The Man Known as Dan

My controversial opinion: This has been a large part of why I haven't made any real attempts to go to see Cubs games the last couple years when the money to do it. It's great for TV, but if I'm going to a game I want it to be my day, especially with how high ticket prices are. The idea of going to a game, paying multiple hundreds of dollars, only for it to end in 2 hours? Screw that. That said, my opinion is still way better then the one above mine.

For me, I’d still want some more then that, but bare bones stuff just to lead to background dialogue to make the world feel more whole. Like, who leads Ferelden and Orlais? What was the decision of what happened to the Wardens in the South, exile or still around? Did Bhelen or Horrowmont take over Orzammar? It doesn’t have to play into the game, just come up with people bringing up how the South is dealing with the events going on. That shouldn’t be hard to do, and it feels like the bare minimum required to me.

And after writing some generally positive thoughts, I am forced to bring forth some really really rough news for us long time players. IGN released an article about how your universe's story carries over. Instead of continuing the Keep in order to keep the story cohesive between games, only 3 things from previous games will be used to set up your universe: 1. Who the Inquisitor Romanced 2. Did you Disband the Inquisition 3. Did you vow to save Solas or stop him That's... it. And, uhhhh. I think that's an awful decision, personally. It was one thing when Andromeda didn't really have much carry over, because it's a game 600 years later in a different galaxy. That makes plenty of sense. Veilguard is a direct sequel to Inquisition, and they already confirmed Morrigan is in the game. How can Morrigan be in when none of the decisions made about Morrigan are relevant? They shape her characters completely. It just feels like they took away the one unique thing Dragon Age had over other universes like it in gaming was how much one game impacted the next, leading to avid diehards for the franchise. To just basically get rid of that is.... a very very bad decision imo, whether it made the writers jobs easier or not.

This has been a big problem for Dragon Age fandom for a while, and it’s usually one subset: the ones who aren’t Dragon Age fans, but are Dragon Age: Origins fans. There is a contingent online who are very very loud that are still angry this game isn’t more like Origins, and will not shut up about it, even though it’s been almost 15 years since Dragon Age 2 they still aren’t over it. Personally, still liking how things are looking, but have tempered expectations. I’ve been replaying the DA games to build up to it and it’s interesting how my perception of all 3 has changed: some elements of Origins have aged like fine wine (the dark concepts are still horrifying, the Darkspawn, especially the ones in the deep roads are still horrid, the gameplay is still fun) while others haven’t (I imagine if I said the companion dialogue in that game felt “Very Joss Weeden” when it came out I’d mean it as a compliment, but I really don’t now)

I once more once ask how that first trailer ever made it to the public. The game looks fun, the characters look good. I'm in.

Without mentioning specific spoiler, I love the final 3 from Block A.

Jesus, just to continue Inside Out 2's crazy run already: It did another 100 Million estimated in week 2. It's already 200 million ahead of any other summer movie so far in only 10 days of release. Not only is that the highest gross for an animated movie ever in it's 2nd weekend, not only is it the highest grossing 2nd weekend of any movie this decade, it also has the best hold percentage of any movie to make 150 million in it's opening weekend ever. It also has the best hold of any Pixar movie since the damn Incredibles, 20 years ago. I've been paying attention to box office stuff consistently for a bit now, and I can't think of a movie that over performed over expectations to this degree.

Absolutely huge box office opening for Inside Out 2, way higher then anyone anticipated. 155 Million opening weekend on an expected opening of 90 at the highest.

Yeah, that trailer was... a choice. It's clearly much more action RPG, almost feeling like a more well developed version of Dragon Age 2 to me, with modern graphics and characters. I'm back on board. And hey, this game is going to give the heartens something even Baldurs Gate didn't: A romancable small character.

See, here's the thing about Dragon Age: That trailer looked abysmal and I was ready to write it off. But the gameplay reveal is tomorrow, and they released just 24 seconds of it to hype it up today, and... Jesus christ, it looks good. Like, really good. Did EA just have no idea how to fucking market the game? Are they that stupid? Yes, I still struggle with linking X, but there it is.

My god. Can we please put a bullet in the back of that studios head? That was an almost insultingly bad trailer. Fuck, Harding was my favorite character from Inquisition that I was begging them to do more with, and even her being a companion doesn't move me slightly. That is an objectively horrid trailer for a Dragon Age game.

Planning to post a longer write up later, but I flew up from St. Louis for this show and it was worth every single penny I paid for the flight and ticket. I’m attending Dynasty in a couple weeks and I find it very very unlikely it will be a better show. The first half of the show was great, but that 2nd half man. It’s a damn small list of shows who can have 3 matches like Priest-Slim J, Mad Dog-Demus, and Daniel-Thatcher on one card.

Traffic around the area today is really damned rough, and made it that are missing the meet and greet. But hopefully should be on time for the show

Getting ready to board my flight in St. Louis to Philly and someone just sat down wearing a Big Japan Pro Wrestling shirt. I’d put it at 40% you are a poster here going to DEANbecause the odds of someone wearing a shirt for one of Deans favorite companies is so minor. If so, hi, the guy in the CITY jersey will see you at the show

Technically speaking not even the same country, as Sinner & Saint are from Vancouver. I've seen a lot of Austin Luke, and he is really good. Like, should be one of the breakout stars of the Northeast good. Mathers is also really solid. I've only seen one match from Williams, but it was against Makabe and it was really damned good and I came away very impressed with him. Basically, this is just a cool ass match.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssss!

I ran into my first "Eddie Kingston isn't fast so therefor he sucks and is being carried" fans today in some discussions. It's amazing how poisoned some fans minds are by the "If the match isn't going 100 miles per hour it sucks" mindset. Really enjoyed the opener and Murphy/Garcia. Murphy has been arguably the most under appreciated great wrestler of the last decade for me.

That is one fuck of a start. Damn.

Let this show be a reminder that any time a company positioned Joe in the mid card in the last 20 years they were absolute fools. Half of why his RoH world title run was so legendary was how he carried himself as champ. No man in the US has been a better true ace of a company then Samoa Joe this century.

Hits keep on coming. Priest is damned good, and super excited he’s on the card. I’ve had similar thoughts as well. I am at the moment figuring out the means to fly out from the Midwest to see this live and would love a hang out before hand. Also, wanted to thank you in person Johnny for introducing a poor lost teenager posting on Prowrestling.net that wanted more intelligent conversation that this was the place for me some twenty years ago.

Actions regular announcer in Georgia is actually fellow DVDVR Alum Dylan Hales. Will be interesting if he makes the trip up to Jersey for this.

So, weird confession time. I think I like Adam Copeland in AEW. Like, I like his as a wrestler. And it feels weird to me. I thought his little match with Griff was pretty fun, and it felt like he did a good job giving Griff something when he had nothing coming in. It was a fun little showcase for him, and it felt like our first real time seeing Edge work a random guy in a promotion that isn't so.... plastic. And I think I like him in this setting. Makes me wonder if he always had an extra gear in him but he did what he thought he needed too in that setting instead.

I'm shocked there are people who thought the reveal today should have been literally anybody but Cole. There was nobody else that could possibly actually pay this off in any way that made any god damned sense. The problem with this "Mastermind Reveal" angles that makes them so impossible to use in general is because you can't really use them to elevate someone. If it's just some random midcarder, who cares? It just comes across as a giant letdown and doesn't get over. The payoff could only be 2 things: A legitimately big name that has never worked with the company before (And unless you wanted this to be Dolph Ziggler or Mustafa Ali, that wasn't going to happen) or someone that is already involved in the storyline that would draw heat for the heel turn. It was always going to be Adam Cole, it was always the obvious decision. The bright side is the payoff went down better then the Black Scorpion or Higher Power. My big problem remains with this angle still is the massive problem that I don't fucking understand why I'm supposed to be rooting for MJF. The dude has been booked as a straight up menace to the company since word go. His actions never really changed, he still tries to cheat incredibly frequently, and not even really in the fun Eddie Guerrero way to cheat. But he's a face now just because he became friends with another guy whose been a prick of a heel almost his entire tenure with the company? I never gave a fuck about their friendship that spawned in like 3 weeks. Guess I'm just hte old cranky man on this one. Really didn't help that this Devil nonsense basically buried one of my favorite wrestlers title attempt.

Just wanted to note, as a fan of both Willow and Stat, I think this is a crazy opinion. They botched like half the match. I can't remember a AEW match that went as poorly as that one did.

Opening 8 man was good but not quite as good as I wanted. Christian/Copeland was an amazing reminder that Christian is the god damned best, and maybe Copeland can be a damn fun brawler when he isn't just stuck into WWE style of shitty brawling. Full credit to him, he was fucking game today. Kingston/Mox was great, and I love seeing Kingston win. Nothing else on the show, including the pre-show, was for me at all. The Jericho 8 man should have been changed, because there was no way it wasn't going to go that way. AEW managed to ruin Ricky Starks momentum twice in one year, which is very impressive. I don't even watch WWE and I'm rooting for him to go there, because god damn, you can only fuck it up so many times before I don't blame the guy for fucking off. Super happy to see Joe win the belt, even if it was completely secondary to whatever stupid Devil bullshit. Shame Roderick is stuck in that angle I don't care about now, But whatever, keep that shit on Dynamite so I don't have to pay anything approaching attention to.