I’m running the raid tonight with some friends, including people I met here on the AV Club. I really wish we could get it down to 90 minutes. I think at this point, now that we’ve done it, we can complete most of it pretty quickly. But we’ve yet to actually fight the boss. I think that’s the goal for this week.

And so it’s clear, I think it would probably be better to prioritize literal meaning or matching the existing lip animation when translating. There are obvious limitations on both, but trying to achieve both goals seems like a bad idea. I’m put in mind of the difference in quality between Final Fantasy X—which tried…

I need to give Cowboy Bebop another shot. Honestly, what threw me was the stilted dialogue; I got the distinct sense that characters were delivering lines that had been altered to be both as close to the original meaning as possible and to fit within the existing animation, leading to lots of strange, unnatural lines.…

Oooh. I loved Alien Hominid. Urge to buy Cuphead...rising.

This weekend I’ll mostly be playing Total War: Warhammer II. It’s an improvement on the first game in many ways, with better tutorials, better map design, improved visuals, and better quest mechanics. I think it’s a bit too early to make the call on the Vortex victory condition, but it has promise. Magic seems better…

I honestly think that Mignola had some differences with del Toro’s vision and was more of an obstacle than was ever revealed.

I thought they were ambiguous whether she had a restored arm or some kind of fancy prosthetic. You also don’t see her face until after the Outsider gets to her, so it’s impossible to tell if she has both eyes or not.

You’re fine if you skip the first Dishonored (which is now on PS4, too), so go nuts. Dishonored 2 is great fun.

What irked me about the Chaos system was the way the game would judge you at the end. I’m fine with the logic of how things change, and I like the moral ambiguity that most, if not all, of the nonlethal resolutions were arguably worse than murder, but don’t give me a shitload of powers and gadgets geared towards…

Picked this up the other day, although I’m playing through the <i>original</i> Dishonored first to get back in the groove. My boyfriend has struggled to come to grips with Billie’s power set, which he has described as being very different in feel from any previous character.

The raids really do kind of suck. But at the same time, they are singular, interesting missions. I wish they’d do a Strike version of each raid, edited down to be doable with two randos so that those of us who just want cool-looking armor and to see all the story threads tied off can do so and leave the chase for…

My boyfriend and I are interested in tackling the Nightfall one night this weekend. What’s your PSN name, again?

I’ll likely be playing Destiny 2 as I continue my march to higher Light levels. I’ve been enjoying it a lot, but I feel like I’ve run out of things to say about it at this point.

I just don’t give a shit about Diane and Mr PB or their relationship. I’m tired of both of them. Diane wants the freedom to make big statements and gestures but forbids Mr PB from them, while Mr PB is only motivated to do so to make himself feel better about things.

It’s hard to get excited about production photos for this because, whatever else you want to say about it, Snyder’s adaptation was slavishly faithful to the look of the source material. We’ve already seen live action versions of all of this stuff.

But on the flip-side, Bojack has never really been shown to do that with his mother. They have tended to snipe one another and be viciously cruel, so I don’t think he would’ve felt inclined to fill an assigned role by default.

I’ll be continuing along in Destiny 2. I’m mostly focusing on Adventures right now, but I need to finish the story and get into the strikes so that I can be ready for the raid. I’m not super stoked about raiding, honestly, but I will attempt to complete the raid at least once.

I haven’t encountered that yet, but that’s the kind of thing I’m looking for in terms of writing. They have all the pieces, they need to just push a little and be explicit on occasion.

Where are you in Pillars? And what console are you playing on?

Yes, but Fallen London is built on the same “string players along to get them to pay in different ways” model and is entirely lore-based. It’s not impossible to incorporate some writing into grind-based games. You just have to make the choice to do it.