Tale

I liked it on its own, but I didn't like how it fit within a supposed 3-game story arc. It did, however, have the best sidequest missions in any of the three games. Mass Effect 2 actually fits the second act formula for a particular type of a three story arc. Same as Star Wars, for instance. It's kind of common with stories that plan for trilogies, but don't really PLAN for the trilogy if that makes sense. The second part doesn't really make any headway in concluding the arc, it just fleshes things out. People criticize it because "Mass Effect 1 ended with the Reapers coming to the galaxy, Mass Effect 2 ended with the Reapers.... coming to the galaxy." But, The Empire Strikes back didn't end with the Empire on the run. It ended with Luke knowing more about Vader. And in context of Mass Effect 2, we learn more about the Reapers. If the Collector base had paid off similarly, it could have been that connection the trilogy needed. The reason Mass Effect 2 fails to push the story forward is Mass Effect 3's fault, not Mass Effect 2's. As if Return of the Jedi had all but ignored the family connection, save for a passing mention during the final battle. ESB would have turned into the weird midqual where they just meet the guy who blows up the second Death Star.

I'm not a parent, but I'm enjoying The Clone Wars. I heard it got better as the series went along and I'm having to agree. Though the fact that season 2 has submarine episode, Seven Samurai episode, and a King Kong/Godzilla two parter back to back is kind of off-putting.

You could get a mechanical keyboard.

Probably something like, "This isn't ready yet but we need to ship it". Did they ever say how much work was lost with that whole dark space ending being leaked and needing to be re-done? The dark energy ending wasn't what was leaked. The only reason we even know what was intended for dark energy is because Karphasyhn mentioned it was an idea he floated in an interview. The leaked ending was pretty much not redone compared to what we got. The biggest change was Javik's removal where he ended up becoming DLC. Time wasn't really the issue.

Had an obnoxious cold yesterday. I feel like I had too much exercise yesterday and someone shoved ice cubes up my nose. But I did get quite a bit of time to view my Clone Wars Blu-Rays since I only worked half a day.

Well wishes, Alvin. I'll miss his insights.

That's going to depend on how much you enjoyed it. Sam's DLC is the sewers, the japanese garden, the upper room of that building, Bladewolf fight and Armstrong fight. He has a new moveset, so it's kind of good for that reason. Bladewolf's DLC is garbage. It's more reused levels with the addition of platforming segment, an entirely new boss who is really simple, and not a hint of relevance to the story.

I'm rewatching the entire series of The Slayers. I'd say I forgot how good it was, but I didn't forget. I just never made time.

So were the harpies the first encounter? The big problem I see there is him wasting time if that's the case. He takes you through this explanation of a setting, all these details about the inhabitants, the city, the sun, and then promptly shifts you elsewhere that it doesn't matter. The setting is not inspired, but that's forgivable. It just needs to be on track. I've only been part of three tabletop games. The first one annoyed me when it kept devolving into purile humor about pee, poop, and sex toys. I don't know if that's a recurring thing in RIFTS, but everytime someone failed a roll they ended up interacting with one of those three. The second one showed that I have no patience for arbitrary critical failures or DMNPCs. The game started with rolling a 0 meaning you dropped your weapon. The last session I attended had me roll a 0 causing me to instead hit a tree, which then promptly fell on me. And then there was the big bad we couldn't do any damage to until the Paladin NPC showed up and dispersed his shield, tanked the fight, and did the most damage. My character protested in the most mature fashion possible, by sitting down in a fire.

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia Decided to put the JRPGs aside and play this one. Bought it long ago, about time I put a serious effort into playing it.

I gave up on Radiant Historia. I'm almost 10 hours in on some sewer level that's part maze so I keep getting lost and fighting the same monsters over 10+ times. And right when I thought I found my way out, it turns out there's more. I might pick it up again later. Not feeling enthused by my attempts to play SMT IV either. Stuck on a boss that can nearly one-shot my entire party. And completely redoing my party so it can't is going to take hours. And that leaves me with my attempts to play Deadly Premonition. I guess I'm on "episode 2." And there's really nothing going on. I'm being asked to follow the thinnest of tangents to the case in the hopes that it'll payoff later. I'm really not interested in Nick's potential infidelity with Diane and I absolutely fail to see what that has to do with Anna's murder. It's wasting my time. As are those other world sequences, the one in the lumber mill was twice as long as it needed to be.

Except they're not subsidizing their material, they're interfering with everyone else's. The road analogy would be if Wal-Mart was allowed to set up tolls in front of Target. The telephone, a less abstract analogy, would be if Verizon was allowed to intentionally degrade all telephone calls made to someone using AT&T. Imagine if the infrastructure they're using to do this was publicly subsidized. It is. And imagine if they were the only option in town, which is true in many places in America. It's anti-competitive.

My philosophy here is that what the game is "trying" to do should be its core mechanics. Trying to do something completely different for a moment doesn't sit well with me, especially not when that something else is a game of Simon Says. It's like we have these potentially deep and engaging game mechanics that are exciting and tactical... and then we have this child's game that you can constantly find a variation of on the clearance isle of Target's toy department. And for some reason, someone thought what this $60 game really needed in the middle of it was some of the latter. I think that's fair. I dislike the sudden "Pass this quicktime or die" in a game like Resident Evil (especially when I was oblivious to them even existing before hand). With The Walking Dead, I'd argue that those sequences are the bulk of its core mechanic. Yeah, that I'm fine with. I'm even fine with David Cage's games, aside from the writing issues. I say fine, but I want to think they could do better with regular controls. There's an up frontness about it that makes it hard to argue against. If it works for their audience, then it works.

Blackwell is a great series. And I vaguely recall hearing that he's working on another. Thinking on it, I haven't been playing anything. Which is weird, what am I doing with my time? Oh right, work. I get a few minutes of Radiant Historia in when I can.

My philosophy here is that what the game is "trying" to do should be its core mechanics. Trying to do something completely different for a moment doesn't sit well with me, especially not when that something else is a game of Simon Says. It's like we have these potentially deep and engaging game mechanics that are exciting and tactical... and then we have this child's game that you can constantly find a variation of on the clearance isle of Target's toy department. And for some reason, someone thought what this $60 game really needed in the middle of it was some of the latter.

Tried out three games on the ****ty laptop I have access to (it's a Celeron 900). Gone Home: Runs terribly on lowest settings. Single digit framerate is what I'm talking about here, if not worse. Broken Age: Crashes when trying to start a new game or load a save. The Banner Saga: Runs almost perfectly. That settles that.

Finished Unfinished Swan, apparently I stopped right before the ending when I played it at release. And on Deadly Premonition now. Not impressed so far, hoping it picks up after day 1.

Society of Dangerous Obsidian Fanatical Forumites http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SODOFF

Finally beat Awakened Daimon a couple of days ago. I switched back to Assassin and did the blast arrow/periapt thing for most of it. Apparently didn't bring enough, because I still had to Deadly Gouge out half his health. Blast arrows were especially nice for stopping him from killing my pawns with the vortex.

I'm unenthused by the dragging out of Amanda Ripley. But I guess it'll be easy enough to get over if they do well with the game proper. And glad to see that the rumored clones for her to fight are nowhere to be seen. I remember it and I don't care a lot, either. I hated the episodes, they repeated too much of Half-Life 2. I was sick of Sandtraps when I played Sandtraps. I was sick of Sandtraps when I played it again, only with toxic ooze. And I was sick of Sandtraps when I played it again with toxic ooze and slightly more zombies in Episode 2. I'm done. It's why I was glad they stopped the episodic. But now I'm not sure what to see from them to continue it.

Loved the original mod, loved the new game. I do wish he had managed to incorporate some sort of mechanic, be it puzzle, or hidden items, just to enhance the replayability. I valued my time with it, but it's one of few games I look at and can say unequivocally that my time is done. I have no reason to go back.

I completed the Bravely Default demo. Am really looking forward to its release. And that was interspersed with Radiant Historia. The game has a cool premise, but I think they're being a little too restrictive with it. So far it's coming along as a dressed up linear JRPG. Which isn't absolutely terrible, but it's just missed opportunity.

I'm a Valve fanboy on the wane. And I'm getting a little worried about them creatively. They've been doing fantastic work in microtransactions and multiplayer, but beyond that, I think they need to push something out. Talent is a perishable skill, you need to create and publish, take the feedback, and then improve. You need that entire process. They're stuck in the first step on Half-Life. And each year they don't release something, the talent they acquired from releasing even Portal 2 is going to spoil. I used to be a big fan of "release it when it's done... if you can afford that." But I think they've crossed a line into it creating a concern about if they're even going to know how to make it relevant and appealing anymore.

Restarted Demon's Souls. Decided I wanted to play a war cleric type, but starting as Royalty for the ring. Turns out there's no real offensive miracles, so I'll just do heal/soul arrow/flame toss, then pump strength and endurance for equipment.

It's pretty fast when I just 4x Brave it and wipe them out in one round.