LadyCrimson

Dear Diary: URGH. Just URGH. ...time to relax.

Well, we watched The Hobbit. Never got around to seeing it in the theater. For the first 1.5 hours I was lying on the couch with an ever growing sense of "this movie sucks." Not "meh," or "it's watchable" but "sucks." But then latter half picked up and became watchable. At the least, it gave me hope maybe the 2nd one will be a bit better. The issue for me was at no time did I feel any connection to the characters, not even Gandalf. The dwarves were slapstick-y and outside of Thorin, I couldn't tell you who each one was, or why I should care what happens to them. Love the actor playing Bilbo tho, and so far he's the saving grace in the movie for me, even if his role really isn't much yet. And yes I read the book....when I was maybe 11. But the only thing I really remember was the riddle/Gollum sequence. Which was ok in the film, except they removed almost all tension/intrigue. Anyway, the LotR films had their own set of pacing/filler issues too, but at least it made me feel something for most of the characters, pretty quickly. By the end of LotR, I was desperate for the next film. At the end of The Hobbit....not so much. I'll watch it a 2nd time tomorrow, see if that changes my mind about anything.

If I had a cellphone, I'd want something like this cat purr as my ring tone.

I've concluded one reason I can be a master procrastinator about doing anything that requires leaving the house or more than a trip to get milk is that I don't like clothes. Or shoes. And thus I think the world needs to get past the notion that one has to have a certain amount of clothing or a certain standard of non-slovenly appearance in order to be socially (or even legally) acceptable.

I went through a ton of stuff when I had chkdsk/corrupt files...and in the end it was the HDD. Formatting didn't fix it, the whole disc was essentially slowly failing, vs. having a few tiny ignorable holes, so to speak. This wasn't a really old HDD, either. Probably the first time I've had one go kaput like that on me. There may be many reasons why you could get such an error, but seems like the HDD is an easy thing to test/replace to see if that does solve the issue, before pulling your hair out on hunting for mysterious other reasons (like I did, gah).

I loved things like the horsehoes, to get minimal skillpoints, which let you play the whole game without training to level, if you felt like it. Is that munchkin? It just felt like a "can I?" challenge. ....the only super-cheese tactic I remember using was the one where you saved before looting dragon corpses - eg, they acted like high-loot table random chests. So theoretically you could leave MM7's training island with some high gear, because the dragons in that cave were easily beatable if you had a bow.

I don't have the box, but the pc version was ESRB rated at "Teen", which is 13+. Description goes: "May contain violence, suggestive themes, crude humor, minimal blood, simulated gambling and/or infrequent use of strong language." ....so as always with such ratings, depends on the individual child and the parents views on such things. I don't remember anything very untoward either, outside of the usual combat violence, occasional mild/subtle humor jab perhaps, as well as brief social issue themes like work-contract vs. slavery. It's been a while since I played tho.

That's the one! ...the greedy rogue is the one that always made me giggle. "What a deeelicious looking reward." "My ambition has paid off." "Leave my gold...alone."

I don't even remember the writing in the MM rpg series. Well, I remember some basic main plot points of a couple of them, but to me it was a party-based action-rpg that was just far more extensive/broader than, say, Diablo. I never felt a connection to characters (my party or otherwise) or anything....especially with those awful party portraits, heh...it was just running around doing missions, fighting, exploring, leveling, solve a puzzle, fighting, trying to find/be able to use all those bloody challenge pedestals, and so on. So I didn't care about the weird sci-fi setting change at the end...didn't startle/jar me. I liked their dungeons and game play and that's what I'd love to see again, like Hurlshot mentioned. And boy did I love that invisibility spell. I robbed dragons blind.

Last thread ...I'm going to play a little unpatched Majesty:Fantasy Kingdom Sim before going to sleep. Also - last two posts from previous thread: The game is all about the writing and the characters, imo. The VA's did a great job in this, too. Have you installed the unofficial patch? It helps a lot.

Days of Our Gaming Lives will continue after these brief messages.

I was thinking about the game Majesty:Fantasy Kingdom Sim (RTS) and how in the first release, one could get single heroes to pick up multiple "stat bonus" items from the ground. It was one of those things where as soon as I made a post about discovering it on their forums, the first patch right after changed it so heroes who already had one of those items wouldn't pick up any more. Aw, darn, no more Super Monks. Heh. Anyway, I still have that 1st-release game disc, so I can still goof around with that fun little glitch a while if I want, before installing patches/expansions. And my thought after that was....I can't do that with Steam.** **well, you can, sometimes, if you buy a game at release and then feel like filling up HDD's with entire Steam game installs, one for every single patched version. Which I did with FNV a few times, until I got fed up with trying to keep all those install versions straight....not to mention the space and/or mod changes for each version...

They do have a video with some terraforming example or something. And their last update mentioned they're working on a better KS front page with video/information. I think it is a "real" KS, but their cred is definitely lacking...and they did a really poor/rushed job of doing a KS campaign. Like, they woke up one morning and decided to "do this" with barely any forethought at all. Oops, NVM. They cancelled their KS, even tho it seemed like they had a good shot to at least reach their funding goal....supposedly because they found their own private backing. Claim it'll still be made/released, DRM free, the backers won't compromise what they want to do etc. But yeah....ok. That's kinda weird or maybe a backhanded ploy....or good luck for them. Whatever your perspective.

"Welcome to the Winter Glacier Roost! Just remember to keep the fire-breathing in check. It tends to ruin the ice sculptures. "

It's even better to be asleep.

It was interesting to note that the ST:OS animated series had a holodeck long before ST:TNG. I'd almost forgotten that. And today, it's a bunch of dull errands, then later, I really need to clean out/organize all my "mules" in Borderlands 2. I did ok for a while at keeping that sort of thing to a low level (well, low for me at least), and 10-12 of them was manageable, but somewhere it ballooned to over 20 of them now. It's becoming seriously unwieldy.

Hehehe, that was definitely some great fun!

It's always interesting to see how the (largely male) gaming crowd on forums reacts to this sort of issue. (edit: it's interesting to see how females react, too, but there aren't many who speak up in the places I frequent, so...). I guess I don't know any "feminists" (except maybe my sister, a bit) because most of the gals my age that I know would laugh/scoff at this series. It's not that she doesn't have a germ of a point, but that the point is made in what seems to be a rather one-sided and shallow fashion. Her videos (not just this current KS one) are too black and white, for me. Like her "creepy Xmas" video. It's entertainment, it's fantasy, sometimes it's good-natured humor. Gender stereotypes will always exist, especially in entertainment, because, y'know, men and women are different, and sometimes, that's fine. I don't think such should be scrubbed away from all entertainment/the world like some kind of cancer, as if there's never a time when it's "ok". It depends on the usage, the intent/setting/theme and the product. So I don't see the big deal over this woman's vids. She has a right to air her viewpoint in public if she wants, even if I find them not my thing. I tried watching both the KS video and some of other pre-KS videos. I don't agree with her stances (I pretty much snorted in ridicule over her "creepy Xmas songs" video), so I'm not personally interested in watching any more of her videos. For the record, I'm for equality/choices in entertainment and against gender/sexual discrimination, but I'm definitely not a "feminist." And I don't care who's in distress, as long as it's a good tale/game.

If it's HoMM, not interested. Never did get into that strategy series. If it's the MM RPG series....I'll be interested enough to keep an eye on its progress/release, but it would have to impress me a lot before I'd even think about buying it. After 8, that series went kaput ... some might say it went kaput during #8, simply because 8 was such a retread of the previous games. And if it's connected to UPlay, it's a definite no. Nothing against Ubi (I'm sure it's an ok system, such as they are), but Steam is enough.

*cleanscrubcleandustcleanwashcleansweepmopcleandustclean* *looks out the sunfilled window* *sigh* *cleanscrubcleandustcleanwashcleansweepmopcleandustclean* ...I spend way too many hours on this.

Yeah....I know we all go off-topic for a bit sometimes, but perhaps the Sarkeesian/tropes discussion could be its own topic. Split the posts into its own thread. Let's move the conversation there.

I like the grass/scenery/trees, looks a lot better than I remember when I played it, but the overuse of "white" lighting is too much for me.

I don't mind achievements/trophies existing, but I care nothing about them. I definitely don't need/want pop-ups in-game to tell me I've somehow completed one (usually I have no clue what/how/why it was completed, I just get this obscure msg saying I've done so ). The ability to turn them off completely is appreciated.

They do have a video with some terraforming example or something. And their last update mentioned they're working on a better KS front page with video/information. I think it is a "real" KS, but their cred is definitely lacking...and they did a really poor/rushed job of doing a KS campaign. Like, they woke up one morning and decided to "do this" with barely any forethought at all.

That BL2 loot chest is one of the few CE's in recent times that I would have liked to have...that chest was just too cute...but I rarely check for gaming news these days, outside of this forum. Oh well.