Friday 31st May 2019
Started reading the second book in the Vampire: The
Masquerade Clan Novel series: Tzimisce by Eric Griffin. So far I
would I think I preferred Stuart Wieck’s command of plot and character in Toreador:
his much smaller cast worked to the story’s advantage, whereas Griffin’s much
larger group of characters is hard to keep track of. So far in Tzimisce,
characters have a habit of suddenly emerging from the group and becoming very
important mid-scene without so much as their names being mentioned before -
much less their clans and affiliations - as if we’re already meant to know who
they are, which feels like a potential editorial oversight. On the other hand,
I already find Griffin’s prose style more accomplished and interesting than
Wieck’s: Tzimisce reads more like a novel than Toreador, which
occasionally felt more like flavour text from the tabletop resource books it
ties into. Perhaps because the Toreador are playable in the tabletop game and
the Tzimisce aren’t, it feels like the author of this second book had way more
freedom to define the clan himself, which might end up being a double-edged
sword.
Saturday 1st - Sunday 2nd June
My partner was tied up marking his students’ exams for most
of the weekend, which gave me a lot of time to play We Happy Few.
I’m only just now beginning to get an appreciation for how big this game
is: I spent several hours prior to this weekend’s session in what basically
amounted to the tiny tutorial area, so once I broke through into the first
major area I was pretty overwhelmed. The game continues to be a charming,
intriguing, and occasionally frustrating experience: I love the character of
Arthur and the setting of Wellington Wells, but when and how side-quests spawn
is causing me some issues due to it being unclear whether they’ll recur or not
(no doubt not helped by the map being procedurally generated) and how easy it
is to enrage all the NPCs if you fail because you’re rushing to complete the
opportunity in time. (Also, procedurally generated scenery is super easy to fall
through and get stuck in, it turns out.) I am, however, learning to love the
stealth elements to the game: no small feat because forced stealth is my
most-hated video game mechanic, and even optional stealth is not something I’m
usually thrilled to do for long periods of time, so actively enjoying this
aspect of gameplay is a bit of a novelty for me. I’m also very grateful to my
partner for buying me the game’s Deluxe Edition for Christmas, not only because
this nets me the DLC when it comes out, but because the special edition
unbreakable non-lethal melee weapon (the “Jolly Brolly”) supports my play-style
perfectly: you can’t kill people with it (which suits me just fine, as I’m
role-playing Arthur as a technical pacifist for now), but crucially there’s very
little chance that anyone can land a significant hit on you as you inelegantly
hack-and-slash your way to victory. I probably won’t become a better in-game
fighter this way, but at least I won’t die a dozen times to the same minor mook
before exiting the game exhausted and not wanting to pick it up again for six
months to a year (I’m looking at Alan Wake, Vampyr, and a few
other guilty parties here…).
I also
made a start on my long-deferred platinum run of Sherlock Holmes: Crimes
& Punishments. I only have three non-platinum trophies left to get,
but it’s going to require a complete replay in order to get there, due to the
fact that you have to follow an intricate series of steps in all six cases to
unlock two of them.
My
partner did take a bit of a break from marking and decided to go back to his
old, old game of Super Mario Galaxy on the Wii. The last save file
turned out to be from August 2010, just six months or so after we started
dating; after we’d both finished feeling shocked, old, old and shocked by that,
we had the debate of whether to start from the beginning or pick up where he
left off. Initial advocations to start over again (and a quick re-play of the
first three levels to remember the controls) gave way to common sense once we
realised he was about 90% of the way through the game by the time he
unknowingly abandoned it for nearly a decade. He wanted to go back to it
because he got the sequel for Christmas, but at this rate he’ll literally never
get around to it unless we get better at jumping back into half-finished games
midway through.
We’re
also continuing our run of Heaven’s Vault. It seems like we’re
not even halfway through yet, but far enough in now that attempts to discuss it
at any length would risk getting into spoiler territory. It continues to be a
beautiful and fascinating game (though with the odd janky mechanic to be
expected from an indie title), and unless I see some seriously impressive stuff
in the back half of the year, I’m pretty sure this one’s going to be high on my
list of best games in 2019.
Tuesday 4th June
Played another Inhumans level of LEGO Marvel
Superheroes 2, followed by a bit of noodling around on the map with the
truly awesome power ensemble of Hulk, Thor, and Captain Marvel. My earlier
suspicions as to the poor quality of the pathfinding in this game are looking
more and more likely every day, but I am at least starting to learn how to make
the best use of the in-game map at long last, and have been happily unlocking
side-characters now that I’ve figured out how.
Wednesday 5th June
Monster Prom was my GOTY of 2018, and
its announced sequel is only the second project in any medium to ever tempt me
onto Kickstarter. So when the demo for the sequel left me wanting more, the
natural thing to do was chase down a couple more Steam achievements for the
original game while I was in the mood. Playing as Amira (like always) I managed
to pursue and achieve the GHOST secret ending; my partner, playing as Vicky
(like always) got within a hair’s breadth of the CAGANER secret ending. I was
also one single event away from the achievement you get for seeing half
of all the events in the game, which was laughably frustrating but also a good
reason to play it again soon. And it’s worth noting that, even though I’ve
played the base game so many times I’m now just going for all the really weird
endings that don’t actually involve the main love interests all that much, I always
end this game really wanting to write fanfiction. It’s like a fanfic trap. I
love it.*
* And, as of Friday 7th, the Kickstarter for the sequel
has reached its final stretch goal, which will make the original player
characters dateable. That’s right - I can finally do what I’ve wanted to ever
since I first saw this game, and go to prom with my main girl Amira!
Thursday 6th June
Finished reading Vampire: The Masquerade - Clan Novel:
Tzimisce. This book has some of the best body horror I’ve ever read -
not a subgenre I’m usually a big fan of, but I can appreciate most things when
they’re done well, and the Tzimisce are definitely a good example of a bad, bad
thing. Some of the fleshcrafting scenes in this novel were the most visceral
and unnerving I’ve encountered outside of American Horror Story (a show
I once briefly stopped watching because it turns out amputation-as-torture is
one of the few things that actually scares me to the point of discomfort). In a
franchise which has, at best, literal amoral monsters for protagonists, Eric
Griffin did a great job of reminding you why the Sabbat are legitimately
considered the bad guys of the V:TM setting. As with Toreador,
there are a number of plot threads that I hope get picked up later in the
series - such as main character Sacha’s mysterious love letter, which gets
introduced on the first page and returns on the last page, but never sees a
resolution or explanation as to who could feel such genuine romantic passion
for such a brutal torturer. If I ever reread this series, I plan to hopefully
pick up the four-volume edition that edits them into chronological order; Toreador
and Tzimisce take place in the same time frame and are more or less
opposing views on the same event, so there’s sure to be some real dramatic
irony to be had from reading them both concurrently after having first
experienced them as separate but overlapping stories. (For example, Leopold’s
unresolved “Where’s Hannah?” scene from Book 1 takes on a very different tone
after reading Book 2, now that you know perfectly well where Hannah is
and why she’s late.) I look forward to getting started on Book 3 - Gangrel -
after taking a short break for some Poirot or something else less… gross,
frankly.
I also
played an hour or so of The Sims 4 today, after deciding to
reboot my SimSelf game in order to explore some of the expansions I bought
earlier this year. SimBecca is now living in San Myshuno (from the City
Living expansion) in a haunted historical apartment, living off her savings
for now while she pursues her dream of becoming an outdoorswoman (new
aspiration brought to you by the Outdoor Retreat game pack), in between
attending cultural festivals, home brewing teas, and accidentally finding
herself in romantic intrigues with social media influencers. I don’t want to
say she’s exactly living my dream, but it’s pretty close...
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