Raithe

Spectre. It has its ups and downs. It feels like they've gone through a check list of what makes a Bond film but it doesn't quite capture the soul of it. There's a lot of fun moments, but something doesn't click for the whole. It's the little things, like they didn't need to have multiple car chase scenes that all seem to run on longer than needed. I liked Christopher Waltz for the way he played Blofeld, but, and yes there's a but here, I did not like how the story now insists on having this deeply personal connection with Bond. What's wrong with having one villain who is just a megalomanic genius engineer/economist/political scientist, building up a secret, criminal organisation and trying to achieve world domination levels of influence and power? But no, there has to be a tragic back story that propelled him on his way because of his childhood with Bond. Then every tragedy in all previous films gets tied in. That's just... Not Blofeld. As a capping stone on the Craid Bond, it works. It's kind of a counterpoint to Casino Royale and works for that. Eh, I would say your milage may vary depending on your preferences.

Do kind of wish you could "scrap" dead bodies in and around buildings where you have settlements. Otherwise it's a rather annoying drag them out and away or they get left there regardless of how many people settle in the area. "I've repaired this building and put in roof and power and food and a bed that's right next to a rotting ghoul's corpse....." Hm, and interesting, a handful of quests that I got first time around from Abernathy's Farm the first time I played haven't triggered in the second start up... I wonder what the key bit to triggering them is.

On the flip side of events, to help distract folks.. Republican Candidates attend Rally where Pastor advocates death penalty for gay people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3L8cxD-lLXw

I fully expect him to have embraced evil and I'll be conflicted since he's working with the people who killed his mom. For 5 seconds before I shoot the brat. Are you people just guessing or did you guys look it up? That's pretty much a guess based on the usual expectation of Bethesda writing following the standard obvious clichés.

Heh, an old school-friend turned lawyer posted this earlier in regards to the upcoming EU referendum in the UK and I thought I'd share it for those who like to discuss the broad politics these days..

Well, apparently they do provide specific perks once the disposition is a certain point, and some do have unique quests that will trigger. At least I've had one from Curie after she'd had a bunch of "likes" to my actions, so I kind of imagine there must be other companions with similar.

Hm, I'm actually considering re-starting over again, to try not exploring quite so much before I hit Diamond City.... It seems in the space of a very short amount of time you end up with a whole bunch of companions that all need to follow you and get their opinion of you boosted by how you handle various quests and deal with people you meet.

That was pretty much my thought on it, it's going to be a decade or three later... Well, Curie is asking me if I can find some way to download her mind into something more human. And I have to say Strong is really not someone you want along during exploration times, since he disapproves of all quiet, sneaky, unlocking type of activities. Edit: For those who might not pay attention Fallout 4 Configuration Tool Mod is now out at NexusMods: http://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/102/?

Well I got stuck wandering around the North West to discover locations, collecting junk and building up some of those communities you rescue. I stopped last night when I finally managed to reach Diamond City and level 24. I think I've got about 7 communities up and running with trade connections, found Vault 81 which let me pick up Curie as a companion, and have been invited to join the Brotherhood of Steel (although I haven't decided on that yet). If you're trying to build anying, I've found the best knack is to avoid the pre-fabbed whole buildings or the floor and roof joined bits. It might be a little more time consuming, but you get a lot better results using separate components. Especially the trick of sorting out the floor (potentially with the concrete foundations version), then sticking a stairwell floor in.. and then using more floor instead of "roof" on top... Then slapping up walls around it.

One for Hurl...

The building settlements is a little bit of a pain. You can't really clear out all the "rubbish" that's in the way in most settlement areas, and if you build a floor on a space that has bushes.. the bushes will clip up from the floor... And if you're putting in floors, walls and ceilings, they won't always click together and you get left gaps. Or you put a second floor up, build the walls, and then it will only let you connect roofing to the OUTSIDE of the walls and not the inside. It's a nice idea in general, but the execution seems a bit lacking. Plus needing to sink half a dozen or so perks into it if you want to be able to build most things and connect them. I guess it makes sense that you need high Charisma if you're going to become some settlement leader, but it would be nice if the stats provided other boosts beyond just giving you access to perks.

I seem to be having that fun of every 20-30 minutes my computer flickers and tells me everything is running low on memory and fallout 4 should be shut down.

Agent X. Classed as an Action, Drama its pretty much a cheese-tastic superspy type of thing. I just had to see it. It's amazingly full of rather good actors who are usually in supporting roles, with some just.. spectacularly ropey story and plots. Sharon Stone as a newly sworn Vice President who discovers that the reason the VP has bugger all to do is a secret article in the constitution which means she controls/directs a lone agent to be used as crisis management. With the likes of John Shea, James Earl Jones, Jamey Sheridan, and Gerald McRaney supporting the scenes and Andrew Howard getting to step out of his usual thug/enforcer roles and play the villainous mastermind.

Took a short break to pop on and run that Hoth Star Fortress once more, and now I have my last paladin to collect the set. Heh, taking a moment to look at the Guild and seeing that pretty much all other members of it stopped playing at the same marks 2.5 and 1 year ago. Looks like my 4 Imp alts are the only members actually active as of the last 6 months - and of course, since everyone was in a twinned Republic guild, it looks pretty much the same on that side. I should probably clean it all up and kick everybody who hasn't been on in over a year. You can't exactly advertise "Hey, want to join the guild where everyone else stopped playing?" Hm, thinking on Guilds, since I have a few characters on Harbinger now as well, any relevantly useful guild suggestions for joining on that server? I might create a few new toons over there to experiment with as time allow.s

Eh, you wander around and catch news articles from left right and centre. A bit of Epic Times here, a touch of msn there, social media stuff friends throw up and the perusal of BBC... All the quirky stuff turns up.