HH

i want to go back to it, i'm closing in on level 60 with a dwarf, but i feel like i should be reading up on the NG+ boss fights, the run-ins so far have been confusing and unsuccessful, and i feel bad for my team if i don't know what i'm doing. but i just have trouble sitting down to study for a computer game, i never really got to experience the end game in WoW because of this, i just don't like to meta, at all, i like to discover things on my own terms, but maybe i should just man up and do it, cos i do want to play more of this game. anyone got links to useful vids?

now that i think about it, there was a time near the end of gen 6, around when Halo 2 was released, when i was living with a group of guys who were all into games, and we had a system link set-up between rooms, and had a lot of fun playing competitive Halo. also around that time, i was really receptive to the influence of weed on game experiences, it doesn't really add much anymore, except forgetfulness, so I avoid it, but then, man, the first Star Wars Battlefront, the Brothers in Arms games, Shadow of the Colossus, Rogue Trooper, Morrowind, Oblivion, all took on a level of immersion i will probably never get to experience again.

i'm gonna say it's still to come, games is an impressionable young thing, i want to see it grow some more.

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: No Bullshit this Time.

and

Warhammer 40,000: For Realsies this Time.

there's nothing to say ellie couldn't make the sacrifice later in her life. at the time joel made that decision, the state that first alienated him by shooting his daughter was very much still in power. letting humanity bloom again at that point would just lead them back to where they started, at the mercy of the state, but given enough time that power could decay, and be replaced by communities like his brother's, and that could lead to even joel changing his mind about what the right thing to do is.

anyway, i think it's a pointless way to think about stories - what would i do? that's completely irrelevant, it's a character, it's not you, is it believable? if yes, then just accept it as something someone else would do. trying to fit all the possible behaviours or people in the world into your frame of mind doesn't work, there isn't enough room, and if we impose that restriction on stories then we're really limiting ourselves as to what we're going to hear.

i wish audiences would stop trying to sympathize, it's a mass-market byproduct, it's baggage, human behaviour is far broader and far more interesting than any one person's or any one community's half-baked self-centred idea of morality. it's just a story for godsake, you're not marrying the character. You don't have to judge.

1 holds up just fine, i played it for the first time this year, and yeh i was blown away by how good the world looks and feels. and the combat is at least a bit more challenging than 2.

i can't believe they persisted with that crowd mechanic in 2, replacing the beggars with minstrels, and a solid punch with a swift pickpocket - is that really how they intended that mechanic to work?

i just started brotherhood last night and i'm glad to see that 'throw coins' has been added, and although it's good to have the extra challenge of the full-sync requirement added to missions, i hope it doesn't end up disrupting the flow of the game, something which this series, with its prodding and pushing, seems strangely preoccupied with doing.

not mad keen on the FPS bit, i usually play elders scrolls in the third person, but hey, any rpg on the horizon is welcome, and the setting does look good.

i'm really finding it hard to finish 2. i hate the missions, i just want to finish the story so i can maybe go back to do the open world stuff, but i find the mission parameters aggravating and counter-intuitive, and even considering how much the game likes to pigeonhole you into doing things one way, they usually end up being farcical, with you chasing some guy like an idiot while a billion guards prod you and you fall over like an old woman. also the fricking minstrels, and the sucky easy time consuming combat, and the washed out look of it, and the jank.

i way prefer the world and the look of 1, even though the missions there weren't all that much better, i'm way more likely to get all the flags than i am to even go back to 2.

it's ridiculous to assume that everyone likes 2 and brotherhood.

myself.

i went into the year knowing full well that fighting games, jrpg's, and bioshocks were not for me, and yet i optimistically paid for injustice, ni no kuni, and infinite only to find nothing to like in any of them. only myself to blame.