Brian

The most jarring moments in James Bond movies are when they actually strive for continuity. There’s a moment in For Your Eyes Only that references Bond’s wife, who is murdered in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. Perhaps the most incongruent part of any Moore film is a connection to another Bond!

A woman on my Frontier flight from Chicago the other day claimed that she made the trip solely to pick up deep dish pizza and bring it home. Basically made it an $80 pizza. Not a deal I’d go for, but I respect it.

I honestly thought it was just dirt from Arizona’s famously terrible field.

Gotta check these out when I’m back in town

N: Solovetsky Archipelago
E: Vladivostok
S: Cusco
W: San Francisco

I don’t think incessant evil and greed were ever really motivators in Clancy novels, but I might be forgetting a few duds. This is more like “created by Tom Clancy.”

Some excellent 2D turn-based RPGs with great visuals are the Persona series (Persona 5 and Persona 3 Reload are excellent on modern systems) and Sea of Stars, which hits the Chrono Trigger nostalgia hard.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is exactly that. It’s one of the best reviewed games of the year too.

I’m assuming there’s only one Chatham Harrison in the world. If so, I witnessed this summer style, and it was just ahead of its time.

Finally have the whole group of companions and the game is starting to click. Some rough patches of dialogue here and there, some questionable codex entries too, but the game makes sense. I’ve always wanted more exploration of world-building in Dragon Age and this is doing it. Just a bad first act

This game is really growing on me but when the dialogue fails the lore, it just sucks. Mission meeting Davrin, he call griffons the Warden’s greatest legacy. Wouldn’t that be ending the first blight? Then the next blight, and the next? It feels nitpicky but, like, so much dialogue ignores basic lore

Same for the first quest in Dock Town - major quest event without any choice to interfere when at the end. But the dialogue has been much better today. Seems like the game just did not put its best foot forward to start, unfortunately. Wish there were more meaningful choices at this point though.

Just found the vial of Lucanis’ blood. Any of the other DA games would give us a choice: hold on to the vial ourselves or destroy it. Here, it’s just an objective to cross off.

I am enjoying the chats with Solas in the fade. Solas is different, but in a way that makes sense and sees him returning to his role as rebel.

Harding’s dialogue is awful. After she touches Solas’ dagger, the “I’d be heartbroken if it caused problems” line is just not how anyone would talk. Really feeling discouraged about the direction of this game so far.

Morrigan is back, and somehow the decision at the temple of Mythal isn’t part of this game? Her dialogue is just a little too friendly too.

Meeting the Veil Jumpers, Bellara is rough. Poor dialogue, grating voice acting. My spouse commented that it sounds like dialogue and delivery is meant for children. I had to double check the ESRB rating for Veilguard to see if the game was more child-oriented - it's not! We'll see how this develops

The opening sequence is largely fine. But someone (Harding?) suggests that Varric is the most likely person for Solas to listen to. What about the Inquisitor? Or Cole? Among the Inquisition group, Varric actually seems low on the list for Solas. It's nitpicking, but why use superlatives?

Starting Veilguard, I was first worried when I was sent to "Dumat Square." I have only played the games, not read books, but I thought that Tevinter was had its own Chantry and stopped worshipping the Old Gods, at least openly. Naming a place Dumat Square seems to go against lore. It also sounds bad

My two favorite BioWare games are Mass Effect 1 and DA:O. I am not a fan of the combat in Dragon Age games. I believe in representation in video games. I have been looking forward to Veilguard since Trespasser.

In DA:I, I was disappointed in how lackluster Corypheus was. The series had established some interesting mythology, and the introduction of a character involved in its mythical past had potential. I enjoyed how the companions interacted with each other.

I am finishing a PhD in literature studies. I love the world-building and lore of the previous games, though found DA:O to have the best explorations of the series' themes. DA2 successfully introduced party members with conflicting viewpoints, and I loved my arguments with Merrill and Anders,

Some of my biases coming into this game: I am uninterested in the concept of games as a service. I play Destiny 2 for campaigns and raids, but find the seasonal grind to be untenable. I am very glad DAV went with a single-player focus.

Finally started Dragon Age: The Veilguard with my spouse after playing through Origins, DA2: and Inquisition (I'd already played DAO and DAI). I'm going to use this space to comment on some of the shortcomings in Veilguard that we are already finding, and hopefully find some things to praise too.

Too many, actually

Try being a transplant to the East Coast. It's brutal with all these night games.

The Outer Wilds. It’s just not the same the second time around.

I never would post in the other place, maybe I'll post here?