Redwolf's Journal (continued)

So, Saturday I watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi. I will get into spoilers here, but I'll see if I can push those below the Blogspot cut, at least. In general, I enjoyed the movie. I understand, and agree with the existence of, some criticisms I've heard. None of those seriously dragged down the experience for me, though. There were some good characters. There were some awesome scenes. There was some unnecessary fluff. The movie felt very full. But it was all pretty good and felt Star Warsy enough for me. And with that, let's get into some details... Whereas The Force Awakens felt like almost a remake of A New Hope, this movie has callbacks to The Empire Strikes Back. In my perception, they don't feel as direct, but I can't deny the parallels. The opening and ending scenes are clearly evocative of the battle on Hoth. Rey's time with Luke could equate to the training on Dagobah. But at least there's no new Death Star/Starkiller Base. I like Rose. She&#

There's been a lot of ruckus in the world of video games recently. Some people care, some people don't. I'm usually tuned in enough to at least be aware of such things. And while I am a bit reluctant to lean heavily on the opinions of others, I find a lot of my thoughts being echoed, and in some cases better elaborated upon, by voices other than my own. Star Wars: Battlefront 2 has been a focal point of much controversy, largely because of how it was coming out with microtransactions that offered options to pay money in order to bypass dozen (or hundreds) of hours of grinding to unlock some potentially game-changing bonuses. It kind of set off the "pay to win" powder keg, and there's been a lot of backlash. This is kind of sad, because it sounds like it's actually a decent Star Wars game, but the monetization (which tends to come from publisher direction more than developer decision) has his EA's reputation (such as it is) pretty hard and will probab

Want a single-player game focused on over-the-top, campy combat against alternate-history Nazis? If so, the Wolfenstein games are pretty much your thing. A surprising amount of heart behind them is just a bonus. The New Colossus seemed to me a little more difficult than its predecessor, and running about in the open can often lead to a reloading screen. The basics of the story are pretty predictable/cliche. Our protagonist is saved at the last moment from the end of the first game (which did seem more like an ending than a cliffhanger, but okay), and awakens from another recuperative time lapse to get back in the fight. Mechanically, it's fairly solid and fine - good quality, but nothing truly remarkable. Things change up slightly along the way, and you get access to "contraptions" that allow special movement: squeeze through small ducts, smash through weak walls, or ascend to high ledges. The level design doesn't really distinguish these much, though - most of th