LadyCrimson

The Professional (Leon). Still one of my favorite movies... "There's a guy wants to talk to you." "What's he look like?" "...serious."

Thanks for the Grim Dawn updates, Keyrock. That's a game I've been waiting for what feels like years for....from long before they Kickstarted. I played an hour or two of the first alpha but now I'm just going to wait. From the sound of it, I've got a year or two still left to wait.

Zenith bonuses are kinda lame. Although double Lights for just entering the contests is ok. And the t-bars for stars is cool for my main so I don't have to give up a mimic on any alt. But ... meh. I was hoping for a new crafting task, not the Feast again. Something like tha 3rd fawn sometime today then I think I'm done with this Festival outside of the telescope/star quest. Except for some ledge jumping, maybe.

I used to love Logan's Run when I was a kid. And had a huge crush on Michael York. "Open Grave" - the end wasn't as good as the start (became a bit predictable), but for an indie thriller/horror I found it a fair film. Kinda creepy, good conflict set up between the hapless characters, and some decent performances.

Largely stayed away from the gaming, so that equaled more domestic chores and pursuits, which included a fair bit of cooking. I suppose I cook a bit more often in winter. Keeps me warm, haha. Am now getting ready to settle under some covers to watch a movie and probably fall asleep before it's over. *relaxed cat languid stretch* Life is good.

Silk is awesome, except when it comes time to clean it. Or you have cats that like to give you shirt-hugs... ...I still like all-cotton t-shirts best, although the blends are fine and they tend to wear longer.

Hm. From what I can tell, this went from a topic about mature themes in games and what one might like to see/wish game designers would incorporate more often, to a debate about Tolkein in some fashion, to a debate about Tolkein being racist, to ... well, let's just say a fair amount of off-topic debate that's probably better suited for other threads or other places. I think this thread has gone off the rails far enough and reached the end of it's usefulness for now ... the actual topic of mature themes in gaming can be discussed another day, in another thread.

... I love you. Can't wait for 3rd season, which I think doesn't air here until mid-late Jan. on PBS.

Looked around through Steam for maybe something new to play - indie, short, long, whatever. Didn't see much to interest me. Except this one game (I think it's an online with micro-transactions?) in Early Access (closed beta) called "The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot". The humor and dungeon/castle building looked appealing, but sadly I don't think another online/transaction type game is for me. If only it was single-player... maybe in a year or two there will be more finished games for me to try. These things tend to go in cycles for us gamers...

So how far can you get with that one? Doesn't seem like you can get as high? Btw, I find it absurdly funny to see your daintily dressed chr (summer festival clothes) flying forward with a giant glowing hammer.

Started to watch "Open Grave" last night, but after 20 minutes I realized I was too tired, so I'll finish it tonight. Feels like a low budget indie thriller/horror maybe, and it starts off rather intriguingly, at least. Yes, that's all I meant. I still find him an odd chap for me, because as the years go by I feel like I should like him more as his abilities matured. Maybe it's more that I don't generally like the movies he's in all that much. eg, I find the films kinda dull. Whereas Brad Pitt is the opposite sort of odd duck, because early on I was also largely unimpressed (just a pretty face), then he grew on me, and by now I like him quite a bit. Particularly in his non-leading roles, at times. Not that he hasn't been in klunkers, too. But it's interesting how much that can affect one's viewpoint of an actor/actress, I think.

I liked that one a lot. Like many other games, I don't think I ever actually finished it (maybe 3/4?), but I had a blast with it anyway.

You really love Dicaprio, don't you? Tried to watch something called Flatland (2007), which is some weird animated film about a 2D world. Conceptually sorta interesting, but too far out there for me. Turned it off.

The only game that "sacred" me to the point of making it almost unbearable to play for very long was System Shock 2. I don't know if it would do the same to me now, but at the time...yeah. It was the unrelenting tension factor, like seeing the movie Alien for the first time way back when. One of the mistakes some games make is the idea that darkness/low visibility is inherently scary. Not true. And I'd agree that a lot of that sort of thing only works the first time (maybe twice or a few times even). After that you know, so it doesn't work. But that's sort of the nature of average fear -repetition breeds contempt - and can't be helped. I think the OP's partial point, tho, about the undead having become just the cannon-fodder of most games is valid. Skeletons/zombies seem to be the next thing up from rats and it'd be nice to see a game step away from that. I'm not, however, sure I'd like unkillable undead/enemies (if they can do damage to me) - unless there was also a way to mostly avoid them. But then it becomes more of a stealth-game or something. Borderlands2 DLC had a skeleton enemy that would go down, but then keep rising up again unless you ran up to it and pulled some mystical sword out of its back. Something like that can work ok...and helps some with the "ranged is overpowered" issue as well.

Pizza. Twilight Zone marathon on TV. Maybe a shot or two of rum. Then I don't know what. Maybe a nap. Woke up with a really stiff back and it's finally starting to loosen up...which makes me sleepy. Been noticing Comcast cableTV wants you to "buy" movies through them now. $15-20 to "own" it. Of course, that means you have to have Comcast in order to access them. Hahaha. Yeah, no. Digital 24hr film rental, fine. "Buy", heck no.

An enemy that is hard to fight/win against is not scary of itself. That's just a tough fight. If there's a huge penalty for death in a game (like losing actual gear if you end up being unable to win/get your corpse/whatever...) then tough fights become sweaty-palm scary in a stressful sort of way. So if what you really want is just tense/hard combat with undead (vs them being fodder), I think that's a valid complaint. Being scary, tho... To be honest, I've never found ghosts scary simply because they're ghosts. Or zombies (most zombies I laugh at, they're not scary at all). Or any of that. Doesn't matter how they're drawn - sometimes the seemingly innocuous can actually be more "scary" upon the reveal of their scary actions/intents. It's also difficult to make them artistically scary in this type of game, I think - in terms of seeing them as you play - because of figure size. Hard to be scared of a small figure on your screen that isn't in-your-face. Scary encounters comes from nervous anticipation of not knowing what's around the corner and being surprised in spite of yourself even when you know something's coming. It comes from area atmosphere, light/music/tonal/sound cues we've been trained all our media-absorbing lives to tense up when we hear/see them, and, imo, most importantly, from the fear of having something to lose. Of course, what level/how much that individuals may require before they feel scared is...individualistic. An enemy (any type) that can lulz kill you in a few hits or something, just because they have awesome kill powers, is not scary. A challenge (or an irritation, depending on PoV) but not scary.

Reputation: I really disliked it in games where if you killed people in one town, every town/every guard everywhere would know to attack you on sight, as if everyone in the world knew what you and every member of your party looked like (even with hoods/helmets on). Unless it's a hi-tech sci-fi "big brother is watching" type game, such doesn't fly with me. Reputation should affect whether people are willing to ally with you sometimes, and there can be convo options that reveal who you are/deal w/your rep level, but...I dunno. I just don't like the auto-rep-encounter method. But I often accept it because I'm supposing something more all-encompassing complex is too much work/time. As to achievements or awards - even outside of Steam, seems like one can have earned titles in the game or something. I don't see how that would be that difficult..."if one has killed 1000 gnolls, give title "Gnoll Slayer." Not sure about badges you carry around...better than auto-rep (assuming you don't have to wear the badges) maybe.

Too...much...Neverwinter Online. Not just the Festival/fishing but doing tons of dailies to level up pets. When it's all done I can go back to hardly playing the game at all...

Was watching The Core late last night. Despite it's utter laughable "science" and lack of originality I kinda like that movie. Emphasis on kinda. Probably for the people that are in it more than anything else. Bruce Greenwood, Aaron Eckhart. And Stanley Tucci. I love that guy, he cracks me up.

Recovery is simple, but it still hurts like a mofo for a few days. Well, at least mine did. My scar is extra long. Maybe they can do it with a tiny hole and a laser tube now, for all I know. But yeah, it's not a long hospital stay type deal as long as there's no complications.

Yeah....I got the free puppy on a few chrs. Tried the top dungeon only once, with my main (only one that has 5 epic pets) which has a chance for a blue pet. Got through about 3/4 of the encounters I think but by then my group had lost almost all of their health bar (lost a lot of fights/had to do them twice) so I gave up. Haven't tried that one since. It's tough.

There's some truth to that. Plenty of folk who do almost nothing but play the Gateway after max level. The rest is a sensation of a series of short solo or co-op combat area missions without a real sense of "world". At least to me. I could gripe about WoW for many things, but for me at least, it did the "I'm in a world" feeling pretty well.

My mailsmiths and alchemists are all lazy roustabouts with nothing much to do most of the time, so they get to muck the stalls and run after me with the magical pooper scoopers.

Realized I sometimes stay in mmo's just for the chat. Maybe I need to do some irc again or something. Breakfast before bed.

Small slices of beef stir fried with: --strips of all 3 colors of bell peppers --yellow onion --sliced celery --2 sliced fresh/raw jalapeno --little bit of black pepper --garlic, soy sauce, etc etc. Spicy, simple, colorful. Yum.