The Simple Things...
... occasionally aren't.
In my periodic casting about for distractions, I picked up Pillars of Eternity, a crowdfunded computer RPG in the vein of the old Baldur's Gate games. There's a lot of nostalgic value that really takes me back and technical improvement. It's definitely higher resolution than those games, though you still don't often have reason to zoom in and portaits are used for conversations. There's more voice, I think. It's also an original fantasy world rather than licensed D&D, so there are interesting things to discover.
On the down side, the format does not lend itself to getting caught up in the story as easily as some others. Perhaps my attention span was longer back in the day, or I didn't have the alternatives, but it's easier to put this game down for a few days than 1) I remember or 2) newer, more active games. Also, the drawbacks of crowdfunding bonuses are a distraction - there are backer-submitted visions and tombstones throughout the game which rarely have anything to do with the game and its setting or story.
The story has been reasonably interesting so far, though in a world with lots of iffy, questioned moralities, motivation is not as strong as it could be. The organization that's set up as the villains here... struck me as religious zealots, but not inherently evil. There seems an assumption that the PC is at odds with them, but I didn't really feel any reason for that until they straight-up attacked the stronghold for reasons that... might exist somewhere.
But we'll see how it turns out in the end.
My FFXIV sub has lapsed again. I tried to get through the most recent story release that leads up to the upcoming expansion, but got roadblocked at a trial that deviates from the usual boss battles by being 1) timed (okay, most technically have a timer, but it's not a practical concern) and 2) reliant on particular non-standard mechanics. I actually got decent at handling those mechanics in my attempts, but you need at least three people who know what they're doing to manage it all, and it's apparently too early yet to expect that in a random group. So after multiple failed attempts on my last subscribed day, it'll have to wait for some other time. Ah well.
In WoW I discovered a little feature that I never knew about. When queueing for LFR (and probably dungeons), you can actually queue for more than one in sequence and end up in the queue for them all. And after you finish one, you're added back into the queue counting the time since you first started, making it possible to chain-run instances without the 30-60 minutes of downtime (for DPS) between waiting for a new queue. Not a big deal, but kind of a big deal.
A little game review I saw this morning got me thinking about... cartoons of all things.
I admit, I fall into the "trap" of looking at American(-ish) animation as simplistic entertainment. Shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy have had long runs, and occasionally they have something witty to say, but mostly they're just one-off episodes and whether they have some memorable detail or not, it's not something that makes a real impact on my in any way. And cartoons that start on other channels are usually aimed at a younger crowd with morals to the story, but no more real storytelling value in my eye.
Sometimes, though...
I got into watching Avatar: The Last Airbender after catching a few episodes and thinking "eh, more moral-of-the-day kids stuff" when something happened that actually demonstrated there was an overarching story going on. Adventure Time struck me as cheaply-animated silliness until an episode cast the goofy Ice King in an utterly tragic light, which got me looking at other aspects of the series that are a lot deeper and more serious than at first glance.
Among some of these shows there are flashes of poignant brilliance in single moments and there are threads that come out to show much greater depth to story than you would ever guess at a simple glance. It impresses me when things like this get pulled off. Cartoons have long been a source of adult innuendo hidden among childish antics, but a show that can generate a strong emotional reaction or tell a deeply thought-out story is special in any format.
In my periodic casting about for distractions, I picked up Pillars of Eternity, a crowdfunded computer RPG in the vein of the old Baldur's Gate games. There's a lot of nostalgic value that really takes me back and technical improvement. It's definitely higher resolution than those games, though you still don't often have reason to zoom in and portaits are used for conversations. There's more voice, I think. It's also an original fantasy world rather than licensed D&D, so there are interesting things to discover.
On the down side, the format does not lend itself to getting caught up in the story as easily as some others. Perhaps my attention span was longer back in the day, or I didn't have the alternatives, but it's easier to put this game down for a few days than 1) I remember or 2) newer, more active games. Also, the drawbacks of crowdfunding bonuses are a distraction - there are backer-submitted visions and tombstones throughout the game which rarely have anything to do with the game and its setting or story.
The story has been reasonably interesting so far, though in a world with lots of iffy, questioned moralities, motivation is not as strong as it could be. The organization that's set up as the villains here... struck me as religious zealots, but not inherently evil. There seems an assumption that the PC is at odds with them, but I didn't really feel any reason for that until they straight-up attacked the stronghold for reasons that... might exist somewhere.
But we'll see how it turns out in the end.
My FFXIV sub has lapsed again. I tried to get through the most recent story release that leads up to the upcoming expansion, but got roadblocked at a trial that deviates from the usual boss battles by being 1) timed (okay, most technically have a timer, but it's not a practical concern) and 2) reliant on particular non-standard mechanics. I actually got decent at handling those mechanics in my attempts, but you need at least three people who know what they're doing to manage it all, and it's apparently too early yet to expect that in a random group. So after multiple failed attempts on my last subscribed day, it'll have to wait for some other time. Ah well.
In WoW I discovered a little feature that I never knew about. When queueing for LFR (and probably dungeons), you can actually queue for more than one in sequence and end up in the queue for them all. And after you finish one, you're added back into the queue counting the time since you first started, making it possible to chain-run instances without the 30-60 minutes of downtime (for DPS) between waiting for a new queue. Not a big deal, but kind of a big deal.
A little game review I saw this morning got me thinking about... cartoons of all things.
I admit, I fall into the "trap" of looking at American(-ish) animation as simplistic entertainment. Shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy have had long runs, and occasionally they have something witty to say, but mostly they're just one-off episodes and whether they have some memorable detail or not, it's not something that makes a real impact on my in any way. And cartoons that start on other channels are usually aimed at a younger crowd with morals to the story, but no more real storytelling value in my eye.
Sometimes, though...
I got into watching Avatar: The Last Airbender after catching a few episodes and thinking "eh, more moral-of-the-day kids stuff" when something happened that actually demonstrated there was an overarching story going on. Adventure Time struck me as cheaply-animated silliness until an episode cast the goofy Ice King in an utterly tragic light, which got me looking at other aspects of the series that are a lot deeper and more serious than at first glance.
Among some of these shows there are flashes of poignant brilliance in single moments and there are threads that come out to show much greater depth to story than you would ever guess at a simple glance. It impresses me when things like this get pulled off. Cartoons have long been a source of adult innuendo hidden among childish antics, but a show that can generate a strong emotional reaction or tell a deeply thought-out story is special in any format.