2
Deadline 2 points ago +3 / -1

Don't think CDProjekt did any prerendered fakery. The release was just incomplete on many levels and had skipped features.

3
Deadline 3 points ago +7 / -4

I think they basically portrayed exclusively wild redneck types. Which seems fair, since they portrayed the equivalent for everything else. The concern for me was the ratio, but apparently it's realistic for a fictional Miami anyway.

6
Deadline 6 points ago +7 / -1

I mean it's not coming out for over a year. This trailer isn't enough to get me to do anything anyway though. Doesn't show me really anything about what it's like to play the game.

Although...as I type this, and consider RDR2...if they didn't regress in their game design, the thing will probably be kind of a masterpiece on every level but the writing, since I assume their writers have all been infiltrated with far left types. Definitely not preordering.

Any time soon.

4
Deadline 4 points ago +5 / -1

Well that's a slight relief. I watched that trailer twice to be sure and was asking myself if the percentage of black NPCs was realism or a stupidly extreme diversity quota.

Doesn't mean the game isn't going to be screwed by blue haired liberal women anyway, but at least this first indicator doesn't guarantee it.

1
Deadline 1 point ago +1 / -0

That's a plausible explanation. Part of why I wonder though is how often LGBT characters were presented in a negative light. They keep showing up in later books, but you're not generally given good reason to like them, even when they're pov characters. Just the opposite in several cases, including at least like 2 actual supervillains?

Also seem to remember them toning the leftist stuff way back down in the very last book at least (released November 2021, possibly relevant), but the ones leading up to it were such an obvious shift. I may be misremembering the supposed improvement in the last book though.

1
Deadline 1 point ago +1 / -0

I've listened to all of The Expanse, book 1 of Dune, and all of Hyperion. Hyperion was trippy, and I hated the ending, but it was...an extremely unique experience. Dune was pretty good. The Expanse was almost great, except for some of the later books where 80% of the book is the author describing this woman and her like 8 bisexual spouses. Literally listened to most of the book on 2x speed, not even caring about what I missed. Character was detestable too.

To this day I can't tell if the authors are crazy, or if they deliberately wrote a lot of belters to be the most hateable people possible. I can't tell largely because they made the central protagonists sympathize with them at every turn no matter what they did.

1
Deadline 1 point ago +1 / -0

Well damn, thanks a lot for this list. I think I'll be able to just reference this thread for a long time if these are decent. I've only read Art of the Adept (1-4 and stopped, since it seems the main characters go completely off the rails after that), Dresden Files, Codex Alera, and 2 books of MHI from this list. Don't think I've even heard of the rest.

2
Deadline 2 points ago +2 / -0

Have listened to a lot of Sanderson and I'd agree with that assessment, "just fine" is probably the perfect way to describe how I feel about his books. Reliably worth the read, with some really great moments.

As to Weeks, I listened to the entire Lightbringer series a while ago and it was pretty good. Think I was annoyed as hell with Kipp though? Been a while.

Night Angel I started, but it's a bit too dark for my tastes, at least for the time being. As a general rule, I don't tend to love books where the main character's morality means I want him dead as much as his enemies. Main reason I can't listen to Prince of Thorns*, which opens up with the main character having his crew rape a man's two daughters before burning down the house with them in it.

Popular series though so I'm sure I'm missing out on some level.

(edit: Prince of Thorns, not King's Dark Tidings).

2
Deadline 2 points ago +2 / -0

I've bought a lot of books via audible from years of subscription and gift cards, but I am familiar with ABB ;). Not sure about listening to LoTR, but I listened to book 1 of Dune and should probably listen to some of the followups. I know the series is eventually trashed by the author's son though.

1
Deadline 1 point ago +1 / -0

Thanks. I've read all of the Dresden Files and Codex Alera (Dresden's easily one of my favorite series). Read...one or two books of Monster Hunter some years ago? I should get back to that, I think I was put off because the PoV character changes to some other guy. A werewolf I think, just wasn't interested in starting with a new character at the time.

Have read the Mistborn main trilogy and 2 of the Wax and Wayne books, 3 and a half of the Stormlight books, Warbreaker, his superhero series that I can't remember the name of, as well as the Skyward books aside from the most recent one. With Sanderson I have a bunch of threads to pick up again, which I think happened because reviews on some of his more recent books have given me the impression that he's fallen off a bit. Made me want to wait for followups.

Of course I have to wonder now if I should trust those reviews. Probably not.

Never heard of this Modesitt person so, there's something to look into.

1
Deadline 1 point ago +1 / -0

Thanks for pointing Baen books. I have to say though, I did start Sun Eater (I see Baen is publishing it on their site?) and thought it seemed sketchy with some of the things going on in there. But you said they don't publish trash, and Sun Eater is definitely well reviewed if nothing else. And those sketchy elements are all presented in a negative light, even if it doesn't feel that way at times. Might give it another shot.

Also nice to see an urban fantasy recommendation. I'm guessing it isn't Dresden Files level, but I'll definitely give Demon Accords a shot.

2
Deadline 2 points ago +4 / -2

I guess as a last resort one can hope the Yakuza aren't on board with this and will do something (probably not) or that's that for Japan.

On the bright side, I won't need to go through with my plan to learn Japanese to get around westernized localizations anymore, since the originals will be just as bad soon enough.

2
Deadline 2 points ago +2 / -0

Damn near everything is these days. I have an absolute limit, but before that I have to take my entertainment based on the degree of woke diversity bs.

1
Deadline 1 point ago +2 / -1

Everyone's short sighted about this. MMOs will be great again, but it probably won't happen until VR tech takes off as a standard. As in people don't buy TVs anymore because everyone uses VR for all digital entertainment.

Basically we're waiting for the SAO or Oasis era.

1
Deadline 1 point ago +1 / -0

Yeah, absolutely true. I bought that game full price because a friend of mine was excited about it. The story was one of the worst I've ever seen, largely because it felt more like I was a guest at Disney World being escorted by robots pretending that I'm actually involved in the plot.

Not sure what the writers were thinking with that game. Beat the main story once, was baffled, and never touched it again.

2
Deadline 2 points ago +2 / -0

the more money she won't have to attack men having human rights.

Are her views seriously this extreme? I don't really follow her at all.

Worth noting that I don't think she had anything to do with the making of this game, other than writing the original books of course.

4
Deadline 4 points ago +4 / -0

Only if Empress can actually crack the game within 10 days. Otherwise you'll be sailing for a few months before you get to play.

At this point I'm probably going to buy it. Looks like it won't be a waste of money on the entertainment front, plus it'll piss off the tranny crowd that much more. Pretty worthwhile overall.

2
Deadline 2 points ago +2 / -0

Interesting perspective. Something for me to consider in these last few hours while I decide if I'm going to preorder it, despite a tranny having been spotted in the game already.

It feels like I'm being manipulated, but the LGBT activists truly do want the game to fail - this is undeniable. So it's like...if it fails, they win. If the game is a success, they lose, and they're pissed, but if the game is woke trash from other left wing activists anyway, what's really taken place here? I've wasted money supporting some leftists that some other leftists happen to hate for clown world reasons. I've pissed off the clown mob by supporting the clown mob.

I think I'm going to hold off on pulling the trigger until the last possible second (if I buy the game, I want the preorder bonus, otherwise I'd just wait until after launch). Hopefully further leaks will tell me if we're looking at a preachy propaganda game after all.

1
Deadline 1 point ago +1 / -0

I actually think they don't care each show is just a way to push propaganda. They don't care if it bombs they know that someone somewhere will watch it.

That's been my assumption for years now for a lot of media. Either the loss of profit and viewership is just always acceptable for the agenda, or they're being incentivized behind the scenes (not Amazon though - they clearly don't need help).

1
Deadline 1 point ago +1 / -0

Brandon Sanderson, the dude who finished writing the books after Robert Jordan died, is on record saying that he tried to fight these changes, and that the fans would be upset about them.

Oh thank God. I was beginning to think Sanderson was on board with this retarded mockery. He's been a consistently enjoyable author for audible listening and this would have sucked.

I'll just pretend this show never happened and move on.