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Penny Arcade - Comic - Animus (Definition One)
Dog
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Registered User, Administrator, Vanilla Staff admin
Penny Arcade - Comic - Animus (Definition One)
Videogaming-related online strip by Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins. Includes news and commentary.
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The problem is the execution.
First of all, they came up with an overly complicated solution to a very simple problem. Instead of doing this whole animus, blood memories, evil corporation secretly harvesting the history of dead people from an unwilling science participant, they should have gone with something much simpler. You know what would have made a way better and less invasive frame story? If a character was just researching their ancient family tree. Use that idea to bookend the game, with no interruptions in the action. Start the game with a journal, or a trip to a library, or to an old cathedral cemetary, or something. Anything that makes more sense than the sentence I described above.
Secondly, the animus plot is too invasive to the action and to the main story of each game. It's better now than it was, but in my opinion, any interruption is a bad one. I buy these games for the stealth muder simulation that takes place in the crusades/renaissance/other time periods. Anything that cuts into those time periods and pulls me as jarringly out of the story as the animus sections do is a bad thing.
Third, the AC series has had multiple misfires on the animus portions of the game. They completely botched and abandoned the Desmond plot. I think it was because they knew they were losing their voice actor, so they killed him off, pissing off everybody and providing no closure or satisfaction to that storyline after like 4 games worth of time invested in it. They also introduced the cheeky British guy and his merry band of hackers, but I feel like I haven't seen them in a while either. They keep droping these story threads with no resolution to any of them, and for long-time fans of the series who have played literally every installment, it stings even worse. Knowing that the story they're showing in the animus parts is likely to be abandoned, or end abruptly, or take some sort of weird detour into irrelevancy, it just makes it all the worse.
Frosting on brownies, though? That's vile.
Raisins are nature's candy.
Well I guess I'll just eat these pecan brownies myself then!
I mean I would anyway, but now I feel morally justified
People said I was crazy to put SweeTARTS in my brownies.
They were right.
(Also, that's apparently the official way to write the name of that candy. Another thing to add to the list of why they are terrible.)
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But I don't care for nuts in brownies, though I can tolerate them.
I'm pretty sure she just mimed missing a finger. She was a double agent, missing a finger would have been a pretty big giveaway.
But not modern day AC segments.
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I only played game 2, but honestly it would have been really interesting if when you played Desmond, the controls were all wonky and your jumps were super lame, but every time he'd get a little bit better until, by the end of the game, he has Ezio's full moveset and had to use it to evade the bad guys. Would have justified the gameplay reason for those segments a lot more.
It would have!
IIRC there’s a single modern day level set in a skyscraper and takes about 15 minutes. Then it’s back in to the animus.
Until they betray you and one of those walnuts is a poison capsule.
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Oh, and I like nuts as nuts, and that's pretty much it.
Seems like a dumb idea. Once I see nuts in the brownie the entire batch is going into the trash where brownies with nuts belong.
At this point they should just cut them out until they have a clear plan with it. Even if they need to maintain the concept of the Animus, just start the game with a 5-min intro in the office, go 'hello [bland office dude 289], we're diving into assassin X this time', plug in and don't come out until the game is finished.
This. I like the modern day stuff, I liked Desmond a lot, I like the Assassin's Creed games as conspiracy thrillers with weird Fortean elements.
But Ubisoft backed out of ending the series in a natural-feeling way so hard in 3 (and did Desmond really dirty in the process) that they kind of broke the series and for a decade it's just sort of flopped around like a beached fish.
I don't know why I have such a visceral reaction to the modern stuff, but I just can't get past it
Raisins are good in cookies if you're expecting raisins. If you're expecting chocolate chips, they're a bitter disappointment (even though raisins aren't bitter at all).
Nuts in brownies are the same - good if you're expecting them, awful if you aren't.
Even though I otherwise like raisins and all, I have a small breakdown when I see cookies with chocolate chips AND raisins (or any dried fruit). It just cheapens the chocolate, somehow. It's like... it had to go and make the whole thing tawdry. The raisins know they're no chocolate chip, and everything else in the cookie is just embarrassed about the whole thing. Even the frosted brownies are over there, saying, "Who do they think they're kidding? Hey, raisins, you're showing your ASS!"
And cranberries. Though that's probably not as bad, because cranberries can at least be tart.
Most often I find them in the "kitchen sink" or "monster" cookies. Chocolate chips? Mmmmm. Nuts? Mmmmm. M&Ms? Mmmmmm. Raisins?
Interesting, because while putting chocolate chips and raisins in the same cookie seems terrible to me, chocolate covered raisins are yummy.
Also the cookie substrate raisins and chocolate chips go in is usefully different. Chocolate chips tend to go in basically a sugar cookie while raisins go in oatmeal. It just feels weird to think of it being done the other way around.
Is because of something inherent to the flavors? Or just because that's how I've experienced them for 30 years?
I don't think I've ever had cranberries in a cookie. I've had some really good cranberry-orange muffins & pastries though.
Yeah, that sounds about right. Chocolate chips, nuts, and M&Ms all belong in the same kind of cookie, and chocolate tastes good with nuts (although I'm not personally a fan of the texture of nuts in brownies). But raisins just require a whole different set-up to shine as a cookie ingredient.
The chocolate in chocolate covered raisins is pretty different from the chocolate used for chocolate chips, so its a bit like your point about the difference in cookie substrates.
The best oatmeal raisin cookies I've had, have a little honey in the cookie dough. It does something to the texture of the cookie that helps keep it at the perfect chewy balance point between soft and hard.
Plus the place is just fun. They have at least 50% of their varieties on a free samples bar, and they encourage urge you to try every damn thing you want. If you just get one of everything, we're talking about a box that you'd probably pay at least $10 for. They have about three different varieties of mint chocolate, each of which could be someone's "favorite mint chocolate, ever." Their prices are decently high, but they're incredibly friendly and... dat sample bar.
So that just shows that dried fruit and chocolate need not be total enemies.