Raithe

And Gamespot has a couple of cutscenes from the game up already.. Intro-Sequence Cutscene Six Months Later Cutscene

They're also saying the Radiant system should do wonders for making it "unique". Sort of if you get a quest sending you to a dungeon, but you've already visited dungeons a, b, c and d in the area, the system will identify dungeon E as the on you have to go to... Just to make sure you "explore" the world and don't have to backtrack. I don't know, after all the disapointment over Oblivion, this is definitely on my wait and see list rather then jump on straightaway.

Yup, Amazon.co.uk is listing the shipping date as 25-26th.

I have to admit, I liked the : That's what reviews are for.. entertaining little quotes and the occasional metaphor..

Yup, I pretty much told my boss I'm going to be incomunnicado this friday and weekend with Deus Ex.

Well the night ended yesterday with the cat managing to slip out of the house..so there was the fun of trying to catch a black persian at night. Then I had that morning start where I woke up early..and ended up slipping in and out of sleep, consciousness and half-daze for an hour or so before I could stir myself.

I know there's a serious amount of cynicism these days when games reviewers start lashing out the 90+ scores for new games.. but I think my optimism is balanced by the amount of people who played that leaked preview build some months back and how many of the hard-core DE fans pretty much wept in joy that it was a good game more like the original DE, rather then a bad follow-on like Invisible War.. That and the people who'd basically said they weren't that interested in buying the game who tried the leaked preview, and were all "right.. I played it..now I've pre-ordered it.." It's that kind of thing which gives you a little faith that it isn't going to be a complete crock of...

Actually kind of had a fairly peaceful day so far. A bit of a snooze in, some idle pc game time, some reading. Nothing that's really called for much hassle...

So it looks like there's very mixed feelings out there with EA's delivery of the news that they will actually stagger the number of SW:TOR copies they release. Apparently the numbers of pre-orders have suprised them, so rather then release "more" digital or physical copies right away, they plan to stagger it out to give them suitable time to see just how well the servers handle the numbers, and provide time to improve/expand capacity before they allow a next wave of game copies released..

Spend some time of the afternoon playing a little bit more Vampire Bloodlines... Having that optimistic anticipatory wait for my copy of DE:HR to arrive at the latter end of the week.

If you're going to do it.. you might as well do it properly... Floating Cities

Maybe it's because I did Classical Civilisation at college.. but the core of greek myths and literature.. pretty muchb seem to get repeated through stories of all sorts out of europe the past 2 millenia. That might just be the whole.. essential arcehtypes or some such. Or it might be that I'm a wee bit drunk at the moment.

.. Well.. it could just be along the lines of how many page 3 girls seem to list their A-levels while getting money for getting pictures taken of themselves topless...

Well, one of my friends is stuck in that his sweety happens to be in the middle of her postgraduate thesis. So he's been warned of foul happenings if he turns up to distract her. So I went with movies and distracted him with explosions and such as we drank port and smoked cigars. First Battle Los Angeles, and then Conan The Destroyer. Although technically, the port and cigars was during the first movie. Conan had us on the tequilla shots from the good tequilla his gf's mother had sent him from mexico city.

With a resounding thunk. I can only assume people from Amazon getting on the horn and giving them a piece of their mind. Of course, their whole contingent is now sold out, again, and probably at a significantly higher price than what people like me would've paid for it. I won't make idiotic proclamations like "I'll never buy another game from them", but I won't forget... It does make me feel a tad sorry for EidosMontreal though. With all of the excitement and fervour, and fan appreciation they were getting for the release.. to be soured on this note because of the publisher..

Isn't the stats something about a 97% pass rate for students on A-levels this year? Which I have to say seem fairly ridiculous for any.. um...worthwhile results. Throw in that something like only half the college students who got their grades today will be able to make it into University.. it's certainly a tad frenzyish.

Ah the sweet joys of a heavy storm. On the one hand.. you can admire the tempestuous grandeur of nature. On the other.. it bloody killed my internet for most of the day. Although.. to be fair, there's also the 6 weeks roadworks going on outside where they're digging down to do stuff with the gaslines and assorted pipework that might be to blame. .. Or possibly both causing it together... It's an evil conspiracy I tell you...

A positive outlook is supposedly helpful in many situations.. but here's to hoping things turn out in a good way for Tarna. Hm, mom had one hospital appointment this morning so I was up earlier then normal. The joys , having to see the right specialist anaesthetologist this time that they ****ed up last time. It's weird to think that anaesthotology has become that specialised a field.. you now have them specialising in limbs.. Seriously. There's an anaesthotologist who specialises in "lower limbs" and one who specialises in "upper arms and hands"... Yeesh, I think they're beginning to overkill the specialisation there. Kind of amusing, mom doing her "I'm happy to go with a nerve block rather then needing general..." then later as the anaesthatist picks up on her allergies to Iodine and such.. mom did the whole "yes well... I've had x number of surgeries now where they miss/forget that and have given me iodine..why do you think I'm so happy and willing to just go with a nerve block? This way I can yell at them if they try to do it again..." Now it's the wait and see while they sort out the hospital date for the surgery. Waiting lists might just push it to beyond October.. which given that it was supposed to happen the other week and their screwup cancelled that out..

Didn't Apple already have trouble with the EU over region locking the UK seperately from Europe for Itunes? I seem to have some distant memories of something along those lines..

They can arrest people for putting up posters? If they were posters designed to incite criminal behaviour, disturbing the peace, racial hatred etc etc... Or an "I will give x money if so and so is killed" type of poster It's that fine line between freedom of speech and all that jazz. Although technically I don't think the european countries actually have that as a specific founding principle like they have in the states.

Trying to read a report seriously rather then scanning through it. I keep losing focus. Or at least I keep having that bit where the words all seem to start phasing in and out of each other. Yeesh. I need to take a moment and make another attempt at it.

Is that kind of "evolve or die" type of moment?

Not a movie per se, but one of the satellite channels has been re-running Shogun at lunchtime. It might be getting a tad old (1980), but that is one damn well done adaption. Pretty much full of some brilliant acting from all sides, both european/american and japanese. Some amazing performances when you get down to it. Just be sure to watch the mini-series, not the crushed "movie" version some half-wit tried editing out of it.

Or.. as they say on the Deus Ex forums.. you can activate a UK version of the game within the UK..and it'll be playable outside the UK. So if you really, really want that UK version, you just have to come over to blightey for a weekend trip and activate it then..

Pondering on exactly how to get to sleep before 3-3.30am. Which for some reason I haven't been able to do the past week or so. And today had the added joy of an alsatian waking me up by jumping on the bed about an hour before my alarm was due to go off.