#seriously Blizzard needs to fire their entire narrative team

[poisonheart]

Listen, I don’t do “Pain Olympics” ~ I’ve always hated these debates about who is more pitiful and deserving of love and compassion. That I had to read with my own two eyes that people truly believe Anduin had it worse than Sylvanas just because she had a family in her childhood and had “more years of happiness” and he didn’t actually disgust me.

But hey, I’ll humor the Pain Olympics and participate in the race with that same flawed and gross logic. We can justify anything through the lens we want to look through, after all.

Let’s get this out of the way: we are talking about two very privileged characters. People treat Anduin like he’s some homeless orphan who had it rough. As if he’s had to raise himself. Even his servants loved him and were nurturing to him. You can absolutely be very rich and miserable, but let’s not pretend like Anduin was a Thrall level orphan.

(You see why Pain Olympics is stupid? There will always be people who had it worse. It’s a constant invalidating loop. You can’t measure pain. One year of suffering for Person A can feel like the 20 years of suffering from Person B. It’s insulting and invalidating to say Person B is more worthy of compassion just because they “suffered longer.”)

The other wild take I’ve seen in the Pain Olympic race is that Sylvanas has family that loves her now. LOL, bitch where? They specifically chose to make Sylvanas that “survivor who lost everything and everyone, repudiated/shunned/outcast” because it was fun to Blizz. Very fitting for a Horde-aligned character. Need to have lots of misery to later turn into a villain because of Horde things.

Her only surviving sister at that time was Vereesa and not once was she written to care for Sylvanas after undeath. When they finally remembered she existed they chose to use her to drive a dagger of “you’re unworthy and unlovable” through Sylvanas in that awful book “War Crimes” where Anduin was also written to be more than willing to listen and be super compassionate toward this other genocidal orc who actually tried to kill him.

In “Three Sisters” Vereesa and Alleria leave the awful meeting together because obviously, Sylvanas is a terrible monster now who can’t sit with them. There we have Alleria, corrupted by the void up the ass, but Vereesa is totally okay keeping her around because she’s aligned with her precious Alliance.

(And the narrative later proves they were right to think of Sylvanas as a monster because that’s what they wrote her to become.)

Finally, in “Shadows Rising” Alleria is written to be practically salivating to hunt Sylvanas down while employing the same questionable methods the self-righteous Alliance has always condemned the Horde for and no one gave a fuck about it, not even Anduin—the guy who was written to denounce all the atrocities Sylvanas was capable and willing to commit to justify the ends. Guess it’s only reprehensible when the enemy does it, no? Whatever.

Her sisters have been written to be awful. Whatever retcon they pull now about them caring for her doesn’t change the years where that wasn’t the case in canon. You can’t expect the fandom to just embrace such retcon now when they’ve been shit for years, building resentment in the audience.

Sylvanas’ story in Warcraft has always been about isolation, abandonment, and darkness, yet finding the strength to go on in spite of it—even when all she knew and loved was taken from her. To rebuild and forge ahead. Of course, Blizzard is retcon central, so who the fuck knows what’s canon anymore.

Now, let’s shift to Anduin while still participating in the Pain Olympics race. You know what he’s had? A support system. He has people who love him, who went to literal hell for him, and who will be there to help him overcome this new trauma. When he has flashbacks and nightmares about all he did while subjugated, he can reach out to literally anyone and find some comfort. He won’t be an outcast or shunned or deemed a total monster for the things he did or what’s happened to him. He will never get to experience that isolation. He got the good end. And we can’t pretend like that’s solely his merit. He’s even given his father and surrogate orc dad to help him beat the domination magic in the end.

You know who didn’t have that when it happened to her? Sylvanas. You know who won’t ever have that because now she’s done “mass murder” and lost all rights to compassion because of it? Sylvanas. And it is the consistent Blizzard narrative. Unless you’re like Anduin or Calia, processing trauma like a doormat, Blizzard writes characters as unworthy. Their intention works when you have so many people saying Anduin is more pitiful than Sylvanas because his 19-20 years of life have all been awful compared to her who at least knew happiness and family in her childhood and simply threw it all away for revenge. Yes, that’s a genuine take I’ve seen thrown out there. Not even joking.

When Anduin comes back home to his castle/city/people after being dominated, he will be surrounded by people who love and support him. Because that’s the kind of character Blizzard writes as worthy of all that ending.

This has been painful. Participating in Pain Olympics to write all the above sickens me. Trying to quantify misery made me want to puke. In the end, both are characters who suffered. Both have gone through pain and loss and I don’t think it’s fair to try and measure it and use the results to weigh who deserves compassion. But that’s what Blizzard wants. That’s why they made Anduin the listener of Sylvanas’ life story.

This is the reaction they live for and thrive on. They want to further vilify her under the guise of “look, we’re giving you her back story to explain what we couldn’t put in the game for five years” while uplifting yet another precious Alliance NPC because they’re the only ones worthy of squishy feelings and sympathy in this franchise. It doesn’t matter how the book ends or what he ultimately thinks of her. If you are agreeing with “Anduin is more pitiful” you’re playing precisely into the kind of thing Blizzard/Golden wants you to think. Congrats.

#sylvanas windrunner #man when I look at this pile of shit and think of how FF14 handled villains and compassion #seriously Blizzard needs to fire their entire narrative team #even Anduin has been butchered #so many characters have been ruined #even villains #queued post #if you think Blizzard loves Sylvanas I don’t know what to tell you #if you think they favor her after all the shit they’ve done to her character I don’t know what to tell you either #edited because I wrote this angry and sleepy

[wwwps4]

Just Cause 4

For me, Just Cause 4 was in the top ten expected games of 2018. Since the release of the first game on the PlayStation 2, I have loved this series for the freedom and dynamics of the gameplay, with each new part increased thanks to innovations, mainly tied to the hook-cat of Rico Rodriguez, the main character of the series. From the third part of the franchise began to change noticeably, adding serious notes to the previously crazy action, often devoid of meaning, logic and laws of physics. Actually, for which the series was loved by fans. But the degree of seriousness in Just Cause 3 was kept within the bounds of decency and did not destroy the cool atmosphere of madness — we had a charismatic dictator, not devoid of a sense of humor, a huge world and a wide Arsenal of tools of destruction.

From the fourth game it was quite logical to expect only the development of an established formula, and we got it. Partially. With the evolution of some game variables, unfortunately, others have noticeably degraded.

Looking back at the past, on the review of Just Cause 3, today's I wants to meet myself from the past and hit the head with a poker. Because the estimate is too high. But today's I also understand why this happened: against the background of the second part of the previous game looked and played much better, even despite performance problems. The new mechanics looked great and encouraged the player to use them. In Just Cause 4, the situation is different: new mechanics are curious, but experiments with them get boring after an hour or two, and you only return to balloons with boosters when you perform numerous and monotonous tests that make your eyes ripple. Finally, the game itself does not encourage the use of innovations.

Yes, the developers have tried to add some variety to the tasks that are set for the player, and now the mission to weaken the influence of the enemy in the region is not to destroy their bases, but to systematically capture them. On some bases, you need to disable and hack guns, on others-to steal drawings or weaken the protection, opening important rooms for passing with the help of specific models of cars, tanks and boats. But this is where all the diversity ends, because the mechanics of performing different tasks are still the same: find the switch — break the switch, find the generator-destroy the generator.

Story tasks and side activities in the game are tied to completely similar tasks, the variety of which is even more than in the previous parts of the series, but does not save you from the routine. Disabling switches and blowing up generators would be much more interesting if the developers had improved the artificial intelligence of their opponents, because in their current state, only some types of enemies pose a threat. And even then, not the biggest. A much more dangerous enemy of the player in Just Cause 4 is crazy physics, which can suddenly give out some stupid feint, turning the car over on an even spot or blowing up the helicopter from touching a tree branch with the rotor.

Helicopters in Just Cause 4 are your best friends, even though the body kit and weapons available to the player often don't match (for example, we see two types of projectiles and a machine gun, but we can only use one type of NUR and a machine gun). With them, you can perform most speed tests, clean up almost all the necessary enemy bases, and even destroy an enemy General trying to get away on a jet fighter. Yes, you can catch up with him by helicopter and shoot him. Not ask...

But it is worth paying tribute: the shooting in the fourth part is several goals higher than all previous releases in the series. Finally, Rico has learned to fire from the shoulder, which makes it much easier to aim and makes the control more comfortable. You can only praise the work on weapons and opponents. The hero's Arsenal grows as you progress, and each barrel now feels unique: different rate of fire, accuracy, alternative fire mode, reload speed, and so on. Worthily. Types of enemies also pleased — "Ghosts" and "Titans" can not only spoil the nerves of the player due to its elusiveness and strength of armor, respectively, but also send the invulnerable Rico to the next world.

Transport management has also improved, and all at once. The weight of the cars seems large, although they continue to be cardboard boxes, judging by the impact of game physics on them. Even tanks and armored personnel carriers take off here, like Chinese cars made of chocolate foil. Examples are in the video below! More pleasant than in Just Cause 3, was the management of air technology, but this is more due to its ease. But water transport is frustrating clumsiness, although it is most likely just quite realistic. Other things amuse: boats and jet skis sometimes feel good even on land. See for yourself:

There are also outright deterioration compared to Just Cause 3! For example, the tone of the project changed from casually playful and jaunty on "complex SSI", which has a negative effect on the atmosphere. The share of humor in the narrative and side activities has decreased, and attempts by some minor characters to dive into the pool of jokes ends with a painful blow on a newspaper spread out on the water. Alas, in Just Cause 4, there is no charismatic dictator, no cool boss battles, and most of the potentially cool moments are closed under a video lock. Seriously, instead of creating spectacular battles with the elements, the developers have translated all the "victory over bosses" in the format of videos. It turned out even worse than the battle with the final boss in Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception. And there are few things worse than her.

The plot of the game... Yes, someone will now say that the game Just Cause has never been, and so on. True, but the developers themselves decided to change this and tried to take the "new height", which they did not submit. And since Avalanche Studios themselves decided to bring the story of Rico Rodriguez to the forefront, they gave carte Blanche for appropriate criticism. But it is not worth much to crucify and complain about this, either, it is more expensive for yourself. In General, the story has a good potential, but little attention from the authors, who are constantly confused about the details, dates and events of the past.

Moreover, some of the game dialogs simply do not correspond to the events that follow them. For example, in one of the videos, Tom Sheldon, who decided to make peace with Rico and help his precious student, says: "I will lead", which causes an entertaining skirmish with references to the past. But he gets behind the wheel of an armored car, and Rico climbs in after him. And what do you think? The car, of course, is controlled by the player. Either we were temporarily given power over Sheldon, or the developers and writers again forgot to sync the project's cloud.

When performing tests in Just Cause 4, remember that most of the necessary vehicles for "through the ring on a particular vehicle" tests are located near the test itself. From a few meters to a couple of blocks. For example, if the marker indicates that the test at the top of the mountain requires riding through the ring on a motorcycle, do not rush to look for the bike and attach the balls to it, as I did-climb the mountain using a winch and you will surely find a bike waiting for you there.

As for the technical part and scripto, they are a good source of high mood. However, not when you once again can not get the local "fultons" or jet mini-engines of the hook to work humanly, and they begin to turn the raised objects against any logic. Unfortunately, there will be most of these situations. The Avalanche team came up with interesting chips, but it did not work to implement them in a human way, as well as to encourage players to use them. The entire game, story - wise, you can go through, almost without using hook modifications. So what's the point?! The variety of the "set it yourself" level has always worked in Just Cause, but before that, the game mechanics did not go beyond the daily combat comforts.

Even for most of the tests where you need to deliver a car to an island or the roof of a high-rise, it is much easier to use a cargo helicopter with a magnetic grip than to play with balloons that behave as inadequately as possible most of the time they are used. After completing half of the tests, of which there are more than four hundred, I met only two where it was necessary to use balloons. Here just came to the rescue modification for them, allowing you to control the direction of flight crosshair sight.

The moment just got into the video below, which also says a lot about the technical part, artificial intelligence, stupefied since Just Cause 3, and the gameplay in General:

However, I repeat - fans of the franchise will be more satisfied with the new game, because the basic gameplay is thoroughly prettier. Another thing is that game innovations are mostly meaningless, and if they are simply thrown out, Just Cause 4 will not lose anything. The weather conditions that Avalanche was so proud of look great and even work, but have a strictly plot-based meaning. Without the technology developed by the local dictator, Solis seems to have no tornadoes, no winter blizzards, no sandstorms, no rain and thunderstorms. I just want to start packing my bags and looking for air tickets! After clearing objects that control weather conditions, we can turn them on and off with a single button. What for? To complicate your life, for example.

And there is no need for more. Storm and Blizzard limit the field of view, once in them, the enemies become absolutely stupid and blind. And since computer idiots and so ... idiots, send their intelligence to negative values once again do not want to, because the game becomes not interesting. Tornadoes destroy some objects, but only in specific areas. As well as the storm does not go beyond its limits. It turns out that we can again subject to spontaneous rape already cleared and captured areas. What's the point?! Oh, deja vu…