Month: September 2024

Rings of Power [Season 2, Episode 6 – The Kraken]

Whoops. Seems I made a mistake in my post about episode 5. Celebrimbor is not going away after all. I got that all wrong. Apparently, he is making the 9 rings himself to somehow compensate for the 7 corrupted rings. Oh well. It seems making those 9 rings is a pain in the butt though, since every attempt has failed so far, even managing to run out of mithril. Celebrimbor is showing some reluctance to the whole thing still, and is slowly going a bit nuts in the process. The manipulation by Sauron continues unabated, and he even succeeds in getting more mithril somehow, despite being denied for more material by the dwarven king.

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Prince of Persia – Fortuitous Platforming

I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating, and it gets everywhere. That’s how Prince of Persia starts, with the Prince wandering through the hot skin melting desert, stumbling upon trouble by chance (or is it?), seeing a beautiful woman needing aid. Good enough for me, very fitting for an adventure, but what I didn’t expect going in was how guided Prince of Persia would be. It’s really strange. The game allows you to jump off whatever platform you want, plummeting to your death. But to succeed in it, you just have to let go, and let the game guide you to victory. The platforming, enemy demon mooks and bosses, are nothing to the struggle versus the camera and your own patience.

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Rings of Power [Season 2, Episode 5 – We got rings!]

Wow, an actual semi-competent episode with some tension and interesting plot development. Color me surprised! Well, I shouldn’t praise it too much, since I find the Númenor plot line boring, and above all, strange. Now, the coup for leadership is completed for Númenor, but I really don’t see how the failure (was it even a failure?) of the little war in the south would turn the whole country against the queen. Sure, losing a battle is never good for morale, yet, it wasn’t that bad. And when they set out to slay orcs, the spirits of the population were high. They do realize that war comes with risk, and that some of the soldiers will surely die, right? Also, it was only one freaking battle! Talk about finicky citizens that supposedly have war in their veins.

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Terminator: Resistance – Terminating the Terminators

The one big thing Terminator: Resistance got over Terminator: Dark Fate – Defiance is that it’s set in the original Terminator movie timeline. That means it has the cool aesthetics from the Cameron films. John Connor is still kicking around and is leading the resistance in the future war against the silver Terminators, who look as menacing as ever. Sadly, beyond the cool visuals, this game is somewhat of a pain to play and in general a disappointment. I would also consider it highly overrated, seeing as it sits at a ninety-one approval rating on Steam. I can understand the appeal, and I too was into it at the beginning, but the whole experience is filled with awkward design decisions that in the end completely sink the title.

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Why does this keep happening? [DRM HELL]

In the gaming hellscape of digital ownership, there isn’t a day that goes by without new intrusive anti-consumer practices. This time it’s about the indie store itch.io, and the game Oxenfree. It’s a cute little store for all kinds of indie-games. From the hobo titles made in a dark and dangerous alley, to the shining examples of finest indie-craftsmanship with worthy gameplay of any AAA production. However, it should be noted that itch.io probably didn’t have much of a say in this case. Yet, it sets a bad precedent, as it looks like games can be revoked and removed from your account now. 

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