Tale

I made it through God Emperor of Dune and kind of had enough right there. First three captivated me. But God Emperor just got kind of... is wanky the right word? I don't even remember the book having a conflict, just an inevitable conclusion where everything is going as planned. Sounds like I didn't stop too terribly early then.

Still trudging through X-Men Legends 2. I really should just abandon it, but that would put me on bad footing when I trying to play through Ultimate Alliance 1. Of course, I'll wait to do UA1 and instead do Ace Attorney 6 that came out today or Muv-Luv. I hear great things about both.

Back to X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse. I'm not sure why so many people act like this is better than Ultimate Alliance 2. The one good thing it has going on is the environmental destruction, which is admittedly wonderful. But the roster is restrictive, with lots of supporting characters you can't use, and most levels are just a chore of killing waves with nothing else going on. Like Act 3 is basically "destroy the core, destroy the infinite factory, fight the Stepford Cuckoos, SUDDENLY HOLOCAUST." That's not a story, it's barely a plot. I'm in Act 4 now and will probably finish, but I honestly don't care about what happens next. I'm not looking forward to anything.

I don't even feel it should have had a to be continued. I feel it should have had a completely different plot. It basically ends in the same place it began aside from one or two very simple threads left loose. Like it could have been great if this game saw the formation of UNATCO and introduction of prototype nano-augs. With Paul Denton set to play a role in the next game. That would deserve a to be continued and really move the plot along.

Beat Mankind Divided. A junk food installment. It was a good experience, but it felt pointless. The plot moved forward by about an inch.

I'd be very interested in hearing about what was so different. I did minimal work in both, but I'd say I did a lot more module building in NWN2. Regrettably not enough to finish anything. Scuplting exteriors was a very powerful tool, but time consuming at the same time.

My favorite moment from Mask of the Betrayer. Not too vintage, it's a steam screenshot from my last playthrough. http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=102610907

This reads like a hastily done homework assignment that was abandoned very quickly, to then be turned in the next day with head hung low.

I hated 1 for the longest time. Coming to it after playing Baldur's Gate and getting that was a tremendous disappointment. I can still only think of 1 as a Diablo-like with auto-attack replacing all the clicking. I think I only ever beat 1 several years later after both expansions were out and I finally gave it another shot. Played right through. Got bored playing every other attempt before and since. Neverwinter Nights 2 was a genuine joy for me. It brought back playing with a party! Right up until Dragon Age: Origins, Neverwinter Nights 2 was a mainstay on my hard drive. And the only real flaw I find with it to this day is that it was kind of generic in the main campaign. But still a few delightful characters. With an expansion I don't honestly have anything negative to say about, only positive.

Had an extra spicy sausage from the donut shop for breakfast. At some point I touched my face. Feels like I was maced in one eye.

I'm kind of being overloaded by the game. Haven't done anything because I'm too busy save scum hacking every single computer and door in the hub. Which is kind of boring, but I don't want to miss out should something big happen and parts of it get cut off.

My last car was from family. But I helped my mother buy her last car and there were no real "packages." They toss on window tint, nitrogen in the tires, and wheel locks. She settled on the place that promised they would absolutely not charge anything extra for it, then charged $20 for it instead of the $100 the first dealership said they couldn't go lower than. I hate salesmen so much.

Imagine the ****storm if game developers advertised the game for $60, but then required you to buy $10 of "dealer add-ons" that they pre-purchased for you and irrevocably bundled together. Car dealerships push that instead.

I finally watched Batman v. Superman. I'm conflicted, but leaning to not liking it. This was the Ultimate Edition. Starting off with Batman's origin was senseless. The dream sequence was confusing. The movie tried being a slow paced thriller before turning into the blockbuster it wanted to be. The slow paced thriller was simply unfit for the rest of the movie and not that greatly done. No real following of the mysteries, just things happening in sequence and a reveal we all kind of saw coming. When it gets to the blockbuster is when it gets good. But then it tries to be two barely connected blockbusters back-to-back and I'm not sure it worked out. I think that ultimately, the titular showdown worked. The buildup and reasoning were there. Batman is just so mad for everything that he blames Superman. Superman's just trying to talk and Batman won't let him. They fight! I was sold. But when it tried to follow it up, it showed my number one complaint about comic book movies. They completely lack original ideas. Just once I want a comic book movie to create a new bad guy. I mean, aside from Superman 3 and 4. Here they basically mash two popular stories together without even bothering to build up to or earn the second one. And the contorted plot points required to get there are painful. I'm just saying it'd be nice if they tried to build onto the mythos, instead of mimic it. That's part of what made these stories they're trying to retell so great in the first place. It's not as if it can't be done, Batman The Animated Series created Harley Quinn. Then Batman Beyond was created for that same universe. What did Batman v Superman create? Or Civil War (even though I love that film), any X-Men, or Spider-Man film?

I said GOOD DAY!

He offered recipes. What good is your advice if I still need other recipes to use it? Good day to you, sir. GOOD DAY

YOU GIVE, YOU GIVE NOW And cholesterol! The good news is apparently that the blood pressure problem runs in the family, so there's probably absolutely nothing I can do about it and cutting back on salt won't help. Maybe. I'd still like to give it a try.

Health issues, yay. I actually feel fine, but my doctor's concerned with good reason. Got some tests coming up and the provider who accepts my insurance is on the high end for the area, YIPPEE. I already decided to give up soda before the visits and have been doing good on that. But now it's necessary I give up red meat, soup (this is the real sacrifice here), drastically reduce my salt, and I think I'll toss in alcohol for good measure. I am so going to miss soup.

Action horror games need to stop having invincible enemies that you have to run from or otherwise just kill a bunch of times. It was neat at first, when it was a final boss and the tension was at the highest. Or when it was an interesting premise for the entire game. But now they're just popping up in the middle of the game for no reason. Like they ran out of ideas to break up the monotony of the hallways, so tossed it in. When time machines get built, that's the first thing they need to go back and put a stop to. That and Mass Effect 1's Mako.

Word. Never has walking through a door been more satisfying.

I gave in to impulse and bought some Resident Evil games on sale. REmake, 0 HD, and both Revelations. I like Revelations so far. Not great, but feels like a budget title companion to 5, which was decent. I did just get kind of turned off by coming to my first boss fight and running out of ammo without seeing any difference. It has too many flashbacks, too few enemy types, but at least it's trying to be a bit scarier. Except when it ends up fighting hordes, then it's back to 5 at its worst. The story is hilariously bad in that

I'm not sure how that's any more relevant to NMS than it is to every other game out there. Does one need to know other people are out there in Pillars? I'm not anti-social, I'm just anti MMO.

Losing interest in NMS. I know once I put it down I won't come back unless they have major content updates. All I feel I have left to do is get a ship with more slots, but that's a poor reason to keep playing. My personal hype's died down and I feel I can say it's better as a technical basis for a game than a great or good game itself. It's a galaxy full of collectibles, and those are a poor substitute for actual gameplay. Even the emergent storytelling falls almost completely flat, which is the one area I hoped it would shine in. I've pre-ordered Deus Ex for Tuesday, but until then I think I'll try and finish up X-Men Legends 2.

You're a monster, that movie is treasure.

I got off that godforsaken planet finally. Within like 30 minutes of starting up yesterday. Yay for me. Even traded up to another abandoned ship again, which is all kinds of terrifying after that experience. I should just put together a checklist of all the resources needed to get a ship up and running.