Raithe

Could you elaborate on the "understated performances" the movie has been getting lots of praise, specially regarding Gary Oldman's acting. It just seems to me that what carries a film like that it's performances and considering the all star cast that's what I was expecting from it. And now you have to worry me. Oh, don't worry. I meant that in the good way of understated performances. Gary Oldman can be a very good actor, but he's also had a lot of roles that are.. bigger then the screen? Characters that can loom and be very loud (performance wise, not verbally). Within this film, all the characters they play have no real scenery chewing, there are no "loud" moments. They're all very quiet, restrained, very.. English. The whole film has a certain sense of claustrophobic feeling to it when it's all taken together, and that suits the story.

I kind of want to curse. Attempting to produce a document, keep banging my head against the proverbial wall, then managing to figure something out and write. Then the flash of semi-inspiration.. and as I start to chase it.. boom. Family interupts. "Can you just quickly run the hoover over." "Oh, can you go get food for the dogs". "Can you sort my drugs out." o O (note, that's prescription pharmacuticals, not recreational) All the little things that do need to be done, but really, why do they not ask when I'm having a blank moment..but always in the 30 seconds after a flash of brilliance that needs to be written down?

I have to admit, when I stopped using Khem Val to tank, and tried using some of the DPS companions, it was a big adjustment in playstyle. However it can work well if you get the balance right, rapidly taking down some enemies before they can really dig in and harm you. It's actually quite interesting how widly it can vary depending on just which skills you've developed for your character. I know a horde of SI's who all use different companions because of it. Some of the big boss battles just can't be won solo if you've picked certains skills and try it with certain companions, but pick the right companion to back up your skill selection and it can go totally smoothly. I've got to admit, I'm running on the low credit side. Every time I manage to build up a pile of credits, I suddenly find myself going up a level and spending a fortune on skills. Heh, I've hit 47 and I still haven't picked up Speeder 2 because of money issues. Of course, I only managed to get in around 5 hours of play time over the week I need to catch up again.

Not sure if its related to the lurgy, or whatever had my throat acting up the other day, but I seem to have spent a ridiculous amount of time this weekend sleeping or dozing rather then actually accomplishing anything really useful.. I still feel as if I only half my brain is awake this morning.. I'm hoping tea will kickstart the rest.

Have to admit, some of the Voss quests are kind of irritating. Interesting, but irritating. They seem to have a knack for having you go into "meditative trances", send you on "dream-walks" and then set you up with a series of elite opponents in quick succession - and of course every time you die, you have to wake up at the medcenter, which requires a chunk of travel to get back to the point you can go into the meditative trance and then back into the quest... On the flip side, hit a point in companion romance where it had a fade out to black.. then it fades back in with the companion in question getting dressed and merrily humming the "imperial march" to herself. That hit my humour side.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Some quite nicely understated performances, and it really catches the mood and atmosphere of the times, and the story. Although warning for those folks who need it, there's no real "action" and it is quite slow paced.

No, its on its.. 9th season is it now? and it started up around 2005. QI - Quite Interesting, it doesn't matter if you get the correct answer or not, you get points for the interesting answer. And lose if you say the obvious one (which is usually incorrect as well..)

Well I try to use it only when I think "ah, that means I'll say something snarky and cutting" and then it turns out that bioware dialogue comes out as ignorant lout, which is really not what I wanted. Heh, I'd actually remembered how he wanted to kill the guy and did that, you got a major boost of affection for letting him off the guy. Of course, I haven't used Andronikos for anything beyond crew missions since then.. Yeah, I actually solo'd the Boarding Party flashpoint yesterday. Since you have to do that before The Foundry, and whenever I've been on the Fleet station I never see people wanting to do Boarding Party. So I ended up forgetting about it, and then remembering I had it..since I was about 10 levels above it I just ran through it without too much hassle. Of course, then I get back to the Fleet..and suddenly there were a whole bunch of people wanting to form groups to do that flashpoint.. Hm, I don't think I've actually done the Alderaan or Hoth bonus series either.

For another slice of news..

It does and it doesn't. There are some things that you choose, that will change the way things happen, even if part of the result is the same. And there will be references to which path things went along to get to that conclusion. Part of it also based that originally, they were setting it up so that it was possible to not pick up companions, or even for them to get so disgusted they'd leave you, or you could kill them. Apparently early beta testing had that going down like a holed submarine, so they changed it to be more.. acceptable to the majority of players. If I recall, it's also possible to get early affection bonuses or losses with Ashara depending on which approach you used.

I'm about to go to taris and I am level 35. To a planet that is 32-36 I think. So still a bit ahead. Only done two flashpoints, but all heroics. We even skipped Nar Shaddaa bonus series so we wouldn't run further ahead. Nar Shaddaa bonus series doesn't open up till your about level 35. From around 30+ most of the bonus series don't open up until you're returning to the worlds at a later point in the class story.

Just been informed that today is "twelth night" so I have to get the christmas decorations down before midnight... So I'm going to try to juggle some work, and then see what needs to get started on that.

Yeah, we're getting this too. Since we're doing all quests (including heroics), we got overleveled fast. Overleveled but undergeared. It does balance out a bit, since you get less xp (and need more to level up). But yeah, do everything and everything will be fairly easy. Apart from the heroic "Insufficient Staff" on Alderaan. That one was tough as hell for our two man team (plus companions). Since our characters are dps and healer, we had to rely on companion tanking, and in that quest that just wasn't enough. Full group or more experienced players might have done the trick, but for us there was no way. So we did what any true imperial would, returned with superior forces (in this case, a level 50 sith assassin). Didn't pose much of a challenge then, but sometimes it can be fun to take a short cut or two. Actually I've found that post Alderaan you start to be the exact level. For most of chapter 1 and 2 I was about 3 levels higher , and then suddenly I was just on the level and maybe getting a level higher halfway through.. If I was regularly doing flashpoints that might change...

Since that pint of tea got spilled across my logitech wireless keyboard and killed it.. I've been using an old microsoft egonomic keyboard (that for reasons unknown is a german style keyboard) so whilst the qwerty are where they should be.. all the others aren't.. or mislabelled.. So I'm giving thought to having to get a new one. Looking around at the possibilities of mechanical keyboards.. but they're certainly on the expensive end of it. Although I suppose picking up the Razer blackwidow standard for around

I seem to be losing my voice at the moment.. and every time I cough it feels like sandpaper dragging across the back of my throat.. Otherwise I would come up with a suitable response to that...

I got caught in the loop of doing pretty much every quest, world and heroic on a world besides the class ones, because I was interested in how much they could flesh out the universe around me. Although I stopped completing all the heroics once I hit level 30 or so. There just weren't as many people looking for groups to do them when I was playing..so I'd end up finishing class/world stories and have to either lurk around on the offchance , or follow the class story on to another world. Realised I haven't actually done a single piece of pvp yet.. and once again I've been sidetracked by the class missions so I haven't done some of the flashpoints. Looks like the Call to Arms is actually a big series of flashpoints you have to do in order before you get to the Foundry where you encounter Revan. I might have to look at getting those done. Completing all the world quests didn't feel like work first time around, not sure how they'll feel when repeated on another class, so we'll see how it goes. Some of the "Heroic(2+)" can be done solo as well, just have to be somewhat careful in how you approach them. Heh, out of curiousity, I've even tried solo'ing a couple of the "Heroic (4)" ones - which you can usually do up to a point, that point being where some elite opponent with about 5 times your hitpoints gets dropped into it. Or some final mob of 5 strong ones who can wipe the floor with you if they can all focus on your character. I have to admit, I'm having to watch myself from "gaming" the use of the ESC button in conversations. WIth the standard bioware dialogue wheel, you choose an option and then find out that what is being said is not the style or content you thought it would be - "I meant to say something smart and witty like a smoothly machiavellian Inquisitor should.. and instead he came out with something a ****y 14 year old would say". - so hitting escape before the conversation ends resets it and you can start once more from the beginning. Which can be interesting to explore conversations just to see what can be said and what responses they get..

Hit 45th level with my SI, and just landed down on Voss. Suddenly realised I'd slipped into Chapter 3 at some point, and not sure when that actually happened....

The gale force winds are still tearing around, made a delicate pounding throughout the night and still going strong. Have that slight tickle feeling of an oncoming sore throat, but I'm mostly ignoring that. Need to do some basic research on dating agencies for some work related matter.. and its making me feel ever so slightly dirty for some reason..

Apparently it took them much less time then anticipated. They said it would be 8 hours.. but they're up and running and have been for a couple of hours already. Hm, we should probably create a collection of who is on what server , with what characters rather then all this scattering through the thread..

.. Mildly aggravated. Someone comes in, waits until you take a bite of food, and then as you're chewing starts asking you questions. All you can do is chew and kind of do the whole.."uh..i can't answer my mouth is full of food that I'm chewing" expression. So they keep asking questions. And get all shirty with you because you can't answer and then stomp off. .. It's like.. jesus, give me a moment to actually chew and swallow.

I missed the cult member you can flirt with somehow.. You know, you'll be catching up with me soon if I don't manage to get back to playing.... And I don't think you can change that legacy name once you've picked it... Every character you create on that server will now be Spartacus.. (although you can choose not to have it displayed)

That's only in Chapter 1.. it aaaallll takes a twist in Chapter 2...

Which story did you try? Supposedly the style of each class is different, the smuggler story is meant to come across much more.. light-hearted and swashbucklery compared to the agent story which is menat to be more "bourne ultimatum" atmosphere. I haven't actually explored those yet, so I can't say. I'm curious as to which you did go with and how far you managed to go.

Feel free to pass on my Sith Inquisitor's name if either of you need help. Although I have to say, the space station is a big circle, and has a good map. How do you get lost on it??