unique scenarios, a ton of replay-value, and funny party banter that feels like it came straight out of a Marvel movie.

Favorite DLC:

Again, Citadel DLC. Not only did it come with the story above, it also had all those interactions with past and present crewmates, including a memorial for Thane (finally!), a cool apartment to hang out in, a party, an arcade, and an awesome battle arena. It really added a TON. Also, it’s nice to see Bioware figure out that DLC needs characters - I’m remembering back in the DLC to ME 1 the party never had a single thing to say, no matter what was going on. The fun and wacky Citadel DLC is a far cry from the serious and somewhat dark space opera Mass Effect started as, but as the final DLC capping off the end of the series, it gets to do a silly victory lap (and get the taste of the ending out of our mouths.)

Control, Synthesis, Or Destroy:

No.

Favorite Weapon:

Sniper rifles, whatever I have that’s fast and has high damage output. Also that one pistol that shoots tiny energy grenades. Pew pew.

Yeah I wasn’t really big into the weapons so much. I’m here to get my story on. 

Favorite Place:

The presidium on the Citadel. It bothered me a lot when I couldn’t explore it in the second game. I know it would have been terribly impractical, but as the presidium is just a huge ring, it would have been cool to be able to explore the whole thing, going past all the little park areas, shops, monuments and so on until you loop aaaaall the way back around to where you started. Like, how cool would it be if the ring had a running track? Maybe C-sec  academy trainees would be spotted jogging together along it in formation. And can you imagine grabbing a coffee (I was going to make up a space-related name for Starbucks but it’s already STARbucks...) and taking a nice stroll along the water before finding a nice bench to alien-watch from? Other locations in the game are like great places to explore and do gameplay stuff, but the presidium seems like a nice place to just be.

Favorite Quote:

"Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honor matters. The silence is your answer." - Javik.

This is such a fucking raw damn line. It makes me think a lot about Cerberus. When ME3 wasn’t out yet, I thought maybe the plan was Shepard would at some point choose a side, Alliance for paragons and Cerberus for renegades. It would have been so cool to have morality not merely be good vs evil, but idealism vs that ruthless calculus Garrus mentioned. How fucking raw would it be if Cerberus wasn’t just generically evil for no reason and suddenly indoctrinated but really were embodying that ruthless calculus, determined to defeat the reapers at any and all cost. Maybe Cerberus actions’ were more likely to do terrible things for the sake of ultimate victory, doing whatever it took, whereas the Alliance would be less willing to make the terrible choices and ultimately be less likely to succeed.

Now obviously, that’s not what happened, as it would have required Bioware to basically make two entirely separate games. But that line from Javik makes me think of that concept, and a universe where like Dragon Age party members can approve or disapprove of actions not merely as good or evil but along the lines of their personal values. I think Javik would sit at victory at all cost.

Also that one mission in 2 where some random NPC catches Shepard sneaking around and is all like ‘what are you doing here?’ and Shepard is like ‘What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Get out here before it blows!’ and the guy’s freaking out like WTF and she says ‘RUN!’ then laughs to herself as he flees from an imaginary bomb. Shep you troll. 

The thing I like the least about the entire franchise:

The misogyny and objectification that crept its way in, epically from the second game on. Really didn’t like those ass-shot camera angles, or female characters being slut-shamed in-universe for the clothes the designers made them wear. Yikes. 

But the biggest yikes for me in that regard is actually the reveal in 3 that the prothians guided asari development. That was fine and all, but the part that bothered me was the characters commenting “ooooh, so that’s why asari are so advanced,” as it was ever any kind of mystery before that exact moment. For one thing, asari aren’t really shown as being more advanced than anyone else, apart from having discovered the citadel first, and for second, why wouldn’t asari be advanced? All the way from ME1 it’s established that 1: Asari live for a really long time, and 2: can instant transmit information directly from brain to brain. That means they have long lifetime in which to accumulate knowledge and experience, and also can easily spread and preserve that knowledge without even the need for books. That ALONE should put them ahead. And even with all that, they only barely beat the salarians to discovering the Citadel first. But no one asks for an explanation for why salarians, who live only a few decades and can’t do mental data-transfer, are so advanced. No, only the success of the all-women race needs explaining. It was just one moment but it still bugs me. 

Also the general loss of realism after the second game. First game everyone gets armor, including full-face helmets automatically on in environments that need it. After that, people can apparently just wander the battlefield half-naked and even somehow survive in a total vacuum if they just put a plastic cup (that isn’t even connected to anything) over their mouth and nose. In the first game they at least made up some reasonable-sounding science fiction explanation for things, but after that it’s like F-it everything is just space magic now. 

Oh, and those repetitive unlocking stuff minigames. I use a mod to just skip those. 

#mass effect #tag

[kyluxtrashpit]

2019 Fic Recap

So I’ve done this for the past few years and I started doing it at the end of 2019 but never managed to finish it. I think between TROS and IRL and then I got really, really sick, I just haven’t had the chance to do so. But fuck it, I decided to finish it anyway even though it’s now 3 months late lmao. So anyway, a recap of my 2019 fics

Total wordcount: 96 419 words. Which is less than last year, but still not too shabby. I wish I could’ve banged something out to get it over 100k but eh, it just didn’t happen. I definitely have enough wip words and whatnot to get me over that bump, though

Tough Love, 6572 words, posted Jan 17

So this was an experimental one. As you all know, I’m pretty hard on the sub!Kylo/dom!Hux train. But I had a conversation with a friend and it turned into one of those ‘okay, I don’t like x dynamic because of a, b, and c. But is it possible to write x without those and make it into something I like?’ and as it turns out, yes, yes it was. Thus this fic happened and here we are. I still really like it and I have a lot of Feelings on this dynamic vs the one I usually write, but that’s an essay in and of itself lmao. It got some great feedback too, which was cool

Take My Breath Away, 1230 words, posted Feb 7

Ah yes, this one, which was based off a throwaway KOTOR ability but was an excuse for me to write Kylo getting stuffed from both ends with some asphyxiation thrown in. And also extremely rough sex + softer aftercare is a weakness of mine haha, so I just had to do it

Fix You, 1994 words, posted Feb 10

So this was my first piece for Bad Things Happen Bingo, which is an event I’m still planning to finish at some point lmao, and that I’ve had a lot of fun with so far. This fic was another that I tried for a more ‘classic’ feel with, though it’s a lot softer. The uncomfortable intimacy. The ‘feelings are happening but we won’t talk about them’. The shaky trust. All of that good stuff. I had fun with it

Keep Your Enemies Closer, 1657 words, posted Feb 24

Another for BTHB! I just love when Hux wins, okay. And I think this was one of those time periods where Kylo was doing all the winning in fics and I just. Needed something different lmao. Emperor Hux remains one my all time fave ideas and it’s still a shame canon never gave it to us. But I have the power to make it happen, so I did. Plus Kylo in a shock collar is always fun >:)

Indulgence, 17 357 works, completed Apr 19, first posted Mar 28

So! This was a continuation to my experiment from above and really it was just an excuse for lots of smut and pampering lmao. Much as I had thought I had said everything I wanted to say with Tough Love, apparently I had not, and this monstrosity formed. There may be a third, more serious piece to finish off the series this year, but I haven’t decided yet. Although, I have to admit, I’m still surprised how poorly this fic did feedback-wise, especially compared to its predecessor and considering it’s the more popular dynamic these days. Tbh some of my best smut is in this fic imo, but ah well, sometimes people just don’t like things and I suppose I have to accept that, even if I’m really, really proud of that thing

(Okay and the rest are behind a cut for length)

Best Served Bloody, 2666 words, posted Apr 29

Another BTHB and, again, not much deeper to it. Beating up Brendol is always fun though lmao. And when I was writing this, I really wanted Hux to be the one to strike at his father. A lot of pieces have Kylo doing it, which is great, but I wanted to do something a little different. I wanted Hux to have the power to save himself. It was fun to write in that way, as a powerful revenge fantasy

The Best, 6450 words, posted May 12

Ah, now this was a fun one lmao. It was born of a horny crack idea but I can’t do real crack, so it ended up as crack treated seriously. And really, I just wanted an excuse to have Kylo sucking dick. A lot of dick. All the dicks he can find lmao. Slutty Kylo fic remains my favourite pwp, so I gotta contribute to the cause, you know. It was a delight to write, though challenging cause it kept turning me on LMAO. Totally worth it though. It was one of the most fun this year for sure

Be My Outlet, 1003 words, posted May 23

There’s not really much of a story behind this one haha. I was horny and I wanted some classic, Not Nice Hux and hatefucking, thus this exists. Plus I miss Kylo getting choked and it’s rare these days to see stuff quite this rough. I also have a bit of a somnophilia thing, which this sort of fits in to. And I’m always a fan of messy, masochist Kylo. So yeah. Idk it’s smut lmao what else could we want? It’s just a short little pwp, but I had a lot of fun with it and it was nice to revisit the classic kylux days

Safe Harbour, 1616 words, posted Jun 13

This one was for kyluxomegaverse week and it was very fun. A/b/o is one of those tropes where I really, really like a lot of it, but there’s also some stuff that’s much less my cup of tea. So I don’t write a lot of it, even though there are aspects of it that I adore. Which this one includes a lot of lmao. I think the nesting is fucking adorable and I wanted to write something soft, so here we are. Plus omega!Kylo is just delightful. Also looking back on it now, this one did really well? Holy shit, I had no idea it was that popular!

With Dignity, 4475 words, posted Jul 1

This was the last for BTHB that I managed last year (and I still intend to finish my card eventually, it’s just been a rough go so far this year lmao). I’m actually very proud of this one because this is the exact sort of angst I love to write. I didn’t intend for it to be as heavy as it ended up being, but when I started looking up the mechanics of force-feeding and reading about the experience of it, the plan changed drastically because holy fuck. I had never thought of it as that much of a torture before. I also enjoy with Hux like, making the reader feel bad for him while also actively reminding them he’s awful and getting that perfect cognitive dissonance. So this was a great excuse to do exactly that. And I love how tough he is even in such circumstances. Despite the heavy subject matter, I had a blast with this one

Greener Grass, 3389 words, posted Jul 14

This one was originally a twitter thread that really got away from me lmao, so I edited it and put it on ao3 because I really liked it. I’ve always liked self-cest as a concept and I thought it’d be interesting for Kylo to interact with a version of himself that made some different choices. One that was happier. And then we see Kylo through Ben’s eyes, see what the dark side has wrought for him. And then, of course, some smut to pull it all together lmao. It was a really fun character study and I had a grand time with it

Subliminal, 5719 words, posted Aug 23

This one! Okay so I’m pretty sure I sent in a couple of khk prompts over the years that were basically this, but no one ever wrote them so I finally did it. I’m honestly surprised hypno kink isn’t actually used more in kylux, considering Hux is canonically in charge of the brainwashing program. So much potential. So I had to write it. I also went down quite a few rabbit holes in researching this (with mixed success lmao) and learned a whole lot about hypno kink in the process. I may have even acquired it as a fetish lmao. But anyway, this one’s a bit darker and it’s fun to write those every once in a while. I think I pulled it off well too

Ashes Among the Stars, 36634 words, posted Dec 1

Ah and my big bang this year! I had a blast with this one although it was quite the challenge. My first fandom was gundam so when I saw this prompt I was very intrigued and ended up getting it. This fic had a lot more world-building than I usually do, which was the primary challenge as I basically had to take aspects from both franchises and sew them together into a new world of its own. I think I did that rather successfully tbh. The plot gave me trouble too but also gave me some of my best eureka moments haha. My partner was also wonderful and made the experience that much better. I know crossovers don’t tend to perform as well, so I was expecting that, though I do wish some more people had given it a chance since I wrote it specifically so that no prior knowledge was needed. But alas, I’m still incredibly proud of it. It’s also my second longest fic ever!

Filthy, 5657 words, posted Dec 9

And here it is, the gangbang fic I’ve always wanted to exist lmao. I had wanted to write this one for a long time, but I could never figure out how to end it, what circumstances would lead to the gangbang. Then a convo with friends gave me the idea and boom, I could finally write it. This fic is just straight up smut and I fucking love it lmao. There needs to be more Kylo gangbang fics tbh

What have I learned?

Last year wasn’t as successful for writing as I’d hoped, given that I wrote less in 2019 than I did in 2018. But also a lot of things happened to me last year. I got a new role at work. My dad had a heart attack (he’s okay though). I had a pretty rough time with my mental health. And then there was the lead up to TROS and the frankly unnecessary amount of stress that caused me. So there was a lot going on and working against me, which is a large part of why I didn’t manage to write as much as I’d hoped I would, and there’s a lot in my folder that I started but just wasn’t able to finish before the end of the year. I worried for a while I was losing interest, but looking back, no, it was definitely the IRL shit lmao. That said, I’m also extremely happy with all of the pieces I did finish, regardless of how well they did. I’m proud of them and I loved writing them, even when it was difficult

One of my goals from last year was to write more, which I didn’t manage, and to get better at answering comments, which I think I did well on for the most part up until post-TROS lmao. I also wanted to do the big bang again (and I was hoping for a reverse, which it was!) and I did. And I also wanted to have fun and keep my confidence with my writing, which I think I was the most successful at. I feel really good about everything I made and I really enjoyed writing them, even if I didn’t manage to finish everything

Goals for 2020?

I think part of the reason I didn’t finish this post in 2019 is because of my TROS breakdown and subsequent stresses associated with it. Because I wasn’t sure what I wanted or what I was going to do. Sometimes I wanted to give up and find a new fandom/ship, other times I was sure I was over it and going to just do whatever the fuck I wanted, and then there was every emotion in between

Now, though, I’m sure I’m going to keep writing here. I haven’t managed much this year yet, but I can feel it coming back to me. I have a post-TROS fic I managed to solve a major problem with the other day. I also have renben as a new ship to excite me. And I still have a lot of wips and BTHB and various others I desperately want to do. Right now, I feel good about my writing and my interest in it is back to normal, which is great. So this year? I’m not going to set a hard goal. I’d love to write more than last year and maybe I will, but it’s okay if I don’t. I’d love to do another big bang this year, but I’m not going to kick myself if I can’t handle it when that time comes. I’d love to finish BTHB, but if it stretches into another year, who cares? My only goal is to just keep writing and keep enjoying it. I want to have fun with it. I want to be happy with whatever pieces I do manage to put out. I want to set aside time to read more fics from others, if I can. And I think all of those will really help with my mental health, which is starting to recover right now, and that’s what’s most important of all

Also thank you all for your patience with me. I know I’ve not been responsive, here or on twitter or to comments, but I am trying my best. It’s been a rough go and I don’t like to whine too much in my fandom spaces. I don’t know when or even if I’ll get back to normal, but I’m trying, and that’s what matters. I love every one of you on here <3

#kylux #I started this back in december #but then shit happened and I just never had a chance to finish it #but I thought about it yesterday and was like fuck it this is happening #but anyway I do love everything I wrote this year #so I'm not going to be sad that there was less of it than I hoped #I'm proud of what I've accomplished #and I'm going to hold onto that and that's all I want from 2020 writing wise: to be happy with what I did #it's not about the volume #it's about my own personal happiness with it #but anyway #my fic #shut up nerd

[mscompany]

The Top 5 Must Play RPGs for Every Video Game Console

The gaming market is monstrous. Right now there are six consoles, three handhelds, and the ever present PC you can buy games for. That's 10 different ways you can get your game on, so if you're someone who doesn't have the ways or means to buy all 10 platforms and every halfway decent game that arrives for any of them, you're probably wondering which way you should go to get the most bang for your buck. I'm a bit of a gamer nerd, and so for you I've collected the top five available games (in the stores now) for each console for each particular genre. Based on reviews, user comments, and my personal experience, these are the best ways to go. This round: RPGs. The Japanese RPG market exploded in the 32-64 bit days, blowing out with a new game seemingly every week. You can blame Square for that one, bringing to the stores amazing game after amazing game, which immediately spurned every other company to release whatever dreck they could muster to keep you pumping money into their pockets. Nowadays there are hundreds of options out there, and the Japanese market isn't the only one around. North American companies have their own answers to the RPG boom and now it's a veritable flood of options. Here are the top five for each option you've got. PlayStation 2 - The PlayStation brand name has been the home of quality RPGs since PS1 first roled out with Suikoden and Final Fantasy games in the mid- 90s. This list was hard because there are so many left off. Dark Cloud 2, Final Fantasy X, the Shin Megami Tensei games and many more deserve recognition, but alas these are also long as hell, so if you had more than 5, when would you ever finish them. You may notice I exclude the PS3, but I can't really offer any PS3 RPGs for you until they've actually been created. We're waiting. 1. Shadow Hearts Covenant - The Shadow Hearts series took on a serious following after this entry, one of the greatest RPG releases of the generation. It's take on the fantasy RPG genre blended into the realms of reality, bleeding over in church and demonology lore. Taking place in the 19th Century and following the legend of a young woman and her unfortunate destiny, it can be enjoyed alone or along with it's predecessors Koudelka and Shadow Hearts (I). 2. Disgaea - This is probably the best strategy RPG released for any console ever. Released by Atlus, a brand name that has grown in and of itself of recent years to the respectability that names like Square and Level 5 now carry with their games, Disgaea is about the young prince of hell and his quest to regain his domain after being awoken. With more than 200 hours of gameplay here, count on playing for days on days. And it's funnier than hell. These are great characters. 3. Suikoden III - The Suikoden series is the cult series. Of course it's slowly sliding out of cult status and into the mainstream with releases occurring every couple of years since this one. The best in the series with the possible exception of Suikoden II, Suikoden III tells the story of a huge cast of characters, all intricately entwined with one another. You play through the tale of their war, but as seen through each characters eyes. Truly epic. 4. Final Fantasy XII - The newest release, released only two weeks before the PlayStation 3's release, this game redefines the epic scope of prior Final Fantasies, literally reaching for the stars. Each character is fully realized and a part of the action, their story an intricate part of the game. There's no fluff here, and the rebuild of the decades old RPG formula was all for the better, working for the complete and total betterment of the game and hopefully the series. 5. DragonQuest VIII - Dragon Quest has always been huge in Japan, but only now did it find the same success here in the US pubg mobile hile. Dragon Quest VIII is the huge (extremely huge) result of Square Enix's jump to full 3D glory in their series. The graphics are incredible, the characters hilarious and deeply involving, and the story arresting. The battles aren't half bad either. And the usual monster catching glory is intact. A long game, it will keep you busy for days. Gamecube (and Wii) - The Gamecube got shorted on the RPG options, much like its big brother the N64. Nintendo lost a lot of their clout with the RPG crowd when Squaresoft jumped ship in the 90s and they're still trying to earn it back...so far to little success. But, the future looks bright, as Square Enix is finally producing games for the Big N, and Nintendo's own work includes more forays into the RPG market. Here's hoping for more, because the Wii is perfect for the format. 1. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - The newest Zelda adventure, Twilight Princess, is by far the best reason to own a Nintendo Wii. The game is a masterpiece on almost every level, to the point I'm almost willing to call it the greatest game ever made. We've heard this a lot, that this game is the greatest. That it surpasses what Ocarina accomplished 8 years ago. And as my own favorite game, it's hard to ever put anything above Ocarina in terms of scope, depth, and innovation. No need to go into detail. Read my review of it here for more thoughts on why it's so amazing. 2. Tales of Symphonia - The first really good RPG for the Gamecube, and still one of the only ones really. The newest entry in the hugely popular (in Japan) Tales saga, Symphonia was a huge, fun, well told game. The characters were fun, the battle system is one of the best around, and the action was fully inclusive and crafted a long game. Symphonia was the Gamecube owning RPG fan's one saving grace. 3. Skies of Arcadia Legends - Originally released for the Dreamcast, Skies of Arcadia was given a second life on the Gamecube, again fated to anonymity due to the failure of the console. This is a great game. It tells the story of two sky pirates who must traverse the sky ocean and save the world from a shattering war and so on. You attempt throughout the game to build your pirate rank and build up your ship. It was one of Dreamcast's must have games and the same for Gamecube. Unfortunately so few actually had it, and now it's not exactly easy to find. 4. Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker - The infamous Wind Waker. Nintendo's foray into cel shading and the horrible foray into ocean mechanics. This game is still amazing. It's Zelda afterall, but it's flawed on more than the basic levels. It's hard to get around. The ocean is huge, and the game is short. But the parts you play, in between sailing around Hyrule are beautiful and incredibly fun. 5. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door - The Big N rounds out the five with another in house effort. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was a return to the Paper Mario fun they coined in the N64 days, this time around with the RPG elements the game seems to work best with. Incredibly easy yes, but fun as hell at the same time. Xbox (and X360) - The Xbox, not surprisingly saw no Japanese development. Every game listed below was produced in English Speaking countries, mostly Canada actually. The style is noticeably different, but the quality is equally incredible. The strive for realism by Western developers can be seen in each of these entries. Although the lack of humor is equally as prescient. 1. Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion - The Xbox 360 has some serious horsepower. Not only is there room to spare, but the graphic output is insane at time, and what better way to show this off than with an Elderscrolls game. Monstrous, huge worlds in which you can freely roam wherever you want and interact with your environment. This game is huge and intense. Hundreds of hours can be spent just wandering around and completing a main quest. As for getting the rest done. Who knows how long you could spend on there. 2. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - Star Wars games were starting to get a bad rap for a while, until Bioware arrived with the first full fledged Star Wars RPG. Built on the click and wait action of the D&D ruleset games, KOTOR was a brilliant game that took Star Wars fans back a few thousand years to the height of the Jedi/Sith wars. It also had one of the most surprising and amazing endings in any game..ever. 3. Elderscrolls III: Morrowind - And another Elderscrolls game. This one was equally as huge as its sequel, and had just as amazing graphics for its time. Elderscrolls truly stretches the imagination in terms of open world RPG exploration and making a game that will take a long time to finish. A truly wonderful game. 4. Jade Empire - Set in a fictional ancient China, Jade Empire comes from the makers of Knights of the Old Republic, and while not nearly as large in scope or length, the game utilizes an array of different combat styles and elements that make it sheer fun to play. It's shorter and simpler than the original games from Bioware, but they make up for it with the attention to detail and the battle system upgrades. 5. Fable - Touted as an amazing achievement in world interface, Fable turned out to be a little bit of a letdown. It was smaller, shorter, and less engaging than what was claimed, but it was still a solid, fun game to play. Starting as a bland adventurer you could become either entirely good or entirely evil through the actions committed during a quest. The characters are generic, the quests forgettable, but the options given to play through them all are still fun. The ending however leaves something to be desired, and they could have done with a few more reasons to openly explore. For a sandbox RPG, it was surprisingly linear. Game Boy Advance - Yup, no DS games. I imagine soon, with the release of the new Pokemon game, and the surprising announcement of Dragon Quest IX coming exclusively to the DS, the RPG options there will explode, but for now your best bet in the RPG realm on handhelds is with the Game Boy Advance. Here are a few of the best.

[knightotoc]

I can't really rank the SW movies, but I can sort of put them in categories. I wrote a bit about each one because I've never seen a list in an order like mine, though if you're asking me to be rational that is something I know I cannot do.

(This is really long)

1. The ones I love the most: 

Attack of the Clones

🍐 favorite characters, favorite planets

🍐 my soul is anchored to early naughts high-key cheesy emo, à la Raimi Spider-Mans

🍐 most Jedi per square inch

🍐 it's pretty and it kicks ass

🍐 the romance is the A-plot for ONCE

🍐 AND it's a "dark middle chapter" that pulls no fucking punches, the whole Tatooine sequence is just hnnnnggrhhh BRUTAL

🍐 the only "dark middle chapter" in which the person explaining the Jedi way (Anakin) doesn't believe in it and the person listening (Padme) doesn't want to join but just cares about him

🍐 morally ambiguous organized religion/monasticism/chivalry are interesting and personally important subjects to me, a Catholic feminist who majored in Medieval Studies

🍐 the hinge between two time periods I love, "Obi Wan trains Anakin" and "the Clone Wars"

🍐 sets up both Clone Wars shows and both KotORs

Return of the Jedi

🐻 SO much fun, SO much imagination

🐻 like RotS, both the silliest and the most tragic in its trilogy (and imo it pulls it off)

🐻 the ending -- Luke tossing his lightsaber, Palpatine killing him, Anakin saving him -- I just -- gahhhh that's what it's all about, dude😭😭😭 It makes me love the Jedi SO MUCH!

🐻 Luke's plan to rescue Han is as bonkers as Dooku's plan to begin the war and I'm obsessed

🐻 Leia's hair down and Luke in black👌

The Last Jedi

🍸 absolute masterpiece of tragedy and hope

🍸 it's so SMART and has this wisdom that brings me so much comfort facing personal failures and societal horrors

🍸 "That's how we win -- not by fighting what we hate, but saving what we love" -- Rose the Queen of Themes

🍸 the cave scene in which Luke summarizes the prequels and Rey summarizes the original trilogy is so validating

🍸 "Where's Han?" [cut to Kylo]

🍸 all the transitions but that one ^^^^ especially

🍸 best visions in the movies (Rey's mirrors and Luke's twin suns)

🍸 Yoda is the best ghost and wisest teacher as he deserves😭

🍸 Leia Vader parallels are my biggest weakness

Revenge of the Sith

🔥 I can't handle this one

🔥 it's straight up Camelot and Lancelot is my favorite invention in all of fiction, and here he is as an evil space wizard

🔥 I literally can't listen to this soundtrack and drive because I get too sad

🔥 they hate each other SO MUCH ahhgggg, NO other characters come close to this level of emotion

🔥 the Matthew Stover novelization is even more beautiful

🔥 this meta-level tragedy, the dramatic irony of a guy who has been evil since 1977, a name similar to the Greek goddess of inevitability, the swirling destiny of his "prophecy" and his doom, but still I'm like "DON'T DO IT ANI" as if he ever had a chance

🔥 they play the fucking ANH medals theme at the end of the credits and it blows my mind. Absolutely brilliant

🔥 can you believe that only RotS and TLJ have shirtless scenes in them

2. The ones I also really love:

The Phantom Menace

😈 best soundtrack. All the prequels have the most thoughtful and interesting music in my opinion, but I could go on forever about TPM's.

😈 my favorite musical piece in all of SW is the Baby Anakin theme. It's so terribly sad; it sounds to me like rivers and waterfalls. They use it several times in AotC, too. The end of the melody transitions into the Imperial March😭

😈 Duel of the Fates is the actual star of the movie, of course; the words are a Sanskrit translation of a medieval Welsh poem. Ask me about how the lyrics apply to the fates of Qui-Gon, Maul, and Obi-Wan because I've FIGURED IT OUT

😈 also the cleverest piece in SW is Augie's Municipal Band, the parade theme, which is the Emperor's theme from RotJ in major key and sped up

😈 speaking of Palpatine, this is his best movie and I've basically sold my soul to him so👏👏👏we stan

😈 I've probably thought and written the most about this movie and the time periods around it, the training of Maul and Anakin. If you can believe it😅

Empire Strikes Back

☁️ it's the best one

☁️ the "dark middle chapter" that sets the standard for AotC and TLJ

☁️ "Luminous beings are we"😭

☁️ Bespin Leia is the best look in the movies

☁️ "The evil lord Darth Vader, OBSESSED with finding young Skywalker"😂 Ani has a reason to live again, oh no

A New Hope

🤖 the only one you need

🤖 an actual piece of magic on Earth

🤖 Old Obi-Wan is heartache personified

🤖 bow down to Tarkin

🤖 best droid movie

Solo

🎲 the other kissy movie

🎲 SO much fun; John Powell puts so much energy and excitement in his music

🎲 how does this random movie have the best character designs after AotC

🎲 GIRL DROID!!!

🎲 really different point of view on the central theme of family

🎲 that cameo tho

🎲 where's my sequel

Rogue One

🌠 the most visually beautiful SW movie; it fits into the tradition of beautiful 70s sci-fi movies like 2001 and Star Trek TMP, which focus on the hugeness and wonder of outer space

🌠 can Cassian and Rose please overthrow the government

🌠 I have a real theater poster of this one in my room :D (I also have one of TLJ)

🌠 does so right by Vader

🌠 makes the Rebellion more complicated, just like the prequels did to the Jedi Order

3. The ones I don't like:

The Force Awakens

The Rise of Skywalker

I want to like them, especially TFA, but I find it difficult. I feel like they lack confidence as stories, and they don't take things like death and faith very seriously. Many planets explode, but they are grieved even less than Alderaan is in ANH. And if you just pray hard enough, God will help you out. It bothers me that THAT was the culmination of Rey's spiritual journey, versus the more relatable and dramatic endings for the male Jedi protagonists Luke, Anakin, and Ezra.

I have rewatched TFA a few times and I like parts of it, like the scavenging setting in the beginning and how handsome everyone is. Some of Maz's lines justify the borrowed plot in an interesting way. And I've thought of some headcanons to make TRoS more okay, because they did so wrong by Palpatine but not necessarily by "the Sith" as a Borg-like force of evil that, I guess, consumed him. So despite JJ's best efforts, I'm trying to make this work.

#star wars #star wars movies #attack of the clones #the last jedi #revenge of the sith #i wrote this back in December but it's still true #leaning more toward ESB rn

[thanagariansnarebeast]

Top 15 favorite video games: part 2.

7. Bioshock

I remember first reading about this game in the pages of Game Informer and being fascinated by the story and the environment of what was described. I had no idea how good it was until I launched up the game and finally took that first decent into Rapture. The claustrophobic environment, visual aesthetic of a dilapidated dystopia and the enemies being remnants of once good people were all an amazing experience. The story and characters were amazing, and the idea of an underwater city built to try and be free of any ideology or morality was fascinating, and finding out exactly how the city fell apart and collapsed under its own “greatness” was a very unique experience.

6. God of War (PS2)

This game was a birthday present when I was 15 and I loved it, I love Greek mythology and I love action games, so this was an amazing gift. The opening of the game is one of the best I’ve ever played, and the boss fights are some of my all time favorites. The music in this game is incredible, and I love the accurate representation of the Greek gods being complete fucking assholes and ruining lives because they just don’t care. Kratos is a great anti-hero (or villain, ether one is fair) and the Blades of Chaos are a really unique video game weapon. The sequels are amazing but this one holds a special place in my heart.

5.   Devil May Cry 3

Another birthday present, this one from the year before, this game was a very interesting experience for me; I’d never seen such a difficult game, or one so anime inspired. This game oozes goofy, over the top fun and demon slaying is always fun. The combos and weapons in the game are fantastic, and the story might be a big generic; but the game never takes itself seriously enough for that to be an issue. The characters in the game are great and Dante and Virgil being brothers who are enemies is a fun dynamic. This game also has some fantastic boss fights they really make you have to master your timings and attacks.

4. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

I fucking love Star Wars, I fucking love RPGs, and I fucking love good stories and characters; and this game has all of that. The story of this game is one of my favorites in anything, not just video games but all media, and the Revan twist is something that I didn’t see coming and really blew me away the first time I played this game. I’ve probably played through the story 7 or so times and I still love it, Bioware is at its best here and the character interactions and your decisions effecting everything in the game and you being able to ruin entire planets with your decisions really makes you feel like what you are doing is important to the galaxy. HK 47 calling everyone a “meatbag” is endlessly hilarious, and might be the first sassy Star Wars robot. I was at a con recently and got an autograph of Jennifer Hale (Bastila Shan) and its something very special to me in large part because of this game.

3. Mortal Kombat (2009)

Mortal Kombat 9 was such an amazing experience when it first came out. The past 5 Mortal Kombat games had been 3D, and had really suffered in quality because of it. The stories and characters had become terrible and the franchise was dying. Then came Mortal Kombat 9, or just Mortal Kombat as its actually called. The first 2D game in the franchise since the good old days of UMK3 and Mortal Kombat Trilogy, it was a reboot of the franchise that still used everything that had come before to set up the story. Knowing the old games was a benefit to the twists and turns of the story and altered timeline, but not essential to it. This was also the re-invigoration of the tournament scene for the MK games, which was a very welcome return. The roster of this game is damn near perfect, with the dlc adding an old favorite, the only good character from Deadly Alliance, Freddy motherfucking Kreuger, a new character that was a lot of fun, and I had the PS3 version so I also had Kratos which was awesome. Everything in this game represented a return to form and a new beginning for a franchise that desperately needed it. Mortal Kombat X and 11 have both been fantastic as well, but I chose 9 because of not just it being a fantastic game, but what it did for the series.

2. Dark Souls

I love dark fantasy and I love armor and weapons in video games, and this game has that as well as fantastic combat, and some amazing gothic horror as well. The bosses in this game are some of the best in any game and the game may be punishingly difficult, but the feeling of accomplishment when you finally get over some massive hurdle you were stuck on or finally slay a powerful boss that had been using your body as a punching bag is so incredibly satisfying. The sad state of the world in this game is also refreshing, instead of being some amazing savior sent to kill the big bad fucking up the world; your goal is ether to prolong the dying world for a little while longer, or end it and start something new. Killing gods that have been corrupted and used to be heroic adds a tragic twist to fighting bosses and makes killing them bitter sweet. I absolutely adore how you can make different characters and create builds around certain spells and weapons and I really wish more games would incorporate systems like that, even if they aren’t exactly balanced in any Dark Souls game. I also love how when you get past the opening area you can pretty much go where ever you want, the level design is almost perfect, with every location being somewhat connected to the next, often times looping in on each other.

2. (tie) Dragon Age: Origins

The second Bioware game on this list, it has all the roleplaying and great character writing of KotOR and more, a deep universe that they created; this game was in development for a long time to create a rich lore and new twist on fantasy tropes. The world really feels fleshed out and the characters feel like real people, with issues and hang ups and oddities that make them not just archetypes like most games have. Making decisions that effect characters and your companions can often be tough because you really care about what happens to them and how they feel, and how the world sees you. The gameplay isn’t perfect, its an odd mix of turn based and real time, but it still works pretty well. I put Dark Souls and Dragon Age in the same spot because I love them both for the same yet opposite reasons, if someone could take the roleplaying and world building of Dragon Age and combine it with the stats and combat and boss fights of Dark Souls it would create the perfect game for me.

1. The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion

I absolutely loved playing this game when it first came out, and I really wish I could get it to work on my PC so I could relive the glory that is this game. Skyrim is probably the more obvious pick for most people, but Oblivion was my first Elder Scrolls and first Bethesda game; and Oblivion has better rpg mechanics and a better story in my humble opinion. I love the Dark Brotherhood questline in this game more than any other questline in any game ever, its so fucking good. The game looks like shit graphically now, but back when it came out it was gorgeous, and I remember the first time I played it on an HD tv I was blown away. The rich world and the big name actors being in it was a real treat, and having Sir Patrick Stewart play the king really gave that character the gravitas and importance that was needed to establish a character quickly. Sean Bean being his son was also fantastic, and brings this list pretty much full circle because of him being in Goldeneye. The armor and weapon designs are really good for the most part, and I love collecting all the Daedric artifacts and creating havoc with them. I still get excited when I hear the music from this game, and its orchestral quality really adds to the epic feeling of the game. There’s no one stealing sweet rolls or arrows to the knee in this one ether.

There are a lot of other games that I love and that were hard to leave off this list, but its pretty long as it is; and I’m sure eventually new games will take the place of some of these.

#video games #my lists #top 15

[punkrock-furiosa]

for the gaming asks: 8, 20, 23, 47, 63, 71?

Aaaah I saw you in my new followers list, hello! :D

8. The game with the best atmosphere/scenery?

This is a really difficult one, but I think I’m going to go with Morrowind. I first saw it when I was little (maybe eight or nine?) and I was amazed, because it looked so fairy-tale-like, magical and mysterious. I still remember the image of pink-grey mists and the sun setting behind the silhouetted pair of giant mushrooms, while a wolf howls in the distance and soft harp music plays. (There are no wolves in Morrowind, so I’m not sure what that was about. It sounded great, though.) I was enamoured with that world pretty much immediately and I still am. It made me an Elder Scrolls fan.

20. Favorite publisher and/or developer?

Bethesda, ‘cause I grew up on their TES games and their worlds I could get lost in (and they weren’t yet selling canvas bags then :D )

Bioware, for similar reasons - they made KotOR, Mass Effect and Dragon Age and I enjoyed all of them a lot

OBSIDIAN, which I actually discovered through their association with Bioware and Bethesda, and let me tell you nobody can create an insanely well-written yet improbably buggy game quite like Obsidian

I’ve grown really fond of Arkane too! I discovered them the year Dishonored 2 came out - everyone was excited and praising DH 1 so I decided to give it a try and I’m super glad I did.

Amanita Design, an indie studio that always seems to randomlyreappear on my radar with some beautiful adventure game (the picture below is a little white gnome and his dog on their home asteroid in Samorost 3)

23. Favorite genre of video game?

RPGs! But in a very broad sense of the word. If it has characters I can get attached to, some manner of a world and is for a single player, I’ll probably like it and think of it as an RPG. (Except for games that skew heavily towards strategy or roguelike. I get too impatient for the first, and too annoyed by uncertain results for the second.)

47. First person or Third person?

I prefer first person BUT with an optional third person mode, because 1) I’m vain and want to admire my character’s face and clothes 2) I need to know what my PC looks like to feel like I can properly associate with them.

63. What’s a game that has inspired you?

Edit: dear goodness this got really long somehow, sorry about that xD

I’m gonna single out two:

Knights of the Old Republic - It let me play a female character in freaking Star Wars. For my early teen self, that was big.

For one, the clothes look essentially the same on PC of either gender. No boobplates, no cleavages, nothing. (I suspect this was a matter of practicality during production, but that does’t diminish the effect it had.) For two, it allows you to be a world-wrecking revenge-seeking morally ambiguous and devastatingly charismatic millitary genius who can bring the whole universe to its knees if she wants to, and there was almost no gendered judgment attached to that narrative. Like. It blew my mind at that time that a woman could figure in such a story, especially without being presented as emotionally stunted, unhinged or power-hungry and needing to be punished.

My KotOR PC is my oldest and by far most detailed original character, because she honestly meant so much to me. (Which paradoxically means her OC page is almost permanently barren because there’s always too much I want to say about her so in the end I usually end up saying nothing.😅) I’m pretty sure this game was responsible for my love of fictional female leaders with questionable morality but an unrelenting dedication to their cause.

Planescape: Torment - This is one of those games where your party is formed out of traumatised and ostracised people with deep personal issues. I’m talking “I followed someone around as their helper for possibly centuries regardless of how awfully they treated me because I vaguely feel I may have wronged them in the past life,” kind of issues.You caused some of them. Your character has issues too.

But the thing is. You help these people heal - not completely, but enought so they can see a path forward. The “golden” ending for the whole game is basically your character deciding to stop running from whatever mistakes or hurt they caused in the world and accept the consequences of their actions - alongside whatever punishment that might entail. But there is a sense that not only is this necessary for any personal growth, but by accepting this, the good you caused in the world can stay too. The friends you made will remember you and stand by you if you wish them to. The world can be better because you were in it, even if you did things that were wrong.

The writing was amazing and the story hugely catharhic and motivational for me.

Also, on a much lighter side, I’ve never seen a game so lovingly describe what a really good pear tastes like. You don’t get any skill bonus or anything for buying it with your hard-earned in-game money, just a description of a really good pear. It’s awesome.

71. A game you can’t stop talking/thinking about at the moment?

Prey! It’s like Dishonored but you can actually creatively murder stuff without a semi-omniscient being scolding you about it! :D Honestly though, I got into it to tie me over before I can get a computer to run DH2, but I’ve quickly grown to love it as its own thing - which is impressive, since it’s also a horror and I don’t find being afraid very fun. Once the exam term is over, I intend to write a (hopefully helpful) guide for other easily scared people on how to deal with the terrifying bits without feeling too overwhelmed.

There are many cool things similar to Dishonored, but the whole story feels more character-focused, which really works for me. I’m really fond of most of the main cast (sometimes of them as people, sometimes for their writing) and many side characters I’ve never even properly met.* There are countless little found tape stories, the people around you feel alive - you get to know their day, their friends, their worries, moreso even than with the Heart. Plus since you collect info from various sources, you’ve got to piece everything together. Everyone has a different agenda, everyone is hiding something and so many things become clear only after the second or third playthough.

* (My faves are Morgan, Sarah Elazar, Alex and Rani Chaudhary.)

Also, especially the first third of the game has excellent pacing. Every time I felt like I might be getting a handle on the situation, the story or environment or gameplay threw something new at me to unbalance me. There are a myriad of tiny revelations, which works incredibly well because it didn’t matter much if I saw one coming, the next one would catch me unprepared (in a very good way).

Not the mention the amazing Arkane aesthetic. Never forget the amazing Akane aesthetic.

#horsyunicorn #asks #thank you very much for the ask! :D #it took long because I somehow couldn't stop talking #you gave really good questions :)

[aion-rsa]

15 Best Video Game NPCs Ever

https://ift.tt/365jHPy

Free Guy follows a video game NPC who becomes aware of the circumstances of their existence and uses that newfound awareness to become the star of a game that they were only ever supposed to be a bit player in. It’s ultimately a look at the little people in video games and how easy it is to ignore them.

Of course, most gamers know that NPCs can be so much more than non-playable characters. While there are some NPCs that are little more than seat fillers in some of the largest and most elaborate video game worlds ever, others have used their supporting roles to steal the show and establish themselves as legends in their own right.

From mistranslated villagers and merchants to dogs and knights, these are some of the absolute best video game NPCs ever.

15. Error – Zelda II: The Adventures of Link

With the immortal introductory line “I am Error,” this humble NPC from Link’s bizarre second adventure found a home in the memories of a generation of gamers that wondered what the story behind this seemingly glitched character was. 

It turns out that Error’s bizarre dialog can be attributed to good old-fashioned translation issues, but this is a prime example of a seemingly meaningless NPC’s ability to work their way into our hearts despite being given almost no time to shine.

14. The Merchant – Resident Evil 4

For anyone who played the Resident Evil games up until the release of Resident Evil 4, the joy of encountering “The Merchant” cannot be overstated. Just when you thought you were about to have to battle yet another insane villager in a Wicker Man setting, the Merchant speaks cryptically, opens their coat, and offers you a very surprising helping hand. 

The Merchant’s sporadic appearances and unique role made them an instant favorite among franchise fans, but it’s the character’s mysterious nature that makes them so compelling all these years later. We still don’t know a lot about the Merchant, and that’s the way it arguably should be.

13. Jeff “Joker” Moreau – Mass Effect Trilogy

There’s no shortage of incredible characters in the Mass Effect franchise, but since we’ve already shown a lot of love to the game’s best squad companions, let’s talk about one of Mass Effect’s best NPCs that can’t join your away team: Joker.

Along with being one of the best pilots in the Alliance fleet, Joker is one of Mass Effect’s most consistently funniest characters. BioWare did a brilliant job of growing Joker’s story arc in future games, but he always remained a source of strength was always there to help make the Normandy feel like a home.

12. Elizabeth – BioShock Infinite

It’s fascinating to see how divisive BioShock Infinite remains eight years after its release, but one of the things that the game absolutely got right was Elizabeth’s role as an NPC companion. 

At a time when it was still fairly common to have to babysit your companions (even though there had obviously been tremendous advances in that area by this point), Elizabeth proved to be a more than capable partner who not only used her unique abilities to help you out of tight spots but would even occasionally toss you ammo and health. Elizabeth is an incredible character in her own right, but few games have ever made an A.I. partner feel so invaluable. 

11. The Narrator – Stanley Parable

It feels strange calling Stanley Parable’s narrator an NPC given that they’re the main reason that this game is one of the best of the last decade, but this disembodied voice certainly meets the technical requirements for that role.

The narrator’s determination to get you to follow The Stanley Parable’s most obvious path forward is bested only by the dry, witty frustration he exhibits whenever you start to veer off-course. He’s the real star at this look at the relationship between choice and storytelling in gaming. 

10. Cortana – Halo (Franchise)

Cortana is absolutely a strong character in her own right, but the thing that makes her stand out among the best NPCs ever is the nature of her relationship with Master Chief and you as the player. 

Cortana is the voice in your head that manages to guide you along the path while making the world feel a little more interesting along the way. At a time when gamers grit their teeth at the mere mention of the words “Hey listen,” Cortana proved that it was possible to make such a character feel like an irreplaceable part of what is ultimately the player’s journey. 

9. Dogmeat – Fallout (Franchise)

Truth be told, you could fill a list of the best NPCs in gaming history with Fallout characters and it would be difficult to argue with you. However, it’s hard not to ultimately give the nod to Dogmeat. Not only is this companion one of the most consistent sights in the Fallout universe, but their status as the absolute goodest boy/girl is undeniable.

In a series filled with moral ambiguity and complex characters with unique agendas, Dogmeat is…well…a dog. They’re loyal, loving, and willing to help you in any way that they can. They’re as perfect of a companion as you could ever ask for, and they make the wasteland feel just a little less hostile. 

8. Phillip “The Bloody Baron” Strenger – The Witcher 3

In a game that’s arguably best known for a collection of side quests and side characters that are better than most of the main stories and main characters seen in other games, it’s telling that “The Bloody Baron” is regularly referred to as the highlight of this epic adventure. 

The Bloody Baron may get more screen time than the average NPC, but it honestly doesn’t take long for this morally complex and utterly fascinating character to simply steal the show. He’s one of the best examples of why you should take the time to get to know the various inhabitants of RPG worlds. 

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7. Sans – Undertale

While it sometimes feels like blasphemy to rank one Undertale character over another given how well-rounded and important so many of the game’s NPCs end up being, it’s hard to talk about the game’s best characters for long without the conversation turning to Sans. 

This apathetic skeleton’s most tragically relatable quality is his tendency to pivot between whether or not the futility of his existence is a reason to do nothing or if it’s all the more reason to relax and have fun. He practically embodies this game’s complex morality and wicked sense of humor. 

6. Hal “Otacon” Emmerich – Metal Gear Solid (Franchise)

Granted, Otacon doesn’t exactly make a great first impression (he wets his pants the first time you meet him), but this quirky scientist has to be one of gaming’s best examples of how an NPC can grow on you over time. 

While it’s easy to champion the way that Otacon becomes slightly more badass over the course of this series, his most enduring qualities are the two things that never really change: his weirdness and commitment to going above and beyond to try to help. He’s one of the most “pure’ Kojima characters. 

5. Tom Nook – Animal Crossing (Franchise)

The debate over whether Tom Nook is the quiet hero of Animal Crossing or little more than a loan shark who introduces this quaint world to the joys of capitalism will rage on, but nobody walks away from Animal Crossing without some kind of thoughts about this true icon.

Tom Nook helps you get started in the world of Animal Crossing and is often the character you need to go to whenever you want to move on to the next part of your adventure. He’s kind of a gatekeeper in that sense, but he’s also the thing that keeps the Animal Crossing experience consistently compelling. 

4. HK-47 – Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

You do technically have the ability to control HK-47 during combat sequence, which means that their presence on this list could be considered a bit of a cheat. However, I dare you to play Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and let that technicality get in the way of giving this character the love they deserve. 

While KOTOR’s morality system helped distinguish it from so many other console RPGs of its era, there’s always been something undeniably compelling about HK-47’s wonderfully uncomplicated moral code. He sees every human as a “meatbag” and struggles to understand why you wouldn’t just blast your way out of a situation. 

3. Solaire of Astora – Dark Souls

Solaire of Astora is everything that you’re not expecting to find in Dark Souls. He’s optimistic, friendly, and, if you play your cards right, helpful.

While it’s possible for Solaire to succumb to insanity if you make the wrong choices along the way, he’s best remembered for his unusual commitment to the idea that there is hope and good in the game’s overwhelmingly dark world. His viewpoint may be idealistic, but you cannot deny the purity of his spirit and intentions. “Praise the sun” indeed. 

2. Cave Johnson – Portal 2

It’s impossible to ignore that GLaDOS is indeed the most famous NPC in the Portal franchise as well as arguably one of the most memorable characters in video game history. Long after “the cake is a lie” became one of gaming’s most overused memes, though, it’s Cave Johnson that stands apart as one of this franchise’s greatest creations.

Cave Johnson is the former CEO of Aperture Science who apparently reached Mr. Burns levels of evilness before he died from moon rock poisoning. His incredible dialog (which, it must be said, is expertly delivered by the irreplaceable J.K. Simmons) includes some of Portal’s best jokes, but it’s when you start to spot the tragedy and world-building in-between his jokes that you really appreciate how much this character accomplishes.

1. M’aiq the Liar – The Elder Scrolls (Franchise)

I love an NPC who practically becomes the star of the show, but my heart goes out to the NPCs who occupy a small part of a game’s world but a large part of our hearts. So far as that goes, M’aiq the Liar may just stand alone. 

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

As the name implies, M’aiq the Liar isn’t always entirely truthful. While those lies are often hilarious and clever, M’aiq is best known as a kind of unofficial developers’ commentary track. He often addresses meta subjects regarding missing features and misunderstood pieces of lore but does it in ways that make it difficult to separate the world-building from the Easter eggs. He’s the perfect reminder of the ways that the best video game NPCs can surprise you. 

The post 15 Best Video Game NPCs Ever appeared first on Den of Geek.

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May the fourth (be with you) is the annual celebration for Star Wars fans to get involved with the franchise from a galaxy far far away. While Lucasfilm and Disney are capitalizing on the event with a number of big releases and other activities for audiences to get involved with, there's a range of alternative ways to spend the day.

RELATED: The 10 Best Star Wars Original Trilogy Battles, Ranked

Of course, this year may be a little different for fans, who are looking to celebrate May the fourth from home, but there are still a number of activities and experiences to get involved in that are designed for the whole family to enjoy. From watching throwback classics to trying out intergalactic cuisine and constructing iconic ships, there's a little something for everything to take part in!

10 Make Star Wars Themed Food/Drinks

The food in Star Wars is pretty weird. The beverages are perhaps even stranger - it's never clear which tastes better: blue or green milk? Regardless of how disgusting some of the dishes might be, there's plenty of delicious recipes out on the internet to try making at home!

Of course, fans could look to the Galaxy's Edge menus at the Walt Disney Parks for inspiration. Alternatively, there's a great number of Star Wars themed recipes on the official website! At the end of the day, it would be perfect to settle down with a Republic mocktail in front of the TV.

9 Check Out The Vintage Collection On Disney+

Disney+ recently expanded the Star Wars content available on the streaming service, revisiting some of the forgotten shows from Lucasfilm's past. Many of these hits are certainly underrated, although noticeable by its absence is the cult classic Droids. 

Fans of The Star Wars Holiday Special will also be a little disappointed, but the platform does include throwback titles such as The Story Of The Faithful Wookie, Caravan Of Courage, Ewoks, Ewoks: The Battle For Endor, and the original, fan-favorite Clone Wars. Many of these will likely be completely new to younger fans.

8 Find A Legends Comic On Comixology

It's sometimes quite difficult for fans to know where to start when jumping into Star Wars comics for the first time. Disney brought in a complete overhaul when they purchased the property from Lucasfilm and as such there's now both Legends and Canon content.

RELATED: Star Wars - 10 Major Villains From The Clone Wars & Rebels Ranked, From Lamest To Coolest

While the Canon comics are certainly worth checking out, on Comixology Unlimited there's a wide range of Legends comics which could provide for some great reading on May the fourth. What's more, many of these narratives are standalone, meaning they can be experienced throughout the day as a mini-story for fans to enjoy.

7 Revisit The Old Republic

The Knights Of The Old Republic video game franchise still sits atop the pyramid of console titles for Star Wars fans. While there's a great variety of other games to explore, the KOTOR series brought in a new era of storytelling and a fresh take on the brand itself.

The Old Republic online RPG was overlooked a little when it was first released and has been largely ignored ever since. Yet, with constant content updates, storyline developments, and a great amount of Star Wars lore woven into the gameplay, this is a free game that everyone should try out once more!

6 Explore Star Wars On YouTube

YouTube has really become a great home for Star Wars fans. There's of course the official YouTube channel to explore, which boasts exclusive series, trailers and other fun video content for fans to really get engrossed in. There's a number of independent channels as well though.

Star Wars Explained and Star Wars Theory are really the go-to places for information regarding both the Canon and Legends Expanded Universe. Youtini is a perfect location for reviews of all the upcoming books. Mr Sunday Movies has the aptly named Caravan Of Garbage series featuring some retro Star Wars titles and Star Wars HQ has garnered a loyal fan base after years of quality videos.

5 Listen To Audible's Original Dramas

Audible has a huge range of Star Wars titles on offer just waiting for fans to listen to. They bring in some of the best voice actors around to really bring these narratives to life, with some of the cast members of the animated shows returning to lend their vocal talents.

RELATED: 10 Controversial Star Wars Retcons That Fans Choose To Ignore

May the fourth calls for a special kind of audio story though. Audible has worked on a number of original audio dramas with Lucasfilm, which are all equally fantastic. One that is certainly worth checking out is Doctor Aphra's own audio drama exclusive.

4 Construct A LEGO Set

LEGO has been a great representative for the galaxy far far away for many years. There's a variety of LEGO sets which fans really have to get their hands on, although the prices involved with these models can sometimes be a bit of a sticking point.

Regardless there's definitely a range of products that both adults and kids can enjoy together. What's more, the line is constantly updated with products relating to The Bad Batch definitely relevant for this year's massive set of celebrations.

3 Cosplay For The Day

The cosplay community found a home online and social media apps like TikTok have only managed to spread the joy of the hobby. Cosplayers haven't had many events to go to this year, thanks in large part to the global situation. However, May the fourth is a great excuse to dig out those fantastic costumes.

Cosplaying can be quite the event by itself, as many Cosplayers will also design their own costumes. There's plenty of sources on the internet to inspire potential hobbyists into getting started. Plus, it's good practice ready for the re-opening of Comic-Con or Star Wars Celebration!

2 Experience Galaxy's Edge Online

Galaxy's Edge might seem like a far-off dream for many. The closure of the Walt Disney Parks globally has delayed the potential for fans to actually visit this all-encompassing experience in person. The internet is a brilliant resource during these times, though.

YouTube in particular is the perfect platform to really get into the details of Batuu, before being able to visit in person. Ride walkthroughs, lightsaber workshops, and of course those restaurant menus and recipes are all available to enjoy from the comfort of Earth, rather than traveling to the Outer Rim!

1 Watch The Bad Batch Premiere On Disney+

The big release for Lucasfilm this year is the debut of The Bad Batch animated show on Disney+. Of course, there's a number of narrative arcs from both The Clone Wars and Rebels for audiences to revisit before they jump into the latest offering from the studio.

Fans will be already familiar with the characters from the Bad Batch squad of clones, but with the series set just after the fall of the Republic there's no telling what chaos the team might be facing. It's a dark era of Star Wars history, although the almost feature length first episode will surely feature some other friendly and familiar faces.

NEXT: Star Wars: 10 Horror Stories From The Expanded Universe

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Dragon Age 2 Rant

Someone brought it up in some random Facebook Group and it got me thinking that I should finally just put it down in words.  

Dragon Age 2 is so horribly underrated that it hurts.  

The game gets so much hate that people didn’t understand what it did right

–BUT let’s get this out of the way fast: The below rant does NOT include the Level Design.  The same 4 locations used over and over.  There is no excuse for that.  It is bad and it should feel bad for it.  However much the points i will make can also be transferred over to this failure as well, that is just warping a point to excuse lazy or rushed design.

The people I have spoken to tend to cite one main example of its failure as a Role Playing Game(barring the above shit level design) and that is simply that it fails due to its action-style gameplay when compared to the original Dragon Age:Origins.  And I understand that.  There’s two radian wheels(unless you have a computer) and you’re running around and there’s not really much Party Maintenance like it had in the original.  It is not what a traditional RPG should be, and the party direction system was not the best(it reminded me way too much of Kingdom Hearts and Donald’s proclivity to use mega-elixers every time he loses one bar of mp unless you jump in there and hit him with the no-no can) especially when you realize that capitalizing on Condition Statuses is a main feature in felling your enemies.  It is just a gross departure from what a Role Playing Game should be, compounded by the fact that this was the Second Installment and it was already deviating so much from the turn based-lite party management norm.

The answer to this is simple.  Think back to the beginning of the game.  What happens?

The Hawke family gets attacked by a big fuck-off dragon and the story immediately cuts to Cassandra giving Varric shit for telling her something as stupid as “A Dragon Appeared” and you see that this whole game is now a narrative work; a retelling of events by someone being interrogated.  

Not just anyone, A FUCKMOTHERING BARD!!!!

Have YOU ever played a tabletop with someone rolling a bard?

You can’t believe a word they say, because the truth is boring and never makes for a good story.  So when asked what they did when separated from the party, instead of ‘Oh, there was a goblin so i stabbed it in the back” you’re told of a daring battle with a Bugbear King, where after felling the horrid beast, you found the princess he was holding prisoner and after releasing her from her bonds, she then had you free her from another trapping: that of virginity.

The point is this: Bards Lie.

If you take nothing else out of not just this long, badly punctuated, rant, take that.  Bards Lie about everything and anything.  It is who they are.  The story is all that matters.  So what is a Bard to do when being tortured by a bunch of Zealots, demanding knowledge on what to expect when they track down and try to kill one of your best friends?

Punch. That. Story. Up!

You make what originally is just a standard-if not slightly above average-fighter look like a whirling dervish of death to any who would cross him.

That’s what makes the story so well, this isn’t just an unreliable narrator, it is THE MOST unreliable of narrators.  One that tells you, right off the bat, that a lot of this never even happened.  You never know what really happened to Hawke and his Band of Merry Murder.  So, yes, the gameplay is a lot more action-oriented and you don’t have nearly as many combat options(especially if you are a mage) but it’s punched up to 11 the whole time because the person conveying the story is giving it all a nice sheen of ‘this is what happens when people cross them.”  You are not watching the Story of Hawke in this game.  You are watching VARRIC’S story of Hawke.

But that only answers the main issue people have with the game.  The change in controls.

What I never got is this: How can you rip on an RPG about its controls?  They are just mechanics, nothing more, and I have to say Bioware games always kinda sucked at their Turn-Based-But-Not-Really Mechanics.  KOTOR had a lot of issues and the crux of it was the clunky interface and squad controls.  I would love to have a party on a set it and forget it mechanic and not having to constantly pause the gameplay to switch over to one of the characters because they chose to not move out of fire.  How is that better than a little bit of AI that will give your party even SOME autonomy?  Because if you wanna talk about immersion, a character who is, in the narrative of the story, talked up as the quickest cutpurse on this continent and can never be caught by anyone but for some reason can not even fathom the idea of moving away from a giant spike pile he can see on the ground and instead walks right through the damn thing and kills himself is example 1:3 under the definition of Ludonarrative Dissonance.

….My point is this: Combat in Traditional RPGs is kinda trash to begin with and the main reason you play them is not combat.  It’s story.  The story is the big pull.  And this game has story falling out its ass.  It suffers in some places, sure, with what you can tell is rushed design and you are pigeon holed in a lot of places.  Case in point:I was a Mage who hated Blood Magic but put a lot of faith in the Apostates, so when every time you choose to help runaway mages and they come back and, whelp, looks like they are Blood Mages now I was so VERY angry at the game.  Livid.  I honestly don’t think people who played Rogues or Warriors and got DEEP into their characters(@meonlyred, I’m looking at you) can really match that level of anger and disappointment in the story of a game.  No matter what I try, these people just kept failing me.  

But that is the point.  I got so invested into this story that I was disappointed in 1s and 0s.  Here I was, trying to change the whole of Kirkwall by action alone: proving that having Magic does not mean you will become a monster(and, yes, i HATED the goddamn teaser trailer because in it, HAWKE USES GODDAMN BLOOD MAGIC JUST BECAUSE THE FUCKING BULL MAN WAS TOO MUCH FOR HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and yet every one I was putting faith and and having others trust my judgement on have been utterly betraying that faith and trust.

Because this land never functioned on the same as me.  I was the outsider.  The Fereldan immigrant, assuming that this world will function the same as the one I left.  Granted the land I left also had a jihadist attitude to my way of life, this new one in Kirkwall had a civil and social structure completely Foreign to me.  There was no way to change the way they viewed the world because I was just one person.  One Outsider, no matter my lineage, who couldn’t change anything.  This land was going to burn itself no matter what I did.  

And that was the point of Varric’s Story.  Hawke wasn’t the cause of the things that doomed Kirkwall.  The Expedition, the one that found the artifact that corrupted everyone?  Hawke just helped with the last leg of its setup.  They would have got it together eventually.  They would have found it.  Bartrand would have found it regardless.  And Anders still would have…. You know what, let’s save that shit til the end because I don’t want to upset myself early.

Anyway…. All of this would have happened no matter what(maybe a few things would have changed slightly, but not by much) Hawke did, but he was still in the middle of it all.  I know a lot of people like their stories to be centered around them, but those can get boring. Let’s use Fallout as an example: The Sole Survivor, wandering the wastes of The Commonwealth? When you spend your first 100 hours farming Duct Tape instead of finding your son, you come out to be an asshat.  But The Courier?  NOPE!  He was just a guy living in this world.  He isn’t the center of any story, really.  He is just a guy out for revenge, but he has no idea where to get it so him wondering around and dealing with random crap isn’t nearly as a disconnect as the game before or after it.  They are really fun and enjoyable protagonists.  Heck, one of my favorite Final Fantasys is 12: the one where you are NOT the main character of the story.  Thats the Sky Pirate and the Princess.  You are just tagging along for the ride, experiencing their story like a good audience surrogate.  

The only reason you are always being thrust into the middle of everything is because the Powers of this Town are throwing you at them.  The Qunari menace?  You are asked(told) to go deal with it, and it all blows up in your face because of someone else.  Hell you even tried to STOP the hellscape to be with Anders(that motherfucker) by being a good person and talking to him.  But nope.  He had his crappy agenda and nothing you could do would stop it.

….you know what, sure let’s talk about it now. That whole ending arc just pissed me off to no end.  There is Anders killing the ONE person in this whole city trying to hold everything together and treated people with even an ounce of trust and faith JUST TO PROVE A POINT THAT SIMPLY BY DOING IT DISPROVED HIS GODDAMN POINT!  

“Mages aren’t evil so I’m going to kill the beacon of peace in this whole shitty city which will lead to EVERY GODDAMN MAGE to just flipping a ‘whelp guess i’m an abomination now, time to murder everyone, weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee blood magic is fuuuuuuuun!’ switch and I guess completely dismantle my entire point.  It’s a good thing Hawke stabbed me for being a fucking idiot” and then you come across the Mages who are holed up to protect themselves but, wouldn’t you know it, their leader turned himself into a Tentacle Death Monster and now you have to kill the one mage who had your back and was a beacon of not being a dickhole.  

All of this just constant “Mages are all evil dicks, lets torch them all’ just upset me so much.  I was playing the entire last part of the game with a giant grimace.  Angry at this whole damn city and making me kill all these people I tried to make better.

Yes, me.  I got so deep into this game(if you read up, I dropped the possessive pronoun a bit when talking about the story) that I was upset that they were betraying MY expectations of them as people.  Not Hawke.  By this time I got way into the game and imprinted.  

No matter what faults it has, in the end its story caused me to become so engrossed with it that even when it took a turn I did not like, I was so invested I was still hooked and responding to it as if it were happening to me.

I know it was a long rant that just sort of cut off, but Anders will do that to me.  Hell, I hated what he did so much, I even tried making a toon to romance him so I could see if there was more dialogue options or how it would shape with him actually having a loving relationship and nope! He still acted the same.  Just pleaded more for me to understand.  

I STILL had to gut him.  I was still so damn pissed off at him I had to kill him even as a character romancing him!

[nothe: wrote this up at work when I was bored so there is a very good chance I have odd stops and idea changes due to the nature of writing something while also having to work  on projects so it may be updated frequently]

#dragon age #da:2 #dragon age 2 #rant #anders #bards lie #story trumps rules

[zandoct]

Why Mass Effect Andromeda is Great

So I finished MEA the other day, and I loved it to pieces. Easily top 5 games of all time, and only ten good games have ever been made. So imagine my surprise when I, the Discourse Liker, logged on and discovered that this beautiful work of art hadn’t been received very well. Who let the critics get away with that? Anyway, I’m going to explain why I love the game and why it’s really good and even some things it did better than the original trilogy.

Spoilers for the new alien species ahead

The Magnificent Ten

One of the great strengths of MEA compared to its predecessors in the franchise is the small cast of intimately written characters that form the Tempest crew. The Tempest is approximately one half the size of Normandy SR-2 and smaller than the SR-1, which means that there aren’t any faceless, nameless crewmembers. Instead, you have what I call the Magnificent Ten, because I’m bad at naming things.

To me, keeping the crew small and tightly knit is a fantastic improvement over previous games. This gives more space for the interrelationships (i.e. the way characters interact with characters other than the player) and helps you feel like you have greater agency over the Tempest, as a home. Which is one of the major themes of the game. Come on now. For instance, Lexi’s character is explored by her interaction with Drack as much as it is with Ryder, or Kallo with Suvi.

Compare that to ME2, which had a brilliant but very large cast that hardly ever interacted with each other. As discussed in this video, the only way a player can have agency in RPGs is if the NPCs have agency, and a great way to achieve that is to explore their relationships outside of the player. Using the banter system from Bioware’s other major modern title Dragon Age is one great way of making a team a family. WHICH IS THE OTHER MAJOR THEME OF THE GAME.

A rigorous analysis of the characterisation of the Tempest crew would take an entire other essay, but I’ll just comment that I found the interplay of themes shared between the crew – especially their loyalty missions – to be one of the best expressions of theme, tone and allegory in any game I’ve played.

For instance, Cora’s arc is (partially) about how you deal with being rejected, and Peebee’s arc is about how you deal with rejecting others. Liam represents your own mistakes and Jaal represents the mistakes of others. Vetra represents letting go of a role and Drack represents stepping forward into a role. Obviously this is just my interpretation but the very fact the narrative can be interpreted in so many fascinating ways is testament to its… beauty.

The supporting cast outside of the Tempest family are also a diverse, fascinating bunch. The Angara are represented on Aya by Commander Evfra, Moshae Sjefa and Governor Paaran. They have an interesting chemistry and each represents an individual, subtle example of Angaran culture. This makes the introduction to Aya a little overwhelming, filled as it is with so many important characters and unknown conflicts. But it’s a great way to be immersed in your Ryder, who’s probably also blown away by one of the game’s major discoveries.

A significant problem some critics have with the game is that only two sapient species were introduced in this new galaxy. While it would have been cool to see one or two more, the intense focus on two cultures is more reflective of the how the game interrogates having a smaller crew.

Plot Course, Setting Course (or; The Process of Renewal)

Another key criticism of MEA is that it is very iterative of the original series: keep in mind though that the original series is also iterative in its own way, drawing inspiration from a number of sci-fi/fantasy sources (KOTOR I’m side-eyeing you big time)

I think it can be refreshing to examine the themes of the original series with a new perspective granted by the different events and characters of MEA. Fundamentally, stories are only compelling because of what it tells us about humanity. Yes, the ancient Prothean tech is reminiscent of the Remnant. But they have different goals, different culture and most importantly, their two commentators – Liara and Peebee, respectively – are affected by them in different ways. As William Faulkner said:

“The only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself.” What I mean by this is that the similarities between the Protheans and the Remnant are less important than the different effect they have on the player and our companions.

The same goes for the Reapers and Kett and their twisted idea of uplifting other species. The Kett’s semblance of Ur-fascism is part of what makes them thematically distinct from the Reapers, rather than their superficial aims. Throughout the series, the Reaper’s philosophy was vague and mainly gathered from piecemeal exposition of the supporting cast, especially Legion and Saren rather than the Reapers themselves. The Kett are also enigmatic for most of the game, but what you learn about them is more concrete than their all-powerful Milky Way counterparts.

A fantastic scene, demonstrating that there's a niche for moments with no dialogue in Bioware games.

Discussing ‘the Kett as fascists’ is worthy of its own article so I will only briefly explore it here. In 1995, Umberto Eco provided a great analysis of fascism, both past and future. He states that fascist ideologies can be extrinsically and intrinsically contradictory while also being equally valid under the umbrella of fascism, something he calls Syncretism. For instance, Nazism and Mussolini’s fascism disagree in their treatment of religion, but both are quite clearly forms of fascism. He goes on to describe the theoretical qualities of ‘ur-fascism’, a hypothetical social order that could potential arise from any of the aforementioned qualities. I propose that the Kett are best analysed from the perspective of these qualities:

1. Cult of Tradition. The Kett oppose developing their philosophy. For instance, The Archon is harshly scrutinised by the Primus for trying to develop a new strategy for exalting the Angara. “We will take Heleus the way we always have.” To Archie’s credit, he’s hardly a true progressive, just an example of syncretism in action, and he’s also more of a practical leader than an ideological one.

2. Fear of difference (or diversity). The Kett only wish to integrate the aspects of species they deem appropriate, in a carefully predetermined way. They do not allow actual species into their hierarchy and they do not tolerate unexpected diversity. Eco refers to this as “an appeal against the intruders” but this can equally apply as “an appeal against the conquered” – that strategy is just as common in human history as the former.

3. Irrationalism (or, action for action’s sake). The Archon is not compelled to justify his actions to the player, and instead simply acts. To criticise himself would be to generate difference, or imply that his ideals may be unworthy, and that is unacceptable.

It is difficult to consider the Reapers so politically, as their motivations are left more ambiguous. For instance, one cannot draw a comparison between the Reapers and the Citadel Council as easily as one can between the Kett and the Andromeda Initiative, who both arrived from beyond Heleus. The differences between the Kett and the Reapers, then, are subtle but still significant.

Me looking at the discourse surrounding Andromeda

It’s also worth keeping in mind the struggle Bioware faced in producing a game that incorporated the themes of the original series (discovering ancient things to lead into the future, the interaction between technology and humanity) while also doing something new. In fact, MEA very clearly is trying to revisit the concepts of the first game in a new and improved light, and I think from that perspective MEA excels.

But there is plenty new here, don’t forget that! They were damned if they didn’t incorporate enough of the original series and if they didn’t innovate enough, and I think this lies at the root of its lukewarm reception. That and the complaints about cinematics. WHICH ARE BASICALLY ON PAR WITH THE ORIGINAL SERIES SO SHUT YOUR MOUTHS

S.A.M., INTERFACE

Paragon and Renegade, eat your heart out

As you can probably tell, this essay has focused much more on narrative and metaphor than on gameplay, purely because I find gameplay the least compelling part of all games. However, most would agree that the combat of MEA is the most fun of the franchise and the difficulty is very well gauged. I also think the dialogue interface (no pun intended, hahahaha get rid) is a real improvement. The demise of Paragon/Renegade system is finally here, and the game is better for its loss. Every decision must be judged on its own merits and the tone of dialogue options is much easier to predict by having four consistent possibilities.

The psych profiles Lexi compiles are also a much cooler way for the game to express how your Ryder is developing than a coloured bar. It’s a shame that ‘persuade’ abilities are lost: a system similar to Dragon Age Inquisition, where perks in history, politics, academics etc can increase your character’s expertise and hence persuasiveness would have been nice. But MEA doesn’t give you an easy way out, and sometimes you have to make a decision knowing it’s the wrong one. That’s very cool.

Also, right lads, no listen right, they actually FIXED side quests in MEA. Don’t you dare look me in the eye and say the side quests were anything but trash in ME, ME2 and ME3. Don’t you dare. Other than the fetch quests, ME3 wasn’t too bad, but MEA gets them really right. I would have liked a bit more cinematic dialogue in some of them, but it’s SO much better than Shepard and co silently jogging around a heartless rock jungle, pressing buttons. Also, who are these folk who love ME2 but attack Dragon Age Inquisition? What the hell is going on?

We Made It (to a conclusion)

One of the key differences between the original series and MEA is the scale. MEA is about a small supercluster of the galaxy (a piece of a corner of the universe, as Suvi calls it) and the few factions that are influential there. In ME1-ME3, life as we know it is at risk on a galactic scale. There are hundreds of different factions and a broader cast. Which you prefer is a matter of personal taste, but the intensity and detail of MEA’s story is a refreshing change for the franchise. I’ve often felt the vast, vast lore of the original series is done a disservice by the main plot, which renders all of it largely futile because all that matters is defeating the Reapers. Both games are about survival, but Andromeda’s smaller stakes allow for a variety of factors – political, environmental, military, philosophical etc – to influence that survival. In the original series, the only thing that influences survival is resolving the reaper threat. The original series is about heroes of legend rising to the challenge of saving the galaxy from an ancient conflict. On the other hand, Andromeda is about an inexperienced, relatively ordinary group of people who are prematurely forced into difficult situations and have to make a home out of them. I know which one I’d rather believe in.* Let me know what you think, send an ask or reply or w/ever

*Just kidding I love every Mass Effect game. Righto, cheers

See ya

#mass effect andromeda #Mass Effect #review #mass effect andromeda spoilers #mea spoilers #mea defence #mass effect andromeda defence #mass effect andromeda positive #angara #kett #fascism #bioware #umberto eco #remnant #peebee #liara t'soni #kallo jath #suvi anwar #the reapers #andromeda initiative #narrative #analysis #me #serious

[hanahaki-dot-com]

Become the Hero: The Top 10 RPG Classics Every Gamer Needs to Play

You enter a dark, musty cave with little more than a torch and your trusty sword. You're no more than a few steps in before you hear a wretched howl that echoes through the cave's chambers. You know you're not alone. Will you stand and fight? Or flee in hopes of finding safety? The choice is yours. It's situations like this that make RPGs so much fun to play. Being the fourth most popular genre in videogames, RPGs allow players to immerse themselves in full, rich stories with tons of possibilities. And though there isn't a shortage of RPG games on the market, there are some classics that every gamer needs to check out. Here's our pick for the 10 best RPG classics.

1. Pokémon Red & Blue

It's hard to believe that it's been over two decades since we were first introduced to Pikachu and friends. While the Pokémon series has continued to evolve over the years, adding complex competitive modes and deep lore, nothing surpasses the wonder of booting up the first two entries Pokémon Red and Pokémon Blue for the first time.

The Pokémon franchise may not feature hardcore RPG mechanics a la Final Fantasy IV or Dragon Quest VII, but Red and Blue introduced an entire genre to the possibilities of RPG games. And for that, we think both games are still worth exploring, even decades later.

2. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic

The Star Wars franchise isn't a stranger to video games, beginning with the 1982 release of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back for the Atari 2600. While fans have come to know and love Star Wars' extended universe, no game came close to capitalizing on the narrative potential of a Star Wars game. Until, that is, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

KOTOR gave players the chance to choose between becoming a powerful Jedi or succumbing to darkness and following the path of the Sith with each decision the player made affecting their overall alignment.

3. Fallout: New Vegas

It was rigged from the start. Fallout: New Vegas quite literally starts with a bang and never lets up. By the time Fallout 3 rolled around, fans of the classic RPG franchise weren't sure what to expect. The strategic, turn-based action of their beloved franchise was now an action-shooter hybrid with RPG elements. But a glimmer of hope arrived with the announcement that Obsidian Entertainment would be responsible for tackling New Vegas. Obsidian featured staff who worked on classic Fallout games as well as Baldur's Gate and Planescape Torment.

And the difference showed. Though Obsidian only had a little over a year to develop New Vegas, fans were stunned and the night and day differences between New Vegas and its predecessor. Where Fallout 3 is an action game, New Vegas is happy to show players that gunfights aren't always the best way to solve quarrels. Though the game itself was a buggy mess upon release, the fantastic world building and storytelling made it worth trudging through crashes, bugs, and glitches. If you've never experienced New Vegas, consider picking up a copy of the Ultimate Edition, which comes with the base game and all of its DLC.

4. Diablo 3

Diablo isn't Blizzard's only RPG franchise, but it's arguably its best. While World of Warcraft is still alive and kicking, Diablo's player base is every bit as fervent. Thanks to Blizzard's constant support and dedication to adding new enemies, events, and gear, Diablo 3 still has players firing their crossbows and freezing enemies seven years later. What's more, the game's meta changes on a regular basis, giving players an incentive to crawl through one more dungeon or explore new builds.

Admittedly, Diablo 3 is light on story. But in truth, that's fine. The Diablo franchise was never about storytelling and the deep character customization more than makes up for the lack of narrative.

5. Final Fantasy VII

Is it really a list of the best RPGs of all time if we don't include a shout-out to Final Fantasy VII? Sure, it may be a bit cliché to include it. But as far as we're concerned, Final Fantasy VII deserves the love it gets.

At the time, few games were brave enough to take as many risks as Final Fantasy VII. The brutal death of one of the game's most beloved characters is a perfect example of how Final Fantasy VII wasn't afraid to subvert expectations. The turn-based aspect may turn some gamers off but stick with it. Your patience will pay off.

6. The Legend of Zelda: The Adventure of Link

The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is the black sheep of the Zelda franchise. It's a strange game that drastically changes play styles and featured a mishmash of genres that no one expected. But for that reason alone, it's worth checking out.

It isn't the best game in the series by a long shot, but it's different enough that fans of RPGs will find enough depth to satisfy their hunger.

7. Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

Speaking of Nintendo RPGs no one ever expected, yes, everyone's favorite plumber starred in his very own RPG on the Super Nintendo. It's a forgotten classic with tons of personality and humor. It was also quite long for the time, with the main story taking most players around 17 hours to beat.

  Sadly, it's a bit hard to track down a copy of Legend of the Seven Stars these days. To experience this hidden gem, your best bet is to try and find a Super Nintendo Classic.

8. Baldur's Gate

Many PC games tried to capture the feel and scope of a tabletop RPG but few were ever successful at it. Baldur's Gate is that rare exception.

Released in 1998, Baldur's Gate was a breath of fresh air in the era of DOOM clones and licensed movie tie-ins featuring fantastic writing and almost endless customization options. The gameplay doesn't hold up as well as it once did, but returning fans or first-timers can check out a remastered version which fixes some common complaints.

9. Wasteland

Before there was Fallout there was Wasteland. Set in a post-apocalyptic universe, players had to reestablish civilization, secure resources, and maintain peace through whatever means necessary. Wasteland gave players the ability to play the game how they wanted. Does that raider have food and ammo? You could persuade him to hand over the food or shoot him on sight and loot the food and ammo from his corpse.

Both Wasteland and its sequel are fantastic games. Fans of Fallout looking for something a bit different would do well to check it out.

10. Persona 4: Golden

It's hard to pick the best Persona game, but for our money, we'd choose Persona 4: Golden for the PlayStation Vita. The game fixes most of the gripes we had with Persona 4's original PS2 release while adding a ton of extra story and gameplay. Players can customize their parties and explore dozens of dungeons all while maintaining social bonds and attending high school.

But the best feature is Golden's gorgeous animations. These are full-on, anime-style cutscenes with a memorable soundtrack and colorful characters.

Conclusion

When it comes to the best RPG games, it's hard to beat these ten games. Now for the hard part - deciding which of these RPG classics to play first! Although most of them can only be played through the gaming system they were designed for,  there are some great exception that made it through the most recent installments: for example, both Final Fantasy 7 and Diablo 3: Eternal Collection have been recently released for Nintendo Switch in 2018/2019.   Read the full article

#Diablo #FinalFantasy #SuperMario #Pokemon #Role-PlayingGames #RPG #Videogames #Zelda

[justshepardthings]

My Review of Mass Effect Andromeda

Just because I know I’m going to be asked about it (and let’s be real: because I want to broadcast my opinions into the void) I wrote down my thoughts on Mass Effect Andromeda. This review is spoiler-free but I put it under a read more for length. I’m warning you: it’s long. I had a lot of thoughts.

Quick Version: 6.5/10. Strongest elements were characters, combat and on-planet exploration. Weakest were story, worldbuilding and visuals.

Story

The story is one of the weakest elements of the game. It had a lot of the same issues I saw in Dragon Age: Inquisition:

Generic, uninteresting villain

Odd pacing

Tonal yo-yo between the more serious story missions and lighthearted sidequests

Overall lack of urgency

Actual story itself felt hastily written

Promise of weight and gravitas, but no way to really “fail”

The story did pick up weight as it went along, but it doesn’t really hit its stride until near the end of the game, with the final mission being hands-down the best mission in the game. The overall tone felt very light and peppy. I saw a review that said that the original trilogy felt like something on par with Game of Thrones, whereas Andromeda feels more like a Young Adult novel. That’s not casting any judgment on the tone itself - just that the tone is a lot less “dark.” Considering Ryder is also a much younger character and how they interact with the world colors the story, overall it feels much more like a fun adventure story than anything more profound. I don’t think the story is going to stick with me the way that other Bioware games have.

For me, the loyalty missions were much more enjoyable than the actual story quests. They felt more weighty because the characters involved were more fleshed-out, and I cared much more about the crew than I did about Space-Corypheus. However, the way that loyalty missions were dolled out was really back-loaded. They all seem to update at the exact same time after a particular mission, so you end up doing all of them in a row. I felt like Liam was the only character whose missions were spread out throughout the game. I also would’ve liked more opportunities to fail, because it makes pulling the loyalty off more rewarding (like in Mass Effect 2, for example). I purposefully tried to “fail” some companion missions to see what would happen, but at the end of the day I still earned the characters’ loyalties and comparing them to the “successful” version there seemed to be little difference outside of a few passing lines of dialogue. But that being said, the loyalty missions themselves were a lot of fun and helped to further define the characters.

Characters

The characters were easily one of the best things about the game and motivated me to complete sidequests that I might not have otherwise. Each was unique in comparison to each other and in comparison to other Bioware companions. I’ve seen a lot of complaints that they felt rehashed but I have to disagree - I think the reason why they don’t stick out initially is because there are a lot less “strong personality” characters where you get a sense of who they are immediately after meeting them (for example characters like Jack, Samara, Javik from the original trilogy). It does take a few conversations to really dig into each squamate’s personality, but I consider that a good thing because it motivated me to seek them out and spend more time with them. I genuinely enjoyed interacting with all of them.

There were also a lot more interactions. Your squadmates talk to each other a lot more frequently, which helps to develop their characters and distract during otherwise mundane driving sequences in the Nomad. Characters also talk amongst themselves on the Tempest during downtimes. Some of the non-ship interactions were brought back for Andromeda as well - you can talk to each companion at each port for new dialogues, and a few scripted off-ship scenes a la the Citadel DLC. Each companion also had a few missions in addition to their main loyalty mission, so you really got to know each of them.

The only companion I felt disappointed by was SAM. After such great AI characters like Legion and EDI, SAM’s utter and complete lack of personality (outside of being a narrator) was a huge disappointment. Considering SAM is a major driving force throughout the game and is key to the story, that was an oversight.

It also should be noted the criticism of the M/M romance options - once again, they got the short end of the stick with only two romances (both humans, and one a considerably shorter romance). Bioware has released a statement that they’re aware of this criticism and will be addressing it, so it remains to be seen how they’ll handle it. I romanced PeeBee and found her romance emotionally satisfying - there were a lot more opportunities to interact with your love interest in Andromeda. However as per usual, this game has the trademark Bioware problem of 1-2 romances getting the bulk of the attention and cutscenes (in this case, the Cora romance has significantly more content than any other romance).

RPG Elements

It’s time to talk about Ryder. I can’t shake the overwhelming feeling like Ryder’s personality was pre-defined by the game. It doesn’t help that this game has easily one of the worst character creators (can we call it that? it’s really just a “preset recolor”) but the dialogue as well feels like I have little control over who Ryder is as a person. I like the new choices the game affords…in theory. In practice, you really only end up have 2 options for most of the game (either “casual/professional” or “emotional/logical”) and even when you do have all four options, the left side options are very similar while the right side options are also similar so it’s hard to distinguish what really sets them apart other than the specific sentence Ryder will say. 

It came across less like a personality choice and more like a response simulator - is your Ryder slightly sarcastic and awkward, but knows when to be serious or is your Ryder slightly sarcastic and awkward and makes jokes? This comes through in any dialogue where you don’t make the choice - Ryder’s overall tone is very playful and jokey, regardless of whatever options you chose throughout the game. I think this also funnels into Bioware’s general trend of moving their player characters more toward a specific direction - there is no option to be evil, or even an asshole in this game. I consider that a negative, because one of the defining features of an RPG is choosing who you want your character to be. In Andromeda, Ryder is much more of a set personality. I don’t dislike Ryder’s personality by any means, I just felt like I had no hand in it.

Ryder also had a reoccurring issue of brushing things off - something catastrophic would unfold right in front of them, with maybe one line of dialogue referencing it (if even that) and then the game moving on. It made story beats feel a lot less important and Ryder lack believability. The game exploited the fact that Ryder is a younger character by having them deliver dialogue that would be inappropriate or painfully awkward coming out of Shepard (but works for a young leader just trying to find their place). I would’ve liked to have seen their inexperience manifest in more character-driven moments of doubt or even failure. Ryder feels some doubt and uncertainty over their role (especially under Addison and Tann’s scrutiny) but this is quickly resolved in the game. One of the reasons why the end mission was so enjoyable was that it was the first time Ryder really fumbled and felt like someone inexperienced thrown to the wolves and trying to make the best of their situation.

Setting

Maybe just because I’m always desperate for a KOTOR 3, but a lot of the visuals in Andromeda reminded me of KOTOR, particularly the Tempest and the city-on-top-of-a-city Kadara. Voeld, Havarl and the asteroid were all an absolute blast to explore and really recaptured the spirit of awe that ME1’s exploration invoked. I also absolutely loved the visuals of the Remnant tech and vaults, there was a very Tron-meets-Blade-Runner theme that I was 100% here for. 

That being said, the other locations could’ve been more. I’ve read the Art of Mass Effect Andromeda and looking at some of the plans they had for the planets versus the end results is a huge downgrade. In my opinion Havarl, Voeld and the asteroid were the only planets that made me really excited and where I wanted to stop frequently and admire the scenery. Eos, Kadara and Elaaden aren’t badly-designed by any means, but they’re quite boring visually and honestly are really similar to each other. I’ll fully admit that I don’t know anything about game design, so I don’t know if it’s easier to build desert, mountainous worlds and that’s why that setting is so prevalent in Andromeda (and in Dragon Age: Inquisition), but it’s a wasted opportunity. Andromeda was their chance to really shake things up - we’re in an alien galaxy, you can “bend the rules” and make things more visually distinctive, they don’t need to be the same. 

I felt similarly when it came to the design of the Angara - I don’t think their design was horrible, but it definitely felt a little basic. It’s also shocking that in a brand new universe, we’re only introduced to two new alien races on top of losing many races from the original trilogy who don’t appear in this game. In a series with worldbuilding so strong, to see that fall flat is a huge waste.

This is all speculation on my part, but the worlds seemed to lack that clear vision that the original trilogy did. Playing those games, you knew that the creators knew that universe inside and out. I didn’t get that impression here. And because I’m the kind of person to notice, there were a considerable amount of lore inconsistencies from the trilogy and within this game. Some could’ve been fixed easily - like when you meet the Angara and they initially can’t understand you, but then miraculously can once you land on Aya (having SAM throw in a line about how he updated your translator would’ve solved that). Other lore details were more insignificant, but something I noticed as a long-time fan (like how the Genophage is seemingly brushed off, when we know from the original trilogy that it’s immune to gene therapy).

And because I have to, I’m going to briefly touch on the animations. I know it’s been beaten into the ground at this point, but it bears mentioning. I know that this was a new team, I know that this was a new engine for them and I know that the amount of characters they had to animate was colossal. But at the end of the day, this is a product like anything else. For a final product to ship with incomplete animation is unacceptable. I think the reaction online was over-the-top, but I absolutely think that EA and Bioware should be held accountable for releasing a game with that many wide-spread animation issues.

Gameplay (Combat & Crafting)

Overall, I thought it was a fun game to play. The combat is a lot more fluid than the original trilogy for sure, and because of that I enjoyed the combat a lot more. The option to shake up your abilities keeps the game from feeling static and lets you really find your perfect combination of moves. The jetpack really came in handy for combat, and I liked being able to choose if you wanted to be a more stealthy fighter or run into the thick of it. I was also ecstatic to see that the overheating mechanic was brought back for some weapons. However, I would’ve liked to have had more than 3 abilities at a time, and I really wish that you were able to control your squadmates’ powers. The game lets you pull off combo moves which is an incredible new feature - but there’s really no way to plan them, you just have to use your abilities at the exact same time your squadmate does so it ends up being completely random.

Crafting definitely could’ve been more streamlined. The game throws you into the crafting screen with little explanation, and the added step of having to use research points on top of finding schematics and gathering materials felt like another burden. It’s also such a wasted opportunity that you couldn’t craft for your companions. I was literally swimming in gear and materials throughout most of the game, and I didn’t need to upgrade my Ryder’s weapons and armor nearly enough to use them.

Gameplay (Exploration)

First off, the way the sidequests were handled was a huge step up from Dragon Age: Inquisition. I never felt like I had to do sidequests in Andromeda, instead, I felt like I wanted to do them to learn more about the world. They were also organized much better in the menu by being broken out by mission vs. task, and even further into whatever planet (or character) they pertained to. It made it easy to tell what sidequests were more story-related. The sidequests themselves were varied and I felt rewarded for doing them with additional cutscenes, dialogues and the occasional choice. Discovering sidequests while settling planets really helped hammer home the theme of exploration. That being said, the constant running back and forth across the galaxy was annoying (especially with those unskippable traveling cutscenes). At times it was obvious padding to make the game length longer. They also suffered from the common video game problem of distracting from the main plot and feeling more like random tasks than coherent missions important to the story.

Unfortunately, there were also a few features and glitches that made exploration tedious. SAM constantly repeating the same lines nearly drove me out of my mind. I also personally loathed the scanner, I dreaded any mission that required it (which unfortunately ended up being many of them) and the sudoku Remnant puzzles felt like an afterthought. I kept encountering a glitch while driving the Tempest where the game would freeze for 1-3 seconds, then suddenly speed up. That made traveling a headache. I also encountered a few other glitches that impeded finishing missions, and I know from reading responses online that there were quite a few major sidequests that are bugged.

Overall

Andromeda is a game of almosts. Each element is almost solid, but lacking something that drives it home. While not a bad game by any stretch, it’s also not one of my favorites. 

#important galaxy stuff #mass effect andromeda #mass effect andromeda review #mass effect andromeda spoilers #me:a #andromeda spoilers

[netmaddy-blog]

The Top 5 Must Play RPGs for Every Video Game Console

New Post has been published on https://netmaddy.com/the-top-5-must-play-rpgs-for-every-video-game-console/

The Top 5 Must Play RPGs for Every Video Game Console

The gaming market is monstrous. Right now there are six consoles, three handhelds, and the ever present PC you can buy games for. That’s 10 different ways you can get your game on, so if you’re someone who doesn’t have the ways or means to buy all 10 platforms and every halfway decent game that arrives for any of them, you’re probably wondering which way you should go to get the most bang for your buck. I’m a bit of a gamer nerd, and so for you, I’ve collected the top five available games (in the stores now) for each console for each particular genre. Based on reviews, user comments, and my personal experience, these are the best ways to go.

This round: RPGs. The Japanese RPG market exploded in the 32-64 bit days, blowing out with a new game seemingly every week. You can blame Square for that one, bringing to the stores amazing game after amazing game, which immediately spurned every other company to release whatever dreck they could muster to keep you pumping money into their pockets. Nowadays there are hundreds of options out there, and the Japanese market isn’t the only one around. North American companies have their own answers to the RPG boom and now it’s a veritable flood of options. Here are the top five for each option you’ve got.

PlayStation 2 – The PlayStation brand name has been the home of quality RPGs since PS1 first rolled out with Suikoden and Final Fantasy games in the mid- the 90s. This list was hard because there are so many left off. Dark Cloud 2, Final Fantasy X, the Shin Megami Tensei games and much more deserve recognition, but alas these are also long as hell, so if you had more than 5, when would you ever finish them. You may notice I exclude the PS3, but I can’t really offer any PS3 RPGs for you until they’ve actually been created. We’re waiting.

1. Shadow Hearts Covenant – The Shadow Hearts series took on a serious following after this entry, one of the greatest RPG releases of the generation. It’s taken on the fantasy RPG genre blended into the realms of reality, bleeding over in church and demonology lore. Taking place in the 19th Century and following the legend of a young woman and her unfortunate destiny, it can be enjoyed alone or along with its predecessors Koudelka and Shadow Hearts (I).

2. Disgaea – This is probably the best strategy RPG released for any console ever. Released by Atlus, a brand name that has grown in and of itself of recent years to the respectability that names like Square and Level 5 now carry with their games, Disgaea is about the young prince of hell and his quest to regain his domain after being awoken. With more than 200 hours of gameplay here, count on playing for days on days. And it’s funnier than hell. These are great characters.

3. Suikoden III – The Suikoden series is the cult series. Of course, it’s slowly sliding out of cult status and into the mainstream with releases occurring every couple of years since this one. The best in the series with the possible exception of Suikoden II, Suikoden III tells the story of a huge cast of characters, all intricately entwined with one another. You play through the tale of their war, but as seen through the eyes of each character. Truly epic.

4. Final Fantasy XII – The newest release, released only two weeks before the PlayStation 3’s release, this game redefines the epic scope of prior Final Fantasies, literally reaching for the stars. Each character is fully realized and a part of the action, their story an intricate part of the game. There’s no fluff here, and the rebuild of the decades-old RPG formula was all for the better, working for the complete and total betterment of the game and hopefully the series.

5. DragonQuest VIII – Dragon Quest has always been huge in Japan, but only now did it find the same success here in the US. Dragon Quest VIII is the huge (extremely huge) result of Square Enix’s jump to full 3D glory in their series. The graphics are incredible, the characters hilarious and deeply involving, and the story arresting. The battles aren’t half bad either. And the usual monster catching glory is intact. A long game, it will keep you busy for days.

Gamecube (and Wii) – The Gamecube got shorted on the RPG options, much like its big brother the N64. Nintendo lost a lot of their clout with the RPG crowd when Squaresoft jumped ship in the 90s and they’re still trying to earn it back…so far to little success. But, the future looks bright, as Square Enix is finally producing games for the Big N, and Nintendo’s own work includes more forays into the RPG market. Here’s hoping for more, because the Wii is perfect for the format.

1. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess – The newest Zelda adventure, Twilight Princess, is by far the best reason to own a Nintendo Wii. The game is a masterpiece on almost every level, to the point I’m almost willing to call it the greatest game ever made. We’ve heard this a lot, that this game is the greatest. That it surpasses what Ocarina accomplished 8 years ago. And as my own favorite game, it’s hard to ever put anything above Ocarina in terms of scope, depth, and innovation. No need to go into detail. Read my review of it here for more thoughts on why it’s so amazing.

2. Tales of Symphonia – The first really good RPG for the Gamecube, and still one of the only ones really. The newest entry in the hugely popular (in Japan) Tales saga, Symphonia was a huge, fun, well-told game. The characters were fun, the battle system is one of the best around, and the action was fully inclusive and crafted a long game. Symphonia was the Gamecube owning RPG fan’s one saving grace.

3. Skies of Arcadia Legends – Originally released for the Dreamcast, Skies of Arcadia was given a second life on the Gamecube, again fated to anonymity due to the failure of the console. This is a great game. It tells the story of two sky pirates who must traverse the sky ocean and save the world from a shattering war and so on. You attempt throughout the game to build your pirate rank and build up your ship. It was one of Dreamcast’s must have games and the same for Gamecube. Unfortunately so few actually had it, and now it’s not exactly easy to find.

4. Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker – The infamous Wind Waker. Nintendo’s foray into cell shading and the horrible foray into ocean mechanics. This game is still amazing. It’s Zelda after all, but it’s flawed on more than the basic levels. It’s hard to get around. The ocean is huge, and the game is short. But the parts you play, in between sailing around Hyrule are beautiful and incredibly fun.

5. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door – The Big N rounds out the five with another in-house effort. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was a return to the Paper Mario fun they coined in the N64 days, this time around with the RPG elements the game seems to work best with. Incredibly easy yes, but fun as hell at the same time.

Xbox (and X360) – The Xbox, not surprisingly saw no Japanese development. Every game listed below was produced in English Speaking countries, mostly Canada actually. The style is noticeably different, but the quality is equally incredible. The strive for realism by Western developers can be seen in each of these entries. Although the lack of humor is equally as prescient.

1. Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion – The Xbox 360 has some serious horsepower. Not only is there room to spare, but the graphic output is insane at the time, and what better way to show this off than with an Elderscrolls game. Monstrous, huge worlds in which you can freely roam wherever you want and interact with your environment. This game is huge and intense. Hundreds of hours can be spent just wandering around and completing the main quest. As for getting the rest done. Who knows how long you could spend on there.

2. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – Star Wars games were starting to get a bad rap for a while until Bioware arrived with the first full-fledged Star Wars RPG. Built on the click and wait for the action of the D&D ruleset games, KOTOR was a brilliant game that took Star Wars fans back a few thousand years to the height of the Jedi/Sith wars. It also had one of the most surprising and amazing endings in any game..ever.

3. Elderscrolls III: Morrowind – And another Elder scrolls game. This one was equally as huge as its sequel and had just as amazing graphics for its time. Elderscrolls truly stretches the imagination in terms of open world RPG exploration and making a game that will take a long time to finish. A truly wonderful game.

4. Jade Empire – Set in a fictional ancient China, Jade Empire comes from the makers of Knights of the Old Republic, and while not nearly as large in scope or length, the game utilizes an array of different combat styles and elements that make it sheer fun to play. It’s shorter and simpler than the original games from Bioware, but they make up for it with the attention to detail and the battle system upgrades.

5. Fable – Touted as an amazing achievement in world interface, Fable turned out to be a little bit of a letdown. It was smaller, shorter, and less engaging than what was claimed, but it was still a solid, fun game to play. Starting as a bland adventure you could become either entirely good or entirely evil through the actions committed during a quest. The characters are generic, the quests forgettable, but the options given to play through them all are still fun. The ending, however, leaves something to be desired, and they could have done with a few more reasons to openly explore. For a sandbox RPG, it was surprisingly linear.

Game Boy Advance – Yup, no DS games. I imagine soon, with the release of the new Pokemon game, and the surprising announcement of Dragon Quest IX coming exclusively to the DS, the RPG options there will explode, but for now your best bet in the RPG realm on handhelds is with the Game Boy Advance. Here are a few of the best.

1. Golden Sun – It’s not a masterpiece. It’s not legendary. But, it’s good solid fun, and for the size and expectations o f a handheld console it’s still pretty fun. I enjoyed it for a few reasons. First off, the gameplay is top notch. The battle system is built around a simple premise and sticks with it, but it’s still fun. The story is nothing special but it reminded me a lot of the 8-bit glory days, keeping me involved without making it impossible to keep up when I have to turn the game off every 20 minutes. Solid play and go action

2. Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire – Pokemon has been around for almost 10 years now, a regular entry in the Gameboy RPG market, really the only entry in that market, and a damn good one. By the time this pair was released (the usual duplicate games with slightly different monsters in each), the same gameplay was reused a good four times and starting to get a little old, but it’s still sound gameplay, and who doesn’t like to collect as much of something as they can. I’m older yes, but I still enjoy the mindless capture and battle system of Pokemon. It’s cathartically simple.

3. Final Fantasy IV – It’s technically a port, but a damn good port at that. I loved this game back in the days on the SNES and the idea to bring the 16-bit Final Fantasies to the GBA made me as happy as can be. This was a game I love to play, but feel goofy loading into my PS2 and sitting down to play. It’s a perfect bus play, and it plays just as great as in 1992. The classic tale of Cecil and the Red Knights never fails to capture my attention from start to finish. Of course, when Final Fantasy VI is released, I might have to replace this with that one, as we all know that VI is the greatest of them all.

4. Riviera: The Promised Land – Atlus has been bashing the PS2 market with top notch games for three plus years now, with their fantastic strategy and alchemy RPG games. They bring Riviera to the GBA with the same pedigree, a solid RPG that plays to the GBA’s strengths as well as any. It’s essentially a screen to screen game. You don’t control your surroundings so much as go from page to page within them, but the battle system is amazing and the different options and acquires immense. The story, like any Atlus game, is the real selling point and actually got me to play through it twice.

5. Final Fantasy Tactics – The portable version of the PSone classic has sucked more time from my life than any GBA game I’ve ever played. The 300+ missions are each 30-60 minutes long and the customization options equal length. This is a long game with a lot of gameplay and a fun little story. You’re Marche, you’ve been sucked into a book into the magical land of Ivalice and now you are a knight. Go!

PlayStation Portable – When the PSP first released fanboys dreamed of amazing ports that would bring their favorite games now out of print back to life in handheld format. At least one made the leap, but for the most part, RPG development on the PSP has been lackluster, and while Japan gets the Suikoden I and II pack and promises of Final Fantasies, we wait for a decent anything to play. Final Fantasy compilation anyone? Anyone at all?

1. Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth – One of the most sought after games from the PSone days, Valkyrie Profile was an amazing RPG that no one played and then no one could play as it was out of print. Ranging from $100 and up on eBay, the promise of a re-release for the PSP was a godsend for fans out there always interested but too poor to afford it. It’s a solid game at that. With rebuilt cinematics and PSP controls, this entry leads into the new PS2 game wonderfully and finally lets the rest of us play through Lenneth’s adventure.

2. Monster Hunter Freedom – Never a real big fan of the Monster Hunter games, I can still see their draw. You go and you hunt monsters. Simple as that. There’s little to hold you up, and there’s online play. It’s like Pokemon without the pesky storyline or purpose.

3. Ys: The Ark of Napishtim – A port of a port. This was originally released for the PS2 and before that, the PC, and has been watered down in between. The same classic Ys gameplay is intact, overland map, onscreen battles and fun little characters in a charming, if simple story. It’s good solid fun for a portable and tells a decent story. Even if the controls are a little broken.

4. Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade – One of the launch releases with the PSP, Untold Legends is an overhead hack and slash RPG without a conscious. It doesn’t strive for amazing storyline or gameplay, just simple hack and slashes glory and it does it pretty well. It was fun because it was simple, made in a very short development cycle from the time the PSP was announced. Oddly enough, though, the sequel was nearly as good.

5. Tales of Eternia – Alright, technically it still hasn’t been released in America, but you can import it from Europe and play the English language version (or Japan if you speak Japanese). But, it’s a tales game, a pretty good one at that. Technically it has been released here too, as Tales of Destiny 2 in 2000. Unfortunately, it got completely ignored as the gaming world moved on to the PS2. This is a great game though and perfect for the PSP. Complete and intact are the great Tales battle system and one of the better Tales plots. Saving the world from the Great War was never quite so fun as in this one.

PC -The PC has always been a home for the more hardcore of gamers. The cost of constant upgrades and intensity of a PC game are legendary, and only the most hardcore amongst us are capable of keeping up. Accordingly, the games below match that mindset, though more than one of these games managed to break free of the limitations and become monstrous worldwide phenomena. I’m looking at you Blizzard.

1. World of Warcraft – Okay, so duh right? Well, some of you are probably palpitating over my choosing this above some other MMORPG, but too bad. Everyone plays this one, including myself and it’s just plain fun. Having spent hours of my life in this game and knowing that I can go back whenever I want without fear of being destroyed because of the MMORPG laws of survival (never leave), this is a great pick up and play a game in a genre where that almost never exists. Huge, tons to do, and always fun even when you’re grinding, WoW is still the best.

2. Baldur’s Gate 2: Shadows of Amn – The Baldur’s Gate games are some of the best RPGs to come out of the PC age of D&D ruleset RPGs. It’s big, it’s long, it’s fun as hell. The challenge of figuring out what to do, how to upgrade your characters and make the game the most it can be were always the number one reasons to play these. The story is pretty awesome too. Don’t forget the Dragon. That dragon is a bitch.

3. Diablo II – Diablo II stole my entire summer my sophomore year of high school. This game was amazing. It took everything Diablo did and blew it up times ten. The ability to find and receive unique weapons that 1000 of your friends would never find kept you playing over and over again. And it was simple. Click, click, right click. F1. That’s it. Nothing to it. And when you finally unlocked the Cow level, then you were the true God of Diablo.

4. Elderscrolls IV: Oblivion – Many of you probably can’t even play this yet. I still can’t. I only know of it because I have a friend who upgrades his computer ever three weeks seemingly. This game is a beast of the highest order, demanding a lot from your system but delivering even more. Monstrous, huge worlds in which you can freely roam wherever you want and interact with your environment. This game is huge and intense. Hundreds of hours can be spent just wandering around and completing the main quest. As for getting the rest done. Who knows how long you could spend on there.

5. Neverwinter Nights – Another D&D ruleset game, but one of the best no less. It’s huge, monstrously huge. And tack on the expansions and you’ve got 200+ hours of action to play through. The biggest seller on this one though was the ability to craft and write your own adventures as a DM with the toolsets and host them online, ala D&D, but with graphics. The sequel doesn’t quite hold up to the original, but still, carries the same weight and fun factor.

I’m a self-avowed unemployed writer, working on a semi-constant basis to try and overcome the need to go and work a real job.