Redwolf's Journal (continued)

 Kind of what it says on the tin. I quite like the ideas behind it, blending song and fame in as elements of fending off invasion from a demon world. There's a good energy to the movie and characters. The music is solid - I say this as someone who appreciates K-Pop beat, but is a long way from a connoisseur. The overall story works pretty well, touching on (if only lightly) themes of friendship, acceptance, fandom, and redemption. The demonic tiger and magpie duo are cute and fun as hell for all their fairly brief appearances.  My only criticisms are generally about missed potential - things that weren't bad, but left me feeling like they could have been much better. Overall, the movie felt rushed, with an intro that has visuals but is still telling more than showing and an ending that wraps everything up neatly only if you don't think much about implications. The animation and cartoony vibe sort of go with that, making the movie feel like "just a kids' show" ...

 Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon was in early access for a while and full-released just recently. Many people have called it some sort of new inheritor of the Bethesda-style open world crown or something. I'm less than convinced of that, though it's pretty good. It's got the first-person (with third available) gameplay in a large sandbox down well. I found combat and movement felt better to me than Avowed. Like Avowed, the map is made up of large zones (3 in this case) rather than fully open like the most known Bethesda games. Interiors/dungeons are still loaded separately. Spells being largely treated as weapons is fine, though feels a bit less magical. There's weapon/armor/potion/food crafting. There's weapon/armor upgrading (though not spells apparently). There's fishing. There's even in-game sketching. A lot of those systems aren't required or used as much as they could be. In fact, my biggest complaint about the game is that everything feels like it t...

I haven't watched an MCU movie in a while. I missed... let's see... Quantumania, Eternals, Marvels, and Falcon & Winter Soldier at least. I suppose I've just been a bit burned out on them or something. But, I decided to catch Thunderbolts*.  I worked pretty well. I wasn't taken out of it. I don't find anything that bothers me about it. I liked some of the characters and the interplay. But there wasn't anything that quite pushed it over to great either. The group had a sort of Guardians of the Galaxy vibe with anti-heroes coming together to support one another in a quasi-family. But they also kind of copied the "losers" speech from the original GotG movie, which feels a little cheap. The team being made up of a bunch of people who "shoot and punch things" is a little lackluster for a superhero movie. They're not terribly super or heroic. We have three peak-human supersoldiers, a hyper-trained assassin (and Yelena carries the movie and ...

So I was looking for something new to play around the holidays and one thing on my radar was Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. I was not quite interested enough to fork over $70, though. This brought me back to a short visit with Game Pass. $1 for a couple weeks? Sure, that I'm more than willing to do. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle proved to be a pretty good game. There's more focus on stealth through sections than punching fascist/Nazis, but there's some of both. I quite liked the open Giza segment with the lived-in feel and side activities, but it was immediately followed by a couple more linear levels that kind of deflated the game a bit. The final open area didn't quite feel like it properly opened back out. I feel like that might be because it's a map of taking a boat between smaller areas. The ending feels appropriately Indiana Jones, though it does leave one wondering "did all this effort really accomplish anything?" So the latter half of the...

 I feel like Mechwarrior 5: Clans is the result of someone asking "okay, now what if we made a game for Battletech lore fans?" It eschews the freedom of the previous MW5: Mercenaries in favor of a narrative game that is laser focused on some big, pivotal elements of the setting lore around the early Clan Invasion. I know enough that it's difficult for me to judge, but I feel like anyone not familiar with at least the basics of the Clans could easily be lost. Under the hood, the game looks better to me than Mercs - I believe there was an engine upgrade involved. As all the missions are crafted rather than generated, the maps and mission flow are easily as good or better than the best missions in Mercs. A lot of breadth is lost along the way, though. There aren't any random missions you can run. The mech roster available to the player is pretty limited by comparison (to the 16 front line mechs used by the faction at the time). The mech customization feels a little sti...

So yeah, overall I enjoyed the game. I think it's good, though there wasn't anything that totally blew me away or resonated with me so much that it would feel a travesty for it not to win "Game of the Year" awards (as has been the case the last couple years with BG3 and ER). If this is comparable to Persona games, I might keep an eye on them going forward, but don't feel the need to consume the back catalog. The gameplay itself is fine - competently done, but a little heavy on menus. I still dislike the time slot management aspect because of how it taps parts of my psyche that feel a need to optimize everything, but I found there was ultimately more than enough time to do all the bond quests, raising traits, monster hunts, side missions, and arena fights. The story and characters were really the strength for me, engaging me for the lengthy run time. I liked almost all the friendly NPCs and most of the hostile ones were understandable. Several of the plot twists al...

 Shadow of the Erdtree is more Elden Ring - one of the best games of recent years. Oh. More? Okay, I was initially disappointed by the map size. That turned out to be because you initially only see about a quarter of the overall map. So, size-wise, it's respectable. And there is a layered element to it. There are a few tombs and some more complex areas. Overall, I think there's a good amount of terrain, though there are a few areas that are underused and relatively empty: - The abyssal wood is atmospheric, but really too expansive for what's there with no riding. - The "finger" areas are fairly large for being important in one quest line with very little more than being littered with annoying enemies. - The shaman village feels like there should be something, anything, there. The exploration was still fun, though, and I liked finding ways to get places I could see. There is still at least one truly evil tomb designer out there, though, with that teleporter-filled,...

 Yeah, I find I'm using this less and less. I'd already pared down use to mostly commenting on entertainments and there's really only one or two people readily interested in such things anyway. But, I suppose I'm still subject to wanting to write down thoughts once in a while. The most recent thing on my mind is A Plague Tale: Requiem . I knew from the first game it wasn't going to be a happy experience. I didn't expect it to be quite so easy for me to define in one word, though. The game is bleak . The game follows Amicia and Hugo again (along with some new characters and a couple old ones) in seeking to find a cure for Hugo's condition connected to the supernatural plague rats. Things start off okay, then soon take a turn - and that sets the tone. A few times, the characters reach a new place that seems nice and peaceful and you just know it's going to soon devolve into a rat-infested nightmare. Only the most naive of players would have any illusion o...

 I watched Cyberpunk: Edgerunners over the last few days and I'd call it fairly good cyberpunk (even Cyberpunk) entertainment. I would have preferred if the over-the-top style was dialed back a bit in favor a touch more realism. That may be Studio Trigger influence. It's not unbearable, but I do have to suspend disbelief just a little more than my ideal and go along for the ride. The city on display is definitely Cyberpunk 2077 's Night City, down to crosswalks and cameos. The core characters fall largely into a range that I like. I would perhaps complain that Lucy may be *too* standoffish and David *too* lacking in drive of his own, but those are traits that may have some value in exploring. Unexpectedly, I found Rebecca to be the shining star of the main cast. She initially seems like little more than a psycho-loli, but by the endgame she displays a trustworthiness that is valuable beyond just about anything in the setting. And the story very firmly reminds that the cybe...

 I've had Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy sitting in my bought-but-not-played list for a while, so I finally got around to that. The gameplay is pretty much just okay. Exploration/traversal is a step above simply pressing forward, but there's not much in the way of real exploration. Combat involves a lot of running around and shooting with the rest of the team helping a bit, but mostly giving activatable abilities on cooldown. There just isn't really anything to elevate the gameplay, which is a bit sad. The story/characters are all great, though. This is not quite the MCU team, which may be a hurdle to overcome, but the charm and interplay is there. These GotG are a group, though still fairly new and still coming to trust one another as a family of sorts. The story builds up to a galactic threat from a very small incident with an unrecognized Soul Stone and the Guardians absolutely fail their way through much of it, but manage to be heroes in the end. The experience o...

Hard West 2 is a pretty good game and unusually accurately named. Like one or more other recently, it's a Western-with-supernatural game. It uses an action point turn-based tactical combat system with an overworld map scattered with some narrative events. The setting isn't remarkably unique, but the game works well. And it struggles with itself some, too. The companions you pick up all have a loyalty meter - not that they leave you, but unlocking tiers on the meter usually unlocks a certain minor bonus, a small bit of backstory dialog for them, and some map events are locked behind (or made easier/cheaper by) a companion's certain level of loyalty. Loyalty is often gained by map event choices as well - typically, you can favor one of two companions, increasing the chosen one's loyalty by one point. So, over the course of the game, you cannot cap loyalty on every companion, for better or worse. And in combat, you only bring four of your six total companions into a missio...

Top Gun: Maverick is a solid, feel-good-ish movie. I feel there are few too many parallels to the original. The scenario is pretty vague ("the enemy" has advanced aircraft, but is never identified) and contrived (precise trench run requirements). The romantic story thread is ultimately unnecessary, if not overly drawn out and it does contribute some to the Maverick-Rooster relationship. It could also probably stand a little bit of condensing in general and it is extremely predictable as things move along. Those are my gripes, but it's still quite enjoyable. Maverick's older and a newer generation of pilots is at hand. Instead of dealing with issues regarding his father, he's dealing with issues in relating to Goose's son, Rooster. You've got similar ego-driven pilots, so Maverick has to show them up, then make them work together. Things have to occur to make Rooster push past his problems. The confrontational asshole has to be one until he helps out. Once ...

Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters has too long a name. It's also a pretty good tactical squad combat game. It seems to capture the W40k atmosphere pretty well. That's something I appreciate in spite of issues with Games Workshop and knowing the game setting is ridiculously over the top with no real good (though some real evil). You control a battle-worn Grey Knight team returning from a campaign that gets coopted by an Inquisitor to fight an emerging plant-plague spreading through a sector.  Your space marines are pretty tough and capable, though not immediately quite as bad ass as you might expect. They level up from 1 to 9, gaining more abilities and such that make them more effective and tougher as you go. Similarly, your ship is in rough shape to start, requiring a resource (and time) to repair before you can even start making improvements. So while W40k Space Marines are generally better than their opposition, the game puts you in a challenging position right o...

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was an entertaining watch. I don't think it'll be one of the more memorable MCU movies for me in the long run, but it wasn't bad by any means. I have a handful of thoughts that are neither serious positives or negatives: - It is more reliant than most MCU movies on what-has-come-before. In this case, not just the first Doctor Strange movie or the Avengers movies, but also WandaVision . If you haven't seen that series, I imagine a lot less understanding and interest in a main motivator of the story. - Strange has a pretty good foil in the story who is rather blatant about being such, but lacks the self-awareness to see the differences (naturally). - I liked the "go on red" bit even if it was a little direct. And the Illuminati appearances were pretty good as well. - I can understand what is meant by articles saying the movie sets up a possible Secret Wars arc, but such things are talking about the 2015 Secret Wars...

  Weird West was a fairly good little game. The setting is pretty... well... weird West? "Cowboys and Indians" with magic and supernatural stuff added in. In-the-moment gameplay is decent, with areas to explore that can be rewarding and combat that tends to be reasonably simple and quick. I've seen it called an "immersive sim" a lot. I guess that's reasonably accurate, in that you have some opportunity to approach things in a few different ways and there are some choices that have impacts, but none of them felt very major or distinct to me. As you move from one chapter to the next, certain choices may change things (pigmen living among humans or being wiped out, for example) and yet that did not feel to me like it made a difference. Maybe that's because I only played through once, but still. I would also say the amount of time spent on the map traveling between areas did not do the pacing of the game any favors. The five-chapter format, where you posses...

 I did have some concern that an open world might undercut the distinctive flavor of a From Software "Soulsborne" game. In my opinion, it only managed to elevate the formula. And so, Elden Ring is a pretty great game. Though, as with any Soulsborne game, it's not for everyone. The game mechanics are tightly tuned. Combat feels good and responsive. The game also adds a dedicated jump button, which is welcome, especially when navigating environments. There's also a mount with a double-jump. The stats and weapons maintain that From Software magic where one or two increases can feel like a big boost. Enemies are varied and can go from threatening to routine as you become accustomed to their patterns and increase your capabilities. This is one of the hallmarks of From Software's games, and it's here in full force. One of the other pillars in my mind is the level design. Previous Soulsborne games are known for winding and weaving areas that interlock and curl back ...

Horizon: Forbidden West finished out its story solidly. I haven't done everything in the game (such as arena fights and collectable hunts), but with a vast majority of side missions done and the main story complete, that's good for now. The ending wraps up a few things and still leaves more to do and a lingering threat. I'm still struck most by the emotiveness and development of characters. There's a scene at the end where one character is absolutely prepared to leave and do his own thing, but watching the others there is a subtle (but apparent) dip of his shoulders telegraphing his decision to stay and help that is only stated a few moments later. There's personal bias, sure, but Forbidden West was awesome. And so I started in on Elden Ring over the weekend. About the only thing shared between the two games is the "open world" tag. In fact, some contrasting controller commands have been tripping me up on occasion. Crouching instead of running, for inst...

 So in a lull, I went back to Insomnia: The Ark , which I bounced off of before. I did better and got farther into the game, but it's still a little bit of a struggle. The "old school" isometric style itself isn't back. The dieselpunk aesthetic on a space ark works well enough. I'm fairly neutral on what I've seen of the story - not horrible, but nothing has really brought together the material scarcity setting and the sort-of-supernatural aspects for me. I ran into a few bugs and translation issues. The combat is not terribly great - being almost impenetrably difficult starting out (one or two hits can lead to death), but becoming so much easier with better gear and potential companions. A lot of time is spent traveling back and forth between zones on the "world map," which feels like a waste. Overall, it's a bit "meh" and I may get back to finish it eventually, but I'm not in any rush. On the other hand, I was quite looking forwar...

 I've still been enjoying Book of Boba Fett 's flashback Fett much more than the "present" Fett. The flashbacks show a resilience to the character, which is good. And his arc with the sand people, though predictable, is solid. As a budding crime boss, however, he seems clumsy and lacks the cunning of the bounty hunter who followed and headed off Han Solo back in Empire. But yeah, episode five has probably been my favorite, and it's basically a Mandalorian episode. The Creed is still kind of screwed up and the Darksaber is a big plot device with quirks all its own, but neither of those things that bother me a little are new. I liked the starfighter more than I thought I would, and "Mando" is still a character I like. I also went and watched SW: Visions . As expected of an anthology, it's something of a mixed bag, but I think overall I enjoyed more than I expect. The Duel: The artwork put me off a little at first, but I got into it. The wandering ro...

 Been a while, but it seems less "necessary" to put thoughts here in general. Still, I have a few I want to collect today on recent movie watching... Cloud Atlas I caught Cloud Atlas on Netflix, knowing it was a big release at the time. Having seen it... well... it hit me about as I would have expected, I think. I see a certain artistry in it. I appreciate many elements of the movie and performances. At the same time, though, it strikes me as pretentious. It's long, but could have delivered the same point about interconnectivity of people even if it dropped a couple of the story arcs. It doesn't feel like there is a lot of payoff for the build up in most cases. Overall, it's something I'm kind of glad to have seen, but have no intention to spent time rewatching at any point. Spider-Man: No Way Home Relatively spoiler free remarks: I enjoyed it. The movie has several things going against it in my book: Heavy reliance/use of previous story elements Inclusion of ...