Yeah! I’m so excited for the next 3 episodes. My main is Warwick and we finally get to see THE BOY.
I’ve never played LoL or any of the Riot games. So I wonder some times if I am missing out on that little hit of “Oh! There’s my guy/girl!” but the show is really good and I want to see more and learn more about their world. I know this is the last season of “Arcane” but it’s not going to be the last LoL Netflix series. So I am hopeful for whatever comes next and eventually maybe the Riot mmo?
To be honest, the best way to learn about the world is a combination of the wiki, the short stories, and whatever of the Forge games you want. There’s also a book about Viego, one of the main characters. The game itself isn’t canon, and Arcane retconned a LOT (Ekko has parents, Jayce didn’t invent hextech, Seraphine and Camille exist), but a base understanding of the lore has me knowing EXACTLY how bad things are going to get. I’m a Noxus simp, so lemme tell u: Piltover made some bad choices. You don’t bargain with Noxians.
That is, maybe, one benefit for being unfamiliar with the world and lore… I can watch the show without expectation… not nitpick at everything that doesn’t fit with the game(s).
It’s not so much nitpicking for me because I kinda have seen a billion retcons of the lore, so it’s pretty exciting to see what they’ve changed. Apart from Ekko’s parents, nothing really has been changed that I really dislike. I just lowkey wish they had just said that Arcane is its own universe, and there’s no continuity expected between pieces of media designed by Riot. Personally, I’m far more attached to the characters than their details, so i’d be ok with “Legends of Runeterra and Arcane are completely separate canon.”
Ah, yeah, I getcha.
GTA San Andreas
BG3
Tenchu Stealth Assassin
Metal Gear Solid
Kingmaker
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That awkward moment when you’ve always complained about how much of a visual Downgrade Total War Warhammer 3 is compared to the second game and it looks like hot garbage…
…not realizing the game’s still using the graphical settings you had to use on your 2015 Fallout 4 rig to get the game to even consider running and not your New Hotness Rig’s capabilities.
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playing WC1 for the first time and it’s alot of fun with the remastered upgrades. I guess you get original WC1 when you get the battle chest and g’dam it’s a product of it’s time. I will say tho- why don’t the characters have animations in the Remaster (the two orcs who sit there while they tell you you’re next mission) but they do in the original?
How exactly is a rainbow made? How exactly does a sun set? How exactly does a posi-trac rear-end on a Plymouth work? It just does.
I would have preferred they had not introduced Ambessa, the Noxians or all this Black Rose garbage into the show. Everything that has happened could have happened without her being there, and part of Arcane’s appeal was that you didn’t need to know anything about LoL to enjoy it.
And now we get a rushed second season where they’re trying to introduce new arcs and finish them and the old stuff up in nine episodes. So many timeskips, so many just leaps in logic or assuming the audience will make the connections they don’t have time to show. Too much fan service or playing to LoL lore and the show has suffered for it.
I would have been happy if this storyline got a Season 3 as well. Season 1’s story was so tight and well-crafted, I don’t think we’ll see anything else like that in a long time. Not even from Arcane S2.
Their storytelling style is also notably different in S2 (faster, more still images and montages likely to save on budget, etc.) but I have such biased love for the characters, I want to see where everything ends. That said, they threw so many things up in the air that I’m unsure how they’ll stick the landing. We’ll see if they stick or drop it all next weekend.
Also, I’m not an LoL player and never have been. My guildies who play and enjoy the show have a unanimous reaction when I express interest in playing League: “Don’t.”
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we know why these things happen tho
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Great. Now I see Deadpool riding a unicorn everywhere.
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honestly ambessa was fine but I feel like introducing Leblanc was probably a bit too far; unless they plan on continuing the story WITH Mel and Leblanc, and this is just set-up for the sequel, I don’t think this can conclude in any meaningful way while also giving time to the stuff that matters. I think they should have had Ambessa do what she did, but not have Leblanc get directly involved. The Black Rose is cool, but you have to be pretty in-the-weeds to know all about it since. League Lore is. how do i put this.
not super accessible, nor super finished. And Arcane contradicts it.
It makes sense to me because I’m a Noxus simp, but we’re just now saying Singed’s name, and the average watcher probably doesn’t know who TF Leblanc is. And explaining Leblanc is gonna take a LOT longer than 3 remaining episodes, especially if we factor in whether Darkwill or Swain is in power, and then we have to discuss Mordekaiser, and…
Like I feel like Ambessa is extremely self-evident but the Black Rose is such an ordeal… And also it would have been fun to keep speculating on who in Noxus has Ambessa so scared. Especially with all the blackbird imagery in the first season, keeping it a shadow over the show felt a little more fun and ominous. Leblanc and Swain need to be kinda in the background.
I’ve played a lot more of Veilguard now and I enjoy it, tone shift aside. The change from dark 'n gritty fantasy to colorful and friendly fantasy does make it feel sort of sanded-down… it doesn’t ruin the game, but it is certainly weird how some of the darkness in the setting is just kind of papered over. Tevinter, one of the game’s main settings, is a slave society based on mage supremacy and its just kinda under discussed? The venatori, a sect based on mage supremacy but even more so than the mainstream, exists pretty much exclusively as nameless mobs you kill, you never have to actually like… talk to one or contend with the apparent oppressiveness of this society. Obviously its a huge shift from Origins where Logain’s betrayal early on sets up the vibe for, “what if the real darkspawn dot dot dot… was man!?”
Most of the characters are enjoyable, except for maybe Neve who pretty much fails at being a magical noir detective and winds up just not really having a personality. The gameplay is quite good and at the harder difficulty level the fights are challenging enough to give me flashbacks of playing ME 2 at its hardest difficulty, where the fights are tense enough to make beating the bosses feel satisfying.
One of my biggest criticisms would be just how light on exposition it is: if you haven’t played the first games you’ll probably be lost in a sea of fantasy jargon haphazardly thrown at you between action sequences. There isn’t really a refresher on what Grey Wardens are or what the Qun is or how magic works or any of that, and even the new settings receive only the briefest introductions. The in-game glossary is helpful but not really comprehensive enough to cover all the names and terms thrown around, and I am coming at this from the perspective who has played at least part of all the three previous games: for totally new players I’m sure it is just an incomprehensible slurry of fantasy words.
This is a series that has been dormant for a decade, it is quite odd that the storytelling is unfriendly to newcomers rather than trying to be a sort of reboot/reintroduction.
Anyway it is fine. Fun to play, kinda flawed writing, but still enjoyable for me. I guess it deserves praise for being the first EA game in like 15 years that isn’t saddled with a bunch of microtransactions and DLC? That is kinda nice of them. They didn’t even make me install origin to play it.
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DA ended with 2. Everything else is AI fan-fic.
Hope you all are staying warm & well Wyrmrest! It’s a bit chilly and windy here but nothing too bad. #_#
I’m told it’s snowing in Wisconsin. I have a friend who shoots me photos of his weather as threats.
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Just before the cold weather hit, I trapped a sweet dumb orange himbo of a tomcat last night. If he didn’t have battle scars, a burst abscess, and a coin purse the size of my fist, I’d swear this guy was owned because he’s so dang friendly. Chip reader didn’t find a microchip and he’s skinny for his frame, so that points to no. He immediately turned in his feral card and is treating my garage enclosure like it’s a snug 5-star hotel.
Anyway, he’s being neutered, vaccinated, and de-wormed/flea’d next week. Going to patch and fatten him up in the meantime. If he’s FIV/FeLV negative, someone is about to adopt a really sweet street cat this holiday.
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