Category Archives: Rant
Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void is Not Very Good
While everyone else was preoccupied with Fallout 4 or Rise of the Tomb Raider last week, it seemed to quietly slip under the radar that Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void had also launched on the same day.
You’d be forgiven for not caring. I’m not sure Blizzard did either. Pushed out on the same day as arguably the biggest release of the year, with very little marketing. There was the trailer shown at Blizzcon, which is how I happened to notice the date “November 10” ( I could make an issue out of complaining about the American dating format, but this isn’t the place. ), but it didn’t seem to have been promoted much.
As one of those deviants who really isn’t fussed about Fallout any longer, and since I don’t own an Xbox One, I figured I might as well get through it. Sure, the Starcraft story has always been corny, cheesy, and not at all well-written, but I had still gotten invested over the years, and I wanted to see how it wrapped up. The title already gives away my general opinion.
A More Sensible Quiet
Warning: Contains Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain spoilers regarding the character Quiet.
Not to mention just a general rant on things surrounding this matter. More on this after the break.
What Is Up With Dragon Age Inquisition?
In the last few weeks I’ve been playing Dragon Age Inquisition. I’ve probably put about 30 hours into the game at this point, if I remember the timer on my savefiles right. Because of certain issues I’ve played like a few hours a day rather than playing in any huge chunks like I’m liable to do with RPGs, and that’s what we’re here to talk about today.
See, I was fairly stunned with how poor some of the design decisions in Inquisition are, and for the past week I’ve had this growing urge to talk more about the technical and mechanical issues I have faced with the game. This article won’t be touching the story or characters or anything like that.
Additionally, I went into Inquisition right after completing Dragon Age 2 for the second time, so I have a very fresh basis for comparison.
Down The Rabbit-Hole: Gamergate
I can’t promise you any big insights here. This is basically just me trying to summarise and collect a bunch of scattered thoughts that turned out to be too long for any other reasonable format.
Right, so… it started with a bunch of guys upset that a woman had sex. As one of her sexual partners was a journo, and she a dev, they apparently concocted this whole notion of corruption going across the whole of games journalism, on the basis the people have at some point met other people. The idea that the people writing about videogames are actual human beings is apparently unacceptable. Keep in mind that no actual corruption has been proven. If you see the fact that sex happened as proof, you clearly have a very different idea of what sex is and what it’s for than I do. Note: sex is not, by default, a transaction. You typically don’t have sex in exchange for something else, that’s not how the world works. Typically people have sex for entirely different reasons. Like that they want to.
Parallels
This is far from the usual fare on this blog, but I couldn’t leave this one alone.
Before you start reading, here is a disclaimer: If you have come here looking for reasoned arguments and a calm reflection on the issue of the Isla Vista shooting, MRAs or feminism, you won’t really find that here. This post was written with a lot of anger, grief and pain over several sessions this week.
If you still want to read it, and still want to comment, feel free to go ahead. If you are just going to spout abuse, I probably won’t approve your comment.
News Reaction: Gearbox Have Bought the Homeworld License
Homeworld is one of my most beloved franchises of all time. The original Homeworld is probably my second favourite game of all time. I still go back and replay it and its expansion regularly. One of my very first blog posts was about the series. (I touched up the editing a bit before writing this. I’ve come a long way in the past 10 months.)
And now the infamous Gearbox Studios has gotten their hands on the license. What do I think about that? Well, you’re in luck, because I’m about to tell you.
Of Tiberium And Time Chapter 8: Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight
For chapter 7 discussing Red Alert 3, see here.
For the epilogue about the future, see here.
By Odin’s beard, how do I properly express my opinion on this game without losing all coherence? I guess I’ll start how I usually do.
We were in March of 2010 when Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight hit store shelves and digital distribution platforms. A mere year and a half after Red Alert 3, and about 3 years after Tiberium Wars. EA Los Angeles was still in charge of development, but I wonder if it wasn’t a different team from those who made the two previous games.
The reception was less than favourable. Reviewers were divided between giving it average and bad scores, the fans hated it (I’ve yet to find a single person who defends it, but maybe one will crop up) and it just seemed like every little warning sign that had appeared since EA took over finally bloomed and overwhelmed what should have been a fairly simple project.
Command and Conquer: EA’s Clumsy Dance
So I just read this, and I can’t help but feel increasingly dismayed at the state of the Command & Conquer franchise.
Let us go through this little article, shall we?
Why are you so wrong?!
You wanna know something that really makes me angry? Truly furious? Of course you do! It’s when someone says they like or love something that I despise.
Wulf Space 