Redwolf's Journal (continued)

 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...

 Last night seemed to be the climactic finale of the ongoing Godbound game. I have some thoughts. The previous session ended with a couple PCs and a shadowy person in the special chamber with access to divine realms and their vacated thrones (in the campaign, the gods were sorta kicked out of their positions, making things up for grabs). Once PC had already claimed a throne. All the others were waiting outside. At the moment the session ended, no one seemed aware that the shadowy figure was Beryn, big-bad threat of the campaign. This is where I feel weird about things, because that little detail came up OOC and it changed everything. If the PCs had been aware at the time, they probably would have started a fight outside the chamber when they saw him. That didn't happen. But suddenly because the players were aware, they wanted to be able to plan before the conflict (with downtime glossed over previous) so they could go into the next session guns-blazing and as prepared as possible. ...

 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...

Thoughts and emotions are weird. Sometimes something happens that really sticks more than it should. I sort of get why people can fly off the handle, even if I really believe adults ought to be able to rein those reactions in some. This requires some setup... A couple weeks ago at work, I noticed an email from someone at Adobe. It mentioned being a third attempt at contact and, sure enough, I had brushed off the previous two as likely-spam. When I got to looking closer, however, it appeared legit. Valid email. Email headers that all checked out. I've certainly never been asked by Adobe previously to confirm software assurance, but the license agreement(s) allow for it. A Teams meeting followed to discuss the process and scanning tools were provided. Of course, I've scanned those for possible viruses, checked what I could see of them, and reviewed the output. They all seem to genuinely be fairly simple - scanning computers for file name keyword matches to Adobe program names and...

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 ...