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satyamrestaurant · 1 year ago

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Vizag's Seafood Extravaganza: Satyam Restaurant - A Top Pick for Seafood Lovers

If you're a seafood enthusiast and find yourself in Visakhapatnam (Vizag), you're in for a treat.

This coastal city on the eastern shores of India is known for its delectable seafood offerings, and one restaurant that stands out among the top restaurants in Vizag is Satyam Restaurant.

In this article, we will explore what makes Satyam Restaurant a must-visit for seafood lovers and why it deserves a spot on your culinary itinerary.

The Ambiance: Where Tradition Meets Elegance

Satyam Restaurant is more than just a place to enjoy delicious seafood; it's an experience in itself.

As you step inside, you are greeted with a warm and inviting atmosphere that seamlessly blends tradition and elegance.

The decor pays homage to the rich maritime heritage of Vizag, with elements like fishing nets, wooden accents, and nautical motifs adorning the walls.

The seating arrangement is spacious and comfortable, making it ideal for both intimate dinners and larger gatherings.

Whether you're visiting for a special occasion or a casual meal, Satyam Restaurant sets the perfect backdrop for a memorable dining experience.

The Culinary Delights: A Seafood Lover's Paradise

Now, let's dive into the heart of Satyam Restaurant – its culinary offerings. Known for its fresh and flavorful seafood, this restaurant has earned a reputation for serving some of the best seafood dishes in Vizag.

The extensive menu caters to a variety of tastes and preferences, ensuring that every diner leaves with a satisfied palate.

Fish Curry Rice: One of the signature dishes at Satyam Restaurant is their Fish Curry Rice. Prepared with locally sourced fish and a medley of spices, this dish tantalizes your taste buds with a perfect balance of flavors. The tangy and spicy curry pairs exceptionally well with steamed rice, creating a harmony of textures and tastes.

Prawn Specialties: If you're a fan of prawns, you're in for a treat. Satyam offers a range of prawn dishes, from succulent Prawn Masala to the fiery Prawn Curry. Each dish is expertly crafted to highlight the natural sweetness and tenderness of the prawns.

Crab Delicacies: Crab lovers will find themselves in seafood heaven here. The Crab Roast and Crab Curry are must-try options, showcasing the restaurant's expertise in handling this delicate yet flavorful ingredient.

Seafood Platter: For those who want to sample a bit of everything, the Seafood Platter is the way to go. It includes an assortment of seafood dishes, allowing you to savor the variety of flavors and textures that Vizag's coast has to offer.

A Commitment to Quality and Freshness

What sets Satyam Restaurant apart from other seafood joints in Vizag is its unwavering commitment to quality and freshness.

The restaurant sources its seafood directly from local fishermen and markets, ensuring that you get the freshest catch on your plate.

This dedication to quality is reflected in the taste and aroma of every dish served here.

Vegetarian Options for Every Palate

While Satyam Restaurant is renowned for its seafood, it also offers a variety of vegetarian options to cater to all diners.

From hearty vegetable curries to crispy dosas and fluffy idlis, there's something for everyone.

Vegetarian guests can also enjoy a taste of local cuisine without missing out on the restaurant's unique ambiance.

Friendly and Attentive Service

The staff at Satyam Restaurant are known for their warm hospitality and attentive service.

They are more than happy to assist you in selecting dishes that match your preferences and dietary requirements.

Whether you're a first-time visitor or a regular patron, you'll feel welcomed and well taken care of throughout your meal.

The Perfect Location

Satyam Restaurant's strategic location in the heart of Vizag makes it easily accessible for both locals and tourists.

Whether you're exploring the city's attractions or simply strolling along the picturesque coastline, Satyam is conveniently situated for a delightful meal.

Awards and Recognition

Satyam Restaurant's commitment to excellence has not gone unnoticed.

Over the years, it has received several awards and accolades for its outstanding seafood offerings and exceptional dining experience.

These accolades serve as a testament to the restaurant's dedication to maintaining its reputation as one of the top restaurants in Vishakhapatnam.

Reservations and Timings

To ensure you have a hassle-free dining experience, it's advisable to make reservations, especially during peak hours and weekends.

Satyam Restaurant is open for lunch and dinner, allowing you to enjoy its culinary delights at your convenience.

Conclusion

In a city known for its seafood, Satyam Restaurant stands out as a shining gem among the top restaurants in Vizag.

Its dedication to freshness, commitment to quality, and warm hospitality make it a must-visit destination for seafood lovers.

Whether you're a local resident or a traveler exploring Vizag's culinary landscape, a visit to Satyam Restaurant promises an unforgettable seafood extravaganza that will leave you craving for more.

So, the next time you find yourself in Visakhapatnam, make sure to indulge in the flavors of the sea at Satyam Restaurant. Your taste buds will thank you for it.

Book Your Time with us and have a happy meal.

For more information

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 9618944533

#satyamrestaurant #foodies #vizagforever #vizaginsights #vizagfoodies #vizagfoodiewala #restaurantsinvizag #seafood #foodlover

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neko-naruto · 10 months ago

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YEAHHHHH YOU FUCKING GET ME. YOU GET ME SO MUCH. and guess what bud? you've just enabled me to go off even fucking further so buckle up

We already know that saltwater techno trolls are dark with a pop of neon. they lowkey have 'bed of coral' looks, for camoflauge perhaps, and if i remember correctly they live in coral beds. so thats their own camo and adaption thing going on. theyre just so very creature to me regardless! NOW, ONTO THE SUBGENRES

Freshwater Trolls would absolutely have extra fins and sharp edges to them for being aerodynamic in rushing currents (think salmon) and coming in more bright colors because they're closer to the surface you know? Like, less deep colors with neon accents and glow, and more brighter colors. reds, greens, maybe even some silvery accents, some with almost opalescent scales (trouts lol), but they're Freshwater and in lots of different currents so lots of adaptions

Cave System Trolls being almost all black with a translucence at the end of their fins (like those see through fish I don't remember the name of) and with the anglerfish thing because it's dark down there. Webbed fingers, tail fins a bit more split, they're a little bit less fishy than the rest of the Techno Trolls due to narrow passages and less open spaces, clinging to walls that shake with every performance. It's deep and dark and all they have for light is what they produce and the occasional plantation that sprouts up and glows, they're like the more monstrous deep sea animals.

Lake Trolls with smaller and rounder fins due to much less current and just needing to dive deep down and straight up again to get a fair share of deeper micro organisms and higher up plantations on the lakebed. I imagine them coming in dark blue with the occasional mottle of a forest or emerald green, to blend in with the hue of the waters deeper down and the plantations. Most of their water currents could come from the beats almost always playing no matter what.

I blinked and decided to differentiate Lake Techno Trolls from Pond/Swamp Techno Trolls, the Swamp and Pond Techno Trolls have the psytrance subgenre. Their adaptions to there are somewhat similar to the Cave System Trolls in terms of having webbed fingers and more pronounced tail fins, but their colors are entirely different. All of them are found in these murky tones of greens and browns, and they have whiskers close to the base of their ear fins like catfish do.

Despite all of the differentiating adaptions and color schemes, they all share the beating pixel heart alongside other pixel motifs in their design because it's what ties them all back to Techno Music as a whole

thinking about how Techno Trolls are fish and the loads of electronica subgenres and genre iterations and like. Saltwater Techno Trolls. Freshwater Techno Trolls. Cave System Techno Trolls. Pond and Lake Techno Trolls. each with their own subgenre of electronica and techno, and someone needs to return to me a state of sanity, but until then imma keep talking. we hear the Oceanic Techno Trolls type of techno which has lyrics and lots of buildup, similar to lyrical happy hardcore and what Pendulum broke into for a bit. Freshwater could get Drum N Bass with how often fish get beat up by their rivers by the fast pace and roughness of it. Cave Systems could get stuff like Dubstep and other heavy hitting beats because its both aesthetic and sort of goes with the whole underground thing (im talking early dubstep over 2010s dubstep). Pond and Lake could have a more lofi focus due to the fact its a mostly still water environment and generally lax area, just vibing along in the nonexistent current to a smooth beat.

i have gone insane and im never topping this in terms of overly complex headcanon

#trolls #trolls world tour #techno trolls #writing #i literally thought up more headcanon for this in the time i took a shower

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myhomedecorpak · 4 years ago

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Room Decor Guide

A home is like an outfit: only the right home accessories make it complete. Our guide on decoration will help you to create the perfect interior look with the right decoration ideas . Decorating an apartment or living room, kitchen or bedroom is the ultimate creative workshop for anyone who loves their home and wants to make it as personal as possible.

Decoration - the accessories for your home

Tasteful decoration is essential for a beautiful home. Most of our furniture has a specific purpose. However, we need decoration in order to feel comfortable. With the right decorative items, we can design our apartment or house in such a way that we feel comfortable in it. Do you need decoration for a brunch? With a beautifully arranged flower decoration you can create a cozy atmosphere in your own four walls without having to make a lot of effort. But also for many other occasions you can find something suitable in our selection of decorations.

Home accessories with decoration potential

There is an important rule when it comes to interior decoration : less is more here! Choose your decorative items carefully so that the room does not look cluttered. Here are some popular examples:

Wall design

Round mirror

Table decoration

poster

Candle sets

Home decoration

You will find these and other stylish interior accessories, with which all possible room decor can be implemented, at myhomedecor.pk. Let yourself be inspired!

Stylish decoration for the living room

Have you just moved into a new apartment or would you like to bring a breath of fresh air into your living room? With fancy living room decoration, you can breathe new flair into the room in no time at all and design it individually. A nice eye-catcher and a real experience for many children: the aquarium as a decorative element! Thanks to maritime elements, decoration in the living room looks very nice and immediately puts us in the holiday mood.

Sustainability is also a big trend when it comes to home furnishings and furnishing your own four walls. Decoration made of birch trunks is a big topic. In addition, decoration with deer motifs can be perfectly combined - above all the deer head as a decorative element! Bedspreads or pillows with deer motifs also meet with enthusiasm. Modern decoration, such as decoration made of driftwood, goes perfectly with living rooms in Scandi style, for example. With western decorations, such as vintage wall clocks or horseshoes, lovers of rustic furnishing styles and fans of vintage decoration will get their money's worth. A table decoration that calls for spring can be created with tablecloths with a light checked pattern and vases in which you put flowers. Decorative hearts or decorative stones also go very well with this. Order decoration that will make you prefer to be in the living room.

Functional and aesthetic kitchen decoration

Do you like to have a glass of wine? Then there's one thing you can't throw away: the boxes. Because wine boxes as decoration are perfect for the kitchen, the dining room or the bar in the basement. As a shelf, they offer a lot of storage space, but they also look good as storage boxes. If you come from Bavaria and want to integrate Bavarian decoration into your home, it does not necessarily have to be the typical Oktoberfest decoration. Everything that revolves around alpine huts and mountains conjures up a cozy hut romance in your four walls and is ideal as a decoration for the kitchen. Hang pictures of idyllic landscapes with beautiful picture frames in the kitchen. Funny decorative ice cubes in the form of figures or objects, which are also suitable as party decorations, provide more pep in your drinks.

Bedroom decorating ideas - sleep well!

Would you like to give your bedroom that certain something, but don't know how? A decorative elephant or decorative owl can be eye-catchers that transform your bedroom into something special or give it an exotic touch. With candles, soft velvet pillows and bedspreads you support the cozy atmosphere. You can also sew great pillow or chair covers from decorative fabrics. Trendy covers for smaller flower pots can be made from the scraps of fabric. Do you have trouble sleeping? The scent of lavender relaxes and has a calming effect. But which decoration with lavender could you now incorporate in your bedroom? Scented candles with a relaxing lavender scent or bed linen in this calming color is our tip! But pink or dusky pink is also a good romantic color for the bedroom. Create a boudoir atmosphere with decorations in pink, in the form of wallpaper or a picture frame. Tip: Here you will find a selection of stylish ones Decoration for every style of living .

Your bathroom in style

Long walks on the beach are an integral part of a beach holiday. We keep our stay by the sea in good memory if we take the mussels we collected home with us in our holiday luggage. So the sound of the sea and the holiday feeling stay with us for a little longer. In the bathroom, the seashells look particularly good as decoration. With a maritime fishing net as a decorative object, you can perfectly complement the look. It looks great on the ceiling or wall. Sand is also a popular souvenir from vacation. Use it as decorative sand in a vase and decorate it with your seashells and other maritime decorations. Decorative items in turquoise enhance the holiday feeling, wooden shower rugs are reminiscent of beautiful spas.

Decoration for every occasion

Festive dinners, brunch with friends, themed parties or birthdays can all require different decorations. Silver decorations give a nice dinner the shine it deserves. Decorative items in neutral tones such as white look great at a party. Occasion-related decoration shows why you are celebrating something and is a topic of conversation. Dress code for the decoration? Of course! In addition, perfectly coordinated decoration expresses the personality of the host, who underlines the importance of the event with the selected decoration items.

Seasonal decoration

With the right decoration, you can also let the change of the seasons come to your home. Stainless steel decorations, such as decorative angels or reindeer, are very suitable as decorations in the living room or in the kitchen. Complete them with gold-plated candle holders, with which your table decoration appears festive in no time. In April, however, it will be high time for spring decorations. Decorative butterflies are particularly suitable for this, because the beautiful butterflies not only provide great color accents in the great outdoors, but can also bring a piece of spring into the room as a decorative element. And how about buying a decorative branch that you can put in a long, narrow vase like a flower, for example? Of course, our variety of products also offers many other decorative items - for example for your summer or autumn decorations.

Let's party! Decoration for special events

A special moment calls for a special setting. With decorative items we can design it according to our wishes and create moments that you will never forget. Attach silver wall decorations for a wedding or equip a long table with modern candle holders. Serve nuts and snacks in small baskets at a birthday party. Make your guests aware of the special moment you are all sharing with beautiful decorations and the right tableware set .

Two quick decoration tips from our interior experts for a cozy home:

Decoration creates a feeling in the home - of being cared for, security, well-being. If you let yourself fall on the sofa in the evening, you will enjoy this moment even more when you can reach for a fluffy blanket. A candle instantly creates a cozy atmosphere. Decorative branches bring a little nature into the living room and maybe you love to decorate your apartment with lots of carpets and pillows ? This is how you create a world that feels soft and sensual everywhere.

The new stars in the decorative sky - that's modern now!

Candlesticks, trays or picture frames made of geometric metal structures are currently very popular. Frames made of brass form the silhouettes of a hexagon and create an object with a facet effect like a diamond.

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gendertheft · 4 years ago

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*blasts u with oc questions* Valentine: 3, 20, 21, 26, 53 Fox: 6, 21, 33, 42 Trickery: 15, 35, 45, 50 Sam: 19, 20, 48, 49

3. Orientation and Relationship status (single, taken (by who?), crush (on who?))

Valentine: bi, single and ready to mingle. Really has a crush on everyone, but is disinclined to act on anything currently.

6. Headcanon VA

Fox: honestly, I don’t know. Someone who can get appropriately bastardous in their tone and maybe a bit of california accent? Don’t @ me.

15. Can they sing? Can they dance?

Trickery: yeah! He has a whole routine with his violin.

19. Hobbies

Sam: maintaining their truck, fishing, crytpids

20. Clothing/Aesthetic

Valentine: HUGE fan of anything with hearts or roses. She’d spend a fortune on clothes if her money wasn’t currently being used to maintain gear. Her style could be described as elegant? I Don’t Know Fashion Terms.

Sam: functional. A lot of blues and whites, with the occasional light brown.

21. Fave food(s) and drink(s)

Valentine: rice and any kind of cinnamon drink.

Fox: candy and a vanilla milkshake with 5 shots of expresso

26. Guilty Pleasure

Valentine: clothes and embroidery.

33. How have they changed over time?

Fox: gets nicer and a better listener.

35. What are they like as a friend?

Trickery: a bit of a prankster, a bit of a bully, and he tries to be kind. idiot king.

42. What’s the dumbest thing your character’s done?

for fox? you pick one.

45. Theme song (and a playlist if you’ve got it!)

trickery’s playlist

48. What was their lowest point? What was their highest point?

Sam’s lowest point was directly after their dad left the vault. They had no idea what to do. The overseer was dead, and that was their fault, and the vault didn’t want them in it. Amata didn’t want them to stay, and that hurt them the most.

Their highest point was them leaving the Capital Wastes. It was the point where Sam had given up responsibility, where they decided the Wastes could start to solve its own problems.

49. What are some themes tied to your character’s story?

Sam’s story in fo3 is one tied to discovering themself. It’s also about justice and learning shades of grey - their black and white view that was formed by the vault was shattered by how they left, and the issue of Charon is something that haunts them. Another theme would be growth - the decline of the brotherhood, sam’s growth of a person - new life to the wastes.

50. What are some motifs associated with your character?

Trickery: flowers and bright colors.

53. Expectations vs Reality: what did you expect and what did you get with this character?

Valentine: honestly I’d intended to play her more reactive and much more hesitant, but she quickly became proactive, and while still hesitant, much less how I originally intended.

#oc: fox grey #oc: valentine doveswood #oc: sam reeves #oc: trickery quest #asks #gay-gnome

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visit-latin-america-blog · 6 years ago

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Casa del Maya Bed & Breakfast

A colonial-style getaway, the hidden oasis in Mérida offers the comforts of a conventional hotel with the warmth and style of a traditional Mexican home.

You might stroll right past the boutique retreat’s entrance without realizing what’s behind the unassuming facade. What appears to be a modest home on an otherwise nondescript street reveals itself as a wide-open sanctuary inside. The city vibe immediately shifts as you step into the cavernous lobby of Casa del Maya, alive with a vibrant yellow interior that’s offset by a rustic stone wall and appointed with cozy furnishings to at once make you feel at home. Passing through the main house, you step out into a previously unrevealed refuge overflowing with lush tropical foliage.

Guestrooms in True Local Style

Named after Yucatán locations such as Itzamna and Yaxché, individually decorated guestrooms welcome with immersion in local culture. Floors of cool polished cement and traditional tilework meet color-splashed walls that capture the famed Mexican spirit and style. Locally woven in classic Yucatán patterns, bed covers exude the same sense with vivid pops of lively orange, eye-catching yellow and bold blue. Bathrooms accented by multicolored tiles and Talavera sinks continue the time-honored motif that runs throughout the tranquil haven.

Check into a second-floor room with a private balcony or a first-floor accommodation with your own outdoor seating area offering pool and garden views. You can use the remote to flip on modern air conditioning though you may opt for the fan and fresh air from large sliding doors that let in lots of natural light. Refresh in a spacious walk-in shower under a rainfall showerhead that douses from a soaring ceiling. Rooms are well-stocked with bottled water and there’s a Talavera crock with filtered water in the open-air dining space. There’s also a flat-screen TV with cable channels should you choose some viewing after a day out exploring. Beyond the standard guestrooms with queen-sized beds, Casa del Maya has a two-bedroom home with a full kitchen, washer and dryer and private plunge pool.

Escape to Hidden Gardens

A charming garden that runs the length of the interior features peaceful pockets that are perfect for easing back into a lounge chair or gently swaying in a hammock to enjoy the serene surroundings.. While you are located in the heart of the city, there are no sounds of urban life in the calming outdoor space that reminds of a remote jungle lodge. Settle back with a good book under the cooling shade of a rustic-chic palapa. You can also opt for a massage under the thatch-roofed structure that peers out through palm fronds to create the ambiance of an exotic retreat far from civilization. Draw the privacy curtains for a truly pampering spa experience.

Regional artworks lie everywhere your eye wanders. Bright ceramic butterflies and iguanas, tribal masks and wood carvings in classic Mayan style dot the garden walls. A nature-inspired mural honors Mayan heritage at the rear of an inviting nook that’s flanked by plants and shade trees. Plunge into the pool and then settle into a covered seating area with hand-crafted wooden furniture atop brightly colored tile flooring.

Taste of Tradition With Homemade Breakfasts

Two of Mexico’s most-popular morning dishes are on the rotating breakfast menu, enjoyed under the thatched roof of the open-air palapa before the pool. Savor Chile Relleno with eggs, tomato, onion, cheese and mild poblano pepper, served with lightly spiced chorizo. No trip to Mexico would be complete without an order of Chilaquiles, the longtime favorite with tortilla chips topped with eggs, onions, chorizo, avocado and sour cream. Or delight in a quiche with a delectable mix of bacon, cheese, zucchini, onion, squash and its cousin chayote. Along with a plate of fresh fruit and homemade cinnamon rolls, complement your breakfast with a delicately blended beverage of orange juice and hibiscus tea. Coffee lovers will appreciate gourmet java that’s sourced from Chiapas, Mexico.

Centrally Situated for Exploring Mérida

The town’s top offerings lie just beyond the front door. It’s a six-minute walk to La Negrita Cantina, one of the most popular haunts in the city. Dating to 1917, the iconic Cuban-themed watering hole with a decidedly bohemian vibe packs in revelers on most nights with live music. With a ten-minute walk, you can hit Paseo de Montejo, Mérida’s famed tree-lined boulevard that’s home to monuments, ornate 19th-century mansions and a slew of options for shopping and dining.

Tap your app for an Uber and take a seven-minute drive to the heart of Mérida at Plaza Grande, the town’s main square and hub of local life. It’s a six-minute drive to Paseo 60, an ultra-modern complex with a variety of open-air eateries and a top spot for live music. You’re just a three-minute drive to Santiago Park, which famously holds weekly live music events that see the city’s seniors out showing their dance moves. Another weekly open-air dance happens at Santa Lucia Park, just a twelve-minute walk from Casa del Maya. And there’s much more. Your bilingual hosts can give you a handy map with the nearby points of interest. They can also arrange trips to top sites further afield such as cenotes, Mayan ruins at Uxmal and Celestún, a fishing village that’s famous for its flamingo population.

Casa del Maya’s thoughtful home touches continue right up until the moment of check-out when you’re handed a small bag of fresh-baked cinnamon rolls to send you contently on your way. In the following moment, you’ll likely start dreaming of your return visit.

#hotels #mexico #merida #travel

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gaming-rabbot · 6 years ago

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Rabbot Reviews: Far Cry 5

Great taste, empty calories.

Far Cry 5 is the latest game in quite the lineage of a series known, as you might surmise, as Far Cry. Game number 6, actually, dependent on how canon you feel Primal was. FC as it stands now, though, is a bit of a… how to put it? A long call? A distant yell? An outlying wail? A remote shout? No, a far cry from the original two games, before Ubisoft bought the franchise.

(Yeah, that’s the phrase. Glad I thought of it, though I don’t know where I got it.)

((Incidentally, Remote Shout is the name of my new indie punk garage band. Album drops: never, because this is a joke.))

Starting after Far Cry 3, Ubisoft has been telling their dev teams to make lightning strike twice. Thus, each game hereafter has been an excited waiting game of seeing how they’ll try and ultimately fail to match the demented, yet incredibly charismatic villain that was Vaas.

And 5 feels like this illogical conclusion of just that. Because you have not one, not two, but four scenery-eating, rompy villains. Less a refined, precise attempt at the concept, and more of a blunderbuss approach; hoping to tickle a little of everyone’s villain fancy.

That, I feel, is the perfect metaphor for the game in general.

Last call to avoid spoilers.

Speaking of fitting descriptions of the entire game, let’s start with the intro. Because I have mixed feelings about it, at best. There’s a lot it does right, and some things it simply gets wrong, in regards to the rest of the narrative as a whole.

The pacing and atmosphere are phenomenal. The very air feels heavy around you as you enter into the church, here to take the titular Joseph Seed away from his flock. The pressure of the stakes are established flawlessly, leaving a feeling of palpitation, and a true understanding of just how dangerous Joseph is. Surprised as I was, the game even managed to shock me a little.

In that respect, it’s fantastic.

But then the game uses the cop crew you rolled in with as your motivation for the entire rest of the game, in the form of saving them from the Seed family, and oh god, it’s Fallout 4 all over again.

Just like the Bethesda example above, this aspect of the intro simply doesn’t work. And not just because it’s asking me to unconditionally care about cops.

This sequence of the narrative focuses on every other aspect of narrative setup except for the characters that you’re supposed to get invested in. You get but the most cursory taste of who they are as people. Such a small amount of time can mainly attach their personalities to a specific emotion.

Whitehorse is the calm voice of reason. Marshall Burke is frustrated. Pratt is nervous. And Hudson is… there too, I guess. Look, I’ll be honest, I had to look up half these people’s names for this review. Which I’m sure is only a good sign.

With so little to go on, I found I simply didn’t care whenever a cultist bigwig dangled one of them in front of me on a string, expecting me to bat like a good little kitten. Instead, I yawned and wandered off to play with the packaging the toy had come in.

Like a mischievous little kitten.

Which is such a shame, because there are so many other more interesting characters I actually did care about. And in the few scenes where the Seeds held them to ransom instead, the game suddenly had actual stakes.

Nick and Kim Rye were delightful every time they showed up. Virgil was so honestly sincere, I couldn’t help but like him; and his past, as it unfolded, was interesting to dive into. And Jerome was pretty much cool by default, and an excellent concept for a foil to the cultist bad guys, and everything they stood for.

But the story feels almost unconfident in its execution. Like the team is scared you’ll get bored. So the solution, write more story, or rather, several seemingly self-contained stories across the three separate regions.

With no overarching theme or plot threads besides “Joseph Seed probably gave the command for this at some point,” however, the connection feels loose at best. And this looseness makes the narrative feel all the weaker.

I’d much rather the story had been more focused and condensed. If they’d honed in on about one third as many characters, and if the villains felt a little less redundant, the overall narrative could’ve been much more refined and interesting.

Even the gameplay, while fun, has the same issue.

When traversing from place to place, you can’t drive for five minutes without a dozen random encounters passing you by, whether they travel by wheel or foot or paw. What should be a ten minute trek can sometimes take 30.

Again, it feels like the game is nervous. Like it’s worried that if I’m not firing a gun every two minutes, I’m losing interest. Look, I know this is the age of the internet, but my attention span hasn’t deteriorated that bad.

What were we talking about again?

But it’s sad though, as it detracts from what could be some very nice vistas and scenic routes. I can barely enjoy the quiet, introspective new addition of fishing without a randomly spawned cultist with an exaggerated country accent shouting “Fay-oond ‘eem!” and scaring away all the darn fish with a wild assault rifle volley.

Speaking of guns, let’s talk about politics. Something that could only ever be fun and only ever go over very well.

I don’t want to get too deep into this, as it’s been covered to death, and more eloquently than I’ll probably put it. For a better dive into the subject, I’d recommend watching Errant Signal’s “The Art of Saying Nothing.” To sum it up though, while at face value, FC5 might seem as though it’s about to lay down a scathing indictment of certain aspects of American culture, it really doesn’t.

Not for lack of bringing it up though.

The lady who owns Peaches the cougar, that is to say, the former owner of this sweet large kitten (no I’m not looking up the name this time; she’s not even a narrative footnote), is a prejudicial old woman who lives alone in the woods.

Immediately upon entering her domicile so I could acquire my new kitty and leave, she mentioned that my player character looked vaguely Italian, and made an off-color comment about not wanting her silver/jewels to go missing.

What is this, the turn of the century, last century?

At Hurk’s place, you can meet his dad, who wants to build a wall. What, no, not a wall down there. A wall in the north, to keep out those accursed Canadians and their liberal ideology.

Addressing controversy by obfuscating the real world equivalent is cute, but it lacks the punch that makes it such that it’s proving some kind of point. Here, it’s npc’s that you’re expected to stay on good terms with, so that you can get more quests and goodies, like a new pet or ride.

(Shame you never get a new pet who is also your new ride, though.)

And why? Because they’re supposedly better than the cultists who only physically hurt and impede people different than themselves? What’s the takeaway here supposed to be, that it’s only physical extremism that’s bad and--oh god wait no, it’s Bioshock Infinite all over again.

Of course, we all know the real reason why. To offend as few people as possible. Because every offended party is a potential lost sale. Hence why despite clearly using Christian/Baptist imagery and motifs, no cultist ever actually mentions Jesus by name, and the peggy symbol only vaguely and technically resembles that of a cross.

I’ve bad news for you, though, Ubisoft; it’s too late. If you wanted to offend as few people as possible, it was already over the instant you let writers set it in a rural, dominantly Christian, dominantly white community, in America. Right wing talking heads were lining up to be officially offended the instance promos started showing bad guys toting guns, bibles, and the American flag.

Because despite bragging about having thick skin, when it comes down to it, they typically don’t.

At some point, you almost want to lean in uncomfortably close to the game’s face and tell it “Go on. Say what you really mean.” And it never does. Making it satire with no teeth, which isn’t actually satire, but parody. It’s a flag-waving, gun-toting parody of American culture. It’s an American beer commercial meets Saint’s Row. It’s a romanticized outdoorsy rural locale with tacky looking guns and gruesome murder set to made-up gospel and old rock hits.

Which doesn’t feel that far off from a Saint’s Row game, but it wildly conflicts with the tone Far Cry 5 very quickly establishes for itself. And it’s such a waste, because to use an on-theme colloquialism, “bless its little heart.”

It’s trying so hard, and there are some things I can’t help but enjoy about it.

There was a moment early on, when I was creeping through the bushes of a small neighborhood as slowly and quietly as I could. I had not but a bow and a pistol to my name. Cultists were stacking dead bodies while their speaker-mounted truck played their very own choir, singing about water washing away sin. As they were finishing up, they began to sing along.

It was as First Blood meets Jim Jones as the entire game felt, and it all just clicked. The gameplay and tone all lined up so perfectly and felt so right. Where did that go?

Luckily, the game is also pretty charming in various other inadvertent or otherwise unintentional ways.

Obviously it’s cute and wholesome that you can pet all the non-hostile animals. But it’s completely adorable how Peaches growls at you when you go where she can’t follow.

There’s also random npc’s you can recruit for the game’s buddy system, aside from the nine named specialty partners. At first, I seriously wondered how any of them could compare to Peaches, the oversized mewling kitten, or Grace, the cool as a cucumber sniper lady.

But then I found some lady named Evie, who looked like somebody’s mom, and I honestly found it hard to part with her. There was something so ernest and amusing about the idea of somebody’s mom who used to embarrass them at every PTA meeting or bake sale, now in an awkwardly-fitting militia vest yelling “Get some!” to every other cultist who dared cross our path.

The gameplay is also varied enough with timed races, and puzzling treasure hunting segments. The latter in particular, I really enjoyed. They had me doing everything navigating mazes of fire to hopping and swinging along successive grapple lines under a bridge, skirting river water along the way. It’s good, varied fun.

I also really appreciate the organic way in which story beats are unlocked, which is really saying something for a sandbox. Normally, there are specific missions that unlock the next cutscene that actually matters, and everything else feels like so much filler and padding.

Far Cry 5 had the genius idea that everything should contribute to an overall progress bar. This makes it that nothing feels like padding, as you’ll always be working toward the next story beat, even if you’re doing what feel like side quests.

But it’s one step forth and one step back with you, isn’t it Far Cry 5?

Once you’ve unlocked the next story beat, you’ll be whisked away to the next cutscene to have one of the villains get in your face for the next five minutes, whether you were ready for that or not. It gets annoying after the second time, and downright numb the fifth or sixth.

It’s also where the writing starts to fall apart some more.

You know that old James Bond trope where the bad guy has him right where they want him? But then because the villain is so contrived in how they want to handle him, he ends up getting away? Well that happens almost every time. It’s cheesy.

Also where some of the worst writing in the game comes into play.

Jacob Seed has a neat gimmick, I’ll admit. He’s all about classic conditioning, A Clockwork Orange style. Alright, interesting enough. And instead of escaping, you wake up, presumably days later, having finally escaped his mind control. It was a neat twist at first.

What’s incredibly stupid though is everyone points it out. Dutch, Eli, all characters who know about Jacob’s MO, and none of them think anything suspicious about it. Nope, just “Hey, now that I can finally get in contact with you after an entire week of you not responding, come back and get uncomfortably close to me and people I care about.”

Nobody thinks anything’s up with that? Even after it happens three or four times?? And not even my own character thinks to warn them that I’m being psychologically manipulated to kill them???

Oh. Look at that. The game made me kill Eli. How very unsurprising. What is that, something like four hours of build up to a twist anyone could see coming if they’ve ever seen a story?

“Who cares, it’s fun, isn’t it?”

I mean, yes, sure. It’s very fun, in fact. Fewer things have been more satisfying than timing it just right to take down three baddies at once, with a sniper shot from Grace, a mauling from Peaches, and a throwing knife from myself.

And like I said before, the gameplay is just varied enough to not grow dull. But what should be a good game is held back by mediocre writing and a lack of commitment.

Weirder than any of it though is the troves of people lining up to say it doesn’t matter, because the game is fun. Listen, I can enjoy the gameplay for hours of mind-numbing fun, but still be able to pick apart everything wrong with the overall experience. There’s nothing really wrong with that. It doesn’t completely impede what enjoyment I, or anybody else, was able to get out of it.

I really don’t get this, though. This is no critique of the game itself, mind you, but it is at fault for bringing it up again, even if by accident. So it bears discussion.

Clean Prince was right when he said that Far Cry 5 brought up a lot of what’s wrong with modern gaming culture. Yet I can’t help but disagree with his reasoning behind this statement. Because he, like many, asked why any of it matters, so long as the game is fun.

Look.

Gamers clamored for years, demanding our hobby be taken seriously. Entire groups and brands like Extra Credits formed, to try and gain for games the same respect film and literature already had.

Nowadays, we have critics aplenty, like Super Bunny Hop, and the above-mentioned Errant Signal, who regularly dissect games with the same attention to detail movies, shows, and novels receive.

We did it. We’re here. We made it, right?

No.

People tear down bad writing in games, and suddenly it doesn’t matter. The game being fun is the only feature that matters, now that it’s convenient to dismiss anything that seemingly gets in the way of your enjoyment.

Even though it doesn’t.

If Far Cry 5 were a film, people would be trampling over each other to repeat the critics’ disregard of its milquetoast shotgun approach to writing, and lack of commitment to an actual point, despite advertising itself as any kind of satire.

It’s not like having an actual statement is foreign to Far Cry either. Far Cry 2 had a well implemented theme of deterioration in every aspect; your character’s health thanks to the malaria, the guns falling apart from being old, fire spreading wildly out of control.

It’s not even necessarily a Ubisoft problem either.

Far Cry 3 was all about the lengths you’d go to for the people you care about, and how growing and changing as a person ends up alienating you from them anyway. There was also an underlying theme about there being no real winners in a setting so deeply seeded with violence.

Ending sucks too. That’s not a good transition, but it’s as good of one as it deserves, to be frank.

It’s awful, but not because it’s unsatisfying and you don’t get to technically win. Not every game needs to end on a positive note, just because you work for it. Spec Ops: The Line had some of my favorite gut-punch endings in a game.

But the takeaway is just bad, for either ending.

Either you walk away from Joseph at the end, and Jacob’s conditioning kicks in again, and you kill everyone you just saved, or randomly and completely out of bumbling nowhere, several nuclear warheads go off around the tristate area. And everyone you just saved dies in irradiated fire anyway.

What’s the takeaway here? That we should just let dangerous people get away with violent uprisings, because hey, who knows, they may actually have been right all along?

The nuclear ending especially is just bad writing. It’s a twist out of left field meant to shock, and take you by surprise, but only because there’s nothing to indicate it’s going to happen. It’s trying, and failing, to ape the nuke scene from the first Modern Warfare game. But that scene was the dramatic release after an entire level’s worth of building tension regarding the bomb which was mentioned earlier. Of which said established tension, there’s simply none here.

Each region even caps off with you burning out the cult’s various bomb shelters. Only to find out, what? That you should’ve given up and let them kill and maim and steal all they like, so you could huddle down next to them in their bunkers? All because some uninformed zealot who doesn’t even sound like he’s actually looked at a bible lately made a lucky guess?

No thanks.

Instead of inspiring shock and awe, the ending feels random and nonsensical. Once again destroying any coherency the overall tone the game could’ve had. Is this supposed to be a fun, silly game to be enjoyed with a beer or a friend?

Or a serious and somber game where you face the deepest human fear of all: how people manage to justify overt acts of pure evil as “the right thing?”

All in all, Far Cry 5 is like a cheap burger from a fast-food joint. The taste is fine and it’ll tide you over, but it’s probably not very good for you. And you can’t help but think about how much better it looks in the pictures on the menu.

#video games #review #Far Cry 5 #spoilers #rabbot reviews

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twentyminutemiso · 3 years ago

Text

13:16

August

Skipping work to go to cheshunt lake with zaahid and liza

Joe and eileen round for dinner (crab)

And other stories plus mcdonalds with vicky

Mukund's leaving bbq in the park with tempeh on the grill

With heidi crying at sheku kanneh mason at the swan and the fish

queer bruk with teefah and liza

HEART FILLING lunch with maria han kay june bella tessa sian jess R mel wren rose. the conversation about rose's type and wren and mel taking an extreme interest.

September

Camber sands and jess bringing chicken wraps and everyone getting sand in everything. Me driving and mum and dad being terrified at my approach to the tight bend.

Siddiqa and hawa round our Tottenham house

Dore and Rosie over, burger king, then i drive them home and dore makes falafel and hummus and they try to rearrange the furniture in the house, watching a East coast accent youtuber doing funny vids about undertale and FF7

Shang chi with han and rose

Feminist library zine fair and a girl called izzy or ? Han and maya with their massive pizza.

Jess bday dinner at home, egg jian bing where you fill the inside

Friday 24th last day at Magnum

La barra with ella and vicky

Paula rego with emma snell, talking about mr hardy and that art motif about death in paintings, writing her creative writing coursework about rabbits with gems, going to riverside bar and having a drink, talking about zaahid and liza, emma's living with tash in camden, temporary job (doing research?)

October

Social media went down

Upset with han

Weeding the garden

Dishoom with jess

Teefah over playing trials of mana

Taking the garden waste

Leaving drinks at Sutton Arms, Caitlin, Chiara's speech, a nintendo voucher, Bay gave me Make Bosses Pay, bitching about Owen and Hedvig, Shannon talking about Feeld and her man, two gay guys with two pugs, a bisexual Somali hitting on me, feeling like I needed to throw up on the bus, seeing Issy Busoni as I got up to chunder and not needing to throw up anymore

Remember and resist launch

Steaming buns and han doing my stick and poke

H skating with me at Hale, getting burger king, talking about her dad and tobacco, prison for 6 months and what they had to tell taufiq, getting married to Kachi, moving to Islington next month, no moving countries for the next 6 years?

WFH with Ella, gym with Victoria doing squats and abdominal leg raises, Anna made fish with potato and fennel, listening to 2017 tunes (Look like you by Grizzy), Ella and Joe making me a Taro pancake

Organiclea, planting rocket, Mel Barbara Susan, facilitated by Heidi, weeding peach trees and blackberry bushes with John and Paul, John a scot with a brain thing who listens to 90s trance and funky tunes, lives in Walthamstow with his partner, Paul from Edmonton who I give a lift to and has an excellent smile because he's been accepted on Horticulture level 2 to start next month, soup and beetroot and mango crumble for lunch

Venom 2 with Teefah, m&ms, popcorn, coke, doritos and dip, driving home, eating the chicken curry and carrot and leek, watching Shazam but it's not very good, asking about the relationship, Teefah says they feel they need to get over their insecurity, they want me to text them more because it's important for them, but realised we have different communication styles. We are quite different as well. I say I understand. I think we've been hanging out in a serious way but my feelings aren't serious. I want to see what our expectations are because it wouldn't be good if they're not matched up. They say they don't feel bad but then they cry. They say what do I want to do. I say I need to think and talk but I don't know what to say yet, and they say sleep on it. We have difficulty sleeping and teefah watches lots of tiktoks during this night. Wake and go to the cafe, talking about river's situation and their partner who doesn't feel butterflies for them but accepts money from his fundraiser.

Florenza's film screening, it's really nice holding teefah's hand and it feels right sitting together and then hanging out with alice and julia. Florenza gives us kolyva in tiny plastic tubs, their film shows themsevles and their mum, tells us about Ronnie at deptford market and his pomegranates, Raks opens and deseeds the fruit. A film about Mexico City and about Naples too. Alice and julia really like teefah. Their margerita cocktail comes as a pizza. A level biology meme. Komodo dragon. Mouse plague. Julia's wraparound top. Looking at a note teefah made with their favourite lyric from each Laura Marling song. They say it's more than a life goal, it's like bucket list to go and see her in concert. Talking about how to influence young kids' lives cos I'm anxious about my nephew. They say you can't shape them that much because they're their own person.

How do I feel? It's not serious because I don't have the urge to text them, I don't feel giddy or butterflies, I haven't daydreamed about them/it's easy to not think about them, we don't send each other pictures, I often forget things they tell me, (I sexually and romantically desire others? - degree of relevancy to this is arguable but is definitely at least a practical factor), I don't talk about them to Vix and Ella like I do past partners. The things I like are being intimate, touching in a familiar way, sharing media like films and games together, being in the company of someone who's kind and helpful, having someone who finds me sexy, thinking that they're sexy (but do I FEEL that they're sexy!??), hanging out with someone knowledgeable about a different thing (medicine), knowing they are savvy about culture, knowing they're from north london and they understand a certain experience, the music they like and introduce to me, the fact they are up for most things when it comes to socialising, they're approved by my friends and would fit in/be nice to see more in a group setting.

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tomerasange · 5 years ago

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Chapter 1: The Meeting of the Companions

As I looked over the scene of the tavern, the tables were occupied by many parties who had sought shelter from the heat of the low afternoon. Merchants and bards who took their earnings to reward, lovers entreating beyond the watchful eye of guardians, warriors come from the wilds or the front to swap stories. The stew of denizens made for quite the sight, and made finding my employer more difficult than expected.

I crossed the floor, inspiring leering eyes from these patrons at the bar including the bartender. Clearly, a Nobleman was not a common sight even in this establishment, never mind an Air Genasi. I tossed my hair in a civil manner, and found my way to the backroom. Here, I came face to face with several tables discussing the financial transactions and matters of security that my tales of adventuring often spoke of in great length. My cloak trailed behind with a soft lift as I found a table being occupied by a young woman roughly my age. She was adorned in finery of black fabric, with hair as stunningly white as my skin and dark purple scales as deep as the night sky in winter. She was certainly of the adventuring sort, and seemed to be a Yuan-Ti bearing the side of Human appearances, reading from a tome to pass the time before our employer arrives. I sat upon a stool and introduced myself.

“Salutations. I don’t suppose you’re working the Phandalin delivery.” “Aye, I am working that job.” Her accent was reminiscent of mine, perhaps a Northerner as well “Excellent! I’m in the same boat. Don’t suppose you’ve seen the fellow who’s paying us.” “Well now, I don’t believe I have.” “Ah, well. Perhaps I can bend your ear a tad. Pass the time while others arrive? Round of Dragonchess?” “I’m quite predisposed, thank you.” “By any chance, are you a Yuan-Ti? I’ve never seen one in my travels.” Her expression flared. “I am a Spellscale. Draconic in nature. You would be wise to never make this mistake again.”

I resigned myself to silence with a “very well” and a nod, and rummaged through my pack for a book of my own. In time, we were joined by several others for the job. In total, these were my fellow travelers.

AURORA, the Spellscale Bard, who was a member of the Feather’s Weave, a legendary guild of artisans and adventurers known for the crafting of the garbs of warriors sung throughout time (note: be ready to make friends with Aurora, as it is clear she will be most helpful in designing new apparel for my tour).

URNIG, an Aasimar Sorcerer, who despite being born of divine nature looked like a feral beast in his ragged appearance. He was the most giant of us all, carving a shadow that dwarfed my physical form.

STARR, a mountain of a Human whose fighting prowess need only be shown in his weapon of choice, a sword more block of metal than blade.

NOAH, a young Human who had an affinity for husbandry but sought out fame in his age as a Fighter.

As the hour was at hand, a burly Dwarf fellow came about our table and introduced himself as the employ. Doing a headcount, he noticed one of our group was absent, but set on to explanation, stating they were given enough time.

He introduced his name as Gundren Rockseeker, a fellow who knew the road to Phandalin well, but requested escort following a series of reports that the path was becoming dangerous. He and another gentleman named Sildar Hallwinter would ride ahead to give scouting, and we would protect the goods wagon from attackers. We would set out in the morning for Phandalin, and upon arrival, we would be paid for our services. I retired to my room gratefully paid by our generous benefactors, and awaited the dawn.

The morn brought a wagon awaiting on the outskirts of Neverwinter, and Gundren and Sildar had already departed. I awoke to a sense of preparation, as my attire for combat had been laid out on a chair the night prior. I adorned my leather armor in exchange for my fineries in front of a mirror, placed the rapier I had purchased prior to my tour at my side, secured the two hand axes (gifts my father presented me from a far-off land, adorned with feathering and inlays), and held aloft the bow and quiver which had given me much in the way of fortune. Finally, I grabbed a small buckler embellished with the light blue of the Sange coat-of-arms. I had trusted it to protect me in a situation of peril, but had never really found use for aside from creating the appearance of legitimacy in combat. Altogether, I looked like I was being sent into battle for the first time in years.

We set off at the quick, Noah on the reins. Urnig guarded the inventory, Starr held back some length to cover the rear, and Aurora was scouting out the trail by eyesight. In addition, a sixth man joined us by the name of Snafu, who cowled himself in mystery with a robe and hood. For my part, I was tasked with a similar role as Aurora, but I found the light sun and fresh air did wonders to lull me into comfort. As though I were in the chambers of my home’s parlor, winter drifting outside and fire lit, the light fumes of the wood smoke dispersed high into the ceiling, so as to not choke our pores, with the dulcet tones of a bardsong in the corner. I sidled next to Noah in front and drifted off to sleep, in hopes the ride would be easy.

I awoke when the wagon came to a halt in the road. Aurora and Noah noted a blockage ahead, and I rose to perhaps help in levitating this obstruction. Only then did it become clear this had been no accident. Two horses lay dead in the road, and by confirmation, we deduced these were the colts belonging to Gundren and Sildar. From the sides, I heard noises. An ambush! I drew my bow and fired into the shrubs. A miss, as the arrow lodged into the ground. I cried out, “That was a warning shot!”, so as to save face in front of my fellow men.

Our attackers showed themselves with my cry. Goblin fighters from all about, left to right and center. Our companions drew their weaponry. Aurora grabbed a harp embellished in the front with a fish motif, Noah his sword, Urnig a well of mana, and Snafu... proceeded to walk with purpose. I leapt deftly to the air, summoning another arrow to my bow. As one of the goblins ran towards me, I calmed myself and let loose without hesitation, stringing the foul beast. The goblin was hardy in stature and continued to track towards Aurora. The field soon descended in a chaotic state, as Urnig wielded a lure of lightning, hooking and pulling a goblin to their demise. Noah began to fear for the safety of the wagon and steered the now spooked horses to the side. As I reared my head, I could see a goblin strike Aurora, who had drawn her rapier in turn. The thought ran through my mind. I cannot allow her to perish. Think of the garments! I dashed to her aid, and with a pirouette stabbed upwards into the goblin, dead on the ground.

As I helped Aurora to her feet, another goblin, seemingly entranced to our cart, gently walked towards the supplies (I later found out this goblin was charmed by Snafu). Without this knowledge, I could not allow the cargo to be compromised, and gutted the goblin. I paused and looked on in shock as Urnig began more evisceration, summoning the might of a thunderstorm to violently burn what was left of the goblins. Starr, having joined the battle, began to slam his sword into goblins with instant carnage. What have I gotten myself into? Surely, I enjoyed the spirit of battle as a Fighter, but these brutes had shown a form of combat that was neither graceful nor dignified.

As the goblins lay deceased, I took a tally of the scene. As my companions scoured the corpses like vultures, I only felt inclined to join. As I went towards the corpse of a young goblin, a sense of bile arose. The sanguine humor caught my nose, and I recoiled. Realizing this was barbaric, I dusted my hands and only congratulated my party before escaping to safety.

It became clear enough we had to find and retrieve Gundren and Sildar with the utmost haste. If not for their safety, then our payment. We hid the wagon and ventured forth, as the sun hung high in the air.

Amidst the tree cover, I took lead searching for the goblin nest. I inspected the surrounding area. Suddenly, I caught a whiff of a disturbance in the nearby area. Under my training, I had remember that malleable dirt, freshly dug, had an aroma not unlike a raw mushroom. Thinking back to the days when I would wander my manor’s many rooms, I distinctly recalled the raw mushroom from a storage cupboard, and realized there was a hole which had been hastily dug into the face of a cliff. As my companions tore open the hole, I began to feel a sense of dread. This was further than I had ever journeyed into the heart of battle, and whatever lay beyond would likely be my most vigorous challenge yet.

#dnd #air genasi #fighter #chapter 1 #dnd log #story log #lost mine of phandelver

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homedevises · 6 years ago

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Mechanically, Far Cry New Dawn is the aforementioned adventurous we’ve been arena aback 2012’s Far Cry 3. Underneath the gloss, it is added complicated but one bulletin rings clear: Alike in Paradise, there will consistently be snakes. And you, Amateur One, will get to annihilate them in the best amazing agency imaginable.

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Set 17 years afterwards nuclear accident burst the world, Far Cry New Dawn brings players aback to the fabulous Hope County, a massive amplitude of Montana that was additionally the area for Far Cry 5. That adventurous had wistfully aureate fields and sun-drenched backwoods canopies. New Dawn’s Hope County is a delicate wonderland. It’s mutations, which accommodate bark-skinned bison and a Borealis’d sky, anamnesis works like 2018 science fiction abhorrence blur Annihilation. Yet Hope County is far from a adverse hellscape; it is a 18-carat Eden amidst nuclear waste.

Communities there thrived until the accession of the Highwaymen, Mad Max-esque raiders — led by accompanying sisters Mickey and Lou — who barge on whatever idyllism that remains. That’s area the amateur comes in. Taking ascendancy of the aegis arch of a para-military adjudicator accumulation advance by the absorbing Thomas Rush, your job is to balk the Highwaymen and assure one of the aftermost absolute chargeless settlements, Prosperity.

Taken on its own, Far Cry New Dawn is as aboveboard a post-apocalyptic account as can be told. Indeed, it’s a abstraction as old (and fraught) as accepted history itself: Enemies are at the gates. The Highwaymen are the Visigoths advancing Rome. They are the assured sin of mankind, fabricated credible afresh afterwards the End Times, patrolling calmly placed outposts for the amateur to assault.

Because of this, it is appetizing to say that New Dawn engages with post-apocalyptic iconography alone as a agency to facilitate added stabby, shooty video adventurous fun times. That’s absolutely accurate on some level, but as things advance it becomes bright that New Dawn provokes a chat about its genre, its medium, and battle itself. These aggressive goals are tackled with the series’ appropriate clumsiness, endlessly aloof shy of satisfactory abstracts in animosity of an ardent attempt.

New Dawn’s automated framework is the aforementioned as it has been aback Far Cry 3. This is an open-world first-person ballista with capital quests, some ancillary quests and a lot of bases to raid. While there is a cord of capital adventure quests to complete, New Dawn focuses on bottomward the amateur into a majestic amplitude and dotting it with an array of challenges to complete, stashes to find, and characters to recruit as companions. This amplitude is best explored during the aboriginal game, aback enemies and creatures can calmly actuate of the player, and afore they acquire accumulated abundant aerial affection weapons and abilities to blab combat.

The aboriginal two thirds of New Dawn represent the series’ blueprint at its best effective. Wandering the map is a admixture of scavenging and action engagements that feel abstruse and baleful in according measure. It’s never absolutely as freewheeling as its abutting competitor, Fallout, but there is a bright accent to the exploration. You will blooper through the countryside and contrivance Highwaymen patrols until you blunder aloft the charcoal of a church.

There, you adeptness apprehend a agenda about a hidden backing in a tomb below the arena and break a addle to locate the key. Application what you’ve scavenged there, you adeptness ability a new burglarize that allows you to alone topple a Highwaymen camp, accepting a accumulation of booze to advancement your own settlement. This action feels natural, added like an absolute progression of contest instead of alone active off analysis marks on your map.

When burst down, all that’s accident actuality is two altered activities arena off anniversary other. The aboriginal is a acknowledgment of Far Cry 5’s ��prepper stashes”, reimagined as post-apocalyptic scavenging excursions. These appropriate scenarios are dotted abundantly throughout Hope County, some alms action challenges and platforming courses, others aptitude appear addle solving. On one expedition, you adeptness accretion yourself convincing a lock in a heavily booby-trapped alembic by tinkering with a accumulating of animatronic fish.

In another, you will be affected to actuate of a mutated coquette axial a battered association centre and escape from advancing bonfire afterwards your attempts to bake the creature’s backup bake the absolute building. These sequences, nestled off the baffled aisle but never so abstruse that a non-player actualization can’t mark their area calmly on your map, breathe action into the apple and admirably agreement with cast tropes of debris scavengers and old apple ruins.

They abide one of the series’ best additions, and augment admirably into Far Cry’s cast of accessible apple combat. As you analyze more, you can adeptness added weapons application the accumulating of aqueduct tape, components, screws, and added abstracts you accretion from these stashes.

As you aggregate resources, you will boring alpha arrest the map’s assorted outposts and refineries. The ambition is simple and charcoal banausic afterwards all these years: Annihilate anybody and booty what they had. Whereas amateur like Far Cry 4 and 5 angry this action into ambiguous political or religious struggles, New Dawn’s account is abundant added immediate. Anniversary adversary abject contains a accumulation of ethanol, a adeptness that is spent alone in advance the assorted actualization of your home settlement.

If you appetite to adeptness college bank weapons, advancement your garden, or accredit fast biking you will charge to advancement your home, and that agency accumulating ethanol. Apprehend cynically, this is a abundant added egoistic action for arrest outposts than added Far Cry games. But divorcing these activities from the series’ aside and mismanaged brainy struggles and framing them alone in agreement of adeptness accretion is a appreciably acceptable fit for the post-apocalyptic genre. It makes faculty for New Dawn’s axial automated attempt to centermost aloft who absolutely gets to advance in Paradise.

All of this has happened before, and all of this will appear again.

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End Of The Apple As We Know It

Colourful beheld aesthetic, focused adventure is a acceptable footfall up from Far Cry 5, abundance hunts are great.

I’ve been arena the aforementioned adventurous aback 2012.

Ubisoft Montreal

PS4 (Played), Xbox One, PC

Finished on absence adversity in almost 16 hours.

And yet, actuality is area New Dawn starts to run into a problem. In the act of acquisition adversary fortifications the series’ vapid boredom makes itself known. First, comes the adeptness to epitomize these challenges for added rewards. These “escalations” acquiesce players to abalienate the abject aback to the Highwaymen.

This increases the raw adversity of the appointment — New Dawn adds an ascendance four tiers of adversity for activities and enemies starting with blah accepted encounters and catastrophe with aureate “legendary” encounters — and allows players to abide the violence. For all of their new difficulty, added guards, and added alarms, these challenges never amplify so far that you can’t bright them with some cheating and a appropriate affection bow and arrow. That weapon and its connected bulge aural the alternation belies one of Far Cry New Dawn’s best absolute motifs: Cycles and afresh conflict.

The bow was aboriginal alien in Far Cry 3, forth with this base-clearing activity. In that time, it has remained one of the best able accoutrement above games. It is about bashful and can annihilate best enemies with a audible shot. This is accurate all the way from avant-garde settings like Far Cry 4 and 5 to the aged times of Far Cry Primal.

It is accurate actuality as well, afterwards the end of the world. And that accuracy reveals the series’ basal thesis, the aphotic affection that led Far Cry 5 to end in blaze and ash: We are no bigger now than we were in our best abroad past.

The automated accuracy of Far Cry, bidding in amaranthine bases claimed and arrows accursed is that altruism will never be chargeless from violence. New Dawn has two responses to this contemptuous thesis. First, it wants you to adore the chaos. If you can’t stop it, you adeptness as able-bodied acquire some goddamn fun. Secondly, it wants to acquire why all of this has happened afore and why all of it will appear again.

That aboriginal actuation is best bidding in New Dawn’s active aesthetics. Far from the aphotic and bedimmed post-apocalyptic worlds appropriate to the genre, New Dawn’s Hope County is a technicolor wonderland abundant with shades and hues that are both aberrant and astounding. Rivers breeze with baptize the aforementioned colour as robin’s eggs, deer antlers affection camp shades of pink, the sky shimmers with neon light, and bears’ hearts afterglow chicken aural their chests.

New Dawn retains some of the ambiguous Biblical allusions of Far Cry 5 but weaponises them to greater potential. Hope County’s accuracy is amazing and advised as such. This is an absurd sanctuary, a accurate Garden of Eden in both breeding and colour palette. This is fabricated all the added credible if players go on “expeditions” missions that booty them them alfresco Hope County and into the blow of the United States. These areas abridgement the aforementioned activity and accuracy of the capital map, but the consistent adverse alone serves to highlight Hope County’s splendor.

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That accuracy bleeds into the beheld ability of the Highwaymen and their design. Their armour and cartage are corrective and apparent with the brightest colours, and they advertise their attacks with accurate fireworks and coloured smoke. They acquire an absolute flair, as both a beheld addendum of Hope County’s mutated majesty and a hip-hip beat of the new world. Unlike Far Cry 5’s Eden’s Gate cult, which captivated assimilate pretensions of credo that the adventurous could never abundantly define, the Highwaymen are added understandable: they are actuality to fight, fuck, and acquire fun.

The aftereffect is both a post-apocalypse that feels audible and a Far Cry ambience that feels abundant added allegorical. Whereas Far Cry 2 and 4 capital to blow on socio-political struggles in their agnate African and Himalayan facsimiles and Far Cry 5 bumbled about in a abashed American pastoralism, New Dawn leverages its blatant aesthetics into a apple that is anxious with broader concepts. It is cogent that the series’ best active ambience and accurately honest villains appear afterwards the pretensions of affable association acquire absolutely been austere off the face of the earth.

Far Cry 5’s better blemish was attempting to abode to avant-garde day issues afterwards mustering the courage to absolutely point fingers. New Dawn opts for article beneath circuitous and is stronger for it. The agnate abandon allows it to be added visually candid and altogether articular than its antecedent in both architecture and aesthetics.

New Dawns’ villains, the accompanying sisters Mikey and Lou, feel beneath like absolute entities in the way that added series’ villains have. Far Cry 4’s Pagan Min, for all of his ambiguous foppishness, was a bright abettor of absolution and attitude with a authentic backstory and action for his egocentric impulses.

He was a baby man, cardinal over a baby country, lashing out adjoin a apple that had bootless to adulation him. Far Cry 2’s Jackal was an abettor of consistently war, gluttonous to fan the bonfire of battle so aerial that they adeptness bake abroad all facilitators of abandon including himself. Mickey and Lou are thankfully not as crass as Far Cry 3’s villain Vaas Montenegro but their motives are generally as black and ill-defined.

Because the Highwaymen are the emblematic snakes in Hope County’s Garden of Eden, the Twins are abolishment added than Id and Ego fabricated manifest. Aback they are on screen, their raw allure makes up for their abridgement of complication but their role in the anecdotal is abundantly functional.

As the Twins amplify their efforts adjoin the amateur and Prosperity, New Dawn finds itself affective forth with a abundant added assured clip than Far Cry 5. Gone are the connected wanderings and alternate monologues of ambiguous ideologues. Instead, the Twins apply a absolute and connected blackmail adjoin the amateur through the arduous ability of their will and desires. They appetite so acutely and feel so assertive in their own backbone that they never achromatize to accomplishments like some added alternation villains.

What they abridgement in complexity, they accomplish up for in arduous presence. The aftereffect is that New Dawn’s anecdotal maintains momentum, alike accounting for the moments it pauses and asks to amateur to booty some time advance their base.

One of New Dawn’s arch contemporary apropos is parenthood and children. It teems with absent fathers, disturbing mothers, and aberrant children. From Carmina Rye, your aboriginal AI accompaniment and babe of Far Cry 5’s Nick Rye, to the abstract accommodation to accord alternation comedic abatement Hurk Drubman Jr. a adolescent of his own, New Dawn is absolutely absorbed with the accord amid parents and their offspring, and it is actuality that we alpha to acquire the Twins more. They booty because they can, they annihilate because they appetite to, and their development — arrested aboriginal due to nuclear blaze — has embodied in one abiding atmosphere tantrum.

Far from blaming the Twins, New Dawn added advisedly blames their father, an concealed alone who responded to the challenges of the new apple with violence. In the moments area New Dawn starts to analyze generational violence, in the moments area it starts to ask how alike afterwards the end of all things, we still acquire villains like the Twins, New Dawn starts to become article added absorbing than expected.

New Dawn’s allure with ancestor abstracts agency extensive aback to abode the flaws and shortcomings of its own ancestor game. It is accordingly absurd to allocution about New Dawn afterwards talking about Far Cry 5 and its own villain, the David Koresh knock-off Joseph Seed.

As a result, New Dawn is not alone a aftereffect aftereffect but a argument which actively complicates a player’s absolute accord with Far Cry 5 and Seed himself. In Far Cry 5, Seed fabricated ambiguous proclamations about politicians and the horrors of moderns account as portents of an end that absolutely did come.

What fabricated Seed falter as a acute villain was the game’s disability to accomplish his prophecies adventurous abundant to name the armament of abuse sending the apple appear annihilation. Seed’s eschatology was couched in Christian allegory but lacked a coherency above the apparent trappings. He resurfaces in New Dawn as a new blazon of “Father” both in the ambience of his adoration and in a added accurate sense. And while New Dawn over-assumes how absorbed players will be in the fate of Joseph Seed, its accommodation to affix him into its broader thematics turns Seed into an honest to God actualization this time around.

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In the years afterward the Collapse, Seed became the baton of a survivalist accumulation alleged ‘New Eden’, a antecedents of Luddites broken from the blow of Hope County. In an allusion to Far Cry Primal that emphasises New Dawn’s acceptance that there is abolishment new beneath the sun, New Eden functions added like one of that game’s abounding pre-history tribes than the band begin in Far Cry 5.

As Joseph is already afresh advance into administration and as he reckons with the actuality that he was appropriate in the affliction accessible way, he additionally becomes a accurate ancestor to a adolescent boy called Ethan. This amount accord complements the accord amid the Twins and their father. In this case, Seed’s connected asceticism and acceptance armament him to appear into battle with Ethan. It is a abundant added animal story, focused on a abundant added animal and apparitional man that the cardboard attenuate villain from Far Cry 5.

Seed’s attendance additionally brings a agnate about-face into magical-realism that begins to complicate player’s relationships to the adventurous apple and Far Cry 5 itself. This comes best conspicuously during the game’s balance where, atrocious for allies adjoin the Highwaymen, an accord is artificial with New Eden that ends with Joseph giving the amateur a allotment of bake-apple from a banned tree. It’s eye-rollingly on the adenoids as beheld metaphor, but is additionally how New Dawn justifies an absolute new bank of actualization allowances and abilities.

In a move that bent me off guard, New Dawn starts to added abundantly absorb notions of adoration into the bolt of its anecdotal than Far Cry 5 did. It does this while advancement levels of ambiguity that mostly feels becoming rather than cowardly. Did you absolutely eat bake-apple adored by God or can your new abilities be explained abroad as mutations? Were Far Cry 5’s Sheriff Whitehorse and his assembly absent avatars of the Four Horsemen?

New Dawn never goes so far as to acknowledgment these questions, but it is in the assuming of these things and their agnate ambiguity that it begins to accessible up and analyze affairs of acceptance and apocalypse with added application than its ancestor text.

It’s not absolute — this is still a Far Cry game, afterwards all — but New Dawn’s alertness to comedy with these account is absolutely welcome.

The end aftereffect is a adventurous that I enjoyed but which additionally balked me greatly. On some levels it is crass and annoying. Far too abounding of its citizens are decumbent to brainless dick jokes and its accent can alter berserk from arena to scene. Its raw gameplay is both acceptable but additionally so appreciably confused abroad from the complexities of alternation analytical angel Far Cry 2 that added veneers of actualization — accident numbers, adversary rarities, and the abstract accommodation to acquiesce players to acquirement crafting abstracts — accomplish it bright that the alternation will never accost its messier, added absorbing ideas.

But if I dig deeper, abrading off the accomplished adorn of AAA affection and safety, there are pieces of a absolutely absorbing game. Whether that is the active art administration or a alertness to abode its capacity with a abundant amount of acquaintance than antecedent titles, New Dawn has instances area aggregate comes together.

Near the average of my playthrough, I rescued the foul-mouth antic Hurk from the Highwaymen’s clutches. I abhorrence Hurk. I abhorrence his fucking guts. He started a antic actualization in Far Cry 3’s Monkey Business DLC backpack and has been featured in all amateur since, including a abstract attendance as ‘Hurky’ in Far Cry Primal. Abolishment he says is funny, every moment with him makes me appetite to asphyxiate on a pretzel. Actuality he was again, a admonition that the Far Cry that accountable me most—the aphotic and advised Far Cry 2 — could never return.

Like the old world, it was gone. I could try to adhere to it, to adhere to a apple that was, or I could acquire that this was the new cachet quo. That alike as New Dawn sometimes afraid me, it would additionally acquire Hurk and aggregate he represented.

“You attending accursed familiar,” Hurk said to me the aboriginal time I saw him afresh in New Dawn. “As if we’ve done this afore in some amaranthine addictive bend from which neither of us will anytime escape.” I see you too, New Dawn.

I anticipation about cutting him in his brainless face. I anticipation about how his abrupt actualization was abrasive all the assignment New Dawn was accomplishing with its narrative. I anticipation about how abundant I admired this adventurous was like Far Cry 2. I anticipation about how connected I’d been bent up in Far Cry’s alternate abandon and formulaic gameplay. Then, I accomplished the chat and added Hurk to my agenda of accompaniment characters.

There are consistently snakes in the garden. There will consistently be a new map of bases to conquer. There will consistently be addition Hurk.

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jtranvisionary · 6 years ago

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Growing Up Vietnamese Canadian | Backstory

May is Asian Heritage Month so I thought I would take the time to reflect on my journey of growing up as a Vietnamese Canadian.

“Where are you from?”

An all too familiar question that left a sour taste in my mouth to which I replied,

“I’m Canadian.”

This prompted further questions of,

“No, where are you really from? Where are your parents from? What is your cultural background?”

For a long time, I didn’t understand what people meant when they asked where I’m really from. I was born and raised in Canada so I truly believed that I was just that. Canadian. To these questions I replied with a smile,

“I’m Vietnamese” or “My parents are from Vietnam.”

This was often met with a

“Oh, Vietnam! My co-worker is Vietnamese” or “I love fo!”

Growing up, I was met with similar inquiries of,

“Let me guess. Are you Chinese? Are you Korean?”

As children, most were not exposed to many other Asian cultures outside of China, Japan, or Korea and so identifying myself as being Vietnamese to another child left them just as clueless as before they asked me about my origins. So why bother saying I’m Vietnamese?

Language is the center of any culture and once the language starts to fade, so does the culture. My parents immigrated to Canada straight from Vietnam, either possessing a thick accent or the inability to speak English at all. This led to Vietnamese being my first language which I spoke in with my parents and brother. I slowly learned English from watching cartoons on TV, interacting with my peers in kindergarten, and from my older cousins who used to babysit. I didn’t see an issue being bilingual and speaking to my family in Vietnamese until one day, it became an issue. Within my neighbourhood, my brother and I were the only Asian children. However as children, we never saw this as a problem. When I was 6 and my brother was 4, we were playing with all the other children and my brother said,

“Chị, I don’t understand this game.”

As I opened my mouth to answer, my neighbour interjected,

“Who is ‘chị ’?”

My brother points to me,

“Jennifer is chị, it’s Vietnamese for older sister.”

“You should just call her Jennifer because that’s her name. We all speak English so you should too.”

This seemingly innocent moment became a pivotal point in which the effects rippled through the rest of my family’s life. Just like every other child, we just wanted to fit in and being Vietnamese deterred this. From then on, my brother stopped calling me chị and his use of Vietnamese declined dramatically. It was this moment in which we were ashamed of our heritage. Ashamed and torn. That’s often how I felt as my Western and Eastern identifies battled against each other. A common theme that haunted my childhood and adolescence.

My parents witnessed their children had slowly stopped speaking their mother language and instead, assimilated into the Western culture. This is probably why they forced my brother and I into Saturday Vietnamese school when I turned 8. When the school bell rang on Fridays at 3pm, all the other kids rejoiced that the weekend had arrived. I groaned at the thought of having to spend my Saturday afternoon learning Vietnamese instead of sleeping in or watching cartoons like all the other kids. Just another reason why I didn’t fit in, just another reason why I didn’t want to identify with being Vietnamese. The real reason why I dreaded Saturday school was because although I excelled in school, I struggled in Vietnamese school. I struggled with what once was my first language, but now felt foreign on my tongue. Going to Vietnamese school made me more ashamed of calling myself Vietnamese because I traded my fluency in Vietnamese for my fluency in English. I felt ashamed to call myself Vietnamese because how can I identify with a culture in which I could not speak?

Remember, when a language fades so does the culture.

Saturday school improved my Vietnamese, but I hated every moment of it. I felt isolated from my peers that were fluent and excelled in Saturday school and I felt isolated from my peers who rebelled and only spoke English. I always felt somewhere in the middle, identifying both as Vietnamese and Canadian. As I went from childhood into adolescence, I spoke Viet-lish, a combination of Vietnamese and English, a true representation of my struggle growing up a Vietnamese Canadian.

The conflict between the two halves of my identity continued when it came to another important element of culture: food. To any child, their mother’s cooking is the best in the world. It’s because this is what we grew up eating, this is what we identified as comfort, as our home. I truly did love Vietnamese food until grade one. It was lunchtime and all the other children started to unwrap their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, their Lunchables, or pizza. Meanwhile for lunch, I excitedly opened my lunch bag to eat the bánh xèo my mother had made the night before. Then I opened the nước mắm dipping sauce. This was when I heard a loud,

“What is that smell?”

This outcry was echoed throughout the classroom before one boy pointed at me, exclaiming,

“Jennifer brought some dead fish for lunch!”

A couple of classmates agreed and some even laughed while I ate my favourite dish in silence. In shame. I went home and asked my mom to pack me sandwiches, lunchables, and even asked for money to buy school lunches. Again, my parents watch me toss aside my rich heritage filled with aromatic ingredients that attract the nose, harmony of textures, freshness of the food, spices detected by the tongue, sounds from crisp and crunchy food, and food arrangements that entice the eyes. In exchange, I got the lunchables, the sandwiches, and the school lunch pizzas. And I was content in living that life at school and eating Vietnamese food at home. My shame prevented me from enjoying and embracing my cultural food outside of my home for fear of being judged and ridiculed. This shame was re-ignited in high school when I brought some food in a huyết container. My best friend, who was Chinese, exclaimed,

“Ew. Pig’s blood? Gross.”

“Oh it’s just the container, I don’t eat that stuff. Totally gross,”

I said, lying through my teeth, knowing that this was my favourite part of my favourite Vietnamese dish, bún riêu. Even with my best friend, I had to censor that I was Vietnamese. Even with another Asian, I felt ashamed that I was Vietnamese.

Community? I didn’t know the meaning of this word. I didn’t have any close Vietnamese friends growing up. My parents were not involved in the community as they were always working to pay the bills. I didn’t have anyone who could support me while I tried to navigate being a Vietnamese born Canadian child. Besides my brother, I never felt like anyone else went through the same struggles and confusion I did. I didn’t have anyone to talk to because my brother was three years younger and there was the language barrier with my parents.

Growing up Vietnamese Canadian often meant I was categorized as Asian. Either you were Chinese or the other Asian countries were lumped together into others. In that way, masking my cultural background was easy due to the general label that other kids used to give. Instead of embracing being Vietnamese, I turned to other cultures to embrace. I was enamoured by Japanese culture from anime, the cute sounding language, the delicious food, and the general acceptance and equal obsession from my peers. Immersing myself into Japanese culture that all my other friends loved made me feel like I fit in, and so, I rarely disclosed my background unless explicitly asked.

Once a year at my middle school, the cafeteria was turned into an international bazaar showcasing booths representing different culture’s food, clothing, and decorations. As mentioned, there was a large booth dedicated to China and Taiwan, but Japan, Korea, and Vietnam were lumped into one booth. I could have made Vietnamese food and worn a traditional Vietnamese dress, áo dài. Instead, I made sushi and wore a kimono.

Then as I entered high school, my cultural interest shifted to Korean culture once Korean pop music (kpop) entered my life. I loved Korean culture so much that after watching Korean dramas, I tried to learn Korean. I was more interested in learning another language than my native language. I didn’t see an issue with embracing other cultures given the multiculturalism of Canada. However, I didn’t realize then that this was just a cover up for my shame of being Vietnamese. I was listening to kpop and Korean ballads while rejecting heart wrenching Vietnamese cải lươngs. I was watching Korean dramas, music shows variety shows and begrudgingly watched Paris by Night and Asia. I was actively trying to learn how to speak and write Korean while I hated the thought of having to go to Vietnamese school.

Ashamed and torn. A constant motif in my youth motivated by wanting to fit in and give myself an identity. In Canada, I was considered an Asian, an immigrant. If I went back to Vietnam, the natives would consider me a Canadian, a foreigner. I never quite fitted in either world and this troubled me throughout my adolescence. I was always searching for an answer to the question I hated so much, “Where are you from?”

I found my answer when I entered university.

#vietcanadian

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carmelhartwick2-blog · 7 years ago

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viralhottopics · 8 years ago

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Rio de Janeiro: Insider Travel Guide

(CNN)Travel fantasies don’t always live up to the reality, but the “marvelous city,” as Rio de Janeiro’s citizens call their beloved hometown, can knock even the most jaded travelers off their seen-it-all perches.

Dress appropriately, it can get extremely hot in Rio.

Famed for girls from Ipanema and Carnaval, the best of Rio is all that but a lot more.

The party goes on year-round in the cultural heart of Brazil, from the samba renaissance in the Lapa District, where you can choose from an array of great clubs, music and restaurants, to Carnaval rehearsals at local samba schools that redefine the word “celebration.”

The best of Rio beaches of the Zona Sul are heavily patrolled and many other areas — especially those troubled by crime and drugs — have been cleaned up, but you do need to exercise caution.

Don’t flash iPhones and money, don’t take more cash with you than you can afford to lose and use taxis at night called by your hotel to take you to the doorstep of your destination.

Mostly Rio specializes in merrymakers who bring you into the fold. Whether it’s hanging out over caipirinhas at a neighborhood bar, hiking in the rainforest or dancing in a circle of samba at an old dancehall, Rio is a realm of the senses, some of which you may find have been AWOL for a while.

Hotels

Luxury

Copacabana Palace

Like a glistening casino in Monte Carlo, the massive white edifice of the Copacabana Palace looms above the beach strip of Avenida Atlantica.

The most storied hotel in Rio, the Copacabana opened its doors in 1923 as a roost for dignitaries and diplomats.

The 1933 film “Flying Down to Rio,” set at the Palace but filmed in Hollywood, made it a hangout for celebs.

Orson Welles trashed his room here following a fight with Dolores del Rio, as did Ava Gardner after Sinatra dumped her.

The furniture doesn’t fly like it used to, but this best of Rio hotel still brings in the royals and their modern counterparts — rock stars.

It’ll set you back a bit for a stay in one of the 245 rooms, but you won’t complain about the impeccable staff or features such as “Juliet balconies” (in some rooms), spacious rooms and classic furniture. More recently constructed rooms with city views are located in the Tower Wing building.

Porto Bay Rio Internacional Hotel

The Porto Bay Rio gives you a resort-style experience in the heart of beachfront row Avenida Atlantica.

The modern, upscale facility pulls out all the stops, from luxurious rooms to fine dining and views up and down the world’s most famous beach.

The rooftop Bossa Lounge lets you knock back caipirinhas to the sound of bossa nova as you gaze from white sands to jungled slopes and the statue of Christ the Redeemer atop Corcovado. It’s a good place to slap yourself to see if you’re dreaming.

It would be hard to find a more panoramic view of Copacabana, Sugarloaf and Copacabana Bay than from the 20th-floor pool unless you’re operating a drone.

The rates aren’t cheap but good value for luxury with the declining value of the Brazilian real.

Mid-range

Mar Ipanema

This stylish boutique hotel has a primo locale, just five minutes from Ipanema Beach and a few blocks from the Rodrigo Freitas Lagoon.

The hippest beach hangouts are minutes away, as are a host of the city’s most happening boutiques, restaurants and bars in one of the safest neighborhoods in Rio.

The upscale Leblon district is a five-minute walk.

Mar Ipanema rooms feature tasteful dcor accented by Rio motifs that feel custom-crafted.

Wi-Fi is available in all rooms.

The one downside: you have to use the restaurant next door for dining. Room rates are below most in the neighborhood.

Budget

Rio Panoramic Hotel

The coastal views are not all in Copacabana. The other side of Sugarloaf and its bay filled with sailboats are also stunning.

Perched on a hill overlooking Botafogo Bay in the artistic and quaint Santa Teresa neighborhood, the Panoramic gives you a view of the city below and a vista of islands and Sugarloaf lining the bay.

The renovated Art Deco villa earns great reviews among Rio lodgings, averaging five stars on TripAdvisor.

This B&B was originally the home of a doctor, and it has been lovingly restored to bring the personal touch to its six well-appointed and air-conditioned rooms.

There’s a pool, breakfast in the garden and staff on site to offer tips on the attractions and shopping nearby.

Hotel Novo Mundo

Built in 1950, this three-star hotel has been a favorite of Brazilians over the years for its prices, views and proximity to Santos Dumont airport, the terminal for domestic flights.

Soccer great Pele used to stay here when he had a game in Rio.

The hotel is located at Flamengo Beach, a coastal stretch as scenic as the Zona Sul, but often overlooked by travelers.

Flamengo Park, a long stretch of green that parallels the coast, is across the street. Outside are great views of Sugarloaf and Guanabara Bay. The metro is a block away.

A stay on this side of Rio puts you closer to the action downtown, just a short walk away, such as the Lapa District and museums.

Golden Tulip Continental

It’s a high-volume beach hotel two short blocks from Leme, the least-known beach of the Zona Sul.

But the view from its rooftop pool rivals anything the five-stars have, and its complimentary breakfasts are well-stocked.

Rooms are distinctly modest, but they’re good enough for the many airline flight crews who stay here.

Located in a quiet, residential area, the surroundings are a welcome relief from the madding crowd of Copacabana.

Whatever you need is nearby — markets, bakeries, travel agencies, bars. Copacabana is a 10-minute walk.

Dining

Academia da Cachaca

Sprawling over a large sidewalk in the upscale Leblon district of the Zona Sul, the Academia da Cachaca is a best-of-Rio hot spot for conversation, creative caipirinhas (pineapple, passion fruit, lime, bittersweet orange and fruit of the season) and other concoctions, such as the Academic Grit (orange, ginger, rum).

The food is excellent and ranges from feijoada (the beans and rice mix that is a staple of the national diet) to escondidinho (shredded jerked beef, trout or chicken, shrimp, mashed cassava, cream cheese au gratin).

The atmosphere is laid back and the tables are close together, so if you don’t bring friends, you’ll make some.

This is also one of the best places in Rio for caipirinhas and indulging the sidewalk joie de vivre of Cariocas.

The high-octane alcohol at the center of the caipirinha, cachaca, is a sacred spirit here, and there are hundreds of bottles of the sugarcane firewater displayed on the shelves.

Nova Capela

With its ornate, tiled walls, array of framed pictures and close quarters, Nova Capela feels very Portuguese, but it’s been a Rio fixture since it opened in 1903.

Home to Bohemians and artists through the years and now popular with Lapa denizens, Nova Capela is one of the best restaurants in Rio.

There’s an air of craftsmanship here, with custom dishes (boar, goat) and attention to detail that extends to surprisingly good service, not a Rio signature.

The place is stocked with white-jacketed waiters.

The lamb with broccoli is a specialty here and melts in your mouth. The savory fare comes with the intimate vibe of a living room (a loud one).

Brigite’s

Brigite’s is one of the latest entries on Rio’s restaurant row, Rua Dias Ferreira, in the upscale Leblon district of the Zona Sul.

The eatery, owned by the impresarios of two other hotspots on Dias Ferreira, Sushi Leblon and Zuka, has quickly made a name for itself as one of the trendiest dinner and cocktail destinations on a very competitive street for foodies.

The menu focuses on Italian fare, specializing in elegant presentation and savory creations, such as its “Gamberone em Crosta,” which features prawns inside a lemon crust.

But the offerings span a wide range, from steak tartare to spaghetti and seafood dishes to vegetarian fare, if requested.

Fans rave as much about the cocktails as the food, from strawberry caipirinhas to mango mules.

Locals know to eat here on week nights, because the weekends are packed. Reservations are recommended.

Zaza Bistro Tropical

Owners Zaza Piereck and Preta Moyses turned their imaginations loose on a two-story colonial home in Ipanema in 1999, painting it ultramarine blue and stuffing it with bric-a-brac and figurines from around the world.

The upstairs dining area feels like you tripped down the rabbit hole and wound up in Fez, with Moroccan-style cushions for chairs.

There’s nothing predictable about the food, either. The fare leans toward healthy and organic and is displayed with a Japanese-style flair for presentation.

Check out the grilled sea bass with sweet and sour caramelized bananas or, for dessert, the petit gateau cake with milk caramel.

Culinary creativity has made Zaza a very popular place, so you’ll need to make reservations — online only.

Nightlife

Rio Scenarium

An old house full of antiques might not sound like the coolest ambience for a happening night spot, but Rio Scenarium pulls it off.

The decor, no doubt, has something to do with that.

The best-of-Rio club is three floors’ worth of antique clocks, paintings and chandeliers, carved out of a 19th-century mansion in the Lapa district.

This Victorian set decorator’s fantasy bridges vintage with modern, since Rio Scenarium is also a top music venue, with a first-floor stage and dance area that hosts the gamut of Brazilian rhythms, from rock to choro to MPB (Msica Popular Brasileira) and samba.

To keep the caipirinhas from ending the night before it gets started, you can take some food breaks, say, penne sauted in pesto sauce or grilled fish filet.

Reservations recommended.

Casa da Matriz

One of the originators of the Rio club scene, Casa da Matriz, or Matrix House, has been a hip home for students and all-night scenesters since the 1990s.

Lodged in the Botafogo district, Casa da Matriz has an arty, casual vibe, with colorful decor and various unique spaces.

The music lineup ranges from deejays to live performances, from the Mad Professor to Joao Brasil, as well as indie karaoke sessions on Thursdays.

The club specializes in indie rock and pop, but the deejays spin an eclectic mix ranging from soul to samba.

Jobi Bar

The neighborhood bar, or botequim, is the Carioca version of the British pub, a place where the locals comes to imbibe and unburden.

At the best botequims, like Jobi in Leblon, a stranger never remains alone for long.

This classic Rio bar has been a hub of socializing, venting and gesticulating since 1956.

In the usual style, the bar spills from indoors to outdoors, with tables sprawled across the sidewalk.

Pedestrians don’t come first here — gabbing does.

Signature menu items are shrimp with cheese or shredded dried meat with farofa and onions.

There’s also live music. There’s no rush to get your point across at Jobi, which doesn’t close until 4:30 a.m.

Bip Bip

Like a lot of bars in Rio, there’s no attempt at fancy furnishings at this modest Copacabana hangout.

The walls are a haphazard mlange of photos and old newspaper clips, and the unadorned tables are jammed in like sardines.

It’s so informal that customers wander to the fridge themselves to get beer, and sometimes even tabulate the bill.

Under the cover of night, however, Bip Bip turns into a music destination, a must-stop for local and touring musicians, which has helped the bar build a following that belies its humble digs.

Guests down suds and eat croquettes to a variety of musical offerings, with artists jamming casually at tables.

Mondays and Tuesdays are choro nights reserved for the intricate guitars and cavaquinhos of traditional choro music. Wednesdays, there’s bossa nova.

Thursdays, Fridays and Sundays, it’s samba de roda, the circle of percussion and voice from which this art form sprang.

Lapa District

A former run-down collection of 19th-century mansions, the Lapa district, near the city center, has been rehabilitated over the last decade into the heart of a cultural renaissance in Rio.

Many of the crumbling edifices have been restored to their previous luster.

The sidewalks are packed and the bars pulsing with live music, mostly samba, which has fueled the revival.

Walk a few blocks here, and you’ll have more musical options than fingers.

At one bar, it’s an acoustic samba de roda group with drums and mandolin.

At another, there’s a gray-haired sambista belting out a classic samba cano (ballad) aided only by tambourine.

At still another, there’s a lively band with a horn section doing samba gafieira, the swinging brass version of the music, with the crowd dancing along.

You may find yourself “eating your ears,” as the locals call the ear-to-ear grin.

Shopping/Attractions

Shopping Rio

Like it has in much of the world, shopping in Rio has shifted to malls.

There are still great specialty shops: for musical instruments (Casa Oliveira), surfwear (Draco), hand-crafted jewelry (Maria Oiticica), books (Livraria da Travessa) and excellent bargains at the Target-like Lojas Americanas chain, particularly on CDs and DVDs.

But the best of Rio malls probably have what you need.

Shopping Leblon has more than 200 stores and easy access from the Zona Sul and tourist zones.

Botafogo Praia Shopping, in Botafogo, has a large selection of stores.

From a side door to the food court on the top floor, you can wander out to the rooftop for a stunning view of the marina and Sugarloaf.

For tourist fare, the outdoor flea market that springs up at night along Avenida Atlantica has the usual grab bag of T-shirts that fall apart with one wash, dresses and trinkets.

The Hippie Fair, held in Ipanema on weekends at Praca General Osorio, has better quality crafts.

Casa Oliveira Musicas, Rua da Carioca, 70, Rio Centro; +55 21 2508 8539

Draco, Rua Francisco Otaniano, Arpoador; +55 21 2227-7393

Livraria da Travessa, Leblon and Centro; Ipanema store: Rua Visconda de Piraja, 572, +55 21 3205-9002; Centro store: Rua Primeiro de Marco, 66, +55 212519-9000

Sugarloaf

Known as Sugarloaf for fairly obvious reasons, Pao de Acucar has posed for more photos than a truck full of supermodels, but there’s more to this monolith than mere prop.

It’s a show in its own right, something you find with a cable car trip to the top of the 396-meter peak.

You board two modern cable cars, the first to a peak called Urca, where caipirinhas and beer are available to steady wobbly knees.

The second gets you to the top of Sugarloaf for arguably the most spectacular city vista on the planet.

The scene is dazzling, with views from the beaches of the Zona Sul to the jagged Two Brothers peaks, to lush mountains.

Like any tourist mecca, it can get crowded at peak hours, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., so going early or just before sunset is best — and pick a day when the skies are clear.

If you arrive early you can spend the day at Praia Velmelho, an idyllic beach in a cove-like setting a short walk from the base of the cable car.

Cristo Redentor and Corcovado

Since taking his post atop Corcovado Mountain in 1930, Cristo Redentor has had to put up with monsoonal rains, marinating humidity and swarms of kids posing in his famous flying posture.

Yet Rio’s iconic Christ statue remains unfazed, a focal point for locals and travelers, 710 meters high on a ridgetop in the Tijuca National Forest.

No trip to Rio is complete without a journey to this high-flying landmark. Get alongside it, and it’s so massive (39 meters high, 635 tons) that it’s hard to get the whole thing into a photo.

Cristo Redentor does a little tour guiding on the side, the left arm pointing to the older north of Rio and the giant soccer stadium, Maracana, while the right arm waves to the Rodrigo Freitas Lagoa and the beaches of the Zona Sul.

Straight ahead from the platform is the city center, or Centro, the bay and Sugarloaf.

The key to an awesome day atop Corcovado is weather.

Wait for a clear day, or you’ll be staring at a layer of cumulus.

Beaches/Avenida Atlantica

The best show in Rio is free on the beaches of the Zona Sul. Park on the sand or walk the promenade of Avenida Atlantica, and you’ll have a front row seat to the scantily clad, play-hard philosophy of Cariocas.

Cyclists, joggers and skaters jam the bike and pedestrian lanes that hug the beach.

On the sand and in the water, it’s volleyball, soccer and surfing.

And everywhere, bodies — dark and tanned — do their best to ration bathing suit material.

Copacabana is the largest beach, opposite many of the hotels that line Avenida Atlantica, while Ipanema and Leblon are the hippest, home to artists and dedicated followers of fashion.

Outdoors/Adventure

Rio has enough outdoor options to rival Boulder, Colorado, in the United States.

You can rock climb on Sugarloaf or in Niteroi, hang glide from a ridgetop, hike in the forest surrounding the city or bike around one of the best outdoor refuges in town, the Rodrigo Freitas Lagoa.

A saltwater lagoon backed by steep hills and forest, Lagoa is the Central Park of Rio, a sanctuary from heat and urban chaos.

It’s a great place to walk, jog and play, maybe even a little baseball; there are a couple of diamonds here.

The Lagoa circuit leads to a great hike in Parque Catacumba.

The trail leads through the rainforest to some great views at the top.

Lagoa Adventures, a local outfitter, offers a canopy walkway high in the trees, a zip line, rock climbing wall and rappelling lessons.

Rio Adventures has an extensive range of pulse-pumpers, from a rope course and canopy adventure in the Atlantic Rain Forest to a hike up Pedro Bonita, to hang gliding.

Lagoa Adventures; Avenida Epitacio Pessoa, 3000, Parque de Catacumba; +55 21 4105 0079

Music

Drinking, partying and, yes, even the Rio beautiful-body parade all revolve around music.

Here’s where to experience the heart, soul and never-ending rhythm of the most musical city on the planet.

Carioca Da Gema

This top Rio venue was one of the trailblazers of the Lapa renaissance, and it’s always jammed on the weekends, when the top samba artists perform.

It’s the premiere club for two great art forms in Rio, samba and choro, an intricate, chamber-folk sound.

Many of Rio’s top samba artists perform here regularly. Be on the lookout for Ana Costa, Arlindo Cruz and the queen of Lapa, Teresa Cristina, for a pure fix of the marvelous city’s marvelous music.

The main floor is for dancing, and the few tables fill up quickly, so get here well before the 9 p.m. show time, especially on weekends.

Vinicius Bar

Bossa nova has legions of fans around the world, but in its home country, it’s all but vanished under a tidal wave of rap and sertanejo, a popular Tex-Mex sound.

The best place to catch the music made famous by Tom Jobim and Bebel Gilberto’s dad, Joao, is at Vinicius Bar, opened as an homage to the great lyricist and poet Vinicius de Moraes, who penned some of the most famous bossa songs, including “The Girl from Ipanema” and “Felicidade.”

Located a couple of minutes walk from the beach in Ipanema, the bar spotlights the jazz-tinged, languid sounds of a much slower Rio.

In keeping with the habits of de Moraes, a legendary bon vivant, the place is well-stocked for imbibing.

The breaded shrimp and Greek rice go nicely with a tangerosco, a tangerine-vodka combo.

Vinivius Bar, Rua Vinicius de Moraes, 39, Ipanema; +55 21 2287 1497

Estudantina Musical

This classic dance hall on the fringes of the Lapa district has been serving up happy feet for 83 years.

Ascend the wide wooden staircase and you’re no longer in the tourist bubble but inside the local culture with working-class folks who’ve put on their nighttime best to dance and party with giant bottles of Brahma.

They’re serious about their samba here. Bands play 90-minute sets.

The banner on the back wall says it best: “As long as there is dance, there will be hope.” Lots of that here.