Captive Minecraft is a save you can play with 'vanilla' minecraft. You start off with in one block and unlock half a block in each direction as you gain each achievement. You can download it here.
Installation
This isn't a mod, it's a world save, meaning you can play it in vanilla Minecraft! To get it up and running, you need to be running Minecraft 1.8. If you open this world in an earlier version of Minecraft, it will break.
Download the world save, place it in your /minecraft/saves folder and unzip it. You'll be able to access it from your single player menu now.
Lion is a 1995 animal sim by Sanctuary Woods where you can play several different scenarios or a sandbox game as various different lions, either nomadic or as a pride. I loved it as a kid and recently discovered how I could play this 90's DOS game on a Windows 8 laptop.
It's easy to see Loghain as the villain. He looks like a villain, talks like a villain; on the face of it he does a lot of awful things.
But there are a few pointers that he might have been right all along.
The People Love Him
"You have torn this nation apart to oppose my lord, and never once tried to understand why he is a hero to Ferelden."
The people of Fereldan love Loghain. If you criticise Cailan to his guard, the guy mutters something about him being the King. If you criticise Loghain to his guard, he vociferously puts you in your place, citing Loghain's achievements; he genuinely regards the Hero of River Dane as, well, a hero. Their appearance is also a deliberate contrast; Cailian's guard is clean shaven and wearing shiny armour, with a helmet. Loghain's guard is a shaven headed, stubbled soldier in old leathers; i.e. an actual soldier.
Ser Cauthrien would clearly die for him in a heartbeat and the common people are well behind him; the only people who don't rally behind his banner are some of the nobility, who resent a commoner having power; relatives of Cailian who feel wronged, and people who stand to gain personally from his being deposed (Arl Eamon). All that says something.
Battle Plan
Loghain, a successful general, who's actually fought in like, wars and stuff, formulates a sensible battle plan and suggests they wait for reinforcements. Cailan, after describing his strategies as 'boring', responds by snarkily suggesting they invite the Orlesians - whom Loghain and his own father, Maric, had driven out of Ferelden a generation ago - to help them fight.
It's particularly nasty as Loghain's mother was raped and murdered by the Orlesians.
Even Loghain's (extremely sensible) suggestion that the childless King of Ferelden not charge into the riskiest part of the battle goes ignored.
Family Values
Also turns out later that Cailian was a tomcat who whored around and was dallying with - guess who?
Empress of the evil empire who were driven out of Ferelden less than half a century ago. Turns out he and Arl Eamon were plotting for Cailian to divorce his wife - Loghain's daughter - in favour of the Empress of Orlais.
The supposed justification for this is that Anora is almost thirty and has not yet produced a child. Given how much Cailian was supposed to have slept around, it's entirely possible that he was infertile due to an STD - or that Anora simply wasn't pregnant yet. This is doubly strange as Empress Celene was also taking stick for being childless.
It's yet more evidence that Cailian was a fucking idiot. How long does he think Celene will keep him alive before a tragic accident? How long before another coup, given the hatred of Orlais in Fereldan?
Hatred of the Orlesians
The Orlesians are described as being bad. Really really bad; and by several characters in game. The were also imperial oppressors who have been out of the country for one generation.
You can speak to a woman in the market who says she was raped by a noble and had to flee Orlais when her brother took revenge. Leliana was tortured and assaulted on another person's say so.
In terms of Loghain himself; the Orlesians invaded his lands, murdered his father, raped his mother and killed his dog. Is it any wonder he's a little dismissive when Cailian suggests 'waiting for the Orlesians'? I'm surprised he didn't beat the little pisser to a pulp.
The Retreat
Loghain actually has some extremely sensible reasons for leaving Cailian - and some extremely understandable ones, (the way Cailian treated his daughter for one). The beacon is lit late - due to the darkspawn, but in his mind the incompetence of the Grey Wardens - messing up the whole battle plan.
Every survivor of the battle you meet later (save Wynne) is convinced that this move saved the lives of his entire army and is the only reason the nation has any chance at all.
If you felt your choice was between attempting to save a King who believed in magic soldiers, was openly cheating on your daughter and thought things like strategies and reinforcements were boring - or saving an entire army, which way would you jump?
This may sound petty, but Varric likes everybody. This is a guy who pays off thugs to keep them away from two not very self aware apostates, who plays cards with an elf who hates everyone. Plus Varric is the best character in the game, and the narrator. Aveline also doesn't like him, and while she doesn't have Varric's fandom clout, throughout the game she's generally pretty fair and even handed. The only one who does really like Sebastian is Fenris, and that's mainly because Sebastian shares his view on magi.
The Evangelising
Almost everyone in the game evangelises for their cause, fairly relentlessly. What marks Sebastian out is his willingness to exploit trauma in others in order to convert them to 'The Maker'. He smugly tells his 'friend' Fenris - who has been enslaved, abused and traumatised - that the Maker must have helped him escape. He's also not very good at it. He gets stumped by Merrill when she asks him some basic questions about what the Chantry does. While it has been implied she isn't as ditsy as she seems, that's still pretty telling.
The Lack of Perspective
Aveline: The entitled types are always trouble. Sebastian: In that case, I'm glad I don't count myself as one. Aveline: They never do.
He thinks his choice to be a Chantry brother is the same as Anders' being born a mage. To repeat; he thinks choosing to be a priest - when he could leave any time he likes - is the same as being born a mage and as a result facing compulsory lifelong imprisonment, with the consequences for leaving being tranquility, execution or torture. Not to mention the sexual, physical and mental abuse Templars routinely subject mages to.
The Hypocrisy
Sebastian absolutely positively will NOT break his vows... you know unless he realllly wants to. Which he does when he goes after his family's murderers, an act of revenge explicitly forbidden by the beliefs he claims to hold so dear. Oh and if the finale of DA2 doesn't go his way, he wants to 'avenge' his kindly and nonviolent - if lazy and totally culpable - mentor by razing a city to the ground due to the actions of one man. He's no better than Meredith.
The only silver lining here is that a random 'prince' turning up in Starkhaven is likely to be dispatched fairly quickly by whoever has been ruling the city for the past decade. If he even gets there of course - Hawke and her / his companions aren't exactly wilting flowers, Zevran the master assassin owes Hawke a favour, and Aveline's guardsmen would be hardly likely to let Sebastian Vael go raise an army in order to commit genocide against Kirkwall.
The starchild. The triple coloured ending, swiped almost verbatim from Deus Ex. The gaping plot holes that had to be fixed with special DLC. The lack of closure. The ridiculous tale of 'The Shepard'. If this were a school paper, the game would be an A+ downgraded to a D- purely due to the last ten minutes.
Dragon Age 2 : The Ending
For goodness sake. It was just ridiculous. Anders spends the whole of Awakening flirting, playing with kittens and healing people. He spends DA2 being romantic, tortured, and healing people; also rescuing frightened teenagers from rapey, murderous templars. Then he blows up the Chantry. For no apparent reason. He's my favourite character (apart from Varric) and I think he's pretty justified... it just makes no sense.
Dragon Age Origins:Alistair at the Landsmeet
You spend the whole game with Alistair. He's cheerful, funny, and either adorable or suave depending on your in game choices. He's a fantastic character, by far the upgrade to Mass Effect's Kaidan, and becomes really interesting. Then throws a hissy fit when you suggest sparing Loghain. Like a real, toddler style tantrum. Nm that it means acquiring an extra Grey Warden, an extra person to potentially sacrifice themselves, and a guy that pretty much beat out the Orlesians single handedly - Alistair doesn't like it.
What the actual. I got this book from the library, because i'm obsessed with Mass Effect. It was awful. A reasonably okay storyline but with filler and poor writing that had me itching to get out a black marker pen (last time I had this was when I read Shelters of Stone. I now pretend that book wasn't written).
Rubbish fan fiction with little to recommend it. The prose was bad, Anderson acted out of character, it was moralistic, which is pretty out of tune with the Mass Effect morality (which is either pragmatic or somewhat Old Testament). A kid murders a guy who kills his girlfriend and Kahlee & Anderson are all 'tut tut, naughty boy' about it. Yeah... because Anderson and Shepard neer kill anyone, and certainly not for reenge (Kai Leng, for example, one of the most satisfying kills in any game I'e eer played).
I'm not the only one - Penny Arcade lampooned it -
A homosexual character is
suddenly a heterosexual character.
Kai Leng (an extreme racist)
is shown flirting with aliens.
Singularity makes people explode.
Cerberus have a PR department.
After breaking into Anderson's apartment Kai Leng eats some cereal, then clears up after himself. It just made no sense.
The author engages in a lot of 'Telling Not Showing' - a rookie mistake that would get you marked down in a creative writing course. If I had submitted this during my degree my professor would have called me in for a word.
It feels like Dietz tossed this off (pun intended) in an afternoon. While chugging beer. And watching the football.
I've completed Dawnguard as a vamp, and am now trying to do it as a Dawnguard. Love it. It's Shivering Isles worthy and totally worth the money (take note Bioware, because I'm yet to say that about ANY Mass Effect DLC).
