Raithe

I have to admit, it does kind of throw me the couple of times I've seen someone running around at 35+ level of a character with no advanced class. Kind of makes me wonder if they're just going for some form of basic challenge or what.

Yes, I caught that on youtube but edited apart from the advert side of it and it got me all "What, there's a sequel???" before I found out it was a superbowl advert and then I was all sad-faced.

Sixth Sense and Unbreakable had good storylines and a reason for the twists that tied back into everything in the movie. The rest seem to have just been.. slightly surreal and with a twist or two put in just because it's a Shymalan movie and they have to have twists to "surprise" the audience.

Well the temperature is certainly dropping here in Merry Olde England. That cold front the meteorologists are calling "The Beast" certainly seems to have hit us. The garden grass is white with frost even now in the early stages of the afternoon, and the garbage bin lids are sticking together with aforementioned frost. My cubby hole of a computer cupboard that I use my pc in happens to be next to the upstairs toilet, which is proving interesting today since every 15-30 minutes I have family running past to throw up... Luckily whatever bug or cause of it seems to have past me by. Although it is a bit distracting from attempts at work thought. Have to brave the wind chill in a bit to take some christmas cards up to the post office to send airmail , and pick up assorted necessities from the shops in the village... Although I'm also expecting the Kindle Paperwhite that I've getting my mother for christmas to arrive in the post today. Hm, whether to hold on in case it turns up soon, or try darting out to deal with the other stuff and be out of the house if it does arrive sooner rather then later... Decisions decisions..

Hm, I have to say, once you actually learn the icons that represent some of those conditions, it's not that hard/awkward to recognise them pop up when they occur. The main problem I had was that when you initially get those abilities, you don't have anything telling you what those icons mean until they're occuring and you take time from the combat to hover the cursor over them and read what it says... and then it's like "oh, right, that means that then". Of course, while that's happening you might be in the middle of a mob and facing a couple of strong/elite enemies as well. Which makes it just a tad awkward... The ability to move around/alter and change the UI was a good thing, it lets you minimise or reduce the size on certain parts that you didn't need occupying huge chunks of the screen, while increasing the size of other areas to make more noticable. I haven't really charged into the endgame content to a huge extent. I've been playing the game since it was released, we're hitting the first anniversary and I still haven't done any operations. I tend to hit 50 with a class, then switch to a new one to see how it handles. WIth occasions of jumping back to my old toons for moments of crafting and running some of the dailies now and then. I know folks who spend days grinding the dailies repeatedly, but I just can't do that. I don't consistently spend time in pvp, I'll tend to do batches of it now and then, but not in any regular manner. I guess in a lot of ways I do treat it more like a rather extended single-player game with a certain social aspect of some chat with friends and guild mates while they're solo'ing other content and providing the occasional helping hand or passing crafted goods/materials back and forth. Every now and again grouping up if we're on the same world to hit some heroics, or run a flashpoint as a guild... But again, I've found with the pacing I'm half as likely to forget about a flashpoint until I'm over-level for it and then end up finding a half-hour here or there to solo flashpoints when I'm about 9+ levels beyond....

For the Wheel of Time fans out there, this might be of some interest: http://youtu.be/XrfUoR4Z9Ig

The first few months after the game came out, there was about half a dozen of us on the same server.. but I think we pretty much were all online at totally different times anyhow.

...and I have to say, trying to find somewhere that will deliver Dry Fly Vodka in California and accepts a billing address in the UK is bloody hard if you happen to be using the internet. It might just be reaching a point of being more awkward then the humour value is worth....

And the 1.6 update hit today with a few bug fixes, an extra pvp warzone, and some other minor tweaks. Now every character that hits 50th level gets an email when they hit fleet which basically gives them 99 Tionese commendations do pick up advanced gear.. I guess they wanted to make it easier for people to jump into hardmode flashpoints. Also, they've dropped all the Battlemaster pvp stuff, and now you can pick up the War Hero pvp stuff for normal warzone commendations, and a new Elite War Hero for ranked warzone commendations. There's bound to be a bunch of other small stuff tweaked around there as well...

For those not burnt out yet on superhero movies.. The latest trailer on Zack Snyder's Superman http://youtu.be/KVu3gS7iJu4

Wasn't much of a fan of DK2. I own it, but the game is about offense where DK1 was about defense. Or aggressive defense. Or offensive defense... As long as its not about passive aggression..

I would be disappointed if it turns out to be so. Pick someone different, that hasn't been done in any film version yet. I'm really not that keen on the movie itself....the reboot was an ok sci-fi action film but to me this new series will never be real Star Trek. Still...I want to know who Cumberbatch is playing, darnit. Someone recognizable, or someone completely new? Ah well, we'll know eventually. Well apparently Abrahms has confirmed that the blonde bobcut girl is in fact a young Carol Marcus... Which means I doubt Cumberbatch will be Kahn. Slipping in one character from Wrath of Khan is a thing, especially as if you think about the timelines that would actually be roughly around the time Kirk met her and ended up siring the kid in the "original timeline". Although to be fair, we all know Kirk had to leave a whoole lot of bastards running around the universe...

Currently all my characters are on The Shadowlands server, East Coast PvE. Republic characters Dhar (smuggler), Ehtiar (jedi knight), Khalayla (jedi consular) Imperial characters Drayke (sith inquisitor), Khael (sith marauder), Khayul (bounty hunter) Been in a small guild (well, it's the same guild on both Imp and Republic side) thats fairly casual and friendly rather then heavily organised and scheduled. Hm, it's weird, I've never had any major issues performance wise with the game. As long as you don't count the pain of logging off, which for some reason my pc slows down like a broken ankled cow trying to take a corner for about 5 minutes after I quit out...

It can be surprisingly difficult to get certain xmas gifts ordered and delivered to friends and family in other countries. Sites that let you register that you're from another country, but then refuse to accept your billing details as valid because they are foreign addresses and telephone numbers... Ah well, I guess that just means a bit more work needs to be done to locate the right places to shop.

To slightly side-step a chunk of this, but on the related note of astronomy... a sad note indeed. Patrick Moore has passed on to the celestial ever-after. http://www.independe...rs-8399654.html

The rate you gain companions can shift quite wildly depending on the class. It does make one wonder what the exact reason is for it. Although I suppose since they've wound companions into the storyline, it's a pacing thing and not all storylines are set for suitable moments of companion gain. So far I've managed to get 5 classes to 50th, and haven't done any operations... I keep flipping to a new class and seeing how that handles, and what the new storylines are like.

Hm, and for general literature news.. (at least to those of a sci-fi/fantasy and electronic reader type). Baen inks deal with Amazon - makes major changes to webscriptions and free library/

The Sith really are a bit mixed in how they play. Yes, you do get a fair few out and out evil options for no general reason, then you've got plenty of evil options done for selfish reasons and achieving power etc.. What's kind of quirky is that a lot of the options that would be used for improving the Imperial war machine and keeping the troops in good order actually grant light side points.

Yeah, I have to admit it's quite annoying when something kills your internet, and steam tells you "steam cannot connect to the internet, do you want to restart in offline mode?" then when you click yes, it chunders a minute before saying "cannot go offline because cannot connect to the internet.".. It's a very nice loop.

Which of the classes did you try for?

Pondering on some christmas shopping to be done. And had the joys of my broadband going dead for half an hour for no apparent reason. Guess the winter weather hit the exchange or some such... Pondering the amusement value of getting a bottle of that vodka sent to the Obsidian offices for christmas once I see how my budget this month breaks out....

Hm, for some reason I thought he had a couple more then that in the overall score.

Been listening to the soundtrack / complete score of The Cape by Bear McCreary. The whole thing is really well done, quite a sweeping orchestral style connecting it all. And the "Let's Just Pretend" that he devloped for that rather creepy valentine episode is darn haunting.

Mansell is great with that style of music. I have to say, he did do a damn fine job with the music throughout.