My blog here is focused on my Interests which are some TV shows, Books/Audiobooks/E-books, Video Games, and Podcasts from various Comedians. Currently reading or watching or playing or listening to: A World of Ice and Fire, Takeshi Kovacs Trilogy, A Song of Ice and Fire series, Warlords of Draenor, Dragon Age: Inquisition, Shadowrun returns: Deadman's Switch, Shadowrun returns: Dragonfall Director's cut, The Long Dark, Tomb Raider 2013, The Witcher 2: Assassin of Kings, Deus Ex: Human Revolution Directors cut, Farcry 3, Farcry: Blood Dragon. Well met along the path of the beam.
So the other night I decided to switch up my blog to wordpress to test it out and I'm liking it. It’s has all the things built into it that i need plug ins here for to work, like view tracking and comments. It was extremely easy to import all my posts over and even easier to manage my blog.
I'm switching over to have my blog of audiobooks, gaming, quotes and random videos or commentary over to wordpress.
The new blog is here. I will be posting there now and this will be my last post using tumblr for my blog.
We were well met along the path of the beam. Long days and pleasant nights.
The first of four novellas of the newest book in the “Old Man’s War” series is out today, with more coming soon.
I will be waiting for the audiobook version and hope its still narrated by William Dufris.
Can’t wait for this, I really wanted to learn more about the aftermath from the ending to “The Human Division” and I will definitely use an audible credit to preorder the audiobook when it’s available.
So the big drama of no people of color in the game is a complete sham really. Its just smokescreen so people have something to talk about and take aim at an easy target. I think its just symptom of outrage and overreaction that plagues the internet because of easy dissemination of ideas and feelings. That does have it’s advantages at times but it also is huge problem as well because it just boils down to inciting a mob and witch hunting.
The drama about no people of color is a non-issue to me. I’m a First Nation’s person living Canada, I’ve experienced racism first hand and a lot despite Canada being praised for being multicultural (it is for most but not if a person of First Nations descent, you can disagree with me here but you’d be 100% wrong.) How does this apply to the no people of color in the witcher? Simple really, The Witcher 3 is a product of Polish Culture and then used in a Fantasy Setting. There are dragons, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, Werewolves, Succubi, Vampires, and a ton of other monsters. They even have a nation of non white people famous for their alchemy and warrior women, Zerrikania. So I think the whole sham criticism and complaint is bunk because of that fact. But, if you are still outraged, the game is an expression of Polish culture, by trying to sling shit like it being racist, is to deny a people their Culture/heritage and identity simply because it doesn't fit into your own views or ideals. I have some experience with people that would like to deny culture, language, and heritage. Let me tell you that it's dehumanizing and insulting to the very core of your being. It’s something that I would not wish on anyone or any people. And by making the claim that developers be shamed (or criticized) for making a game that expresses a unique heritage and culture because it doesn’t have token person of color (or substitute your unique heritage in) is the very height (and definition of) hypocrisy.
To me it’s just a shitty way to get an easy reaction out of people's baser instincts because when someone yells Racist! people want to know what’s up and if it looks that way on the surface people will believe it. It’s all just a extremely low effort way to sling a easy criticism and a baseless claim of racism against successful game and gaming studio to take advantage of the propensity of people to overreact and express moral outrage/judgements over the internet. It’s just a perfect example of “outrage culture.”
So in the outrage over “the scene,” nearly everyone has forgotten the cool fight sequence in the pits of Meereen. A Water Dancer, a Dothraki Screamer, a Norvoshi with a glaive, and a Meereenese Gladiator.
It was pretty fucking bad ass to see how effective a Water Dancer was in combat, after the build up from season 1 and Syrio Forel: First Sword of Braavos.
Also, Kerry Ingram definitely stole a bunch of scenes prior to that episode with an excellent portrayal of Shireen. Only fitting that she was memorable to all the way to the end.
Gwent is one of the things that I had no idea about prior to playing the Witcher 3 and it’s quickly become one my favorite aspects of the game. I haven't had this much fun playing a minigame in a rpg since the various mini games in Final Fantasy 7.
A great aspect of the game and I can’t wait for the Gwent DLC now.
Also, will CD Projekt RED please do something about decoying and using medics to re use the overpowered Spy cards especially since only Northern Realms and Nilfgaard use them. I Hope they make it so Spy cards only draw 2 cards the first time you or your opponent uses them, being able to replay the Spy cards with decoys and medics gives a crazy card advantage that cannot be really overcome by any amount of strategy. It’s not a major issue since you can use a well drawn Monster deck to smash most opponents that take advantage of spies but it made that gwent tournament with Sasha super annoying matchup to win.
So after playing pretty obsessively over the last 2 weeks, I’ve come to a conclusion that playing as Geralt in the Witcher, is probably the closest thing there is right now to playing Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden.
Allow me to elaborate, Geralt fights monsters with sorcery and alchemy. Geralt’s main spells are a force field type shield (that if talent points are spent in can be used as a bubble around him, sound familiar?), a fire spell that is pretty good in combat vs anything (and I constantly and unconsciously think Fuego! very loudly in my head), and a telekinetic force spell (that I also think Forzare! very loudly in my head as I cast it.) 3 spells that Dresden uses throughout the Dresden Files series. Alchemy plays a big part in the Witcher with various potions that buff Geralt in different beneficial ways that also become toxic to him if he imbibes too many potions at the same time. Could be I’m stretching a bit here but this is the closest I felt to playing a monster fighting loner with magic and alchemy outside of generic builds in Skyrim or completely custom characters in Shadowrun returns and Shadowrun: Dragonfall. Not to mention the obvious similarity with the Wild Hunt and the King of the Hunt being in both series.
Just another reason why The Witcher 3 is my favorite game now, moving past games like Morrowind, Red Dead Redemption, The Legacy of Kain series, Darksiders, Final Fantasy 7 and 8, Deus Ex, the Metal Gear series, Fallout 3 and New Vegas, Knights of the Old Republic 1 and 2, Dragon Age: Origins, the Mass Effect Series, and GTA San Andreas.
It’s also, in my opinion, the best gaming Trilogy so far.
The Witcher 3. Spoilers for the Bloody Baron Quest line.
So like its been a few days since I done the quest, I wanted some time to think it over for a bit and I’m well passed that point in the game now. I am on Skellige now. Back on topic, the Bloody Baron quest line after finding out Ciri has moved onto Novigrad. Spoilers below, so if you haven’t completed it, read at your own discretion.
That is probably the best example of Tragedy done right and extremely well in a game. I haven't seen something tragic like that since I played Red Dead Redemption.
The whole quest line is building up to it is a nice set up and each step along the way you think that you are trying to help the baron reconcile with his wife and child but at the same time you start to see how the Baron has squandered his opportunity with his family with his drinking and that he himself is the reason for nearly all the problems. Even when you hear his side of the story, you can see while it’s not entirely his fault, he is still the crux of the issue.
When you finally track down his daughter you begin to see that its irreconcilable with his daughter already and that nothing the baron can do or promise to do will change it.
The climax is when you figure out what’s happened with his wife and what she has promised to the Crones, whom have the reputation of being malicious even when helpful and while they stick to the letter of there agreements they clearly don't hold with the spirit of the agreement. Thus, the baron’s wife is tragically bound to the crones for a period of time and at the whim of their mercy.
Freeing her from there grasp, they prove its unwise to make deals with them because they curse the baron's wife to death.
The baron, having lost his wife and being irreconcilable with his own daughter hangs himself as a result. His men, now under the command of the sergeant promise to bring new order to the land in a very ominous way.
Proving that even with the best intentions things don’t always work out in the way you hoped or intended, and sometimes things just go wrong in the end.
At the end of the summary cinematic Geralt says:
“If I am to choose between a greater or lesser evil, I'd rather not choose at all. Usually though, the stakes are just too damn high. Sometimes in choosing the greater evil, you do good, albeit in a small way. When I chose to save the orphans of the swamp, I couldn't know Anna would die. And I never thought the baron would leave her where she lay, find a rope and hang himself. Most Times, you make your choice, and never look back.”
The “make your choice and never look back” bit is what stayed with me, after that quest and quote, that’s exactly how I approach every choice and how I play the game now. Before that quest, especially in other games, I would play games to get the best perceived outcome.
That quest changed how I approach and view choice in games now, this game is now the new benchmark for games in both story and choice.
The Witcher 3 is definitely the best game I've played in my life so far.
So with nearly all my time spent playing the Witcher 3, I took some time off today watching movies and tv shows. For those curious, the movies were Predator 2 and Predators, the TV shows being Deadwood and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Back on topic, while in between movies and tv shows I was checking out reddit and came across a interesting post about The Witcher series by Andrzej Sapkowski on Audible (the North American version, its on different countries Audible sites for a while now.) Right now they only have Blood of Elves but they list 3 books in the series so far and all narrated by Peter Kenny. So hopefully this means more of the english versions of the audiobooks soon. I am definitely picking this up this month when my 2 audible credits are in and I will also probably pick up Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere.
What I’m reading/listening to, watching, and playing for June.
So for this month I will be reading the graphic novels for Black Widow written by Richard K Morgan, Homecoming and The Things They Say About Her, of which I was very lucky to pick up because those 2 were out of print and extremely hard to find. Luckily, my local comic shop Comic Encounters had both in stock and I was able to pick up both for about 25$ each. A pretty good deal because with shipping and other hassles if I had ordered them from some online retailers through amazon I would have paid 150$ for one and 100$ for the other plus shipping (7$ each) as well as any cost to bring them across the border. Also, while at Comic Encounters, I picked up the first 2 books in the Fables series, Legends in Exile and Animal Farm. Ever since I playing Telltale’s “The Wolf Among Us” I wanted to get into the story in more depth and I found the books were reasonably priced enough and decided to pick up 2 per month until I read the complete series. Which is going to be 22 books over 11 months, a pretty good diversion from how focused on audiobooks I am currently.
On the Audible front, I picked up with my 2 credits Charles Stross’ “Halting State” and “Rule 34.″ I am about 2 and a 1/2 hours into “Halting State” and starting to get into it now. I was initially a little off put by the multiple Point of View Characters (3) told in a first person perspective but after a couple hours into it, I am getting used to it. Seems its better fitted to actual reading than an audiobook but now that I’m into it I can deal. I’m liking the gaming focus so far. I should be able to get through them quickly but for the Witcher 3.
The Witcher 3 was quite worth the wait, its a great game and will be the measuring stick for the RPG genre for a long time. I’m playing crazy amounts of time and still finding my play style to be enjoyable. The Just Jules approach is nice for this game. I’ll be playing this for the next couple months for sure. I don’t see any other games of this quality on the horizon for a long time and I want to enjoy every bit of it.
As for what I’m watching this month, I’m gonna do a rewatch of a couple of my favorite TV shows: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and Deadwood. It’ll be a good way to start off the summer.
With just 1 episode the show surpassed the books. That was great. Everything with Tyrion and Dany, Arya, Jon and the Wildlings, Sansa and Reek/Theon, and the awesome callback with “I hate fucking Thenns.” Honestly, the King's landing story lines are the weakest link here.
So far it’s the best episode of the season by a long shot.
So like Gwent and stuff. I just figured out how to play it and made it my mission to travel the country and play every possible npc. I had to fail a bunch on the soothsayer in Velen in order to figure out how to win and I went from vendor to vendor to pick up cards when they sold them. All after I missed a rare one from Velen, the Bloody Baron (that quest was great btw, don't regret anything just make your choice and move on), I resolved to get good play everyone I could. I missed some of the rare ones from White Orchard as well but it doesn’t seem to be handicapping me at all. I just won’t be able to “catch them all.”
I doubt I’ll ever get into the actual card games like Magic: The Gathering or Hearthstone but I’m definitely liking it as a side game in the Witcher 3. Its the most fun I’ve had playing a mini game in a rpg since the various mini games in Final Fantasy 7.
So I found my approach the game to be pretty satisfying, I call it the “Just Be Jules” method. I walk or ride around the country, meeting people and getting into adventures. And then kill monsters and get paid for it.
Definitely the best game I've played this year and I don't think it will be topped by any other game any time soon. And I'm pretty sure I’m not even half way through yet.
Totally worth the wait. Liking everything about it so far: the RPG elements (being able to be a combination of Swordsman, Spellcaster, Alchemist is really nice), the story and characters are awesome so far (Charles Dance as the Emperor is great and he’s awesome as a Voice Actor), the combat is fun and still challenging, the environments are large and sprawling filled with a decent amount of monsters/animals/people/villages, and the quests are good. I also like the card game Gwent, its a fun addition to the game.
If i had the bandwidth I’d probably download the free DLC but I don’t and I can’t download anything big until June.
So far, it’s everything I’ve hoped it would be and CD Projekt RED has delivered on everything I’ve expected and then some. CD Projekt RED and Bethesda are the only Devs I’ll have trust in regards to pre-ordering and picking up DLC.
Daniel Cormier and Ryan Bader confrontation at the UFC 187 post fight press conference.
So that looks like it will be an easy fight to sell, I wonder how long it will take to set up that fight. The “easy pay cheque” thing was harsh and a huge burn on Bader. If they do set this fight up, I hope its soon.
Loved Rumble at the end there.
Also, its totally cheque and not check. Ya I said it.
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