Current game: Fallout 4

Video games. They can be a mind numbing time killer or they can present you with multiple choice moral dilemmas. Finally finished the Far Harbor chapter of Fallout 4 (yeah I'm slow at finding time to play). So not to spoil it for others I'll just say Bethesda has kept up their reputation of doing a damn fine job of story telling. I'll be thinking about the choices I made for awhile, even though I made multiple backtracks with saved files as I progressed through choices of life or death, condemnation or forgiveness, hellfire or wary tolerance, in the story.

a side note: I'm splitting off my philosophical/social topics into a new blog. This blog will keep the gamer & maker stuff.

Guild Wars 2 Faolin & Caithe

SPOILER ALERT

If you have not yet completed Season 2 of the Living World in Guild Wars 2, I strongly advise you to not read further.

There are details here that if known ahead of time will dampen the impact of the story as you play through. The following discusses portions of the final two chapters, Seeds of Truth and Point of No Return.


SPOILERS FOLLOW:

Having finished the play-through several weeks ago, this story has been on my mind occasionally. It's the mark of excellent story-telling if you find yourself thinking about a story days and weeks later, right? I wonder at all the possibilities ahead. Then listening to others brings in a fresh perspective and gets the brain wheels turning. While listening to the GuildMag podcasts of January through February where they discussed parts of this same story, some new ideas came to mind.

Season 2 of Guild Wars Living World (these stories are analogous to downloadable content in other RPG games) revealed tragic details about Caithe & Faolin's history. Caithe's naivete coupled with Faolin's evil heart directly lead to the death of all members of a Centaur camp at Faolin & Caithe's hands, plus the murder of Wynne by Caithe (albeit at the behest of Wynne).

The way I saw it, Faolin started the fight with the Centaurs, attacking first. GuildMag's podcaster Kaysee talked about being angry with Caithe for being stupid. I too was angry with Caithe for going along. The player witnesses Caithe being dragged along into these horrible deeds by Faolin, and I found myself wishing that Caithe wasn't so blind and would stand up to Faolin, but I felt helpless and now I wonder if that's not perhaps the sensation the developers are trying to communicate: that Caithe felt helpless and trapped in this path by Faolin and didn't know how to find the inner strength to confront her.

And later in the story when Caithe killed Wynne, that night when I played it I was so mad - why didn't Caithe just kill Faolin??! Ugh. But as hubby pointed out, maybe she didn't do that because there was a risk of failure that Faolin would win the fight and still get the answers about the dragon. And as in my own mind, perhaps she also was in a helpless, powerless place mentally and didn't know what to do to stop this horrible sequence of events she was trapped in.

Caithe must be haunted by these awful memories and guilt and shame. I can't imagine she agrees with Faolin's thinking. It seems we have seen evidence to the contrary in previous stories.

Faolin is a dragon minion through and through! Her thinking is warped, her actions are warped, she functions on jealousy and paranoia and power-hunger. (A really bizarre tangent possibility sprang to mind - the Quaggan might be dragon minions of the deep sea dragon.)

This will be interesting to see how this all plays out in Heart of Thorns. GW2 seems to be exploring a nature-vs-nurture topic here with the Sylvari having all originated from the dragon, yet Ventari found and planted the seed of the pale tree, and although he died before he could meet the creatures, he left behind his guidance on the revered Ventari tablet, so his influence on these dragon spawn has been a positive one. Question: is his nurturing from beyond the grave enough to break the dragon's will?

Skyrim Got Me

So listening to all these podcasts ... my favorite, next to StarTalk, is The Indoor Kids, and hearing them go on and on about how great Skyrim is, well, I went ahead and bought it while it was on the Steam summer sale for $10, so I've been playing for less than two weeks.

Dang if it ain't all engrossing.

The graphics are a big step down from Guild Wars. The textures are chunky looking even with the highest graphics settings, but the puzzles and the story are fascinating. I can see this keeping me entertained for a very long time.

Nothing quite like a mohawk and blood red eyes to make a chick feel fiercely sexy.

Going for a conjurer mage here but this is not the right look at all - this gold-tone elven stuff is just the most attractive-looking light armor I've found. I'm trying to increase my points in light armor to get the lightweight bonus, and the more you wear it in combat, the more points you earn.  

I like the look of the mage robes better, but they aren't beneficial to me at the moment. I keep carrying them around though. 

There seems to be a ton of quests and places to learn and understand in this game. It's very much a game of politics and every choice you make has consequences of how you get treated by the characters you encounter - your reputation precedes you eerily. I mean, for so long I've heard others say Skyrim has a ton of content, but now I am really getting the feeling I'm chipping at an iceberg with a tiny cocktail fork.

Wolfenstein: The New Order

So yeah I bought Wolfenstein: The New Order shortly after it came out. I'm almost finished with it already, and that makes me sad. I mean, I am loving the game so very much I wish it would last longer. I'm spoiled by having played mostly MMO titles - Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online - games that you can spend years in and still never see everything. So playing Fallout, Bioshock, and now this newest Wolfenstein  - these single player games are always somewhat of a let-down, because they are so short.

I love the genre so much I wish I could spend a couple of years in one of these games like I can with MMO's. Maybe I should play some of the single-player Elder Scrolls titles. I hear Skyrim can take forever to wander around in and that it has meandering story lines and random arcs.

But I really want that kind of a meandering story to include a sniper rifle & sneak knife assassinations. Fallout's been the closest to achieve my happy place. Wolfenstein's perks are much easier to manage than Fallout's though - they are more like just earning achievement points without having to make hard decisions.

My personal favorite New Order screenshots:
German beer distracts me.

First snapshot with the scope

This lady. Salut. If I were ever to get tattoos ...

Infinity ammo? Hot Damn! Let me just drive this bad bitch outta here!

"I'm on the m-f-ing moon." - favorite quote from the game thus far.

By the way, the creepy ambient sounds are hair-raising on the moon chapter. Again, wish I could wander around a little less off-the-rails. Great story. Too short.

Podcasts!

A huge upside to being out of the front office is the ability to listen to audio again. I had missed that soooo much at my last job. While getting the opportunity to learn SolidWorks was definitely worth the time I spent there, being in the front meant no headphones, so my entire day was spent in silence. I've only had a couple of jobs where I was off in a cubicle and could listen to music or internet radio; I cherished and longed to have that perk again.

Now that I do once more, I have been exploring the new world of podcasting. I grew up listening to old-time radio replays on KRMG news radio. They would play ancient classics like The Shadow, Jack Benny, Dragnet, and even would replay the War of the Worlds on Halloween. Being that my family prohibited television, listening to the old-timey radio rebroadcasts was the next best thing for me. Although I was growing up in the 1970's I was reliving a world wars era childhood (maybe explains my obsession with career and duty).

Podcasts entertain and enlighten me as I work (have I said how much I love being able to listen to audio at work? It's absolutely wonderful!). I looked up a couple of old-time radio shows for nostalgia's sake, but the best ones are new.

I'm using a free Android app, Podcast Addict, to feed podcasts to my phone nightly and then I listen as I work during the day.

For anyone involved in design and/or engineering at any level, The Engineering Commons podcast is fun and informative.

For a rich sound somewhat NPR-ish in style, but mostly history with a side of design, 99% Invisible is an absolutely heavenly listen.

And for slightly shocking PG-13 humor from scientists, StarTalk, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson (now the host of the new Cosmos TV series), is a must.

My absolute favorites:
99% Invisible
The Indoor Kids (hilarious, and all about video games)
StarTalk (Neil deGrasse Tyson, superstar)
BackStory (History professors chatting about history!)
Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (authors reading their own short stories)
The Engineering Commons
STEAM Power Podcast (interesting topics, rough production quality)
Stuff You Should Know (5-10 minute tidbits by the How Stuff Works website)
The Infinite Monkey Cage (Brian Cox, British crush-worthy scientist)

Peter Jackson's Hobbit

I am a die-hard fan of J.R.R. Tolkien. I have read The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy many times over from the time I first discovered them around age 13. When I first heard rumor that Peter Jackson was making movies, I was skeptical, but I joined forums and participated in a study group of the books to pass the years of waiting. I read the Silmarillion and portions of the History of Middle Earth.

And then the movies were excellent. I had faith after Peter Jackson did a tremendous job given the time he had to cover the content of the books, and he was faithful to the story. Any changes were inconsequential or at least forgivable as necessary. I was so pleased that I bought the collector's edition. And I was excitedly awaiting the opening of his interpretation of The Hobbit, so much so that I went and sat in line more than hour early the first Saturday it opened (I generally avoid seeing movies on opening weekend).

I suppose all that anticipation was too much.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Party was a bit of a let-down. My gripes with the movie aren't those of most critics, but rather with blatant inaccuracies such as the orc confrontation shortly after the trolls, on the west side of Rivendell. It never happened. No orcs attacked until the party camped in the Misty Mountains east of Rivendell.

I don't mind the more serious tone as much as some complain. The Hobbit was written years before Tolkien had fully worked out his history of middle earth, and it originated as a child's tale. But yes, the story evolved and grew, and I certainly do not mind that Peter Jackson decided to attempt to weave the two together (and a bit more from the Silmarillion and the H.O.M.E. for that matter).

The movie overall could have done with a great deal more narration; Lady Galadriel (as played by Cate Blanchett) would have been a logical choice for this as was done in the LotR series. Some of the scenes are not tied in well and seem too obviously picked up off the cutting room floor and pasted back in, or added in last-minute with not enough time allowed to polish the transitions between ideas.

Yes, ominous foreshadowing is needed to tie the stories together and the elves did not need to be so merry as in the book. Those were fine changes.

But the dwarves weren't treated as enemies of elves. They were welcomed with polite greetings and a great deal of good-natured mocking, but certainly no spear points and open hostility. Too much tension was added here.

Bilbo did not need to see the ring drop. As in the book, he still could have been searching for his way out in the darkness and found it by blindly reaching along the ground.

After the riddle game, Gollum should have gone to his island to search for the ring. The same amount of time was spent in the movie, but with less dramatic tension. Tension was reduced here where it should have remained a strong and frightening element.

So  many little details like that were unnecessarily changed. That is what bothers me. Why? Why did Peter Jackson blatantly change some important details?

Level 80 - and so much still to do

I made it to level 80. I was rezzing an NPC near Fort Trinity.

The night of my level 80 attainment, we were involved in the big dynamic event chain under that same lava mountain of recent travels. We went back to the area because it held the one Point of Interest on the entire map I had missed.

We went on to Fort Trinity to continue our personal storylines, and when I was wandering around in the forest outside, I leveled up. Hubby crafted me new armor and jewelry to celebrate my max level status. I am still using the skin (transmuted) for the tier 1 Asura cultural armor helm because I can't afford the tier 3 yet. I love the look of the tier 1 and the tier 3, but not the tier 2.

Here I was fooling around on my thief character and discovered to my delight that this area (the skritt populated caverns where they are misguidedly collecting stuff for the chaos creature) has had a little update - the chaos gunk on the ground turns your character into a bunny - and not just a cute little bunny, but more like a vicious Monty Python-esqe bunny that can really fight!

Now THIS is how I envisioned what a GW1 bunny should do if it ever were a charmable pet: BITE. Look at that bunny! Fear the teeth!

(I mean, come on, Grasping Ghouls had "Nibble"!)

So now that we both have a level 80 character, next we've decided to explore the level 60-70 area where the Kodan are. We had never even been near that area, and that will give us plenty to explore, not to mention all the other areas of the map we have yet to complete, and we'll save the harder stuff around Fort Trinity for the weekends when we have larger chunks of time to spend with our guildmates.

Oh, and this? Yes, that's me, on my Sylvari mesmer (hubby's ranger is with me) - at the top of that vista that I swore I'd never attempt. I did it.

Guild Wars 2 and the Z-axis

Several months back, when I was playing Lord of the Rings Online regularly, I posted that I was impressed with their handling of the z-axis and had also noticed this in Turbine's other notable (to me) MMO, Dungeons & Dragons Online.

I've still been playing Guild Wars 2 every day since release. I am happy to report that I have been enjoying the treatment of the z-axis in Guild Wars 2, and tonight I finally found a spot in-game that gave me a good screen shot of it. The difficulties with GW2's limited field of view had me turning upside down trying to get a shot, but I did load the experimental Fov modifier on to the exe target, so that helped me here.

This is an Asura staircase / bridge, as evidenced by the architectural style and floating energy platforms.

We descended from the upper left (above).

An earthen ramp leaving the area gave me a good vantage point for a screenshot. My husband's character, a human guardian, is in the foreground.

The Asuran architecture is quite attractive with its geometric forms in stone, plus plasma glowy power cells.

Further along, we ascended a mountainous region complete with lava flows. The Asuran staircase is visible in the upper left.

In side news - the Mad King left town today, but I did get a witch's hat from him last night, and defeated him in his mini-dungeon Sunday with the help of guildmates. That was quite fun and somewhat scary, especially the first time you walk in when no one knows what's going on and everyone is like "uh ... crap... wow everyone died."

My Asuran character finally got a good upgrade for a re-breather on Saturday - but these things just don't seem to come in any other appearance. Oh well. Underwater is another area where the z-axis work is very smooth. Occasionally a foe will go into "Invulnerable" state when nearby, so it is not perfect, but the underwater environment is very enjoyable. The ambient audio replicates the noises of swimming underwater perfectly - the noise of bubbles, the echo-y tones as you glide through the water, the acoustics are enough to keep me swimming along.

More of tonight's adventures: this is the elementalist elite skill fiery greatsword. Fun to use and fun to look at, too.

This veteran cave troll was over the cusp of the lava mountain.

We made our way to greener areas not long after.

I also got a gold dagger that looks more like a vine. Not sure how I could stab anyone with it, but (well, I'm casting spells, not really stabbing anyway, right?) ... the damage numbers are higher than what I had, so ... shrug. I'll use it.

This watchtower (where we chose to park our characters for the night) has a Charr guarding it. I am still not quite ready to make a Charr character, but my Norn character's experience with the Charr has warmed me to them more than I expected. I love my Norn engineer, but I went back to playing my Asuran elementalist so I could get one character to level 80. Tonight I reached level 75.

Again, I am pleased with ArenaNet's treatment of the z-axis. It is harder to get great screenshots of it than it was in LotRO (and I get dizzy in tight spots - a further zoom would help immensely), but the climbing and the puzzling paths - yes, they did good.

More GW2 Fun

This Norn engineer is turning out to be my new main character.

I'm a big girl (on the left, next to the little human there)

with a big gun

 but I still like pretty stuff

I didn't think I'd like the flamethrower skill - too cliche' I thought. It can't be that great, I thought. And then I loaded it up. WHOOoooosh WHOOOooooosh  Ka-thunnkk goes the napalm  PLOOoosh

(Beevis voice) Fire, fire, fire!

Okay, it's a lot more fun than I thought it would be.

I mean, I already loved the engineer anyway, with this thought: screw all that magic crap. I got guns, and bombs, and grenades.

And now I got a freakin' FLAMEthrower.

Ahhh - hot springs

Wow, was this ever a treat for a weary adventurer. After a couple of hours wandering in the snow-covered hills, cherry blossoms and steam appeared in a valley, hidden around a steep bend.

I've been playing my lowbie character, a Norn engineer (by the way - I really am loving this class. Even though my ele is level 45, I feel like I have to have a running buddy in order to just barely survive).

I promptly stripped and hopped in the water.

Unnoticed by me, the big guy standing there had a skill point to teach.  I was too busy breathing deep and soaking in the beauty.

Suddenly battle sounds raged and I hopped up, glad I had left my pistols equipped.

After we succeeded, I relaxed and enjoyed the view some more while the big guy cracked his neck, awaiting the next student.

Aaaaah. Nice.

Little Discoveries in GW2

I found this library in-game! When I walked in (chasing deadly bad guys and getting my rear handed to me), I didn't recognize it till the dust settled. As I trotted sideways making sure the latest wave of enemies had been defeated, I murmured an awe-filled exclamation. "It's my library!"

This is the library that ArenaNet released a screenshot of prior to release, and I inserted a cropped image of  myself into because I so absolutely loved the look of the place. At the time I did not know where in the game this would be found.

Turns out this is the mansion of an alleged separatist by the way the story is going. This is the second dungeon available in the natural progression of the game, Caudecus' Manor. Human separatists oppose the Charr-Human treaty and are working to sabotage progress. Terribly embarrassing for me from a real-world perspective, but this game has done strange things to me character-wise.

Still unable to relinquish the viewpoint that Charr are our mortal enemies, so deeply ingrained in me through my hard work to become a Legendary Defender of Ascalon, I find myself still harboring true feelings of prejudice against the Charr.

My first time to walk into the Charr home territory of the Black Citadel, just a couple weeks ago, I was overcome with a terrible deadly urge to cast meteor shower and kill every charr in sight. I stood frozen on the ramp leading from the Asura Gate simply amazed at my emotions. This game must be an excellent example of story craft to so affect my personal feelings thusly. It seems quite silly when I'm not in the moment, but I tell you these feelings are amazingly strong in-game.

In other explorations the past couple of days, I noticed how scary these cave bats look with their pointy teeth and glaring eyes.

I found an homage to the old dual-man Underworld farming builds of GW1:

At first I didn't get it, but I walked a couple of steps and then burst out laughing and came back for the screenshot and to show my husband. We used to dual-man farm UW. I was his SS necro partner.

This beautiful vista, below, has a sad and untold tale near the summit.

The spirits of fallen soldiers wander in and out of the broken buildings, searching for their lost squad, their body, or for revenge.

Conversing with and following these lost spirits in their futile attempts to find rest bring a lump to the throat.

In happier news, I conquered the Hooligan's Route vista in Lion's Arch that had annoyed me for so long. I've now completed all points in LA.  And yes, I did buy tier 1 cultural armor. I didn't like the look of of the bottom half, so I transmuted my heritage armor over that part.

I love the headgear. The eyepiece is especially cool.

Now, on to more adventures!

Tyrian Adventure "Vacation" Photos

My weekend "vacation" in the world of Guild Wars 2 was   a  w  e  s  o  m  e. Hearing old familiar voices on TeamSpeak again, seeing familiar names in guild chat - it's like a family reunion. Already nearly 40 strong, we are  -b a c k- and storming the castle!

Early Saturday, about 12 hours into the game, some of us met up in Lion's Arch (central hub for all races) for a group photo and a jumping puzzle.

 Pirate cave - I'm in the throne - yar har har.. It took some time to get to the end of this puzzle and a couple of us gave up before reaching the end here, but with a little help over voice chat, most of us got through.

Group photos seem to always turn into synchronized dancing sessions.

The Heritage Armor (Hall of Monuments reward) looks pretty cool. Here I dyed it green before I found a rare dye later.

No trip to Lion's Arch would be complete without a dive off the diving board.

 This is one of the little keeps in World vs. World vs. World (aka WvW).

 When I wasn't in WvW or sPvP, I went sightseeing. The interior of the Norn buildings are warm and cheerful with wood panels and fireplaces.

 This is a view of the Norn starter city.

Another view of the Norn starter city.

 The big tooth in the background is a tooth from the dragon Jornag that drove the Norn out of their homeland.

 The starter cites for every race are huge .. simply huge.

 This bridge is near the keg-brawl area. That got some serious giggles out of me, throwing beer on the ice and making people fall (and them doing the same to me).

Lion's Arch is the central hub for all races - and no visit to Lion's Arch is complete without a dive off the diving board.

 This is the dam in the Human starter area.

 Many underground areas are dark; this only looks foggy because when I clicked the screen shot, the view was fading so I missed the clear shot.

 Another view in the Human starter area; this is in the starter area just outside the city.

 Divinity's Reach is the Human starter city, and this always rotating celestial mobile is on the top level.

 Again, the map shows how large the starter city really is.

 The Great Collapse devastated this side of town (see the big hole in the map above).

 Just one of many attractive statues - that's me on the steps.

 My friend Tor and I defending Stonemist Castle in WvW; another friend is opposite.

Back in my home city of Rata Sum (the Asura starter city), I am signing off for the night, but I will be back for more Tyrian Adventures (pretty much daily)!