Monthly-ish Rambling - Engage!
Y'know, the more I read the cheeky little comments on the internet about introverts, the more I feel like they explain my life (even if they're regularly oversimplifications). Lately, I've often thought "I need a hug" while also acknowledging consciously that an actual hug would probably be more awkward than comforting.
So... on the entertainment front, let's see...
I played through Vampyr. That was one that was on my radar, but the timing of it made it slip below the level of "must buy upon release." In general, it pretty much matched my expectations - one of those games that's fairly good, but distinctly on a tier below the top.
Combat is sort of Soulsy (is that a word yet?), but doesn't quite have the responsiveness or feeling of deptch Dark Souls did. And with no fast travel, there's a lot of combat to wade through just while getting around, which felt a bit of a drag in the second half of the game. Some of the bosses can be very difficult, with a few cheap moves here and there, but a lot of the difficulty is based on how leveled you are, such that spending a few thousand XP can be the difference between getting stomped and winning. I got the feeling that most bosses could be handled even at very low level with proper timing and a crap-ton of patience, but I guess that's not me.
The other major gameplay aspect has to do with the social interactions. There are lots of side quests and conversation trees that you can dig into in order to keep districts healthy and make NPCs more valuable bags of XP-rich blood. There is a temptation there to kill them off, sacrifice district status and anything an NPC might offer, in order to get more XP, but even at the more difficult points I didn't feel it truly necessary. Given that, I was able to get what I think is the "best" ending even though I lost one NPC to an event I was unable to handle at the time due to the way sleeping (required to spend XP) advances any events you've triggered.
The period setting feels sound and engaging. While character animations in conversation scenes aren't great, they suffice. The only think I found off-putting about the story was the sudden blooming of a romance - I don't mind that it exists, but it really feels like character going from "stranger" to "you are my reason for living" over the course of a few days of periodic interactions is just too fast, especially for immortals. The vampire mythology weaves into English history in an interesting way, though that only becomes real apparent nearing the end of the game. Otherwise, the story of a doctor-turned-vampire trying to fend off an outbreak of disease and monsters works well.
It dragged at times, but I enjoyed most of it and I'm glad I played.
I've started playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider some (while dialing WoW back largely to daily/weekly stuff). So far, it's about what I expect as well - good looking and enjoyable exploration and action.
I also read Magic Triumphs recently, which I guess is the last of the Kate Daniels series itself (though there are offshoot books left and right, it feels like). It was about what I expect of the series at this point, honestly. That's not inherently good or bad. I would say that for a climactic confrontation, it rarely felt like the stakes were high for Kate herself. Power creep does that, I think, as she's grown from a sword-swinging merc to a not-quite-goddess blood witch leader of the factions of a city.
I am satisfied with the way things (mostly) wrap up.
Which leaves me casting about on Amazon from time to time looking for other books to read. In a serious "it figures" moment, I decided a few weeks ago that I could acknowledge the male fantasy and harem aspects of a series I'd written off before and at least try Star Justice. But then I found the entire series no longer exists on Amazon. Apparently, the author was flagged and removed a little while back with no real explanation. The running theory seems to be it was due to manipulation of page count in the Kindle Unlimited program.
As I understand it, reader can use KU to subscribe and read all they want that's in the program while authors are paid some amount per page of their material read. So simple changes in formatting that increase page count of a book can earn the author more. I've read there are/were also tricks like placing links at the beginning of a book to "additional materials" that send a reader to the end of a book, thereby making KU register the book as "finished" even if the reader didn't go through the whole thing. There's a definite spirit/intent vs. actual implementation issue here, though I have no idea where you draw they line.
It's unclear whether this particular author did any of that or even if that's why their material was pulled - it sounds like the message he got is very lacking in specifics. Some accuse, some defend, the internet's a murky place and I'm not going to make a judgment. But it means reading these books is currently off the table for me and there's no clear statement when or if they'll be back. And that is a little scary to consider given I almost never pick up physical copies anymore.
So... on the entertainment front, let's see...
I played through Vampyr. That was one that was on my radar, but the timing of it made it slip below the level of "must buy upon release." In general, it pretty much matched my expectations - one of those games that's fairly good, but distinctly on a tier below the top.
Combat is sort of Soulsy (is that a word yet?), but doesn't quite have the responsiveness or feeling of deptch Dark Souls did. And with no fast travel, there's a lot of combat to wade through just while getting around, which felt a bit of a drag in the second half of the game. Some of the bosses can be very difficult, with a few cheap moves here and there, but a lot of the difficulty is based on how leveled you are, such that spending a few thousand XP can be the difference between getting stomped and winning. I got the feeling that most bosses could be handled even at very low level with proper timing and a crap-ton of patience, but I guess that's not me.
The other major gameplay aspect has to do with the social interactions. There are lots of side quests and conversation trees that you can dig into in order to keep districts healthy and make NPCs more valuable bags of XP-rich blood. There is a temptation there to kill them off, sacrifice district status and anything an NPC might offer, in order to get more XP, but even at the more difficult points I didn't feel it truly necessary. Given that, I was able to get what I think is the "best" ending even though I lost one NPC to an event I was unable to handle at the time due to the way sleeping (required to spend XP) advances any events you've triggered.
The period setting feels sound and engaging. While character animations in conversation scenes aren't great, they suffice. The only think I found off-putting about the story was the sudden blooming of a romance - I don't mind that it exists, but it really feels like character going from "stranger" to "you are my reason for living" over the course of a few days of periodic interactions is just too fast, especially for immortals. The vampire mythology weaves into English history in an interesting way, though that only becomes real apparent nearing the end of the game. Otherwise, the story of a doctor-turned-vampire trying to fend off an outbreak of disease and monsters works well.
It dragged at times, but I enjoyed most of it and I'm glad I played.
I've started playing Shadow of the Tomb Raider some (while dialing WoW back largely to daily/weekly stuff). So far, it's about what I expect as well - good looking and enjoyable exploration and action.
I also read Magic Triumphs recently, which I guess is the last of the Kate Daniels series itself (though there are offshoot books left and right, it feels like). It was about what I expect of the series at this point, honestly. That's not inherently good or bad. I would say that for a climactic confrontation, it rarely felt like the stakes were high for Kate herself. Power creep does that, I think, as she's grown from a sword-swinging merc to a not-quite-goddess blood witch leader of the factions of a city.
I am satisfied with the way things (mostly) wrap up.
Which leaves me casting about on Amazon from time to time looking for other books to read. In a serious "it figures" moment, I decided a few weeks ago that I could acknowledge the male fantasy and harem aspects of a series I'd written off before and at least try Star Justice. But then I found the entire series no longer exists on Amazon. Apparently, the author was flagged and removed a little while back with no real explanation. The running theory seems to be it was due to manipulation of page count in the Kindle Unlimited program.
As I understand it, reader can use KU to subscribe and read all they want that's in the program while authors are paid some amount per page of their material read. So simple changes in formatting that increase page count of a book can earn the author more. I've read there are/were also tricks like placing links at the beginning of a book to "additional materials" that send a reader to the end of a book, thereby making KU register the book as "finished" even if the reader didn't go through the whole thing. There's a definite spirit/intent vs. actual implementation issue here, though I have no idea where you draw they line.
It's unclear whether this particular author did any of that or even if that's why their material was pulled - it sounds like the message he got is very lacking in specifics. Some accuse, some defend, the internet's a murky place and I'm not going to make a judgment. But it means reading these books is currently off the table for me and there's no clear statement when or if they'll be back. And that is a little scary to consider given I almost never pick up physical copies anymore.
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