Playing Heroine's Quest again, as a thief this time.

Haven't yet done the thief playthrough in Heroine's Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok[1], so I started that tonight. Did the fighter playthrough when I first got it, seven some odd years ago or so, and more recently did a mage playthrough within the past couple years or so.

During the first audience with the Jarl, after I surprisingly didn't get immediately thrown into prison after openly admitting to being a thief and a "stealer of money," I said no to accepting the main quest. The Jarl said something like "You're at the start of an adventure game, and you're saying no to the main quest? You might as well be playing Tetris instead." Upon saying no a second time, it literally loads up a game of Tetris.

(EDIT) Image embed removed and replaced with a link, because Google Photos is shit for embeds. (/EDIT)

I had no idea that was a thing until now. (Fourth wall breaks like that are very few and far between in this game, which is a good thing, but still, that was pretty funny.)

In any case, if you haven't tried this game yet, you totally should. Great homage to the Quest for Glory games. And, it's completely free to play. I don't know why it's free, as it's good enough to, you know, not be free, but it's free, so... yeah. (There is this, if you do want to "pay" for it. I don't recall ever seeing this before... I may actually get this later already did.)

[1] - Which I was dead certain I had posted about on here before now, but apparently not, since I couldn't find the post. At least, it was not in either of the "game recommendations" or "games with potential" tags like it should have been, anyway. Probably only posted about it on Facebook, back when I still had Facebook. Meh. -_-

"Stand Your Ground: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)"

Watch on YouTube

"John Oliver takes a look at why 'stand your ground' laws were created, who they protect, and, crucially, who they don't."

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Alternative link because, as always, to hell with region-locking on Youtube videos.

.hack//G.U. Last Recode

Bought .hack//G.U. Last Recode a couple weeks ago on a Steam sale. Just now installed it and am about to start playing it. Let's see how this goes.

Not sure why GU is on Steam but the original series isn't.

Oh wait, I should probably watch Roots first. That's going to take a bit of time. I've had that available for, like, forever now, but just haven't gotten around to watching it yet. Good a time as any, I guess, prior to starting the game. I've heard it's not very good, though...? Well, guess I'll find out in a bit.

(EDIT) Okay, so the version of Roots that I have... I'm not sure if it's the video files themselves that are shitty or if it's the player I'm using (MPC-BE) or what, but there's like huge screen tearing and green artifacts and shit. It's not completely unwatchable, at least so far, but it is pretty damn ugly... (EDIT 2) Well, it's not the player, because it looks like shit on all the players I've tried (VLC and whatever the default Windows thing is called now). So... I guess I'll just stick with it. I don't feel bothering trying to find a better version right now. (/EDIT 2) (/EDIT)

(EDIT 3) Fuck it. I'm just going to play the game. If I want backstory or whatever, I'll hunt it up later. (/EDIT 3)

(EDIT 4) Just fucking great. It's one of those games/ports that shows fucking X-bone buttons no matter what, even though I'm using a goddamn keyboard. I had to hunt and peck on the keyboard just to find the button that corresponds with (X) just to open the options on the main menu screen. (It was the Q key, by the way.) *weary sigh* I'm very seriously close to just saying screw it entirely and uninstalling. (/EDIT 4)

(EDIT 5) The keyboard controls are atrocious, but I think I can get used to them, maybe.

Anyway, if that were a real MMO and I were in Haseo's position in the opening, I would have just logged out and uninstalled the game the instant the PKers started being assholes. But then... I wouldn't have been playing a MMO in the first place, specifically for that very reason. Because the general public in a game like that is about 99.9% guaranteed to be assholes. (/EDIT 5)

(EDIT 6) The PK shit, then a long-ass cutscene "8 months later."

And... now I'm spending like an hour or two just reading the news and forums and such, rather than actually trying to play "The World" again. But then, that's about how it was like when I played the original series, too. ¬_¬ (/EDIT 6)