#but that first quest feels like an entire zone story played on fast forward

[nightingaletrash]

now that I’ve actually started Deadlands with Venaya, I’m being reminded of how weird the beginning is. It starts out with the set up for a regional conflict with the votive runes and Celdina plotting to destroy the daedra of Fargrave, which is a storyline in and of itself... and then it’s done in one quest because we need to focus on the Anchorite and the Cataclysts and the Deadlands. No finding a way to make the Grasp care about the votive runes (why did they suddenly decide to care anyways), no puzzling out the greater purpose behind them, no actual prolonged impact of the runes on the city or the main characters (or lack thereof in the Vestige’s case because they’re not wholly mortal), and no actual ‘oh shit we need to stop this!’ moment because it’s over so fast because it wasn’t the story ZOS planned to tell. They rush you through it to get to the stuff they want you to see and play.

It’s a shame because Fargrave on its own is so damn interesting. I wish the DLC had put more focus into making it a zone all on its own because as cool as ZOS’ take on the Deadlands is, we have spent plenty of time in the Burn already. We had a whole game of hopping in and out of there. Fargrave is different and new and not something we’ve really seen before, and honestly I wish the story had been about Celdina trying to take over the city. It would have tied the overarching conflict into a regional story, and honestly, imagine an entire zone dedicated to fleshing out a city.

Fargrave could have been huge and intricate as a zone, filled with points of interests and quests and delves. Maybe you can venture aways beyond the walls, but things get strange out there, so you can’t go too far. Imagine a questchain dedicated to figuring out the giant bones that are literally everywhere! It’d be a city scale matched by nothing else in Tamriel, making Fargrave even stranger and more spectacular to the average visitor. How many mortal visitors get lost or even vanish entirely, never to be seen again? The daedra don’t know and don’t care.

Different districts that are occupied by different kinds of daedra! The spiderkith having webs everywhere and all forms of unshielded flame is strictly forbidden to keep their district from going up in flames. The Nocturnal Shrikes and their shadowy wraiths linger in the darkest corners of the city - the locals know to steer clear, because the Shrikes might be beautiful and melancholy, but they’re the last daedra you want to meet in a dark alley. It’ll end badly for you. If you want to bargain with a Skaafin, be sure to speak with the middling sized ones. The smaller ones aren’t much good at it and will accuse you of cheating them even if you held up your end, and the tallest ones will find a way to cheat you. If they’re about your height, you should be okay. Maybe.

Fargrave is just such a unique location with so much potential, and it sucks knowing that we’ll likely not be going back because it’s part of a paid dlc...

[scrollingkingfisher]

Gabriel Through the Seasons- Control and Self-Deception

An excessively long essay, by me.

Evening peeps! So the topic of Gabriel’s relationship with control came up in the discord last night and it resulted in an entire TED talk which I didn’t even know was in me. So here we go, all tidied up and ready for meta consumption!

So Gabriel’s complex relationship with control is written into his character from the very first time we see him on screen. In Crawford Hall, he orchestrates the whole thing- he punishes people, but it’s always from a safe distance, never getting his hands dirty. He's actively manipulating the Winchesters for the entire time they're there in a similar way. Illusions are one of the first ways that he uses to control situations and keep them at arm’s length- let’s call them his first line of defence. Through them he can distract and confuse, and it means he doesn’t have to get too close to the action, either emotionally or physically. He uses his illusions to give the Winchesters the impression they got the better of him, but really I think that was him sizing them both up, and using his persona as the trickster to keep some emotional distance from the situation- his second line of defence.

Next up- Mystery Spot. Gabriel's control complex comes out big time. The apocalypse is getting closer, Dean's played his cards, Gabriel's family-related trauma is rearing its ugly head from where he'd managed to stash it under all those layers of repression, and the situation is suddenly more immediate than he’d like. So what can he do, both to maintain distance from the situation, get some kind of control over it and to try and avert having to deal with his brothers? Oh look, a convenient vessel of the apocalypse! But he can't just tell him what's gonna go down, because that would require trust, and then the ball would be in Sam's court. Telling Sam what was going to happen would have meant relinquishing control of the situation, and he doesn’t want to get too involved either. Better to stay in his comfort zone of using his alter ego to teach Sam a lesson from a distance. It works out excellently, obviously. Sam is particularly good at cutting to the chase, over the seasons- probably because he has a similar (but not identical) relationship with control and autonomy. And that's the first time we really see Gabriel break character. Then we get to see what imo is probably closer to what he's really feeling. When somebody takes that control of the situation away from him, it makes him either scrabble to get his mask back on, or get incredibly angry and absolutely fucking lose it, or he gets overwhelmed and runs away from the situation. Which is exactly what he does on this particular occasion. Sam calls him out, Gabriel realises that he’s no longer in control here, he gives up on teaching Sam a lesson and he’s off.

Changing Channels is a whole ‘nother ball game. The complete control Gabriel takes over the situation- literally puppeteering them around his own sets- he’s eve controlling their environment. Throwing the Winchesters around and teaching them a lesson like he can't do with their angelic counterparts. Bullying them into playing their roles, because if he can't stop the apocalypse, he needs to feel like he has control over what's happening somehow, yeah? The angry outburst when Dean calls him out. And that anger when provoked is another recurring theme. If I had to guess, I’d say that the anger is another shield, his third and final defence- this time though, it’s a shield against himself, and his own emotions about his situation. Gabriel is not about facing his emotions head on. Repression is the name of the game, and like nearly everybody on SPN, he’s very good at it. And then, finally, the Winchesters know who he is and the layers of deception peel away. Gabriel can't hide any more; they know what he is. He can't run away. And he manages to keep it together, just, but I think it's a close thing, because the bitter resignation as he finally explains to the brothers what's going on? That's as honest as he gets.

Then we get to Hammer of the Gods, and this one's a little different, because as the audience we're seeing Gabriel's shields and attempts to control the situation from a slightly different angle. Gabriel is cool as a cucumber while he's with the other gods, because he NEEDS to be otherwise they'll slaughter him and he knows it (story of his life- he can never trust anyone), but as soon as he's alone with the Winchesters, he drops the act, if not the attempts to control the situation. Then he spends the rest of the episode desperately running around, trying to maintain a series of ever-more-convoluted deceptions, until he finally has to face Lucifer. And as much as I love Gabriel's return, it was absolutely in character here for him to pull one last layer of deception and nope out of the entire thing. He's stressed beyond belief. His brother just nearly stabbed him. He needs some RnR and several liquor stores.

Maybe that's why he lets his guard down with Loki and relinquishes control of the situation. And immediately it's proven why Gabriel can never let his guard down, even with his ‘allies’, because they fucking sell him. Cue eight years of torture. 

 Asmodeus was probably the literal worst thing that could have happened to Gabriel. Because if it had just been pure torture, I think he would have held up quite well. But Asmodeus stripped away Gabriel's control and autonomy. All of it. He’s a slave, but it’s worse than that, they condition him and break him until he doesn’t even run away. And that speech in Unfinished Business? Wow. He felt absolutely violated by what was done to him, and it's never explicitly talked about, but it's made fairly obvious what happened. When he comes back, he has no walls at all, no deceptions, no control over his situation or himself, and he spends the majority of the episode quivering in the back of his own mind. Sam eventually manages to coax him out, but not before showing weakness of his own by basically begging for help, and therefore handing Gabriel a little bit of control back. And then Gabriel finally at the end of the episode manages to gain back a bit of control over his life when he realises there's an opening to kill Asmodeus, and WHAM, the masks are back up, witty quip time, look at me I've got my powers back and I'm gonna burn you in a very Extra way because this rage inside has nothing at all to do with how you ripped my self-control away from me. And then Sam asks for help, and he sees a potential for someone trying to control him again, and obviously, he's gone.

Next up: Unfinished Business. Whoo boy there's a whole lot to unpack here. First off he's hunting the people who sold him. Not because they're posing a threat- they probably still thought he was still with Asmodeus until he started hunting him down- but because they caused him massive trauma and REVENGE SIDEQUEST has a better ring to it than fall-apart-alone-because-I-don't-dare-to-trust-anyone. And Gabriel has to have control over his own reactions even more than he likes to control the people around him. Gabriel never lets himself be vulnerable, even to himself. And he is hurt, and angry, so revenge quest it is! He starts before he's ready, because letting himself wallow is a no-go, so obviously he gets stabbed and ends up with the Winchesters again, because they're his least-worst option. He knows they're hunting for him, but he went to them, so he's in control, right? RIGHT! So he spins the Winchesters a story (dubiously realistic emotional mask of hot babes and decadence ahoy). But obviously Dean's that git who can't keep his fingers out of the emotional cracks, and he pushes a little too far and Gabriel loses control, and we see what Gabriel's feeling again. Or rather, what Gabriel's letting himself feel, and that’s all anger. But under it, reading between the lines, there's the emotions that he can't control, that feeling of incredible vulnerability and violation, of having your control taken from you.  And that carries through to when Loki, who obviously knows him, who Gabriel has obviously confided in previously ("boohoo, Gabriel with his mean older brothers"?), uses his knowledge of that vulnerability to absolutely rip into him, to really grind in the point while he's helpless, and even after he's defeated (by Sam throwing him the sword, not by Gabriel being able to do it himself), there's no celebration, there's no witty quips, because Loki tore down Gabriel's self delusions of control. It's an empty victory. And we see that in the scene outside where he's talking to Sam. The shields are back up, he has control of the situation and himself, and he knows that Sam knows he's faking being "swell" but at least going with the Winchesters provides something to do, a little more control for a little longer. But inside? He's even more vulnerable now, because Loki took away any sort of internal defences he might have had with his little parting speech. This is where his descent begins. His expression when Sam turns away? Absolutely hopeless and dead inside. His self-defence of anger is gone, and that's not a good thing.

I haven't watched the rest of the episodes quite as obsessively, but I'll still do the broad strokes. Getting it on with Rowena? Exercising power and autonomy over his own actions, with a healthy side-helping of "Could a depressed person do this??" He doesn't have as many problems with confronting Lucifer as one might expect, but then again, he's in control. He's got Lucifer drugged up to the nines before he even drops his disguise, and then he takes gleeful advantage of the situation to play with him for a little bit because finally, he's got control over that brother who caused him all that anguish! Revenge is almost second nature at this point. But he never breaks character through the entire confrontation. He maintains that emotional distance. Fast-forward into the apocalypse world, and I think Gabriel is genuinely deeply upset by his inability to heal Sam. One more time where he was absolutely helpless to do shit all, he has no control over the outcome, and he's not raging this time, but he's quiet and withdrawn, and that's a bad sign because he's nearly fresh out of coping mechanisms. Then Lucifer comes back. Gabriel spends the next however long scouting way way out ahead or skulking on the edges of camp, because he knows that this time, the ball will not be in his court, and at the end of the day Gabriel likes to avoid confrontation when at all possible, because why risk it? And we see him slowly sinking deeper into that depression, those thoughts that he'd managed to put off earlier through anger and revenge. He has no power. He has no control over what happens to himself or anyone else. But he manages to hoist the shields up reasonably well when Lucifer corners him, enough to get in a few good quips. But they're pretty damn transparent by this point. He's not cocky any more as he chews Lucifer out. He's just tired. And then Michael attacks, and, well. What do you do when you have no more power over your own trauma, no more leverage or self-belief, and the only control you have is which metaphorical train you throw yourself in front of? 

Gabriel sees one last opportunity to take control of his destiny. 

And he takes it. 

[sportsrumorsblog]

Wow Classic Beginner Guide

No doubt, just on the off chance that Blizzard experiencing the agonies of re-delivering old programming on present day workers to satisfy fan clamor that is arrived at breaking point has missed you, 

World of Warcraft Classic is a particularly old-school insight. A lot of that has to do with the low-res illustrations and splotchy surfaces, however Classic likewise reviews a time when World of Warcraft put the 'RPG' in MMORPG. In layman's terms: to a lesser extent a versatile game, more a get-ganked multiple times before the-Blackrock-Depths gateway experience.

So on the off chance that you began playing after Cataclysm and showing up at vanilla Warcraft unexpectedly, don't stress, I have your back. I began playing in 2005, and have stayed aware of each development since, giving me a smart thought of a portion of the things more youthful explorers ought to be careful about when they sign into Azeroth and find their Dungeon Finder missing. Here are eight things you have to know for World of Warcraft Classic.

Your class adaptability is extremely restricted

At the point when I previously got my duplicate of World of Warcraft I rolled a Dwarf Paladin. The fantasy was to turn into a heavenly juggernaut, cutting down armies of undead debris with divine reprisal. Paladins can wear plate covering, for the wellbeing of god. Just a single different class can wear that. I was stirred.

Quick forward a couple of seasons later. I'm at long last at level 60, in my first assaulting society, prepared to get middle age on the murderous savages in Zul'Gurub. One moment, says the senior Paladin who's encouraged me. I'm advised to respec Holy. You know, the mending tree. Not just that, the Paladin advised me to trade out my entire being gear for Intellect and Spirit-polishing stuff. I was unable to locate a decent mending breastplate along these lines, rather, I was advised to trade what I had with calfskin protection.

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Calfskin reinforcement.

This was the appalling truth for Paladins in vanilla. The class was just suitable in PvE as a healbot. That is fine, I really figured out how to adore playing support, yet my unique desires were crushed. Today, classes in World of Warcraft are multifaceted; Druids can tank, recuperate, and bargain gigantic spell harm in equivalent measure. In any case, in 2005, in the event that you were a Druid in an attacking organization, you weren't doing considerably more than spamming Innervate and Restoration. Fighters were basically solely failing. Mages were speccing Frost. Trackers regularly wouldn't gather their pets. You get the thought.

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What I'm stating is, do your exploration. The class you pick will be much more prohibitive than what you experience on live workers today.

Today, you can kill essentially everything in World of Warcraft without so much as a second thought. Be that as it may, vanilla had this odd framework where on the off chance that you executed restricting group NPCs set apart as "regular folks"— think merchants, landlords, and so on.— it would consider a shameful slaughter. Despicable executes were truly merciless. They'd quickly tank your complete honor, which means you'd no longer approach the upper levels of the PvP sellers' lootbox.

Simply be cautious when you're raging The Crossroads, alright?

Emergency treatment is basic

The First Aid calling was taken out from World of Warcraft in Battle for Azeroth. It appeared well and good: it was essentially futile in a period where players' wellbeing recovers in nanoseconds. Yet, in vanilla, First Aid was one of the most significant resources in anybody's armory. Your characters were feeble. Like, truly powerless. What's more, wellbeing pools set aside a long effort to top off. In this way, by effectively step up your wrapping capacity, you had the option to hold yourself over substantially more productively subsequent to having a frightful disagreement with a Defias crook in Westfall.

It wasn't even select for DPS classes either. Druids, Paladins, Priests, and Shamans additionally kept their First Aid ability solid, notwithstanding the way that they could close up wounds with mana. Truth be told, I particularly recall a few very good quality societies straight up requiring individuals in their overlap to have a covered First Aid ability.

So don't auction that Linen Cloth! It's more significant than you can envision.

Stock up on food and water

Given how gradually your assets renewed in vanilla, any fruitful player tries to stop by their food and drink merchant to keep their wellbeing and mana pools solid. You know the natural product merchant that strolls around Ironforge? The one that appears to be totally self-assertive? Trust us, they had a truly significant reason quite a long time ago.

Leveling is the game

These days, when a World of Warcraft extension comes out, Blizzard is putting forth a valiant effort to usher you towards the level cap as fast and as effectively as could reasonably be expected. Indeed they make some lovely zones, yes they recount a pleasant story, yet the game aspect of this game occurs after your last ding. That wasn't the situation in 2004. Snowstorm had 60 levels to play with, and they guaranteed the cycle was agonizingly slow. It took me almost a year to hit my initial 60. (I was likewise a pre-teenager and didn't have the foggiest idea what I was doing, yet whatever.)

So don't stress over the cap. Try not to stress over hurrying through the experience. Try not to carry 2019 rationale to a 2004 item. That is not the sort of interactivity vanilla Warcraft needed to empower.

Set aside your cash: mounts are costly

They part with mounts like candy in World of Warcraft nowadays. You can essentially play a round of Hearthstone and have a pristine flying mount added to your Battle.net account. Be that as it may, in vanilla, making it to level 40 with enough gold in your bank to cull a starter mount off the parcel was a troublesome undertaking. In all out they cost 100 gold, which could almost burn up all available resources back then, well before the economy was expanded past the stratosphere. No one needs to be the level 45 person without a mount. Be prudent with your wallet.

Keys open entryways

In the Dungeon Finder time you line for an example and are transported straightforwardly to a prison's entryways. At that point you mass-AOE each experience without saying a word to the individuals in your arbitrarily various gathering. This wasn't the situation in old-school World of Warcraft for an assortment of reasons, yet above all, newcomers to Classic need to acclimate themselves with the idea of attunement.

A huge amount of the very good quality substance in World of Warcraft regularly required at any rate one part in the gathering to finish a journey chain giving them the way to enter the prison itself. In Molten Core, for example, each major part in the 40-man assault would need to finish a brisk mission bind that permitted them to penetrate the internal sanctum of Ragnaros' den. Wanna do Upper Blackrock Spire? Amazing! However long you know somebody who completed a tangled multi-part visit that included psyche controlling a monster in Dustwallow Marsh.

This is one of the extras from World of Warcraft's more customary, tabletop RPG roots. Like, clearly the miscreants have the entryways bolted, y'know? Be that as it may, in case you're simply showing up now, it may take some becoming acclimated to. It additionally fills in as a wonderful chance: you'll make yourself way more significant to a gathering or a society in the event that you have the Blackrock Depths key.

Your notoriety goes before you

Today, you can move away without addressing a solitary soul in World of Warcraft. The game has been explicitly advanced to be a performance experience. At the point when you have to bunch up, Blizzard will cheerfully reach across domain lines to discover accomplices. That wasn't the situation in vanilla. Not exclusively did questing content on the world guide frequently require a gathering, however on the off chance that you were going into a prison, you expected to define an arrangement from the current spirits on your worker. That implies on the off chance that you acquire a notoriety for being languid, insatiable, or uncouth, you won't get welcomed back.

Promotion

Old hands completely recall what it resembled when some dolt ninja-plundered Onyxia and had his name posted on the domain gatherings with a distinct notice. Who knows whether the equivalent profoundly isolated network feeling will persist into Classic. Fail on the mindful side, and stay out of trouble clean.

[themothyards]

Destiny 2 Reveal Stream: Notes

Here are my notes from the reveal stream, with some concluding thoughts at the end. All of this information is available from the Bungie reveal stream, and is not speculation unless marked as such:

Story:

In the beginning of Destiny 2, the Last City has fallen. Dominus Ghaul, leader of the Cabal Red Legion, has laid waste to the Tower and to the City itself, and his legions have torn our home apart. 

The reveal trailer shows us fighting through the tower in the first campaign mission, called “Homecoming,” in which we battle alongside the Vanguard until Amanda Holliday deposits us atop some kind of Cabal ship, where we attempt to face down the bad guy.

Unfortunately, we fail, and Dominus Ghaul succeeds in deploying some sort of device that places the Traveler in a cage, instantly draining the Guardians of Light, and causing us to lose our powers. We cannot go back to the Tower.

In response, the Vanguard scatters. Ikora has fled to Io out of anger, Zavala is on Titan healing and having an existential crisis - “Are we Guardians even without the Light?”, and Cayde-6, in attempting to play the hero, has gotten himself into trouble on Nessus. Apparently, the Speaker has disappeared. More on these new worlds below.

In the campaign, we will have to track down and collect the Vanguard, as well as fight the new Red Legion enemy, led by Dominus Ghaul. Dominus Ghaul believes that he, based on his past experiences (which were not elaborated upon), is most worthy of the Traveler’s blessing, and does not understand why Humanity was chosen. He has come to Earth to prove his worthiness, and sees humanity as being in his way. He is not a “psychopath” bent on genocide. Luke Smith described him as “Having his stuff together,” and “Like Alan Rickman in Die Hard.”

Destiny 2 is a game about loss, and transitions into an experience about recovery and reclaiming what is ours.

Classes:

Shown classes remain the same: Hunter, Warlock, and Titan. Nova Bombs, Defender Bubbles, and Golden Guns were shown but not remarked upon. However, new Super abilities were showcased:

Titan Sentinel: A Titan with a voidlight shield that can be used to block damage, thrown at enemies, or used in melee combat. There also appeared to be some new kind of Striker Titan Dash and a different sort of ‘Ice Wall,’ neither of which were discussed.

Hunter Arcstrider: A Hunter with a staff of arclight that focuses on acrobatic melee combat. 

Warlock Dawnblade: A Warlock with a sword made of solar light that can be used in melee combat or to fling ranged attacks. Warlocks also appeared to be able to place some sort of buff zone beneath them, one of which “empowered” the player.

These look pretty awesome.

Weapons:

Weapon loadouts have been revamped to give players more flexibility. Weapons are now divided into three categories:

Kinetic

Energy

Power

New weapons:

A variety of new weapons were shown. In addition to hand cannons, sniper rifles, shotguns, pulse rifles, and shotguns, we saw:

A type of SMG

Grenade launchers

Minigun-like machine guns

A type of fast-firing rocket launcher

I assume we will learn more about this in the coming days. It appears that weapons such as hand cannons occupy the kinetic slot, but I would like to see more information about how these slots will work.

Worlds:

Destiny 2 features four playable worlds: 

Earth: The European Dead Zone is now the location of Destiny’s largest playable area, and this is the zone where Humanity flees and attempts to rebuild after the Cabal attack. This camp was founded by Hawthorne, who features in the D2 Preorder, and who once left the City to live in the Wilds.

Titan: Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is covered with a Methane ocean with 40 ft waves, and features a human utopia, a relic of the Golden Age, sinking into ocean. There is no landmass on Titan.

Io: A sulfuric moon of Jupiter, Io is the last place the Traveler touched before it appeared on Earth. Io is a sacred place to the Guardians, and to Warlocks in particular. In the trailer, there appear to be the remnants of some kind of civilization.

Nessus: A centaur, or type of icy minor planet. The Vex have transformed Nessus into a machine world, and it now features native vegetation, large canyons, and plateaus based on tepui, a type of South American highland plateau.

Quests

Destiny 2 has revamped the map system. Now, players will be able to use an area map to navigate and discover locations and events. These include:

PatrolsAmbient enoucntersCollectable materialsAdventures*Treasure maps*Public events with treasures*Lost sectors*

*denotes a seemingly new feature

Destiny 2 will emphasize the sense of exploration that players experience. For example, players will be able to discover and unlock secret, hidden dungeons, which will contain both loot and bosses. There appear to be many, many secrets to discover.

Furthermore, there will be more interaction with NPC’s, resulting in numerous side-quests and further adventures.

Map:

Destiny 2 features a revamped map system that players will use to uncover and navigate the new areas. Waypoints, such as those corresponding to the activities listed above, will show up on this map. It will also show WHERE and WHEN public events will take place.

In addition, players will no longer have to ‘go to orbit’ to navigate to new locations. The world navigation system will now be usable from anywhere.

Co-operative:

Co-operative play was heavily emphasized by all presenters. Bungie attempted to strike a balance between easy matchmaking and ensuring that all players are comfortable with the strangers they are matched with. The notable new features are:

Clans: Clans will no receive official, in-game support. These will offer rosters, tools for fireteam building, custom banners, and shared clan experience and progression. Achievements, whether done solo or in a group, will benefit your clan.

Guided Games: Guided games are a new way for solo players to find a fireteam without joining a clan and while being able to ensure they have a positive experience. Solo players will be able to see a brief summary of clan information, as well as the activity proposed, and will then be able to join the clan for that single activitiy without committing to the clan.  Guided games will open up your party to more players, in case one of your fireteam members must drop out of the activity.

Crucible: The Crucible has been revamped for 4v4 combat across all game modes. There will also be a new attack/defend mode called “Countdown.” I assume we will learn more in the coming days.

PC Gamers:

In partnership with Blizzard, Destiny 2 for PC will be available exclusively through Blizzard’s Battle.Net.

Other Notes:

“More cinematics than ever.”

There will be a new raid.

There will be new strikes. The strike played at the reveal is called “The Inverted Spire.” You will traverse Red Legion territory to a Vex Stronghold, where you will fight a 3-stage boss.

There will be more quests and story missions

There may (SPECULATION: ENTIRELY UNCONFIRMED) be new vehicles.

There will be “More to do than any game we’ve ever made at Bungie.”

Main takeaways

Community, community, community. Destiny 2 was referred to several times by different people as “A world I want to be in, where I can always find people to play with if I want to.” Bungie appears to be focused on making all of D2′s content accessible to more players. This, to me, is a great thing.

Exploration: the words “Open World” were not used, and from the gameplay demo of “Homecoming,” that mission at least appeared quite linear. That’s not to say the rest of the game will be that way, and if the new map system is any indication, we can look forward to a lot more exploration. 

I, personally, cannot wait to see the new worlds. It seems like Bungie has done a lot of work to make each location feel unique.

Gameplay-wise, it sounds as though Bungie has learned from D1, and is looking for ways to make D2 more engrossing and meaningful for all kinds of players. If the new strikes have harder, more involved boss fights, it sounds as though we can expect more than the bullet-sponge boss fights that dominated D1.

The revamped weapons system also sounds great, and I can’t wait to hear more about it. 

I am unsure about the Crucible being reworked for 4v4. Reference was made to it being “For PvP Players,” although what that means remains to be seen.

And, most importantly: Throwing Knives return.

[anderjak]

Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is the XII I always wanted

Okay, so I know XII isn’t exactly revered but fuck you

No wait that’s mean

I really like Ivalice. It’s an enjoyable setting often given locomotion by way of political turmoil, and its stories are centered around a complex plot of clashing motivations, lies, half-truths, contradictory behavior, honorable betrayals, and more. It’s not so much that I think character-driven stories like in most Final Fantasies are bad, but they are pretty typical for the franchise and it’s nice to step out of those shoes and not worry about romance in a literal sense and instead focus on romance in the classic literature sense.

When I first played XII, I never beat it. Despite buying Dragon Quest VIII on PS2 just for the XII demo, and despite getting the special edition of XII in the steelbook case, I just never beat it. Yet, I loved it. I loved the characters and setup, and I loved the Gambit system, which, much like FFVIII’s junction system, I still consider criminally underrated. 

The problem, though, is that it was incredibly hard to stay invested mechanically in the characters thanks to the license board being exactly the same for every playable character. I’m not a strategist by any means, but a Dominant Strategy player (Dominant Strategy is basically “if there is a way for the player to take the easy route, no matter how tedious or mind-numbing it may be, expect them to use it” -- think grinding, exploits, etc, that are easy for the player to accomplish). I tend not to shift my strategy if it means something is working even a little bit; I’ll suffer no small amount of tedium and frustration if it just works, even if it’s poorly. And, unfortunately, the generic license board exacerbates that to an extreme, and does a lot to do the game a disservice. When every character can wind up the exact same, and you spread yourself out too thinly, it’s hard to feel emotionally or mechanically invested in anything you’re doing.

Now, The Zodiac Age is, in fact, an upgraded version of the International Zodiac Job System release which the US never got (which Square-Enix got kinda bad about at times). In IZJS, you could unlock one of twelve unique license boards for a character for more focused development. Most of the classes are pretty typical, with time mages, black mages, knights, samurai, et cetera. The downside is that, because only one character could have one class, at least six jobs would wind up completely unused in a single playthrough, thus really hammering in the idea that you have to be very particular about how to develop your characters.

What Zodiac Age does specifically, however, is allow for a second job board per character. This busts the Job System wide open to allow for things like class synergy, more team balancing options, and more. I mean, think about it: Why not have your Knight also be a White Mage, so they could absorb lots of damage while healing your weaker allies? Why not have your Red Mage be an Archer, too, so you could hit enemies from afar even when you’re tapped out of MP? Being able to pick up a job that covers the weaknesses of another is a huge boon to the flexibility of development.

It’s great, because while it still encourages you to focus on how to develop your characters, it also is a great way to make a competent, powerful character without too much stress; there’s no “bad” combination, just ones that aren’t ideal or maybe lack synergy. A lot of people I’ve found on message boards sort of stress themselves out overmuch about ideal job setups, but by and large, it seems like a system that is built around “play what you want and enjoy”. Because of the way it’s built, you simply wind up more powerful and specialized than you would have been with a generic board, even if you were super-specific about your builds in the vanilla version of the game.

Zodiac Age also has a bunch of other quality-of-life upgrades, like changing out Quickening cost to a separate gauge instead of using your MP, adding a fast-forward button for easier grinding, and auto-saving per room rather than enforcing the classic save system (though there are still save crystals and such). They also removed the cryptic requirements to get weapons like the Zodiac Spear, so you’re free to open any chest you want (thank fucking god). Mostly because now there are even more powerful weapons than the Zodiac Spear, so, uh, guess it ain’t so important to build an entire save around getting a specific weapon.

On top of all that, the game is fully reorchestrated. And it’s phenomenal. I have a hard time explaining how good sound is because that’s definitely not my field, but it’s a gorgeous score given an orchestra with a strong sense of dynamics, and the tracks blend together so seamlessly it feels as though there’s a for real orchestra just waiting for you to move to another zone so they could elegantly make the switch without you noticing. You COULD play with the original score (and a score using the OST, which is its own recording, if you got the special edition), but honestly, the reorchestration is so good you should just stick with that.

Because of this game, I’ve been playing a lot more carefully with my gambits and my licenses; every choice feels a little more substantial than before, and with the speed-up options helping to take the tedium out of the longer exploration segments, it becomes a much more ideal way to play the game.

It’s really good, is what I’m saying. I get the problems people have with this game, but if you ever felt like you COULD enjoy it if it weren’t for some of its pacing problems and the boring license boards, this version might actually really hook you.

[megaomgchen]

In PSO2, you take on the role of a brand new ARKS

In PSO2, you take on the role of a brand new ARKS (Artificial Relict to Keep Species) Operative. That's really about everything that remember or you need to know about this jargon-packed, and emotionless story. Ahead franchise knowledge isn't needed to Phantasy Star Online 2 Meseta understand it, but experience with the first PSO does assist. (PSO2 is entirely unrelated to the single-Phantasy Star Online 2 player Sega Genesis JRPGs.)

Despite the voice cast that is English that is top-notch, PSO2 simply doesn't have an intriguing story. Most of it's doled out by stiff characters which lack lip sync and feel like a waste of time. Both departing and entering these story conversations necessitates sitting through lengthy loading screens. And to be clear, it really does not matter; that is absolutely not the kind of sport you play for your story, so the programmers have clearly only focused their attention elsewhere.

Each one of the missions you go on have a few bits of voice over sprinkled in but it's just about plowing through enemies and having much more fun consequently. The conversations that move the narrative forward are self-contained as story quests from the most important quest-giver NPC, which prevents them from slowing the speed of missions.

Rather than have you explore a sprawling open universe of interconnected zones, PSO2 uses a lobby and instance system to congregate Phantasy Star Online 2 players and permit everybody to talk and team up. Once you've accepted a mission you'll only see people in your party and a handful of others that could be doing exactly the same assignment. It's a very objective-focused format that keeps things going fast at all times, but it loses a whole lot of the discovery and feel of scale that cheap PSO2 Meseta usually goes hand-in-hand with MMOs. Supposedly, ARKS Operatives research entire planets to eliminate the Falspawn, but you only find a handful of procedurally generated arenas every mission.

[gamelyplanet-blog]

The Mark of a Classic: an Argument for playing "The Witcher" over "The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings"

I decided to get through the two expansions of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt, which I had neglected to do after I finished the base game shortly after it was released. As a completionist, I wanted to get through both the main campaign of The Wild Hunt, but also through The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. I skipped the first game, because not only have I already completed it five times, but also because it's the game that resembles the other two games in absolutely nothing.

But consistency be damned, what I discovered after two attempts to play through The Witcher 2 again, was that I just didn't want to. In the first attempt, I gave up after the prologue. In the second try, I gave up when the game made me explore the pitch-dark tunnels in the city of Vergen and find a key for the Dwarven catacombs, as part of the main quest; tunnels I had *just* walked out of, again as part of the main quest and a key that was on a dead body; a dead body I found during my first time down there, but which I couldn't loot, because that phase of the quest hadn't triggered yet. Padding is common in games and I'm at peace with it. The problem was that I came to one astounding realization:

I wasn't having fun.

It's a good game and it's a game I've finished twice before. It marked the time when CD Projekt RED, the developer of The Witcher games, set the foundations for their epic third installment in the series. It was when the series got "serious" with high production value and the story became sort-of-canon for the Witcher series as a proper continuation of the books. It's a hard game to return to, however, because its successor surpassed it in every conceivable way. Why would one bother with (comparatively) subpar visuals and mechanics for a story not really worth telling, when there is such a better, more complete, more fulfilling alternative available?

The strangest thing is that none of the above holds true for the first game; yes, that original game, that first entry into the series that bordered on indie, from a then-unknown developer from Poland, is still very playable. The reason is simple: The Witcher, the original game, is unique.

It has nothing to do with its sequels. The mechanics are completely different, the story is barely touched upon in the other games (and when it is, it's in the form of nostalgic references only), the sound and the music differ in style and even artistically, the visuals make the game stand out among both the rest of the games in the series, as well as its competition. It's glitchier than the other games, it's more peculiar, it's harder to play and there are far too many oddities in it to ignore; but all of that give it a certain charm that a game like The Witcher 2 lacks entirely.

See, the first Witcher came about after seven years of development. It went through a variety of phases and designs, one of them being a standard isometric cRPG in the Witcher universe, but otherwise unrelated to the books. Eventually they decided to pick up from where the books left off. They leased Bioware's Aurora engine, the engine that succeeded the famous Infinity engine and which was used for the two Neverwinter Nights games. They, reportedly, rewrote about 80% of it; the tweaking pushed its abilities and added new features (the amazing skyboxes and real-time day/night cycle, as well as weather effects being among them) that were missing from the original version, but it also caused some technical and optimization issues.

With an old engine came restrictions and this was apparent during combat. The Witcher books had established early on that the titular Witchers are unparalleled swords-fighters with extensive knowledge of human anatomy; they are mutants, they are fast, their reflexes unmatched and they know where to strike for a quick kill. But with the Aurora engine, the action combat system seen in the other two games (which were made in CDPR's own RED engine) would be impossible to adopt. So, the first Witcher plays like a traditional cRPG; the game determines damage given and taken based on stats and status effects affect the outcome of the battle in a far greater degree than in W2 or W3. Ultimately, the combat is mostly automatic, except for an added timing mechanic that gives the illusion of real-time action.

Even that, however, shows a certain degree of artistry. The timing mechanic doesn't amount to much for the experience and often feels tacked on and a bother, but switching between Strong, Fast and Group combat styles requires the player to be engaged actively in combat; so do the various Witcher Signs that can be cast on a whim (as long as Geralt has enough Stamina for them). Where the Aurora Engine put up walls, the established tropes of the Witcher universe tore them down; nowhere is this more obvious than in the various Witcher potions.

Alchemy has had an interesting journey throughout the series and, arguably, CDPR never managed to implement the system properly in their games (though they came pretty close in The Wild Hunt). Every game in the series is, by design, unbeatable without the extensive use of alchemy (except in the really low difficulty levels). Potions exist in every RPG, but Witcher brews operate on a different level; they are mostly preparatory than they are reactive. This changes the dynamic of the games, as winning an encounter requires knowledge of the lore, of the various enemies and their strengths and weakness and gives the player wiggle-room to decide how they choose to approach combat. Because of the lack of control present in the first Witcher game during combat, alchemy becomes invaluable. Potions aren't just auxiliary as they are in most RPGs; they're the player's main tool to ensure victory and though the standard health and mana/stamina potions are always useful, they're the least valuable in comparison.

It works! It amazingly, unexpectedly, works! This system of limited control that sounds like too much bother, too much work, too much micromanaging and padding looking for ingredients makes combat in the first game very absorbing and rewarding, as it requires the player to put some real work into ensuring victory. The combat in W2 is good, but somewhat clunky, because CDPR was still testing out the new mechanics. The combat in W3 is fun as all-hell, but combat in W1 stands out as its own thing. Sure, if you look deep enough into it, you can see the seams where it was all stitched together; you can see how much mechanics resemble every other cRPG that came before. But this particular style was and still is something that's both unique within the Witcher series and the RPG genre as a whole.

That's not the only thing that's unique to the first Witcher game. The visuals and the art direction are also one-of-a-kind. The Witcher series always wore the hat of "dark fantasy" and the games have played that aspect up even more than the books (to a fault, sometimes), but what "dark fantasy" actually entails differs from material to material. Dragon Age: Origins, for example, is "dark fantasy"  in terms of  the color palette and the gore displayed on-screen, which puts it at odds with the more vanilla Lord of the Rings and the more stylized Dungeons & Dragons or the cartoony World of Warcraft. Most RPGs and fantasy settings are heavily inspired from one of the above. For the Witcher books, which draws inspirations from medieval Polish history and mythology, "dark fantasy" means a straight-forward political approach to a made-up world, where kings are more dangerous than dragons, using language that teeters between sardonic and jaded.

In W2, the "darkness" comes specifically from the quality of the characters; everybody is a terrible person that takes advantage of everyone and everything for their own ends. In W3 there is a complete reversal; the characters all start walking a grey line, but the "darkness" comes from the situations around them; war, famine, crime; it is a lot closer to the books in this regard.

The first Witcher is closer to the second game; most NPCs are all sorts of terrible. If they aren't outwardly evil, they are self-serving and capricious at the very least. The first chapter of the game takes place in a village where every single one of the seven sins is represented in abundance in literally every single one of the inhabitants. The Witcher, in general, has never been big on subtlety, at least until the third game; but the original also features visuals and sound to match the tone, which is not the case with the far more colorful second game. It's isn't brown or too bloody; what it is is moody, bustling with atmosphere.

There is no place in the game that's idyllic. The accursed swamp outside Vizima is representative of that; it's a place you spend a lot of time in, especially if you do Witcher contracts and side-quests and it's a place that's simply exhausting. The terrain is confusing, the safe zones are very few and the place is crawling with monsters that start off extremely dangerous and end up unbelievably annoying. But the wide swamp forest, the muted green colors and the sky that's often covered in mist, clouds or leaves and branches create a fittingly claustrophobic atmosphere.

The Temple Quarter in Vizima looks dirty and built like the crappiest London neighborhood in the Victorian Era. The fishing village of Murky Waters is the only part that clashes with the rest of the game (in more ways than one), but all its apparent beauty hides intrigue, family feuds, clashes with alien civilizations, gods and evil spirits. The game, visually, avoids the mix of realism and fantasy that its successors excel at and instead looks and feels like it takes place in a depressing, almost horror-like setting.

The music is slow and exotic and even the voice acting, which ranges from passable to outright terrible, gives the game the charm of a b-movie. The aesthetics of the game are different to those of the other games; but they make for a very immersing experience. More importantly, they are representative of the humble origins of the Witcher franchise. It shows what a company with a lot of care and love for the art of game making can do with an old engine and a new IP (in terms of worldwide appeal), if they have a clear vision about what they want to offer their audience. The Witcher is distinct, it's unique and it feels like the product of a foreign studio that gives its own spin, from their own point of view and based on their own culture to a large, bloated genre.

I left the story for last, because it's fascinating, especially for those that are familiar with the Witcher books. The Witcher 2 is when the series really starts tying directly to Andrzej Sapkowski's original works, in terms of mechanics, visuals and story. The Witcher 3 outright seeks to conclude the story, especially the bits that the writer had left open-ended or outright forgot about.

See, the Witcher series started off as a series of short stories. These were later collected and actual novels followed; right now, the entire series amounts to 8 books, seven of them revolving around the story we're familiar with and the last one being a prequel of sorts. Like with all series, some books are better than others; the one that stands out though, to me, is the last book in Geralt's story, called Lady of the Lake. The book starts off well-enough and it's pretty solid.

In the first half, that is. I don't know if this is indeed the case, but based on my reading it seems like Sapkowski got tired of the series and decided to end it a bit too abruptly. Or maybe Lady of the Lake was supposed to conclude the series from the start, but he ran out of time, or space or ideas. Whatever the case, the latter half of that seventh book fast-forwards through events and finds easy solutions that are a bit off-putting.

(spoilers if you have yet to read the books)

For example, the second war with Niflgaard that had been waged throughout all the books ends with the Battle of Brenna. The Northern Realms had been steadily losing the war and up until about half of the last book, they were almost crushed. Then, the Battle of Brenna happens and all of a sudden, Nilfgaard retreats back to the south and the war ends.

Another example, which The Witcher 3 sets out to resolve, is the Wild Hunt itself. The Wild Hunt shows up maybe twice in the whole series. In the last book, Ciri spends a lot of time in the world of the Aen Elle (the race from which the Wild Hunt hails) and is instructed by Avalac'h to try and bear a successor for the King of that race. This fails and she eventually finds her way back into her own world to save Yennefer and Geralt, but the Aen Elle never follow her there. The Wild Hunt disappears entirely after that point and they haven't done much until that point in the series either. They are entirely forgotten about.

One more that stands out is Emhyr Var Emreis, the Emperor of Nilfgaard himself. The character is shrouded in mystery for almost the entire series; he barely appears, he speaks little, his motivations are entirely kept in the dark; he's looking for Ciri, even puts a pretender in a tower for show, but he never reveals why. Then, in literally the span of a few paragraphs toward the end of Lady of the Lake, he meets Geralt and dumps a load of information on the reader; that he's Duny, the Knight-Errand Geralt  rescued in one of the short stories now collected in the first, introductory book; that he's Ciri's father; that he's looking for her, so he can sleep with her and take advantage of her Elder Blood. All of this is information that had never been even hinted at before. Maybe it was planned, but if so, it was badly paced. It felt more like a quick resolution, the same way "The Patriots are the cast of Metal Gear Solid 3" was a quick resolution that was clearly not planned ahead of that last game.

(end of book spoilers, carry on)

The books are interesting in how they relate to the first game, because of how many things CDPR had to shy away from at the time. Their biggest problem was that they had to resurrect Geralt and later Yennefer. The way Lady of the Lake ends is peculiar; Sapkowski ties the book to Arthurian legends, by having Ciri take Geralt and Yennefer to the Isle of Avalon. The problem is that all this is narrated by Ciri, to a third party and it is presented as it being her fantasy ending more than the reality. On the other hand, Sapkowski reportedly told CDPR that Geralt and Yennefer had survived; all that without even accounting for Season of Storms, the final book that's mostly unconnected to the main series, but which makes ambiguous references to the fate of Geralt. In reality, all Sapkowski wanted to do was communicate that Geralt and Yennefer are legends and that their fate matters little, as they are incorruptible and undying throughout the ages. This, however, is useless for the writers of the games that need to restructure the entire story and continue it, less as metaphor and more as fact.

So, CDPR looked at the end of Lady of the Lake and decided to take Ciri's word on the fate of her adoptive father and mother. What Sapkowski let ambiguous and poetic, they had to interpret literally. Then, they built the story, added the Wild Hunt for good measure and started building their own epic.

But all this didn't really happen until the second game. In the first game, Geralt has amnesia; he has to have amnesia, because the Witcher books weren't widely known outside Poland at the time (and at the time they weren't even all translated in English) and the game is a role-playing title; CDPR needed to walk a fine line between adapting an existing character and at the same time allowing players to build the main character the way they want. This amnesia was useful, in that it gave CDPR the chance to pick and choose what they wanted to use from the books.

So, possibly in fear of angering the fanbase and alienating newcommers, they decided to come up with an original story, make vague references to the books that could only be picked up by Polish fans and at the same time, heavily condense the story of the series into one game. Because of this, the first game doesn't fit with the other two and it doesn't fit with the books canon either. With a Geralt whose personality relies on the player's whim, with no mention of Ciri or Yennefer, with the complete absence of Nilfgaard and with entirely original characters that serve as the supporting cast and the villains, the entirety of the first game is the odd one out in the entire Witcher franchise.

More so, when one really starts drawing comparisons between the game and the books; The Witcher is largely relied on Ithiline's prophecy; the danger of the White Frost. It's also the story of Geralt, who has to choose between one of two love interests and adopt a child of the Elder Blood with his chosen partner. As mentioned, the White Frost, like the Wild Hunt, never came to pass in the books; but it feels like the books ended abruptly and just never got to that point. Also important is the fact that even though Geralt is the hero of the books, the story is Ciri's; she's the main character, from the moment she joins Geralt at the end of The Sword of Destiny up until the end in Lady of the Lake. She's the character that matters, the character that grows, the character that experiences; Geralt spends his time trying to find her. The first game draws these ideas from the books, but tries to do so without contradicting anything and furthermore shifting the story from Ciri to Geralt himself.

This is extremely obvious with the two love interests; Triss and Shani. It should be apparent even to people who never read the books, but these two ladies in the first game are characterized completely differently than they are in the other games:

Shani is sweet. She's simple, she's idealistic, she lives for helping people and finding "the one". She's shy and collected, smart, but quiet.

Triss is the conniving sorceress; she's shady, she has an attitude and an agenda. She wears that ridiculous dress that goes all the way down to her butt-crack, she's provocative and likes shiny things.

Shani is a bit character in the books and makes an appearance in Hearts of Stone (the first Witcher 3 DLC), but if you're not familiar with her, she's none of the above. She's idealistic, but she's also assertive and she's promiscuous. She's young and it shows in her personality; both when she fucks Geralt an hour after she meets him in the books and, reportedly, in Hearts of Stone. She's a likeable character, but she is not the character we see in the first Witcher game.

Triss is, as we know, the sweet one. She's strong, she's brave, she's in love with Geralt; she hates politics, she doesn't like the Lodge of Sorceresses and she lives to be romanced by the right person and live a quiet life where she can put her skills to good use without being tangled in political intrigue and the back-stabbings that go with it.

Essentially, what CDPR did, was give Yennefer's role in the story to Triss, because she was the sorceress in that game. They didn't, presumably, want to overextend their welcome in the franchise with their first outing. Maybe they hadn't come up with the specifics of Geralt's "resurrection" yet. Maybe they didn't know if they'd be able to make a second one and they didn't want to open that can of worms until they knew they could really plan ahead. They picked Shani for the other role, because... well, in their defense, Geralt has an affinity for sorceresses and Shani might've been the only non-magically-talented person Geralt knew in the biblical sense of the word, who made a proper appearance in the books. Whatever the reason, the roles are switched and the characters are extremely inconsistent between the first and the other two games, as well as the books.

We delved into the story so extensively, because mechanics are certainly the focus of any game, but in a RPG, story matters; in a series, especially, story matters a lot. The Assassins of Kings suffers from lacking a coherent plot with a clear resolution and being used as the launching point for The Wild Hunt; setting up everything that will transpire in the third game and explaining things that came before. Most of the plot of that game exists to tie the games to the books, which the original game didn't do sufficiently. The Witcher 3 is a lot more enjoyable with prior knowledge of the books, but it's not too obtuse for the newcommer; The Witcher 2, on the other hand, has no hope of standing on its own without being confusing at best or tiresome and forgettable at worst. It works only in tandem with either books or the third game, but not as a standalone RPG.

Because of this 2007's "The Witcher" is actually a lot more coherent, it's self-contained and it's still replayable in ways The Witcher 2 isn't. It's really very detached from the books, there aren't enough references to drag the story down and many of the characters come and go in this game only, making the narrative more complete than the one in either of the sequels. It's not the best adaptation of the books, but it works as its own thing, without really needing to piggy-back on the franchise's literature roots, but being its own unique experience, in terms of storytelling, mechanics and aesthetic.

October 26, 2017 marks the 10-year-anniversary of the first Witcher and the entry of the series into the world of videogames. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt and its expansions remain the pinnacle of AAA gaming and the jewel of the series (occasionally surpassing even its source material); but even now, ten years since release, that first game remains a good, memorable experience. It's not without its problems; there are crashes and bugs, the controls are clunky, the story stops dead in its tracks in the fourth chapter and breaks flow, the writing and the voice acting are sometimes laugh-out-laughter-inducing and sometimes the game can be frustrating.

Still, it's a testament to what beating overwhelming odds looks like; it's a reminder of the time when a small Polish studio that was a complete unknown, an outsider in a massive industry that tends to absorb and assimilate talent and creativity in all the wrong ways (especially back then when PC gaming was dying and every game was a Gears of War or Halo clone), proved this multi-billion dollars industry what hard work, talented minds and a good business sense can yield. Play The Witcher again; not because it's part of a celebrated series, but because it's one of its kind.

Notes:

- Did you know that series favourite dwarf, Zoltan Chivay, isn't very prominent in the books? Geralt's dwarf buddy for most of the series was Yarpen Zigrin, who makes an appearance in Iorveth's path in The Witcher 2, in the city of Vergen.

- If you're replaying The Witcher, it is advisable you install the Rise of the White Wolf mod, which changes and improves the game's UI, as well as adds fixes and improvements on the game's visuals.