Funny, not only do I not regularly update, I do not even get around to posting entries that I have written. So call me slacker.
March 15, 2006
Yes, I have been a slacker and left this blog untouched for months upon months. For some reason I have never been able to keep a journal/diary in any sort of regular fashion. So on to the highlights and catch-ups.
My wife did get pregant a second time, and the baby now mere months away is healthy and growing. We were told that as of now the baby is most likely a girl and her name is Lauren Nicole Anderson. Even before birth she is the most amazing thing I have ever experienced in my life.
In other, more minor news, I have spent the last several months continuing to work at ES as a contractor. While this unsecure, almost second class feeling, position has been awesome. I have been working as a communnity moderator and it has been an interesting experience. The only downside is I have no idea if I am going to be employed from day to day. All I can do is trust in God to provide, as he always has.
Movies
Sure Serenity was good, but to be honest this last year’s movies did not leave many lasting impressions on me.
Television
Lost has flapped around this season. It opened with a bang and has had a few good episodes but overall I am disappointed after the outstanding first season. I hope they come back and end the seaons on a up note.
BSG has become my favorite show on TV. The second season had a couple of “huh” episodes where the characterization of some of the people did not seem to fit. Though unlike Lost every episode was above average and kept the flow of the show going. I am almost sad that we will have to wait until next fall for the start of season three.
I am a sucker for a crime drama, Law and Order, CSI, NCIS, Criminal minds. Geesh I have to avoid watching most since I know that I will probably be suckered in a hooked. I don’t even mind the silly faux drama that most of the are full of. CBS loves me right now.
Games
In the fall I started a new WoW character on a sever that a bunch of ES people were playing on. I pretty much duoed the whole way to sixty with a friend of mine. Then when I hit and now had done that with two characters, I felt bored. I am really not that interested in the post sitxy equipment grind that players are left with. *shrug* still one the best MMOs I have played to date.
So after WoW we decided to go back and play some City of Villians. CoX is does what it does very well. It is so much fun to make new characters and smash stuff I almost get giddy. But something happens after about 30 levels, I begin to feel dulled to the game. It is as though I suddenly am exposed to the fact that I am doing the same thing over and over again. Still a whole lot of fun.
Jythri and I, in a effort to fill some time loaded Sacred back up and played a for a few nights. This game is a great Diablo like game. In many ways I find it superior to Diablo, if only they had blizzard’s ability to polish the presentation I think it would have done much better in the US. Alas though I think again the repetitive nature of the game will not hold our interest to long since we have Oblivion and Auto Assault coming out.
Honorable mention’s to GalCiv2 and Civ4. I love these kinds of games, but alas never can play them for very long. I think its because each game lasts soo long. Of course this time around Civ added in a very well done MP mode that Jythri and I played several times. I really wish I had the attention span to really become good at these sorts of games.
Books and Comics.
I am not going to talk about my opinions on what I read. No instead I am going to say that comic books cost way to much. This is a hobby that even though I really enjoy, is going to have to get cut. The average comic book sells for around three dollars and is about thirty pages. That is ten cents a page!
Now, some quick calculations after glance at my shelf of paperback books, shows me that the cost per paper back page is 1.2 cents. I am will to say that the action depicted in one comicbook page is equal to say four paperback pages. That means I am paying 10 cents for a comic book page while I could pay 5 cents for the same amount of action in a paperback. I can not keep paying this kind of money for a hobby, especially now with Lauren on the way.
Instead I need to start reading through all the books I bought but still have not read. Geesh such a slacker.
April 1, 2006
Obilvion
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This game has kept me up late every night this week. I give it 4.5/5 stars!
Sure there are bits of the game that I am unhappy with or might have done differently. The User Interface choices are the biggest offenders, though I understand the economics and development side enough to “get” why they made some of those choices. The other issues I have are with some of their designs for individual systems, but they are minor quibbles.
With that all said, I really enjoy the game. I think it is a top-notch RPG. Actually I agree with Tycho at PA when he says that Oblivion is not an RPG in the way RPGs have been defined in recent years. In many ways it is a playground for me to entertain myself in. It really does provide lots of things to do no matter how you want to play.
In my game I am Talya, a Shadow; a sneaky, lockpicking, blade wielding, archer, that likes to fool with peoples minds. She has not love to fancy cloths, or nick-nacks, but she does like to always have lots of money and the best weapons she can buy. She does not really care how she gets the money and she will do just about anything to acquire more.
She joined the local thieves guild, because she figured they would know people who would buy stolen goods, she joined the mages guild to “borrow” their alchemical components and gain access to the arcane libarary so she can “check out” some of their books. She helps people with their troubles to gain access to their homes, to collect her real reward. Finally she will kill someone dead if they stand in her way.
I have all sorts of different stories of my exploits to gain prestige in the thief and mage guilds, and all my excursions “helping” others. Heck I think last night was the first time in multiple play sessions I left a city for any length of time. I did not plan it that way, it just so happened that one thing led to another and before I knew it I was an Urban shadow. Of course when I do leave the city I end up having to sneak past an insane vampire. *boggle*
All of this without yet completing the very first main plot quest I had after the tutorial area.
Overall I look foward to the day when an MMO can be this immersive.