Raithe

And the further Guide to SW:TOR Launch and Beyond!! A collected mix of guides on classes, advanced classes, gameplay, lore, etc..

Still can't quite seem to get in the seasonal mood. And I got to sleep some point past 4am. Have the tree up, and slowly putting decorations on it. Rather then do it all in one bash, I've got the various boxes of decorations arranged around the room so as I do the various daily tasks, I can pop in and put a handful up at a time, then carry on with other things.. Did some internet banking and paid off a chunk of my credit card. Hm, got the email notification that Game had shipped my copy of ToR. Waiting for a few ordered christmas presents to arrive, and then I'll have to dig out the wrapping paper. My sister walked in last night and did this wonderful "oh, if you were wondering what to get me for christmas, how about this?" then hands me something she's bought. And opened. "If you want you can just give me the money for it."

After William Shatner's and Carrie Fisher's snark back a nd forth...

Something that might be interesting to folks getting the game.. Tips for the Preferences Tab A video walk through of the TOR preferences tab, what options do, assorted tricks and why you should or should not use them.. Of course, thats for the last beta, but it shouldn't have changed too much now.

Thought I'd give Fallout New Vegas a fresh start. Now I've got all the dlc to run through, and it's been a fair while since I completed the game originally. Hm, so is there a "best order" in which to fit the dlc into the playing time? Or does it not matter so much storywise if you randomly approach them? Of course, not sure how far I'll actually get with early access on TOR this week, but we'll see how it goes.

Personally, I've had a fair bit of fun with Saints Row 3. It is fairly irreverant, and some of the humour has the potential to be somewhat offensive. But it's generally tongue-in-cheek, self-aware, and ridiculously over the top. Also, it might just be something that hits my simple funny bone, but any game that can flip from ultra-violence to a "Burt ****ing Reynolds!" reveal, and carry it off as if its all a totally normal part of reality is worth some game play.

It was a nice touch when you run into that original "cabbie" you played in the first one. But overall something did feel disapointing about Mafia 2. The open world you never really had any reason to wander around it, the ending that didn't satisfy. Just.. something didn't capture the originals spark.

That.. depends on exactly what you want. There is a big, arcing class story for each and every class. You can do that totally solo. Each world has a story arc - again, that is possible to do solo. There are various side-quests (as expected) - which are all possible to solo. Each world also has several "Heroic" quests, which are designed in various cases to be doable at that level with either 2 people (and their companions) or a group of 4 players. - However, if you're several levels higher, it's possible to complete them solo. (by several, I mean , a handful of levels and knowing what you are doing). Each world also has a unique "world boss monster" type of thing, which is pretty much impossible to do unless you have a mass "operation" which will be a lot of people. There are also "Flashpoint" missions, which are special group missions. But you don't have to do them to actually go forward in any of the storylines. There are also the "starship" missions, which is more of an arcadey style mini-game - Not needed to complete any stories, but thats purely solo. All of the on-world missions can be done in groups (although class-specific quests can't be done with another person of the same class in the group).

Well the tree is up and lights are on... I'm leaving the rest of the decorations till manna now. Grab a cup of tea and try to relax a little.

It is dark in there. You may be eaten by a grue. I ain't scared of no Grue.

Think of the creamy cheese sauce in mac and cheese, but cooked around cauliflower.. Was woken up really early by a wet dogs nose being jabbed into my face. Managed to doze off to sleep again, but had some strange dreams. Woke up from that feeling strangely depressed. Keep having short moments of thunder in the background, so mayhaps a storm moving inwards. And I've got to delve into the depths of the attic at some point and recover the decorations. I don't know why, I'm just not in the christmas mood yet. It's more "task task task to juggle" then christmas spirit.

And now they've decided to give an extra two days of Early Game Access, starting on the 13th of December... I'm guessing that they're deciding to really stagger that intro launch on the servers with all the pre-orders. Edit: Oh, and now they've "officially" launched access for folks to download the game launcher and client so you can all take your time downloading and installing the game before hand.

Been sidelined today trying to fix my mothers laptop. Strange quirky problems, so the joys of running the basic maintenance to clear those up, then trying to identify exactly what's causing explorer.exe to use 50-60% of the cpu continuously. Although it only does it when logged into her profile.. so I'm guessing there's something glitchy on her user desktop. The wind is being bitterly cold, hm, and I'm not looking forward to the heavy duty cleanout of the kitty litter later.

Yeah, I remember one of the group projects I got stuck with at university. The team leader would divide up the work between us, but every week, he'd have done the work he gave me as well, and would invariably use his versions rather then mine. Which kind of makes it a bit hard to ge tthe enthusiasm to keep doing the work when it never gets used. To take the cake, he then complained to some of my friends that I was a slacker who didn't do the work..

I like the music, and the visuals are pretty damn good. I'd say the Utah Salt Flats at dawn for the win there.. o O (and they left a 40 grand Yamaha piano alone, in the desert, for several hours in the early hours of the morning so they could shoot some more of the video elsewhere..then return for the dawn..)

And for the Saints Row trivia you never actually needed:

Taken care of a batch of christmas shopping via Amazon. Then my headphones broke.. so I've had to place an order for some new ones. With a few other things..my budget and savings have reallly shrunk. Dang it, and I've got to start planning for a highly likely trip to Mexico City in 2013 for a wedding. It's cold and windy outside, but luckily not wet yet. Have to chase mom up on placing her prescription, then I'll have to go up and deal with that later this afternoon. Realised I've got a huge chunk of laundry to sort out, and the kittylitter needs to be completely emptied, cleaned then refilled. Urf..and furniture in the front room needs rearranging before I brave the dangers of the attic and seek out the lost treasures known as "christmas decorations".. Between which I'm hoping to spark some creative brilliance for some actual solid work, that may in time actually bring in some money to provide relief to my budget...

Now I was just doodling about and came across what looks like a potentially interesting tool. One of those mapping programs for rpg'ers that helps you create 3d maps of solar systems, sections of space, zoom in and create planetary maps as well.. all that jazz. Supposedly using scientific principles so that even if you use the random generate functions, it will all make sense and not be some crazy unreal thing.. AstroSynthesis I'm curious if any folks here have actually use this, or any other programs to dabble in mapping things out for their gaming groups. If so, what did people like about them/dislike, how well did they work, the usual rigerous interrogation on these matters..

On a book related note.. Darrell K. Sweete died. 1934-2011. While you might not recognise the name, he illustrated an amazing amount of sci-fi and fantasy books over the years. Tor - Darrell K. Sweete

Kind of late there, buddy. Dang, it's always the little things that slip your notice.. my bad.

And just in time for that Christmas season, and that spirit of good will on earth and to all men.. - Left Behind: Eternal Forces A game that's all set to ship to around 10,000 retailers across America, aimed to be a "beacon of light that could shine in the dark world of video games", where the player is a member of a "christian gang" in a post-apocalyptic New York and you have to convert or kill jews, athiests and other unsavoury types in the employ of the Anti-Christ to advance a level.

What can you say, whoevery it was, they were an "artist". And on other points.. Beta Test brought in over 2 million players

And for the ultimate in geek points.. the guy who made a photomosaic of the TOR loading screen.. using screen shots of his time in Beta testing..