#the most meaningful moment of gameplay in the entire expansion to me!!

[lavampira]

(COUNT)DOWN TO DAWNTRAIL — day five: endwalker

if you need a push, I'll be right there behind you. do not despair! you are not without allies. upon the souls of they who have sacrificed themselves to pave the way for peace, we will never abandon our cause. while it is true that man succumbs all too often to anger and avarice, he may yet overcome his baser instincts through the forming of bonds with others. such victories are rarely won without sacrifice. but the prize is worth the price. and we for our part are glad indeed to be able to welcome friends both old and new… from tragedy and sacrifice, we rise to greet a new dawn. a future shaped by the choices we made, in ways we could never have forseen. strong art thou, mortal. look to the light within, that you may continue to serve as a beacon to others.

[akurathereaper]

An insignificant rant on HoT&PoF

As everyone knows, yady yady ya, everyone prefers HoT, whatever

I’m one of those people and I’m about to rant about this too.

THIS IS NOT A SPOILER FREE RANT

I will be talking about story elements and stuff that happens in both DLCs.

I like Path of Fire, I really do, it gave me Elona, it gave me agent Kito whom I wholeheartedly pity cuz he has to deal with the Commander, it gave me more of Aurene (and it gave me Joko on whom I can shit on when I feel bad)

But, it didn’t give me maps I like (and I will tell you why) (please note I am no game designer, or designer in general. In fact, maps designed by me would be probably shit, but I still believe my opinion is valid, because I am a person with eyes that can see)

This is going to be a small rant when it comes to maps, now mark, english isn’t my first language so there may be nonsensical sentences, and I am no professional critic so all of this is coming from my heart, not my brain.

Ready? Let’s go

So I’m going to do a little comparison (nothing too much in depth) of the four maps from each DLC (plus Domain of Vabbi but I don’t have much to say on it if I’m honest).

 We have Verdant Brink, Auric Basin, Tangled Depths and Dragon’s stand from Heart of Thorns, and Crystal Oasis, Desert Highlands, The Desolation, Elon Riverlands and Domain of Vabbi. 

Let me start with HoT, because it makes logical sense.

When you first start the Heart of Thorns campaign, you’re told to go from Silverwastes to... Verdant Brink. You get a small taste of it right before you enter it, in that cave where the injured pact members are talking about it. And then you load in (hopefully, if your pc doesn’t reenact an atomic blast), and first thing you see, when you walk in on that VERY SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED LEDGE

is absolute carnage.

Ships are strewn about, hanging in pieces torn apart by Mordremoth’s vines, smoke and fire is everywhere, that part of the jungle is ravaged not only by Mordremoth, but also by you. Your Pact. And in that moment you exactly realize what happened (if it wasn’t obvious from the cutscene that played before it *cough cough*)

But now you see it. The map tells you a very obvious story, and you don’t need to be a genius to figure it out. It tells you and SHOWS you exactly how strong and dangerous the Dragon you’re hunting is. It shows you what you have to overcome.  (And if you’re me, you’re crying cuz Trahearne got kidnapped)

I’m going to skip the storyparts of this map, but will instead focus on the meta of it (since i’ve done it like trillion times). There’s five main crashpoints. Each has to bring their all to successfuly make this map “safe”. The nobles, the Pale Reavers, the quaggan and her soldiers. Everyone. I’m guessing that after you kill all the five champions, the area becomes safe enough for you to move on, after all, you’re the Commander, and you cannot leave everyone to die in the middle of the Jungle. Once again, the map tells you a story through the gameplay)

And then you move onto Auric Basin (I’m guessing it’s a lot of people’s fav map)

Oh, Auric Basin... The map instantly breathes “something”, something different. You KNOW you’re somewhere else, the whole atmosphere tells you that you’re somewhere forgotten, somewhere where the touches of humans, sylvari, charr, whatever main race, have not reached. 

Your first instance of it is most likely the story instance, so you get introduced to the place pretty quickly. I don’t have to say how gorgeous the city actually is, right?

The whole place is an archaeologist’s wet dream. And again, the map tells you, it shows you, it’s story, it’s history (the Priory people are wetting themselves over the whole thing), and sometimes it’s the Exalted themselves who tell you the story. But you can gauge a lot of it just from observing. It’s not the most effective of cities, I’ll be honest, but it’s a damn impressive one. After all, Tarir was build for Glint’s scion.

And the meta? It’s about PROTECTING the city. Protecting it from Mordremoth, from destroying it, from destroying the safe place for a dragon’s egg. You stop Mordremoth from leaching the place with Octovines (or an exalted does it for you. Kudos to you, immortal and endless exalted), and you don’t rly realize the importance of this place until the whole Aurene thing happens.

And oof, Tangled Depths. 

Tangled Depths, one of the most hated maps in the entire expansion, a thing (imho) that can be very much blamed on the map limitation (I’m talking about your map, where you see where you are and where the waypoints are, etc.) Like, honestly, wouldn’t it be a WHOLE lot easier to traverse if your map made actual damn sense? But I digress.

Tangled Depths is probably one of the lesser impressive maps? Overall, I very like it, although it’s story has to be unearthed and explored actively. It’s more of a bland looking pie with delicious filling.

Tangled Depths is quite...a good map. In a way. Don’t throw trash at me, please. I also hated it when I had to walk through it, but I learnt the shortcuts and then traversed with relative ease, so I stopped seeing the whole map as a nuisance and started seeing it for what it was. 

Such an untouched piece of history... The Rata Novus? Rata Novus? Hello? Asura lived here?

The Ogres, making their village there? The Nuhoch, fighting for their survival with the Zintl hyleks and the Chak? The Chak? Such new and interesting creatures who literally eat magic! In the middle of the jungle, you see such life, such vivacity, even in the midst of Mordremoth’s reign of terror.

And the story of the meta is tying in so nicely to the overall thing! You’re literally tunneling into Dragon’s stand, to reach old Papa Mordremoth, and you’re doing it with the help of everyone on the map! The Ogres, the asuras (well they dead, so their robots lol), the Chak (yeah, Chak bois be helping, not rly it’s just the lane lol), and the useless easy line! You’re charging a thingimajig that blasts a hole through the ley-line empowered wall and bam, you’re in DS. (Excuse me it has been a while since I was in TD) And Chak bois are on your ass trying to eat it cuz magic but that’s so the meta is interesting.

And then... My favourite map. Dragon’s stand.

I played this map... probably more than I should’ve, but... the way it is structured is simply so interesting! Three lines, for three leaders, each battling their way through the jungle to get to the Generals, to get to the Mouth of Mordremoth. And along the way, you gain more and more allies, more and more people to help you fight this noodle!  You get the ogres, the itzel, the nuhoch, the skritt(!), the exalted, the... THE NIGHTMARE COURT? *cough cough* cut content *cough cough*. Yeah, some don’t get an explanation, but you see everything that you have done, everyone you have helped in the previous map, go help you out in this one? You see them and protect them at the last island (and the whole map is just one giant meta and I LOVE IT (it can be a point of criticism as well, since it’s quite hard to explore if the meta ain’t done and the last few pois are impossible to get if MoM isn’t dead)) and it’s just so epic

Everything you did was leading up to this moment, this last battle, this last stand, the DRAGON’S STAND. And the battle was just... epic. Epic, is all I can say about this map and it’s story. (Shame the Commanders/Generals were cut out, as we have no clue who they were, and knowing something about them would make it a bit more meaningful in fighting them)

To conclude.

HoT is focused as hell. You got a goal: Pop a cap in Mordremoth. And you’re going to do it. You got twice the motivation if you’re a sylvari. Each map is designed to give you the build up of the fight, first you see what Mordremoth can do, then you see what’s at stake, and then you gotta fight for it. The fact the maps are gorgeous (If a little (bit a lot) laggy) only helps the overall feel.  Anything and Everything can and will murder your ass, and you gotta be ready for it.

Now onto PoF maps. This segment is going to be shorter, because in all honesty? PoF, I like you, but you’re just... well, you’ll see. Hopefully. This is after all just my opinion lol.

Oh and if you got this far? Kudos lol I ramble a lot. <3

Anyway, PoF maps.

So the opening to PoF is... quite good? It’s a bit out of your control but it does it’s job imo.

You come in on an airship, and you see the land spread before you. You see a pyramind, and you think “Oh hell yeah, pyramids.” I would LOVE to just be able to explore the area, you know, have a chill opening, but PoF is about FIRE and FIGHT so, you fight and try to save the people and it’s very chaotic and everything is on FIRE OH GODS.

So you chase this mysterious person, you get introduced to the raptor village, all goes well or bad, and then you are directed to the city of Amnoon (since we’re still in a story instance), so you go. Amnoon is very pretty, and following the tradition of MMO cities very impractical, but hey, rule of cool. The whole time you’re not rly allowed to explore anywhere or look at anything, you’re focused, sure, but you’re also very distracted, you get me?

You want to look around, you want to explore, but you’ve just been attacked by this Herald woman and you’re tired of politics. The opening of PoF isn’t bad, but it is very different from HoT, as in HoT you first SAW the carnage Mordy did and THEN you went on down to help the remaining survivals, whereas here, in Oasis, you kinda.. live through it? You see it first hand what Balthy is doing, while in HoT you only chased the aftermaths of the massacres. This works differently for everyone, and I personally prefer the HoT approach. 

PoF is very open when it comes to the story, as in you are not AS limited to instances as it was with HoT, sometimes it works to its advantage, sometimes.. it doesn’t. 

The way PoF maps jerk you around is very confusing to me. You explore Crystal Oasis, then you go to Desert Highlands, then to Elon riverlands, and you gotta go back down through the Oasis to get there, so you are already trudging through the land you already know (and since you have mounts they took full advantage of making the maps bigger, but it makes them feel... emptier? Like I get it, it’s the Desert, but still...) so you get to Elon riverlands, you do your thing there, then you go to Desolation, then to Vabbi. Nice. Okay.

In none of these maps, there is a story meta. None. No impressive whole-map meta where you gotta all cooperate to keep the map stable. Nothing. There is no use in me trying to analyze these maps, for they are just... backdrop to what’s happening.  Balthazar this, Balthazar that. Oh no Kralky is awake, and oh look we met Vlast for like 2 seconds and then he immediately ded. 

I’ll be honest... I don’t remember much of PoF before chapter 9 The Departing (because that chapter was fire. Lol. get it), which saddens me immensely. I remember most of HoT. Where what happened when it happened how it happened, I know, and if I don’t know immediately, in few minutes my brain serves me the entire instance. I could probably play HoT blindfolded. 

This is a very shallow look into why I probably don’t like PoF as much as I like HoT. 

To try and conclude my very messy terrible rant essay:

Heart of Thorns used its maps in a way that showed you with gameplay what’s in store for you. It used maps in a way to help you build that anticipation of the fight, of everything you sacrificed along the way. The maps are smartly connected in a way where with each map you delve deeper into the jungle, deeper into the mouth of the beast. Sure, they lag as fuck, but the PoF maps do so too, don’t lie to yourselves. With each map you meet new allies that help you along the way.

In Path of Fire I just... don’t get that feeling. I run from map to map, mindlessly following the green star, hoping I will stumble upon something interesting on the way. In Heart of Thorns it was the opposite. I was walking around the map, breathing in the atmosphere of the place, and stumbling upon the green story star. I feel like the Elona desert did not get such justice as it deserved. I trudge around the maps, I complete the maps to get the reward, then I move onto the story. My interest in the whole thing only started to pick up once I freaking DIED for gods’ sake. 

My hopes for the End of Dragons, which is happening in Cantha, is that I get more of that focused map design. That story in gameplay, that map-wide meta that will have me grind my teeth at 10pm on a work/school night. I don’t need Drizzlewood metas (an inferior Dragon’s stand, mind you) that are like 2-3 hours long. A 30 min prelude and 30 min metas are fine. An hour long meta if you have the idea for it, but... give me map stories, Anet.

Feel free to share your own feels about the different feels between the DLCs. I will GLADLY take in PoF preferrers. What did you prefer in PoF? What did you like in it? Give me your opinions, give me your take on everything. 

And thank you for reading my overly long rant essay, hah.

[thesims4blogger]

Press Release: EA Creates New Reality Competition Show, “The Sims Spark’

Electronic Arts has just announced the creation of “The Sims Spark’d”, a new competition reality show. In partnership with Turner Sports, they will televise a 4-Part Series Beginning Friday, July 17, at 11 p.m. ET/PT on TBS. The reality show will feature Game Changers and other Sims Ambassadors from around the world. Contestants will be competing in a variety of competitions across four episodes for $100,000 in prizes.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ: EA), in partnership with Turner Sports’ esports and gaming entertainment brand ELEAGUE and Buzzfeed Multiplayer, today announced a first-of-its-kind reality competition series centered on EA’s popular life simulation franchise, The Sims™. Since its release in 2000, The Sims has been redefining what it means to be a gamer, allowing players to create and control characters in a virtual world, where they can express themselves in a way that is most authentic and meaningful to them. The Sims Spark’d is redefining reality competition by bringing creativity, storytelling and the community together in an entertaining new way. The contestants will be given creative challenges to build the most unique characters, worlds and stories, all told through the latest highly successful game in the franchise, The Sims 4.

“Since its inception, The Sims has been a groundbreaking experience, allowing players to create and virtually live out the stories they create in-game. That’s what makes it so special,” said Lyndsay Pearson, GM of The Sims franchise. “That’s also why this show is so exciting. We’re continuing that innovative spirit, bringing our community together to compete and showcase their in-game storytelling on a reality show in an entirely new way.”

“ELEAGUE has become a destination for premium gaming content and The Sims Spark’d fits perfectly with our focus on gaming lifestyle and culture programming,” said Craig Barry, Chief Content Officer, Turner Sports. “We look forward to this next phase of our partnership with EA as we showcase its popular Sims franchise on TBS.”

The Sims Spark’d presented by ELEAGUE will debut Friday, July 17, at 11 p.m. ET/PT on TBS. Episodes will continue to premiere weekly on Fridays (July 17, 24, 31 and August 7) at 11 p.m. on TBS, with encore telecasts airing on Saturdays (July 18, 25 and Aug. 1, 8) at 8 a.m. on the network. BuzzFeed Multiplayer will be the premiere digital destination, streaming each The Sims Spark’d episode on the Monday after it is televised (July 20, 27 and Aug. 3, 10).

“We are excited to introduce the highly-engaged Gen Z community of BuzzFeed Multiplayer to an inventive new form of storytelling within the imaginative world of The Sims,” said Branden Smith, Executive Producer of BuzzFeed Multiplayer. “Partnering with EA and TBS allows us to offer new experiences for fans and expand our core values by spreading an inclusive approach to gaming across platforms and screens.”

The Sims Spark’d is a four-episode series where players will compete in both skills and elimination challenges with $100,000 on the line, showcasing contestants from The Sims community as they race against the clock to impress a panel of celebrity judges. The show features an amazing cast, with former American Idol finalist, Rayvon Owen, as the host, who has been playing the game since middle school. Joining Rayvon are three judges that each bring their own critical Sims voice to the competition. The first is BuzzFeed Multiplayer YouTube personality, Kelsey Impicciche, famous for her own #100babychallenge series she created with The Sims. Next up is singer-songwriter, Tayla Parx, who has done voice acting work for the game and sang her song, “Me vs. Us” in Simlish (in-game language) for The Sims 4 Get Famous expansion pack. Rounding out the judges’ panel is Maxis™ game developer, Dave Miotke. Maxis is the development studio behind the franchise where Miotke – better known in the community as SimGuruNinja – has worked for 15 years.

The 12 contestants, familiar online personalities who each specialize in their own element of The Sims gameplay, will be fully revealed during the first episode. Additionally, to coincide with the show, a series of in-game challenges in The Sims 4 called the Spark’d Challenge Program* will kickstart on Friday, July 17, where the top creators can win a chance to be considered for a future season of The Sims Spark’d.

ELEAGUE will set the stage for the show with a special episode of ELEAGUE Game Night focused on The Sims 4, premiering Friday, July 10, at midnight ET/PT on TBS. Kelly Nugent and Ify Nwadiwe of ELEAGUE Super Punch powered by Twitch will serve as co-hosts for this one-hour edition of Game Night, which will feature participants from The Sims Spark’d including host Rayvon Owen and contestants Doctor Ashley and Xmiramira. Nugent and Nwadiwe will give fans an early look at top moments from Spark’d with Owen, and will showcase Doctor Ashley’s building prowess and Xmiramira’s character styling skills.

For more information about The Sims, follow @TheSims on Twitter, Instagram or TikTok, like The Sims on Facebook, and visit TheSims.com.

* NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Age 18+. Void where prohibited. 30 Top Spark’d Creators named per challenge. Sponsor: EA Inc. Subject to full Official Rules available at www.ea.com/games/the-sims/sparkd/challenge/official-rules.

About Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts (NASDAQ: EA) is a global leader in digital interactive entertainment. The Company develops and delivers games, content and online services for Internet-connected consoles, mobile devices and personal computers.

In fiscal year 2020, EA posted GAAP net revenue of $5.5 billion. Headquartered in Redwood City, California, EA is recognized for a portfolio of critically acclaimed, high-quality brands such as EA SPORTS™ FIFA, Battlefield™, Apex Legends™, The Sims™, Madden NFL, Need for Speed™, Titanfall™ and Plants vs. Zombies™. More information about EA is available at https://www.ea.com/news.

Maxis, The Sims, EA SPORTS, Battlefield, Apex Legends, Need for Speed, Titanfall and Plants vs. Zombies are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. John Madden, NFL and FIFA are the property of their respective owners and used with permission.

About ELEAGUE

ELEAGUE is an award-winning esports and gaming entertainment brand that engages fans with culturally relevant content through original programming and live events. ELEAGUE, harnessing the resources of Turner Sports and WarnerMedia, is recognized for its best-in-class content, dynamic storytelling and innovative production capabilities. Formed in 2016, ELEAGUE has partnered with many of the leading videogaming publishers – including Warner Bros. Games, Nintendo, Xbox Game Studios, Valve, Electronic Arts, Activision, Psyonix, 2K Interactive, Bandai Namco, Capcom and Wizards of the Coast – to produce some of the most-watched esports coverage across all platforms, while providing brand partners with unparalleled opportunities to connect with passionate, young audiences.

[megaderping]

How can you complain about KH3 when 2 was worse in almost every single way?

I have a lot of issues with KH2′s story as well, and from a gameplay standpoint, KH3 certainly is fun! And Kh3 has some very sweet moments in its plot, like the R/A/X and T/A/V reunions. However, on the whole, I feel its story suffers significantly, and even with its faults, KH2 is the better realized story and handles its characters far more respectfully.This is going to be a bit wordy, so please bear with me.

One big issue I have with KH3′s story is the way it backloads its core plot progression to the very end. The vast majority of the Disney worlds feel even more like diversions than in previous games. While Toy Box and Monstropolis have a ton of creativity, charm, and heart put into them and bring new and engaging scenarios, worlds like Arendelle reek of executive meddling with the way Sora/Donald/Goofy repeatedly get torn away from the actual characters of Frozen, there’s the pointless Olaf minigame, and we see so little of the world. No troll village. No actual exploration of Arendelle. It feels like a significant step back when KH2 allowed people to explore large chunks of iconic Disney settings.KH3 still has very sharp dialogue and the dynamic between Sora/Donald/Goofy is great, but if you look at KH2, you’ll find that it handles its ensemble cast far better. In KH2, King Mickey is EXTREMELY powerful and hyped up throughout the game. If you die, he can come in and save you from challenging boss fights. When he finally appears in Hollow Bastion, he’s treated with dignity and looks like a total badass. That moment when he tore off the Organization cloak was extremely epic for what basically amounted to the cheery, cartoony face of the Walt Disney company.And it’s not just Mickey. Riku, who wasn’t even a Master yet, repeatedly helped in the background, and by the time he became a party member, he was cool. He was powerful. It was exciting to finally fight side by side with him! Not once did it feel like he had to take a step back to make Sora look better. In fact, he saved Sora during the final boss! It was great.But then we have KH3, where Riku and Mickey fail to save Aqua twice. They get their asses handed to them by the Demon Tower even though Mickey had already faced the Demon Tide alongside Aqua and thwarted it. Riku, who did NOT lose his abilities like Sora allegedly did, gets his ass handed to him when he’s faced much greater threats, and TWO Keyblade Masters are unable to rescue one and require Sora to dive in and save them.These characters who were hyped up in KH2 and treated with dignity suddenly job to Sora because he’s the main character. And like I said before, I think this is a disservice to Sora, too, because all these big savior moments don’t feel earned due to him just waffling around the Disney worlds through most of the game, half of which are just movie plot retreads (while the others are certainly fun- VANYEETAS is legendary).

As for Aqua- I did just reblog a post showing that people are being way too hard n her and she has some genuinely badass moments. I still stand by that, but that does NOT excuse her being so thoroughly curbstomped by Terranort when she singlehandedly defeated him in BBS. That entire cutscene is easily the lowest point of KH3 to me besides Kairi’s fridging because everyone just... stands there. Terranort is randomly more powerful than he ought to be. Never mind that Aqua just stands there upon seeing the Demon Tide- which is weird because she and Mickey had faced it before. In the Realm of Darkness. So why is everyone suddenly struggling with it in the Ream of Light when they have far greater numbers?I understand Ven struggling with Terranort because he looks like Terra, and he wasn’t there to see Terra possessed before, but it just feels like Terranort had plot armor up the wazoo. Sucks, too, because the T/A/V reunion was absolutely a highlight, with the Guardian twist being a cool and satisfying confirmation of a popular fan theory.Back to KH2, we have the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee. These guys were recurring throughout KH2 and got many great moments where they got to serve as guest party members. Leon was there in the first visit, and he, Yuffie, and Tifa all got to fight side by side with Sora during the battle for Hollow Bastion later. Cloud and Leon got that kickass cutscene with enjoyable banter, Cloud got to fight Sephiroth. Not once did these guys feel like they were gimped for Sora’s sake- rather, they were figures for Sora to aspire to!And Sora’s skills weren’t brought down just because they got to show competence.Axel got his heroic sacrifice. Namine helped rescue Kairi. Even Kairi at least tried to put up a fight AND was responsible for Riku not leaving. Because KH3 remembered that the Destiny Islands trio is, in fact, a trio, rather than two friends who care about Sora who just happen to exist close to one another.Now, KH2 is not perfect. I have a lot of issues with its tendency to pad out its plot. Maleficent and Pete were distractions from the game’s central threat. Timeless River was a cute gimmick but ultimately a side trip. But the thing with KH2 is that the central story progression was sprinkled throughout the game. There were gradual bits of main plot progression between world visits that felt meaningful even with all the less pertinent Disney problems. True, KH3 has its interval cutscenes, but that’s just not the same as going back to Twilight Town at the mid point of the game, then hitting Hollow Bastion for lore expansion, Space Paranoids, AND an epic battle against the Heartless.And while the Disney revisits were padding in a sense, they were also more tied to the Organiazation threat, with even a few members fought before the end of the game to give them a sense of presence.

Ultimately, I think KH3 has a lot of moments that are lovely and cathartic, but to say KH2 is far worse simply feels like hyperbole to me. If you disagree, that’s fine, but that’s simply how I feel.