#it sure is a Shame that wow never got any expansions after legion but at least it went out on a high note it could have been Much worse

[damnation-if]

any time anybody asks me if i will do character playlists i always um and ah about it (i honestly don’t think my music knowledge is good enough, overall) but the deciding factor is always that. this particular piece of music can’t be found on spotify and it would Have to go on Twilit’s playlist so. even if i ever did any they wouldn’t be Complete 😔

[breadknight-likes-things]

Bread’s Game Journal 06/20/20: Through The Dark Portal, An Outland Retrospective, Part 4: Nagrand

Somehow, even after an entire planet exploded and most of the continent that once formed Dreanor fell to Demons, Nagrand still seems like a nice place to raise the kids.  Well that’s what Thrall thinks anyway, but for once this isn’t about my beautiful Orc Moses (fight me if you think he’s supposed to be Orc Jesus, his story is literally Moses lol)!  Far and away the most intact place left in Outland, Nagrand has it’s fair share of dangers to be sure, but it’s also a location that radiates the energy that Outland once had as Dreanor, and maybe the most unique zone in Outland because of it.

Nagrand is all rolling green plains and, post Dreanor exploding anyway, floating islands that defy any law of physics.  Wildlife still exists in abundance, nature has yet to be corrupted or mutated, and even the main settlements of the area feel like they exist out of time with the rest of what Outland has become.  Garadar especially, is a huge lore deal for Warcraft as a whole, and revealed quite a lot of things to us about the nature of orcs separate from the influence of Gul’Dan and The Burning Legion!

Remove all the floating islands and vast gashes in the landscape, and Nagrand in Outland and Nagrand back on Dreanor are actually remarkably similar.  Shame Highmaul had to go and fall into space though.

It was here in Nagrand we learned quite a lot about the Orc clans of Dreanor that we’d only been able to really infer up to this point.  We saw the Orcs original appearance, untouched by the Fel.  We learned the orcs frequently worshiped the elements via Oshu’gun (Which, in yet another sci-fi twist, is the wreckage of the original space ship that carried the Dreanei to Dreanor to begin with, they gotta learn to fly!), we even learned more about the family lines of a lot of different major characters!  Greatmother Geyah, Jorinn Deadeye, some dingus named “Garrosh”, these were all major revelations made in this unassuming seeming zone that would go on to shape World of Warcraft’s plot for years to come!

Ohshu’gun is one of those iconic sights for WoW players at the time.  It was just such a cool set piece of a location to explore at the time, and perfectly worked with Burning Crusade’s general sci-fi theme.

Meanwhile on the Alliance side, the bombshells were smaller, but still cool!  We got to see what really became in the best case scenario for the Dreanei who couldn’t or simply wouldn’t flee on the Exodar.  I always felt the Dreanei were an undeserved race story-wise at first, as their connection to some of the biggest big bad’s in the series was often overlooked when it came time to really dive into these Outland storylines.  Thankfully, as time went on they got the spotlight they deserved.  Lest I forget of course, Nagrand was also the zone that showed us we’d never truly be free of the genocidal madman Hemit Nessingwary and his incurable bloodlust.  Which we would all partake in of course, because that new belt wouldn’t earn itself!  There was also Halla, an interesting experiment in a town that could be captured back and forth between the Horde and Alliance to get access to unique daily quests, but as I recall, it didn’t really work out because if your server was lopsided to one side or the other faction-wise, it was never really going to be worthwhile to try holding it. It was interesting to spend an entire expansion pack getting used to this landscape that’s dead and scarred, only to stumble into pristine beauty halfway through.  That said though, the time of anything even resembling “beauty” in this retrospective is over.  The zones only get tougher and meaner from here, and except for some notable lore based exceptions up in Netherstorm, good luck finding a place you’d want to set down roots in, in Outland, from here on out.

Best Refuge In A Broken Land Award: Garadar

Garadar is such a snapshot of Orc culture pre Burning Legion.  As the lore explains, the whole city was suffering an outbreak of plague during the initial Dreanei genocide and all parties steered clear of it.  What it ended up leaving was a small pocket of corruption free orcs that still live their to this day, almost like some kind of control group.

Random Screenshot Of The Day:

Eh, he’ll never catch on.

Stray Notes:

- I tried to find the weird “Orphanage” up in the mountains of Nagrand for a screenshot but uh....did they remove that?  I swear I can’t find it anywhere.  For context, it was just a weird hut with a female troll caring for a bunch of baby models of the different races, with the dark implication that she’s maybe just raising them to eat them?  It was a weird secret area.

[shadowphoenixrider]

I realize I’ve been playing Andromeda a while, though I haven’t finished it, I do have thoughts about it, which I’ll list here. Assume spoilers, please, under the cut, though I’ve done my best to keep them down to an absolute minimum.

I started playing this after the first patch, and didn’t receive any of animation bugs I kinda half-heard about. Aside from occasionally my Ryder would do this weird ‘dance’ when she was going to down the stairs, but that was just odd.

It’s a fucking gorgeous looking game. Many times I just wanted to stand and look at it. Also if a starship looks so pretty you want to lick the thing, you’re doing it right.

I love the new conversation system and the fact they threw Paragon/Renegade mostly out of the window. There’s much more nuance in having ‘attitudes’ than ‘good/asshole’ options.

Choices that actually stumped me. I tried not to cheat and look up their repercussions online, but dang, some were hard. One was so difficult I had to have a discussion with the boyfriend and then come back later to make the decision. That’s good, because I gave a shit about the world that the choices were hard!

A little disappointed in the lack of alien life that wasn’t flora, but the depth they put into the angaran was really good, and I’d prefer there to be few races but really built up rather than many with little detail.

I know SAM’s trying to be helpful with his temperature announcements, but they’re on my HUD and it’s extremely annoying when you flip in and out of hazard zones so quickly. If there was an option to restrict him to just warning you about level 2 hazards, that would really improve the situation (that’s when I really need the info!).

I love all my companions. Sometimes don’t get along with what they say or how they react to others’, but all in all, I love and adore and care about them.

Game takes a little while to get going and finally let you loose in the world. It also has a habit of swamping you in side quests at first, which can cause you to burn-out and hate a world very quickly if you’re not careful.

Love the party banter in the Nomad, though sometimes it starts right as I transition and I scream with rage when it does. Not sure if that’s my fault or the game’s though.

The Nomad I love and hate. In summary, I do like it a lot, but I find myself fighting with it at times, which is frustrating. This might be because I’m using a mouse and keyboard though. That said, on the broken planet (I forgot it’s name!), it’s an absolute joy to drive. And running enemies over is just as delightful as when I did it in the Mako (and Ryder’s comments make me giggle).

I’m a huge nerd, but I loved the science to be heard; such as starting nearly thawed people on fluid-food first to get their GI tract used to food again - actually done in a hospital settings after major bowel surgery. Also an addition to the above point about the planet; the Nomad going really fast due to being no atmosphere which means no drag; delightful. I love that care and attention being given to things like that.

The ambient chatter on the Nexus can be very annoying if you have subtitles on, since the game wants to follow all the conversations at once, so it gets disjointed and awkward. And there’s a LOT of it!

There’s so many female turians around and it makes me unreasonably happy, considering the shit that went on in ME3.

I’m utterly, madly delighted I can romance Vetra with my F!Ryder, but I’ve got this sense that there doesn’t seem to be much there...? Maybe I’ve not got there yet, but after lock in I’ve gotten squad mates teasing Vetra and Ryder in the Nomad but nothing else...? I know it’s not nearly as bad as what I’ve been hearing about the mlm romances, but I’m a little...not at ease about it.

In some conversations the camera gets stuck awkwardly so I can’t see who I’m talking to. Made worse sometimes by Ryder having to do an awkward dance so the game while actually let me talk to a person. it’s not a major thing, but annoying.

Elaaden feels a bit rushed and there doesn’t seem to have a satisfying conclusion like with the others. Perhaps it’s to subvert our expectations, and or will be filled in with DLC or an expansion, but I can’t help but feel a little ‘hung out to dry’ with it.

I absolutely adore the fact you can have such a strong friendship with your companions, and it doesn’t feel like you’re missing out if you don’t romance them. In my opinion, Cora’s friend scene on Eos was completely and utterly wonderful. A++

If BioWare was aiming for me to hate the kett, they did a wonderful job. If they were aiming for me to understand them as a race, then no, they haven’t so far. Call it what you will, but I had no compunction being dishonourable to them and shooting them in the back.

I haven’t come across many of those ‘impulsive actions’ during my playthrough, but I’m not sure if it’s the way I play or just a general lack of them. A bit of a shame.

I miss the ability to pause time in combat. I spent most of my time with the game floundering and hiding in cover because I had no idea what to do next. I did eventually learn to adapt, but even Casual has kicked my ass more than once, and I doubt I’d ever be useful in MP if I played it.

That said, biotics are really fun in combat. And if you want to experience Andromeda’s combat at its best, go Vanguard. Charge is the most fun ability in the game and punching dudes in the face has never gotten old.

Praise be the ability to jump. The ledge grab seems to be a bit unpredictable at times though, unsure if that’s me fucking up again.

The purification fields are anxiety incarnate for me and they can eat my entire ass. I will happily lose loot for those fucking things.

I haven’t fought an Architect yet but I feel they’re thresher maws on steroids and have no wish to.

Okay, whoever thought about that puzzle in a Remnant vault where you have to manage your life support system as well was a good idea needs to be repeatedly hit with a newspaper. That was extremely unfun and made the whole thing tedious and never, ever do that again. I mean it.

I didn’t mind the Remnant sudoku puzzles, though I have cheated on one that just looked awful. They take a lot of time, though, and I can understand peoples’ confusion. It became a lot clearer when you realize that sometimes it’s a cluster of shapes, not the normal grid-based structure.

My pet peeve with the entire game is the amount of clicks to do anything in the menus. If I bring the map up directly from the game, I expect to go directly back to the game when I press Esc, not to go back to the main menu, and THEN back to the game. It’s extremely annoying, wastes time, and makes the game feel like it wasn’t properly ported to the PC.

If you’re not interested in crafting, a lot of motivators in the game seem really flat and boring (especially research and some AVP rewards). This may have been a personal problem of mine, as I was given so much choice to start with I just ‘shut down’ and didn’t do anything. Also it felt like I was ascending levels so quickly either my gear was irrelevant or anything I made would quickly be outgraded minutes later. YMMV on this one, but my personal preference is loot > crafting.

Story so far is good. Like the issues it’s bringing up and whilst it takes time to get rolling, once moving it’s very compelling, and whilst I’ve not gotten to the end, I hope for more DLC/expansions to continue it.

In summary, I do like Andromeda. I don’t think it’s fantastic, but I certainly don’t think it’s a bad game! I can see why people like it and why people dislike it, and certainly see why some people thought it was a disappointment. But to me? It wasn’t.

I think I did myself a great service by uncoupling myself from the hype, burying my head in the sand and waiting for the initial storm to blow over (though the latter was technically out of my control, as I had to upgrade my CPU, so I was delayed in that regard). As a result, I experience the game as it truly was, and whilst I had times I wanted to throw it down a well, I think my time with it has been a net positive.

It happened with WoW’s Legion expansion (which I also found myself enjoying, as you can clearly tell), which is sending signals to me that hype is really messing us all up. So in future I think I’ll have to repeat this behaviour of isolating myself from it and waiting. Good job, video games industry. Good fucking job.