Someone asked with the Help tag at Bungie’s Destiny site where one can get etheric light. Since the Trials of Osiris started today, we found that there is NO way of getting etheric light – a requirement for upgrading new game gear – if you don’t have your own play team. In other words, you can’t get it as a single player and there is no in-game matchmaking for the activities where etheric light can be found. Regulation of the gaming industry is needed at this point. Consumers should not be deceived into buying a product that they have little or no chance of getting a refund for.
We preordered the game and the season pass, based on what we knew of the game pre-release. Well, the game has changed a lot since then. The amount of play time a single player can get out of the game is less and less, and the latest dlc makes single player useless. With the House of Wolves you CAN get new gear that is as high or higher than the previous gear, but if you don’t have your own teams to play the meat of the dlc, what’s the point? To just play the old stuff that happens to have matchmaking over and over again?
If any of you have read my various Destiny articles, you might have guessed that I have a love-hate relationship with the game. Well, you might walk away with more of the hate side of my feelings, but, I do LOVE the feel of the game. I stopped playing it for a while because I had nothing else to do in it. I don’t play the Crucible, and my son got tired of that part of the game, too, and I don’t do my own match-making in order to play the harder aspects of the game, so . . . there’s nothing to do in Destiny after a certain point for players like me. And guess what, despite what the trailer may have said or implied, House of Wolves only makes matters worse. You cannot level up without doing your own match making/team gathering. At least that’s what is known right now.
I had recently started playing again (and my son followed suit), gearing up for the new House of Wolves dlc that was to come out. I started a new character, too, leveling her up to 29. We stopped leveling gear up since we didn’t want to waste our materials prior to the dlc. So, my son has played today’s Destiny dlc a while this morning, checking out the new social area in The Reef, and doing a number of the dlc’s missions and strikes. The new crucible matches, called the Trials of Osiris, are only available Friday through Monday, basically, so he has to wait for those. He was able to get through the whole new story in a matter of hours.
If you’re a Dragon Age fan and didn’t purchase the Jaws of Hakkon dlc immediately, I’d be surprised. I’d love to hear from you as to why. The fan base for Dragon Age just seems so loyal. As for me, Inquisition was my first Dragon Age game, and I’ve reviewed it here. I wasn’t totally impressed, and after playing it through a second time, I’m very bored with it. But . . . I did very much enjoy the Jaws of Hakkon as an expansion.
First, a mild complaint. This dlc cost about $15, which is ¼ of the price of the original game. Perhaps I’m being picky about pricing, but the expansion doesn’t contain anywhere near ¼ the content that the main game has. It doesn’t really tie in with the main quest and it doesn’t have much new in the way of dialogue or cut-scenes, so I don’t know . . . why not charge $10? If Bioware can make the game with the huge amount of dialogue (and with all the options), relationship choices, maps, and more, then why charge so much for new content that has minimal dialogue and game integration?
Other than that consideration relating to the business of gaming today, the new map is gorgeous. It’s called Frostback Basin and it’s the only Inquisition map that has day and night. Well, it’s always day before you defeat the dragon, and apparently always night afterwards. Which is an odd concept, right? But I LOVE this map at night. It has burning lamps here and there and they naturally look better at night. There are crickets chirping and other delightful and mysterious noises and lights to experience at night there. Otherwise, Frostback Basin differs from other maps, too, in its vertical dimension. Instead of having lots of dungeons the region is filled with giant trees; the movement is upward instead of downward. The walkable roots are giant, too, and many inquisition camps are actually little tree forts. Who wouldn’t like that?
Regarding game play and content, they’re the same as in the main game, but some enemies are generally (and a couple are much) harder. The dlc’s story is a fun and engaging one, in my view, but I don’t want to spoil it for you so I won’t say more about it here. As with the main game, there is humor in the dialogues and codexes. As mentioned earlier, however, there is no real connection with the main game’s story. There are no new “romance” related scenes or added dialogue. It’s too bad that this additional Inquisition content isn’t integrated more, but it’s still a fun way to continue playing the third Dragon Age game.
Yep, there’s weird enemies to combat, so weird that they are mud-painted yet have glowy glowy weapons. This is the Avvar.
PS: A new dlc is coming out August 11, 2015, called “The Descent.” It will cost $14.99 and be playable any time after Skyhold is reached. You’ll start feeling earthquakes and will go investigate them in the Dwarven Deep Roads, encountering Darkspawn, etc. The official trailer:
We’ll be doing a “Let’s Play The Descent” at Lingering Trees (my family’s Youtube channel). And by the way, the developers even shared (on Twitter) that this will not be the last DLC.
If you’re familiar with the Dragon Age franchise (by Bioware), you’ve probably already made the decision to play or not to play these role-playing games. For some, a game with swearing and “sex” scenes is simply crossed off the list of playing possibilities, and Inquisition (2014; rated M17+) is no different from its predecessors in that arena (except that the “sex” scenes are more “human” than ever before, according to fans).
But with a name out of Catholic history, perhaps you’re curious. I was, and, having been fairly unfamiliar with the franchise (I didn’t know about the personal relationships aspect), decided to check out the newest installment. Let’s clarify something up front before we move on, though: viewing possible “sex” scenes is not part of any quest except voluntary “romancing”—a player can romance certain characters, or not—and avoiding romance has little impact on the rest of the game. This game is not anything like an “X” rated film–more like an R in parts. Certain characters who make up your party can be pretty much ignored, too, if desired. On the other hand, there is no sex shown when romancing the traditional and humble Cullen, who is an example of someone who wants a healthy and permanent relationship.
Imshael at Suledin Keep, with goat head-like statue and Red Lyrium (unknown online source image).
The role playing game Dragon Age: Inquisition won Game of the Year for 2014, which no doubt increased the Dragon Age franchise’s already large fan base. At its base is a typical good vs evil theme, and good morals as well as faith are included, but it is also incredibly relativistic at its core. This is very typical fare for games these days. After all, it’s more about having the largest customer base and making the most money possible. The game even has romance in it (of all sorts)—a major draw for a segment of the fan base.
Should Christians Play Dragon Age: Inquisition? is my review of the game, but there seems to be something in the game that is not relativistic, something that finds Bioware (the game’s developer) out on a little limb, that I’d like to explore here. And this something is what the demon Imshael can be seen to represent: Islam.
Dragon Age: Inquisition Crafting Materials Locations by Map (nonvendor)
When known, cloth types are included. Rare and Unique Items are Highlighted; Fade Touched Items are in Same Locations but rare.If a common item comes up rarely on a map, it is not listed for that map as it would much easier to find it on a map where it is common.
About Dragons: Most of the main maps have one dragon, except Emprise du Lion, which has three, and the Fallow Mire, which has none. All dragons drop the following on every map: dragon scales, dragon webbing, dragon bone. Therefore, the tables below list which maps yield dragon teeth and the different blood types only.
“I don’t have time to explain why I don’t have time to explain.”
The Exo Stranger, unwittingly (or jestingly) explaining Destiny’s lack of in-game story
Destiny (2014), the wildly successful multi-player shooter video game made by Bungie, hints at having a story behind it, but so far it’s pretty much a mystery. Sure, as you go through the short-lived “story” missions in order to open all the game maps, you hear some people speak,[1] but you are forced to come to the sad conclusion that you’re being kept in the dark as to the meaning behind all the fighting you’re doing. I think it’s safe to say that most people, even professional game reviewers, were shocked and disappointed by the real absence of a story in Destiny.
Based on the Beta, which I played, I thought there’d be more of a story and perhaps it would even have more of a recognizably Christian basis. My hopes were deflated after playing the released game, however. Bungie’s own activities jaded me more to the idea of any Christian basis to Destiny, like: insulting XBOX users online and going out of their way to give Playstation users more product for the same cost, and celebrating Halloween but ignoring Christmas (EA’s Garden Warfare, in contrast, was a virtual Advent Calendar that freely gave players fun stuff every day before Christmas during December).[2] My point is, I was biased toward an anti-Christian story before researching Destiny’s lore more, so I found myself surprised at some of what I found.
Most story information, or lore, is found in virtual Grimoire cards that are unlocked, but not readable, as the game progresses. If you want to know what’s on the card, you must read it online. Most, if not all, of these cards’ texts are online so you don’t have to unlock them in-game to read them (but as many fans reasonably complain, who wants to take all the time to go somewhere else and read them?).
These Grimoire cards, in-game dialogue, and other sources were used to construct the story information here, but a note on “lore” language and quality–not much of it is written in a straight-forward kind-of way. Instead, there is poetic and mystery religion sort of texts, official reports, cryptic messages, and broken up conversations. The wide variety of information styles, considered alongside the absence of dates and characterizations, make deciphering the story difficult and very time consuming. The excuse for the dearth of relevant information is that humanity lost it between the Collapse and the present time. However, humans are flying around in little space ships at warp drive, tiny flying robots called Ghosts in-game can reflesh humans and materialize and dematerialize things, Ghosts can access centuries old data, etc. . . . never mind, Bungie, never mind.
A bit about the game itself before getting to the story. Destiny is a shooter, not an RPG or adventure game, so shooting enemies as well as other players is what this game is about. And showing off rare gear—especially, it’s about showing off. But, why does everything in the game attack you? Why does no one ever try to dialogue with you? Why is it that everyone on “your side” is so mum about the history and meaning of it all? It doesn’t much matter, apparently, as long as you’re a good soldier who is willing to get his or her own gear. When it comes down to it, the in-game story seems to be nothing more than a loose construct to name enemies; but, considering the religio-philosophical web content and that at least one more sequel is coming out, maybe it’s worth trying to figure out the Destiny universe. “The Story of Things: The Basic Story” is followed by “The Story of Ideas: The Philosophical and Religious Underpinnings of Destiny’s Lore.”
And so did Christianity fall. Detective Alec Hardy
I passed the word. Maybe the word was good. Vicar Paul Coates
Christianity is a dirty word. Trying to find the Christian history of things, or the Christian basis of science, or information on Christian scientists, philosophers, etc., seems to be getting harder by the day. Christianity is being erased from history, and you’d be hard-pressed to find entertainment industry professionals who discuss their faith openly. There are some who do, like Denzel Washington, Sean Astin, Patricia Heaton, and John Rhys-Davies, and it was easier to find out about their faith than any direct information about the religious aspects of the BBC TV show Broadchurch. Considering that Broadchurch is chock full of things Christian, this lack of discussion still seems surprising.
Despite the (seeming) decline of Christianity in the United Kingdom,[1] or perhaps because of it, the 8-part murder mystery contains more on the Christian faith than many people no doubt experience in a year. Hearing actors quote bible passages was happily shocking. These days, when show business types are generally afraid to mention their faith, how did this show even get made? In an interview (Ng 2013) with one of the main actors, Arthur Darvill, he responded to a question with what may be a partial explanation:
It was written because [Chris] wanted to write it and he wrote it the way that he wanted to write it. It’s a real testament to people having ideas and people not interfering with those ideas. You can see it hasn’t been meddled with by people who are pulling purse strings, if that makes sense. I think a lot of TV you see is made in a way that’s quite cynical because it’s made to make money or made to be a hit, and this wasn’t.
There’s absolutely no reason to think Darvill was referring to the murder mystery part of the story, since that is a very ordinary, accepted, and desirable show genre. But besides Christianity, there are other meaningful issues, or themes, in Broadchurch that aren’t obviously discussed in mainstream media either. You’d think that the murder mystery was the only aspect of the 8-week long story, but my impression is that the story (which was interesting but not great)[2] was written solely to express these themes: Christianity; the supernatural; male affection vs. male perversion; grief; and, the question of how or why people closest to criminals don’t know about the criminal activity. Below is commentary on themes and subthemes, excepting that on grieving (the family slug shows up near the bottom, in “How could you now know?”).
Not all of my video game articles will be at Christian Entertainment Reviews, but when they are, I still want you to know about them here. Over Christmas break my son and I decided to get the new episodic video game series from Telltale Games, Tales from the Borderlands. Here’s my review of it – thanks for reading!
Beautiful, and therefore raider-free, town image from Tales from the Borderlands.
Tales from the Borderlands: A New Episodic Graphic Adventure Series
Most Christians may not be all that familiar with the Borderlands series of games, considering that they’re quite violent and gory. I’m not here to review or warn you away from the regular Borderlands video games, but I can tell you about the first episode of the new interactive story series, Tales from the Borderlands. This first installment of the five-part series came out on November 25, 2014, with the next episode (“Atlas Mugged”) planned for release during the last week of January 2015.
. . . Episodic games are sort-of like a cross between reading a book or watching a show and playing a role playing game (RPG). The player is given choices in dialogue as the story moves along, and these choices define which branch of the storyline tree the player continues to move along. The storyline tree makes for built-in replayabliity.
I was recently asked to contribute at Christian Entertainment Reviews, and I gratefully accepted. Below is the beginning of my first post there with a link to continue reading. Thanks for checking it out! You might find other reviews to tickle your fancy there too.
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What’s the Best Shooter Ever? Garden Warfare (PvZ)
Ok, so saying that the childish-looking Plants vs Zombies game, Garden Warfare, is the “best shooter ever” might be a bit subjective, but I’m not the only one adult with that line of thinking. Sprinkled all over the internet are almost apologetic expressions of this same sentiment from experienced gamers–that is, by older teens or adults. But Game reviewers are less shy in praising Garden Warfare:
Plants vs Zombies: Garden Warfare’s bright colors, cartoon graphics and humorous approach are the antithesis of most . . . shooters. But don’t be fooled. It’s as good as any out there – and very likely an awful lot more fun. (Jaz Rignall at USGamer.net)
Garden Warfare is more deliberate, and involves more strategy than you would think, considering its cartoon exterior. Digging into the different characters and the different special abilities for each, there’s a surprising amount of depth to the gameplay.
What exactly is Garden Warfare (PvZ)?
Alien Flower, available from Legends of the Lawn downloadable content (free).
Garden Warfare, rated“E” (everyone), is a third-person shooter—meaning that you see the back of your character as you blast away (a possible down-side being that the right-of-center site makes aiming less intuitive). It’s populated by cute, weird, and . . . [continue reading]
With Christian Eyes 