algroth

4. Got convinced by some friends to watch it because they couldn't stop hyping it up. I'll definitely be watching it again on Sunday though, it was great.

Pretty much. The trailer does feel as if it's completely oblivious to the underlying rage and desperation that is present in the character and story, as well as the sheer queasiness inherent in the premise, in great part thanks to the choice of AC/DC as a soundtrack to it all. Which is, again, the usual story with Eli Roth.

I see what you mean, very wide mouths. I actually think Pallegina had a very defined jaw, more so than this portrait. But I see what you mean by square. Eder's jaw line also looks different. I guess this is the problem with defining a character with 2D art instead of dimensioned 3D models. Oh yes, I agree that her jaw was defined - but her portrait makes her face look a lot stockier than she looked in the first Pillars. Edit: On closer inspection I'm not even sure it's her jawline that's the issue. Something about the proportions of her features seems different, though, and it's possible too that the lesser prominence given to her neck also makes her come across as, well, stockier (since the straighter pose in her previous portrait made her appear leaner and more elongated).

Looks rubbish, as usual with Roth.

Holy ****, that new GoT episode.

I like it. I do think the lantern is an equippable item so it's your choice to have it on her or not.

One thing I notices across all portraits is that their lower faces (mouths included) look huge. I don't recall Pallegina being nearly as square-jawed in both Pillars or the Deadfire model as she appears on the portrait, or Edér for that matter either. The smiles all get a bit of a Joker-like quality for me (could just be me). Of the lot I do like the ones for Maia, Serafen, Tekehu and Aloth though.

Convention is the best answer I could find, I'm afraid, though others have suggested that the attack and fast decay in the sound of plucked and melodic percussion instruments is another factor that kept them out of orchestras, given the differences in sonic character and so on. Also some have suggested that guitars are generally too quiet an instrument to work within the context of a symphonic orchestra, and would get drowned by the rest of the instruments. There have been a few compositions for guitar and orchestra though, "Concierto de Aranjuez" by Joaquín Rodrigo being probably the most popular of the lot (Toru Takemitsu and Luciano Berio have also done a few, of those that I can recall off the top of my head).

Unfortunately the update does say that those who backed will not be seeing refunds. Sorry to hear that, majestic.

Also in the aforementioned thread. As well as being more detailed thanks to the new character models and so on. I also misunderstood, I thought the OP wanted new sets as in different types of armour (breastplate, mail, leather and so on) instead of just more of them (or more variance within each set/type/whatever).

How cool would it be to have a chimera or manticore as an animal companion? :D

I would personally love to see some more out-there stuff myself. Some mythical and Eora-exclusive creatures who by all means would qualify as 'animals' (or beasts at the very least) in their world. Drakes or stelgaers for example.

The matter of a greater variety of clothing has been addressed in the Q&As and they did say they'll be adding more clothes sets to Deadfire compared to the first Pillars. However, I'm not sure what's wrong with armour? I've never noticed a lack of variety for it, and have loved the look of it throughout the game. What's more, in terms of sheer variety I'm not sure what you feel is missing, or which game has done better for that matter. In Pillars you have full plate, breastplate, BRIGANDINE!!!, mail, scale, leather, hide, padded/gambeson... I guess you can add a kind of splint armour but other than that, what other kind of set would you propose?

That's actually the first island on Fulvano's journey and the Principi home base, as shown in this fig update. Though the town itself either didn't have a name at the time or the island got named that and the town was given a different name. So, it's more of a special case with that island having multiple stuff on it. Yup yup, I just wasn't sure if they'd be making the entirety of Dunnage into a town area or just an area of it plus a few other nearby explorable areas - turns out it's the former, which might be quite interesting inasmuch as having a look at how much content there'll be in these.

On the subject of the video itself, Neketaka is looking great, but I'm also very curious about the tease of other towns comprised of multiple areas across the Deadfire (Dunnage being one, maybe the Huana town shown in the gameplay preview being another?). I thought they'd be moving away from making several large urban areas, but it seems like they're doing just that this time around too.

Along the logic of greater immersion, I think it's also useful in giving invented terms and names a cohesive sound to them. In the first Pillars for example, the Glanfathan language has its own Welsh/Irish sound which is starkly different to the more Romance/Latin-based Vailian for example, and they help inform on who the character is and where they, or their ancestry, are from (same applying to objects and concepts and the likes). The sound of words also helps a lot in informing the kind of world and culture it is, in the way more guttural or blocky-sounding words may relate to more isolated and less advanced cultures as could be the case of the Huana in comparison to the more flowery and sophisticated sound of Vailian for example. Language is also not just the primary means of communication between two people but also the primary means of codification of the world for an individual, and thus very relevant in our understanding and interpretation. It was a crucial point when it came to first contact between Europe and the native cultures of the lands they'd eventually colonize: one example with regards to the indigenous communities around the River Plate for example was that in their language there was no such word as "is" or "be", rather everything "seems", and thus a tree seems to be a tree, an animal seems to be an animal, and a person seems to be a person. These tribes were very isolationist and hostile, and a lot of it could have been influenced by their language which by its construction alone made the culture prone to suspicion of outsiders. Being that Deadfire is exactly about this period, I think language can play an important role precisely due to all this and how it can further underline this culture clash, so to speak. Also I think it's very much one of those things that people who don't care will be indifferent about, but those that do will immediately take note of it and appreciate the degree of detail therein.

It's proper tinfoil hat mentality, that vid.

Pollution is fake news. [/HoonDing]

Damn. Am looking forward to Anthem though.

Currently #1 amidst 2017's films at Metacritic, and the trailer is quite lovely. Looking forward to it.

Dogs I can believe -- after all, they are trained by humans and can pick up on those owner biases. But yeah, the last one is just silly. White Dog is a good film centered around that.

He did lose his birds...

Just a bit of Lady Foreshadow shenanigans.

I thought the episode was damn good, some great moments for Cersei, Tyrion and Olenna. My one complaint is that the battle sequences so far have been looking cheaper and faker than usual - the rubbery costumes and CG backdrops at Casterly Rock had me thinking of Helen of Troy.