#and played mass effect for the first time 6 years after it released

[wetcatspellcaster]

ok i don't normally make 'crotchety old lady on porch' posts. but i just saw someone on another social media website say they were feeling 'nostalgic' for their bg3 pairing and??? ....how????? it's not even been a year since release????? fan creators are still churning out content????

i know fandoms seem to cycle way quicker these days, but it's always so funny to me when people start to wonder why. the posts about 'the fandom is dying' are starting to circulate for bg3, and - not in a shaming way bc everyone is entitled to find new interests and new hyperfixations and also REST!! I'm not holding anyone hostage!!! - but... maybe it's because you barely gave it a chance to live??? by the time it had started to gather momentum you had already left it behind???

[pinkyjulien]

I really, really hate the "Female V is canon" vs "Male V is canon" debate that been popping here and here in the tags those past weeks

Cyberpunk 2077 is a Role Playing Game, there is no "canon" protagonist, that's the whole point. We all have a different playstyles, different stories and headcanons, our custom V is The Canon V of Our Own playthroughs!

After Phantom Liberty dropped, I've seen a lot of players, on Tumblr or Twitter, voicing their concerne and disappointment in how much more Female V focused the official promo, videos and even in-game credits became

I was one of them too, expressing my feelings multiple times, sometimes awkwardly, frustrated that Male V players were once again brushed to the side, because that's how it feels like, right?

Well, it might feels like it, but this isn't the case AT ALL, far from it. This is only what I would call a "Fandom Phenomenon" and I want to talk more about it a bit

I had a great conversation with a friend of mine who works in the game industry and it opened my eyes on the matter, and I've since been really interested in seeing RPGs statistics!

Because it's really, really important to make the difference between the Casual Player Base (majority of players) and the Fans / Fandom Base (minority of players)

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

I always been lurking in fandoms here on Tumblr, since Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and now with Cyberpunk 2077 and Baldur's Gate 3

First I want to drop some stats- might be completly wrong, but I'm only sharing my point of view here, in an attempt to explain why some people are frustrated with Female V being the focus (and why we shouldn't be!)

I think it's not wrong to say that fandoms are mostly occupied by women and fem-identifying individuals; fandoms are a safe place for players and fans to share their passions. Women are STILL HEAVILY harassed and hated in the gaming industry as a whole, it doesn't take a lot of digging to catch a vile comment on Twitter or on Twitch for example, you cannot go far without seeing someone either attacking or sexualizing them

This is a huge problem in the industry still, every games that release with a female protagonist get trashed- just look at the bullshit surrounding GTA 6 just because players will be able to play as a woman as an option

Fandoms are also safe for non-gender conforming people, non-binaries, trans people and queer men, but I think fem individuals and women are a clear majority, at least on Tumblr (only talking about genders identity here and not about being queer or not, not talking about sexualities or attraction) (not an official stat at all and only my point of view and experience from being on Tumblr since ~2012)

Now let's talk about Cyberpunk 2077- because this is my main fandom since 2020, and what prompted me to write this post in the first place

CDPR didn't share any stats recently, but it's REALLY SAFE to assume the MAJORITY of players are playing a straight Male V romancing Panam, followed by a lesbian Female V romancing Judy, but the player pools for both options are still majoritarly cis hetero men (and they are still the focus for AAA studios to sell their games, this is sadly just how it is)

However on the fandom side, Fem V was always the focus; virtual photography, mods, ships, OCs... She was always more popular than Male V, getting more interactions and notes and why trends like "Male V monday" were created and why there is still a lack of male V focused mods (non-binaries and trans fem folks and characters are also sadly under-represented in all type of content and art)

So, being yourself as a non-fem player, playing as a Masc V, seeing CDPR officially make the switch from Male V to Female V, when the space you've been in for the past 3 years has been overwhelmingly Female V focused on all front, was a bit of a punch in the guts; like I said earlier, I was reaaally frustrated with this too!

And I'd say it's "normal"? or at least "ok" to feel this way, it makes sense considering how little attention Male V in general get in the fans community

BUT. BUT... It's REALLY important here to realize how we sound and how we look like when we voice our frustrations on the matter; we sound and look just like all the misogynistic people over on Twitter who screams about "woke games" everytime there is a female protagonist in their "non political games". We have to remember that fandoms are suuuch a small part of the game industry

Baldur's Gate 3 recently shared their stats and this interesting tweet got into my dash

▶ tweet

Astarion is nowhere to be seen in the official most romanced companions statistic, but I'm sure a lot of people will agree that he's probably the most popular one in the fandom side!

Another stat here from Mass Effect and really interesting info coming from David Gaider about how the hardcore fanbase aka fandom's choices were WILDLY different from the casual / main player pool

▶ tweet

Getting my head out of the fandom bubbles and seeing the bigger picture, how much under-represented women still are in official medias (not talking about fan content) and how insanly misoginistic the game industry still is, both on the player and devs sides, helped me handle my own frustration on the matter, accept and even celebrate Female V being the focus for the Phantom Liberty campaign

With all that said tho, we all should be able to vent about the lack of Male, Masc and Non-Binary content in the fandom side, while still being aware of the industry state, it CAN co-exist! It doesn't make anyone a bad or misogynist person!

We are all humans and can be awkward and make mistakes, especially when voicing frustration or talking while in a negative mood. Let's educate one another in good-faithed manners when we slip instead of jumping to conclusion and throw accusations

Not gonna lie I kind of lost my train of thoughts and not sure how to finish this post, but I hope this can enlight some people on why CDPR made this choice!

Repeating this as a finale note; this doesn't mean that Female V is the "main" V or "canon" V . It's simply her time to shine, and it's well deserved! The industry needs it

[a-shakespearean-in-paris]

To 10 Games

Thanks so much for the tag @thevikingwoman! In no particular order and no particular criteria. Just games that have meant a lot to me for one reason or the other over the years.

tagging @wintersongstress @muses-circle @elveny @alyssalenko and anyone else. I have no clue who is here anymore, lol.

1. Resident Evil 4

Though I love the remake and plan on replaying it soon, the original has to be on this list for not only being nostalgic, but just for being a big staple of my time in high school. I played this game way after it released, but it was such a fun escape when I needed it. Ada and Leon were the first couple I really shipped and their dynamics still appear in my writing today, even subtly. honestly I think it's also fair to say Ada also taught me how to flirt. lol.

2. Kingdom Hearts.

This was the first game I played where the story impacted me enough for me to cry at the end. Yes it’s not exactly great and it’s very cheesy and weird, but I feel the need to include it because this was the game that made me realize how impactful the medium of games could be in terms of storytelling.

3. Dragon Age

I’m sure you knew this would be on here! I’ve spoken so much about it, but let it suffice to say it got me back into writing and now I’m a much better writer because of the things I’ve learned and developed along the way! Will give the edge to Inquisition over Origins on this one, but I feel like a lot of people don't know how much I replayed origins, and in fact played it all the way back when it first came out.

4. Tomb Raider Anniversary

Been thinking about these games a lot recently. I do love the remakes but I have to say I’m partial to this Lara, of Legend and Anniversary variety. She likes adventures and history and she explores and goes to cool locations, and at a time in my life where I was just starting to realize how much travel means to me, I got to vicariously travel. I also think these games are a good blend of puzzle, exploration, and action.

5. Red Dead Redemption 2

This was the game that solidified my feelings that story telling in games not only rivals that of other mediums, but sometimes can even overtake it. Playing RDR2 feels like reading a long epic novel where the characters become your best friends by the end.

6. Last of Us

It would feel weird not to have this game on here because I truly think it is one of the best games that has ever been made. I just like to pretend the sequel doesn’t exist. Cough.

7. Assassins Creed 2

I love so many of these games—odyssey is definitely up there as well but I have to give this one to 2. I played it when I was 16 after coming home from Europe for the first time and enjoyed the hell out of running around Florence after I had been there. I did also have fun playing odyssey again after being in Greece. Couldn’t find the place I jumped from in Paros I was so sad.

8. Okami

This game is very much pure nostalgia. beautiful cell shaded animation and compelling use of Japanese mythology.

9. Mass Effect 2

I don't quite love ME as much as Dragon age due to my own preference for fantasy/medieval, but I love 2 for where it took the story/characters. Overall, ME is one of the few, if only, pieces of SciFi media I like.

10. Witcher 3

If you put a gun to my head and told me to name what I thought the best video game ever released was, I'd say Witcher 3. I have fond memories of playing this game while eating pizza in college. I also just love the animations for this game. In a time of "realism is the way" in video games, to me it's the more animated style that is much more timeless. (this is another reason I like Baldur's Gate right now)

[macgyvertape]

So I re-installed Mass Effect Andromeda to see what it's like replaying it a 2nd time 6 years after it first released, after reading a post that argued that Andromeda failed to market the demographic shift from being Shepard where your leadership isn't really questioned to playing as young 20s Ryder sort of YA "coming of age" where you start trying to grow out of Alex Ryder's shadow and having your leadership constantly questioned.

I remember the broad strokes of the plots and I saw some of my previous posts about things I liked/disliked, but it's been long enough for me to forget enough things to make a fresh impression. The first impression being wow Ryder's lack of experience is really obvious in a way I don't think it was previously, and I've only had 6 more years leadership experience than when I last played it. For example the doubts they aired publicly on the bridge of the ship when seeing the Nexus is something that made me grimace and think "this should probably have been said behind closed doors".

Gameplay wise: the UI menu navigation is really clunky; it's tedious with how many menus you have to click through then backtrack when trying to assign skills to profils and then saving it in favorites. For how hard the game leans into gun crafting, there is neither a easy test range and the game only lets me compare weapons to what I have equipped vs letting me compare across sniper rifles to determine the best of 3.

Other things of note:

oh gods Ryder's face, it's unfair because I was just playing BG3 but default Ryder face doesn't look good but custom face looks worse.

I had a bug where the cursor stayed in the middle of the screen so if I’m installing a mod to fix that I might as well install some other mods: Shorter cinematics, quickloot, enhanced Nomad, fast mining, better squad-mates because the AI isn’t great on hardcore, free remnant decryption keys because I don’t have time to waste on puzzles, and mods to remove blueprint cost because I’m not going to waste time grinding loot boxes for crafting materials

Playing on hardcore very much makes it a cover shooter where bad positioning kills (often the ai companions). I added the mod Favorite Swapping Overhaul because it fixes combat being unfun by removing the cooldown period of the same abilities when you switch profiles

[turtlethon]

Turtlethon Extra Slices: "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III"

US Release Date: March 19, 1993 UK Release Date: August 6, 1993 

Following a two-year break, the Turtles returned to cinemas for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, the concluding chapter of their original live action movie run. With Turtlemania entering its downswing at the commencement of this project, producers Golden Harvest approached it as one last play to win over what they expected to be a declining audience and budgeted accordingly. Stuart Gillard was the director of this sequel.

Japan, 1603: A man is pursued on horseback by a group of armoured warriors. We’ll get back to him. In 1990s New York, the Turtles cavort during a training exercise to the mid-eighties ZZ Top track “Can’t Stop Rockin’”. If the second film’s saving grace was the continued advancement of the animatronics used to bring the team to life, it immediately becomes clear that all of that has gone out the window now: Jim Henson’s Creature Shop has been replaced for this outing by the All Effects Company, the life-like Turtles we once knew exchanged with bug-eyed, rubbery, downright unpleasant looking substitutes. Their synchronised dance antics go on for a painful amount of time until Raphael, frustrated by engaging in what he views as pointless training exercises while the team remain holed up in their subway hideout, hurls a sai at a hi-fi speaker. April – played here by Paige Turco, returning from The Secret of the Ooze – arrives bearing gifts, providing the Turtles with an opportunity to clown around some more. One of the items she’s brought is an antique Japanese sceptre, intended for Splinter. 

We return to the captured individual from the opening, Kenshin (Eidan Hanzei), who’s reunited with his father, the villainous Lord Norinaga (Sab Shimono). The young man is reminded that he’s forbidden to leave their castle, but protests his dad’s ongoing civil war against a group of neighbouring villagers. Their argument is interrupted by the arrival of Walker (Stuart Wilson), an Englishman flanked by a crew of rogues who forge an arrangement to provide Norinaga with ammunition, initially in exchange for rice, though it’s the Lord’s gold and silver that’s truly sought after. 

Following Walker’s departure, Kenshin is seen driving a group of priests out of a temple. He examines a scroll on which four kappa are illustrated – resembling the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – as well as a sceptre, the same one recovered by April in the future. In a flash of light, April and Kenshin are switched into each other’s places, even swapping clothes. As the Turtles struggle to make sense of what has just happened, April is approached by the hostile guards in the palace, who assume her to be a witch who has captured Kenshin, a situation exacerbated by her personal stereo accidentally playing the sound of “Conga” by the Barrio Boyzz to the bafflement of everyone looking on. She decides to play into this, telling Walker that she could “melt him into a puddle of puke” if she wanted to. This psych game turns out to be unsuccessful, and April is taken prisoner to be interrogated about Kenshin’s whereabouts. 

The Turtles hatch a plan to use the sceptre to head into the past and bring back April, but determine that in doing so it’ll require a temporal exchange with four people in ancient Japan of equivalent mass to themselves. To keep an eye on things while they’re away they bring in Casey Jones (Elias Koteas), returning from the 1990 film after sitting out TMNT II for being too darn violent. Michaelangelo adopts a pair of pyjama bottoms so that his counterpart won’t be naked after the exchange is made.

Arriving in ancient Japan, the Turtles find themselves in the place of a group of Honor Guards on horseback in the middle of a battle, struggling to find their bearings and ultimately landing in a ditch. Along the way Michaelangelo, wielding the scepter, is separated from the group. Mistaken first for being one of Norinaga’s men and then for a kappa, Mikey is knocked out and recovered by Princess Mitsu, who's leading the fight against Norinaga and Walker. She orders that Michaelangelo be carted off to recover in the village. 

Norinaga boasts to Walker about the superiority of his Honor Guard to any weapon and becomes enraged upon learning that they’ve vanished, alongside the sceptre. Meanwhile Leo, Donnie and Raph infiltrate the palace. After freeing April from her cage, the reunited group escape via a chute that ejects them out the side of the castle into another ditch outside. 

As the children of the village spot Michaelangelo without his helmet and are horrified by the sight of what they assume to be a kappa, the other Turtles and April adjust to their new surroundings, with Raphael noting how idyllic feudal Japan is versus the chaos and pollution of 1990s New York. The group are attacked by villagers assuming them to be aligned with Norinaga, and stop the fight by removing their masks to reveal their true identities. Mitsu puts two and two together and assumes they must be allies of Michaelangelo. 

The Turtles are celebrated as heroes by the villagers, and are asked by Mitsu to stay and help them fight back against the daimyo (a term for feudal lords of the period, referring here to Norinaga). Our heroes stress that they need to reclaim the sceptre before their opportunity to return to their own time is gone, but until then they agree to assist. 

Norinaga reveals the contents of his scroll to Walker, asking about the resemblance of the visitors to the four kappa depicted on it. The daimyo recalls how old priests told him his ancestors were defeated by these demons, who he believes have returned to confront him: to stop them, he agrees to Walker’s earlier offer, now willing to provide him with silver and silk in exchange for guns. Walker has upped his price due to the severity of the situation, now insistent on being provided with gold for his goods, angering the feudal lord. 

The Turtles scour the area on horseback in search of the sceptre, but without success. Later, they inform a mortified April of their new plan, which involves building an entirely new sceptre. This task won’t be handled by Donatello, but instead by a local blacksmith. In the downtime that follows, the Turtles grow closer to the villagers, with Michaelangelo working alongside a cook in an unsuccessful attempt to invent pizza while also developing an attraction to Mitsu. Meanwhile, Raphael forms a friendship with Yoshi, discouraging him from fighting other kids and teaching him the importance of controlling his temper. 

Checking in with events in New York, we see Casey and Splinter attempt to calm an increasingly on-edge Kenshin, who demands to be given the sceptre so he can be reunited with Mitsu. Casey cooks up a distraction by switching on a nearby TV, the assembled time-travellers mesmerised by the sight of an ice hockey game being broadcast. 

At Kumano Castle, Norinaga agrees to Walker’s terms, with the Englishman declaring that as the dungeon is becoming crowded his men will instead kill their enemies. Back in the village, the Turtles assemble around the new makeshift sceptre, but while arguing amongst themselves manage to drop the fragile item, causing it to shatter. Now left with no time to construct another before their window to return to the future closes, the Turtles are informed by Mitsu that Norinaga’s men will arrive in the morning, now heavily armed. 

Raphael checks in with Yoshi, offering him a gift of a yo-yo. The youngster is burdened by the knowledge that tomorrow the Turtles could die in battle but is assured that everything will be alright. To prevent Raph from being lost in the oncoming clash, Yoshi offers his friend an item he recovered in the forest: the original scepter. It dawns on the Turtles that Mitsu ordered it to be stashed under their home to deter them from leaving, placing them in a position where they’d have to stay and help defend the village. Yoshi’s grandfather reveals he was the one who stashed the sceptre, not Mitsu. Before they can patch things up, the Princess is captured by an ex-member of Walker’s crew named Whit (played by Elias Koteas in a dual role in addition to Casey), who challenges the Turtles to bring Kenshin to the castle in exchange for her return. 

Mitsu is offered up to Norinaga and accused of stealing the daimyo’s son. She counters by declaring Kenshin is “on a magic journey” and can only be brought back using the sceptre, which she announces is in Walker’s possession. The Englishman denies this is the case, and is allowed to leave. Later, he meets up with Whit, who accuses him of having kept the knowledge of the contents of the scroll a secret. 

The Turtles infiltrate the castle for a second time and free Mitsu, before leaving again intent on meeting up with April. Along the way, the team discover the scroll prior to being confronted by Norinaga. The feudal lord is about to finish off the Turtles himself until Mitsu intervenes, with Michaelangelo making the save to stop her being hurt. Mikey is cut in the fight, a sign that Norinaga takes as confirmation the Turtles aren’t demons after all, but rather mere mortals. 

Our heroes take on Norinaga’s men, ultimately emerging victorious. The green teens watch as the damiyo makes a bungled attempt to escape on horseback. He soon finds himself face to face with Leonardo and asks to be finished off. Rather than killing his enemy, Leo cuts off a portion of his hair before trapping him under an enormous bell. Still more challenges emerge for the Turtles as Walker has captured April. She reunites with the team as they face the prospect of being assassinated by a crew of heavily armed Englishmen, to Whit’s horror. 

Walker is psyched out by the Turtles, who goad him into shooting them himself, insistent that he won’t do it as he’s afraid of being haunted by demons down the line should he be the one pulling the trigger. Enraged, the villain fires a cannonball which Leonardo dodges by retracting his head. The sight of this shocks Walker and his men, providing the Turtles with an opportunity to disarm their enemies. 

The Turtles split up to corner Walker, surrounding him on the roof of the castle. He tosses the sceptre, using the distraction as an opportunity to mount an escape while Michaelangelo narrowly manages to catch it, but a fireball launched via catapult by Whit destroys his rope, sending him plunging into the sea to his certain demise. 

As Casey tries to round up the Honor Guards ahead of the time exchange – who have now ventured outside to enjoy the sights and sounds of New York, such as uh... the 1985 Italo-disco hit “Tarzan Boy” by Baltimora? - the Turtles begin to have disagreements about whether they even want to return to their own time at all, with Donatello and April missing their modern conveniences, while Raphael and Michaelangelo feel strongly about remaining in 1603. The situation becomes urgent as Kenshin’s patience runs out and he activates the sceptre ahead of the Honor Guards returning. Finally, the Turtles agree to go back, but Mikey is separated from the group in the moments before the teleport begins. 

Arriving back in their home, the Turtles and Splinter are shocked to discover Michaelangelo didn’t return, the remaining member of the Honor Guard panicking and attempting to escape with the sceptre. Moments later he vanishes as well, Michaelangelo emerging to reunite with his brothers. Back in ancient Japan, Kenshin is reunited with Mitsu, the two embracing as mood lighting kicks in. 

Michaelangelo is saddened by having had to make the difficult decision to leave Mitsu in the past, but is cheered up by Splinter placing a lampshade on his head and talking about the Elvis Presley movie “Blue Hawaii”, something Mikey himself did at the beginning of the movie. We end the same way we kicked things off as the Turtles perform another synchronised dance, this time to Technotronic and Ya Kid K’s “Rockin’ Over the Beat”. 

While the first TMNT movie is widely celebrated and the perception of the second could be considered mixed, there’s no getting around the fact that the third is generally viewed as a stinker, one of several Turtles project from this period that nearly everyone now agrees to be a mistake alongside “We Wish You a Turtle Christmas”, “Turtle Tunes” and everything connected to the “Coming Out of Their Shells” tour. The simple fact of the matter is that a movie in which the Turtles interact with a bunch of new characters in ancient Japan wasn’t what the remaining kids who made up the bulk of TMNT’s fanbase wanted in 1993. It’s tempting to imagine a third Turtles film which throws everything and the kitchen sink in as a course correction after The Secret of the Ooze went out of its way to avoid introducing Rocksteady and Bebop: maybe this time we could have both mutants make their belated debut alongside Krang, the Technodrome, and a bunch of other recognisable elements drawn from the cartoon, the comics and even the toy line to win an increasingly jaded audience back. Such a film would have been an ambitious project that would have required an adequate budget and the craftsmanship of the Creature Shop, but what we got instead was an adventure with a relatively modest scope, created with the expectation that it would generate minimal returns, and it shows. It’s a bitter pill to swallow. 

Okay, okay, but... hear me out. Yes, TMNT III is a disappointment, but I don’t think it’s entirely irredeemable. Like season seven of the cartoon, which aired later in the same year, this outing benefits from the fact that by 1993 the moral panic surrounding the Turtles had largely died down, parental groups and the press moving on to condemn Night Trap and Mortal Kombat instead. With no-one paying attention, this time around we get a film where the Turtles fight a lot, even if the use of their trademark weapons remains only nominal. I assume the production got away with this, in part, due to the action scenes representing historical violence. As a result at least we get to see the Turtles cut loose in a way that we maybe wouldn’t have had the film instead involved them fighting in their home turf of New York. (As with the first two outings, scenes involving the use of Michaelangelo’s nunchucks were cut for the initial UK release, and just like those earlier films the excised content was restored beginning with the DVD release in the early 2000s.) 

There are other elements to appreciate about TMNT III beyond the emphasis on action. While the Turtles fire off one-liners and pop culture references here to the point where it can become grating, they’re also afforded moments to reflect and consider the differences of the era they’ve found themselves in to their own. Michaelangelo and Raphael’s arcs, in which they form connections with Mitsu and Yoshi respectively, allow both to demonstrate their ongoing personal growth; there’s a sense that both return to New York with a newfound maturity they didn’t have when they left. 

In the Turtlethon entries for the first and second movies I neglected to mention that both received comic adaptations, published by Archie. The same is true again here, the comic version of TMNT III belatedly published in November 1993, closer to the film’s arrival on home video than it was to its cinematic run. Dean Clarrain and Chris Allan from the then-ongoing TMNT Adventures series adapted the story for print and did an incredible job: in fact, unless you’re particularly hung up on experiencing Turtles III as a movie, I’d go so far as to say you should just read the Archie version instead. The shoddy Turtle designs that encumber the story on celluloid here are transformed into wonderful, engaging characters, and their quips are by necessity pared down to fit into sixty pages. Writing this entry would have been a far greater chore for me if the Archie adaptation didn’t exist to provide me with a different perspective on it. 

Well readers, it’s come to this. Together, over the last two years, we’ve meticulously dissected three films and a staggering 184 animated episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, reflecting on the highs, the lows, and the many moments that were downright inexplicable. Now, a mere eight episodes remain. We’ll start checking them off next time, as season ten commences with “The Return of Dregg”. 

[aldings-stash]

Mass Effect 3 Thoughts

This post has been in my drafts for almost a year! After doing the other games, here’s my thoughts on the 3rd. It’s hard to approach this without tackling the ending so be warned.

By 2012 Mass Effect was a huge franchise. It’s hard to believe now but there were comics, mobile games, books and even a anime film out in preparation for the final game of the trilogy.

There was a lot to live up to and the hype was real!

When it released it was well received at first, with great gameplay, a high-stakes narrative and fun time-killer of a multiplayer. But as time progressed things turned sour as people approached the ending. Originally, after your 3 flavours of explosion, the Normandy crashed and it cut to credits. Given the time spent with the series it was an abrupt and unsatisfying resolution and made you think you’d nuked the Galaxy by the detonations from the Mass Relays. People also had issue with the final reveal being dumb or illogical. It’s difficult to say the proportion that was annoyed but there was enough backlash that BioWare were compelled to add an Extended Cut to put a more positive spin on things and grant closure to some of the decisions made.

These days people have mellowed out but it remains a bit of a dent on an otherwise decent track record. It’s possible new players will not even wonder what the fuss was about, but that’s how it was at the time. As always, a simple story told well is better than something that tries to be clever and falls short. No one likes to have their hero’s self agency taken away, or to feel lectured by the writers. Don’t get me wrong, despite all this bashing it really is a lot of fun and should be played to get the full experience.

Graphics: 9/10 - The best looking of the games. Lots of new animations and everything is very well put together. Pre-rendered cutscenes have improved a considerable amount and conversations flow a lot better.

Soundtrack: 6/10 - Many missions have no music at all! Many tracks just aren’t memorable or capture the energy of ME2, or are too forced: [this is the sad music, feel sad].

Squad: 7/10 - Feels a bit of a step back after ME2′s huge roster but everyone gets a bit of closure, which is nice. No combat chatter anymore. They have a lot of comments mid-mission but once they’re done they’re silent. 

Story: 7/10 - Poor, rushed opening and shaky final mission. Could be better in middle places, like the Geth are suddenly whitewashed to be suspiciously innocent and harmless despite their past. And why would you pick the option to not cure the Krogan? However, the bulk of it was good and gathering forces and resolving major plot points feels satisfying.

The ending still feels off but if you talk as little as possible to the holo-kid and go to Destroy it felt ok. Leviathan DLC is excellent and essential for added context but doesn’t effect the ending in the way it needed to. Frustrating because it otherwise lays down the perfect groundwork to both explain and deal with the Reapers. All it needs is a Shepard who knows the full story to shout down the kid who is obviously a rogue AI with a God complex and self-replicating fleet. You shouldn’t trust it one bit.

If you could point this out, and re-frame it so that it doesn’t feel like the Reapers are giving permission for Shepard to win, it would be much more palatable. So skip the dialogue, don’t ask for details and go blow those feckers up!

Gameplay: 8/10 - Super fun shooting mechanics, with improved movement, gun modding and excellent weapon variety. Would be the best in the trilogy except the enemy variety is poor. Most of the game you’ll fight Reapers or Cerberus, and they won’t get all their roster to face you until halfway in.

Overall: Generally good but more inconsistent than the other games. This is where you see the cracks in what was old BioWare, though they were definitely rushed by EA. Manage expectations and it is still a very fun game for the most part.

ME1 Thoughts

ME2 Thoughts

[felassan]

Dragon Age development insights from David Gaider - PART 1

This information came from DG on a recent SummerfallStudios Twitch stream where he gave developer commentary while Liam Esler played DAO, specifically the mage Origin. I transcribed it in case there’s anyone who can’t watch the stream (for example due to connection/tech limitations, data, time constraints, or personal accessibility reasons). A lot of it is centered on DAO, but there’s also insights into DA2 and DAI. Some of it is info which is known having been out there already, some of it is new, and all of it imo was really interesting! It leaps from topic to topic as it’s a transcript of a conversational format. It’s under a cut due to length.

Note on how future streams in this series are going to work: The streams are going to be every Friday night. Most likely, every week, they’re going to play DAO. Every second week it will be Liam and DG and they’ll be doing more of this developer commentary style/way of doing things, talking about how the game was made as they play through, covering quirks and quibbles etc. Every other week, it will be Liam and a guest playing a different campaign in DAO, and Liam will be talking with them about how DA changed their lives or led them into game development, to get other peoples’ thoughts on the series (as it’s now been like 10 years). Some of these guests we may know, some we won’t. When other DA devs are brought on, it’ll be in the DG sessions. They hope to have PW and Karin Weekes on at some point. Sometime they hope to have an episode where they spend the whole time going through the lore.

(Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6)

[wording and opinions DG’s, occasionally LE’s; paraphrased]

DAO’s development actually finished up around April 2009. They then put it on ice for around six months before release. Human Noble is DG’s favorite Origin. It’s one of the ones he wrote. He also wrote the Dalish Origin as well (Tamlen is his doing ;__;). DAO’s temp name during development was Chronicles. DG has never played any of the DA games after they were released. He played them pre-release loads of times, when they were half-broken or incomplete etc. This stream is his first time seeing everything played after completion.

NWN: Hordes of the Underdark was the first game where DG was a/the lead writer, in charge of other writers, as opposed to a senior writer. It was pretty well-received. In the fall of 2003, BW were just finishing up HotU when James Ohlen came to DG to talk. BW had been having issues during the development of NWN with the IP holder for D&D Wizards of the Coast, so they were interested in starting their own IPs that they would have ownership over (and also for financial reasons). JO said to DG that one of these new IPs would be fantasy and one would be sci-fi. He knew that DG was more fantasy-oriented, and so asked DG if he wanted to take this on. DG was down, and the first thing to figure out was what that fantasy IP was going to be.

JO gave DG an atlas of European history, which he still has, and said that he wanted him to make a fantasy world that is reminiscent of medieval Europe and reminiscent of D&D - “make it like D&D but not, file off the serial numbers really well”. This worked for DG because he was pretty familiar with D&D and there were also lots of things that he didn’t like about it and wanted to change. So DG went off and for the next six months worked on creating a setting, beginning with documentation and the map. This was kinda strange because they had no idea at that time what their story would be. JO was very interested in having a “genetically evil” enemy in the setting (like an equivalent to orcs). DG wasn’t a big fan of this and his initial go at the setting omitted this (i.e. darkspawn were not a thing) and was a lot more realistic. JO insisted on adding them later on.

This period of development wasn’t actually a good process. There were other people who were working on the project who were designing the combat side. Looking back, DG feels that they should have put their heads together a lot sooner. The combat designers had various ideas for various prestige classes and subclasses, and DG would be like “these are nowhere in the setting [lore]”. He tried his best to add a few of them after the fact, which is why we see things like DA’s version of the bard archetype. The combat designers and artists originally had a vision in mind of a game that was much more along the lines of the type of fantasy you’d find in the Conan the Barbarian world - bare-chested barbarians, sorceresses that show a lot of skin, a grimdark world with barbarian hordes. They were just assuming that’s what it was going to be. At this point in time DG had never thought, “Oh, maybe I’m responsible for communicating my ideas to them” - he’d never done this role before and was just told to go create the world. He created world-building documentation and would send out emails saying “I’m making this documentation, please go ahead and take a look”, not learning until later on that nobody outside of the writing team really likes reading such documentation. He learned tricks later on like making the docs more accessible, less dense and wordy, and overall easier to peruse.

There was no real ‘vision holder’ for DA. Mass Effect did a much better job of that. Casey Hudson was the project director and the vision holder for ME, and he had the power to enforce a set vision of what was and was not ME. ME therefore ended up having a bit more of a coherent vision. DG was in essence the vision holder for DA, but he didn’t really have the authority to enforce it on the artists. The DA teams ended up spending a good 3.5 - 4 years of the ~6 years of DAO dev time going in circles, not exactly sure what they were going to make, the various people working on it having different ideas of what ‘kind’ of fantasy they were going to make. The writing team were leaning towards LoTR; the artists were leaning towards Conan; at one point one of the project directors was leaning towards a point-and-click Diablo-style action adventure; and nobody was overriding anybody else.

The fans who hang out on the forums and in similar places have a very different idea about what kind of game they like and want to play versus the telemetry BW get from the public in general. As an example, fans on the forums tend towards playing non-humans and feeling that playing as a human is boring. Forum-polls reflected that, but BW’s general public-telemetry shows that around 75-80% of the playerbase played a human in DAO. Elves were at 15% and dwarves 5%. In contrast, in the core/forum-based fanbase, the human figure dropped down to 30%.

DG originally wanted Zevran to be a gay romance (he has talked about this before). He asked JO if he could do that pretty early on, thinking of Jade Empire which had same-gender romance options which were really popular. BW were surprised about that, and DG had no idea that the JE team were going to do this. For DAO, he had an idea for an assassin character. He had been reading about how the CIA and KGB would often recruit gay men to be their assassins, as they didn’t tend to have family ties. DG thought this was really interesting. JO was cool with the idea on a conceptual level, but thought that the work that would end up going into it would be better served if those characters could be romanced by both male and female PCs. Zevran and Leliana weren’t intended to be bi, they were “bi out of convenience”, but at the time these sorts of things (representation and such) didn’t enter into the equation as much as it does today. DG wrote Zevran in his head as being romanceable by men.

DG would ask the hair artists, “Why all the mullets?”, because he never understood that, and he’d get “a sort of shrug response”, and an indication that “it’s easier to model, I guess?” Having hair which is loose, in the face, in locks, coming over the shoulders etc wasn’t really supported at this point by the tech or the engine. Hence, they ended up with like five different versions of mullets. On the subject of the engine, for the first half of development they were using an upgraded version of the Aurora engine from NWN, and it was not good. Several years in they decided to switch. Trent Oster was in charge at the time of making a new proprietary BW engine. At the time it wasn’t ready yet, but the DA team decided to grab it, use it and hammer it into the DA engine. That engine had “so many little weird quirks”, like lighting on skin not working properly and looking bad, and one of the issues was hair. It was supposed to be BW’s proprietary engine but it really wasn’t optimized for RPGs and didn’t include a dialogue system. They had to custom-build the conversation system. (At the time Trent didn’t think BW should be doing RPGs anymore, which is a whole other story of its own). DG recalls programmers complaining about things in the engine that weren’t ready for ‘prime-time’. Even compared to games released concurrently, DAO’s graphics were a bit dated.

For the worldbuilding, they had an internal wiki and they kept everything on there. They ended up with a lot of legacy documentation on there very quickly. Eventually they solved this by hiring an editor whose sole job it was to wrangle the documentation. DG started work on the setting in the same manner in which he’d embark on starting a homebrew - ‘so like, first, here’s a map, oh, I like this name, vague ideas, a paragraph on each major nation, a rough timeline of the history, expanding, and it just growing from there’. After about six months, they brought on other writers, and by then he had around 50 pages of documentation. This 50 pages was a minute amount compared to the amount they had generated at the time of release. Originally, they weren’t sure where in the world specifically the story would take place, so DG made sure to seed potential and brewing conflicts throughout Thedas. They settled quite quickly on the new Blight starting in Ferelden. Once they established that, the writers went to town on taking Ferelden specifically and blowing it up detail-wise. Jennifer Hepler was in charge of the dwarves and Orzammar. Mary Kirby was on Fereldan customs and traditions.

The first version of the setting was more grounded in realism, almost like a post-fantasy. The dragons and griffons were extinct and a lot of the things that were thought to be fantastical were thought to be over with. During development, they started clawing these things back. They brought back dragons because the game was named Dragon Age (lol). DG was approached like, “Hey, we named the game DA, can you bring back dragons and weave them into the story more powerfully?” Wynne’s writer Sheryl Chee had a bit of an obsession with griffons and was often like ‘omg, griffons :D’, and this is the origin of Wynne’s dialogue with the Warden about griffons.

KotOR was the first time BW had tried to do a game that was fully voiced-over. For KotOR, BW sent the work of casting, direction and so on down to another studio in California called Technicolor. BW had little say in the process then and when they got it back, “it was what it was”. By the time they got to DA and the first ME, BW had a good system down for recording and VO had become an important thing in games at the time. BW are really one of the premieres for this, a lot of actors really like acting on BW games as they get a lot of space to act where they wouldn’t normally be able to do so otherwise. DG has learned a lot from Caroline Livingstone on how to encourage the best performance out of an actor. For DAO, DG worked together with the various lead designers and Caroline to decide on the auditions, casting etc. This was one of DG’s favorite things to do.

Gideon Emery as Fenris, GDL as Solas and Eve Myles as Merrill were times where DG had written the character and then went to Caroline and said “I have an actor in mind for them, can you check it out?” These were specific times where he was able to secure the actor he wanted. This didn’t always work out, for example there are times when actors aren’t interested or have no time due to scheduling conflicts or were too expensive etc. Eve and GDL were DG’s roommate Cori’s idea. Cori was a big fan of Torchwood/the actors from Torchwood, and worked as an editor at BW for a long time. Gideon was DG’s idea after playing FF12. For DAO, DG didn’t have any specific ideas in terms of actors. Casting Morrigan was the longest, most drawn out process.

The Circle went through a whooole process during worldbuilding. Initially, mages in the game weren’t supposed to have any “fighting magic”. The restrictions were originally such that in the lore, they didn’t teach mages that. Mages weren’t taught any magic that could kill people, only ‘indirect’ forms of magic that could support others. However, [during what sounds like] playtesting it was asked “Why can’t I cast a fireball? I just want to cast a fireball”, so the writers had to go back and rework how magic in the lore worked completely.

Flemeth was originally going to be voiced by Shohreh Aghdashloo, and she was totally on-board, but unfortunately because of DAO’s development delays, she was unable to attend the new recording time as she had a conflict in her schedule (she was filming House of Sand and Fog). Shoreh was quite disappointed about this and her family had been so excited that she was going to be in a video game. When the movie was finished, Shoreh came back to BW and let them know that she was still available, and this is how she ended up in ME2. For a while they were trying to find an actress with an accent that authentically mirrored Shoreh’s. Out of the blue around this time, Claudia Black’s agent sent BW an audition tape of her. At the time Claudia hadn’t done any games but wanted to get into it. The tape was of Claudia doing a beat poet rendition of Baby Got Back. DG still has this tape. DG was a big fan of Farscape and on listening to the tape, it clicked right away in his head that Claudia would be perfect for Morrigan.

The Fade ended up being a big irritation for the writers. They wanted the PC to be able to assume different forms and such while in there. A lot of this stuff proved too difficult for the combat designers to work out, and so it ended up getting changed a lot. They had a hard time coming up with gameplay that could work in the Fade. The mage Origin is DG’s least favorite of the Origin stories, as he’s really dubious about the Fade section in it. It didn’t work out like how they had pictured it in their heads. By the time they got to DAI, that’s when the Fade really looks like how the writers first described/envisioned it. By this point the artists were more keen to give it a more specific feel. DAO was made at a time when ‘brown is realistic’ was a prevailing thing in games dev.

The experience of a mage in the world isn’t represented or conveyed very well to the player when the player is a mage. The experience of the player when they’re playing a mage or have a mage in their party doesn’t really match up with how the world lore tells them how dangerous mages can be - for example, how they can lose control and so on, we never really have an example of a PC mage struggling with being taken over by a demon. This was originally supposed to be a subplot in DA2 for mage Hawkes, in one of the last cuts. In Act 2, mage Hawke was originally slowly being tricked by a demon in their head that they thought was real, only to realize at the last minute. Mouse the Pride demon in the mage Origin is the only time in the entire series that they really ever properly demonstrated how demons can fuck with [PC] mages. Also, PC templars were originally supposed to have a permanent lyrium addiction that they needed to ‘feed’, but this was scrapped as the system designers weren’t keen on it and felt that it was essentially handicapping the player. 

Mages were originally also not supposed to be able to deal with pure lyrium (it would ‘overload’ them). There is a plot where mage PCs run around touching lyrium nodes to refill their mana bars. On this DG was like “Wtf is this?” The designers said that it works, and DG said “but it flies in the face of the lore”. This instance is an example of how the DA team was working where the various departments (writers, artists, designers etc) all had their own ideas about how the game and its world would work and never overrode each other (see above). DG feels that DAO is a little contradictory in that way. It’s only after the game came out that a lot of the people on the team really “bought into” what they’d put forward. This got easier as they went on, with people involved buying then into the things that make Dragon Age, Dragon Age. At one point, not everyone on the team was even aware of those things.

DG relates that originally, they would ask the artists, “Ok, can we get a village?” and said village once created would be quite generic and non-specific to DA. The writers would try to relate how things are in the DA world and list things that would be found in a village like this specific to the DA world, and the artists either didn’t read it or had their own ideas (DG isn’t sure which), and nobody was around to tell them not to do that and that they should do it differently. Everyone having their own ideas like this is why we ended up getting something that is this sort of “cobbled together half-Conan half-LotR mish-mash”, and after a while this sort of became DA’s “thing”.

Initially, BW had concepts drawn up for a lot more different creatures. After they went in circles for those years and consequently ran out of time to do all the models, they had to cut these concepts down more and more. Demons were among the ones that were the first to go (this is why we have situations like a bereskarn as the Sloth Demon in the mage Origin). The original concepts for things like spirits of Valor and Sloth demons were really good. Early on, JO made a list of D&D creatures that he liked. He picked the ones that they were thinking of doing, sent them to DG and said to make a “DA version of this”. For example, D&D succubi essentially became Desire Demons. Desire Demons were originally patterned off Sandman, neither male nor female yet really alluring, acting more like a genie and trying to ferret out mortals’ inner desires (which are not necessarily sexual in nature), without being overtly sexual. The artists’ version came back and that was basically the model seen in-game. The writers were like “What is this, this is nothing like the description?” and the artists responded that on the list from JO, it was included, in that you had to click on “succubus” to get to the Desire Demon description, so they had just read “succubus” and done their version of a succubus. The artists did loads of great work, but this was one of the instances were DG was like “???” By then, it was too late to change it. The writers were able to encourage them to make Desire Demons a little more fearsome, so that made it in at least.

The mage Origin was one of the more contentious Origin stories. It had like 4 different versions written of it over time. It was often the case that BW would hire someone, and writing an Origin story was their first test. Three different writers came in and wrote a version of the mage Origin and those versions just didn’t work. Finally they passed it to Sheryl Chee and she wrote it. The Origins were the parts of the game in general that were written/rewritten the most often. There were several others that got written that they discarded. 

Duncan was slated for death from Day 1. When DG writes a story, the thing he does first is pick out the big emotional beats that he wants, such as deaths. He decides these ahead of time and the stuff in-between comes later and is more often changed. Oghren was also originally supposed to die, but this ended up getting cut. DG related a story of how Oghren came to be: At the time, there was a phase JO went through when he thought everything had a formula that it could be done by. One of these ‘creative forumulas’ was that all such IPs had a two-word name that they’re known by, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Dragonlance (being Dragon-Lance). This is how ‘DA’ and ‘ME’ came to be. One of the formulas he wanted to implement was how to distill the ‘comedy character’, like Minsc or HK-47. These characters were very popular with the fans and JO was certain that there was a way to figure this out to create one for DA. At the time, DG argued with him a lot about this. JO insisted it could be done. DG was originally supposed to write this character but ended up not doing so. JO came up with a list of comedic archetypes and had DG write a blurb about what kind of character each could be. These were then sent out to the team who voted on which was their favorite. This process eventually resulted in an archetype basically called ‘The Buffoon’ (think Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin, the kind of guy people laugh at because he’s such an oaf).

At this point ‘The Buffoon’ wasn’t named or made a dwarf yet. JO came to DG to write him, but DG said there was a problem which is that he hates this archetype. Homer and Peter are characters that he despises. DG is a professional writer, but this was comedy (outside of his areas of strength), and he felt the best he would be able to do is write a character who makes fun of this archetype and lampshade that. Comedy is something that has to come from within the writer. Oghren was given to someone else, and he ended up getting rewritten again anyway. By the time they were working on Awakening, DAO had not yet come out, and the assumption prior to the game going out was that Oghren was still going to be the most popular character from among the followers. The comedic character that ended up being the most popular along these lines was Alistair, which was interesting as he wasn’t intended as a comedic character, “so shows what we know”. DG was dubious that Oghren was going to be popular, because “he was kind of pathetic, honestly”, but that was the thinking at the time. Thinking he would be well-loved is why he was in Awakening.

On Alistair, any character DG writes is going to be sarcastic. At the time DG had made it a sort of personal challenge to recreate Joss Whedon’s dialogue patterns in his characters. Alistair was a sort of mish-mash of Xander from Buffy and maybe Mal from Firefly. DG wanted to see if he could do it, so Alistair was kind of quippy and self-deprecating. DG never really considered this to be Alistair’s main personality feature, but when other writers wrote him, they often had him doing this, as they liked the trait so much, and so this is how Alistair ended up as he did.

On dwarves, the dwarves being cut off from the Fade is very much baked into who the dwarves are as a race. There’s a specific reason why. This has been hinted at so far and it’s likely to come up in the future. DG had various ideas for some things that he wanted to include with the races or the way the world works etc. Some of them ended up never happening or some are mentioned only as part of the lore (templar lyrium addiction never coming up in gameplay is an example of this). Dwarven history and the nature of the dwarves is one of the things that survived pretty well though. DG calls Jennifer Hepler “mistress of the dwarves” and says that she did a really detailed, amazing breakdown of their history. After Jennifer left it was Mary Kirby, and DG feels that they did a good job of maintaining how dwarves were, in terms of both how they’re often presented in fantasy and yet also quite different in DA. Orzammar is one of DG’s favorite plots all together. You can really tell that Jennifer Hepler really enjoyed the dwarves and brought a lot of love to that plot.

DG draws a distinction between DA fans and the unpleasant people who harassed Jennifer Hepler.

They managed to keep the Tranquil in. There was a while there where they were going to be cut. At the same time, DG regrets that they couldn’t solve the making of the player more aware of how mages are dangerous, thing. Players could make a cogent argument like “they’re not that dangerous, look at me [mage PC]” and the writers were like “well... yeah, that is fair”. It was a case of showing one thing and the player experience of it being another. DG feels that this made the templars come off worse than they are. DG feels that they are being massively unfair and too extreme in their approach to the problem, but the problem itself is a real thing. He feels that there’s some merit/truth in the argument that mages are oppressed, but he looks at it more like an issue like gun control rather than as treatment of oppressed people, saying that we don’t have an example in real life of oppressed people who can explode into demons and cast fireballs and so on.

There are some funny pronunciations that worked their way into DA, and the reason for a lot of them is as follows: the writers had to create a pronunciation guide for VO, because otherwise you end up with a lot of inconsistencies. (Some did still slip through). The guide was online, and if you clicked on a word, an audio file for it would play. Jennifer Hepler was in charge of this and did a great job, but has a really strong NY accent, and in some cases the ‘NY-ness’ of her pronunciation endearingly worked itself into things (the way Arlathan is sometimes said is an example of where this happened sometimes).

Sometimes the writers trying to communicate the “hotness” of a character to the artists didn’t go smoothly. The writers would sometimes say things like, ok, this character is a romance, they need to be hot, and the designs would come back looking “like Burt Reynolds”, and the writers would be like “???” And then a character that wasn’t particularly intended to be hot, as in that wasn’t mentioned at all in the descriptions of them, would come back “accidentally hot”, and the writers would be like “Why couldn’t you have done this when we were asking for a character that was meant to be hot”, and the artists would be like “What?? He’s not hot”. And this became a thing (lmao - this discussion was prompted by DG being asked “Was Duncan meant to be that hot?”, for context). Some of the artists were so paranoid about their [in]ability to judge actually-hot characters that when it was time to pick an appearance, like for Alistair, they gathered up all the women at BioWare, and DG (“resident gay”) into a room to show them an array of faces and bodies like “Is this hot? Is this hot?” DG and co would sit there like, “How can you not tell? Is this a straight man thing?!” Anyways, this is why oftentimes we ended up with characters who are accidentally hot.

Over time, the writers realized that the way they communicated to artists needed to be managed better. The words they would use would have different connotations to them the writers, than what they did to the artists. For example, for Anders’ design in DA2, he was supposed to be “a little haggard”. When DG thinks of haggard, he thinks ‘a little tired, mussed hair, looking like you’ve been through some shit’. But the artists based on that produced concepts with super sunken cheeks, looking like he’d been terribly starved. The writers needed to develop a specific vocabulary for communicating with the artists, as artists think in terms of how something looks, but writers are thinking in terms of what the character “is”. Anders’ description talked about his history a lot, and the one visual-type word that jumped out was “haggard” due to its visual connotations. “A lot it came down to the writers being up their/our own asses.”

When they got to DAI, they had figured out that the way to get best results on this front was /not/ to have the writer go off and develop a long description and pre-conceived notion of what the character looked like in their head. In such scenarios artists don’t feel that they have much to contribute to the process or an ability to put their own stamp on who this character is and make them interesting to them (the best, most interesting characters are when people at all stages of the pipeline properly get to feed into it). They learned that the better solution was to bring the artists in earlier, and to give them little blurbs, and not name the character but give them an ‘archetype’-sort of ‘name’. For example, Dorian was “the rockstar mage”, “cool”, “Freddie Mercury”. The writers wouldn’t be sure that a particular concept would ‘hit’, so at this stage they would offer an array of options and sit the artist down and walk them through the concepts. The artists would then provide a bunch of sketches and it would go back and forth, with both taking part in the character creation process together. For the first two games, the writers were “really hogging” this process to themselves. They got better at not doing this and better at communicating with the artists by DAI.

There were a lot of arguments about how mages in DAO had a lot of specific lore words like “Harrowing”, “phylactery”, “Rite of Tranquility” etc. There was concern that this would be too confusing for players to understand and that it was too complicated. DG says that thankfully he put his foot down and pushed for this stuff to be kept. A lot of fans assume that as lead writer DG had all this influence, way more influence than he could possibly exert on a team. He wasn’t even a lead, he was a sub-lead, under a lead designer. He only had so much say. If the lead designer or lead artist wanted to do something differently, often there was not much he could do. Hence he had to pick his battles carefully, choose the important ones to fight. The mage vocabulary thing was one of these.

Templar Greagoir’s name is pronounced “Gregor” and it comes from a place in Alberta near where DG lived.

Codex entries are usually one of the last things that get done in a project like this, and so all of that kind of textual lore comes in super late and is super punchy as by then the writers have written so much and are exhausted. They had to find a way to make this process cute or interesting or fun for themselves, which is why a lot of entries are quite fun to read. Sometimes a writer would make a joke for banter [irl], and it would end up making it into an entry.

Only Morrigan and Duncan got unique body models in DAO. The companions all have custom-morphed heads but not custom-morphed bodies (Morrigan not included here). This is why every model has a necklace or a collar right at the point where they had to be attached to be a body. These sometimes used assets that couldn’t be used by the PC but were not unique to that character. Duncan probably got a unique model because he was in a lot of marketing/promotional material. Qunari were originally conceived as having horns.

Most people didn’t even finish DAO once (public telemetry again here), only approximately 20-25% actually did. The devs try not to read too much into this kind of thing, but the telemetry does tell them where a lot of people stop playing the game permanently (they call these “drop-off points”). One of these points in DAO is the Fade during Broken Circle. Sometimes when people interpret this data they involve self-serving biases, but it was generally accepted that the Fade there was too long, too complex, not interesting enough, etc. [source]

[Part 2]

[Part 3]

[Part 4]

[Part 5]

[Part 6]

[‘Insights into DA dev from the Gamers For Groceries stream’ transcript]

[imakemywings]

I use my free time for good things!

1. Obviously choosing “a” favorite game was impossible, so I just went with the game I’ve replayed the most (outside childhood games) which is definitely DAI...I have I believe 8 playthroughs, most of which are complete. I’ve gotten pretty fast at it!

2. Darkest Dungeon I bought almost solely because I saw an article about it in a magazine and went “WOAH that art looks cool!” and I was right and I don’t regret it.

3. I’m not sure what games have had a “personal impact” on me tbh but it seemed wrong not to mention Mass Effect as a franchise given how into it I was very recently.

4. Yeah I loved Unity. I got it well after the clusterfuck of a release and I thought it was one of the most visually beautiful games I’d played.

5. I don’t hate Undertale--it’s a cute game and I see why other people loved it. I just personally didn’t find it entertaining (And believe me I tried, so many of my friends were super into it and I wanted to be too TT_TT)

6. ACII is one of those games where I feel like it maybe felt groundbreaking at the time it was released, but by the time I played it I was very underwhelmed, after hearing it hyped for so many years.

7. Even at the heart of my Sims obsession I admitted that describing the game, it sounded boring af. And yet...

8. Objectively, I suck at Crusader Kings. But it’s still fun!

9. I have never genuinely enjoyed a first-person shooter before or since BioShock.

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[framecaught]

[S] Cascade After the Death of Flash

Most of us familiar with Homestuck are familiar with [S] Cascade. This seminal flash animation concludes Homestuck’s fifth act and is still considered by many fans the most important, climactic animation in the comic (even ahead of its successors [S] GAME OVER and [S] Collide).

Many of us may also be familiar with the extraordinary circumstances of the animation’s release. A user called Vivi on the now-defunct MSPA Forums made a commemorative comic documenting the occasion, which, to my view, really captures the essence of the release-mythos. In short: On October 25th, 2011, Homestuck updated after a year-long hiatus with a thirteen-minute flash called [S] Cascade. As fans raced to watch it, the influx of pageviews crashed Newgrounds, the site where the flash was hosted. Hussie temporarily uploaded the flash to megaupload.com. Megaupload.com crashed. The Homestuck website crashed; the Homestuck forum crashed; livestream.com crashed as fans who had “gotten in” tried to stream the video; and, finally, the Homestuck fandom crashed Twitter. [1]

Today, it is hard to imagine Homestuck fans crashing Twitter. Back in 2011, Twitter was a lot smaller, and Homestuck was a lot bigger. But it wasn’t just the long year of building anticipation and the mad scramble to watch the flash which cemented [S] Cascade as one of Homestuck’s most iconic pages. The Flash itself is aesthetically ambitious beyond any previous flash in the comic [2]. Not only does it combine detailed illustrations contributed by fan collaborators with an absolutely fire soundtrack; it manipulates the traditional Homestuck “panel” in a completely unique way. 

Among the various stunning moments in the flash, I find Bec Noir’s dramatic release of the red miles one of the most memorable. The YouTuber Precision F-Strike captures my same reaction when I watched [S] Cascade for the first time in this video around 1:20, exclaiming: “My screen is getting bigger! My screen is getting bigger!!” What made this “expanding panel” trick so dazzling upon my first watch? The release of the red miles marks the first instance in which [S] Cascade modifies the traditional size of the Homestuck panel. By no means does it mark the first time the comic as a whole has deviated from its own standard panel size; elongated panels, multiple panels, and links-to-panels have all been regular features of the comic up to this point. However, [S] Cascade is the first page to modify the panel size during a Flash sequence, changing in motion. This novelty, combined with the surprise of the effect, sets the reader up to expect a flash of epic proportions—and [S] Cascade delivers.

After expanding for the red miles, the panel never quite shrinks down to its original size. For the rest of the animation, the plot unfolds within an extended panel-space ripe for dramatic exploitation. At 2:53 the panel shrinks back down to show Bec Noir’s journey to post-reckoning earth, then grows again to get back into the action. At 4:22 it shrinks and breaks into multiple panels to illustrate Bec Noir wreaking destruction in the troll’s session. The proliferation of these moving rectangles mimics a film reel, reminding us that we have technically already seen these events, but underscoring their importance as a conglomeration of memories for the trolls. 

Transitioning to the human sessions’ Derse at 4:38, the panel blows up again to its traditional size and adopts an exterior “wallpaper.” This “wallpaper”, as I’ll call it, shifts with the content of the Flash for the next few minutes. It shows the exterior of Derse as Rose and Dave fly through, then it takes on the red and yellow colors of the quest beds; the black and white colors of The Tumor; the red and blue colors of the “mass of two universes” device; and finally the fleur-de-lis pattern of the Felt mansion. During the sequence between Sn0wman and Slick, at 6:08 Slick’s bullet actually pushes out the corner of the traditional frame, extending it back into the full extended-panel space. Then again, during the climactic moment at 10:02, panels grow and shrink and replace others, flashing in time with the soundtrack, drawing the plotlines together and anticipating the finger-frame with which Jade creates the Fenestrated Plane. The animation finishes with John and Jade busting through the Fenestrated Plane, which cycles through the comic’s own panels, culminating the meta-referential panel distortion with this final act of “escaping” from and through the Homestuck panels themselves.

As a result of the extended panel-space established at the release of the red miles, we get to experience the majority of [S] Cascade’s action (and gorgeous artwork) on an enlarged canvas. Just as we go to the cinema to see movies on the “big screen,” Homestuck deploys its own big screen at the start of the flash. Then, all the growing and shrinking between segments contributes to the narrative flow of the flash. The “shrunk” portions leave room for the panel to blow up again once the next climax comes. I think the “wallpaper” effect employed mid-flash is especially effective, as it allows Hussie to continue utilizing the extended panel-space while keeping the frame small in advance of the Sn0wman’s death, at which point it expands again. It’s also important to note how Hussie manipulates our other preconceived expectations, aside from panel size, to enhance the animation’s drama. The website itself gets a special [S] Cascade color scheme and header. In the unfamiliar layout of this Cascade-ified website, readers prepare themselves for the best and the worst—then their expectations are thrown off balance again, for good measure, with the expansion of the panel and the big-screen execution of the flash. With all of this in mind, it’s easy to see how [S] Cascade generated such a massive response.

As you may be aware, as of January 2021 Adobe has discontinued its support for Flash Player, with all major web browsers following suit. This means it’s near impossible to run flash content on any normal computer, and it won’t be long before flash only exists in archival projects. Luckily, the new denizens of the Homestuck website have worked to keep all of the story intact despite the changing media landscape, with some interactive flash pages broken down into videos or screencaps and animations converted to embedded YouTube videos [3]. If you are interested in experiencing Homestuck’s flash content as originally released, a fantastic project called the Unofficial Homestuck Collection has worked to archive the entire comic in a custom browser which natively runs Flash (all you need is 4GB of space on your computer and some time for the assets to download). This archive has been invaluable for my art historical investigation into the comic [4].

As it stands, though—unless forced by a concerned friend to download The Unofficial Homestuck Collection browser—new readers to Homestuck can’t experience the Flash games and animations in their original format. The same goes for folks rereading the comic. In the case of [S] Cascade, significant losses must be mourned. The effect set off by the red miles (the surprise and novelty of your “screen getting bigger”) is hampered by the embedded YouTube format. When you open the [S] Cascade page, now, it presents you with a mid-flash thumbnail, a YouTube play button, and YouTube framing elements such as a watermark and title (pictured above). You can’t avoid already seeing the extended panel-space of the flash page with this new format. Even though the panels within the embed begin in their “shrunk” state and grow to fill out the video frame, the expansion can never be a surprise to the same degree it was in the original Flash format. Flash animations were unornamented by watermarks, titles, and scrubber bars. They were so indistinguishable from regular static panels and gifs in terms of size, image quality, and framing that this gag (pictured below) actually worked. The indistinguishable quality of flash animations from regular gif panels created the necessary environment for [S] Cascade to surprise us by suddenly growing and filling the screen. That drama is inevitably lost in the flash’s new format.

On the other hand, the YouTube format presents some obvious benefits for readers. For one thing, you can now scrub back and forth in the animation, pause it, and even see its timestamps. This is beneficial to any reader who wants to revisit key moments and enormously helpful for someone like me analyzing the animation in detail. I would argue that the inability to pause the animation in its original format contributed to its monumental quality—readers couldn’t pause to breathe, and the comic took merciless control over the pacing—but of course the inability to pause something is also terribly inconvenient. Furthermore, the video format solves an issue that plagued Homestuck readers (including myself) throughout the comic’s lifetime: it’s inaccessibility on mobile devices. Adobe Flash famously failed to transition into the world of mobile touch-screens after Steve Jobs decided not to support it on the iPhone, writing a letter denouncing the software for its errors [5]. With Flash no longer functioning, the reformatted pages in Homestuck are all compatible with mobile devices, meaning readers can now enjoy the comic while lying sideways in bed like we always dreamed. Among other considerations, Adobe Flash was a complete pain to work with [6] for many large-scale projects, and its technical limitations cannot be ignored. On the whole, the death of Flash speaks to a greater evolution in our 21st century media sphere—the growing importance of mobile browsing, the shift from web-hosted games to apps and game launchers, and the increasing “convergence” of platforms into all-purpose devices. While much of Homestuck’s impact and charm resulted from its innovative use of Flash, like the example I’ve given in [S] Cascade, the unique bubble of history in which Flash existed should be fondly remembered and effectively preserved as we continue to navigate the comic’s legacy. 

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Happy 4/13! If you liked this post, you can follow the blog on tumblr for updates or, if you don’t frequent tumblr, sign up for the mailing list to receive an email whenever I publish a new mini-essay!

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[1] I unfortunately can’t say I was around for the original [S] Cascade release (I started reading the comic about two years too late). However, even during the Gigapause, what I’ve called its “release mythos” was still widely retold. The events themselves are documented here: https://fanlore.org/wiki/Cascade_(Homestuck). Thank you to @imploder for having saved Vivi’s comic on tumblr!

[2] Hussie wrote about the making of [S] Cascade on his tumblr, now archived here: https://wheals.github.io/tumblr/tumblr.html#about-eoa5-part-1. This gives some insight into the massive undertaking. Previously, the longest animation in Homestuck was [S] Descend, an animation which Hussie calls “Cascade Lite” in his author commentary in Homestuck Book 3. [S] Descend was the first animation to significantly incorporate multiple plotlines moving along at once. Hussie describes this narrative style as an “action-collage” (also in the Book 3 commentary). [S] Descend was also (to my recollection) the first time Hussie significantly incorporated assets from contributing artists into an animation, which he explained was partially to keep the production moving faster. Ironically, during the production of [S] Cascade, organizing contributors turned out to be much more of a hassle—but ultimately Hussie deems the myriad of captivating art styles “a big plus” in his post.

[3] Although some are completely broken, now :(. RIP silly flute refrain.

[4] I seriously cannot overstate how grateful I am for this project. 

[5] This article does a great job of explaining the history of Adobe Flash and its eventual demise.

[6] Hussie goes over some of the issues he had with the software in the post referenced at [2]

[dianapocalypse]

Alright y’all, with the release of Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, it’s time for me to share my playlist for the entire trilogy.

I’ve refined this over like six years so scientifically speaking it’s probably good right. oh also it’s four hours long. so if you have a road trip or a boring job, this one’s for you. disclaimer, it’s entirely possible I have garbage taste in music. I also missed some characters and moments because there’s 65 songs here and I am merely human.

If you don’t have the patience for four hours, I recommend starting at track 45 and listening to the end, as the Mass Effect 3 portion is the strongest in my opinion.

UNDER THE CUT FOR DESCRIPTIONS WE GO!

FIRST MOVEMENT - MASS EFFECT 1

1. Atlas - Coldplay Eden Prime

“Sometimes the wire Must tense for the note Caught in the fire, say oh We're about to explode“

I really like the atmosphere of this song. It’s ominous, but also somehow hopeful, and makes me feel like Something Huge Is Coming.

2. I Will Not Sing A Hateful Song - Constantines Paragon Shepard

“But I was also born and raised To always speak and listen clear To know the last sound that I make Could be the last sound that I hear“

OK, listen, I think this song is about vampires, and I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be a metaphor or not. But I think this is a great song about controlling one’s temper, about knowing that you have to Rise Above the parts of you that want to lash out sometimes to get things done and have peace. Seeing as how paragon Shepard, to me, always seems like they’re three deep breaths away from snapping, but manage to keep it in check, it fits them to a T.

And also maybe they’re a vampire.

3. Hard to Kill - Beth Crowley Renegade Shepard

“So I let the rumors Turn me into a legend 'Cause I'm only human But a good myth is hard to kill”

This one’s a recent addition, but holy cow, I love it for Renegade Shep, particularly an Earthborn or Ruthless, but it works for any of them.

4. We Own the Skies - Five Iron Frenzy Joker

“My hands are bleeding where they often crack The stars will sometimes burn with longing Through the choking black Of night shifts piling each against the next”

This really vibes with Joker’s backstory for me, his super driven serious self in flight school, contrasted with who he is when he can fly a ship. He’s the best pilot in the goddamn fleet and I love him.

5. I Just Wanna See - Smash Mouth Kaidan Alenko

“Mister moon checkin' on how y'all livin' The stars all winkin' at the day that's dimmin' I just wanna see”

This song fits into his reactions to first showing up at the Citadel and his former romanticism about living in space. Ironically, it’s a song about Earth, but I feel like it works well for him. Also, Smash Mouth absolutely sounds like the kind of music Kaidan would listen to, no I will not be taking questions or constructive criticism.

6. Don’t Give Up - Noisettes Ashley Williams

“She's got a talented face and a suitcase Ain't got no desire to go no place In her case she's got no desire with her hand in the flame say's she don't feel the fire “

The energy of this song is just perfect for Ashley’s no-nonsense chip on her shoulder attitude.

7. About As Helpful As You Can Be Without Being Any Help At All - Dan Mangan The Council

“I was thrown in the boat/Cast out to sea Friendly with waves/There were sharks below Hungry for me/So I dangled my leg”

I mean, the title says it all.

8. The Captain - Guster Anderson

“Courageous, just like the captain Marching forward with no doubt in his head”

I have adored this song ever since my friend played it for me, and it’s the ultimate mentor-protégé jam for me.

9. Secret Agent Man - Johnny Rivers Garrus Vakarian

“Here's a man who leads a life of danger To everyone he meets he stays a stranger Oh, with every move he makes another chance he takes The odds are he won't live to see tomorrow”

I have to poke a little fun at Garrus and how seriously he takes himself in Mass Effect 1. I romanced him across four playthrus, I’m allowed!

10. I’m Getting Too Old For This Shit - Kill Lincoln Urdnot Wrex

“This random apathy/I swear it's killing me But I guess it's all the same, till the devil knows my name”

I don’t know ANYTHING about this band, but this song fits Wrex’s disillusionment with the Krogan well, plus, like. The title. (And also, that he secretly DOES care what happens to the Krogan.)

11. Bird Song - Juniper Vale Tali’zorah nar Rayya

“I want to dance on the horizon line But there is something I am caged behind I have a heart made for take flight But I'm low, so low”

I adore this song and the sound of Juniper Vale in general. The etherealness of this one, combined with the youthful optimism, feels very Tali. The line about ‘something I am caged behind’ works well for the suits, too. This one’s especially good if you’re a Talimancer!

12. 11. Green Garden - Laura Mvula Liara T’Soni

“And I’ll fly on the wings of a butterfly High as a tree top and down again Putting my bag down, taking my shoes off Walk on the carpet of green velvet”

I really like this song’s vibes and I feel like Liara fits it well, particularly in ME1, before all her youthful optimism is stripped from her. The scenery descriptions feel very Thessia, too.

13. Feed Me (Git It) - Little Shop of Horrors The Thorian 

“The guy sure looks like plant food to me!”

Do you get it. Do you get my joke. It’s because the Thorian is a plant that eats people. (I’m not funny)

14. Blindness - Metric Matriarch Benezia

“I was a blind fool, never complained All the survivors singing in the rain “

I don’t love the use of blind here as a negative, albeit metaphorical, descriptor, but I think this song fits Benezia’s indoctrination and death well. If you have suggestions for another, though, let me know!

15. Technologic - Daft Punk Saren

“Buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, mail, upgrade it”

I just think it’s Neat

16. Watershed - Vienna Teng The Reapers

“ While you were building your empires I was still sleeping”

I think this is the song that inspired the entire playlist. Vienna Teng sat down and decided to write a song from the perspective of a natural disaster, and it’s so ominous and gut-wrenching.

17. Hourglass - The Hush Sound Virmire

“This is how it ends We believe every lie and say we'll be friends How long will it last? Before we scratch all the scripts and we rework the cast “

hahahahah rework the cast get it because you have to pick who DIES

Seriously tho I really like this song for Virmire and that moment of choice that feels like it lasts 100 years on some playthroughts.

18. Pompeii - Bastille The Siege of the Citadel

“ And the walls kept tumbling down In the city that we love”

Throwback to when this song was on the radio like three times an hour. Which is around the time I made the first draft of this playlist, incidentally! It’s such a good Final Battle Jam for the Citadel, and the part about “if you close your eyes/does it almost feel like nothing’s changed at all” I think work really well for Shepard in this sequence. Shepard knew the Reapers were coming, had been fighting them all along; this attack on the Citadel is just retreading familiar territory for them, as horrifying as the war being brought to their doorstep is for the Citadel’s citizens and the council. James Vega has some good dialogue about that kind of thing in ME3.

INTERLUDE THE FIRST

19. Starships - Nicki Minaj The Normandy Crew

Starships were meant to fly Hands up and touch the sky

I like to have a little fun OK

20. Gravity - Yoko Kanno The Death of Commander Shepard

“Am I alone? is somebody there beyond these heavy aching feet still the road keeps on telling me to go on”

Welcome to mood whiplash, it’s my specialty! This is the part where you die. I think it also works for her coma very well, when she’s just drifting between life and death, not sure what’s going on, but something keeps trying to pull her back to the world.

SECOND MOVEMENT - MASS EFFECT 2

21. The Phoenix - Fall Out Boy The Lazarus Project

“Hey young blood, doesn't it feel like our time is running out? I'm gonna change you like a remix Then I'll raise you like a phoenix “

this song has no right to go as hard as it does and if  you think it’s melodramatic shut up

22. My Body Is A Cage - Peter Gabriel Commander Shepard

“I'm living in an age Whose name I don't know Though the fear keeps me moving Still my heart beats so slow “

This works particularly well if you romanced The Virmire Survivor, but this song captures the energy of Shepard freaking out bc they are trapped with Cerberus, because Cerberus rebuilt their body from the ground up. That jarring, caged feeling is so palpable in ME2 that when they gave me back Joker the first time I played, I BURST INTO SOBS from relief.

23. The Lady is a Vamp - The Spice Girls Miranda Lawson

“That's all in the past, legends built to last But she's got something new”

Listen. She’s a bond babe. Handbags, heels and pistols rock. She’s got class. This is a song about Miranda. That is all.

24. Kryptonite - 3 Doors Down Jacob Taylor

“ I watched the world float to the dark side of the moon After all I knew, it had to be something to do with you “

This one’s about the Vibes for me. Also can apply to his past relationship with Miranda. I’m also super showing my age on this song, oof haha.

25. Stable Song - Death Cab For Cutie Colony Abduction

“Rows of deserted houses all Our stable mates highway bound “

I really like the mood of this one for showing up on the very first abducted colony, the eerieness and sadness of it all and Shepard’s resolve to do something about it.

26. Konichiwa Bitches - Robyn Kasumi Goto

“I'm so very hot that when I rob your mansion You ain't call the cops, you call the fire station”

THAT COUPLET ALONE MAKES THE ENTIRE SONG. I love how playful and cheeky it is.

27. Seven Nation Army Glitch Mob Remix - The White Stripes, Glitch Mob Zaeed Massani

“And I'm talking to myself at night Because I can't forget Back and forth through my mind Behind a cigarette”

Pretty sure we all had this on some playlist or another when it came out, and it’s the perfect Badass With A Grudge song.

28. Science is Real - They Might Be Giants Mordin Solus

“ And when a theory emerges Consistent with the facts The proof is with science The truth is with science “

This one actually got added by my wife to replace a song that wasn’t on Spotify, but that has the same energy; Hank Green’s “I Fucking Love Science”. I get more into the emotional side of Mordin in the ME3 section, but I also really just love his Hamster On Coffee energy and this song captures it really well.

29. Prove Yourself - Radiohead Garrus Vakarian

“I can't afford to breathe in this town Nowhere to sit without a gun in my hand Hooked back up to the cathode ray

I'm better off dead “

The absolute rock bottom mental state Garrus is in when you get back to him in ME2 is so heartwrenching. Might not always agree with my boy’s methods, but he’s one of my favorite fictional characters of all time.

30. Rat a Tat - Fallout Boy Feat. Courtney Love Jack

“We are professional ashes of roses, this kerosene's live You settled your score, this is where you come to beg”

It helps that Courtney Love sounds exactly like Jack to me, NGL.

31. Defeat You - Smash Mouth Grunt

“Hey I know what you've done It makes it that much better to defeat you “

Only I am brave enough to put two songs by Smash Mouth on the same playlist, to be shared in 2021

32. The Boy Who Blocked His Own Shot - Brand New Horizon/The Virmire Survivor

“If it makes you less sad I will die by your hand Hope you find out what you want Already know what I am “

Hits harder if you romanced the Virmire Survivor. Mostly from Shep’s perspective. This is a Shep that feels Bad after that encounter rather than Mad, so Your Mileage May Vary.

33. Violet Stars Happy Hunting! - Janelle Monae Tali’zorah vas Neema

“I'm an alien from outer space I'm a cyber-girl without a face a heart or a mind”

I just like the vibes of this one for Tali! I know it’s more about an actual AI but...IDK. I like it. So there.

34. Comfortably Numb - Pink Floyd Thane Krios

“There is no pain you are receding A distant ship smoke on the horizon”

This song works both on a Literal level with his Kepral’s syndrome struggles, but also Metaphorical re: his Battle Sleep. Plus, Thane is a dad, so he gets Dad Rock.

35. My Medea - Vienna Teng Samara

“For I have made her prison be Her every step away from me And this child I would destroy If you tried to set her free “

Mom of the year award, here

36. Toxic - Britney Spears Morinth

“There's no escape, I can't wait I need a hit, baby, give me it You're dangerous, I'm loving it”

If Morinth weren’t so under-utilized after recruitment and didn’t get killed off in the background of ME3 I’d probably actually recruit her sometimes. I almost did on my most recent playthru bc that Shepard just HATES SPACE COPS. Anyway the song explains itself

37. Turn me On - David Guetta feat. Nicki Minaj EDI/The Collector Attack

“My body needs a hero Come and save me Something tells me you know how to save me”

I know this song is a metaphor but also it works really well both literally and metaphorically for Joker saving EDI

38. Robots - Dan Mangan Legion

“Robots need love too They want to be loved by you “

The Geth just want to live peacefullyyyyyy 

39. Be Still - The Killers Love Interest Theme

“Be still / someday you’ll leave fearlessness on your sleeve”

This song works so well for the night before Omega-4. If you had an ME2 love interest, anyway. Also “fearlessness on your sleeve” is one of my favorite set of words ever written.

40. No Cars Go - Arcade Fire The Omega-4 Relay

“We know a place no spaceships go We know a place where no subs go “

This one’s pretty literal.

41. Rocketman - Elton John Suicide Mission

“ And I think it's gonna be a long, long time 'Til touchdown brings me 'round again to find I'm not the man they think I am at home “

I like sneaking some Classics onto my playlists, and I think this is how I generally approach Shepard’s mindset during the Suicide Mission, mostly the chorus. I’m also a sucker for ballads during action sequences. This one isn’t a perfect 1:1 but the Vibes check out.

42. Blast Off - David Guetta feat. Kaz James The Normandy Crew

“Got all my people with me And none of us give a fuck So put dem hands up higher Let's smash this party up”

You have to imagine they partied HARD after recovering from Suicide Mission, but before Shep got arrested, right??? This is the Starships for ME2.

INTERLUDE THE SECOND

43. I’m Not Your Hero - Tegan and Sara Liara T’soni

“ Feeling like I am now lighting up the hall I was used to standing in the shadow of a damaged heart Learning all I know now, losing all I did I never used to feel like I'd be standing so far ahead “

This feels like a good coming of age moment for Liara, as she copes with the choices she made in the 2 years of Shepard’s death (giving them to Cerberus), losing Feron, etc. This is her coming into her own as the Shadow Broker. She’s not meant to be an uncomplicated Big Damn Hero, but she can do good from this position.

44. The Well and the Lighthouse - Arcade Fire The Alpha Relay Incident

“I'm serving time All for a crime I did commit You want the truth? You know I'd do it all again“

These opening lines I feel capture the Alpha Relay Incident really well, and how Shepard did what they HAD to do there, and would do it again, but it still feels like shit. I always wished there was more choice on that mission, but also, having something like that happen without player agency is interesting. Shepard is at their most interesting, I think, in times where we DON’T have a say in what happens to them.

45. Reignite - Malukah Commander Shepard

“Crush my heart into embers, and I will reignite”

Is it cheating to use a Mass Effect fan song on my playlist? I certainly don’t think so, and this is the best Mass Effect fan song ever written.

THIRD MOVEMENT - MASS EFFECT 3

46. This Is War - Thirty Seconds to Mars Leaving Earth

“It's the moment of truth, and the moment to lie The moment to live and the moment to die The moment to fight, the moment to fight To fight, to fight, to fight “

It feels Too Easy to use this here but I’m gonna anyway. You’ve seen AMVs of this set to everything. It’s the ending song of DA:O. It’s the quintessential World At War song.

47. Battleborn - The Killers James Vega

“Up against the wall There's something dying on the street When they knock you down You're gonna get back on your feet”

James Vega is massively underrated and I will love him til I’m cold in the ground. Aro icon.

48. Handlebars - Flobots The Illusive Man

“I can hand out a million vaccinations Or let 'em all die of exasperation Have 'em all healed of their lacerations Have 'em all killed by assassination”

The way this song escalates fits TIM and Cerberus’s fall back into being Just Full On Evil really well. Perfect song for a power trip.

49. Here I Dreamt I Was An Architect - The Decemberists The Virmire Survivor

“And I am nothing of a builder But here I dreamt I was an architect And I built this balustrade To keep you home, to keep you safe From the outside world”

I like this song for how the Virmire Survivor feels about their survivor’s guilt and also about Shepard. I honestly wish they were both more heavily utilized in ME2 and 3, but I realize it’s hard to write a ton of content for characters who just aren’t in half of all peoples’ playthrus.

50. Heaven Knows - The Pretty Reckless Grisson Academy

“One, two, three and four, the devil's knocking at your door Caught in the eye of a dead man's lie Show your life with your head held high“

This song is so perfect for Jack and her biotic kids that she’s one of the only returning characters that gets her own song on this playlist

51. The Great Fire - OK Go Javik

“But when the flames die down, and everything is gone, Will there be fire under the ashes still?”

Self explanatory. Javik is the fire remaining under the ashes.

52. Bring the Hammer Down - Paragon Priority: Tuchanka/Kalros

“ Hammer strikes the anvil A rage that breaks the chain Strikes down like a lightening In our ranks “

KALROOOOOS

53. Wake Up - Arcade Fire Curing The Genophage/Mordin Solus

“If the children don't grow up, Our bodies get bigger but our hearts get torn up. We're just a million little gods causin' rain storms, turnin' every good thing to Rust I guess we'll just have to adjust”

I just really love this song as an image of Mordin’s spirit looking out over Tuchanka as the genophage cure is dispersed, and watching over future generations. If you didn’t cure the genophage, how dare you. No song for you.

Anyway started tearing up listening to this one while writing the description don’t look at me

54. Ballad of a Politician - Regina Spektor Councillor Udina/Priority Citadel 2

“A man inside a room is shaking hands with other men This is how it happens/Our carefully laid plans”

traitor

55. Cyborgs vs. Robots - Ludo The Geth-Quarian War

“But your iron fist will never knock me down 'Cause I'm powered By a conscious right to conduct my life without fear.”

This is probably a bit silly for this awful war. But also. It does fit. You can’t tell me it doesn’t. Just save them both at the end and you can feel fine having some fun with it!

56. Artificial Heart - Jonathan Coulton The Geth

“It's not a real heart It is a real artificial heart”

Just a little fun with the Geth! This works best with Reaper Upgrades.

57. With A Little Help From My Friends - Joe Anderson, Jim Sturgess The Citadel DLC

“What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you, but I know it's mine

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends”

I happen to prefer this version to any other because of how much fun it sounds like they’re having

58. Dark In Here - The Mountain Goats Priority: Earth

“Steal away at sundown, pick a place to hide Check for signs of ambush, hunker down inside Tired of running, tired of never standing still Hear them riding up the hill“

You know I had to get the Goats in here. Would it be a fan playlist if there wasn’t one?

59. Adieu - Yoko Kanno Leaving your Love Interest/Shepard and the Beam

“My love for you burns deep inside me / So strong Embers of times we had And now, here I stand / Lost in a memory I see your face, and smile”

...do I need to say more than that?

60. My Way (Minor Key) - Chase Holfelder The Indoctrination of The Illusive Man

“Regrets, I've had a few/But then again, too few to mention I did what I had to do/I saw it through, without exemption“

This cover takes this song from something I tolerate when I hear it to one of my FAVORITE songs. The frenzied way he sings the “through it all” verse is PEAK Indoctrinated TIM.

61. I’m Alive - Disturbed Refusal 

“There will never be a reason why I will surrender to your advice To change myself, I'd rather die/Though they will not understand”

Honestly I didn’t “get” the Refusal ending until I heard this song, then I was like, OH, I SEE IT ALL SO CLEARLY NOW. This is my favorite in-universe Shepard take on the Refusal ending. I always got it from the player’s perspective of being dissatisfied with the options, but this one puts it into the world for me. This is a Shepard who does not trust the Starchild. This is a Shepard that chooses to end things on their own terms rather than submit to their designs.

62. Machine - Regina Spektor Control 

“I collect my moments Into a correspondence With a mightier power Who just lacks my perspective And who lacks my organics And who covets my defects “

I used to have Adieu here, actually, because like Refusal, I didn’t used to GET the Control ending. Now, I do, in part thanks to hearing this song. I mean, just go look at the full lyrics. If this song hadn’t been written years before the end of Mass Effect 3, I’d swear it was a fan song for it.

63. Maybe Tomorrow - Yuki Kajiura Destroy 

“The moon is gone And the night is still so dark I'm a little bit afraid of tomorrow“

I’m a Destroy Ending person, I won’t lie. Full on “the starchild is a liar and my synthetic friends are FINE” indoctrination theory level destroy ending. But this song is not about that. It’s about the canonical destroy ending, and if you prefer a Shep that survives it, this song’s for you.

This song captures the exhaustion and melancholy of the end of a long journey so well. Shepard is afraid of what comes next, the collateral damage resulting from their actions. But they know that, at least, it’s over now. Maybe tomorrow will be better.

64. Waiting For the End - Linkin Park Synthesis

“ I know what it takes to move on I know how it feels to lie All I wanna do is trade this life for something new Holding on to what I haven't got”

This is one of my favorite songs of all time. The hardest part of ending is starting again. Oof. Gets me every single time. Shepard finding the resolve to sacrifice themself for the hope of something better, of things not going how they planned, ever, of learning to make peace with that and the people who loved them learning to carry on without them? OOF.

65. Shine - Vienna Teng Epilogue

“Shine with all the untold Hold the light given unto you Find the love to unfold In this broken world we choose“

Vienna Teng is a master of capturing life’s softer emotions, and this fits perfectly with the epilogue scene for me. Tell me again about the Shepard.

“Find the love to unfold in this broken world we choose” has to be one of the greatest lines about the human experience ever written.

[pestopascal]

While I will absolutely agree that CB2077 isn’t the ONLY game doing all this bullshit, or that other AAA studios don’t deserve the flack CDPR is getting, I have to say that this is absolutely the perfect storm and I think people are FINALLY seeing the problems in modern AAA gaming. CB2077 might be fun to play, may have a good story, but it’s almost impossible to see because of the glaring issues. Which, honestly, is a good thing. I hope games change after this.

under here

AAA studios have been like this and this sort of release has been completely normalised on all accounts by both the businesses themselves and fans because of the inherent reliance on modders (bethesda at the forefront of this), as well as the pushback every time companies actually go ‘uh we need a lil more time’ (although... they just shouldnt announce potential release dates, im even of the camp they shouldnt even start releasing the game until like 6 months out from their official date because they fuck it up every time. borderlands 3 being the only game i know of being in “secret” development and then announcing itself in march for a september release. game itself aside, thats how companies should do it). easily i can remember a lot of 2011 release games which have had the exact same issues as cp77′s release, and then every other game in between since. very rarely do you actually have a game that isn’t a fucked up mess of a pile of pixels. and it is always the customisable character ones that are honestly, genuinely, ugly looking at release. but you can definitely say its been happening looooooong before 2011, with unrealistic expectations, word limits, 11 month time frames, offloading sequels to smaller companies so they can suffer if it fails, etc etc. the entire system has been like this for so long... they dont know any real different nowadays.

i mean look. tlou2 released under crunch conditions this year, and was rewarded. it was ALL over the social media feeds, it was quite the controversy because, surprise surprise, the company promised they wouldnt do it uwu and then. bam ! crunch conditions. literally around that time too, bioware employees came out with a statement saying ‘man we wish dai FAILED so that back in 2014 we couldve proven crunch was a wrong practice’. they say this as well after having to produce da2 in 14 months, which just suffered from fans and journalism for reusing environments, because it was produced in 14 months, and honestly? no one pointed that out back then, bioware themselves pointed it out again this year, 6 years after release, that that game was produced in 14 months. rdr2′s release was hounded by stories of crunch, and they all disappeared into the night because... it was heralded as the best game of all time. that was 2018, 2 years ago.

i think too is that some people get kind of ... morally and ethically concerned. which is understandable. can you consume something when you know it was made under conditions like crunch? and i think one of the most confronting things about it is that 9/10, not only has your favourite company engaged in crunch conditions, they almost actively choose to continue with them. and then that’s a whole other bag of issues blown up over there when it comes to what is able to be consumed what isn’t etc etc

i think also like a mix of marketing, promises and then the expectations of what the game will be like have really had cdpr earn the ire of fans which is just like... you don’t believe what these companies are saying. you never should, esp when it’s their ceo’s saying it who don’t work on the actual floor. bioware itself is the main culprit of doing this to the point they finally came around with all the da4 concept art and teasing to be like ‘ummm but actually dont get invested?’. remember all that qunari lady fanart that bioware management was like ... please dont get attached? yeah. yeah. like at what point as well is there going to be heavy level of apprehension to approach this? and i can’t really talk either, i cracked open the door for mass effect again. i know exactly what kind of shit bioware will pull, i know they are teasing it already on social media, but mass effect is my ride or die series. that’s why people keep opening the door on letting these companies get away with it. and you can’t fault fans entirely either because this is down to a science of how to get money. i mean, fuck, mass effect andromeda’s entire advertising campaign HINGED on the n7 logo. for the nostalgia value. and i see text posts in the same vein of both ‘guys, disney isnt gonna fuck you if you consume every remake for nostalgia value’ and ‘its understandable why people do it’.

so then you have to go ‘well are fans as just to blame’ and then that’s a whole other argument.

i think also like. i personally havent run into aaaannnyyyyyyy of the issues that you see posted online. which is ironic bc 1) i play on ps4 and 2) its an old dusty ps4. in fact a lot of ppl i have spoken to who have had issues have played on pc. does this mean the glitches dont exist? ofc not, the vids and screenshots are right there. but like... ive had a basically unhindered experience so far, and i get where ppl are coming from (i do, i promise) where theyve basically found the game unplayable. is there also a standard of what ppl consider unplayable because ive played most AAA games at launch when they basically rushed to slap the box label on the game and called it a day until they work on patches. when ppl consider unplayable is also just... different per person. some people have a slight blur on the screen when turning too fast even in an MMO and decide the game is horrible and unplayable. some people can have broken quests and npcs not loading and falling through maps and still be fine. there’s no agreed statement of what makes a game unplayable either, which is why you read threads on twitter and someone goes ‘yeah this npc t-posed so i quit in the first hour’ with a dozen replies. everyone has different levels of it.

it’s a mixed bag of issues. im not excusing cdpr, but the ppl who worked on the game are honestly likely not the ones who pushed for a release. you’ve gotta look at sony and microsoft and ceo’s with bonuses coming up and the investors and shareholders and people who sit behind computers and read numbers detailing interest and demand and supply and how every single time they had to delay this game, the loudest (but smallest) bunch of assholes on like reddit and in the twitter threads complained that it was delayed AGAIN even though back in what 2015? they said it’ll come out when it’s ready. and yeah there are times when game delays result in a mismatched half assed sort of story (kh3... p5... ffxv... dai...) and then there are times when, if they need to delay the game... they probably need to delay the game. sometimes delays are bad sometimes theyre good sometimes you are sitting there like whew if you only didn’t try to be like THIS TIME this is the release date.

the ONLY WAY this will stop happening is, quite frankly, unionising. and everyone is allergic to that whole concept so like... this is “the perfect storm” as you put it. but it’s also not. people have been so disappointed over the last 2 years alone for gaming companies, the final product, the attitudes from higher ups, that i think cdpr is receiving a good few years worth of anger. i think theyre also on the receiving end of misdirection from american fans who still don’t fucking get the company isn’t american, because that’s another bag of issues as well. like we’re holding at least 8 bags of groceries out of the back of the car now, and we don’t want to take another trip, because there are so many little bits of this entire situation to look at. there’s so much back and forth.

i think the worst, but most realistic thing is: games won’t change. how they will social media wise will. maybe. assuming bioware gets their heads out their asses but... they’re going to be a lot more careful. i mean, hell, sony offered refunds. that was just a publicity stint. they dont give a fuck if the game was bad. as i said before, if they did, they would make all companies fix trophy problems, starting from like 2010 or whenever the trophy system first came out. they just don’t wanna fall in alongside cdpr being thrown on its sword. but the companies are gonna learn from this, get smarter, still do the same shit to their employees, still pay off journalists, still do media blackouts, etc etc. and we’re gonna be here in another year’s time, with another game, having these same roundabout arguments, and cp77′s issues are gonna fade into just a wikipedia article.

[radramblog]

Every Boros Commander, Part 2

Where we last left off, I was shitting on Adriana, Captain of the Guard, who gives ACAB a pretty different meaning. Fortunately, most of the pickings this time aren’t quite as dire.

Depala, Pilot Exemplar (3rd most played as of writing)

Holy shit, a Boros commander with card advantage? It’s niche, but it was a first. Being limited to Dwarves and Vehicles does leave her with a problem a lot of commanders and tribes tend to have, which is being just a smidge under critical mass- but with the upcoming Kaldheim appearing to support Dwarves, and vehicles appearing to be a deciduous mechanic, I feel like it won’t be long before Depala is as powerful as her placement suggests. She is niche and mana-hungry, but basically the only Vehicle commander (and definitely the only Dwarf commander at the moment), so I suspect she’s here to stay for a while.

Tiana, Ship’s Caretaker (15th most played as of writing)

Tiana is possibly my favourite character lorewise in all of magic, frankly. She’s cool and cute and a massive dork and also someone who found her purpose in life, and frankly I love that for her. 

She’s also a really interesting commander to build around, seeing as she has a unique brand of card advantage that leads to the addition of old and weird cards, which I’m always a fan of. I should really get around to building a Tiana deck, to be honest, though I already have 10 commander decks with an 11th in progress, sooooo…

Firesong and Sunspeaker (4th most played as of writing)

I’m surprised to see F&S this high, but the first unique Buy-a-Box card did expand into an archetype previously unseen in the combination in the form of Boros Spellslinger (Dalakos would later return the favour as an Izzet Equipment commander). Previously, you had to go into Pauper EDH and play fellow Minotaur Blaze Commando for this kinda deck. Like Depala, F&S are heavily played despite being niche, though the also have the benefit of being a RW minotaur commander, if you want to play White instead of Black in that deck for…some reason? The siren moo of Boros Reckoner speaks to us all, I suppose.

Sylvia Brightspear and Khorvath Brightflame (17th most played as of writing)

The only partner pair I’m discussing today on account of their monogamy. Knights and Dragons make a weird combination, seeing as there are basically no other cards that help them work together rather than apart. You could almost run them as a goodstuff deck if you wanted, seeing as many of Boros’s best creatures are Knights or Dragons, but largely I think sticking to one or the other is probably for the best. With that in mind, the pair are actually the only real commanders for either tribe within Boros- the only other Dragon is something we’ll get to, and the only knight is…Adriana…so…. The buffs given by either pair are excellent, and not something that either tribe gets easy access to typically, so I can see the appeal of them in that slot. At that point, the extra commander is just a bonus.

Aurelia, Exemplar of Justice (21st most played as of writing)

Oh, another Aurelia, and she’s worse this time. In seriousness, her ability looks like its likely to be targeting herself most of the time, and Mentor just doesn’t do enough in this format. She has enough keywords and power to Voltron, but I’m not expecting much interesting from her outside of that.

Tajic, Legion’s Edge (18th most played as of writing)

Tajic has 4 separate lines of text for some reason, and only one (ok fine two haste is nice) actually matters. Having a damage prevention effect is nice in the zone, but it doesn’t apply to himself, so if you’re planning on turning mass damage one-sided you’re going to need to protect him still. And like, what else does he do? He’s not a good aggro commander at all, his last ability is a joke, why are people playing this card? If I was in a mass damage deck I’d just play Gisela, at least she does something on the off chance she survives. Probably no-one is gonna go out of the way to kill Tajic, at least. Beats out Aurelia for biggest downgrade, imo, even if Aurelia fell from higher.

Feather, the Redeemed (Number 1 most played at time of writing)

Feather is the most popular Boros commander, by over triple the next most popular. It’s not hard to see why: she’s a cheap commander that turns any targeted cantrip into a draw engine, she synergises with so many random powerful cards that you can build her a fair few different ways, and she’s a cool story character getting a card 12ish years after her appearance in the Ravnica novels. She does so much and is so interesting that it’s completely understandable that she’s as huge as she is. I’m still never going to build her though, even with my funky Japanese copies, if only because I’m too much of a hipster.

Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero (13th most played as of writing)

Kinda funny that Gerrard’s little text that made him work in the command zone until recent rules changes is now a strict downside. Gerrard has his niche, with a Second Sunrise in the zone unsurprisingly supporting Eggs decks rather nicely, and synergising with a lot of just random bullshit. I’d probably never build him, and it seems pretty easy to make it degenerate, but I’m glad he’s here and he’s certainly better than the first iteration of the character.

Haktos, the Unscarred (12th most played as of writing)

I’m kinda surprised to see Achilles this high, considering how recent he is. He reminds me a lot of Progenitus, oddly enough, as a commander that would be good at Voltron but can’t get buffed easily by traditional means. I think adding equipment on the off-chance that it fits his heel is a complete mistake, but things like Silverblade Paladin and Exalted cards do exist, so fair play. He’s pretty hard to kill unless you’re boardwiping, and even then damage-based ones probably miss, so I can see the value in that. But that mana cost hurts to look at- hitting 2 mana of 2 different colours on turn 4 was a pain back when I played Trostani, and that was a green deck.

Stet, Draconic Proofreader (No data available)

Okay look, I tried so hard to find a way to abuse this dork’s ability but there’s just no good way to do it. Stet sucks hard enough that even if you are playing with Silver-Bordered cards legal I just don’t know why you’d ever run it. His art is pretty funny, I’ll give it that. We got Alexander bloody Clamilton and Surgeon Commander in the same cycle, keep in mind.

Winota, Joiner of Forces (2nd most played as of writing)

Having menaced standard, Winota is still pretty decent as a commander, even without access to her 7-mana blue payload.  There actually aren’t that many beefy humans to cheat out in general, but considering how easy it is to enable her ability and the fact that she digs *6 cards deep* on trigger, I think you just kinda end up swarming the board distressingly easy with her deck. It’s shocking to see a card from 2020 in the top 5 like this, considering how the year has gone for the format in general, but like. 6 cards.

Zirda, the Dawnwaker (8th most played as of writing)

Look it combos with Basalt/Grim monolith in the command zone isn’t that neat. Zirda is pretty open-ended, but not especially powerful outside of the aforementioned combo. I find them much more appealing in the Companion slot, frankly. With that said, I do like that Boros is the colour pair getting access to Training Grounds in the zone, seeing as it works well with its other themes (Equipment mostly) and opens new archetypes (Cycling, etc.) up as possibilities.

Akiri, Fearless Voyager (7th most played as of writing)

Haha, Brion has more decks than Akiri. That’s probably since it only released a few months ago. Of course, I’m not including the other Akiri, so this is the first time we’ve seen her on the list. But apart from that, Akiri was somehow the first of these commanders to actually say “draw” on it. Her synergies with Living Weapon (and the recent equipment cards that do the same) are pretty sick, though her second ability will end up costing a lot of mana over time if you have to use it. I think its hilarious how much more value this gives you than Adriana for doing the thing Adriana wants you to do, at 2 less mana.

Also, she’s probably the best general for Kor tribal? I guess you could go Akiri/Black partner so you can play Orah in the deck. Someone build this! Kor like equipment, Akiri likes equipment, lets go.

It’s only just occurred to me that Akiri gives you more for attacking other players than Adriana does. Fuckin hell, man.

Bell Borca, Spectral Sergeant (25th most played as of writing)

Bell finally getting a card 15 years after his fictional death was a welcome treat, but the exile-related ability is frankly awkward and abusing it to 1 or 2 hit commander damage is pretty difficult. Still, having impulse draw in the zone makes him probably just the best generic #goodstuff commander. I’m surprised he’s as low as he is, but he only released a month ago (at time of writing) and we got an absolute stack of legends (including 2 other Boros ones and the partners) in the same set.

Reyav, Master Smith (28th most played as of writing)

Reyav is neat since he combines 2 of Boros’s more traditional archetypes, being Aggro and Voltron, into one damage doubling dwarf. I suspect his lack of play is again due to the other legends in the same set and that it only dropped a month ago, because there’s no way he deserves to be below Munda. Also, he’s 2 mana! The only other 2CMC Boros Legend is partner Akiri! How did that happen? I think he deserves better. You can suit him up and get dunking real quick.

Wyleth, Soul of Steel (16th most played as of writing)

Our final general is Boros’s second ever Precon commander, and the only one with flavour text. He’s got the space for it, considering how much work that second line is doing. I appreciate that Wyleth, despite being superficially similar to Akiri, plays pretty differently, as he prefers Voltron while she prefers spreading equipment out. I assume Wyleth would be a lot higher if the precon itself was included, but there’s no way of knowing how many people are playing just the base deck, so who knows.

A CHALLENGER APPROACHES!!!

Koll, the Forgemaster (no data available) This bloke got spoiled between me writing most of this and going to publish it. I can see a few easy combos with his first ability, especially seeing as Grafted Wargear is a card. Playing fairly though, his first ability feels kinda slow, and not being able to protect himself is a huge drag. The second ability feels kinda stapled on, as its a way of giving you a bonus since the first one doesn’t do shit for tokens. But like, just don’t equip them, lmao. Awkward, but has potential.

And that’s the lot of them! Uhhhh yeah that’s all I’ve got, stan Tiana kthnxbai

[tinyshe]

Story at-a-glance

When vaccines that don’t provide robust immunity are overused, they allow viruses to mutate in potentially hazardous ways. COVID variants with measurably different behavior emerged in mid-December 2020, which coincides with the rollout of the first COVID shots

While variants were identified in various areas before the shots were introduced in those same regions, vaccine makers were conducting large-scale trials on thousands of people in those areas well before the shots became available to the public, and before variants were detected

The COVID shots do not prevent infection or transmission, hence the variants created inside vaccinated individuals will spread. This hypothesis was confirmed in a 2015 study, which found that “imperfect vaccination can enhance the transmission of highly virulent pathogens”

Research shows fully vaccinated individuals who develop breakthrough infections with the Delta variant have the same viral loads as unvaccinated individuals infected with this virus, hence both groups can spread the infection to the same degree

Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show 74% of COVID-19 diagnoses in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, between July 6 through July 25, 2021, and 80% of hospitalizations, were among the fully vaccinated

Will mass injections against COVID-19 encourage the mutation of more dangerous versions of SARS-CoV-2? In the video above, WhatsHerFace questions why the U.K. government is procuring 6 million pounds’ worth of body bags, or “temporary body storage,” even as government officials announce that the current vaccination rate has “created a protective wall” against the infection.1

If that’s true, why are they expecting an “excess death scenario” requiring massive numbers of body bags? The procurement agreement will remain in effect for a period of four years. Does the U.K. government know something they’re not sharing with the public?

Have they peeked at the actual science and realized that mass vaccination during an active pandemic might encourage mutations that evade vaccine-induced defenses, or that the gene-modifying injections might render the vaccinated more susceptible to serious illness and death through a mechanism known as antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) or the more descriptive term, paradoxical immune enhancement (PIE)?

Where Are the Variants Coming From, and Why Now?

WhatsHerFace highlights some of the answers given by health professionals on social media when asked why no problematic variants emerged during the first year, when no COVID injections were available, and only popped up after the mass injection campaign started.

According to one such answer, “Our surveillance sucked in the beginning and it takes time for variants to come about but once they come they become rampant.” Interestingly, as noted in a February 15, 2021, article in The Conversation,2 variants with “measurably different behavior” did not emerge until mid-December 2020, which just so happens to be the exact time at which the first COVID shots were rolled out.

Fact checkers have tried to debunk any connection between COVID shot rollouts and the emergence of variants by showing that variants were identified in various areas before the shots were introduced in those same regions. However, as noted by WhatsHerFace, vaccine makers were conducting large-scale trials in those areas well before the shots became available to the public.

For example, Pfizer enrolled more than 46,000 participants in the U.S., Argentina, Brazil, South Africa, Germany and Turkey,3 and Oxford/AstraZeneca injected 23,000 participants in the U.K., Brazil and South Africa.

“Now this is very interesting,” WhatsHerFace says, “because you’ll actually find that each of the areas where variants first emerged just happen to be the same countries where the trials took place.”

The Backstory of the Delta Variant

The Delta variant (B.1.617.2) was initially identified in India December 1 and 11, 2020. While the COVID jabs were not rolled out in India until mid-January 2021, Phase 3 trials for Biotech’s Covaxin were initiated in Bharat, India, November 16, 2020. By December 22, 2020, 22,500 volunteers had received the jab.

On a side note, the Indian government released Covaxin to the public before Phase 3 trials were completed and in the absence of any safety or efficacy data. According to some vaccinologists, the emergence of potentially more problematic variants following mass vaccination rollouts during an active pandemic is precisely what you’d expect.

Dr. Geert Vanden Bosche,4 whose resume includes work with GSK Biologicals, Novartis Vaccines, Solvay Biologicals and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, published an open letter5 to the World Health Organization, March 6, 2021.

In the letter, Bosche warned that implementing a global mass vaccination campaign during the height of the pandemic could create an “uncontrollable monster” where evolutionary pressure will force the emergence of new and potentially more dangerous mutations.

“There can be no doubt that continued mass vaccination campaigns will enable new, more infectious viral variants to become increasingly dominant and ultimately result in a dramatic incline in new cases despite enhanced vaccine coverage rates. There can be no doubt either that this situation will soon lead to complete resistance of circulating variants to the current vaccines,” Bossche wrote.6

‘Leaky’ Vaccines Promote Mutations

In short, when vaccines that don’t provide robust immunity are overused, they allow viruses to mutate in potentially hazardous ways. When you overuse an antibiotic that fails to eradicate the bacteria, antibiotic-resistant bacteria are allowed to flourish.

In the same way, overuse of a vaccine that doesn’t provide immunity can allow the virus to mutate inside vaccinated individuals into variants that evade vaccine-induced immunity.

And, as we already know, the COVID shots do not prevent infection or transmission, hence the variants created inside vaccinated individuals will spread, attacking both vaccinated and unvaccinated alike. This hypothesis was confirmed in a 2015 study7 in PLOS Biology, which found that “imperfect vaccination can enhance the transmission of highly virulent pathogens.” As explained by the authors:8

“There is a theoretical expectation that some types of vaccines could prompt the evolution of more virulent (‘hotter’) pathogens. This idea follows from the notion that natural selection removes pathogen strains that are so ‘hot’ that they kill their hosts and, therefore, themselves.

Vaccines that let the hosts survive but do not prevent the spread of the pathogen relax this selection, allowing the evolution of hotter pathogens to occur. This type of vaccine is often called a leaky vaccine. When vaccines prevent transmission, as is the case for nearly all vaccines used in humans, this type of evolution towards increased virulence is blocked.

But when vaccines leak, allowing at least some pathogen transmission, they could create the ecological conditions that would allow hot strains to emerge and persist.

This theory proved highly controversial when it was first proposed over a decade ago, but here we report experiments with Marek’s disease virus in poultry that show that modern commercial leaky vaccines can have precisely this effect: they allow the onward transmission of strains otherwise too lethal to persist.

Thus, the use of leaky vaccines can facilitate the evolution of pathogen strains that put unvaccinated hosts at greater risk of severe disease.”

This research was reported in a number of mainstream media publications, including Live Science,9 Newsweek10 and National Geographic.11 Quanta Magazine also took a deep dive into it in May 2018, closing the article with the following observation:12

“… the most crucial need right now is for vaccine scientists to recognize the relevance of evolutionary biology to their field. Last month, when more than 1,000 vaccine scientists gathered in Washington, D.C., at the World Vaccine Congress, the issue of vaccine-induced evolution was not the focus of any scientific sessions.

Part of the problem, [disease ecologist Andrew] Read says, is that researchers are afraid: They’re nervous to talk about and call attention to potential evolutionary effects because they fear that doing so might fuel more fear and distrust of vaccines by the public …”

The COVID shots, which do not make you immune against the virus but rather only lessen symptoms of infection, are a perfect example of leaky vaccines that can allow the virus to mutate within the mildly ill host, who then transmits the mutated virus to others. In this way, the shots can fuel a never-ending chain of outbreaks.

NPR Highlights How Vaccines Drive Viral Evolution

In a February 9, 2021, article,13 NPR highlighted this risk, stating that “vaccines could drive the evolution of more COVID-19 mutants.” According to NPR science correspondent Richard Harris, “the virus is always mutating. And if one happens to produce a mutation that makes it less vulnerable to the vaccine, that virus could simply multiply in a vaccinated individual.”

Simply having a virus mutating inside you isn’t necessarily dangerous, however. The viral load also plays an important role in determining how potentially dangerous a vaccinated individual who carries a mutation might be. If your viral load is low, the risk of you transmitting the mutated virus to others is also low. If your viral load is high, then the risk of transmission increases accordingly.

When it comes to the Delta variant, there’s bad news for those who have received one or more COVID shots, as research14 shows fully vaccinated individuals who develop breakthrough infections with the Delta variant have the same viral loads as unvaccinated individuals who are infected with this virus. As reported by Reuters August 2, 2021:15

“Among people infected by the Delta variant of the coronavirus, fully vaccinated people with ‘breakthrough’ infections may be just as likely as unvaccinated people to spread the virus to others, new research suggests. The higher the amount of coronavirus in the nose and throat, the more likely the patient will infect others.

In one Wisconsin county, after Delta became predominant, researchers analyzed16 viral loads on nose-and-throat swab samples obtained when patients were first diagnosed. They found similar viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated patients, with levels often high enough to allow shedding of infectious virus.

‘A key assumption’ underlying current regulations aimed at slowing COVID-19 transmission ‘is that those who are vaccinated are at very low risk of spreading the virus to others,’ said study coauthor Katarina Grande of Public Health Madison & Dane County in Madison, Wisconsin.

The findings, however, indicate ‘that vaccinated people should take steps to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus to others,’ she added.”

Lambda Variant Shows Signs of Vaccine Resistance

The latest coronavirus on the block is Lambda, which was first identified in Peru. It’s now spreading through South America. Like the Delta variant, Lambda is more infectious than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus. Unlike Delta, it appears more resistant to vaccine-induced antibodies.

According to Reuters,17 three spike protein mutations “help it resist neutralization by vaccine-induced antibodies.” While some claim the emergence of Delta and Lambda is justification for a third booster shot, Rockefeller University researchers point out that a third dose might raise the number of antibodies, but it won’t improve their ability to neutralize viruses.18,19

If a third dose can’t neutralize any of the variants any better than two doses, then we’re back at the beginning of this vicious cycle where imperfect neutralization drives additional mutation.

The Rockefeller University paper also highlights the superior protection offered by natural immunity, which is what you get after you’ve recovered from an infection. According to the authors, “memory antibodies selected over time by natural infection have greater potency and breadth than antibodies elicited by vaccination.”

Most of the identified cases of Covid-19 in a Barnstable County, Massachusetts, town, in July (74%) were among fully vaccinated people. Most, but not all, had the Delta variant. Additionally, four of five hospitalized patients were fully vaccinated. Only one was not fully vaccinated. ~ Sharyl Attkisson

For transparency, one of the coauthors, Michel Nussenzweig, told Reuters that if an updated injection capable of protecting against one or more specific variants were to become available, “then that would be the choice."

I mention that, because the competing interest statement on that paper reveals the Rockefeller University “has filed a provisional patent application in connection with this work … (US patent 63/021,387). The patent has been licensed by Rockefeller University to Bristol Meyers Squib.”

An identical competing interest statement can also be found on other recent papers, including a preprint paper20 titled “Development of Potency, Breadth and Resilience to Viral Escape Mutations in SARS-CoV-2 Neutralizing Antibodies.”

At the time of writing, I got nothing but error messages when trying to access the U.S. patent office to confirm what U.S. patent 63/021,387 might be, but based on the papers bearing this competing interest statement, it sounds like the Rockefeller University might be patenting a new COVID shot against variants.

First COVID Shots Appear Ineffective Against Newer Variants

At the same time that Moderna and Pfizer raise prices on their individual COVID shots by 10% and 25% respectively,21 evidence of their ineffectiveness continues to mount.

In a July 30, 2021, report,22 Sharyl Attkisson cited data23 from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which show that 74% of COVID-19 diagnoses in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, between July 6 through July 25, 2021, and 80% of hospitalizations, were among the fully vaccinated.

“The report contradicts multiple false reports that have claimed the vaccines are ‘100% effective’ in preventing hospitalization,” Attkisson writes.24

“It also contradicts false reports that have implied vaccinated people are not spreading Covid-19. According to CDC, the fully vaccinated are showing just as high of a ‘viral load’ as unvaccinated people who get infected.

CDC published new data25 on the topic in its weekly report. It says that most of the identified cases of Covid-19 in a Barnstable County, Massachusetts, town, in July (74%) were among fully vaccinated people.

Most, but not all, had the Delta variant. Additionally, four of five hospitalized patients were fully vaccinated. Only one was not fully vaccinated. Today, CDC also acknowledged that Covid-19 viral load is ‘similarly high’ in both vaccinated and unvaccinated people. That's a result, say officials, of the Delta variant.

From the start, virologists said that there would be natural variants to Covid-19. They also accurately predicted that effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines would wear down in a matter of months, not years. Now, CDC is confirming that the current Covid-19 vaccines are not working effectively against Covid-19.

In contrast, the millions of Americans who have fought off Covid-19 infections, either with or without symptoms, are proving to have greater and longer lasting immunity, so far, than those who have been vaccinated. That, too, was predicted by virologists.”

Americans are now told the Delta variant is a pandemic among the unvaccinated, even though the data doesn’t support this claim. The CDC appears to be trying to prop up this narrative by not reporting breakthrough infections in vaccinated individuals unless they are hospitalized or die.

Even then, they acknowledge them only if they have a positive PCR test run at a cycle threshold (CT) below 28,26 whereas unvaccinated people are still tested at a CT of 40 or above. The higher the CT, the greater the chance of a false positive.

Israeli Data Show Waning Effectiveness of Pfizer Shot

Israel is now recommending a third booster shot for people over the age of 60, as data27 show the Pfizer injection is only 39% effective (relative risk reduction) against the Delta variant, down from 64% relative effectiveness two weeks earlier.

As of August 2, 2021, 66.9% of Israelis had received at least one dose of Pfizer’s injection; 62.2% had received two doses.28 A day earlier, August 1, director of Israel’s Public Health Services, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, announced half of all COVID-19 infections were among the fully vaccinated.29 Signs of more serious disease among fully vaccinated are also emerging, she said, particularly in those over the age of 60.

Alternative Treatments

In closing, remember there are several different treatment protocols for COVID-19 that appear just as effective for variants as for the original virus, including the following:

Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance’s I-MASS Prevention and At-Home Treatment protocol

The FLCCC’s I-MASK+ Prevention and Early Outpatient Treatment protocol

The FLCCC’s I-RECOVER management protocol for long-haul COVID-19 syndrome

Nebulized hydrogen peroxide for prevention and treatment of COVID-19, as detailed in Dr. David Brownstein’s case paper30 and Dr. Thomas Levy’s free e-book, “Rapid Virus Recovery.” Levy believes nebulized hydrogen peroxide can also be an invaluable strategy for combating spike protein toxicity31 because, in addition to being a powerful antiviral, it will also augment and speed up cellular healing, in part by improving oxygenation

[one-leaf-grimoire]

“triad”

Chapter 20: the downward spiral

Hi!!!! Here's the chapter you've all been waiting for... Lisa has gathered as much power as she possibly can through sometimes shady means, but now it's time for her to fight the Dark Triad ajfdskl. Enjoy!!!!

AO3 LINK

“FUCK! God-”

With one last movement, I slammed my toe back into the base of the tree, harder than the last time or the time before that. The unsatisfying thud rang up the wood along with my final exclamation.

“DAMN IT!”

Finally, I stepped back, my chest still heaving and my eyes still blurred. The tree was unharmed, save for a tiny shred of fiber that my kicks managed to displace. But it still stood there, as strong and sure as ever. Placed by nature itself, its roots were much deeper than I could ever hope to destroy. Some things like that were constant… no matter how time changed the rest of the world, this tree would still be standing there.

Or so I thought.

Even the strongest get swept away by their fate.

Including me.

With a sigh, I sunk down into the grass, my legs folded up underneath me haphazardly. The dew soaked through my tights and chilled my legs, but I didn’t really care.

I’m useless… I’m weak. 

I held up one of my hands, concentrating mana in my palm. It started to glow blue, just a little orb of magic. Numerals orbited the center, a familiar yet infuriating sight. This was the biggest time globe I could manage right now, the fruit of nearly 6 months of intense training. But it didn’t matter how much Julius trained me, or how many hours I spent out here by myself, I couldn’t manage anything more. 

Even after everything I’ve done, I can’t get stronger…

I let the globe disappear, and clenched my fist.

Will this magic ever become my own?

Maybe I didn’t believe it back then, but the answer was yes. To be a Dyad is to become someone else, and the person I was meant to become would wield both fire and time. I would need years before mastering this new element, but master it I did. Frustration and pain came along with it, but in the end it became my own magic.

That is the power of Simulcians. To assimilate, and to change. Yet, change has exhausted me beyond all other things.

I’m so tired. So… fucking tired.

Being pulled back and forth, between light and dark, between pain and pleasure, between hope and fear, between good and evil.

There is joy in death. But there is joy in life as well.

And yet, I want to live. I want to keep living. I want to love everyone, I want to let them love me.

Back then, Chrono Anastasis became my biggest frustration. I was unable to do it on my own, the only way I could get it to activate was to injure myself badly. Then, the shard of Julius’s soul within me would rewind the harm, returning me to normal. But now, after the potent dose of elvish mana, I was able to cast it on my own. 

From there, my power started to compound. Until it was enough to sap away my very own life energy.

Maybe, at this point, I’ve lost all hope of returning home to Adeline, Marx, and Joy. But they have each other- I know that they will survive. 

Yami, William… 

I level my sword, and lunge forward at last.

Live on in my place.

The tip of the sword solidifies, fire and light sharpening into a deadly point. 

Dante’s mouth opened, his pointed teeth glinting in that light as he let out an unhinged laugh. Vanica’s face was the same, holding no fear or apprehension, just pure joy. Because, in the end, neither of them thought they would get to face this particular opponent. Not while they were this strong.

But Zenon didn’t share in their joy; because when I lunged, my blade was leveled right at his head. He didn’t smile, he didn’t laugh. His face showed no emotion, a blank, empty slate, but underneath it, one thought dominated his mind.

Unlike his siblings, it wasn’t Fight her.

It was kill her.

Zenon spread his boney wing just in time to stop himself in the air. Without a sound, he sidestepped the thrust of my blade, not a moment too early. He could feel its heat from where he hovered, and could hear the crackle of mana within it. She condensed so much into such a thin area- she- He was cut off as the blade suddenly moved towards him in a quick swipe, still moving forward with the force of my lunge. Remaining calm, Zenon summoned his bone magic, which shot up in time to block the attack. For a moment, he held his breath, not entirely sure that his magic was enough to stop mine.

But, as he hoped, the blade shattered along the bone, shards of light careening off in every direction. There- now- Zenon ducked down and continued to shoot towards me, behind his siblings now. Don’t do anything stupid-

Vanica and Dante may have been reckless and battle-hungry, but they were far from doing anything stupid. Less than a moment later, skimming by the deadly-bright blade, Vanica was the first to reach me.

Most of her clothes had been burned away by some unearthly means, but she was entirely covered by blood and a dark, devilish substance. Her teeth were sharp, and a ghostly red rune orbited above her right eye. There wasn’t any fear in her gaze, and for a moment, my heart leapt.

Vanica… I can see now. You and your siblings...

She cackled, raising her clawed hand. “BLOOD MAGIC: RED BEAST, 100%!!!”

It doesn’t matter whether I live or die… because-

A horrible mass of writhing blood formed above her, baring its sticky teeth before descending on me.

I’ll get to fight someone like you before I die.

I release Judgement Day, bringing both of my hands together to point up at the Beast making its way towards me.

“SOLAR BOLT!”

Fire magic, accelerated tenfold, shoots out of my hand. I’m not prepared for the power it gives off, and the recoil sends me shooting backwards. My spell hits Vanica’s splattering through the blood and slowing it down. With a roar, it snaps its teeth shut, just short of where I just was. Sheesh! She’s really powerful- I’m glad for the recoil now, and quickly regain my bearings in time for her next attack. The woman is stick laughing, her bloody claws reaching towards me with a mighty grasp. That being said, it won’t be fun if I die too quickly. I have to at least ensure our victory first. I fall out of her rang again, my mana reaching out and mingling with what’s hanging in the air. It solidifies under my foot, and I spring to the left; But just then I realize that I’m heading right for Zenon.

She’s completely in sync with the mana around her- Zenon thought, our eyes meeting for the first time. His face is still unreadable, and I have no idea what his next move is. Do I use Mana Domination? If I do, it could hurt Vanica and Dante. But if I concentrate- 

As soon as I realize where I’m headed, I hold up my hand, blue magic appearing. Can I capture him? Will I be able to keep up Chrono Stasis while fighting the other too? 

Zenon’s eyes widen when he sees the spell, recognizing it. Chrono stasis? Alright then, I have no choice- He looked over at Dante and Vanica, both above me. You guys… hold on.

“Spatial Magic: Mana Domination.”

Instantly, Zenon’s power spread around us in the air, a huge cube that trapped us all inside. With a grunt, Zenon clenched his teeth. One hundred percent… should be enough- 

And it was. The cube condensed, until it only trapped me. My eyes widened as the magic in my hand fizzled, and I felt the mana inside me start to drain. What? He can do that? So precise-

I look up to see both Vanica and Dante jumping down, grins on their faces and magic burning in their hands. Shit! This isn’t good- I don’t let my apprehension show on my face, I just close my eyes and focus past the mana controlled by Zenon, past the massive amounts of magic hurtling towards me.

Everything in this world has mana. Even Time. I didn’t want to use this so early… but-

I open my eyes again, and now they glow bright blue. Mana runes burst to life, spiralling around my head like a double halo.

So be it. I’ll burn away my life with this technique if that’s what it takes!

“True Time Magic: Domain of Thanatos!”

Mana flares around my head, and there’s a horrible, shrieking creak as the entire world goes to sleep. I suck in a breath, hovering, completely still, and watch as Zenon, Vanica, and Dante hang suspended in space and time, in the moment before their attacks struck true.

That was close- I slowly let out the breath, being sure to keep my movements at a minimum. I taste blood in my mouth, my entire body fighting every passing moment to stay in this state. Even with the forbidden sealing spell holding my soul together, this spell is so powerful that it could snap at any moment. I grit my teeth. Carefully, I step forward, finding purchase in the mana under my boot. As I move, Zenon and the others do as well, but in slow motion. Within this domain, time flows at the rate I set, and my own body dictates that.

But it’s enough; A few steps, and I manage to escape Zenon’s spatial cube. I strain a little as I leave it, since its effect is still weakening me slightly, but within my domain it’s basically useless. Okay… I slowly turn and watch as the magic attacks finally reach where I was a few seconds ago. ...release-

Time bursts back into motion. Zenon’s eyes widen a moment later, as Vanica and Dante’s spells inexplicably miss. What?! He thinks, stopping himself in midair. He blinks, and the realization hits him.

She- She’s gone-

Vanica looks up, and her smile drops.

“ZENON!”

Zenon peeked around the corner. Dante and Morris were still in the lab, talking quietly together in front of the projected magical screen. A scene played again and again, repeated indefinitely. A woman, in the center of several magical attacks. And a moment later, without any discernible movement, the spells were all defeated, and her enemies fell at her feet.

She just used that power now, right?

Zenon didn’t have time to feel scared, he didn’t even have time to turn around. He could feel the mana there, but it was too late to react.

I leveled my hand at his head from behind.

“Chrono Sta-”

“PRESENCE OF THE DEMON KING, 100%!!!”

Dante’s voice cuts me off right before I fire. I look up to see him above me, still a good ways away. What was that?! Is he going to shoot a spell at me? Or-

I get my answer a moment later when the world crashes down at me. Or, rather, up at me. All the mana under my feet gives way, broken by the sheer force above me, and I fall to earth like a heavy stone. I let out a strangled cry that gets left in the atmosphere above as I plummet. Gravity! This is Dante’s gravity magic- shit- 

“Domain of Thanatos!”

With a jerk, time stops, but it’s no use. Even within that domain, gravity permeates, and I keep falling at the same rate, so the others move freely as well. Ah! I quickly release the spell and manage to turn around and look up. The three of them- no- two of them are above me, falling slightly slower. My heart skips a beat. Wait?! Where’s Dante-”

Just as the thought crosses my mind, an unseen force tugs me violently to the left. I spin in the air, disoriented, before a voice meets my ear.

“You might be fast… but there’s no escaping my pull! Not now!”

I look up towards the source, paling. Dante is there, falling with me, but his magic is pulling me towards him at an upsetting speed. He grins evilly, winding up his fists. “Let’s see if you can survive this, Wizard King!”

I already know that there’s nothing I can do to release myself from his grip. His gravity slows my time magic, so much that it would be useless right now. The light magic would have come in handy if I used it to get out of his range, but now it’s just going to be warped by him as well.

It’s inevitable… I’m heading straight for him. 

I clench my fist, and let my smile widen just a little bit.

So… I’ll make him regret it!

Zenon’s eyes widened as he watched from above. Without a second thought and without a word, he let himself speed up, freefalling towards his brother.

Dante’s smile didn’t falter, his hands still clenched in front of him as he prepared to give me a beating of a lifetime. I cross my arms in front of me, bracing myself while summoning my fire magic, condensing it inside of me until it burned as bright as daylight.

“Fire magic… Solar BLITZ!”

Just in time, Zenon hit his brother, grabbing Dante around the middle and knocking him further down and out of the way. Not a moment too soon; The mana inside me explodes, sending a flurry of fiery bolts in every direction. With a grunt, Zenon glanced back, moving between the bolts as they spread out away from the epicenter. 

“Gah! Zenon-” Dante was still a little shocked, not sure what just happened. He and Zenon spun four times before Zenon let go. They were still in a freefall, even though Dante’s gravity spell had released. With the wind whipping through his hair, Zenon turned his gaze skyward again to see Vanica above them. Her composure had wavered slightly, but it returned as she gave her brother a nod. She reached down, tendrils of blood shooting out. They quickly grabbed her brothers and stopped their fall, and soon she was next to them. 

“Where did she go?” Dante looks around, shrugging off Zenon’s hold. Zenon stayed silent, looking around as well. She’s gone- but she can’t be far, she was in the middle of that explosion-

“It doesn’t matter, we’ll find her!” Vanica let out an excited giggle, adrenaline still filling her body. “There’s three of us, and she hasn’t managed to put a scratch on any of us!”

“On the contrary-”

The voice came from directly above. The three’s gazes snapped up to see me floating above them, silent until now. Despite being thrown around by Dante’s magic, I’m still smiling, my hands steady as I hold them up, emerging from under the robe that flows around me, white trim tickling the sides of my neck. 

“There’s three of you… and you haven’t managed to put a scratch on me.”

Blue fire bursts to life in both of my palms, and mana crackles around my body as my hold on the battlefield strengthens.

Zenon let go of Dante, letting himself fall back. His heart pounded in his throat as he felt the mana around him start to condense.

This… is unexpected.

I wasn’t even supposed to be here. According to Morris and the spies, I was pregnant and dying. But here I was, decidedly not pregnant and stronger than the Dark Triad could have imagined. 

But something wasn’t right.

My smile, my voice, the black mark upon my forehead… but more than anything, the instinctual chill Zenon got when he looked into my eyes.

You…

Zenon’s Devil was silent as usual.

Why do you know this feeling?

But despite it all, Zenon saw a spark of hope.

The nature of her magic is one that dominates the area around her. She’s spewing out time magic like it’s nothing. It’s constantly around her, speeding and dilating the pace of battle. That’s how she can dodge us with such agility; she’s using this plane to predict our movements. Her magic is permeating everything around her…

He recalled how the Tree of Qliphoth reacted to her arrival, the sudden burst of energy within it, like fertilizer had been added to its soil.

I get it… I know what I have to do.

I finally swing my arms down, crossing in front of me as I release my attack.

“Mana Zone: Solar Blitz, OVERDRIVE!”

Each spot in the air around the Dark Triad lights up, a flurry of Solar Blitzes that surround them completely. Bolts fire out from all around, and the three instantly split up and shoot out of the way in an attempt to dodge. 

“Ah!” Dante hissed as one shot right through him. He was knocked away, but the pain was momentary. He quickly patched up the wound with his own flesh, contorting grossly around the spot. The lights were blinding, and it was all he could do to avoid major damage from the storm. But it was over quickly, and he blinked to dispel the shock, and saw Vanica close to him, all in one piece thankfully. But-

Where’s Zenon?! Dante started to look around for his brother, but then saw that they were moments from hitting the ground. Shit! He started to cast a spell to break his fall, but a voice stopped him. “Not so fast!”

Huh?! He looked up just in time to see me hurtle down towards him, laughing to myself happily.

“You wanted a closer look, right? Well, here I am!”

On the last word, my fist swings forward, and hits him squarely in the middle of his face. Dante lets out a pained yell, reaching up to grab me. But it’s too late- a moment later, we both hit the ground with a mighty CRASH.

“Dante!” Vanica yells, quickly landing in the rubble of the part of the fortress that we hit. There was dust and carnage everywhere, and the thinner branches of the Tree had begun to twine through the area. 

“Over here!” Dante grunted, wincing as his magic started to put his body back together. I let her surprise me… and I fell hard because of that. All mirth was gone from his eyes as he stood up, his strength returning with the help of Lucifero around him. Even with 100%, I was powerful enough to do this to him… but I shouldn’t be. Before this, I thought it would be fun to keep her alive… to conquer the Wizard King on and off the battlefield… it would be my greatest desire. But now- Dante wiped off his face, his gaze finally falling on the standing silhouette among the dust. I know. The three of us are done playing around. He let his grin return, but now it was like a predator baring their fangs. She will die today.

While the dust clears, in the one moment of peace that I have, I let myself take in a deep breath. The last few seconds are a blur, spinning around and around in my head. It all happened so fast- My hands are shaking at how close a few of those attacks came to killing me. My own life is crumbling, but it’s not time to stop yet. Yami and William are in here somewhere, probably at the center of where the Tree is growing. I can’t stop now… I can’t show any mercy. I’m only strong enough to fight them because of the powers I’ve stolen… I have to atone for those crimes before I die!

The dust finally settles, and I see both Vanica and Dante standing in front of me. Something about them has changed; the reckless abandon they attacked me with before is gone, and now all that remains is cold, cruel purpose.

“Oh… so, you’re finally going to get serious?” 

I narrow my eyes, steadying my hands as I reach up. With one simple movement, my heavy robe slips from my shoulders and pools at the ground at my feet. I take one step forward, flame starting to glow at the tip of my finger, illuminating the area around us in a deadly blue glow.

“Then… you’ve left me no choice but to get serious as wel-”

Before I can finish my sentence, I detect mana behind me from the ruined hall. I whip around, but it’s too late. Something flies out of the darkness and hits me.

For a few moments, it’s like I’m at the center of the world; it rolls and tilts under my feet, threatening to send me tumbling to the ground in a pathetic pile. I open my mouth, letting out a gasp of surprise before stumbling back. One step. Then two. Then three. Before I go too far and lose my balance, I catch myself, freezing like ice has grown around my feet.

I can’t taste it, but I know that warm liquid bubbling up in my throat is blood. Slowly, my hand slides up to touch the spot where I was hit. My fingertips hit the unmistakable texture of bone. 

That’s it, then… he got me-

No.

I finally look down, afraid of what I’m going to see. There’s blood, yes, a lot of it, splattered up my shirt and up the shaft of the bone, but somehow it doesn’t hurt. My Time Magic already began to work as soon as the foreign object appeared, and its blue glow is already fading. 

The wound is healed, almost impossibly fast.

“Oh… well…”

With just a little bit of trouble, my body now weighed down on my right side by the bone skewered through it, I start to straighten up, my gaze rising to the foes who stand before me. Zenon has appeared, mostly unscathed from my prior attack. I thought I blasted him away, but it looks like he got the jump on me for a moment. He’s back now, readying himself beside his siblings, but shock is slowly registering on his face as he realizes what just happened.

Vanica and Dante realize it too. All at once, the determination in their eyes deepens, and the devilish mana around them thickens.

Maybe this is three against one- no, it’s six against one. Maybe this is six against one… but I can’t help but smile.

“Did you really think… that would do anything at all, Zenon?”

FDJKL YIKES! DW lisa was having a blast this chapter but next chapter she's going to have a bad time. "boned" if you will. jfkdsl anyway NEXT TIME: the futile purpose. Lisa continues to fight the Dark Triad, but Zenon has a plan that she doesn't expect; and the entire world comes tumbling down.

[jackdawyt]

Dragon Age: Inquisition is one of my favourite games of all time. I love everything about this game, from the compelling hero’s journey, to the roster of lovable characters, to making the Inquisitor my very own unique protagonist. Few games compare to the experiences and tremendous moments that Inquisition provides, not to mention the Trespasser DLC which revealed the true intention of the game’s villain, and paved the story forward for future titles.  

I think it’s rather telling how good this game is, considering we’re still talking about it nearly 6 years later after launch, discovering new theories and mysterious hidden deep within the lore. Heck, if Dragon Age: Inquisition was a mediocre experience, I don’t think I’d have a YouTube channel today with thousands of recurring views weekly talking about the game, and where the story is going to go since the events of Inquisition.  

However, there is something critical that I feel is necessary to discuss regarding Dragon Age Inquisition’s original marketing demos and the expectations they set for the finished game.  

Following up to the launch of Dragon Age: Inquisition, I used to obsessively re-watch the first original gameplay demo shown at Pax Prime 2013. At the time the game was in its pre-alpha build, however, there were many impressive features and dynamics showing just a glimpse of what we’d come to expect once we got our hands on the game.  

In retrospect, these promises were scrapped before the finished project released.

This post is not meant to be a negative outlook, poking holes at BioWare’s effort, but an investigation and critique into BioWare’s game design, more specifically, the cuts the developers made tackling Inquisition’s complicated release, and how they’ve learned since.  

For the uninitiated, Dragon Age: Inquisition released in November, 2014, a month after the next generation of consoles launched. As the game was jammed in-between two gaming generations, it was designed to ship on both the previous generation of consoles (Xbox 360/PS3) and the current generation (XB1/PS4).

In order for the game to predominantly run on the lower spec consoles, many gameplay cuts, downgrades and setbacks were made to the final project.  

I’m not talking about conceptual ideas in pre-production that were drafted for the game, like The Architect making a cameo appearance in a “Here Lies The Abyss” alternative twist, or the Hero of Ferelden, Hawke and The Inquisitor meeting up in a potential drafted prologue. Of course, there were plenty of ideas, concepts and story threads that were canned and reworked because the developers had better, and frankly more relevant plans for the game.

I’m talking about actual features and mechanics that were incorporated and designed into the vertical slice demo that was shown off to the fans at Pax Prime 2013, and then were removed later on just before launch.

I would like to point out that the gameplay I’m going to show was alpha footage, and the developers made sure we all understood that it could easily change, nobody lied to us. If anything, BioWare were so eager to show off the next Dragon Age game, that perhaps this was the biggest detriment to the project.

I’ll have the full Pax gameplay demo linked for those who want to watch it fully. But without further ado, I’m going to be revealing the Dragon Age: Inquisition we almost got.  

Cut Content:  

The demo starts with a significant cut, originally Dragon Age: Inquisition would’ve featured stunning party member cutscenes when entering new areas for the first time.  We see Varric, Cassandra and Vivienne discussing how prepared they are since the Inquisition formed. Varric banters that he’s outnumbered by the ladies once again.  

We can assume that these dynamic banter cutscenes based on your party members were replaced with Scout Harding’s area report.  

The models and textures for the characters and armours look very different too. Cassandra has a more angled facial structure, like her original concept art. And, the Inquisitor’s armour and textures don’t even exist in the final game, I remember attempting to recreate this look, a thousand times over, however, no fabrics in the game have this orange texture.

Helmets also appear in conversations, which is a huge pet peeve of mine, I’m still upset to this day that we can’t see helmets in conversations and there’s no mod to fix it. However, they added this feature in Mass Effect: Andromeda, so maybe we’ll see it in the future.  

In general, this demo showed that there was going to be a lot more cutscenes when entering new areas, in party banter, and for minor conversations with smaller characters.  

Upon inspecting the gameplay, we can see the camera’s placement was significantly adjusted. The demo had a third-person feel, whereas the game ended up with a pulled back camera, probably to suite the tactical camera for combat. Fortunately, there are mods that actually fix this issue.  

The UI has evolved since the demo, there used to be a Skyrim-esqe navigation compass that was replaced with a radar. And the party member icons are different, but that’s just nit-picking.  

The combat is more or less the same, however, it does seem more reactive and heftier in the demo. Most likely because the camera is more zoomed into the action. There are some tweaks though, the enemies react more to the Inquisitor’s attacks, the stumble, flail and even run away, as opposed to just taking the damage and then attacking you back.  

However, minor these cuts may seem to you; they did change the game a fair amount adding more immersion to the overall experience.  

Even so, the most obvious and upsetting cut when watching this demo regards the entirety of Crestwood, the area has been dramatically reduced in the final game.  

In this demo, the Inquisitor is given a conflict. One of the Inquisition’s soldiers asks the player how does the Inquisitor want to handle their armies' movements throughout the area.  

The Inquisitor could send the Inquisition army to save the town of Crestwood.  

They could lead the soldiers to tend to the nearby wounded.

Or they could bolster every solider to the Keep, leaving both the wounded and the town of Crestwood.  

Each choice had a consequence, and both Mike Laidlaw and Mark Darrah spoke on having multiple ways to approach the situation. For instance, in the demo’s scenario the Inquisitor decides to leave the town while it’s under siege, instead, they find a secret entrance towards the Keep. Using Antivan Fire, they burn the invaders’ boats which would prevent them from escaping after their attack. The Inquisition take the Keep, and head back to the ransacked town filled with newly fresh corpses. A dynamic cutscene of Varric mourning the dead plays out, adding emotional impact and weight to the decision the Inquisitor just made.  

And this was just a side questline...

The demo ends with the developers reiterated the tactical and dynamic approaches when showing the Inquisition taking over the Keep at The Western Approach.  

According to Mark Darrah, you could weaken enemy defences by doing things like drawing out the troops or poisoning their wells.  

Then, once you claimed the keep for yourself, you’d get a quest called ‘This Water Tastes Funny’, in which your Keep's well was poisoned and you’d have to go find fresh water.

The Keep’s themselves were originally designed to have a lot more influence and reactivity throughout the world. Once captured, the Inquisitor could choose a dynamic choice for the Keep’s overall goal, if you had enough Inquisition agents. 

The Keep could be specialised based on the Inquisition’s advisors. You could choose to run your Keep as a Military outpost, boosting fortifications. It could be a Keep of espionage and secrets, for information gathering, or you could make it a Keep of connections and merchants for diplomatic purposes. Each different speciality had a different advantage and aesthetic to suit its purpose.  

Adding more choices and roleplaying values for making the Inquisition your own army, having a say in what aspects it should grow in.  

That sums up the majority of the cuts made since this demo. I will say it’s unfortunate seeing these unfinished features that shaped the game in a completely different direction, that inevitably couldn’t make it into the finished project.  

But I think it’s wrong to pin the blame of this cut content on anyone because the developers were tackling a console generation shift, and they wanted everyone to have the opportunity to play the game without having to get a new console. Can you really blame them for that?  

Perhaps many of these features may be designed into a future title since the developers wanted them so much in Inquisition? And speaking of the future title, at least the next Dragon Age game won’t be coming out in between a console generation, it is being designed strictly for next-gen, so there shouldn't be any console setbacks and limitations.  

Even still, when Dragon Age 4 does eventually get a gameplay reveal, don’t set your expectations in stone based on that reveal. The finished project will look very different. These days gameplay previews aren’t always accurate, and that’s just a dilemma of the entire games industry, not just EA and BioWare.  

Wrapping up on a positive note, BioWare have learned from this experience, and they’re approaching Dragon Age 4 with a “show, don’t tell” strategy. They will be proceeding with caution when marketing and revealing the next Dragon Age game, and that may play a part in why we haven't and won't see anything official for a while.  

I don’t think I could end on a better note then the Narrative Director, John Epler’s message about Inquisition’s development. John said: “A good 90% of 'bad' decisions are, in fact, the best decision at the time. Game dev is all about making the best decision you can at the time, with the resources you have. A lot of stuff you thought was weird or awkward came down to a gut call of 'this is the best I can make this and I trust it's good enough'. Sometimes we're right, sometimes not.”

BioWare decided to make these cuts to Inquisition because they realised it was the right thing to do for the entire project, perhaps they felt they couldn’t deliver these features to their full capacity, or they wanted a change of direction. They believe these decisions were made for the greater good of the game, and I commend them for that.  

Dragon Age Inquisition is an incredible RPG with tons of personality, that not many games can even mimic. Although the game had some minor setbacks with the fair amount of content that was cut, the game is just as amazing without those initial features.  

Like I said, perhaps we’ll see these mechanics in the next game, if not, then at least it has been a learning experience for BioWare, that they can utilise for the development of Dragon Age 4.  

In any regard, let me know your thoughts down below on this gameplay demo relating to the finished game, and don’t forget to check out my latest news update!

[lehdenlaulu]

I like AC Valhalla,  but the more I play it the clearer it becomes that it too was rushed so a lot of things in it feel kinda like a result of cut content, tight deadlines and half-baked ideas.

The most noticeable thing is how the option to have a female Eivor feels entirely cosmetic. Which in a way is cool and refreshing, don’t get me wrong, but the fact that the narrative and characters (and sometimes even the dialogue, there are a couple of slips that refer to her as Sigurd’s brother instead of sister) treat her 100% as if she were a dude is just... odd and definitely makes it less immersive. The romance options, too, feel as if they’re designed with straight male protagonist in mind and while that is sadly still unsurprising in video games it feels like a step back from the freedom of Odyssey (even though Odyssey’s romances were more, shall we say, “light”).

Plus the graphics. I just got back to the game after a couple of weeks and it’s almost hilarious how much better the Yule Festival mini DLC looks compared to the rest of the game, even with some of the graphical improvements via patches. The character animations and textures absolutely look worse than in Odyssey (honestly, some hair textures for example wouldn’t feel out of place in a 15 year old game) and I really doubt it’s just my hardware that is to blame considering I updated almost all of it after the first try.

This is not me complaining, to make it clear. I know to expect stuff like this from newly released games these days. Approximately 96% of the time games are not actually ready by release date, even if they’re delayed from the original release date. Not to even mention content and features that get cut as ‘natural’ part of the process. The scale especially with AAA games is immense these days and so is the pressure, for indie studios and ones under big publishing companies both.

That is why I’m actually cool with the recent trend of Early Access because it’s honest. You will knowingly get an unfinished product for (usually) full price while helping make the eventual finished product better. Is it frustrating to not get it all at once? Sure. But that’s how it all seems to work, anyway: either you get a buggy, unpolished product or you wait 6-12 months (or more) extra to get a more polished and stable one maybe with some extra DLCs to boot.

Is it a result of deep flaws in the system? Absolutely. Does it need fixing? Hell yes. Will it be easy and quick? Unfortunately, no.

ETA:

I say “these days” and “recently” but this has been more or less of an issue for the last 10 years or so, and with pretty much every game studio you can think of. Graphics issues and buggy quests especially are more the rule than an exception in new releases. Mass Effect: Andromeda and Dragon Age: Inquisition had some pretty notorious ones. And while we’re speaking of BioWare, Dragon Age 2 was released by EA in freaking alpha stage and never got fully fixed. LucasArts did pretty much the same with Obsidian’s Knights of the Old Republic 2. Bethesda took so much time fixing Skyrim’s numerous bugs most of the players just shrugged and downloaded the unofficial patch mod.

So especially put in context, Cyberpunk 2077 being a bit of a mess at launch is absolutely nothing new under the sun. I get that people had high expectations, but... Yeah. It’s just how it is.