Cory Gray

The way the adaptation undermines central points is just to big a deal for me. It's got the same characters, places, and occasionally similar situations but it doesn't have the same soul. At best you could claim a different turning of the wheel but that feels a bit cheap and lazy. Very egwene-centric even though she's not the main character but a part of the ensemble story (in book). The left out minor/interesting storylines (flicker flicker) and a slew of others due to limited episodes and seasons, which would have been acceptable if they didn't add their own original story about a 25% of the time. First season was awful, second was a hair better except for that godawful finale that misunderstands damane and dunked on rands moments twice in a row. Fucking depressing. Edit- S3 just came out and while production values are up, the story is just as bad. People seem willing to overlook it though because there's some really flashy scenes and people would rather look at the "cool shiny thing" rather than actually seeing what's on screen- disjointed, inconsistent scenes that don't make sense narratively. Blows my mind that people can 5/5 this and be honest. I can admit there's some good but to hear others say it, this is the pinnacle of fantasy television. It's really not. It's a CW show wrapped in a fanfic and stamped with "Wheel of Time".

It's alright. I mean, the game itself is decently fun. But, if im being honest, it feels more like a generic fantasy action/adventure game that's been lightly sprinkled with some "dragon age" bits. It looks good if a bit cartoons. Would have preferred the more grimdark tone from the first one or the seriousness of dai. World feels quite a bit smaller. Probably because of the linear nature of the game. I think I would have preferred the DAI open world style if it had been cut down in size more than this. I just feel hampered a lot of the time. Combat is...not great. It's alright if this was anything other than a dragon age game but for what this is, I expected more. The companions don't even have health bars because they can't go down. It feels ridiculous. The lack of 15ish years of gaming decisions not carrying over when that has been Biowares "thing" is absolutely mind-boggling. Even as lore entries, I would have been happy. Wtf... The characters are pretty good. I always loved varric and even scout harding (Lace? Who knew?). Looking forward to cameos from previous games. I dunno, a game ahould evolve and build off of what came before but this feels like they threw out everything meaningful from those games. Even the story is kind of meh. I'm only 8 hours in so far but I can't help but be a little depressed that this is what we got after 10 years.

I'm the type of person that likes to look in every single nook and cranny, do all the quests I can before progressing the main quest and generally just reveling in a new, interesting game world. With that said, I'm about 35 hours in and probably about 2/3s of the way through the game. I'm sure others could do everything I've done much faster but I take my time. I think it said 15-40 hours average with speed runners doing it in 25 minutes. The game play is actually really good. I've not encountered a single true bug. It looks beautiful and diverse. There's a ton of little things that are sprinkled throughout the game to keep up that feeling of immersion. I'm truly impressed, this is extremely well done!

Succession was on a list of shows to watch after GoT. I was pleased to discover it has comparable politics and maneuvering (as well as a phenomenal cast)! Very excited for season 2!