TheMightyEthan

Yeah, nothing can be apolitical, when people say they want politics out of [media] they really just mean they want it to not contradict or critique current social norms, which necessarily means (at best) tacitly supporting them, which is itself a political position.

Was this the life-changing thing you were doing this week? ?

FF7R: Episode Intermission That was cool, kinda makes me want to replay the main game. I probably would if I weren't getting Ratchet and Clank tomorrow. It's about 5 hours, and it felt kinda short, not because of the actual length, but because it ends kind of abruptly. I'm sure, like the main game, I would have had a better understanding of what was going on and who these people were if I'd played the original. It wasn't that I felt lost, more like it just felt like characters were coming out of nowhere without really being introduced. For some reason that didn't really bother me though, I came away with an overall pretty positive impression of it. 4/5

It's already on browsers, don't know why that's in the headline, it's not even mentioned in the body of the article. The news is that it's coming to TVs as a native app, and also that the servers are being upgraded to Series X (they're currently One S, not even One X). I hope they make an app for Fire TV Stick. I'm sure there'll be one for Android TV, but my Fire Stick 4k has better performance than the TV itself does.

MELE got me jonesing for more Mass Effect, and a brand new copy of ME:A was $8 on Amazon, so here we are. This game is reviewing super well, and looks fun as shit, and I want something that really takes advantage of my PS5, so R&C Rift Apart here we go. I finished MELE yesterday and needed something to play until Rift Apart gets here tomorrow, and I didn't want to start something I wouldn't have time to finish, but conveniently the PS5 version of FF7R released today (I got the free upgrade, but that doesn't include the Yuffie episode).

I mean, I can see the rationality in claiming your obviously political game isn't political, and that's that most people are completely thoughtless and you'll gain more sales by claiming it's apolitical.

Mass Effect 3 - Legendary Edition Holy shit, this game is so good. Easily the best of the trilogy, even with the (still) slightly lackluster ending. I can say at least now with the updated ending it isn't disappointing per se, it's just okay, but it does have adequate falling action to feel resolved. The rest of the game though is amazing. It's so great how it wraps up all the little threads from the first two games, and everything feeds into something, even if it's just a little interaction on the Citadel. The game as whole really does feel like the culmination of the first two. It's also fantastic how they made every little side mission in this game tie into your overall goal by contributing to galactic readiness in a way that feels at least somewhat natural, so you don't have the "why am I getting this little old lady her groceries when I have a galaxy to save?" problem that a lot of RPGs have. You're doing it because her having enough to eat will help the war effort, and you can see exactly how it helped in the war assets console. I had honestly forgotten how good this whole trilogy is. I think it might be my favorite series of all time. 5/5

The most frustrating thing with crunch is that regardless of morality it's objectively stupid, and private corporations are supposedly rational, so they should never use it. All the research shows that after two weeks of crunching you employees' productivity is actually lower than if they'd never crunched (as in they accomplish less in those 80 hours/week than they normally would in 40), and it requires more than a year of normal work schedule to get back to pre-crunch levels of productivity. So if your crunch is going to last longer than a fortnight you'll actually finish faster if you just don't.

Hmm, I saw that was free on Disney+ now and was thinking about watching it this weekend. Is it worth the time?

But if you're not enjoying it...

If you've finished the game why are you bothering looking for the Koroks? I found like 3 of them in that whole game and didn't feel like I was missing out.

Jesus, that's terrifying.

Still Mass Effect 3 I've realized that I never actually got the Omega or Leviathan DLCs back in the day, so those were completely new to me. I had thought that I'd played all the DLC for that game just like I had for the other two, but apparently I only got the Citadel DLC. Both of these were really good, like Lair of the Shadow Broker level good. Omega does exactly what great DLC should, expand on a little bit of the world, and basically be a big ass side question. Leviathan though, they really shouldn't have locked behind DLC. It's super good, but it also puts the whole primary conflict with the Reapers in an entirely different light. I think the main game would have really benefited from this being included, it ties into stuff that happens later, and would have fixed some of the problems people had with it just kind of pulling the ending out of nowhere. Dumb decision then, but since it's included in the LE now all is well. I'm actually really glad I never played these back in the day, because it let me recapture some of the feeling of playing these games for the very first time, and that's a wonderful thing.

It depends on the game, like I'm not going to give a shit if Pokemon Snap's ending doesn't pay off, but if the reason I'm playing the game is the story then a bad ending hits me largely the same way it would in a book or a movie. I mean, for Game of Thrones you could say the same thing, if you enjoyed watching all but the last few episodes then why does the bad ending matter? *Edit - And I'm not saying even the original ending completely ruined the series, or even ruined ME3, I'm just saying that the ending has a disproportionate effect on your overall feelings about the game. So a bad ending will make you feel worse about the game overall than if there was something equally bad in the middle but the ending paid off. If the very last thing I feel about your game is disappointment that's going to color my memories of everything else. Same thing if the very last thing I feel is awe, or even just satisfaction.

Yeah, that's not the kind of thing I'm talking about, though it's nice when it's there. I just mean a cutscene or something that shows a little bit of the aftermath of what happened. Like the scene in ME1 after the final battle where they're digging through the wreckage and find the squad and then you have a short conversation with the council, or the short little conversation with the Illusive Man after the suicide mission in ME2. Just something to show the results of what happened, instead of a hard cut the instant the final confrontation is over, it doesn't have to let you go back out into the world. The original ME3 ending was like if Return of the King just cut to credits as soon as the Ring was destroyed (though RotK has the opposite problem of having way too much epilogue, but that's a whole separate issue). I've heard other people say "if you like the first 95% of the game why does it matter?" and I don't really know how to explain it to someone like that, because that's just such an alien viewpoint to me. Like, in something so story-heavy, the end is the most important part, because it's the part your players are left with. You've gotta stick the landing, otherwise you've undone all the work you did getting players so invested in the first place. You can't just build tension up to its height and then cut it off, that's supremely unsatisfying, you have to have the release. But like I said, they added those little vignettes with the end update for ME3, so I think now that I can play a full playthrough from the beginning with that updated ending already there, and without still having the disappointment of the original jarring hard cut ending fresh in my mind, I'll like it a lot more.

Yeah, those people are tools.

Both, I don't want it to eat Horizon's lunch again, and also I'm extremely excited for both of them and don't want them both dropping on me at the same time. Also, BAN HIM!!!!!!111!!1!!

That's definitely not the only thing people complain about, though I know some people do. The choice thing doesn't even bother me, the end just felt so damned abrupt. Playing it the first time at launch it was like a punch in the gut. It'd be like if ME1 just did a hard cut to credits as soon as Sovereign was destroyed. You need to have that little bit of wrap-up showing the aftermath of what happened. The updated ending adds that, and I was reasonably satisfied with it at the time, but it was soon enough after the initial disappointment that it couldn't really wash that taste out of my mouth. I'm hoping now that there's a good bit of distance I'll just be completely satisfied with it.

Yep, I think Halo 2 got a couple of multiplayer map packs, but nothing story related. From what I understand basically due to development problems Halo 2 ended up only having Acts 1 and 2 of their planned 3-act story, and act 3 got pushed into Halo 3. That's definitely what it feels like.

Mass Effect 3 Legendary Edition Hmm, apparently I forgot to share thoughts on Mass Effect 2 while I was playing.... Oh well. The fact that I basically 100%'d it in 38 hours over only 8 days should tell you all you need to know. I'm about 8 hours into this one and it still seems like I'm right at the beginning. It's so good. Ending aside, I think this is my favorite game of the series. It really feels like there's stakes, and every place you visit feels like it's really being affected by the larger galactic civilization. I especially love how every single sidequest contributes to your galactic readiness, so even the random ass little "help this person" type things feel like they're feeding into your overall goal. It's really amazingly well done. I'll be interested to see how playing with the updated ending and being several years removed from the initial disappointment of the original ending affects my feelings about it.

Yeah, Halo 2 has the worst ending of any game ever. It doesn't so much end as just stop. Can you imagine playing that at launch and not even knowing when Halo 3 was coming out? It was awful.

I just hope BotW2 isn't right on top of it again.

Mass Effect 2: Legendary Edition I want to preface what I'm about to say with the comment that this is a great game, one of the best games of the PS360 generation, and it still holds up today. That said, I've finally figured out why it's my least favorite Mass Effect game, when mechanically and technically it's better than ME1 in every single way: the plot structure. The way ME2 is set up, most of the "main" missions feel like side quests, and there are only like 3-4 missions that truly feel like part of the main plot. The whole dirty dozen set up is cool, and all of the companion missions are great, but the way it's all organized means the game doesn't really have much of an overall flow to the plot. But again, still a fantastic game, and Lair of the Shadow Broker is still probably the best (non-expansion) DLC I've ever played. Arrival is up there too. (Pro-tip: save Arrival for the very last thing you do, it's a perfect segue from 2 to 3). 5/5

At 35 hours I'm assuming you didn't get the platinum?

Oh wow, that's gorgeous.