Raithe

One thing that does puzzle me.. At various points through the finale sequence, I noticed the "save in progress" message in the bottom of the screen. So, the autosave kicking in. However, you can't actually access that save at any point... Or am I missing something there? Since the game makes yet another autosave when it "returns" you to the Normandy before you head for the finale run up....

Haywire - Directed by Steven Soderbergh, and the lead role played by Gina Carano - who actually brings off a fairly nice performance. The setup being that Carano is a former Marine, now working for a private consulting/security firm that does a lot of odd jobs for various government agencies gets set up after performing a "hostage rescue" mission in Barcelona. Actually fairly low-brow, almost a pulp noir feel to it. The first half of the movie is pretty much a series of flashbacks as she explains whats going on to a kid she ends up carjacking to get away from another killer. Has a couple of actioney/fight sequences but most of it revolves around character pieces of a few people talking. Surprising amount of names in it, Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor, Channing Tatum, Michael Fassbender and even Bill Paxton playing the father..

Eh, there's all sorts of dark/grim gritty sci-fi going on. I like to have some general fun space opera with moments of complexity that Babylon 5 gave us. There's no need for every single thing to be dark/gritty and pseudo-post apocalyptic.

I think one of the things that bugged me most was that there's pretty much no mention of it beyond that point. I mean sure, it gets overshadowed to a certain extent..

It's not just the Shockwave doesn't work on shields, it has a range now. So if they're not within about 10 meters of you it won't work. In fact, one of the power options you get at around rank 5 is to extend it to 15 meters or so. One thought that did crop up about the endings.. Actually, I have to say two moments actually had me feeling kind of angry at characters in the game.. And both pretty much came about because of the Thessia mission.

Well i wrapped it up and crawled my way to the finish line... Fairly enjoyable run, and then that ending.... yeah. I mean, if you take into account the 50% war readiness due to no mp, I had around 3,600 effective war assets. Got the three possibile choices.. and that was so Deus Ex'y it made me chuckle. As so many people have said, there are some very.. weird bits there. While a part of me kind of enjoys Buzz Aldrin's cameo there at the end as a nice nod to space travel, good gawd, he sounded wooded and actually kind of creepy. "My sweet" - Exactly how would you react to your grandad calling you that in exactly that tone of voice? But yes, throw in that whole "future DLC!" moment after the end credits, I do kind of wonder what they have planning, and just how much of a potential rewrite , ala FO3, could happen. Also, how long before they let things like "New Game+" add to the War Readiness values?

And I have to say I enjoyed finding out that Conrad Verner is actually useful.. and they threw in some nice conversation on the whole "sorry I kept saying you put a gun in my face when you didn't..." or the "so ..what is a thermal clip " "uh.that sounds like going back to ammo" "what happened to the original heat sink built into guns?" conversation line.. A couple of odd glitches niggle away, "cutscenes" that show Shepard and co holding one type of assault rifle, while clearly wearing others on their backs. Then some "cutscenes" that get it right.. doesn't seem much ryhme nor reason to the way it goes. And just got that email news from ANN about the Quarian Marines being honored by Turians.. The news report almost brought a tear to the eye

So far I've reached the point where I've done the whole Quarrian/Geth thing.. So guessing there's still a chunk more to do. Pretty much fun overall with a few annoyances. Sure, Bio seem to be going for some of the cheap emotional buttons but they're mostly well crafted cheap emotional buttons, and the music hits the right spot for them. Lost a few old companions, but others have survived..and I'm not sure exactly which decisions led to that. Although with how the ME2 squad members are integrated into the storyline, and seem to have some cinematic moments that save/help Shepard, I'm curious as to how those situations would play out if they died in the previous game... The Codex is annoying. I'm fine with the lack of hand-holding and pointing me in specific directions, but I'd love it if they'd actually freaking update to let me know if I've found items or done parts of the quest... Also, would be nice if they split them up so you could see one list of Priority, one list of Secondary (as they've done b efore) rather then one mass list that really doesn't organise.

Tsk..and then I had a few things I'd picked up for Citadel missions after wrapping up Tuchunka.. only to go back and directly into that .. and now most of those missions are greyed out rather then allowing hand in. Dang it. Something to remember for the future...

I have to admit, the whole conversation between Liara and her "father" made me chuckle. The conversations between folks in the background are usually quite well done, even (or especially) when they aren't related to any quests, just.. background noise.

Well, after hosting a most non-productive afternoon and evening making my way into the game... I have to say it's pretty much fun. Sure, it takes about 2-3 hours of "intro-cinematics and pseudo-tutorial gaming" before it actually opens up and lets you flit around at will, and there are the odd glitches, but mostly it seems to be fun space opera (even with all the war horror/depression going on) Have minor annoyances with a few things, kept having a jerky-graphics-twitch going on, until I realised they have a "mouse blending" option set to automatically on. Turn that off and everything smoothed down properly. Still, onwards and see how much I can poke at it today...

So my ME3 finally arrived, I get to do my snoopy happy dance and see how it actually turns out when I get into it...

And I can say I watched Babylon 5 and thoroughly enjoyed the majority of it. And yeah, I've got the dvd's of the whole series... Anyhow, my CE arrived today so currently installing it all, and shall cheerfully spend a non-productive afternoon getting to see what it's all about..

I do have to admit.. One of the things that has me mildly puzzled is just how Ashley has gone from Gunnery Chief (a nice NCO post) to being a Lieutenant Commander (a fairly senior officer). I mean, Lieutenant Commanders are XO's to the frigates and such.... I know the whole Saren/Geth/Sovereign thing probably got her a promotion, but damn, only three years have passed.... One of those mild mental niggles that has me curious to see just how (or if) it'll be explained.

Unfortunately, after the runaway giant of WoW, that's not going to be something anyone can do if they're trying to get people to sink money into game development. Any mmo is judged against it, not how it was when it started, but against it as it is right now after years of development, tweaks, patches, and expansions....

So from my understanding, you get a whole batch of assorted side-quests by overhearing conversations on the citadel, and a lot of these get solved by finding things either via scanning planets, or something you can pick up during other missions. So does that mean the items can be found before you get the side-quest, and then get stocked up until you happen to encounter it. Or do they only show up after you get the side-quest?

Heh, not quite a film, but they've decided to return "Breaking In", and give it a second season. A nice twist on the "office comedy", with Christian Slater as "Oz" the machiavellian and twisted owner/director of a high tech security firm who runs a crew of oddballs to check their clients security. Often going to extreme and strange places in their methods to both get the clients and then test their security.. But yes, the first season got 7 episodes before Fox decided to cancel it. Only to have them bring it back for a 2nd season about 9 months on. The first episode of which opens up to a close shot of Slater looking at the camera and doing a "I'd like to thank you for bringing us back..." , zoom out to find he's talking to a client doing the "Well, we went with another company and then we got robbed." The client then gets introduced as a "Mr.Fox". Cheap , easy in-humour. But generally entertaining.

Well my sister's back from a doctors visit, she's been given a 5 day course of steroids and told to get as much time off work for the next week as she can and to take as little exercise as possible. Chest infection that had led to some lung issues. So she's like "well, that's a good reason to lay in bed and play TOR for the next few days". I wonder if she'll still be saying that if I keep pushing her dogs into her room over the next few days...

And I heard you even catch Tali and Garrus making out in the main battery.. Something for the in-jokes..

I'd heard you have to aim at the ****pit glass, enough to break it, then you can kill the pilot.. leaving it empty for you to run up and jump into.

I have to say, I'm still going strong as it were. Although I'm only dabbling with my max'd SI, rather then get in on operations I've just been playing a bit of warzones, actually starting to use my Artifice skill, and cleaning up some world missions I have left over.. My Smuggler is on Hoth, wrapping that world arc over.. still plowing through Chapter 2... Had a surge on my Jedi Knight having got him to start Chapter 1, but that's because I've been using that character to help out my sister as she's started playing a Consular. Still got a Bounty Hunter in the Prologue that I've only poked at the last month or so... Pretty much have to say it's interesting seeing how the class stories intersect at different angles, and I'm still picking up different aspects of the game and enjoying it all. Going through a bunch of days of not playing, then several of catching up with an hour here and there... Kind of in the mood to poke at it more before I get to enjoy ME3...

So for the random question; How easy is it to hijack the Cerberus mech doohickies, and is it worthwhile? Or is it just simpler and better to just blow the crud out of them?

Just to highlight how non-operating my brain is today..

http://youtu.be/zdTpIfDWyr4