Redwolf's Journal (continued)

When Epic pushed their storefront as a competitor to Steam, my gut reaction was negative. I dislike having to juggle more accounts on more platforms. I've "accepted" having to deal with things like Origin and UPlay games from certain publishers (though some of those can still be purchased and launched through Steam). But, other than through inertia, I'm not particularly invested in or supportive of Steam itself. With Epic offering to take a smaller cut of the profits, I can certain see the benefits to developers/publishers... It was just announced that Metro Exodus will be released exclusively (for at least a year) via the Epic store on PC. This is a game that's been on my radar (and up for Steam pre-order) for a long time now. The first two Metro games were fairly good FPS games with story. This one has been shaping up to be bigger and better. I was looking forward to the release next month. And now, I'm not. This feels weird. Exclusivity feels very anti-co

I pretty much loved the game. A lot of it is fairly "standard" open world fare. There are collectibles that can be traded for items (or item boxes). There are walking tower robots to climb and override in order to show more of the map. There are scattered bandit camps to be cleared and timed challenge hunting missions that can be optionally done. There are resources to collect for making ammunition and crafting expansions to the various storage bags. There are skills to unlock as you level up and earn experience. There are a ton of side quests around the map... What stood out to me, though, were the story missions and cauldrons. The latter are underground robot factories that tend to include a combination of platforming and combat resulting in a sort of boss battle and gaining the ability to override a new set of machines. Really any exploration of "old ones" facilities was extra interesting to me. I don't want to say too much on the main story (though perha

The latest reading I settled on revolves around the draconian aetherian Raz Arro. The story launches into prophecy about the character and sort of keeps laying that on. We know from that alone that he's fated to meet up with Syrah, the magic-wielding priestess, and accomplish all sorts of things. He's readily presented as nearly larger-than-life, which makes a lot of the threats in the books feel... less threatening. I think overall, I want to say the narrative feels rather blunt . It's the sort of thing I think would have appealed to me more as a teen, when awesomeness was great. As it stands, I don't rate the series as "great," but it's not bad either. There are some moments where characters look into philosophy/world view that edge toward noteworthy, but don't quite make it. While the plot is fairly predictable, I find myself reasonably invested in the main characters, so it's fun enough to read, making it above-average anyway. That's fine

Coming off RDR2 would probably make the technical flaws in any game stand out. It may not be perfect, but there is so much detail and polish there that it is very difficult to compete. Picking up Horizon Zero Dawn, I have felt this very distinctly. HZD is not a bad game technically. I'd say it's solidly good across the board, perhaps great in some areas. And yet, some of the animations and such that likely wouldn't have bothered me without the comparison do. It's sort of not fair. At the same time, though, RDR2 left me literally wishing for a game story that had some sense of wonder after the fatalistic resignation that exists in that game. HZD is actually pretty precisely on point with that. I wasn't immediately sold on some sort of post-apocalyptic future in which humans have reverted to tribalism, but there are super-advanced animal-like robots around. The base premise could go either way. The story of the game, however, has been unfolding like a well-crafted

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a crazy-massive game. I've finished the main story and am into the epilogue, so I think I have a pretty good feel for it even if I haven't seen everything. From a technical standpoint, it is impressive in just about every way. It looks good. About the only thing that regularly struck me as visually off was the appearance of a worn bandelier rarely fit well on the main character model. Everything else? Good or better. It sounds good. Throughout most of the game, I didn't really notice the music, but anytime I did, it fit. And the few times the music was pushed to the forefront, it sounded even better. I found no complaints about the voice work. The level of detail is where it gets into crazy territory. There is so much detail, with attention given to a great many things that probably aren't "worth it." A lot of it serves to boost the period feel and "realism" of the game, but there are so many things that could have been

What to say? It's been a rough several days in my head, bordering on miserable. "Depression sucks?" Yeah, that's appropriate enough, I suppose. I recognize it, at least. I don't have any reliable way to shake myself out of it, but it will pass at some point. I can probably blame the beginning on work. I don't really like to go into specifics of work here these days, but... Last week sort of rubbed in my face elements of the situation around my workplace that degraded my moral. The situation is not new, but I can usually get by without really thinking about it, but that wasn't the case this time, leading to multiple coworker discussions about it and far more mental time than it usually gets. It's a sort of ongoing, low-level frustration (as opposed to an anger-inducing immediate frustration) that makes everything just a little harder day in and out. Last week just brought it to the fore. And once something gets a foothold, depression (or at least my v