Raithe

With H:ZD it was the layered reveal of the history as it went. It had that start-up that was possibly a bit too long before the serious hooks kicked in, but was nicely structured. The reveals, the half twists of the story as it led you through it all. Combine that with how much you picked up the assorted datapoints and audio recordings of peoples moments during the fall. The emotional delivery behind some of the moments of Operation Enduring Victory added a great level to it. But then again, that depends on how much you got engaged by it all. Que sera sera.

https://www.cyberpunk.net/en/news/50098/introducing-a-limited-floppy-edition-of-cyberpunk-2077

https://mashable.com/article/the-crow-soundtrack-30-anniversary

Been plowing through Horizon Forbidden West on pc now. Completed the main quest and moved onto the Burning Shores dlc. Pretty good all in all, though possibly not quite as emotionally engaging or as deep a story as the first one. The music score still adds a lot of depth to the game and the emotional story beats you do get. Some of the context sensitive controls can be a bit finnicky, and I've sworn a bunch of times where I've meant to take several small steps carefully at climbable edges and it's read it as the double click for dodge-roll and launched Aloy off a high surface. Possibly because of the nature of the story this time around, since you aren't plumbing the depths of so many ancient ruins looking for answers you also don't get quite so much of the bittersweet and melancholic datapoints and holo/audio recordings of last moments from the fall. And I have to say, the end sequence for the main story is incredibly cinematically done for the credits. Aloy on flying mount going across the landscape, looking across glorious vistas as it slowly covers the entire game world map in lazy S paths, end credits emerging from the landscape only to scatter into glitter on the wind as the you move into them, finally reaching the point of the map the final mission occured just as the sun is setting behind that location and the credits morph into a "thank you for playing" all set to slow, epic orchestral music.

For the Dragonlance fans out there...

BBC - Louis Gosset Jr at age 87

See, it all depends on which threads you're paying attention to... 😅

Kicked off Horizon Forbidden West on pc... I have to admit, starting it up and it going into Lance Reddick's narration of "what had gone before" was a weird emotional gut punch.

https://www.ign.com/articles/larian-studios-wont-make-baldurs-gate-3-dlc-expansions-or-baldurs-gate-4

It has ups and downs. It runs more into Season 5 of Rebels as it pulls back most of that crew in one form or another. And you do get a fairly nice performance from Thrawn, but not until the last couple of episodes of the season. Edit: Also, Ray Stevenson has a standout performance in it as it goes. Which since it's his final performance, adds a certain emotion to watching it.

The consistent rumour is that the Acolyte is actually going to be the journey of someone into becoming the Sith Apprentice, and how the Sith do that infiltration of the Republic and setting up dominoes for Palpatine in the future. So Ashoka with more intrigue and potential grey Andor style behaviour. But, eh, who knows exactly how they'll play it.

To be fair to the 1984 version, it's not the cut that Lynch wanted. He's pretty much refused to talk about the Dune film because of how much interference the studio gave and messed around with what was kept and cut from the film. So he filmed it for a specific vision and then didn't get to edit it to that vision. Such is the joy of battles between Directors and Studio films. And yes, on the Crow, the original had it's own rich embrace of the gothic ambience of the 90's, it had a vibe and tone that it cheerfully ran with to provide a specific unique feel. That trailer for the new version looks lacking in atmosphere and emotion. Whether it's my age talking, but it looks like an attempt of a glossy, gen-z action film in an attempt to do a John Wick under the guise of The Crow. And while Danny Huston is a good actor and has done some good villains, nothing in that trailer of him provides any of the character or compelling nature of Michael Wincott's Top Dollar.

For those who might not have wandered into it before: https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/deus-ex-mankind-divided-4c6370 Epic Games has Deus Ex Mankind Divided going free at the moment.

The original had a sense of style and emotion to it. I'm not really picking up either vibe from that trailer. Plus, Michael Wincott was a most excellently drippingly evil villain.