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Apr 5th, 2017 at 16:55:48 - The Wolf Among Us (PS3) |
This episode is pretty much what brings at least one death to a head. It always breaks my heart that Ichabod callously gets rid of Lilly's body, depriving Holly of the ability to fully mourn her sister's death. It shows how little this world values its non-human citizens, or any citizen that wouldn't normally pass for human. It's the one time where I was more inclined to lean towards the more tender side to Bigby's personality due to his family history. He didn't really get closure for his mother's death, so I think that he would feel bad that Holly didn't really get the same for her sister. Of course, no matter how delicately I attempted to handle things, the funeral still turns into a shit show because of the Tweedle brothers.
I think that the confrontation with Aunty Greenleaf is an important point to show Bigby's character malleability as well. He could go really strict, or he could go and force her to obey the law through employing her. I think he would go with the latter because it would help society in the long run. It's very utilitarian, rather than just cracking down on her and loosing the tree. She is also kind of an outcast like Bigby, so he may have an extra bit of sympathy considering that she's entirely alone too.
I love the sequence with Bloody Mary at the end of the episode. It seems to be a very Telltale thing to produce games with strong and interesting women. She is a lacky of the Crooked Man and she is rather nasty herself. She isn't quite like the rest in that she is a demon that was manufactured by newer generations. Her entire purpose is to maim and kill without remorse and she does so with a strange efficiency. She takes Bigby down with little effort when two mercenary men couldn't do it together. She, however, isn't without scruples. She checks with her boss to see if Icabod is allowed to be exchanged for Bigby's life. This is a defining moment for Snow too. She loves Bigby enough to undermine her own moral principles in order to protect him.
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Apr 4th, 2017 at 16:46:53 - The Wolf Among Us (PS3) |
I forgot what a trip episode 2 is. This is where we really get into the meat of how Fabletown works as a society. We have the fantastical racism between the "ugly" non-human people and the humans. We also see how little remorse humans in power have for the non-human people.
We have the introduction to the Pudding n Pie. Georgie is a horrid individual that apparently keeps his employees under his thumb. It was really tempting to trash his place, but I'm not sure if that is entirely within Bigby's character, so I elected not to. This is partially due to some sort of spell/curse that they are under that keeps them from talking about their work.
Also it is discovered that Icabod is like the epitome of the creep in power. He is so desperate that he had a prostitute glamour herself to look like Snow White. It makes me feel nauseous because of what all goes into creating a duplicate of another person. He had to acquire her hair and a photo, or a personal possession. He had to steal those things from her. This glamour was completely unethical to make because it created a situation where Snow had no autonomy over her own body. This goes against Kantian and Social Contract Theory. It also goes against simple common decency because this glamour is supposed to be a near perfect copy.
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Apr 3rd, 2017 at 21:55:08 - The Wolf Among Us (PS3) |
I've played The Wolf Among Us once before, but I thought I'd try it again from a different angle. In this game, players take on the role of an established comic character named Bigby Wolf. He is the star of the Fables series and comes with his own set of historical baggage and cannon traits. He, like Geralt, has a sort of "right" and "wrong" way to play him according to cannon. In a previous play through I elected to play him in a non-cannon fashion by being kind to everyone. I'm going to see if I am capable of playing Bigby by his cannon "rule of the law" personality.
This title is good at giving the players compelling reasons to take a kinder approach to characters breaking trivial rules. Most of the rule breakers are familiar faces, well, depending on your age. And most are destitute. The first couple of difficult choices I had to make in my cannon Bigby play involved pressing Collin (one of the three little pigs) and Toad (from The Wind in the Willows) to get glamoured. The law of Fabletown states that any non-human in the town has to have a glamour to pass as human. This has to be done for the sake of preserving the identities and the autonomy of the Fable denizens in the real world. Both tend to guilt trip Bigby for forcing them to abide by the rules because of his former reputation as the Big Bad Wolf. I, however, can't do much about that because this is within Bigby's character and I need to stick to it despite the negative outcome of making Toad and Collin stick to the rules.
The next difficult decision for me was choosing between Toad's call for help and the Magic Mirror's reveal of Prince Lawrence. Bigby has to go with Lawrence for the sake of the investigation, even if he is miserable and suicidal. Toad and his son end up on the back-burner and getting roughed up by one of the Tweedle twins. It sucks because Lawrence, in the moment, is more significant to the investigation into Faith's death.
The last difficult choice was to rip Gren's arm off during the bar fight. Due to Bigby's nature, I can't see him not taking the arm off. In the comics he maims and kills a handful of characters for various reasons. It's kind of sickening that Bigby is this way, but it is also partially my call due to my own interpretation of his cannon character traits.
Snow White is pretty much my only reprieve from the lawful/mean side of Bigby. She is his cannon love interest and he tends to be a bit softer in his interactions with her. Though there are times when he is a downright creep. There's an instance where he asks the Magic Mirror to spy on her, in a way, when she is in the same room as him. It kind of rubs the the wrong way similar to that of Edward Cullen or Jacob from the Twilight series. It is an action that is overly interested/possessive of Snow. Unfortunately this is probably somewhat within Bigby's character since he is capable of knowing her location and moods just by her smell. He would check up on her during this stressful situation, though the means is kind of dubious. I don't remember if there's anything similar, but I suppose I'll document those instances when I find them.
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Feb 22nd, 2017 at 23:16:41 - Witcher 3 (XBONE) |
Finally we get to a little more world exploring. I'm starting to feel some world tension via politics. It seems as though this world is going through war. We also get to know how old Witchers get to be. Oh, and we get to see how Geralt employs his powers. The player can extract answers from people using Witcher powers. It's kind of disturbing that we can do the Witcher version of the Jedi Mind Trick, but it seems rather useful rather than starting bar fights or getting info through more dubious means.
It's interesting how populated this world is with all sorts of different characters. My personal favorite so far has been the guy that teaches Geralt how to play Gwent. I can see why they're making a stand alone game of it. This silly strategy card game is addicting.
I also enjoy the quest system in this game. Unlike most games of similar caliber, there's a certain amount of story built into side quests. There's one where Geralt has to find an arsonist that burnt down a blacksmith shop that's run by a dwarf. In a way, it kind of reflects real world issues. The fact that there's an element of fantastical prejudice and stupidity makes me believe in this place more. Most fantastical stories tend to veil these sorts of elements to create some sort of perfect escapist bubbles. The Witcher spares the audience no jabs at society. It's even realistic that Geralt could take a bribe and screw over the guy that got his shop burnt down. I really can't do that though, my moral compass tells me that the arsonist needs his comeuppance.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 23rd, 2017 at 01:29:53.
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