#ix rambles

[ixmythot]

Some SR22 Musings

So, thanks to @megafreeman inspiring me by mentioning Santo Ileso and me commenting on it, I got the itch to just...replay SR22 as a sort of 'I can sit back after work and just go around' kind of thing, get into the feel even more then I did when I first played though the game when it dropped.

So far, I'm more irked at the fact that there's shit locked behind dead systems now, such as the masks locked behind the Boss Factory (I have them on another save file, but the point is more about the loss of content), and ESPECIALLY the Marshal Heavy Weapon locked behind creating an account on Saints Row's 'website'. I know Embracer does not GIVE A SHIT, but it irks me to no end, as someone who 'likes to have it all' when it comes to content in a game, that it's impossible now to get such things on the PS4/5/etc without save editing. Beyond that mechanical annoyance, the other major thing 'first off', is the fact that easily the best way to enjoy the wingsuit wasn't released until the very end of the game's lifespan, as SOMEONE at Volition realized 'hey we need to make this a bit more 'cartoony' to really be enjoyable, and whomever that mad lad or ladette or non-binary or beyond pal was, I thank you, even if it's a pain to get early on. Being able to dash with the wingsuit makes using the wingsuit far more appealing, especially when tied with the 'Pain 'n' Gain' to get airborn more easily. Yes, it's 'game-y', and very much 'Glide-with extra steps' from SR4, but it worked there for a reason, and it adds to the power fantasy just a bit more, given the lower rate of income in the early game.

There's a LOT of little things I would have personally changed in the writing room, even just things like said wingsuit. Have it be part of the main 'tutorial' line of missions, something Marshal gives The Boss as a sort of 'you're our test pilot for this', and they keep it when they get fired. Little things to tie bits and pieces of the lore to gameplay Have the 'Found Family', as cliche as it is, be the main focus of the story, not 'oh we're building our own gang'. Have the gang form AROUND the friends, as a result of their actions unintentionally mirroring how the Saints in SR1 were, according to Julius, built to protect the Row from the other gangs. On that note, SHOW the other Gangs having more effect on the city in general. The poorer districts having to deal with Los Panteros, showing how Sergio has turned the gang from the implied 'family with muscle cars' that Neenah joined when she first arrived, to the more 'Alpha Male' esque brutes they are by the start of the game. Show how the Idols are clearly just using the youth, the disenfranchised, those that want change but feel they're too weak/etc to handle it, and lean into their cult-like behavior more. Oh, and give their Collective actual fucking character?

Marshal was handled well, PMC playing up the 'ooorah 'Merica' angle, sci-fi gunslingers bringing law and order to the wild west. Hell, lean into that 'more' with them hiring The Boss, by way of, instead of having the intro be 'oh the Boss gets stabbed, here's how we got here', run the SR3/4 route of 'masked, bodyarmored grunt with a radio issue, or have the character creation be part of their 'onboarding' if we have to have distinct voices (The banter between the Boss and Gwen was easily the best part of the intro so it might work out keeping it) The Nahualli? Holy fuck, his entire concept needed another pass, though. I don't mind the idea of The Boss having a rival. Hell, give them several, because, like I said earlier, them and Gwen were great as sort of 'work rivals', but Nahualli? Very much a victim of Enforcer/Deep Silver's 'writing suggestions'. Him having a random gang of mooks out of nowhere, and him deciding 'oh, I'm going to replace you and make your friends love me because you're stronger as a group then I am by myself' was the biggest thing deflating the endgame. Either have him be by himself 'after' the tutorial, and have it be explained that he hired the mercs you tear though, or, have him be a rival PMC to Marshal, and go more into the PMC vs PMC angle, would be a far better way of dealing with things then what we got, even if I DID enjoy the motivation of tearing a rampage though his casino because the fucker locked up my cat. (Yes, I loved the cat. I'm biased, sue me.)

Hell, instead of having him show up at all, let Neenah be the one to off Sergio for what he did to her, and leave him in as a stinger/potential threat for a future story. He escapes 'somehow' and leaves one of his knives behind in the Saints HQ in order to be a big bad for the future.

So this isn't ALL just bitching, the positives, even early on? Santo Ileso is STILL one of the best open world cities in gaming, only rivaled by Cyberpunk 2077's Night City (And that's almost cheating because Night City was a tabletop location for literally four decades BEFORE it became a playable city in 2077, so it's got lore for DAYS behind it), especially with how much they went into the little things, like the History locations. Make those kiosks a bit easier to find, and worth more then the occasional prize and bit of XP, and they'd be utter perfection. Little mini-shops all over the map, instead of 'just' three or four shops total was absolutely fantastic for setting Santo Ileso as this rural/urban blend of a city.

Oh, and you gave me a dedicated Synthwave station. That alone had it rising higher still.

Also? I LOVED the LARP shit. The fact that the ENTIRE TOWN was in on it was a great justification for it going to SR levels of silly, and The Boss going from 'ugh fine' to 'I AM BOSSONIUS' is great shit. Very much in the same vibe as OG Boss getting super into NyteBlayde.

[ixmythot]

Well, scrap that

Got deep enough into Dragon Age Inquisition to start thinking of who to romance, and was considering Sera. Then I read up on her backstory.

I’m just glad I didn’t pick an elven mage for my main run, because holy fuck, she’s even WORSE towards an elven mage Inquisitor then to any other female inquisitor.

Not romancing her in the slightest. FUCK. THAT. NOISE.

[darkaengel]

We’re snooping on your playlist. put your entire 🎶 library on shuffle and list the first ten songs, then choose ten victims.

I was tagged by @sc-rp thank you sm, honey

1. Take Shelter - Years & Years

2. Luciérnagas - Tessa Ia

3. The City (single version) - The 1975

4. LIES GREED MISERY - Linkin Park

5. For Reasons Unknown - The Killers

6. Soak - MAALA

7. Lost - Steffan Argus

8. Necios - Young Tender

9. Rhiannon - Fleetwood Mac

10. Mystery Colors - Astronauts, etc.

I tag whoever wants to do this bcs I don’t have any friends in here 😂

[ixmythot]

Ix Rambles: PROTOTYPE

I’ll keep this, well, not brief, but I’ll do my best to keep my rambling to several points:

The original Prototype came out WAY back, good lord, just over nine years ago, and, after wanting it, and a few friends talking about playing it, I jumped. Not having a PS3 at the moment, I went 360, and got swept up into the game’s plot almost instantly. Younger me was all for playing an open-world game where I could just ‘cut loose’ and lash out, with these awesome viral powers, at anything I wanted, though, before long, I began actively hunting down the Web of Intrigue targets, piecing together the more subtle bits of the plot, and, ironically, much like the Alex that formed from the Blacklight Virus itself, began to focus less on mindless destruction, and more on how to better take down bases, or how to stealth though missions as best I could. A few replays later, and I felt that, while I’ll never get a sequel, that we didn’t really need one, we had a good game, and the cliffhangers and such would be good plot for potential fanfic, even if I didn’t end up finding the Prototype fandom, aside from seeing some of the Assassin’s Creed crossover stuff, before the release of Prototype 2.

Now, by the time that 2 started to be talked about, I had more then grown to love the almost irony in that Viral Alex was more human, had more morals, and GREW as a person, when compared to his creator, the original Alex Mercer. I absolutely loved that we had a ‘superhero’ story where the almost monstrous main character becomes more then that, both though his trials, and the few people he bonded with, me especially hoping for the potential bond between ‘Alex’ and his sister, as it had such potential. Then, the interviews and articles started to spread, how the writing staff went with a new character, and started going on about how Alex unleashed a virus again.

I distinctly remember reading an article in the middle of a Gamestop, and thinking to myself ‘man, they’re REALLY playing up the ‘propaganda’ angle, and that in the end, Alex must be being set up by Blackwatch’, because there’d be NO way that Alex would unleash another virus, not after what happened with Redlight, and how he fought, not just to deal with Redlight and Blackwatch, but to save New York from being nuked.

And then the game came out. And I plowed though it. Mechnically, the game is better. I loved the almost Sin City styled cutscenes, black and white with splashes of color. I spend the entire game expecting Alex to reveal that he was set up, or that he was actually doing this to stop Blackwatch from doing something worse, only to get to the end, and to see him go full reverse, not only back to original Alex levels, but, as half the fandom would joke, that he ate Albert Wesker from the Resident Evil series in between games. (And yes, I read the godawful comics that ‘tried’ to explain his shift, but they missed so much shit, and had worse writing, I had to laugh)

When Prototype 2 tried to claim that their protagonist was more ‘deserving’ of a happy ending then Prototype 1 Alex, was when I lost it. Heller had PLENTY of issues that the game never saw fit to even hint at being something to fix, and he clearly deserved better ‘just’ because he had a daughter? What about Alex, discovering what it was like to be both ‘more then, and less then human?” What about Dana’s recovery, or the fact that she seemed to have a strain of Red or Blacklight within her? What happened to Dr. Ragland? Yeah, he seemed only to work with Alex by way of threat, but he was still a stable influence for Alex. Hell, within not even an in game day from gaining his abilities, Heller goes from a normal human, to having ZERO issues with ‘chowing down’ on people to learn even the smallest scrap of info about the ‘conspiracy’ that 2′s writers came up with.

And yeah, you can say that Alex didn’t have much in the way of qualms either, but Alex was a VIRUS who thought he was human. Heller was originally human, but seemed to jump awfully quick into his new role, far more then he should have, if we were supposed to have been rooting for him.

To end this bit of rambling, Go hunt down a few good fics including Alex, the REAL Alex, such as ‘Shards of Improbability”, “Consuming Direct Control”, or “When The Fires Fade”, Sadly, all three aer deadfic, but all three get Alex better then P2 ever did.

In other words, Alex Mercer deserved better, Dana deserved FAR better, and so did the fans.

[ixmythot]

Castlevania Judgement thoughts

So, I’m sitting here and watching Maximilian’s Castlevania Judgement vid, and I keep coming back to ‘How would the ACTUAL Castlevania cast react to these events?”

Like, Alucard’s second or third fight is against Sypha. I can just imagine post SOTN (As that seems to be the version of Alucard used) Alucard reacting with both confusion and joy at seeing his old friend, and not as a zombie. How would he react to seeing a younger Maria, or one of his father’s many immortal ‘partners’.

Or even things like Simon meeting Trevor, or the like?

[ixmythot]

Back from Suicide Squad (Minor spoilers)

As me and @Hispersephone have agreed, it should have been called “The Deadshot and Harley Quinn Power Hours, guest starring The Suicide Squad, with guest appearance by The Joker.

First half of the film was ALL over the place, but once things started to line up, it got REALLY good. Harley was nigh flawless, with the missing accent being the only minor flaw, and even that wasn’t half bad.

Shockingly enough, Leto’s Joker wasn’t nearly as bad as I was fearing. He wasn’t nearly as obnoxious as I expected, and while the ‘birth’ of Harley was near classic Joker style, the entire rest of the film with him and Harley ACTUALLY was surprisingly well handled. There was no lashing out towards Harley for getting in the situation she was in, and both times, he was focused on getting her back, and not, at least it seemed, just because she ‘belonged’ to him or anything like that.

Weakest links of the flick were Katana (Who’s character design was impressive, but her backstory, motivation for being with the others, and everything along with it were horrid), Captain Boomerang, who was clearly there to be the ‘annoying’ side of the Squad, and this is an immensely ‘petty’ one on my end, I actually wished that The Wall, aka Amanda Waller’s actor was actually heavier then she was in the film. Her actor was FLAWLESS, don’t get me wrong in the slightest, but being used to the animated Justice League/Unlimited/Arkham Assault Waller, I was slightly hoping for the more imposing figure she was in those series.

All and all though, it was the most ENJOYABLE DC film I’ve seen in over a decade, simply because it was FUN.