Raithe

Except for me it comes out tomorrow. I've actually been playing Madden 12 demo of all things, since my dxhr playthrough is at "the" spot for missing link and I want to see if it gives me further background for the remainder of the game. One weird thing, is it sets up almost like another game in steam, and runs as a seperate game. You don't access it "in" DEHR. Also, yeah, the missing augs are interesting , because the levels are really wide open compared to the mission maps in the game. But they have it set up that right from the start there are areas that would be accessible if you had Jump, or Icarus , or improved strength to shift things, or hacking to get access.. but there's no way you can actually do all of that. You really have to be tactical in your choices and accept you can't do everything. It doesn't slowly build up (well, slightly) but it pretty much hits you like that from the get go. Heh, it's interesting that they have an achievement for playing through it without using any praxis points, any weapons, or any explosives...

Having a dabble on the Missing Link dlc for DEHR. Being aware of just how many places you need hacking, or jumping augs, or icarus landing system to really explore in depth.. Although you don't need them to do the storyline.

Did get a bit of work done today... had to spend a bit of time fiddling around with the flush on the downstairs toilet since it wasn't working. I'd actually forgotten the DE:HR dlc was out today, so had a pleased moment and thought I'd just check it out for a short time. Two hours later and I'm feeling a wee bit guilty.

You should get one of these: Yeah, got one. Trouble is the drugs wont fit in those compartments. Breakfast has about 12, lunch has about another 5, and supper/bedtime has another dozen roundabouts. Pills of allll sizes and shapes.

It's not that having a gaming pc that costs more then a console that makes them a superior human being, it's the fact that they use a gaming pc rather then a console that does that.

Hm, caught a report on cyber security - World Facing a Wave of Cyber Crime Pointing out the nature of smartphones as a fully-fledged computer sitting in your pocket, that a lot of people allow to automaticlaly connect to wi-fi hotspots. How they're so user-friendly and accessible, and how people without thinking (because it's "just a phone") take the convenience without giving thought to the security aspects. They are our bank vault, our confidant, our guide. So with an estimated 480 million smartphones sold by the end of the year, how many folks on these forums have one? Not taking into account the various "celebrities" hacked phones, or even wandering down the line of the Murdoch groups phone hacking..

So Branson opens world's first "commercial" spaceport... And to highlight other matters NASA books charter space from Virgin

Had the puppy pounce on me as a wake up call. That whine and paw poking at you isn't the best way to stir. That combined with a slow, grindy headache hasn't had me feel totally clear but tis being one of those sunny autumn days. Still trying to learn the new drugs for mom. Post surgery there's about 20 new pills to be organised for her day, so that's added fun to the morning start. "is that 3 aziothiopran for breakfast or lunch? where's the diclofenac and the clorofetamine...." There are way too many syllables in way too many packets to get to grips with when you're not thinking clearly. Hm, and the puppy is definitely having the devil in him on this morning. Thunderpaws running back and forth and visiting destruction on various paper/cardboard things he snares.

Working on the Alpocalypse... Party in the CIA

But there's also that "free" first month you get for buying the game. So if you plan to have a serious play, you can do it for the first month then cancel it before you pay for a second... There have been some Bioware quotes floating around about how they're looking at TOR running for a decade.. and they're already planning just what sort of serious upgrades it will need. Such as the amount of new Planets expanding the universe over how much time... and all sorts of things

Not strictly a movie, but I rewatched some of "Kings". That was a damn good show, and really annoying that they never followed on from the first season. A modern day, alternate-reality drama about a hero who rises to become the King of his nation, based on the biblical story of King David. Which sounds a little weird, but it worked really damn well. Had Ian Mcshane as King Silas, Brian Cox as imprisoned King Abaddon, and a slew of recognisably good actors supporting it all : Wes Studi, Susannah Thomspon, Dylan Baker, Eamonn Walker, and a rather brilliant showing from Christopher Egan as David. (Also a rather surprising turn up of Macauley Culkin in a few of the later episodes) The production values seemed fairly sumptuous, and the dialogue managed to mix that feel of biblical speech, grand shakespeare presence but all wrapped up in modern patterns. The performances ring true and they really manage to show that whole play of people in power, how it corrupts, what sacrifices they'll make, and just what happens when "good" people are introduced to that mix.

A little bit of Universe Sandbox. There's something strangely soothing about setting up galaxies to orbit and crash into each other and watching it unfold over time....

Heh, all this talk of the Civil war is tempting me to dig out the old JT Edson books. Now that was a man who could write a fun, pulpy western story.. and did do a fair amount of "good" background. He hammered the minutiae and loved being accurate on exactly how you cheat at cards, the workings of firearms, and the practical matters. Generally keeping it all interesting without turning into mini-lectures within his books. About the only serious ways he played with historical fact was when he included a few of the "ladies of the west" like Calamity Jane and the outlaw Belle Star as characters that turned up a few times - he made them a hellava lot more attractive then they really were. They might have had moments of being a little right-wing in their views, and not overly complicated, but they were fun and generally had interesting characters.

Tis that wandering way of threads... technically the whole "influence of Kotor 2 on TOR" was somewhere in the beginning, it wandered into some strange argument on interpretation of a character, and then the nature of jedi relationships. Oh yes, and in TOR they have said that Jedi that do follow the "romance" route will start picking up dark side points. Not because it's strictly dark side, but because it's against the jedi code. So if you want to be a glowing, purer then pure jedi then romance is something to avoid in-game.

I always favour a little to get a bit of start when you need to get going..

Stardust was on tv again tonight. Tis a good film, well worth the watching. It never gets old. And Michelle Pfieffer still shows how she can be worthy of rawr-dom. And De Niro steals scenes. Not to forget his dancing the can-can.

On slow, grey sundays.. maybe listening to the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon soundtrack isn't exactly going to be cheery to the mood...

Thor has that slightly camp, almost theatre quality to it. It's big , bright, glossy. The visuals of Asgard are pretty amazing. Natalie Portman looks fairly cute, they sneak in an appearance of Hawkeye in it, and it sets a chunk of the stage storywise for the Avengers movie. Captain America feels much more like an Indiana Jones adventure then a superhero blockbuster.. and also picks up a few elements from the Thor story. On the DC side of things... Green Lantern was entertaining, and has some strong background performances (Mark Strong as Sinestro is rather quite good). Reynolds doesn't do a bad job, but they don't really do that much impressive with the power of the ring once he gets going. It did give the feeling that it was a film more about the setup of who he is, how he got the ring, and prepping everything for what a second film would do.

In the book adaption of Revenge of the Sith, there was a rather good paragraph or so just after Yoda had attempted to fight Palpatine. Basically Yoda goes into self-castigating mode, because he realised he'd been a tight-ass, and spent the previous 800 years training jedi in the wrong manner, and to fight the wrong war...

It's more like they're free to date and have short flings, but if they become too attached, then feelings go askew and to the dark side it can lead. Pretty much the 3 dates, a night of passion, and then they're off. Hm, I guess they're kind of like James Bond. They get to have the girl from whichever life-threatening, risk-filled, heroic adventure they're on, and then move on to the next world and adventure... Although, in the EU, that view ups and downs on the times. Sometimes the Jedi feel that family is good, and they're acceptable of keeping an eye on jedi offspring. Hell, even in times when family and marriage as such is a no-no, they still keep track of jedi lineages. However, if you track the assorted things in the EU, pretty much every time a major Sith/Dark side influence has shown up and caused a furor, in the aftermath the Jedi Heirarchy starts frowning on marriage and families for jedi. Go a few centuries on, and they slacken up and let the marriages return...

Getting in a little old school Dungeon Keeper 2 between the usual saturday errands..

Stumbled on this clip about Clive Cussler's car collection Now I'm tempted to dig out those books to read again...

One of the things about the classes.. is that when you take the advance class options at 10th level or whatever.. it opens up a lot of variability (supposedly) with skill trees. So while a lot of people are saying the likes of Sith Inquisitor is the long-range mage equivalent.. you can turn them into a type of tanker, a dps close in melee, a healer type, or the long range dps type.. OldRepublic.Net - Class Guides This might be of some interest to folks..

Hm, trying to write out the summary of a report and listening to this... does that say anything?

This one is easy, Jedi aren't allowed to have sex. Sex is part of the dark side. Think the rules of religions against the debaucheries of hedonism. The New Jedi Order allowed marriage. Luke himself married. In the EU it pretty much bounces back and forth. After the Hyperspace War but before the Sith Wars of Qel-Droma and Exar Kun marriage and family were fine for Jedi, then they were forbidden.. Then some point before the time of KoTOR marriage was allowed again.. It's one of those things that comes and goes pretty much depending on the mood of the Jedi Councils at the time and how they feel about the dark side and the benefits of family stability vs potential emotional anxiety... So it's not as if it's something that's had much coherency over the millenia of story...