Payday 2 Spring Break 2018 Reflections

And, it’s done. So, my thoughts on this Payday 2 event:

• Story elements. I’ll talk about those below, so those who care about spoilers aren’t spoiled right away.
• And Joy for the time being remains stuck in Consoleland.
• Likewise, the fandom’s dream, No Mercy, remains elusively out of reach. (I personally don’t see the hubub, and want an official remix of the heist track more than the mission itself)
• The game has slowed down definitely, development wise. Not unexpected, but you can’t have it all. Thus if this is the worst Overkill can do (they have a reputation for messing up events in some fashion or another), it’s not bad at all. At least they’re updating at all.
• A stealth heist was the first delivery. My thought was going to be “And the next is either going to be No Mercy or some new one thrown together with mostly existing assets that will be bland like Alaskan Deal.” I was half-right. It was a new heist thrown together with mostly existing assets that was awesome.
• Now for the story part. Last chance for spoilers, if anyone cares.

 

 

So, it’s becoming this weird almost Assassin’s Creed story of boxes, aliens, and secret lairs. And yet, I didn’t mind at all. I liked it. Yes, it was ungrounded, but somehow the subject matter makes it work. I think there’s a big contrast between:

“Decipher ancient conspiracies and rob the equivalent of the warehouse from the end Raiders of the Lost Ark”

And:

“Have people in instantly outdated meme masks steal goats in a crossover with a deliberately buggy game.”

I had fun with it at any rate.

Watsonian Vs. Doylist

The “Watsonian” vs. “Doylist” logic is used to describe something from “in-universe” or “out-of-universe” terms.

Watsonian. In-universe. “The government has been neglectful and that’s why the supervillains keep escaping.”

Doylist. Out of universe. “The authors need opponents for their superheroes and that’s why the supervillains keep escaping.”

Sometimes one works a lot better than the other.

Great Fire Emblem Tribute Video

For the anniversary of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, the first released worldwide, a group of fans made a tribute video with fanmade voice actors. Take a look.

(My favorite is Farina.)

Payday 2 Spring Break 2018

The Payday 2 2018 Spring Break event has started.

They made a teaser website and released the first new heist. Unfortunately, it’s a stealth heist and I’m utterly terrible at stealth. Oh well.

The Wail Rid I Row Project

So, now I have time to put together something that I’ve wanted to do for a while. Namely, start up an anthology of World War III fiction. The details can be viewed on my secondary blog devoted specifically to it, the Wail Rid I Row Project.

(Wail Rid I Row is an anagram of World War III.)

This is a passion project, everything will be free. I’ve been too critical for my own good-I want to help make fiction, not destroy it. I have modest expectations, but you never know.

Happy Anniversary Fire Emblem

This time in April marks a lot of Fire Emblem anniversaries. On April 20, 1990, the very first Fire Emblem game was released (in Japan). On April 25, 2003, the first FE game to cross the Pacific after the series got worldwide attention in Smash Bros was released (in Japan, again, it would not get wider releases until later that year).

And of course, in-universe, no doubt as an homage, the FE: Awakening heroine Lucina has April 20th as her birthday.

The Tank Crew

Tank crews can make for an underappreciated fictional niche. There’s enough of them to be more than an individual (ie, pilot), yet not enough to get out of hand. You get between three and five crew to a tank (again, barring the edge cases), and there’s less need to perspective hop.

Playing Crusader Kings II

So, I played my first full game of Crusader Kings II.

I started in the safest part of the game, aka Iceland. I spent most of it ruling a county in one half of Iceland, but sometimes grabbed the other half and ruled it as a duchy. The only military interventions were ones of my own making, save for one. The game ended when I ran out of male heirs in the early 1300s.

The game is a little clunky and overwhelming, but it was still fun and I can see why its fans like it.

Marathoning the Undertale OST

So I listened to the continuous Undertale soundtrack (got about as far as the Hotland songs) while doing chores. Bad news: the reuse of some melodies is more clear when you hear them back to back. Good news: hearing everything means the more obscure tracks have their spotlight, making for a pleasant surprise.

A weird dream I just had

So I had a weird dream, not just because it was full of existing fictional characters, but because I remembered so much of it. The exact characters and the exact music.

It involved me and Weiss from RWBY running around a room to an 80s electronic song (Winder‘s Do it Right) trying to stab something invisible (I had foam swords) and then the Mother Brain from Super Metroid stomped in and I (misinterpreting it as from Doom) ran back and said it should be disqualified (Apparently it was some sort of contest?) And then I woke up.

Weird.