Category: Stray Thoughts

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Games Reviews Stray Thoughts

DA:I and Trespasser

First off: Spoilers ahead! Please do not continue reading if you have not finished Trespasser. It’s all spoilers from here on out! You have been warned! 😛

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So I finally got around to finishing a full DA:I playthrough, but I honestly don’t know how I feel about it. I find that I’m very conflicted because I didn’t dislike the ending. Overall I thought it ended well and I thought the overall feel of the DLC was great. I loved the conversations I had with all my party members, I absolutely loved that Cullen got himself a Mabari and that we ended up getting married. Personally, I could have used a lot more of this throughout the DLCs and the main game.

That being said, I do have some issues with the overall story of the DLC and where it leads. For starters, why is Teagan such an ass? What happened in the last 12 years that suddenly turned him into an angry old man? I just didn’t feel like I was talking to Teagan at all. My second issue is why is Teagan there instead of Alistair at all. I just don’t see a compelling reason for doing this. Alistair has already had dealings with the Inquisition, in my case mostly favorable. I helped him flush out Venatori from the castle and then I helped him with his treaty negotiations with Orlais. All of which he appeared grateful for. So why is it that suddenly Ferelden is afraid of the Inquisition and asking for it to be disbanded. Is this really all because we took over Caer Bronach in Crestwood? Which, as my Inquisitor took the time to point out, was previously occupied by bandits. It’s not like I forcibly took it over from Fereldan soldiers. Something just feels somewhat disjointed here, like I missed part of the story.

As for the Orlesians, well….they’re Orlesian. It’s all part of the game. I do, however, resent the fact that Celene owes me her crown and she can’t be bothered to show up to the council. I could have let her die, but instead, she owes her continued rule to the Inquisition yet is allowing this council to continue. Though in her case, it could be argued that knowing that she owes the Inquisition it’s only obvious that eventually she’d want control of it. Otherwise, there will always be a looming power over her and no good monarch or politician would really want this.

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Stray Thoughts

Wrapping up the holidays!

Well the holidays are no over and it’s finally time to start organizing my life again. It’s been somewhat hectic the past few weeks.

In early December I made the decision that I needed to finally upgrade my computer. I had just been mainly waiting for the Intel Skylake processors to release before upgrading. Turns out when I went to order them, they were sold out everywhere. I set up several notifications on various websites, and just kept checking every morning. In the meantime I ordered all the remaining parts, including the motherboard and CPU heatsink, all I needed now was the processor. Finally about a week later I found the processor in stock somewhere and ordered it. As it turns out though, the processor arrived, and the motherboard was still nowhere to be found. The status of my Amazon order simply said “Shipping Soon” for about a week. So I finally contacted Amazon and they informed me that there had been a glitch, so it basically never would have shipped if I hadn’t called. Thanks to Amazon’s great customer service though, after that I had the motherboard the next day! And now most everything was complete…except for my sound card… On black Friday, Creative Labs had a sale for 5.1 speakers which included a sound card as well. I received the speakers, but the sound card was nowhere to be found. I contacted Creative (which btw doesn’t have the greatest customer service) and they sounded almost confused when I asked where the sound card was, the rep asked me “It wasn’t in the box with the speakers?”. Anyway, he finally must have found in his system where the sound card was and said he would request it be shipped right away. By this point it was about December 10th-11th and I was leaving on vacation on the 16th. So I asked if it would be here before then, he said it should be here by the 14th. Safe to say it wasn’t. On December 21st I finally get a shipping notification for it. Luckily they had shipped it USPS because I had submitted a mail hold while I was out. Had they shipped it FedEx or UPS it would have just been dropped off at my front door.

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Games Stray Thoughts Videos

Of Mass Effect and other things

So I don’t know what got into me, but I suddenly felt the need to replay Mass Effect. However, I was one of the people that weren’t OK with the endings as they were. Not necessarily because they weren’t happy endings, but simply because I felt they weren’t well written. They were jarring against the rest of the games and the story to me. But luckily I discovered that there were several mods already that changed the ending of the game completely and so I decided to do that. I ended up deciding on MEHEM because I still thought it fairly reasonable. It didn’t seem too much of a stretch to get the happy ending, and overall it made many of the characters’ actions make more sense and stay in line with their personalities. The main thing that I love about this mod is that it eliminates the star child scene altogether, and that makes it all worth it! (I hate that star child…) It had been years since I played Mass Effect. Actually hadn’t replayed any of the games since playing through ME3 the first, and only, time. After watching those endings I felt I just couldn’t replay the games at all. So, in turn, I had also never played any of the ME3 DLCs aside for From Ashes which had been included when I bought the game.

Anyway, so I’ve been pretty silent because I spent the better part of the last week and a half buried in Mass Effect. I played all 3 games in quick succession. Before that, I was in the middle of another Inquisition playthrough. This time taking my time, though. So now that Mass Effect is done, I can go back to finishing that, though I’m not sure if I’ll get it done before the holidays come around. December will be getting pretty busy and I’ll be gone for the better part of 2 weeks around Christmas, so I’ll be away from my computer. 🙁

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Cosplay Stray Thoughts

New game and other stuff

So I decided to play DreadOut, following my Uncanny Valley adventure. I started today, and OMG it’s terrifying! I genuinely had to debate whether I could continue playing, but for the time being I have decided to soldier on! (we’ll see how long that lasts…)

I have also taken the time to unpack and try to arrange some of my cosplay materials and tools. I think I finally found all my fabrics and most of my tools. However I realized that my sewing machine didn’t make the move intact. For starters I can’t find it’s power cable, and second the piece that holds the spool broke off…so…yeah. Can’t really use a sewing machine without the spool. I also have to go check back into the boxes to find my fabric chalk. I have now ordered a new sewing machine and just have to wait for it to get here. On the upside it’s a slight upgrade from my last one, so this should be fun!

In the meantime today I found my jewelry making supplies, and found that at some point I had started a necklace that I had never gotten around to finishing. I realized that I had some new pieces that would fit well with the design, so I decided to finish it.

necklace
Finished necklace

finished necklace

 

 

 

 

 

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Games Stray Thoughts

Holidays and Video Games

Well Summer is officially over and that means that the holidays are coming. I know, I know, September is barely over and we’re already talking about the holidays. But if you’re a gamer you know that holiday releases doesn’t only refer to releases in December, but rather anything released after the end of Summer.

As most gamers will attest Summer is often the worst time for video games. You usually find yourself having to survive with the games that you bought/received between the holidays and end of Spring. But as Summer comes to a close suddenly the calendar fills up again with video game releases, and this year is no exception. Now everyone has the franchises and genres that they’re waiting for, and for me that’s a rather broad list of games and it began with the release of Metal Gear Solid V. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view and your wallet, that was only the tip of the iceberg. My current list of planned purchases is looking rather long and it’s starting before September even ends.

I don’t know about you guys, but here’s what my calendar is looking like so far:

  • September 29th – Might and Magic Heroes VII
  • October 9th – Civilization: Beyond Earth – Rising Tide Expansion
  • October 16th – Yoshi’s Wooly World
  • October 20th – Sword Coast Legends, Halo 5 Xbox One and Halo 5
  • October 30th – The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth
  • November 10th – Rise of the Tomb Raider, Fallout 4, Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void

I’m sure I’ve missed at least a few games, but that’s what I can think of right now. I’m also sure that there will be more to add to this list later as some more last minute titles get confirmed. Right now December is looking a little bit sad in releases, but I’m sure that will change. If it doesn’t then there will still have been plenty of releases to keep me occupied.

How’s your list looking?