jaggedwolf

Been a minute - turns out travelling and then having all my mindspace taken up by an exchange fic were very distracting endeavors, but I think the worst is over. I still like logging the media consumption, though, so here's the rapidest-fire version.

Movies

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Theatre

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Television

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Books

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In other news, I think I've landed on a solution for Cain's Jawbone! Going to do a last pass this month before I send in answers. And maybe read a satirical anthology of fictional law cases, IDK.

Getting 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.

'tis once more the season of the King William's College quiz. Between that and a discovery of the gameshow Only Connect, I get to learn a bunch of random British trivia.

( Movies )
( Video Games )
( Thing I made )

Links

"It's a true frontier of game design": How Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games think about accessibility

ACOUP - The Fremen Mirage - Deconstructing mythos of "less civilized" societies producing "hardier" people who'll inevitably be militarily superior and overthrow "more civilized" neighbours whose people are "softer", or basically that dumb meme

Looking forward to Yuletide :D Actually took the time to sit down and request those fandoms that kept popping into my memory only in January/February...

20020

This sequel to 17776 just ended. A second part comes out next year. It was good! I reread 17776 first to refresh my memory, and I like how 20020 uses the framework of Juice's absurd college football game to revisit the same themes - there's a palpable love for the game of American football, the exploration of space, and America itself, the kind of love that doesn't flinch from bitter truths. Space is empty, and humanity is alone. In Bois' own words in the linked Q&A below, both America and football "are beautiful, and both destroy people."

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...I do continue to not actually understand the game of American football at all, despite having watched all of Friday Night Lights. I am very okay with that.

Writing

Another set of TSCOSI ficlets on Tumblr.

Links

17776: Questions and answers

Exploring the Map: The Mississippi River

The influencer challenging Singapore's racial taboos - A profile of Preetipls

Life is video games, video games is life.

Horizon Zero Dawn

Liked this game way more than I expected. At a certain point the main story becomes gripping, where you want to find out more at every turn, and the way both Aloy's story and the main questline go hand-in-hand is well-done. Aloy is also a great protagonist - curious, sometimes impetuous, often compassionate, with an inherent skepticism in the face of tradition over knowledge or practicality.

Gameplay wasn't too bad of a learning curve. Only one fight where I dropped the difficulty, and in retrospect, I should have just used that one weapon I forgot I had. Game makes sneaking up on enemies very rewarding.

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I still need to come back to this game sometime to finish the DLC and side quests. After a certain point, I focused solely on the main story so that I'd finish it before...

The Last Of Us 2

It's here! 10 hours in and I'm still terrible at combat! Melee combat as Ellie has its pros and cons. Pro: Unlike Joel, Ellie has discovered the concept of a knife and doesn't need to constantly craft shivs to kill clickers. Con: Unlike Joel, Ellie does not simply punch her enemies, defaulting to her knife when there's no melee weapon equipped.

Leaving the chapters numbered below in case their titles are spoilers.

Chapter 1

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Chapter 2

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This week's theme is: One very explosive teenager, one very repressed teenager, both shaped by grief.

Television

Never Have I Ever

When I began the show, I thought it had Booksmart vibes, but by the end of it, I think it's more Crazy Ex Girlfriend, despite the lack of singing. Mostly because of how Devi focuses on the hot dude to avoid thinking about the heavy stuff, making decisions that frustrate her friends and family. She's so angry. (She's so angry, the V.O. narrator isn't her talking to her diary, but tennis legend John McEnroe who is known for his on-court yelling at umps. Hearing him empathize/convey with teen girl rage oddly works.) I enjoyed watching her barreling through this season, as often as I mildly cringed in second-hand embarrassment.

Everyone else in the cast is great, from Devi's family to her friends to the other kids in school. The standout is definitely Mohan, who crucially elevates every scene he's in.

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I'm caught up on B99 and ODAAT which have been delightful. Sad there won't be more ODAAT episodes for a while.

Movies

The Half Of It

Alice Wu looked back on Saving Face and really went, you know, Wil could have been more repressed. Let's do that.

I kid, I kid. This was a lovely coming-of-age film starring great mains, with Ellie being an instant fave ("Are these deciduous trees?"). I already want to rewatch it.

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Links

Mindy Kaling’s Netflix Show Tells a New Kind of Story: One Like Hers

Alice Wu Is (Finally) Ready to Break Your Heart

Apparently in current times, what calls to me isn't fic but linux. (AKA: I gave into the urge to delete an exchange sign-up and have spent most of the weekend fiddling with a Pi.)

The Adventure Zone: Balance

Finished The Suffering Game arc. Sure approaching things I have vague spoilers on.

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Horizon Zero Dawn

Reached Daytower. Things have escalated so much.

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Homestuck^2

:D

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Television

I've been slowly making my ways through Thirteen's Doctor Who episodes, with only osmosis-ed knowledge on prior Doctors. It's been a pretty good time. I'm craving a crossover with this crew and the Legends of Tomorrow crew, for maximal cracky time-travel shenanigans. I've also been keeping up with the new ODAAT season. Funny as ever, haven't really noticed a difference with the shorter episodes.

Film

Watched The Prince of Egypt for what I thought was going to be a second time, but may have been the first time. For one thing, I didn't remember that there was singing. (And yet I have vague memories of watching some animated Moses movie as a kid, and if it wasn't this one, which one was it?) Regardless, I liked it a lot. Good animation, good songs.

Other Links

America's Other Epidemic - A new approach to fighting the opioid crisis as it quietly rages on

Red, White, and Black: The Lives of African Singaporeans and PRs

Cal Newport on Surviving Screens and Social Media in Isolation

Jade Empire

Finished it! It's definitely a game that has interesting parts, but rather clunkily put together. The combat system is a bit of a pain - clicking repetitively that much can suck. The big reveal works, as does what happens after. You can tell Bioware's still finding it's feet when it comes making game mechanics and storytelling work together, because there's some really awkward or rushed parts.

I wouldn't mind Bioware returning to this IP. I'd love to see how the Jade Empire would look with uh, better graphics and combat, along with the type of companion storytelling we know Bioware for now. Alas, I'm afraid Bioware is lost to the siren call of open world games, and so their days of story-focused RPGS with a completionist playtime of ~50 hours are long gone. :(

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Tacoma

This on the other hand, is a game that knows exactly what it wants to be. It's really well-crafted. You play Amitjyoti "Amy" Ferrier, a subcontractor who has been tasked with retrieving the AI from Lunar Transfer Station Tacoma. You're the only one in the station, but you keep stumbling across these AR recordings of the former station crew. You can watch and listen to them, physically follow a person from a group conversation to a private one, see their paths cross and uncross.

Like Fullbright's earlier game, Gone Home, there's no real-time events here. Just you, walking (and sometimes floating) through a space station, investigating all the little bits of these six people's lives with no real player objective other than understanding the crew. Unlike Gone Home, however, the voices you hear are diegetic, and there's a reason you're hearing them.

It's great environmental storytelling, and I'm so curious to see what Fullbright's next project ends up being.

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Television

I caught up on Brooklyn Nine Nine and my two thoughts are 1. RIP Captain Kim, they did not deserve you 2. I don't think we've ever had a Holt-Rosa-Amy plot before and I don't know why, because that was so good :D

Film

Portrait of A Lady on Fire was very good! Good faces, good shots, good words. I have nothing intelligent to say about it, just that I can't believe I was fucked up over an Orpheus and Eurydice metaphor of all things.

Links

The Hidden Bigotry of Crosswords

On Tacoma's Ending - spoilers, you've been warned

This week's roundup is brought to you by me wondering whether the reason I watched all of Queer As Folk and couldn't get through more than three episodes of The L Word is that QaF had a main character that was a complete nerd, and afaik, the latter didn't. (He ends up buying and running a comic book shop.)

Critical Role

The last two episodes have been pretty intense, especially for Beauregard. I've already posted my thoughts on her offer in the latest episode.

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Theatre

I watched the Frozen musical, and Hamlet. Very different moods.

( Frozen )

( Hamlet )

Television

The Good Place

So, that finale happened.

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Writing

Yet another TSCOSI ficlet dump on tumblr.

Links

The Secret Life of Sven - As soon as Sven appeared on stage I had so many questions and this article answered most of them.

Media

Jade Empire

Oof, this combat system is a pain, I'm definitely glad I set the difficulty to easy. It's not even that I'm bad at video games, a true fact on its own, but that control over getting your character in melee range of opponents is so damn finicky. I wonder if there's a "kill all enemies" mod like there is for DA:Origins...I'm not that desperate yet.

I've finally reached Imperial City, and thus gotten Silk Fox into my party. She's a little more prickly than the other companions, by nature of her position, but also has quite a bit of information to be use. Also, juggling her and Dawn Star's romances to get the endgame I want has actually been easier than I expected. It feels less like they genuinely dislike each other, and more that they poke at each other's insecurities, both by their own personalities and their connection to the PC. In retrospect, there's probably a mod to pull off romancing both of them even while playing a female PC, but eh, I've gotten fond of Ming now.

( musings on the Outlander and also the ghost quests )

Juno Steel and the Tools of Rust (Part 1)

Ahh, more new PoVs? :D This has been an turn from the past two seasons, when we were so firmly lodged in Juno's head. It's a little disorienting, hearing Juno without hearing from him, but I enjoyed the Peter PoV of the previous case, and I am delighted to now get Jet's PoV. Along with the backstory of a much more reckless, ruthless man, his friendship with Rita and his dedication to Buddy. Curious to see where this goes.

Links

The Early Internet, Explained by One Weird Celine Dion Fan Site

Southeast Asia: ICJ launches report on increasing restrictions on online speech