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jaggedwolfGetting annoyed with myself, so gonna be another month-long break from various websites, with exceptions for Dreamwidth when I have a post ready.
Tick, Tick... Boom!
Fantastic. Garfield was awesome, what a great choice for Larson, and I loved the whole framing story aspect of it. Though I like RENT, you know, so I was probably going to like this even if it wasn’t done as excellently as it was. Tickled by the cameos in the diner song. “Swimming” was my favourite song, love how hectic it feels, though I have a soft spot for “Why”.
Leverage
Pretty entertaining procedural. Enjoyed the crew and the cons, and also the unintentional humour that comes with procedurals. My favourite characters were Eliot and Nate, though again, I liked everyone and every subset’s peculiar dynamics. (Even if Sophie’s fake identities scare me.) On to the sequel series next.
The Tragedy Of Macbeth
I was unmoved by this until the second half. I only got into Macbeth himself once he started properly losing it - liked his tomorrow soliloquy and his starting-unarmed fight scene with uh quickly looks up characters Siward. Macduff and his family were great, especially his wife. Had entirely forgotten that Ross was a character in this play, but I liked watching him ominously talk to every person on every side.
Links
Horizon: Zero Dawn documentary - Cool look into the making of one of the rare few story-focused open-world games I’ve quite liked. The studio had never made such a game before, previously known for the very standard FPS series Killzone.
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Date: 2022-02-22 04:35 am (UTC)I'm curious to hear more about this, if you'd care to share! Horizon: Zero Dawn has looked interesting to me from afar, but I'm a little shy about taking the plunge, since open-world games have been kind of hit-and-miss for me (Skyrim was eh, BotW was solid but not mind-blowing, DA:I was okay-ish), but I always want to like one, so I'm curious what sets this one apart.
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Date: 2022-02-24 02:16 am (UTC)Ah, sure! There's a few ways that HZD works for me in a way that other ones have fallen flat.
Main Story: I need a solid main story. Unless the game is wonderfully cracky (Saints Row IV) or the gameplay loop fantastic (Hades - though not open world lol), it's hard for me to forgive unsatisfying main narratives. I get the feeling that a lot of open-world games overlook that? But I really loved HZD's main questline about the machines' origins, and how the player's questions slowly get answered.
Protagonist: Aloy's a great protagonist - she has her own strong personal reasons for investigating the above mysteries and helping various folks, and the game understands that it's about her as much as it is the world. It's not an inherent flaw to open-world games, but it was one of the ways DA:I ultimately flat to me, where you're a rando who gets dropped into a position of power with none of your past really mattering.
Optionality: The structure of the quest journal and maps make clear delineations between Side Quests (missions with some narrative heft to them), Errands (classic fetch quest shenanigans) and various categories of similar tasks (e.g eliminating bandit camps). It was a lot more rewarding knowing those stakes in advance and so which quests to pass on, especially once I got hooked on the main quest and wanted to beeline it to the end.
The single map with no-loading model also works better for me than the "travel to this open world location, then travel to this other open world location", but that latter one might just be a late-Bioware flaw.
That was bit TL;DR, haha, but if any of the above jibes with you, I'd recommend giving HZD a shot!
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Date: 2022-03-10 08:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-03-24 06:24 am (UTC)