Raithe

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.

There are the "Echo" zones that can be accessed via Ourouboros time travel shenanigans and such-like for a lot of the things that would no longer be available in the "normal" game.

Continuing my current plunge into nostalgia gaming with CoH: Homecoming. It's interesting to go back to an MMO that was made before WoW become the cookie-cutter imprint for all others. The other point that appeals to me is that it's not about the end-game, but all the stories going through. There are so many little story arcs and in-game stuff about heroes and villains, and groups and characters that you will completely miss in a single play through (unless you use the time-travel stuff later) because it's designed to have you pick up contacts depending on how you play and you'll outlevel some by doing others. So it does encourage you to try new characters to explore different parts and history of the world. But then with the Homecoming version (I can't remember this being on the original game) but you can literally turn off XP and it gets converted into the in-game influence money instead so you don't level up and just roam and do stuff without worrying about getting too high-level for it. Which makes an interesting balance.

Condolences, Katphood.

Turks and Caicos. The 2nd of the Johnny Worricker trilogy of low-key modern spy films. Bill Nighy as the lead, but bouncing around with Christopher Walken , Helena Bonham Carter (in a non character role), and Winona Ryder doing an incredible nuanced performance as a "normal" but highly damaged by abuse woman. It's no action, just all dialogue and performance.