Raithe

Ah, have you seen George Takei's inspired "form an alliance of Star Wars and Star Trek fans to burn Twilight out from the collective consciousness of the world"? Edit: Although a quote I did like: "if Dracula was based in part on Vlad the Impaler, would that mean that Edward Cullen was based in part on Tony Blair?"

Here, enjoy some of my christmas spirit..

And if you don't like the idea of dark side corruption aesthetics, it's possible to choose a preference button so that it isn't shown on your character. As to the datacrons, they're supposedly in-game to encourage exploration beyond the wandering you do on quests, so you poke around in the cubbyholes of the universe... Individually they're not really much of a boost (around +2 or +3) to individual stats, and you need to collect multiple shard datacrons before you can assemble a relic..

Arg. It was late at night.. pushing 2am.. and I just wanted to wrap up a quest and hit that level 30 mark. Then in the final sequence when I engage the Imprisoned One (yes, another one of those KoToR references) in dialogue..and as he greets me..I disconnect. Then, I get told it'll be a 40 minute queue to get back on the server. I think I'll just call it quits and get some form of sleep in. Oh, and when I say tricky, there's one datacron on Nar Shaddaa that involves heading towards a heroic instance, climbing up some crates to get to soem girders, jumping across girders, walking across them, jumping onto a catwalk, running around that, getting in a lift you would have no idea is there if you weren't exploring weirdly, run around another catwalk, jump onto a narrow ledge, follow said ledge around, jump across a canopy, then run across that to jump onto a pole that's actually above the area of a heroic instance. The one thats under the taxi ring looks confusing to get to..since it's hanging out there..but when you notice you can steal a taxi from another location.. then it's really simple.

No, there are specific datacrons. There's one on each world. And you get a "You find a Yellow Matrix Shard" rather then the "This datacron improves your Presence" blather. The Archeology ones are part of ingredients for artifice to built lightsaber stuff I believe.

It pretended to have OK science. There are all those codecs that explain how the tech work. The characters throw out technobabble that use a lot of real science. The Normandy is actually designed like how a real stealth vessel would be like. It's consistent space opera science. That doesn't mean anything bad, space opera science can be quite fun and well-thought out.

That would probably be the Artefact assembly chamber. If you note, there are datacrons that give you bonuses to your stats, and different datacrons that are <colour> shard matrix? Depending on the color shards you have, you can combine them in that chamber to form a "relic" that gives a major boost. So if you have a red shard, a yellow shard, and a green shard, you can get a relic that gives several assorted boosts while you have it equipped. And apart from the starter worlds (which only have 3 datacrons) all other worlds should have five in total waiting to be found...

So far I've managed 3 on Korriban, 5 on Dromund Kaas, 5 on Balmorra, I found 2 on Nar Shaddaa, and 1 on Tattooine. One on Nar Shaddaa is actually _under_ a taxi ring. That one takes a little bit. And the other one was.. a ridiculous amount of climbing, jumping, and falling.. The one on Tattooine wasn't so bad in figuring out the approach, but was bloody finnicky for the jumps you needed to do to traverse it.

Well, now tis the official release day. A whole slew of new servers have opened up as well. Of course, it seems that the server I've been running on suddenly has a queue of 200 to wait through... I'd made my way through the queue, got into the game, spent about 3 minutes and then my connection died. Note, not Bioware's problem, but my internet was then dead for the better part of 4 hours. Still, its just kicked back in, so here's hoping there's no more issues with that and I can enjoy some time waving a lightsaber around later... I will say this, Chapter 1 is bloody long. I mean, the prologue takes you from level 1, to around 16-20, and you'll have done your starter planet and capital world. Prologue ends when you get your starship. Chapter 1 takes you through (it looks like) another 4 worlds minimum. (with potential small stops at worlds you've already visited). My Sith Inquistor is nearly 28th level, and has added Balmorra, Nar Shaddaa, and Tattooine to worlds visited, a small trip back to Korriban, and heading on to Alderaan when I wrap things up on Tattooine. And I still haven't finished Chapter 1.... Been doing some of the datacron hunts, and they can be rather tricksy to get to in some cases...

There's some nice art and "in-game" lore in the Journal of Master Gnos-Dural (or however you spell/pronounce it). The box itself is incredibly shiney and cubey. I'm not sure if I've got anywhere safe to actually assemble the statue and place it. The in-game speeder is actually quite nice visually, and saves you an 8k expenditure in-game. The rest of the digital items aren't really much worth writing about, and you get most of them with the digital deluxe anyhow don't you? The security key is nice enough once you get it attached to your account. Haven't given a serious check-in on what the VIP or CE store has. The Security key store has some extra "companion visual switch" ktis. Edit: Also, I was totally thrown when Julian Sands voice came out when talking to a low-level Imperial Spy guy.

Achmed the Dead Terrorist - Christmas Song

Ah, they did say they have it so the roll is potentially modified if the majority of a group all choose the same option, but I guess it's still possible for even the standout to win the roll. I have to admit, my SI did Talon twice. Once where they went with the "kill the captain, kill the prisoner, be dark side jerks" and once where it was more.. "we're dark side, but we're kind of sensible in what we do". And on a total side note, it is amazing how satisfying it can feel to punch a Hutt. Nar Shadda is so much smoother when you have access to a speeder... I'm trying to take the view that you need to be loyal to your troops and such - ie, you have to maintain and clean your tools, equipment and guns if you expect them to work in battle , you should treat the troops in the same manner. Twisting them up and breaking them leaves them useless... but it's kind of funny how that can hit you with light side points. Or when you have to undermine a Sith Lord's cult.. you can take the bloody and violent route, wiping out some gangs in the area to build strictly short term popularity with the people who make up the cult. Or you can take the more methodical, long term results one, by infiltrating a company, stealing some chemicals and using those to cure a disease amongst the population. Which provides you with a much more secure base of power - but yes, again that turns out to be light side. Still, I'm mostly walking the grey path, have about 1,450 light side points..and 1,450 dark side points.. It would be nice if they actually introduced rewards for neatral folks as well as if you go full light or dark....

Hm, still trying to stir the christmas cheer like I usually manage. However, waking up with a stomach ache, the edge of a headache, and having manage to wrench/sprain my wrist somehow last night when doing push-ups.. I'm getting a not-so good feel about the start of this christmas week... While I'm balancing the fact that I'm sure I've forgotten something I should have done, I'm also aware I really have large amounts of escapism available in ToR. Dang it, thats totally satisfying my inner-geek at the moment. Still, I think a fresh cup of tea, and maybe a plain digestive or two and see how that settles my stomach.

My christmas cheer resides in the 7 foot christmas tree festooned with lights and decorations. I have to admit, when half the family have no seasonal cheer or desire to enjoy the decorations, it can be a wee bit of a problem getting that general mood going for yourself..

Would it suprise anyone if I said that at the moment I'm playing TOR? I'll probably have some momentary returns to Saints Row 3 to change the pact at times, but I can't really see anything else jumping out at me until ME3 is released. Batman is on my "wait until its really cheap" to get list, and I'm really unconcerned with the latest Assassin's Creed. Can't think of much else that's really on the horizon.... o O (but lots and lots of TOR..)

Urf, it is cold and miserable outside. And I have boxes that need to go back up in the attic. Instead I'm drinking hot tea, hugging the radiator, and forgetting family while I play Tor...

I did the heroic on Tython, and that was already quite a bit of fun. My jedi knight has done everything on Tython but the heroic... I really need to get that done before I leave planet. I seem to have picked up the habit of focusing on all the class-story and world-quests.. I pick up the Heroics..but I don't actually focus on doing them. I'll join a group if I notice people asking for extras, and I'm not engaged elsewhere, but I keep forgetting about them and suddenly realising I'm about to leave the world with this mass of heroic missions left on my log... Found my fourth datacron on Balmorra, and then took a side trip to build my first "matrix shard cube". Think I'll start todays gameplay with some space missions though, just for that arcadey feel...

It only seems to kick in like that for me in that time frame.. so it's not like it's too much of a hassle normally. Well, at least not yet it isn't.

Well, after an evening "pre-christmas meal" with friends this night, I'm going to jump back in for a short amount of playing with a couple of cobra's in me (the beer, not the snake). I've been bouncing a little between characters today to explore what's going on. All on Corellian Run, Sith Inquisitor - Drayke, and the Bounty Hunter - Khayul, along with the Jedi Knight - Ehtiar. The pure atmosphere difference between Korriban and Typhon is quite interesting, and certainly adds to the shift in world view between Sith and Jedi. I'm not sure just yet if the Bounty Hunter is grabbing me or not. Edit: Note to self, attempting to log in around midnight gmt (especially on a weekend) means waiting in a queue for at least 10 minutes..

I think some of its hard to say just yet, the character stories are split into three chapters (not including the prologue) and they have said that you'll see different results depending on your choices you made in previous chapters... As of yet, I'm still in chapter 1 of my Sith Inquisitor, but there have been a mixture of corrupting choices, slightly sociopathic choices, and outright "hm, you have a holocron that could lead to a sith weapon so I'll kill you rather then free you from this republic jail" type of choices. Of course, the latter led to you having one of your key contacts on the world turn on you because the sith was his son... You did get some of the undercurrents of Sith backbiting and machiavellian behaviours on korriban, so it'll be interesting to see if any of those have long term effects. Since I'd actually hit level 20 with my SI, I thought I'd have a short break and look at the other side, so just started up a Jedi Knight and I have to say that Typhon is a completely fresh atmosphere compared to Korriban. Don't get me wrong, Korriban was fun in that Sith, arid , ruined landscape.. but the difference in feel is quite interesting. Also, realised they don't seem to let you put people on your friends list if you're Republic and they're Sith.. So looks like no cross-faction chatting.. Or there just happens to be something wrong with how I made the attempt.

Had just settled back into SW:TOR following dinner, getting into the rythym.. and suddenly boom! Trying to twist around to rescue the puppy from being impaled behind me, the fresh, barely sipped pint mug of tea went flying from my desk.. and covered my keyboard, mouse..chair and floor immediately around me. ... some strange flickers..but I think I've finally got it all cleaned up enough to work properly. Of course, this means I'll have to break out the steamcleaner again for the carpet tomorrow..

There are a general mix of dark and light as I play through as a Sith Inquisitor. Although its kind of interesting that if you do tend to keep an eye on the whole..loyalty to the empire, taking care of the troops and civilians (even if its in the same way you'd keep your gun clean) it tends to rack up light side points. Currently got my ship and finally into the first chapter. And running with around 1,000 light side points and about 700 odd dark side. So I think you can say I'm keeping it fairly neutral/grey... Realised there were two heroic quests I hadn't finished on Dromund Kaas, but still, just had to check out the starship and peek at Balmorra.

And scratch that. She went out shopping for a dress for a work do. So in that time, the dog managed to get one of the attachements to the vacuum cleaner and chewed it up.

Indeed. Corellian Run has been running pretty smoothly, then suddenly yesterday or today (depending on how you want to call it) just before and after midnight, latency kicked in. Bad enough it actually dropped my connection (and I was in the middle of an Operation on the big World Boss on Dromund Kaas). I hit the button to go back to the server..spent about 10 minutes in the queue.. and then it gave me the message that it had also disconnected my account and I'd have to log back in from the beginning.. However, after about 20 minutes it had settled out and wasn't having any troubles. "He's a twisted madman I tell you. He's obsessed with weapons technology, war droids, cybernetic experiments and ergonomic chairs!" - To describe the renegade and outcast Sith Lord Grathan. I have to admit, that was one quest with a light side/dark side I don't really agree with. Grathan's a renegade Sith Lord, he's that twisted and outcast and he collects slave-scientists to develop further twisted monstrosities. You get asked to steal some data on a "regenerating cybernetics" (okay, you're doing it to sell it on and make a pile of credits). When you get to the point you steal the data and corrupt the original - the slave scientist behind it appears and does the whole "it's my life work! if you do this I'll never be able to use it to heal the sick!". So if you take it, its dark side, if you leave it its light. However, slave-scientist held by a twisted outcast Sith Lord who only uses science for mad, evil, weaponised things? How is leaving him access to regenerative cybernetics for his troops a light sight thing? How likely is it that the slave-scientist will get to use the data to "heal the innocent"? Or is that just me?

Well I woke up halfway through the night for no reason that I was aware of.. managed to get back to sleep. Then had the morning wakeup where I just didn't want to crawl out of bed... Although the good thing for the day is that my sister has taken the day off work, so hopefully she should be dealing with the dogs...