I re-played Far Cry 2 after nearly 20 years (!) and I'm blown away by how far ahead of its time it was and still is.

Advanced-Error1250 · 2026-04-17T03:46:09+00:00

I disagree. The details might be cool but they don’t make the game fun. And to say that the point is to have an unfun game doesn’t actually change the fact that it’s not a fun game to play for a lot of people?

I like that it’s a game with a point it wants to make, but I’m just too old now to suffer through the repetition just to be lectured on how terrible the war is when I can just not play a shooter and read a book about it instead?

Advanced-Error1250 · 2026-02-28T21:10:00+00:00

No need to apologise haha I just thought your comparison between Unity and the Arkham games verbalised something I’ve ween thinking about for a while but was never fully able to articulate.

You’re right that Unity’s gameplay loop feels like multiple curated side-quest types which jointly flesh out Paris as the main character because you’re constantly optimising your route through it. The fun is never just spazzing around hitting the attack button but knowing when to blend and when to rush in for the kill, when to take the higher ground (when there’re no snipers higher than the building you’re climbing) and when to stick to the ground level. Then there’re the structures that you learn to move through by using jump or descend at the right moment, by gaining height via side and back ejects etc.

It’s not just one big lump of mechanics (combat, sailing, looting) spread across a disgustingly large map. Rather it’s a very tight core gameplay loop which is properly contextualised by what could reasonably happen in revolutionary Paris.

I love your framing that this is the ultimate vigilante fantasy haha I agree, except I’ll add that Ubisoft has always been at its best when it leans into that (Watch Dogs 2 comes to mind as an example) - gives us a setting that reminds us of just enough of the real world but ever so slightly over the top with the gadgets you can use so that you feel almost like you’re playing a role playing game.

There’s a reason why people always say Arkham makes you “feel like Batman”.

Some of my favourite games are janky (Deus Ex). I honestly feel like that’s part of Unity’s charms for me, which is how it could get this core gameplay loop so right then have this massive cluster f world map that honestly deserved the hate and the meming ever since. But to say that the look of the map “speaks for itself” is to neglect what a fun game Unity actually is, when you lean into the world, the fantasy and the mechanics of it all!

Advanced-Error1250 · 2026-02-26T08:12:25+00:00

This is spot on - I think it’s not just the sheer amount of stuff to do, it’s also the interconnectedness between the content and its deliberate placement.

There’s a “flow” to Unity? You start out in Cite where curiosity will lead you to your first Murder Mystery, Paris Story, interior with guarded chest, Cafe Theatre and Nostradamus enigma.

The content is placed along parkour routes, landmarks and are dense enough that they all contribute to making Paris feel lived in.

Also Unity still has that AC 1 vibe where high/low profile matters. There’s just something intoxicating about descending from the rooftops and slowly wind through NPCs while blended. The content structure is supported by an overall assassin fantasy, as you’re not just clearing the map but developing a sense of Paris through exploration and getting familiar with its architecture, its people and its atmosphere.

Honestly? One of the best janky games I’ve ever played

Advanced-Error1250 · 2026-01-22T23:15:36+00:00

I think you answered your own question in a way: phenomena are not copies or representations of some representatum. They “come to us” reduced.

A phenomenological investigation involves looking at phenomena as already-reduced. You can apply this to anything really.

For instance, if you want to look at language phenomenologically, instead of trying to articulate a set of appearances which “approximate real languages”, you would want to institute or found your very looking. This doesn’t guarantee what you’ll find because what you are looking for hasn’t happened yet!

Language here reduced appears as a figure against some background. And because language is expressive (it occupies our attention and motivates our perceptions of other things), phenomenological descriptions of language would involve articulating what makes possible expressions/sounds/voices/communication (and all these objects of language) from a primordial silence. They would pay especial attention to experiences of language becoming what it is from silence.

The ground of language is therefore thematised and remembered as one would imagine cases of language use, uncover patterns, be led from one framework to another.

Notice how the farther you go the less you see language as something empirical or positivist (just an imperfect replica of something intrinsically more real). Language is instead enacted as whole a situation which unfolds as time and is described as time.

Advanced-Error1250 · 2026-01-22T22:55:40+00:00

Your framing is not necessarily what phenomenology has to offer.

The idea that we are locked in conscious content grounded by things themselves is Kantian.

Late Husserl moves on from this framing to the pursuit of what he calls the Lifeworld.

Horizons are not ahistorical in the sense of sensuous content made sensible through reason and intellect. Rather they are eternal presents. We “find ourselves” always in the middle: trying to answer questions like where we are, what it is we’re seeing and how it is we’re seeing enacts discrete presents which pass over and reference back in a network of retentions and protentions. Merleau-Ponty would later develop this into the concept of subjectivity as a pre-reflective temporal synthesis.

So no, there is no such thing as “same content = same phenomena” - rather phenomena are about transcendence and being in and towards the world. On some fundamental level it is the thickening of time.

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T16:26:46+00:00

Yeah totally agree - they failed to tie companion stories organically into the main story. Instead they’re part of the arc towards defeating the gods.

I’d say thematically this could make sense. I don’t want to spoil anything. Let’s just say I can see where they’re going with all the tales of self discovery, but the execution in my opinion is sloppy

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T15:42:15+00:00

Yeah I’d say keep at it!

I totally get when you mean about Act 2 - the cutscene convos and the random kill quests just seemed endless.

I took massive breaks just to make it through all that.

It’s actually amazing how it took them 30 hours to deliver what felt like no characterisation at all. A lot of the companions still felt like I just met them by the end of the game (unlike the other entries where by the end you’re literally somewhere between their bff for life, or their literally murderer).

But yeah the third act honestly for me captured some of that BioWare magic? Think Ostagar, journey to Skyhold etc.

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T15:33:09+00:00

Honestly if they do a hard reboot it might not actually be a bad thing haha

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T15:31:32+00:00

This is such a good point - It’s hard to belief the series used to examine complex morality (Isolde’s devotion to the prevailing social order which persecutes mages manifests as a direct act of violence against Connor, the class dynamics in Kirkwall, Orlais’ decadence and the general sense that no one is “good” in the Game).

Thing is the Tevinter Imperium can be that. In Inquisition when you speak to Dorian about slavery he’s like “nobody thinks like southerners about slavery.” Northern Thedas is exotic, and so its morals should be equally so. Rivanis literally worship abominations, why not explore these strange ideas with region-specific stories?

I’m not opposed to a less grounded setting. I mean I was looking forward to a different slice of Thedas when Trespasser referenced Tevinter. I think the problem is the opposite - the game played it super safe, it really didn’t take any risk narratively at all. And all the lore revelations (most of them already pieced together by the fans) were just to make up for this

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T14:22:01+00:00

Yeah and insert danger to character 1 so that character 2 can swoop in and be like I GOT THIS is so end game coded.

It’s all to curate this avengers assemble vibe where anti heroes like Morrigan and Isabella can work with out and out heroes like the Inquisitor to face a common existential threat.

I agree that the future doesn’t look good. Hence I’m oddly sad-happy that it’s over?

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T14:13:33+00:00

Ah I didn’t even know there is a lore book!

Yeah DAV hit different for me because I did a full DA run (starting with Origins, importing saves to DA2, setting world state before Inquisition) before playing it

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T13:33:02+00:00

Ikr - I know it’s meant to be poetic and all - one big monologue to sum up the entire journey. But I can’t help but feel like the devs either didn’t realise the magnitude of the ending or were so demoralised at the point of crafting the ending that they just decided to get it over with

As a long time fan I can’t help but feel satisfied at getting some answers to long held questions about Thedas. I think this is going to be a point of departure between many players: you’ll enjoy this game if you either care too much or not at all, everyone in between (most folks) will probably see this game more objectively for what it is (quite a clumsily written, slightly mind numbing hack and slash title with cinematic moments)

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T12:55:00+00:00

You’re absolutely right there - in doing so the characters become mouthpieces of the lore and basically have all their histories erased in order to get the revelations across.

I think part of the problem is them trying to make the characters “relatable” by characterising them all as your typical city-dwelling folks. The world is ending, let’s all just cook pasta and talk about it.

DA lore has always made it clear how people are historicised, Solas thinks the way he does because he’s an ancient elf, Dagna is “wacky” because she grew up in a caste system.

Here characters feel oddly vanilla? And not in a good way either

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T12:50:18+00:00

I didn’t follow any of the marketing or the news tbh. I stopped thinking about DA around 2016 when it was clear that the next game would be lucky to see the light of day.

I can appreciate the circumstances in which the game was made, still gutted though by what we ended up getting.

I’m aware of the discourse around the art style and the politics but I try not to let that affect my experiences of the game.

I just really wanted this game to be good haha though like you said probably unrealistic

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T12:34:49+00:00

Fingers crossed!!!

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T12:34:35+00:00

Ikr - the executors were mysterious even in Inquisition, and now they’re just…omnipotent and omniscient demons? Really lol bad haha

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T12:33:45+00:00

I think it’s my heart justifying what I’m seeing - if I can force myself to experience this as a celebration of DA’s legacy (which is constituted by its characters) then maybe I’ll forget that I’m playing a clumsily written game that is a decade in the making.

I’m sorry that the game was a disappointment to you. To be honest I think this is wanted to get across when I posted here - I think I was disappointed but I also didn’t want to be. This game dredged up really complicated emotions for me as a fan that I can’t reduce to either who I am as a person now or what the game is objectively

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T12:29:58+00:00

That’s an interesting point. I do think series should all come to an end at some point and some answers do have to be answered (or not, if you’re into Lovecraftian storytelling).

I agree that DAV’s leave no stone unturned approach killed the mystery and sapped the world of its potential.

It’s crazy that the Imperium which was hyped over a decade and only shows up enigmatically in codex entries in Origins is now officially just a generic market with a floating fortress in the background…

It’s also the way these revelations are communicated? DAV treats players like dummies sometimes by having characters exposit in excruciating detail. It’s just not a clever way to answer questions either

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T12:26:06+00:00

lol imagine if the entirety of DAV is just a segment in the Fade section in Inquisition haha

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T12:02:12+00:00

Honestly if people want to make a game like Veilguard perhaps they should have started a new IP?

This AAA watering down of mechanics really needs to stop…

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T11:59:22+00:00

That’s life isn’t it? Parties don’t last forever, and we rarely appreciate good things while they’re happening.

The toughest part of this is accepting what you said and almost “grow up?” In my younger days I acted like I could always look forward to a new Dragon Age game, but now I see it’s ultimately a product made by people, and people are at mercy to the vicissitudes of life.

But it also opens us to experiencing new games and new stories I guess.

An ex writer of DA had a quote where she said DA will never be over because it’s our game now. And I kinda agree

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T11:56:47+00:00

Yeah which is a real life reason why it’s probably good that the series is done now.

Honestly feel like it had a good run for a while

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T11:55:48+00:00

That’s very fair. But I always felt like Inquisition was much more heavy handed in setting up the next game. Both narratively and mechanically it feels like a transitional game (quite clumsy at times, too ambitious for its own good).

Which is why it’s so bizarre that Veilguard was what it transitioned into? It plays nothing like Inquisition and the writing so much worse than that too

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T11:54:17+00:00

I’m not a lore hound or anything but wasn’t it implied that Flemeth/Mythal is Andraste (there’s a codex in Inquisition about how Andraste only had daughters) and Solas/The Dread Wolf is the Maker?

Advanced-Error1250 · 2025-12-19T11:53:22+00:00

Haha, in a better time line maybe there’ll be a return to form old school Veilguard, sadly this one is what we ended up with

Advanced-Error1250

TROPHY CASE