Raithe

Dragon Age Inquisition. I've plugged In around 107 hours so far, I've pretty much cleared most of the sites, working on the Hissing Wastes at the moment. I've got the Forbidden Oasis to wrap up when I find the last 6 shards I need in the Hissing Wastes. I seem to have found 8 or 9 pieces of every Mosaic. Which leaves 2 or 3 for each one. Not sure whether I'll really plug in the effort to find those.. but I've pretty much covered the "map all regions", "establish every camp", "mark all resources" and "find all landmarks". Just a few missing from all sites.Taken out 8 of the dragons... Wrapped up the Winter Palace, and the first part of the warden plot in the Western Approach. Have to do the big assault piece and find out what that opens up.. With the sheer amount of quarries and lumber resources you find, and the fact you only need a couple to perform the 3 upgrades of Skyhold you can, I get a feeling that potential future dlc will expand options for what can be done with Skyhold.

http://youtu.be/hHSEUAXDucw

http://youtu.be/bFUdUvV4txs

As we return to this time of year... http://youtu.be/FvILFVJMPvY

30,000 people really did buy poop on Black Friday

Seriously though, Vivienne with the Knight Enchanter skill tree mostly filled out is a great dragon killer. She throws up a barrier, and bam, it's pretty much up constantly as she chips away at any dragons health. Between the damage you deal getting a percentage thrown back into your barrier, and a percentage of damage done to your barrier being dealt back to the dragon..

Watched the Equalizer (the Denzel Washington Hollywood re-imagining of the old tv show). On some levels it works, and it's nice to see a film that is not afraid to take a slow build up and introduce character and lay the groundwork, and not have any real tension kick off for over half an hour. The middle part is a nice play on the slightly eccentric "normal" man who turns out to have a surprising skill set, before the reveal of just what his mysterious background is.. But I think the ending turns it a bit too far into a super-soldier style death dealer for the ending - maybe not the final showdown, but the epilogue part.

http://youtu.be/jaRoqslM4W0

Well, I might as well throw in a general weeks start to this fresh thread after my absence...

Well this is looking like a fun Christmas time in general. On the up side, I met a lady I've been online friends with for years, some flirty stuff, and now we seem to be forming into a long-distance relationship. And all her adore me, and I find myself actually missing them. On the downside, now it's a Christmas spent on opposite sides of the Atlantic, she's just had brain surgery and is recovering, and the kids have come down with flu. Also, funny thing came up that my mother was meant to have knee surgery on the same day as the brain surgery.. but she's come down with some infection and been taken into hospital as the doctors try to figure out what it is, and why there's fluids forming in her lungs. Now they've put in a central line and are talking a two week course of meds while they try and figure things out... so she's likely to be in over Christmas. Which, with myself and my mother the only people in the family who care about Christmas trees and decorations (my father being a touch on the Grinch side in regards to it all), I'm not having the oomph to put anything up. Since it's always been a thing that I put them up while she's in the room and we talk about it and the season and family stuff. Doing it on my own just seems kind of wrong. Now, because I'm the primary carer for my mother, one of my regular (but small) sources of income comes from the government (since I spend in excess of 40 hours a week providing care)... but now I'm being questioned over it because for the second time in a little over 10 years I took a holiday. It just happened to be one that lasted 35 days. Apparently they get iffy if they think you're committing fraud by being outside of the country for that long a time. So that's fun to deal with bureaucracy over. I'm feeling the Christmas spirit.

I've been puttering away at the game since I got back home, and I'll say for the most it has caught me up in it. There have been a few annoyances, the tactical camera just doesn't seem to click that well for me, so I don't tend to use it that much. I'm a little disappointed over the whole Skyhold customisation and return it to glory - I thought there would be a touch more to it then just 3 "rebuild" actions, and some generic change banners/décor/your bed... Ran through the Winter Palace section yesterday, quite enjoyed that. It's nice to have an extensive area that focuses on the sneaky side of politics rather more than just hack n slash. Although the couple of areas of combat in it felt a little jarring to a degree (most notably you get encouraged to change from formal party wear to full armour and weapons). Although the combination of Halla Statues, Coins, and Blackmail collectables might be pushing things too far, and the Halla Doors are a touch awkward. Limited number of Halla Statues to unlock with, so you can't open all the doors and no real hints as to which ones are useful until you actually do open them and use up the Halla Statues. Hm, one weird thing I noticed... I managed to get all the blackmail materials on the main three people and did the grand smackdown on all of them so I could get them all working together, but when I get back to Skyhold everyone is acting as if I supported Celene, and Gaspard and Briala have been ruined. Which seems a touch weird. Party banter really does seem to require specific mix and matches. Solas and Vivienne converse a chunk. Iron Bull and Dorian get some flirty. Cassandra and Varic talk up a storm (especially after Varric finds out she reads his books), Solas and Sera do a mix of fun poke at each other over elven nature, I can't seem to recall Blackwall saying much banter-wise...

I think that's one that is an entertaining film, good actors, plenty of in-jokes and moments of amusement... But somehow never quite reaches the heights of greatness it should have, which makes it seem less good then it is.How much of that is due to the hash up of editing/director/producer thing that was going on could be one of those great unanswered questions....

Trying to figure out the logistics and finances of a long distance relationship that requires flying back and forth across the Atlantic every 6 months or so.. Helping out being an alarm clock for her daughter by phoning her to check that her daughter is awake for the school bus while she's in hospital recovery from surgery. Also, while trying to get the post-jet lag oomph to start exploring the dark depths of the attic and find the Christmas decorations my mother has had her Monday planned surgery delayed, and ended up being taken into hospital due to chest infection, fluid in the lungs, and assorted doctors general concern and worry.

Packing things up to head home after the month away. Definitely a weird mix of feelings. Had a "chocolate party" for the kids last night where they got to dig into the remnants of the cadbury flakes I brought over with me, along with hot chocolate and ice cream. A new thing to have children crying about me leaving (note, that's a 16 year old girl, a 13 year old boy, and an 11 year old girl). Trying to put the upspin on it all, and figure out the logistics on long distance relationships. But I get to leave, their mother gets to go in for surgery next week, and my mother is going in for surgery on the same day. So all the fun.

I now have an image in my head of a squat wearing a monocle, holding a swaggerstick in one hand, a glass of brandy in the other, talking with a plummy accent as he orders other squats to go frag over the bloody idjits....

Heh, quirky thing I was talking to my friend the other day, and she was talking about her friend who married a model.... and that's the model in question. I suddenly got a "hey, that's Sarah!" from over my shoulder as I was checking the forum thread.

On the downside of my trip to the states. So having to slowly get ready to fly back home later this week, and figure things out for the future. Although my friends sister had half hysterics in the background when the 13 yr old son casually announced while talking about the zombie apocalypse that he'd have me and his dad on his survival team. When someone mentioned that might cause difficulties, he blinked and said "yeah, but we could use dad for bait." in that utterly conversational tone with no awareness that teenagers can pull off so well. Edit: Also, Well, sure ...technically. Indeed. Sometimes you have to drink fine port.