The Lawful Geek Stream – Best of August!

Last month, as I’ve mentioned a few times in the past, I finally got back to broadcasting on Twitch on a schedule as well as to recording Let’s Plays. The pilot season is over now and we have a winner, but that’s not what today is about.

In August’s streams I made a fool of myself in Overwatch matches, with the occasional moment of glory. I fought Lovecraftian Metroidvania bosses in Sundered, explored ancient Indian ruins with a couple of badass ladies and even fought the chaotic Rabbids in the Mushroom Kingdom. Continue reading The Lawful Geek Stream – Best of August!

Overwatch and back to Twitch!

So, yesterday I went back to broadcasting on the LawfulGeek channel on Twitch. After more than a month waiting to have the proper setup, it was a gratifying experience. I had a lot of fun with my loyal audience of one…until he left for the night. Then I just kept myself company, but no matter, I’m used to it.

And besides, my interest was in the game I was playing and which I will be playing on stream for the foreseeable future: Overwatch. You may have seen me share a few videos on different matches and highlights and below you’ll find all of them in a nice playlist. So you can consider this a little hands-on first impression article. Continue reading Overwatch and back to Twitch!

Two days of Fun – Gameblast 16 Highlights!

From Friday last week to Sunday, I joined an awesome group of people in a 48-hour gaming marathon to raise money for an even more amazing organisation. SpecialEffect is a charity that creates custom controllers and solutions for people with disabilities—gamers just like all of us—so that they can enjoy the videogames that we take for granted. They bring happiness to everyone they help, something that is apparent in the pure and radiating smiles you see in their videos.

It was a long weekend, and while there were some hiccups—nothing is ever perfect—there were some amazing moments, some quite hilarious as well! Here are my highlights of the Gamely Giving Gameblast 2016 marathon! Continue reading Two days of Fun – Gameblast 16 Highlights!

The Road So Far – Jade Empire

Carry on my wayward son, there’ll be peace when you are gone. Lay your weary head to rest, don’t you cry no more…

Someday I’ll turn these articles into awesome highlight videos with that song playing in the background, similar to Supernatural season finales. But as my editing skills more than suck, I’ll just write it all down.

A couple of weeks ago I resumed the Let’s Play of Jade Empire I’d started months ago. I picked the game up right where I left it, after the destruction of the Two Rivers School, hot on the trail for Master Li and Death’s Hand, the Emperor’s main enforcer and the leader of the Lotus Assassins. First I hit Tien’s Landing and took care of a lover’s quarrel between a man and an old friend, then went on to get our passage to the Imperial Capital. This I did by cleansing a forest from corruption, meeting a minor Deity and her Elephant-man bodyguard, beating down an entire Pirate clan and fighting our way through hundreds of spirits and assassins. You know, the usual stuff.

At the Capital, there were lots of things to do, but only did the Black Leopard school, finding a surprisingly charismatic and not totally demented evil teacher in there. If you see the video, you’ll notice my surprise when that happens, as just then I was commenting on how all evil guys in this game were totally predictable.

This week you’ll see more of the Imperial Capital, including a cameo from a certain very famous member of Monty Python. It’ll be a blast.

I’ve had a few things I’ve liked so far, and others I’m not a fan of, and you can consider The Road so Far a mini-review that I’ll build on over the course of this Let’s Play:

Good:

  • It looks beautiful, even for its time. The settlements have tons of details, particularly the Imperial City with its gardens and fountains, and the waterways coursing along the streets. I love how ghosts look, how you can see through them, the ‘veins’ in them.
  • It has an interesting cosmology that combines primordial spirits, the balance of the universe and the Chinese Pantheon, The Celestial Bureaucracy aka Tai Di.
  • The over-the-top names for everyone, from Sagacious Zu to Sun Li The Glorious Strategist. It reminds me a lot Legend of the Five Rings.

Bad:

  • The women in this game have no self-respect, no self-esteem and no self-anything. They all instantly fawn over a pretty word. Dawn Star is the worst, she has no notion of self-worth beyond what you tell her and she even says so. It’s painful to say the least.
  • I know that writing cryptic characters is difficult, but there is a very definite line between cryptic and obtuse. Most major characters in Jade Empire are just obtuse, refusing to give any information. It’s not even thinly veiled, or with any misdirection. It’s fairly obvious what they mean if you just pay attention.
  • There are dozens of martial arts styles…and most of them are useless. From the transformations—that don’t make much sense—to the couple dozen hidden styles and scroll-fetch-quest ones, you’ll probably ignore most of them and just upgrade the core two skills: Leaping Tiger and your weapon of choice.
  • Combat is a constant catch-up thing. Every combo pushes your opponents out of your reach, breaking up your rhythm and the flow of battle and forcing you to get close to them again.
  • A follow-up, combat is shallow. You can beat every enemy by just mashing buttons. Dodging is almost pointless and I only use it to get behind enemies, not that it has any effect on them, they turn around immediately.

As the Let’s Play continues, I’m sure I’ll think of more good and bad things about it, or change my mind about a few of them.

If you haven’t seen any episodes, check out the videos on this post and don’t forget to keep an eye out for The Mental Attic’s YouTube channel, for new episodes at 9:30am GMT, Mondays to Fridays!

Aligned Narrative – The Mass Effect 3 Endings

A couple of weeks ago I spoke about the issues in Mass Effect 3’s storytelling, primarily how bad its characterisation was. I’ve been playing the game since Extra Life in November. I went through the first game on a Renegade playthrough and then got as far as I could in the second one before the charity event ended. I picked it up again when I launched the LawfulGeek channel and decided to complete the trilogy with my renegade FemShep, the one I lovingly call Darth FemShep.

I remember one of the issues people had with the endings was that the three doors didn’t exactly work for both “alignments.” Some said control didn’t work with a Paragon character, or that Synthesis didn’t work with a Renegade. Continue reading Aligned Narrative – The Mass Effect 3 Endings

New YouTube Stuff Incoming!!

Last week we kicked off a new era of content on YouTube. We went back to Jade Empire, to continue my Open Palm playthrough, acting as yet another gullible, innocent sap to get enough points for the game’s “Light Side.” It’s a pretty fun game. The first episode was a longer one, cut directly from a Twitch broadcast, and with no commentary since I forgot to turn on the mic…I do that sometimes. Continue reading New YouTube Stuff Incoming!!