Redwolf's Journal (continued)

I had my eye on Of Ash and Steel for a while as a possibly-worth-playing second- or third-tier RPG. I've enjoyed such before in spite of a certain level of jank that is expected. In this case, other things lined up such that I didn't come in until several patches into its lifecycle, which is probably a good thing as it cuts down on bugs. The term I keep coming back to with this game is "high friction." You can't even access the map screen until Act 2, then have to find survey points to reveal details, and even then I wish there was more labeling. There are zero quest markers and the directions given range wildly from semi-useful to "you should just look this up outside the game if you don't expect to lose hours searching." Traveling around is limited to running (technically some teleporters open up in Act 4), which is especially painful in the early game when you stamina is particularly low. Heck, you even fall down if running through puddles until ...

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the best movie I've seen in quite a while. This comes from someone who is definitely experiencing a degree of superhero movie fatigue. And yet, I was not taken out of the movie once for the entire runtime. The movie may be couched in "hero fights villain(s)" trappings, but it leans more into the "and discovers things about himself along the way."  There are several story threads examined that I figured would be handled in a typical and simple way, but were instead treated more with the nuance they deserve - primarily how Peter handles connecting with people who magically forgot about him. I don't think it's too spoilery since that's hinted by previews and fairly obvious from where previous movies left things. The simple cop out would just be to have the magical amnesia overcome by the power of friendship. This movie, for the most part, does not treat it as such a simple matter, and that's good because it should be me...