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Send us a textDragon Age: Origins Schedule:April 15, 2025: Origin Stories to Tower of IshalApril 23, 2025: Lothering, First Camp, Lake Calenhad Docks, Circle TowerApril 29, 2025: Redcliffe Village, Redcliffe Castle, Redcliffe Village side quests, Mage Tower side quests, the Caravan and Battlefield world map side questsMay 6, 2025: Soldier's Peak DLC, Denirim, and Haven (Urn of Sacred Ashes, part 1)May 13, 2025: Ruined Temple (Urn of the Sacred Ashes, part 2)May 20, 2025: Leliana's Song DLC, Companion Side QuestsMay 27, 2025: Brecilian Forest, Return to Ostegar DLCJune 3, 2025: Orzammar, the Deep RoadsSupport the showContact: http://linktr.ee/squelchcast
Send us a textDragon Age: Origins Schedule:April 15, 2025: Origin Stories to Tower of IshalApril 23, 2025: Lothering, First Camp, Lake Calenhad Docks, Circle TowerApril 29, 2025: Redcliffe Village, Redcliffe Castle, Redcliffe Village side quests, Mage Tower side quests, the Caravan and Battlefield world map side questsMay 6, 2025: Soldier's Peak DLC, Denirim, and Haven (Urn of Sacred Ashes, part 1)May 13, 2025: Ruined Temple (Urn of the Sacred Ashes, part 2)May 20, 2025: Leliana's Song DLC, Companion Side QuestsMay 27, 2025: Brecilian Forest, Return to Ostegar DLCSupport the showContact: http://linktr.ee/squelchcast
Send us a textDragon Age: Origins Schedule:April 15, 2025: Origin Stories to Tower of IshalApril 23, 2025: Lothering, First Camp, Lake Calenhad Docks, Circle TowerApril 29, 2025: Redcliffe Village, Redcliffe Castle, Redcliffe Village side quests, Mage Tower side quests, the Caravan and Battlefield world map side questsMay 6, 2025: Soldier's Peak DLC, Denirim, and Haven (Urn of Sacred Ashes, part 1)May 13, 2025: Ruined Temple (Urn of the Sacred Ashes, part 2)May 20, 2025: Leliana's Song DLC, Companion Side Quests, the Brecilian ForestThank you to our producer RidiculousHat. Join our Discord at https://discord.gg/hfnusHESupport the showContact: http://linktr.ee/squelchcast
Send us a textDragon Age: Origins Schedule:April 15, 2025: Origin Stories to Tower of IshalApril 23, 2025: Lothering, First Camp, Lake Calenhad Docks, Circle TowerApril 29, 2025: Redcliffe Village, Redcliffe Castle, Redcliffe Village side quests, Mage Tower side quests, the Caravan and Battlefield world map side questsMay 6, 2025: Soldier's Peak DLC, Denirim, and Haven (Urn of Sacred Ashes, part 1)May 13, 2025: Ruined Temple (Urn of the Sacred Ashes, part 2),and Leliana's Song DLCThank you to our producer, RidiculousHat. Suggest a game at https://forms.gle/b33LD9tsUuTGZT4d6Join our Discord at https://discord.gg/hfnusHESupport our pod at https://www.patreon.com/SquelchPodcast episodes available at www.squelchcast.comSupport the showContact: http://linktr.ee/squelchcast
Send us a textDragon Age: Origins Schedule:April 15, 2025: Origin Stories to Tower of IshalApril 23, 2025: Lothering, First Camp, Lake Calenhad Docks, Circle TowerApril 29, 2025: Redcliffe Village, Redcliffe Castle, Redcliffe Village side quests, Mage Tower side quests, the Caravan and Battlefield world map side questsMay 6, 2025: Soldier's Peak DLC, Denirim, and the Urn of the Sacred AshesThank you to our producers and Best Friends Forever, Baximus and RidiculousHat. Suggest a game at https://forms.gle/b33LD9tsUuTGZT4d6Join our Discord at https://discord.gg/hfnusHESupport our pod at https://www.patreon.com/SquelchPodcast episodes available at www.squelchcast.comSupport the showContact: http://linktr.ee/squelchcast
Send us a textDragon Age: Origins Schedule:April 15, 2025: Origin Stories to Tower of IshalApril 23, 2025: Lothering, First Camp, Lake Calenhad Docks, Circle TowerApril 29, 2025: Redcliffe Village, Redcliffe Castle, Redcliffe Village side quests, Mage Tower side quests, the Caravan and Battlefield world map side questsThank you to our producers and Best Friends Forever, Baximus and RidiculousHat. Suggest a game at https://forms.gle/b33LD9tsUuTGZT4d6Join our Discord at https://discord.gg/hfnusHESupport our pod at https://www.patreon.com/SquelchPodcast episodes available at www.squelchcast.comSupport the showContact: http://linktr.ee/squelchcast
Send us a textDragon Age: Origins Schedule:April 15, 2025: Origin Stories to Tower of IshalApril 22, 2025: Lothering, First Camp, Lake Calenhad Docks, Circle TowerThank you to our producers and Best Friends Forever, Baximus and RidiculousHat. Suggest a game at https://forms.gle/b33LD9tsUuTGZT4d6Join our Discord at https://discord.gg/hfnusHESupport our pod at https://www.patreon.com/SquelchPodcast episodes available at www.squelchcast.comSupport the showContact: http://linktr.ee/squelchcast
Lets discuss video game tariffs, the decline of physical media, and GameStop's potential Bitcoin investment. We highlight Sega's success in 2024, the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 remaster, and play a "Guess the Game" segment featuring Dragon Age: Origins. Scott reviews ZEPHON and Two Point Museum, and a listener claims Age of Wonders 4 is better than Civ VII. And loads more.GAMES PLAYEDSHAREDFinal Fantasy VII: RebirthSCOTTZEPHONTwo Point MuseumJackbox Survey ScrambleJONFF 7 RebirthBEAUFF 7 RebirthMagic Arena: Aetherdrift Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Lets discuss video game tariffs, the decline of physical media, and GameStop's potential Bitcoin investment. We highlight Sega's success in 2024, the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3+4 remaster, and play a "Guess the Game" segment featuring Dragon Age: Origins. Scott reviews ZEPHON and Two Point Museum, and a listener claims Age of Wonders 4 is better than Civ VII. And loads more.GAMES PLAYEDSHAREDFinal Fantasy VII: RebirthSCOTTZEPHONTwo Point MuseumJackbox Survey ScrambleJONFF 7 RebirthBEAUFF 7 RebirthMagic Arena: Aetherdrift Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Austin and Alanah sit down to talk to Mike Laidlaw, the game director of Dragon Age: Origins who most recently started his own studio and make ETERNAL STRANDS. Which Austin also worked on, because of course he did. He cannot be contained.
In this week's episode, we're discussing a sometimes reviled, iconic, and beloved character: Duncan from Dragon Age: Origins. This character is one we both love, and we dig into everything you need to know about him. Now introducing Dragon Age Lorecast merch for everyone! Check it out at our shop! Want to chime in on the conversation? You can become a patron at the First Enchanter tier or higher and join us ON THE SHOW! https://www.patreon.com/dalorecast We've launched merch! Become a patron at the Antivan Crow tier or higher to get these exclusive rewards! Check out our website! cupspodcasting.com If you love our merch, check out the artist behind the designs! https://libanezink.wixsite.com/libanezart If you love our music, check out the musician behind our theme! Pipeman Studios If you enjoyed our podcast, give us a rating and review on Apple and/or Spotify! We'll even read your review out on the show! Join our The Cups Podcasts discord server where we dive deeep into Dragon Age discussions. https://discord.gg/fxR2WVDNhP Join the Robots Radio discord server to join the fun! You can also send us your Heroes, Hawkes, and Heralds to be featured on the podcast! https://discord.gg/AW5Wc4kgZb You can also find us on Twitter at @DALorecast, and you can dm us or email us side character suggestions (dalorecast@gmail.com). Music by Pipeman Studios Website designed by H-I-T Media Solutions Merch designed by Lauren Ibañez Ink Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode, Caitie and Jordan look back at Dragon Age: Origins and compare and contrast with The Veilguard, from companions to combat to the tone of each game. Also: lots of talk about the recent departure of The Veilguard director Corrine Busche.
David and Jordan discuss Ys: Memoire, the remaster of The Oath in Felghana, which also happens to be a remake of Ys III. Jordan also shares his impressions on playing DragonAge Origins via Xbox GamePass.(:22) RPG Club Introduction(8:23) Ys Memoire - The Oath in Felghana(23:22) Octopath Traveler Update(31:36) Dragon Age Origins
Wenn Flo und Alex an die gute (nicht ganz so) alte Rollenspiel-Zeit denken, schwirren solch' Bioware-Titel wie Baldur's Gate, Knights of the Old Republic oder Mass Effect durch deren Gehirnwindungen. Ein Spiel hat allerdings einen besonderen Platz in deren Herzen verdient -- nämlich Dragon Age: Origins. Ein Produkt, von dem sich durchaus behaupten lässt, eines der besten (C)RPG-Erfahrungen der letzten 20 Jahre zu handeln. Umso erstaunlicher und betrüblicher also, dass das Franchise mit jedem folgenden Teil eine Art Abstieg begonnen zu haben schien. Der Wolf im Veilguard-Pelz Nun also Teil 4 -- erst als "Dreadwolf" (Schreckenswolf) betitelt, später mit dem offiziellen Titel ...
In today's episode, we continue our deep dive into the realm of Thedas! We not only tackle the protection of Redcliffe's village, but also delving into the castle and saving an innocent from the clutches of a foul Demon! Oh, and there are our hypotheticals, too! Intro/Outro music: https://commons.nicovideo.jp/material/nc163920
Send us a textIn which we consider the various DLC expansions and ponder the prospects for a straming version.
Send us a textIn which we the real Age was the Dragons we made along the way
139 - PlayStation 30th Anniversary De store nyhetene står på rekke og rad, både i spillbransjen og privat. Vi markerer 30-årsjubileet til PlayStation og snakker om alt fra konsollens historie til våre favorittminner knyttet til PlayStation-økosystemet. Peter har havnet på Warhammer-kjøret, mens Ingar har falt ned i et Balatro-hull. Klarer de å komme seg igjen til GOTY-episoden? Tiden vil vise ... Tidsstempler: Intro: (00:00) Kunngjøringer: (07:48) Temadel: PlayStation 30th Anniversary (23:29) Lytterpost: (55:55) Hva har du spilt: (1:01:16) Anbefaling: (1:29:33) Kuriositet: (1:34:11) Postludium: (1:36:00) Senua's Saga: Hellblade II, Balatro, Farming Simulator 25, God of War, Astro Bot, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Metaphor: ReFantazio, Overwatch Classic, Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, XDefiant, Elden Ring 2, The Thing Remastered, Assassin's Creed Shadow, SSX Tricky, Ringenes Herre: To Tårn, Journey, Metal Gear Solid, WipEout, Tomb Raider, Tekken, Spyro the Dragon, Dance Dance Revolution, Singstar, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Virtua Fighter, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, Days Gone, The Last of Us, Final Fantasy X, Kingdom Hearts, Dragon Age: Origins, Ridge Racer, Gran Turismo, Devil May Cry, Ghost of Tsushima, Marvel's Spider-Man, Katamari Damacy, Uncharted, Grand Theft Auto III, Crash Bandicoot.
Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 2009's Minecraft. We talk about the early access history of the title, the impact on the industry, and then dive into some initial thoughts on our first few hours. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: A few hours Issues covered: Brett kills Tim, an announcement about opening world, an announcement about Defeating Games for Charity, the Minecraft Timeline, the beginning of Early Access, starting with creative mode, adding core concepts later, viral success, cellular automata, emergence in a user-created space, free-to-play vs early access, hunger, huge success, a smart purchase, a rough start, undirected and unexplained, the key to the experience, building a game with a community, the crafting table and drawing little items, sanding edges off, crafting blocks with blocks, connecting to your humanity, how long you can go without stuff, building up a city, the survival test and launching a genre, holding everything in your hand, the sense of exploration, player types, sanding away friction, space for sequels, dealing with the Internet, the rise of the day one patch, boundaries and generations, a dangerous model, triaging bugs for day one, right-sizing the game. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: BioStats, Calamity Nolan, Phil Salvador, Video Game History Foundation, Arkham Asylum, Uncharted 2, Borderlands, Demons's Souls, Brutal Legend, League of Legends, Infamous, Assassin's Creed II, Dragon Age: Origins, Left 4 Dead 2, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Bayonetta, Plants vs Zombies, Red Faction: Guerilla, Artimage, Steam, Dwarf Fortress, MUD, Everquest, Far Cry 2, Clint Hocking, Valheim, Microsoft, Mojang, Bethesda Game Studios/Zenimax, id Software, Machine Games, Tango Gameworks, Discord, Phil Spencer, Halo, The Three Stooges, Picross, Black Hawk Down, Delta Force, Dragon Quest Builders, Spelunky, WoW Classic, Blizzard, mysterydip, Ubisoft, Sony, Horizon (series), Nintendo, Final Fantasy VI, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: More Minecraft! Twitch: timlongojr Discord DevGameClub@gmail.com
Send us a textWe probe the Deep Roads, don't skip the Fade, consider the theology of fantasy realms and the complicated sexual politics within our group of digital puppet friends.
In this week's episode, we wrap up the November Writing Challenge by taking a look back at the Five Iron Laws Of Storytelling, which have often been discussed on this show before. Be sure to get your free copy of STORYTELLING: HOW TO WRITE A NOVEL at my Payhip store. The book will remain free until December 9th: https://payhip.com/b/JPDoT TRANSCRIPT Note: Spoiler alert at 3:35. Please check this section of the podcast before proceeding if you are concerned about spoilers for several older television shows, movies, video games, and books. 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 229 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is November 26th, 2024, and today we are wrapping up our November Writing Challenge with a look back at The Five Iron Laws of Storytelling. You may note that I am recording this a bit earlier than I usually do, but that is because I want to take a couple days off for Thanksgiving. To celebrate the end of our November Writing Challenge and to congratulate you all for listening to these shows, I am giving away free copies of my nonfiction book, Storytelling: How to Write a Novel on my Payhip Store. The link will be in the show notes, and if you follow that link, you can get a free copy of Storytelling: How to Write a Novel from my Payhip Store until December 9th. So follow that link in the show notes to my Payhip store and you can get a free copy of Storytelling: How to Write a Novel until December 9th. Before we get to our main topic, let's have a look at my current writing projects. My main project right now is Orc Hoard, the fourth book in the Rivah Half-Elven series, and that puts me at 55,000 words into it and that puts me on chapter 11 of 18. So I think the final draft will be around 85,000 words or so, which will make it the longest book in the series to date. And if all goes well, I very, very, very much want to have that out before Christmas. I'm also about 4,000 words into Shield of Deception, which will be the fourth book in my Shield War series and if all goes well, I am hoping that will be the first book I publish in 2025. In audiobook news, the audiobook of Cloak of Spears, as excellent narrated by Hollis McCarthy, is now available at all the usual ebook stores. I will include a short preview of the audiobook of Cloak of Spears at the end of this episode, so you can listen to that then. And that is where I'm at with my current writing projects as we wrap up November and head into December. 00:01:57 Main Topic: The Five Iron Laws of Storytelling So now let's go right into our main topic, The Five Iron Laws of Storytelling. I figured this would be a good main topic to wrap up our November Writing Challenge with as it is a good reminder and a good summation of many of the things we talked about in the past month. The Five Iron Laws of Storytelling is a concept I first talked about on my website like 10 years ago now. The name Iron Law is sort of a tongue in cheek joke because I got the idea from a science fiction author Jerry Pournelle, who termed what he called Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy, where describing that after a certain amount of time, a bureaucracy will cease to attend to the function to which it was created and instead devote its attention to sustaining and perpetuating the bureaucracy. And I'm sure we can all think of examples of that, so that's where I took the name from, but it's not so much Iron Laws as these are useful principles to guide you while you are writing a fictional story, whether it's a short story, a screenplay, or a novel. I would say it's fair to argue that storytelling does have some laws you can follow (or at least if you don't like the term laws, best practices) and a writer will ignore those best practices to his peril. When people get ticked off about the ending of a story like the ending of The Sopranos or the ending to Stephen King's Dark Tower series, if they simply don't like a novel or a TV show, it's usually because the writer ignored one of more of these Iron Laws that we're going to talk about. These then are what I believe to be The Five Iron Laws of Storytelling. When discussing them, I will cite five examples that I think to be excellent examples of the craft of storytelling: the movie the King's Speech, the movie Wreck-It Ralph, the movie Gravity, the novel Pride and Prejudice, and the TV series Breaking Bad. I should note that I did not personally care for Breaking Bad because it was too nihilistic for my taste, but nonetheless, it was an excellently crafted example of a well-written story. I'll also cite four things I believe to be examples of bad storytelling: the final two volumes of Stephen King's Dark Tower series, the Dragon Age 2 computer game, the original ending of the Mass Effect 3 computer game, and the ending of the Sopranos TV series. So note that there will be spoilers for all of these shows, films, books, and games. Now onto the five laws. #1: The protagonist must have a problem that results in a conflict because if there is no problem, there is no story. Conflict and problems are engines that drive the story. A happy life with minimal conflicts and problems might be the ideal that we all want in real life, but it does make for an exceedingly dull story. The main character of his story needs to have a problem that results in some kind of conflict. Note that this conflict doesn't necessarily have to have an actual villain, it just needs a problem to solve. The movie The King's Speech doesn't have a villain (though the future and former King Edward VII is kind of a jerk) but instead revolves around George VI's efforts to deal with his speech impediment. Gravity likewise has no villain but centers around Dr. Stone's efforts to survive in the harsh environment of space. So the protagonist must have a problem. The story is about how he or she deals with said problem, which leads us on to number two. #2: The protagonist's problem and conflict must be consequential to the protagonist and have real stakes for the protagonist. The problem has to be serious because if it is not, there are no real stakes, the reader will get bored and cease to care about the character. The worst of all worlds is an unlikeable character with a trivial problem. Walter White in Breaking Bad is a thoroughly unlikable character, but he becomes sympathetic to the audience because of the nature of his problem. He's dying of cancer and so he turns to meth production to ensure his family's security after his death. Walter's problem, of course, has very real stakes, his own mortality and his family's future, but the stakes need not be life and death, but nonetheless, they need to be emotionally serious and significant to the protagonist. In the King's Speech, at no point in the movie is George VI in any kind of physical danger. He is wealthy and respected, his wife and children love him, and he does not have the self-destructive impulses and nature of his brother. Nevertheless, his problem is real. It is emotionally painful and opposes a risk to both himself and his sense of duty to the monarchy and the country. Likewise, Elizabeth Bennett in Pride and Prejudice is in no physical danger throughout the book. Nonetheless, the stakes of her problem and her feelings for Mr. Darcy are consequential. If she does not secure a good marriage when her father dies, there is a very real possibility she'll be impoverished. Or if she marries an unsuitable man like Mr. Wickham, her life will be miserable. So while a young woman dealing with her feelings seems like a trivial problem, it will nonetheless have potentially dire consequences for Elizabeth and her family if she chooses wrongly. Physical danger is likewise an easy way to introduce high stakes to a story. In Gravity, Dr. Stone faces constant risk of death in a variety of agonizing ways due to the harsh nature of space. Wreck-It Ralph faces the prospect of non-existence if he dies outside his game. In Breaking Bad, other than the inevitable death from cancer, Walter White faces increasingly high odds of getting shot in the head by his business partners and customers, since crystal meth is clearly not a business for conservative-minded investors. Regardless of the nature of the problem and the conflict, it must be consequential and carry high risks and dangers for the protagonist. That said, the problem must be something the protagonist can conceivably deal with. Too vague of a problem or too powerful of a problem, and the story goes off the rails. When I'm recording this in November of 2024, it's a few months since the fourth Dragon Age video game came out, and if you look at the internet at all, there are of course frequent debates about which Dragon Age game was the best and which one was the worst. But in my opinion, Dragon Age 2 is the weakest of them because it runs smack dab into the problem we've been talking about. The central conflict in the game was strife between the mages and the Templars who are supposed to police the mages. The Templars claim that the mages are demon worshiping abominations while the mages claim that Templars are arbitrary and brutal. As it turns out both sides are right, regardless of which faction the protagonist chooses to aid, making the conflict of Dragon Age 2 to be human nature/social injustice. Regardless, it's not a problem that can be resolved within the game and in the ending, the Templars and the mages go to war no matter what decisions the player actually makes, so I'm afraid that the story falls flat. #3: The protagonist must take action and struggle to resolve his or her conflict and problem. A common failure in storytelling is a protagonist who has a serious problem but does nothing about it. We've all read stories with a passive protagonist, or even worse, a protagonist who does nothing but whine about his difficulties or thinks that by feeling bad about his or her problems, they will somehow magically get better. Worst of all is when a protagonist does nothing but whine or complain for two hours or 300 pages and somehow does solve all of his or her problems. This is apparently a common problem in the genre of romance novels. The opposite of this problem is the boring invincible hero. This is common in science fiction or fantasy series where towards the end of the series, the hero is so powerful that he or she can defeat all his problems using magic or a blast from a particle cannon. Struggle is necessary for a story. If the protagonist does not struggle, the story will probably be boring. No, the protagonist has to take action, actual active action to resolve the problem, but he or she must struggle while doing so. In Breaking Bad, Walter White sets out to solve his family's impending financial ruin by brewing up some crystal meth for sale. In Wreck-it Ralph, Ralph wants respect from the other denizens of his game, so he jumps to another game to win a medal and therefore prestige. In Gravity, Dr. Stone struggles to stay alive the entire time in the face of the indifferent hostility of outer space to human life. If these characters did nothing to surmount their problems, we would have boring stories. #4: The protagonist must face challenges and setbacks and his or her efforts to resolve the problem that may even backfire. This is a good antidote to the boring invincible hero problem we just mentioned. Think of this as the unexpected complications ensue rule. You see this all the time in real life, it matters both serious and trivial. Like say you need to mail your rent check but you're out of stamps, so you drive to the post office, but there's an accident in the intersection and you have to take a different route. As you take a different route, your car breaks down. All these new problems need to be dealt with and you still have to mail the check. We've all had days like that, and fictional protagonists should be no different in the pursuit of their goals. Additionally, it's possible for a protagonist to inadvertently make things worse through his or her actions. Like in Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph sets off for his medal of heroism, but in doing so, accidentally puts his own game out of order and inadvertently unleashes the virus like cy-bugs in the Sugar Rush game. Walter White in Breaking Bad is a textbook example of this. In the course of attempting to solve his problems, he makes a number of extremely bad decisions that estrange him from his family and sent his business partners gunning for his head. In the King's Speech, George VI gives up in despair believing he'll never overcome his speech impediment. In Pride and Prejudice, Elizabeth torpedoes her relationship with Mr. Darcy because of her misunderstanding of his motives. And if you've seen Gravity, you know that Dr. Stone's situation frequently goes from bad to worse. #5: The ending must provide satisfactory emotional resolution to the problems raised in the story. Of all the Five Iron Laws of Storytelling, this one is undeniably the most important. Screw this one up and readers will be ticked and talk about on the Internet for years. Whatever crisis comes up in the story, whatever conflict or difficulties, it must be resolved in an emotionally satisfying manner by the end of the story. It can be a happy ending or a sad ending or a mixture of the two, but it must be emotionally satisfying. Let's look at some bad examples first. Stephen King is an excellent writer. If you've read his book 11/22/63, you know that's a great book. But when he's written as much as he has, not everything is going to be good, of course. And Stephen King's The Dark Tower series is a good example of a weak ending. After 22 years and seven books, the protagonist Roland learns that he has repeated his quest to the Dark Tower over and over again for thousands of years, forgetting every time, which makes everything that happened in the previous seven books utterly meaningless since the events happened before and will happen again. Therefore, there is no emotional resolution to the story or Roland's quest for the Dark Tower. The computer game Mass Effect 3 is another example of how not to end a story. In the case of Mass Effect 3, the original ending is simply too abbreviated. Commander Shepherd sacrifices himself or herself. A weird light shoots out of the Citadel. The Normandy crash lands on an alien planet, and that's it. Considering the hundreds of hours of gameplay involved and the intricate network of emotional relationships between Shepherd's companion and the dozens of subplots over the three games, the ending was too short to provide adequate emotional resolution. It felt a bit like a cop out as if the writers had simply said, okay, we're done, stop here, and had given up before attempting the necessary ending. The ending of Dragon Age: Origins by contrast was an excellent example of a well done ending. The ending of the Sopranos is an even more extreme version of this. Infamously, the series simply ends with a cut to black in the middle of Tony Soprano and his family eating dinner. Many viewers thought their televisions had failed. This is the ultimate example of a story of failing to provide emotional resolution. The final episode does not even attempt to do so. I suspect these problems arise when a writer tries to be realistic, which is what happens when a writer mistakes verisimilitude (a story feeling realistic) for realism. A story requires suspension of disbelief and attempting phony realism can cause the story to break down. But let's move from the negative to the positive and look at some good examples of endings. The ending of Breaking Bad was well executed, since it resolved the story's emotional conflicts. Walter White does not escape punishment for as many crimes since he's shot to death in the end. Additionally, he dies in the act of resolving some of the conflicts that he helped create. His meth empire has been taken over by his enemies and his former partner has been forced to prepare meth for them. Walter tries to provide for his family, free his partner, and defeat his rivals and dies at the end, killed not by his cancer, but by finally facing the consequences of his many bad decisions. Note that this is by no means a happy ending, but it is a satisfying ending, which is more important. The King's Speech ends well, with George VI addressing the nation over the radio without melting down due to his speech impediment, simultaneously resolving the conflicts over his stammer and his fear of accepting his duties as king. This is an ambivalently happy ending. George VI has overcome his conflicts, but the viewers know that the United Kingdom is about to go through World War II and George himself will die prematurely of lung cancer and heart disease in 1952. Nevertheless, the conflicts within the story have been resolved. Wreck-It Ralph has a more straightforwardly happy ending. Every single conflict raised within the story is resolved. Ralph accepts his role as villain in the game, realizing he is a vital part of the team. He gains the respect of his neighbors, and the villainous King Candy and the cy-bugs are defeated. Additionally, even when the side conflicts are resolved: Fix It Felix marries Sergeant Calhoun, King Candy's malevolent influence over the racing game has ended, and the homeless video game characters are able to set up inside Ralph's game. To sum up, stories have a sort of irresistible logic to them. Much like a properly balanced equation. a writer should set out to create a story that follows this logic, which will result in a far more enjoyable experience for the reader. So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes at https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week. Don't forget to get your free book copy of Storytelling, how to Write a Novel from my Payhip store.
Im weit entfernten 2009 erschien ein Rollenspiel der Supertalente von Bioware und hat es geschafft, Dennis und andere Fantasy-Fans zu begeistern: Das düstere, blutige Dragon Age: Origins. 15 Jahre später -- und nur knappe 10 Jahre (!) nach dem letzten Teil der Reihe, Inquisition -- ist nun der langerwartete Nachfolger erschienen und das Internet rastet aus. Wir sprechen in dieser Folge ausführlich über Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Wie gut funktioniert der Fokus auf Action? Wie gut kommt man rein, wenn man die Reihe nicht kennt -- und wie ist es für Fans? Warum reden die Krähen von Antifa (sic!) SO!? Warum wird Dragon Age gerade so kontrovers diskutiert? Und vor allem: Wird es Marcus jemals schaffen, die kühle Neve von sich zu begeistern? Das und viel mehr gibt's in dieser Folge. Aber nicht verzagen, wenn Drachen und Elfen und Rollenspiel nicht so euer Ding ist. Wir reden außerdem noch über die in vielfacher Hinsicht besondere Visual Novel Slay the Princess und wundern uns über Nominierungen der Game Awards.
В этом выпуске мы начинаем пересказывать историю легендарной франшизы Dragon Age. В этот раз мы останавливаемся на событиях первой части игры — Dragon Age: Origins.Огромная благодарность Лере SkoomaCat за помощь в подготовке выпуска — https://www.twitch.tv/skoomacatНаш Boosty — https://boosty.to/podcastcbrНаш Patreon — https://www.patreon.com/podcastCBRДонаты из России — https://donatty.com/pashaponyДонаты из заграницы — https://destream.net/live/podcastCBR/donate
We conclude our Dragon Age lore series with the game that started it all: Dragon Age: Origins. This episode delves into the morally complex world of Thedas, the struggles of the Grey Wardens, and the foundation of the Blight plus other key elements introduced in this title and further developed in the sequels. As usual, more spoilers than Morrigan has witty retorts. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
With The Veilguard releasing tomorrow #dragonagemonth has reached its end. And with that we have our yap session all about the video game series.Embark on a journey through the rich tapestry of Dragon Age as we explore its evolution from the iconic Dragon Age: Origins to the much-anticipated release of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. I share personal anecdotes of first encountering the series and how its captivating characters and storytelling have left a lasting impact. This episode is a heartfelt homage to the storytelling genius of BioWare, filled with insights into the past, present, and future of the Dragon Age saga.Music Produced by BlackOutBeatz414: https://www.youtube.com/@BlackOutBeatz414Facebook: www.facebook.com/GeekVisionz/Twitch: www.twitch.tv/geekvizentYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@GeekvisionzEnt.
Send us a textJohn and Al pack their bags for Ferelden and struggle mightily not to make jokes about taints
We're back with another long-awaited character deep dive. This week, we're talking about Sten, a companion in Dragon Age: Origins. Sten has a really interesting backstory and appears in a few other places outside of the games. But he's infamous for the problematic conversation he has with a female Warden. Listen now to find out everything you need to know about this qunari. Countdown to Dragon Age: The Veilguard is ON! We're feeding your thirst while we wait for DAV. Check out our new Girl Dinner, Boy Dinner, and Enby Dinner character shirts at our shop! Want to chime in on the conversation? You can become a patron at the First Enchanter tier or higher and join us ON THE SHOW! https://www.patreon.com/dalorecast We've launched merch! Become a patron at the Antivan Crow tier or higher to get these exclusive rewards! Check out our website! cupspodcasting.com If you love our merch, check out the artist behind the designs! https://libanezink.wixsite.com/libanezart If you love our music, check out the musician behind our theme! Pipeman Studios If you enjoyed our podcast, give us a rating and review on Apple and/or Spotify! We'll even read your review out on the show! Join our The Cups Podcasts discord server where we dive deeep into Dragon Age discussions. https://discord.gg/fxR2WVDNhP Join the Robots Radio discord server to join the fun! You can also send us your Heroes, Hawkes, and Heralds to be featured on the podcast! https://discord.gg/AW5Wc4kgZb You can also find us on Twitter at @DALorecast, and you can dm us or email us side character suggestions (dalorecast@gmail.com). Music by Pipeman Studios Website designed by H-I-T Media Solutions Merch designed by Lauren Ibañez Ink Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Fortuan, Sasha, and Dylan discuss what they've been playing. Fortuan regales his whole experience of Dragon Age Origins as well.
And suddenly I realized: Up, R, Left, L, B, L, R, Right, Down.Discussed: The weather, Dragon Age: Origins, Castlevania: Dominus Collection, Magic: The Gathering Arena, Are You A Miranda or an "h"?, Fishlike, overnight oats, The Analog Super Nt, A Link to the Past, Fez, talking about games, PS Bot---Find us everywhere: https://intothecast.onlineBuy some NEW merch if you'd like: https://shop.intothecast.onlineJoin the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intothecast---Follow Stephen Hilger: https://stephenhilgerart.com/Follow Brendon Bigley: https://threads.net/@brendonbigleyProduced by AJ Fillari: https://bsky.app/profile/ajfillari.bsky.social---Season 7 cover art by Scout Wilkinson: https://scoutwilkinson.myportfolio.com/Theme song by Will LaPorte: https://instagram.com/ghostdownphoto---Timecodes:(00:00) - Intro (00:21) - The weather (01:35) - Dragon Age: Origins | I did it for YOU (39:28) - Castlevania Dominus Collection | A Spooky Szn aperitif (46:12) - Magic: The Gathering Arena | Hi hello thank you for coming (52:46) - Fishlike | The 'e' of games (58:07) - InTea the Yogurt (59:12) - The Analog Super Nt (01:01:45) - FEZ | This is where the 4th dimension overlaps with April 2021 (01:28:19) - Don't be fooled. Look at the runtime. (01:32:51) - Wrapping up ---Thanks to all of our amazing patrons including our Eternal Gratitude members:Zachary DialsIanfaceMcGeeMatt HClayton MChris Yw0nderbradShawn LCody RZach RFederico VLogan HAlan RSlinkmattjanzz DeaconGrokCorey ZDirectional JoySusan HOlivia KDan SIsaac SWill CJim WEvan BDavid Hmin2Aaron GVErik MBrady HJoshua JTony LDanny KSeth MAdam BJustin KAndy HDemoParker EMaxwell LSpiritofthunderJason WJason TCorey TMinnow Eats WhaleCaleb WfingerbellyJesse WMike TCodesWesleyErik BmebezacSergio LninjadeathdogRory BA42PoundMooseAndrewJustin MPeterStellar.BeesBrendan KScott RwreckxNoah OMichael GArcturusChris RhepaheCory FChase ALoveDiesNick QWes KChris MRBMichaela WAdam FScott HAlexander SPTherese KjgprintersJessica BMurrayDavid PJason KBede RKamrin HKyle SPhilip N ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
For a LIMITED TIME you-- yes, YOU-- can join the Family-style computer revolution! Sick of having to wait for big bro to be done surfin' the web and IM-ing babes? With the Family-style computer in your computer room you and your WHOLE FAMILY can surf, search, click, drag, and scroll to your hearts content; ALL AT THE SAME TIME! Order yours TODAY!Discussed: dotzip's 1000xRESIST bonus episode, Can't Put It Down, What Should You Leave Behind? - 1000xRESIST Review by Matt Horton, Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance, Tactical Breach Wizards, Mario Odyssey in VR, the Nintendo Wooii, The Two Types of Random in Game Design by Game Maker's Toolkit, Dragon Age Origins, Fields of Mistria, Civilization VII---Find us everywhere: https://intothecast.onlineBuy some NEW merch if you'd like: https://shop.intothecast.onlineJoin the Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/intothecast---Follow Stephen Hilger: https://stephenhilgerart.com/Follow Brendon Bigley: https://threads.net/@brendonbigleyProduced by AJ Fillari: https://bsky.app/profile/ajfillari.bsky.social---Season 7 cover art by Scout Wilkinson: https://scoutwilkinson.myportfolio.com/Theme song by Will LaPorte: https://instagram.com/ghostdownphoto---Timecodes:(00:00) - Intro (01:59) - Some TWG announcements! (07:28) - Shin Megami Tensei V: Vengeance | A 1000x-Like (36:07) - The sausage being made (37:09) - Tactical Breach Wizards | Pitching a normal hangout (01:02:32) - Wilmot Works It Out | One more game (01:10:25) - Grab bag | Brendon has a present (01:18:47) - Thanks for being cool
Among the bombastic trailers showcased in the Xbox showcase at Not E3™ — er, I mean Summer Game Fest™ — was one particular reveal that some fans have been waiting for for the better part of a decade: Dragon Age: The Veilguard. And boy oh boy, was it ever a bewildering first look. This week, Zak and Aaron sit down to discuss their impressions of the newest iteration of Dragon Age 4, and why it seems to feel so little like the beloved games that came before it. They also discuss what's lost when IPs that used to have a strong identity throw what made them unique by the wayside in favor of mass appeal.Please, enjoy.Listen to Beach Girl on SpotifyCheck out edouggieart on EtsyCheck out even more edouggieart on Instagram
In this episode, James discusses his time with Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, Adam goes back in time to Dragon: Age Origins, a preview of GreedFall II: The Dying World, plus, all the news out of Nintendo Direct, and more.
Dragon Age: Origins is a true gem of the RPG genre, combining deep storytelling, memorable characters, and satisfying gameplay into a cohesive and engaging experience. Its innovative dialogue system, strategic combat, and rich world-building set a high bar for the genre and make it a timeless classic that continues to captivate players to this day. Whether you're a fan of fantasy, RPGs, or just great storytelling, Dragon Age: Origins is a must-play for any gamer looking for an epic adventure. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/ongamecast/support
On this months episode of Get Rec'd Ben is joined by Adam, previously of Revival and Extinction and now of Super Pod Network, to discuss The Evil Within and Dragon Age: Origins You can find Adam on Super Pod Network here! https://the-super-pod-network.podcastpage.io/blog And you can find Adam's podcast Revival & Extinction here! https://open.spotify.com/show/2IlvY4ZwZOQHEcFw8XTrFK Find all of our socials, as well as our discord server here!: https://linktr.ee/PlayAlongPodcast Episodes of this podcast go up every Tuesday at 9 am PST Intro and outro music is done by https://boqeh.bandcamp.com Music Break 1: Asylum - Event 01 Chainsaw 01 (The Evil Within) Music Break 2: Dragon Age Origins (Dragon Age: Origins) --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playalongpodcast/message
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Ja, der erste Trailer war grottenschlecht. Ja, Dragon Age: The Veilguard wird kein zweites Dragon Age: Origins sein. Und nein, das waren Dragon Age 2 oder Dragon Age: Inquisition ebenso nicht. Dragon Age hat sich schon immer neu erfunden – wie auch dieses Mal.
Video games are great! And also video games suck a whole lot! Both things are true in Flavortown. EVERYTHING is true in Flavortown. It's a place with no rules, but also with ALL the rules. You get what we're saying? Don't worry, friends. You will. Oh, YOU WILL. Games We Are Playing: Stellar Blade, Peglin, Cocoon, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, Dragon Age: Origins, Thirsty Suitors Snack Chat: Flavortown drink. Links! Sony mandates that you must have a PSN account to play Helldivers 2 (yes even on Steam). This forces the game to no longer be able to be sold in regions where there is no way to make a PSN account. This results in people review bombing Helldivers 2 on Steam and Steam issuing refunds even if you played more than 2 hours of the game. After all of that Sony walks back the mandate. Helldivers 2 players triumph as Sony walks back PSN account linking decision and studio CEO says he's "impressed by the willpower of the community" | GamesRadar+ Xbox is once again looking like the evil Yakuza villain as they close Arkane Austin, Tango Gameworks, and more studios. Microsoft Closes Redfall Developer Arkane Austin, HiFi Rush Developer Tango Gameworks, and More in Devastating Cuts at Bethesda - IGN Nintendo Confirms Switch successor is in production. June direct will NOT have any info on it. There may have been a leak of the specs? New Nintendo Switch 2 Leaks Could Reveal Vital Tech Specs (kotaku.com) Nintendo Switch 2 Announcement Will Come By Next March (forbes.com) Take 2 lays off around 70 people in the Seattle area. This includes Intercept games the makers of Kerbal Space Program 2.: Take-Two Interactive layoffs hit Seattle area; 70 workers affected – GeekWire Ghost of Tsushima has an online mode that requires a PSN login so it is getting the same restrictions that Helldivers 2 was hit with on Steam: Ghost of Tsushima on Steam Is Now Restricted in the Same Countries as Helldivers 2 - IGN Listen Mail! FOR FLAVORTOWN someotherpodcast@gmail.com
We've made it to the end of Season 5! Time to talk about the highs and lows of Dragon Age: Origins and all of its DLC. We also chat about our prep for Season 6 and what to expect as we gear up for our next adventure! Special thanks to Redd Spinks for our new amazing logo as well as to Radek Wade and Echoes of Oblivion for the song World of Thedas, which we use as our theme music. If you want tickets to GIFCon you can grab them here! If you want to check out the “Fun” & Games' chat about signposting in games you can listen here. You can find the show on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Bluesky and Facebook! Please rate and review us on Apple Podcasts! Rate us on Spotify! Wanna join the Certain POV Discord? Click here!
Even Logan Paul's Prime can't stop this podcast. Elaine and Leah discuss Stardew Valley's 1.6 update (and the level of obsession it is causing in Elaine's house) and a current steam sale (and the problems for both our houses). The ladies also probably wax lyrical about some absolute nonsense while describing their bad life choices. BUCKLE IT ON UP. Games We Are Playing: Stardew Bro, Yakuza Like a Dragon ,428: Shibuya Scramble, Dragon Age Origins, FFVII Remake Snack Chat: Elaine bought a Creami and Leah tried Prime. Please help us. Links! Fallout 4 gets a current gen update and it's not going so great out there: Fallout 4's big next-gen patch isn't going over well, especially on PC: "I had very low expectations but this is MUCH less than I expected" | GamesRadar+ Fortnite Festival now works with Rockband 4 instruments including the new PDP Riffmaster: Fortnite Festival guitar controller support is now available | GamesRadar+ Hades 2 technical test is winding down in but it will launch into early access soon: Hades 2 technical test "winding down" in a few days, but don't be too sad – Supergiant says the roguelike's early access launch is "relatively soon after that" | GamesRadar+ Fallout show has been renewed for a Season 2: 'Fallout' Renewed for Season 2 at Amazon (variety.com) New city builder Manor Lords launches into early access and people are digging it: Manor Lords surpassed 100,000 concurrent players within hours of release, and now it's the global top seller on Steam | PC Gamer Listen Mail! Please? someotherpodcast@gmail.com
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Dragon Age Origins Redone, Suicide Squad Impressions, Microsoft 3rd Party, Best Gaming Podcast 442 MORE REVIEWS Avatar Review https://youtu.be/u_OU9zUVZrA House Flipper https://youtu.be/5nhTC-JcFK8 Super Mario RPG https://youtu.be/ppSHru7XwV4 Like a Dragon Gaiden the Man who erased his name review The Invincible Review https://youtu.be/kutO8ubdgU0 Alan Wake 2 Review https://youtu.be/200uGF8YMOY Spiderman 2 Review https://youtu.be/kufRnn6wjOA Walking the Walk Game Dev Videos https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL62tz83FJJjl6XM--ouEggi7Y007zG-xB 2 podcast weekly, game reviews for titles I buy with my cash and give out to patrons, behind the scenes videos, discords private streams, and swag. Join the acg discord now and get 100% on BS gaming coverage Want to support the channel randomly https://bmc.link/ACGGaming
In this week's episode, I take a look at the movies and TV shows I watched and enjoyed in winter 2023. TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Brief Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 181 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is December, the 22nd, 2023 and today we're going to talk about the movies I saw in Winter 2023. Careful listeners might notice that I am recording this on December 22nd, which is actually only a day after I recorded Episode 180, which I recorded yesterday. The reason for that is it is the last Friday before Christmas and New Year's today, and I think I'm going to take most of the days between now and New Year's off and spend time with family and hopefully do other fun things. So this episode I was just recording a couple episodes in advance and I believe this episode is going to go out on January 1st, 2024. So if you're listening to this, I hope you have a Happy New Year and however things went for you in 2023, whether good or bad, I hope they are better in 2024. Just a quick update on my current writing projects, since I am recording this episode the day after I recorded Episode 180, not much has changed. I am 40,000 words into Shield of Storms and I hope to have that out in January, which would be later this month (if you are listening to this in January). I am 51,000 words into Sevenfold Sword Online: Leveling and I'm hoping to have that in February. I am 4,000 words into Half-Elven Thief and I'm not sure when that's going to come out. One additional bit of news since yesterday, it looks very likely we will have an audiobook of Sevenfold Sword Online: Creation sometime in January, if everything goes well. So watch and listen for additional news on that. Since I don't really have any other news since I recorded last week's episode yesterday, let's get into our main topic, which is the movies and TV shows I watched in Winter 2023. 00:01:54 Main Topic: Winter 2023 Movie and TV Reviews As always, I will discuss them in the order that I like them from least liked to most liked and as always remember my opinions about this are subjective. I am not a filmmaker. My opinions are often very, very idiosyncratic and just what I happen to think of a particular piece of work. First up is The Crown Season 6, which came out in 2023. The performances were superb, the actors were excellent, the set design and cinematography was excellent. Everyone involved in the show was at the top of their field and did an amazing job. And I still just didn't like this because it felt a bit ghoulish. For one thing, as The Crown has gone on, it's become less historical and more of a messy soap opera with an increasingly casual relationship with what really happened in the events it describes. For another thing, as I mentioned, I found the show's fixation on Princess Diana's death to be rather ghoulish. I am old enough to remember her death in 1997, and even then when I was much younger and stupider, I thought the American media's obsession with her death was weird and disturbing, especially since the media fixation on her was the direct contributing cause to her death. If the media hadn't been willing to pay vast sums for photographs of her, the paparazzi wouldn't have chased her and history would be different. A while back I knew a history professor who said that history only starts between 20 to 30 years ago and anything that happened within the last 20 to 30 years wasn't history yet, it was still journalism. I think that is part of what bothers me about Season Six of The Crown. Most of the people involved in the story are still alive. Writing historical fiction about people who have died, who have died is one thing, especially if they've been dead for centuries or even millennia. Only God may judge of the dead, so what those of us among the living think about them is quite irrelevant. But making up fiction about people who are still alive, even if they are major public figures who have unquestionably made some bad decisions, somehow seems libelous, especially since there have been so many articles in both the UK and the US press detailing all the things that Season Six of The Crown got wrong with the historical record. So to sum up, the show is extremely well done, but I cannot help but feel that it's like excellent work done in a bad cause. Overall Grade: D. Next up is Shazam: Fury of the Gods, which came out in 2023. The first Shazam movie was actually pretty good, definitely in B or B Plus territory. The sequel, alas, was quite a bit weaker. It reminded me of watching a really cheesy sword and sorcery movie from the 1980s: fun to watch mostly, but quite dumb. Following up from the first movie, Billy Batson and his foster siblings are now part of the Shazam superhero family and are handling their powers about as well as you would expect inexperienced teenagers to handle phenomenal cosmic powers, except it turns out that the wizard who gave Billy and his family their powers actually stole those powers from the Greek Titan Atlas and Atlas's daughters are ticked off about this and want those powers back. Since this is a superhero movie, let's just say they're not going to settle this dispute in probate court. The product placement for the Skittles candy in this movie was just over the top. In fact, an entire major plot point hinges on a teenage girl's love of Skittles. One hopes that Mars Incorporated, owner of the Skittles brand, really coughed up for that. Helen Mirren chews a lot of scenery as the chief daughter of Atlas, though she does have a very funny bit with a dictated letter. This isn't her first time in an over-the-top fantasy movie. She played Morgana in Excalibur back in the 80s, though her costume this time covers quite a bit more than Morgana's various outfits did. The movie also leans way too heavily into the rest of the DC movie universe. I'd say it's enjoyable to shut off your brain and watch all the sparkly fireworks and the scenery chewing, but it's not very good. Overall Grade: D+. Next up is Clue, which came out in 1985. Big swing and a miss, but definitely a miss nonetheless. I tried to watch this about ten years ago, but the version I watched then didn't have any captions and all the characters talked too fast for me to understand. But I have a much better TV than I did ten years ago and the caption situation has improved, so I gave it another go. This is a dark comedy version of the popular board game Clue. All the classic Clue characters, Colonel Mustard, Professor Plum, and so forth are summoned to Mr. Boddy's mansion during a dark and stormy night. Mr. Boddy gloats says he has been blackmailing all of them, distributes the classic Clue weapons of the pipe, the knife, the wrench and so forth, and then promptly turns off the lights. When the lights come back on. Mr. Boddy has been murdered. Mr. Boddy, to be blunt about it, doesn't seem to have been all that bright a bulb. Anyway, madcap hijinks ensue as the guests try to figure out who the killer was. Three alternate endings are included with the movie, which have a different killer in each one. There were some very funny bits in the movie, but overall it really didn't work and it had some oddly heavy-handed commentary about the Red Scare. Tim Curry was pretty great in it though. Fun fact: he did an excellent turn as Darth Sidious in what was then the final episodes of The Clone Wars animated series, and he also played Arl Howe, one of the chief villains in Dragon Age: Origins, which was one of the last video games I had time to play through all the way before I spent the next fourteen years writing like 147 novels. A remake of Clue has been in production hell for like the last ten years. You just know that Hasbro wants to include Clue in their cinematic universe where Colonel Mustard and Miss Scarlett team up with Optimus Prime and GI Joe to fight Megatron and the Monopoly guy or something. Overall grade: C Minus. Next up is Murder Mystery, which came out in 2019. This was unquestionably a dumb movie, but it was a fun, dumb movie. Like it's a C Minus student, but it's a sort of C Minus student who everyone likes, throws great parties, and goes on to have a very successful career as a regional sales manager. Adam Sandler and Jennifer Aniston play Nick Spitz and Audrey Spitz, a New York City cop and a hairdresser. Nick has failed the detective exam multiple times and has gotten stuck in a rut, and Audrey really wants to go to Europe so Nick takes her to Europe and they promptly blunder into a ‘40s screwball style comedy about the murder of a wealthy European oligarch and his squabbling heirs. A lot of the comedy comes from the good-natured, but boorish Spitzes contrasted with the sophisticated, wealthy Europeans who promptly decided that Nick and Audrey would make the perfect scapegoats to take the fall for the oligarch's murder. Wacky hijinks follow. I do have to respect how Adam Sandler uses his movie productions as an excuse to travel to exotic locations with his friends. Overall grade: C Minus. Next up is the sequel to Murder Mystery, the aptly named Murder Mystery 2, which came out in 2023. It's the sequel to the first Murder Mystery and pretty much everything I said about the first one still applies-dumb, but fun. Overall grade: C Minus. Next up is Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny from 2023 and ah, I was very ambivalent about this movie. To be fair, it was better than Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. It had some stuff that was really good and some stuff that just annoyed me. The opening sequence with the train during World War II was great- classic Indiana Jones stuff. The Nazis try to time travel to change World War II is a well-established trope of science fiction, but the twist this time is the villain thinks he understands how the time travel device works, but it turns out that he actually doesn't was pretty good. The car chases were excellent as well, both in New York and Tangiers. That said, the legacy protagonist now is an old loser getting lectured by a more competent younger woman story trope was in full force, and it's a really annoying story trope. Disney seems to just adore the story trope: the Star Wars sequels, Secret Invasion, and now Dial of Destiny, and I suspect a majority of audiences agree with me and don't like it, which is probably one of the significant reasons the Disney Corporation lost a metric gigaton of money this year. Top Gun Maverick was a much better example of bringing back a legacy protagonist. Indy also has this oddly out of character speech where he says he doesn't believe in magic, which is rich considering he has literally seen The Ark of the Covenant melt Nazis, the power of The Holy Grail turn another Nazi to dust, and space aliens. So I would say that Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny was half a good movie and half a weak one. Overall grade: B Minus. Next up is the Barbie movie, which came out in 2023. I saw Oppenheimer in the theater in August after I finished working on Dragonskull: Crown of the Gods and a couple months ago I did finally get around to seeing Barbie. Greta Gerwig is clearly a genius because she figured out how to take the existential anxiety of the modern American woman and convert it into $1.44 billion at the box office. If we could work out how to apply the same principles to generating electricity, we would have limitless clean energy, flying cars, and World Peace. Though I suppose the phrase modern American woman really is a facile generalization. Anyway, I really wasn't in the target demographic for this movie. That said, it is quite funny. It's a fantasy comedy that's a bit surrealistic in places. The set design is superb and done with very little computer effects. Apparently so much pink paint was used that it actually caused a nationwide shortage. As many reviews said, Ryan Gosling almost stole the movie as Ken, which was amusing on a meta level because he's played so many grim action heroes. In the third act, the movie really does beat the viewer over the head with the message. But what else can you expect from a Barbie movie in 2023? The funniest line was “How can she call me a fascist? I don't control the railways or the flow of commerce.” The joke about Proust Barbie not selling was pretty funny as well. Maybe if the Barbienheimer meme continues, in the sequel, Proust Barbie can fall in love with Oppenheimer Ken, and they have grim conversations about existentialism and science. Overall grade: B Plus. Next up is Muppet Treasure Island, which came out in 1996. This is a loose-ish adaptation of the classic novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, with many Muppets filling the roles of the characters from the book and Tim Curry playing Long John Silver. Like in the book, young Jim Hawkins acquires a treasure map leading to the buried treasure of a ruthless pirate captain and sets out on an adventure to find it. However, many of the dead captain's former associates likewise want the treasure, so Hawkins and his allies must outwit their foes. This wasn't quite as good as Muppet Christmas Carol, but still quite enjoyable and funny. Overall Grade: A Minus. Now for the runner up of the best thing I saw in winter 2023 and that will be Loki Seasons One and Two, which came out in 2021 and 2023. I liked the first season of Loki, which came out back in 2021, but it was very obviously the first half of the story so I didn't write anything about it. However, I've seen the second season and the completed Loki show is very good. As I've written before, I don't really like multiverse or time travel stories because the stakes are either too vast or utterly meaningless. Time travel stories are a lot like homemade lasagna: if it's not excellent and not prepared by someone who knows exactly what they're doing, you're going to regret eating it. However, Loki leads hard enough into the concept, and the stakes that the show actually works. Like, I think the key question that every time travel story needs to answer at some point is why the time traveler doesn't just go back in time over and over again until she he or she fixes the problem, like remoting a saved game until you finally figure out how to beat the final boss. If you can time loop indefinitely, why not do it infinitely until you get the perfect outcome? Loki actually comes up with good answer to that question that isn't “because the plot requires it.” Anyway, the show starts with the version of Loki who escaped with Tesseract from Avengers Endgame getting captured by the Time Variance Authority. The TVA is basically the time cops. They guard the flow of The Sacred Timeline and prevent any alternative timelines and realities branching off from the main one. The events that make it out of The Sacred Timeline are determined by the Timekeepers, three mysterious figures who rule the TVA from the shadows. Loki manages to ingratiate himself to his captors, soon realizes that the TVA isn't all what it appears or claims to be, and discovers that big trouble is coming. The show had some good character development for Loki and managed to wrestle with what is in fact some profound philosophical questions. Is there a choice between determinism and free will? Must we choose between either brutal tyrannical order or destructive chaos, or is there another way? On a more prosaic level, some reviews said that the finale of Loki bound Marvel to using Kang The Conqueror as their next major villain, which would be a potential problem due to the actor's ongoing self-inflicted legal troubles. That said, I don't think that assessment is correct. In my opinion, the ending resolves the story while leaving things wide open for whatever Marvel wants to do (or can afford to do, given Disney's financial woes) next. Overall, Loki was the best non-Spiderman thing Marvel has done since Endgame. It also achieved one of the rarest feats of all in superhero movies: an emotionally satisfying ending to both the story and a long character arc. Overall Grade: A. Finally, the best thing I saw in Winter 2023 was The Shop Around the Corner, which came out in 1940. It is a romantic comedy starring Jimmy Stewart as Mr. Kravlik and Margaret Sullivan as Miss Novak. Mr. Kravlik is the top salesman at Matusek's, a store owned by the somewhat erratic Mr. Matusek, who kind of reminded me of a marginally brighter Michael Scott. One day Miss Novak comes into the shop and fast talks her way into a job as a sales clerk. Both she and Mr. Kravlik immediately take a dislike to each other, which is ironic because Mr. Kravlik and Miss Novak have been unwittingly corresponding with each other anonymously and falling in love over the last few months, which was something people used to do in the pre-Internet age before Tinder and Match.com. However, big trouble is on the horizon because one of the sales clerks is having an affair with Mr. Matusek's wife and Mr. Matuszek mistakenly blames Mr. Kravlik, who is in fact the most loyal of his employees and the only one brave enough to disagree with him. The movie was both very funny and had a real degree of tension with dramatic stakes. It's a cross between You've Got Mail (which was partially inspired by this movie) and the UK version of The Office. It's a very tight movie, not a single line of dialogue or shot was wasted and the layout of the shots was nearly perfect. In the modern mind, we tend to think of black and white movies as being sanitized and saccharine, but that overlooks that the 1950s and the 1940s were in fact very different periods in American history. Movies from the ‘40s really do have this hard, sometimes cynical, edge to them, without indulging in pointless nudity, graphic violence, or nihilism the way that modern movies often do. Like at one point in the movie, Mr. Matusek tries to shoot himself in despair, only for a teenage boy to stop him. That's dark stuff for romantic comedy. Of course the teenage boy is hardly traumatized by the experience. He definitely leverages the event to get himself promoted from delivery boy to sales clerk. I enjoyed this movie thoroughly. I do recommend you watch it with captions if possible, since sound technology has come a long way since 1940. Overall Grade: A+. So those were the movies that I saw and enjoyed in Winter 2023 and later this year, I will do a roundup of stuff I saw in Winter 2024. So that is it for this week. Thanks for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful. A reminder that you that you can listen to all the back episodes on https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review on your podcasting platform of choice. And once more, have a Happy New Year! Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.
Quest Like A Dragon! One Warrior, one Rogue, and one Mage separately traveled across Ferelden to recruit allies in order to stop a Darkspawn Blight, but how did it go for them? Our panelists explored the diverse societies presented in BioWare's dark fantasy RPG this month, but to what ends? Listen and find out why Dragon Age: Oranges's narrative is so engrossing, this podcast forgot to discuss combat! Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Aleks Franiczek, Wes Iliff; Edited by Paul DennisOpening and ending music by Miles Morkri.Get in Touch:RPGFan.comRPGFan ShopEmail us: retro@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomInstagram: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancomDragon Age: Origins on RPGFan
A review of Evil Dead Rise and some thoughts from scripture that inspired "Hark The Herald Angels Sing" and reveal what Jesus came to do, how he did it as a human, and the sobering but amazing hope he gives us for the future! PLUS some reactions to the Game Awards in the Geek Week segment!Plus, In Paeter's Geek Week:MOVIES/TV- Batman Returns, Suckerpunch,VIDEO GAMES- The Game Awards, Robocop Rogue City, Baldur's Gate 3, Dragon Age: Origins,TIMESTAMPS00:00:30 Intro00:03:09 Evil Dead Rise Review00:12:42 CGC & Christian Geek News (Paeter's "Off-Grid" Vacation Dates, Lumen by J.J. Fischer)00:22:41 Jesus' Mission, Humanity & Sobering Promises (Hark The Herald Angels Sing Lyrics & Scripture)00:46:21 Listener/Viewer Questions & Feedback(Themes That Christian Movies Could Or Should Explore)Paeter's Geek Week00:54:47 MOVIES/TV- Batman Returns, Suckerpunch,01:09:59 VIDEO GAMES- The Game Awards, 01:36:28 Robocop Rogue City, Baldur's Gate 3, Dragon Age: Origins,01:54:16 On The Next Episode...Support this podcast and enjoy exclusive rewards at https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductions Subscribe in a readerOpen In i-tunes- itms://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-christian-geek-central-podcast/id258963175?mt=2i-tunes Page Link- https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-christian-geek-central-podcast/id258963175?mt=2Get fun, exclusive rewards for your support! Visit: https://www.patreon.com/spiritbladeproductionsOrBecome a Patron!Episodes #0-500 of this podcast were published as "The Spirit Blade Underground Podcast" and are archived and available for download at www.spiritblade.com , Resources used to prepare the "In Search Of Truth" Bible Study include:"Expositor's Bible Commentary", Frank E. Gaebelein General Editor (Zondervan Publishing House),"The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament", by Dr. John H. Walton, Dr. Victor H. Matthews & Dr. Mark W. Chavalas (InterVarsity Press), "The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament", by Dr. Craig S. Keener (InterVarsity Press),Thayer's Greek Lexicon, Strong's Exhaustive ConcordanceBlueletterbible.org (primarily for search functionality), The Christian Geek Central Statement Of Faith can be found at: http://christiangeekcentral.blogspot.com/p/about.html The Christian Geek Central Podcast is written, recorded and produced by Paeter Frandsen. Additional segments produced by their credited authors. Logo created by Matthew Silber. Copyright 2007-2023, Spirit Blade Productions. Music by Wesley Devine, Bjorn A. Lynne, Pierre Langer, Jon Adamich, audionautix.com and Sound Ideas. Spazzmatica Polka by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Freesound.org effects provided by: FreqMan
Dungeons and DarkspawnDragon Age, a standout mini series from BioWare's golden age of RPGs, is a blend of high fantasy, dark fantasy, politics, and dating sim that made a big splash in 2009. Two Grey Warden veterans and one Dragon Age neophyte form a Retro Encounter panel to take on the Darkspawn Blight, save a group of mages, and confirm that Dog is a very good boy. Featuring: Michael Sollosi, Aleks Franiczek, Wes Iliff. Edited by Michael SollosiOpening and ending music by Miles Morkri. Get in Touch:RPGFan.comRPGFan ShopEmail us: retro@rpgfan.comTwitter: @rpgfancomInstagram: @rpgfancomFacebook: rpgfancomTwitch: rpgfancomDragon Age: Origins on RPGFan
Yeah, I'm a bit of a party animal, in the sense that I'm an animal about my party in Dragon Age Origins. Today actor, director, and cool website recommender Kelly Nugent joins Conner to discuss her time with Dragon Age Origins (2009), visiting cousins weekly, and daydreaming about other worlds. Show Notes Kelly Nugent - Twitter - Bluesky - Instagram - Teen Creeps - What Even is This? - Same Day Shipping - spookytellicosprings.net Conner McCabe – Bluesky - Twitter – twitch.tv/conziscool69 Produced by Jeremy Schmidt – Video Games: a Comedy Show - Twitter Call Me By Your Game – Instagram – Twitter - Bluesky – YouTube Super NPC Radio – Patreon - Discord- Bluesky - Twitter – Instagram – Twitch
Welcome to Dev Game Club, where this week we begin a new series on 2009's Rocksteady breakout, Batman: Arkham Asylum. We set the game in its time, as well as introducing its principals, and talk a bit about one man's fandom. Dev Game Club looks at classic video games and plays through them over several episodes, providing commentary. Sections played: Roughly up to first Scarecrow encounter Issues covered: introducing the center of the madness, returning to these two, mythology and archetype, the games of 2009, some early Rocksteady history, coming out of the shadows, developing their process, taking on the superhero genre, licensed titles and not overcoming them, replicating game designs to the license, something finally living up to or exceeding expectations, a long digression into superhero cinema, seeing the attention to detail, pre-code comics and other Brett comic history, a small development team, puzzle box, comparing team sizes, a time with fewer new sorts of games, the August window, great voice cast and writing, seeing signs that they really care, narrative design and other writers, getting a lot of mileage from the voice cast, setting up the story, a big plan from the Joker, introducing Arkham as the location, constraining Batman to present the Joker, not your typical Batman universe, exaggerated characters, a simple setup/trope, establishing a new look for Harley Quinn, other influences for the art direction, "I admire its purity," the clear proof of concept in vertical slice, what a vertical slice, solving major production questions, a good tutorial room vs one that works less well, having all the elements, how Batman has stealth, using fantasy in the checkpointing, impacting later Batmen, filling a Pokedex. Games, people, and influences mentioned or discussed: Dungeons and Dragons, Cesar Romero, Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, Joaquin Phoenix, DC and Marvel, The Batman, Robert Pattinson, Sega, Michael Keaton, Batman: The Animated Series, PlayStation, Jamie Fristrom, Insomniac, Uncharted 2, Borderlands, Demons's Souls, Ratchet & Clank, Brutal Legend, League of Legends, Assassin's Creed II, Infamous, Eye of the Beholder, Dragon Age: Origins, Left 4 Dead 2, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Bayonetta, Rocksteady, Urban Chaos, Warner Bros, Eidos, Crystal Dynamics, Jamie Walker, Sefton Hill, Argonaut Games, Ubisoft, Star Wars, Electronic Arts, Lord of the Rings, Godfather, Batman Begins, Christopher Nolan, Tim Burton, Val Kilmer, George Clooney, Joel Schumacher, Peter Jackson, Superman 64, Freedom Force, Grant Morrison, Dave McKean, Sandman, V for Vendetta, Watchmen, X-Men, Ben Affleck, Metroidvania, Fallout 3, Bethesda Game Studios, Dark Souls, BioShock, Madden, Baldur's Gate III, Larian Studios, Paul Dini, Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill, Arlene Sorkin, Adrienne Barbeau, Half-Life, John Cena, Steve Austin, The Rock, Alan Moore, Frank Miller, The Dark Knight Returns, Alex Ross, Gotham Central, Gears of War, Tomb Raider, Alien, Penny Arcade, Sam Fisher, Thief, Flight of the Conchords, Kirk Hamilton, Aaron Evers, Mark Garcia. Next time: More! We don't know how much more! Twitch: brettdouville or timlongojr, instagram:timlongojr, Twitter: @timlongojr and @devgameclub Discord DevGameClub@gmail.com
With Baldur's Gate 3 taking over the world, genre expert Jeremy Peel returns to discuss how RPGs have evolved since the days of the Infinity Engine games.This week's music is from the Dragon Age: Origins soundtrack by Inon Zur. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This week, Aaron and Leyla investigate the origins of Ferelden in "Dragon Age: Origins!" We chat about mage tower tax burdens, Duncan the Slimeball, and King Cailan's study abroad. --- Twitter: @MortifiedPod Hosts' Blueskies: https://bsky.app/profile/aavoigt.bsky.social / https://bsky.app/profile/leylses.bsky.social Hosts' Tumblrs: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/monsterfactoryfanfic / https://www.tumblr.com/leylses Hotline: (775) 573-8882 Sign up for our monthly newsletter, which has additional takes and our personal recs. Our theme song is "Obsolete" by Keshco, from the album "Filmmaker's Reference Kit Volume 2." Our other projects: Aaron's TTRPGs Aaron's TTRPG Reviews aavoigt.com The Bible Boys Astral Heart
On this week's episode, Shelby and Austin welcome the one and only Collcashins, or Cash, back onto the Lorecast. We're diving into another character deep dive this week, with a special feature on Shale. We discuss Shale's backstory, history, and appearance in Dragon Age Origins, as well as in external media. We also discuss Shale's story and how they even became a golem in the first place. Want to chime in on the conversation? You can become a patron at the First Enchanter tier or higher and join us ON THE SHOW! https://www.patreon.com/dalorecast We're launching MERCH! Make sure you join our patreon as an Antivan Crow tier or higher patron to get the quarterly stickers. With certain tiers, you can even join us ON THE SHOW! Check out our NEW WEBSITE! cupspodcasting.com If you love our merch, check out the artist behind the designs! https://libanezink.wixsite.com/libanezart If you enjoyed our podcast, give us a rating and review on Apple and/or Spotify! We'll even read your review out on the show! Join our The Cups Podcasts discord server where we dive deeep into Dragon Age discussions. https://discord.gg/fxR2WVDNhP Join the Robots Radio discord server to join the fun! You can also send us your Heroes, Hawkes, and Heralds to be featured on the podcast! https://discord.gg/AW5Wc4kgZb You can also find us on Twitter at @DALorecast, and you can dm us or email us side character suggestions (dalorecast@gmail.com). Music by Pipeman Studios Website designed by H-I-T Media Solutions Merch designed by Lauren Ibañez Ink Sources: The World of Thedas Encycolpedia, vol. 2, pages 91 Dragon Age Wiki, Shale Codex: The Journal of Enchanter Wilhelm Shale A Note from the Honnleath Village Council Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices