#i can't say i'm not enjoying playing cyberpunk for hours lol

[engrm]

thinking about making a headcanon post about johnny and suffering from cyberpsychosis because it's not talked about enough. the mf is crazy.

[onewomancitadel]

A smattering of general updates:

I played Tears of the Kingdom. I didn't really enjoy it. I understand why it was popular though; I'm just not the demographic for these types of video games anymore. I didn't find it creatively rewarding and after a time I sat there thinking 'I would rather be writing right now', and since then I have learnt that writing is made easier by doing things which are not writing, because it makes me miss it. My dad also doesn't really like it but for some reason has played hundreds of hours in it. I don't know either - I think he will take anything called Zelda at this point.

I spectated the Doctor Who David Tennant Special and watched some clips of the new season. I'm not a fan of RTD, and not a DW fan anymore (not for a long time), but it was an interesting study in how studios try to attract old and new fans.

I read a lot of books, and that lie people tell you about all books being good for you is a lie, because a cyberpunk anthology of short stories made me so angry I got heartburn. I think people who say that are saying so because they wish that they could read a lot, in which case I say, yes I think reading is a gift and we should engage with it, however, sometimes I get so physically angry from something stupid/bad I've read because bad writers exist that it gives me actual pain. I am reading Howl's Moving Castle right now and it's very joyful; I am very surprised by the liberties the animated film took! However so far I do think both experiences are worthwhile, and if you enjoyed the Ghibli film, I very much recommend checking out the original book if you want to revisit that world again. The prose is straightforward but a little whimsical, and Howl is very, very funny. I have laughed aloud a few times.

Well, you know I rewatched Dark, and it's funny that during my exile I said 'this is like if RWBY got the ending it deserves' and then, er, I found out it's not renewed yet, and that's still up in the air, which for the entirety of RWBY I have only had one true moment of doubt of such a thing, and that was a while ago.

On that topic, yes, I still ship Jaune/Cinder, believe Cinder's redemption is likely, etc., although there are some more external concerns I would wager now than before. Before I thought it very possible to do without any commercial influence, and it depends what compromises they do or don't end up making or having already made. My analysis of Jaune's arc in V9 may not hold water as much (e.g. if you lean towards the view there were rewrites to cater to growing the audience, or perhaps it's two ideas married? I'm not sure) so I'm going to think about it more, and there always has been a tension in RWBY between what is being expected/baited and what is foreshadowed/said/actually happens.

I figured out how to write again and what was blocking me, so there's that. To talk about it a bit more, since my break I have worked every single day on writing. My key takeaways are that you need a delicate balance of delusion and self-doubt to get anything done - you don't know you can do something until you actually do it - and every excuse I invented for not writing was not the reason I was not writing. I can write with a migraine beginning to set in on an uncomfortable desk where I can't even rest my elbows properly on the end of a bed with no back support without aircon in the middle of summer before I've even taken my hair out from bedtime plaits in my pyjamas. I didn't even expect to get my fic done right before midnight, actually I was like 'well lol that's not going to happen, I'll write anyway though, fuck New Year's' because I wasn't doing anything, and then I finished and looked at the time and was like ooooh. I actually completed my goal! So I'm very proud of that. Anyway writing is breathing, to me, I go crazy if I don't do it, no matter what it is, and every single piece of nonsense advice of productivity was not helpful, ever, but I did figure it out. Also admittedly I got a fire burning under me again because I found out I was actually right about Raven, in which case I took that as a sign from heaven I was on the right track. One should hope.

I am excited about Dune Part Two, yes, although I am trying to avoid Villeneuve talking about the film because I know all the marketing is basically directed at people who aren't Dune fans, and I have to see it for myself to see what it's worth. I enjoyed the first film, and Villeneuve seems excited to direct Dune Messiah, in which case I am willing to do whatever possible to make that happen. Because that's about as complete a story you're going to get in a major motion picture adaptation and it would be So Fucking Good.

[nietr]

So I bought RDR2 with the intention of enjoying such a highly praised game and I got Witcher 3 in the backlog as well but ever since I've revisited cyberpunk 2.0 with the Phantom Liberty DLC... I'm 500 hours in across 2 playthroughs and haven't gotten into the third life path or whatever its called.

It's crazy what an entirely different experience this has been back when I tried playing with an i5 + GTX 970 getup. The game didn't even work on the stupid triple stacked TI setups I was seeing back in the day. The game just wasn't optimized and rushed out the door.. it kind of makes me sad because it makes me think what game would we have gotten if the release wasn't rushed and given another year or two in the oven with the intended 2 or 3 DLCs adding upon the lore? This isn't to say the game doesn't have problems. It still does. But the game now feels like something like a landmark magnum opus masterpiece in the current Era of gaming. I'm not sure what they did but visiting the world of cyberpunk 2077 really does feel literally breaktaking at times. Maybe it's just because I've been out of the game for almost 5 years and I'm just now seeing the potential of modern gaming. Maybe it's the universe and lore that just clicks with me. I don't know but all of this makes me wonder how the hell Rockstar is going to tackle GTA 6 without coming off with some serious grandpa humor that Rockstar tends to fall victim to. Hell even the humor of cyberpunk makes me roll my eyes but that humor is done in a rather meta way. Like an advertiser was trying to grab my attention and affinity in real life. Not like a video game designer was trying to be too cheeky. Idk I can't put it into words too well but it all just makes me wonder. Then again this game is like Deus Ex meets GTA and this all leads me to ponder if Rockstar has a serious new contender in the "open world sandbox" genre. Just how Rockstar will tackle GTA 6 has me extremely piqued. That's all. Lol