Redwolf's Journal (continued)

When I first read about Cowboys and Aliens I just about laughed out loud. It seems a pretty ludicrous idea - like Snakes on a Plane -grade B-movie or something. It's been hyped a lot on IO9.com. The writers there seem to have loved it since the first glimpses, which really made me wary. I wouldn't want to get my hopes up THAT much and be disappointed. Still, that put it on my "maybe" list. So when it turned up as a free/sponsored movie for the company this weekend... hey, why not? If I hadn't been seeing hype about it over the last year, I would have been positively surprised. As it is, I'm still reasonably impressed. The visuals are good overall. The plot really isn't bad - oh, I can't say the logic behind the aliens is unquestionable, but it's got far fewer holes than I'm used to in sci-fi movies. The characterization is actually pretty good. And the acting is, at least in my opinion, excellent. Some characters are a bit stereotypical, p

So it's been almost a month since patch 4.2 came out. How can I tell? I'm almost to the end of the Molten Front quests. Heh. Questing Thirty-ish days feels a bit grindy, but most of the quests themselves aren't that bad. Some are even fun. Convalescence of the Winds may be my favorite buff of the game - being able to leap around like crazy. The questline end vendors have some (relatively minor) upgrades and a few vanity items. I have enjoyed watching Hamuul make his comeback, Anren and Tholo being reunited, and viewing the past of Leyara's fall. I think I've commented on Thrall's quests before. Decent lore, but lacking a feeling of accomplishment for me as a player. Raiding That we have been in the Firelands at all means our guild is ahead of the curve compared to 4.0, though success there thusfar has been limited to trash. The nerfing of 4.0 raids has made those a good deal easier and regularly doable, though Cho'gall remains about a 3-attempt figh

One of the books I picked up at Page One, Bloodring is... unusual. The pattern is mostly fantasy, with just a hint of the mystery present in "urban fantasy," but the setting is really post-Apocalypse (seriously, after "seraphim" came down, bumped off most of humanity and started leading battles against the forces of darkness). I might call it a fascinating read, but I hesitate to call it good . I'm a little torn on that, in a critical sense. I like the characters. There's a lot of the setting and worldbuilding that I find interesting. The jewelry crafting, stone-centric magic and descriptions show a certain familiarity that's nice to see. There are some oddities to the writing that put me off, including the unusual amount of time taken to get to the protagonist's name and some descriptions that go from thorough to rambling. A number of the unique world details seem... questionable, including the seemingly sudden origin of neomages, the human popu

The Old Republic pre-orders? Uhh... Even if I'm almost guaranteed to buy it, I don't like pre-ordering things when I don't yet know an actual release date, thanks. WoW: The Firelands are tough, but they haven't given me the feeling of being impossible. Yet. I still wonder if our guild team's raw numbers stack up enough, but we'll see. Shannox is going to take some practice with positioning and movemnt. It looks like I'll have Riplimb duty, so getting a better sense of trap usage will be required, but we also need to keep other people from standing in the things. Beth'tilac... well, I could blame a couple of those wipes on being tired. Coordinating the web ascension is a pain yet, but that may become second nature with more practice. With (limited) VP being offered from the tier 11 bosses, though, I wonder if we still might not benefit from further runs there to earn some points and fill out some drops for people. I'm really not sure. Our delving i

A nice drive with scattered cloud cover. A hot day around town, checking out Page One and tracking down Active Imagination (the local game store) that now has a site around the back of a shopping center. They have some neat space around their shop and some gaming space inside as well as a little cafe section, but relatively small selection of games these days. Had my quasi-traditional steak dinner. Mmmm. And then... Not so much Guild Wars. I'm starting to think fate has something against my playing the game. Last week my router went out. This week, the hotel's internet went flaky, bouncing me once forcing me to relog into the game, then the lights flickered and I've been unable to connect to anything since. o.o; ... Even more annoying, it didn't do this 'til I was actually trying to play . The idle time chatting beforehand? Fine. Once we try getting into the mission - kerblammo. I called it in, but after an hour waiting, I pretty much gave up on that being fixed i

Sunday, whilst playing Guild Wars, my wireless router died. Annoying to have to replace that, but what can you do? Today, I worked an extra hour and a half. Mostly, I put in that time to make sure something got done and to give the other tech some time to work on things he... really needs to be working on. Tsk. Looks like gaming Friday night. Though with the lack of people with games prepared, it may be a "board game" night. Saturday morning, I actually "have to" get up to go see a 10 am showing of Harry Potter. It's prior to the regular theater opening and for company employees/guests. I can't help but think the theater cut a deal for their advertising costs, as sponsored movies seems rather out of the blue otherwise. Still, hey... free movie I probably would have seen anyway. Then there's raiding in the evening, hopefully to down Al'Akir with a guild group and maybe see what the Firelands is like. Sunday, I'm fleeing! Planning an overni

I need a vacation? With a coworker coming back from time off for a five day raft trip and a friend recently touring with the circus , I'm looking at the calendar and noting that I haven't had any notably time off this year. I have this itch to go somewhere and do something, but it's hard to find anything of interest that doesn't price well out of my comfort zone. Visit someone? Well... that seems to be in the range of 3+ days of driving or taking a plane. The latter edges into that price issue and just plain isn't all that pleasant. Gas may not be cheap, but I'd vastly prefer a roadtrip for personal comfort and thinking time. And if I'm driving somewhere that far, it means probably only a couple days worth of visit, which seems a bit short for the travel. See something? Well, I don't know, there aren't a whole lot of places I feel compelled to visit. I do have some urge to go to Anaheim and see if some old places are still there whilst perhaps

Well, I already commented on the game , though I have minor ammendments to add having played through the "evil" path. Overall? Still good. But... It could have been better. It didn't feel as fleshed out and properly done as the good path. In Act 1, it's discovered one of the local gangs, the Reapers, are under the mind-controlling effects of some sludge that they're spreading in the water supply. Cole gets splashed in his first encounter with the stuff and sees/hears things for a while after. By the end of the Act, it's revealed that this stuff is being produced by another super powered person, Sasha, who leads the gang and has ties with the big-bad of the game. So what? Well... on the up side for the story, this actually gives some reason for Cole to become evil. As he descends in morality, his visual appearance looks paler and more... gunky. It's not said outright, but there's some implication that the sludge is having a corrupting effect on

I have the most minor regret we didn't get a chance to really try out Cho'gall and Al'Akir before the nerfs of 4.2, but that's okay. Tonight we started late, stymied by a lack of critical people. Eventually, we pugged a priest healer and moonkin dps to fill in. We lined up to start with the Twilight Ascendant Council. The trash pull beforehand was... a total clusterf- but not a wipe, even if we pulled practically every mob save one in about three awkward waves with no break. That was telling. The Council itself went down in our first attempt with no real problem in spite of poor coordination at the end. Cho'gall's trash was awkwardly pulled, but put down without serious trouble. Cho'gall himself went down in one. I feel it would take another two runs or so to get better at the timing of the swaps and moving the adds. I think we were a bit slow on that overall. Still, we only saw... what? Two adherrants? Three? Then it was phase 2 and a fairly quick burni