Stuff I've been enjoying
Aug. 9th, 2020 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
got_quietMy default nature is to complain so I'm trying to change things up a little. Here's a couple things I've actually enjoyed recently.
My roommate has a subscription to DCs streaming system, which means I get to watch me some Young Justice. I saw the first two seasons back when it was being broadcast on TV (back when I was in an apartment with cable) and liked it a lot, even though I don't remember a lot of the details. There's been a little bit of a time skip it seems with season three. No one's really a kid anymore, so it's more like Young Adult Justice.
And I don't know if its because they're on a DC platform or what but they are just throwing everyone and the kitchen sink into this thing. Every episode seems to introduce two or three new characters from the pantheon. I'm not complaining but I've only ever been a casual fan so people are showing up that I have never seen before and am not sure exist outside the cartoon. The story itself is similar to season one where a large portion of the time is spent with characters learning to work as a team, except with a new gang. I like this group a little better just because they aren't as young, though Prince Brion is pretty childish for someone his age. I'm also into the fact that they're expanding into the outer worlds now. Darkseid has shown up, as has Vandal Savage and Ra's al Ghul, albeit as something of a cameo. The supernatural stuff and crazy other world elements are the things that I like the most about DC, so all of this made me happy.
And a lot of the old gang still show up. They're just completely in charge now and kind of take the role of what the older Justice League did in season one. Bats and Supes and Wonder Woman still show up but very much as background noise.
The only thing that I don't really like about the show is how oppressively het it is. I've never found canon het to be enough to stop me from shipping, but man, every time two guys have a decent chemistry the show has to find one of them a girlfriend.
First season I shipped Superboy and Aqua Lad but Superboy has ended up engaged to M'gan, because aliens I guess. Second season it was Artemis and Wally. And now it's Halo and Bryon. This last one is more annoying to me than the other pairings because it feels so obligatory. I'm sure if I were into het I would find it cute but since I'm not it bores me.
My biggest gripe is that there isn't enough Kaldur this season. He's only shown up right in the beginning and then not again.
But whatever, it's still a fun show and there's lots of pew pew, crazy out there sci-fi fantasy stuff, and enough batfam to keep me happy.---
I've also been playing Dishonored recently. There was a copy on sale at the half price books for four bucks, which is about the amount of money I'm willing to spend on a game. It's been well worth the purchase so far. I'm rusty when it comes to using a controller nowadays so the first quest was a bit of a mess and I ended up slaughtering my way out instead of doing much stealth. But once I got the hang of it and the blink ability I started focusing on minimizing kills. In other words I'm doing a lot of save scumming, but I haven't been a perfectionist about it.
Anyway the game is a lot of fun mechanics wise. The levels are complex enough the encourage exploration but also straightforward enough that I don't get distracted with a million meaningless things. The combat is pretty good too, though I don't engage in it that often because I'm trying to be sneaky, and the stealth is good. There are moments when it's hard to say if you're in line of sight or not but for the most part it's easy to be overly cautious without feeling forced into taking a big risk. The sneak paths are also pretty obvious. I'm not wasting too much time skulking around and trying to figure out what the game wants me to do, which means I can just play and enjoy myself. I am firmly in the camp of "I play games to enjoy some escapism and a little power fantasy," so this is all a nice change of pace after playing a bunch of indy games that always seemed to be aiming to make me miserable.
Plotwise the game is not hugely engaging, but some of the lore is appealing. The occult elements with the Outsider is interesting, as is the heart you carry around that talks to you and says weird shit. The city is a complete mess. Honestly if my nation were in such a sorry state I can understand why someone decided the Empress should be assassinated. I'm on the 5th quest or so, where you have to take out Lady Byron, so maybe there will be some twists and turns to the story in the future. I've heard the guards chatting about Daud, who I only know as a character from porn of the game I've seen, so I'm curious about him and whether or not he'll make for decent ship fodder. I wouldn't say I have a one track mind... but there is one track that is certainly larger than the others.
---
My roommate has a subscription to DCs streaming system, which means I get to watch me some Young Justice. I saw the first two seasons back when it was being broadcast on TV (back when I was in an apartment with cable) and liked it a lot, even though I don't remember a lot of the details. There's been a little bit of a time skip it seems with season three. No one's really a kid anymore, so it's more like Young Adult Justice.
And I don't know if its because they're on a DC platform or what but they are just throwing everyone and the kitchen sink into this thing. Every episode seems to introduce two or three new characters from the pantheon. I'm not complaining but I've only ever been a casual fan so people are showing up that I have never seen before and am not sure exist outside the cartoon. The story itself is similar to season one where a large portion of the time is spent with characters learning to work as a team, except with a new gang. I like this group a little better just because they aren't as young, though Prince Brion is pretty childish for someone his age. I'm also into the fact that they're expanding into the outer worlds now. Darkseid has shown up, as has Vandal Savage and Ra's al Ghul, albeit as something of a cameo. The supernatural stuff and crazy other world elements are the things that I like the most about DC, so all of this made me happy.
And a lot of the old gang still show up. They're just completely in charge now and kind of take the role of what the older Justice League did in season one. Bats and Supes and Wonder Woman still show up but very much as background noise.
The only thing that I don't really like about the show is how oppressively het it is. I've never found canon het to be enough to stop me from shipping, but man, every time two guys have a decent chemistry the show has to find one of them a girlfriend.
First season I shipped Superboy and Aqua Lad but Superboy has ended up engaged to M'gan, because aliens I guess. Second season it was Artemis and Wally. And now it's Halo and Bryon. This last one is more annoying to me than the other pairings because it feels so obligatory. I'm sure if I were into het I would find it cute but since I'm not it bores me.
My biggest gripe is that there isn't enough Kaldur this season. He's only shown up right in the beginning and then not again.
But whatever, it's still a fun show and there's lots of pew pew, crazy out there sci-fi fantasy stuff, and enough batfam to keep me happy.---
I've also been playing Dishonored recently. There was a copy on sale at the half price books for four bucks, which is about the amount of money I'm willing to spend on a game. It's been well worth the purchase so far. I'm rusty when it comes to using a controller nowadays so the first quest was a bit of a mess and I ended up slaughtering my way out instead of doing much stealth. But once I got the hang of it and the blink ability I started focusing on minimizing kills. In other words I'm doing a lot of save scumming, but I haven't been a perfectionist about it.
Anyway the game is a lot of fun mechanics wise. The levels are complex enough the encourage exploration but also straightforward enough that I don't get distracted with a million meaningless things. The combat is pretty good too, though I don't engage in it that often because I'm trying to be sneaky, and the stealth is good. There are moments when it's hard to say if you're in line of sight or not but for the most part it's easy to be overly cautious without feeling forced into taking a big risk. The sneak paths are also pretty obvious. I'm not wasting too much time skulking around and trying to figure out what the game wants me to do, which means I can just play and enjoy myself. I am firmly in the camp of "I play games to enjoy some escapism and a little power fantasy," so this is all a nice change of pace after playing a bunch of indy games that always seemed to be aiming to make me miserable.
Plotwise the game is not hugely engaging, but some of the lore is appealing. The occult elements with the Outsider is interesting, as is the heart you carry around that talks to you and says weird shit. The city is a complete mess. Honestly if my nation were in such a sorry state I can understand why someone decided the Empress should be assassinated. I'm on the 5th quest or so, where you have to take out Lady Byron, so maybe there will be some twists and turns to the story in the future. I've heard the guards chatting about Daud, who I only know as a character from porn of the game I've seen, so I'm curious about him and whether or not he'll make for decent ship fodder. I wouldn't say I have a one track mind... but there is one track that is certainly larger than the others.
---
