Back in business?

Posted on by Nimgimli

So for the past few weeks I’ve been saying to myself “I gotta get the blog going again. I need to write up Middlesex and Final Fantasy Tactics and Lord of the Isles and .. etc etc.” And then it feels like I’m too far behind and I’ll never catch up, so I just say “Ah, I’ll do it later.” and never get any farther.

So as of today, I’m going to just let the past float away and start back in with the here and now. Maybe I’ll find time to back fill a bit, but if not…better to get started than to not blog at all.

The Blind Asassin

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Today I finished listening to the audiobook version of Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin. Finished it during my morning commute in to work, in fact, and all day I’ve been pondering what to say about it.

I guess it boils down to this: it depressed the hell out of me.

It tells the story of two sisters, born just after World War I into a wealthy family in its decline. One of the sisters, now dead, is famous for having written The Blind Assassin and we get to read that book as well. A book within a book. And in that inner book, a narrator tells the actual story of The Blind Assassin so now you’re three levels deep and…really none of it has anything to do with the ‘real’ story being told.

And in that real story we listen to the life story of Iris, the older sister. And we watch her unhappiness unfold for 83 long years. Watch her body start to fail her. At least, that’s what I took away from it. Read the reader comments at the Amazon link and you’ll get a totally different take on it.

Its a good book, beautifully written…but I don’t know that I’d recommend it, unless you’re just feeling too darned happy and want something to bring you down. 🙂

I, Jedi

Posted on by Nimgimli

So, the lack of posts to this blog are an indication of how strongly Star Wars Galaxies has me in its clutches. So strongly, in fact, that I started wanting to know more about this universe; initially enough to be able to remain in-character when speaking in the game. What do they eat, drink, where do they go to relax? That kind of thing. If it were Star Trek I’d know they drank Rigellian Ale and went to Reisa for vacation, right?

So that’s why I first picked up a Star Wars novel. A friend had recommended I, Jedi, by Michael Stackpole, as a decent stand-alone novel to try, just to see if I could get into the whole Star Wars mythos.

And it turns out I probably can. Jedi was a fun book. Great literature? No. It had that series patina, you know? The same one you find in Dragonlance books, or RobotTech books, or any of those other selections from the sci-fi/fantasy series shelf of your local bookseller. Its like, rather than handcraft the story, the authors have a big bag of story modules, and they pull them out and snap them together, then fill in the cracks and gaps, slap a coat paint over them and send ’em off to be published. Some of these authors, including Mr. Stackpole, do a really fine job of picking good modules and spiffing them up, but there are still big chunks of the novels that give a keen sense of deja vu.

But none of this means they aren’t fun and enjoyable, because they are. This is the story of Corran Horn, one time CorSec operative (cop, I guess), one time Rogue Squadron pilot, and now jedi-in-training. Like another young jedi we once knew, Corran doesn’t really agree with the training he is getting, and ends up risking the dark side by striking off on his own. He does it to save his wife, rather than his friends.

What surprised me was the prevalance of the characters from the movies. Luke Skywalker is the Jedi Master trying to train Horn. He also crosses paths with Wedge Antilles, Leai Organa and Han Solo. I found it a bit jarring to have these characters that I “know” so well taking on lives of their own and acting differently than I’d expected them to.

The other problem with I, Jedi, for me, is that I had no idea what was going on outside of this one tightly focused story. There’re a bunch of these Star Wars books and they tend to link tightly together. Stackpole assumes you’ve read others, and the tale is peppered with references to events I know nothing about.

Which in addition to being a problem, is a draw. Because now I want to read more of these books; ones that take place during or just after the movies, so I can find out all that I’ve missed.

A month ago, I was not a Star War fan, at all. But between Star Wars Galaxies, these novels, and the XBox title Knights of the Old Republic I suddenly find myself eating, drinking and breathing Star Wars. And I’m amazed at hos much I’m enjoying it.

I wouldn’t suggest starting your foray into Star Wars novels with I, Jedi though. Find something that takes place a bit earlier in the history and start there. I’ll post any wisdom I come upon in regards to specifics.

Oryx and Crake

Posted on by Nimgimli

Well, I’ve been kicked back yammering in other places making a fool of myself for too long; time to go back to making a fool of myself and yammering here. 🙂

My most recent audio book was Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake. You may remember Atwood from her popular The Handmaid’s Tale, and once again she’s peering into the not-too-distant future.

This time, things have gone much more awry than in Handmaid. In fact, civilization has collapsed. We don’t know exactly why for quite some time, so I won’t tell you. But the protagonist was there for it all, and the story jumps back and forth between him trying to survive in a world gone wrong, and him recalling the story of his life and his relationship with the people who’ve caused the mess he is in.

What’s most troubling about Oryx and Crake is how incredibly believable it is. It doesn’t take much imagination to see our world following the path laid out by Ms. Atwood. Worth a read. I’m off Audible.com now (see below) but have to say the narrator does a decent job. So technically it gets a thumbs up, too.

Still SWG

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Star Wars Galaxies still has its hooks in me; I spent most of the weekend playing. Plus, I’ve started reading Star Wars novels (I, Jedi which has thus far been surprisingly entertaining) to get some cultural reference to the worlds I’m traveling. And Knights of the Old Republic comes out for the XBox this week. I’ve turned into a Star Wars Fan!

But there is still hope. I’m also have a ball playing with Animal Crossing and in the odd moments, watching the anime series Dai-Guard (Office Workers saving the world!) which is quirky and amusing…

Star Wars Galaxies

Posted on by Nimgimli

Where’ve I been? On Naboo, mostly.

Sony release the ultra-hyped Star Wars Galaxies and I bought it, of course. My intent was to heap pile upon pile of derision on it.

But I hit a snag. The game absolutely rocks. It’s the most Role-Playing MMRPG since UO. Might even surpass UO in terms of role-playing. In fact, in a way its hardly a game…it’s more like a virtual galaxy for you to work and play in. I’m totally hooked.

Audible.com

Posted on by Nimgimli

I’ve been an Audible.com listener for a while now…I’ve had fairly good luck with the service, but any good will they’ve build over the months just went down the toilet.

The membership gives you 2 books/month on a ‘use them or lose them’ plan. I was falling behind so I decided to cancel my account, figuring I’d pick it up again in a month or two.

That’s when I discovered that, while you can sign up over the web, you have to call them to cancel. And when you do, you’ll find yourself in voice mail hell. 25 minutes I waited on hold, finally got someone on the line, said I wanted to cancel. Woman rattled off something I didn’t understand and transferred me back into the hold queue. Another 15 minutes of waiting and I finally got someone who could take care of cancelling my account.

Crap customer server = Two Thumbs Down for Audible.com. I urge you to avoid them.

Gladius

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I was playing with the demo of Gladius (warning for office workers…there’s music on that site) off a recent XBox magazine cover disk. This is the LucasArts gladiatorial combat game.

It’s really very neat. A strange melange of gaming styles. You have rpg aspects in that characters have stats and such. Some strategy bits in that it looks as though you spend your coin on building a team, with various choices of what type of warrior to hire. Then you get in the arena. Set up starting positions, with height and terrain playing a very real role in combat.

Combat is turn-based…each character moves in succession, based on abilities. You have various movement and ‘spell’ points (I’m guessing at terminology as I had no docs). You have a variety of different attacks that use up these spell points. But here’s the catch..when it comes time to attack, there’s an arcade element to the game. You have a gizmo that looks very similar to the ‘swing meter’ in old golf games. A horizontal bar with various zones in it. An indicater slides across the bar, and you have to tap a button to mark your swing. There’re big ‘normal hit’ zones that are easy as pie to hit. Then there are weak zones (which you want to avoid) followed by a very small critical hit zone, and so forth. The idea being that you can risk the critical hit but you might land a weak hit instead. The normal hit is basically a sure thing.

And that’s the basic attack. For combos you have to hit two buttons. Special attacks are carried out by various “Simon-like” mini-games (ok, miniscule games). It’s *really* fun how it blends character stats with your own abilities. But if you’re a thinking gamer, I’m hoping that sound tactics and normal hits will carry the day.

Nothing here is totally new, but the way its all combined makes the game feel very fresh and fun. This one is now on my MUST HAVE list, to be sure!

EVE: The Second Genesis

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EVE is a new space-based MOG. On the surface its similar to Westwood’s Earth & Beyond: you have a ship that you fly around in, mining asteroids, fighting NPCs and exploring. But once you get into the game you start to learn that EVE is very different.

Basically, it boils down to this. Whereas E&B was a MMORPG with ships instead of player avatars, EVE is an alternate universe to make your mark on. There’s almost no hand-holding going on, there are no levels. You choose your own path… you can focus on getting the beset ship possible, or increasing your personal skills, or on getting rich…it’s all up to you.

At the heart of this is a player-driven economy that gives the players the tools to interact with each other in meaningful ways. From your first day in EVE you can start selling items when you’re offline, for instance. Players can hire each other to haul cargo, put a bounty on an enemy, or commission a star ship from another player.

Corporations, which take the place of Guilds, add long-term goals for players. A Corporation can build its own space station, albeit at great cost in terms of cash and materials. This will require all the members of the Corp pulling together to work towards a common goal.

You’ll notice I referred to EVE as a MOG, not a MMORPG. While a major portion of the game is about character development, there’s a solid economic empire building game in here, too. Be a trader sniffing out the best trade routes between systems, or be a miner, or a builder, or a bounty hunter. Or do some of each. Amassing wealth in order to buy better ships and equipment is a big part of the game, and the player-to-player economic possibilities keep things interesting.

The last thing that sets EVE apart is how ‘low impact’ it is. Make no mistake, there’s a lot of downtime in this game. Mining asteroids, or making multi-jump trips, can take a good little while. Oddly though, rather than being annoying I find this relaxing. If I need more excitement I can always hunt pirates for a while. But just as an example, as I write this, my ship is mining an asteroid on my other laptop (which accounts for how disorganized this post is…I had to go kill pirates a few times in the midst of it).

The thing that scares me about EVE is that its starting to remind me of my first online gaming addiction: Megawars III, on the old Compuserve Service. If I get as hooked on EVE as I was on that game I’ll be in trouble, indeed!

Weekend wrap-up

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In gaming: I finished Brute Force on Sunday. Very entertaining game. Pretty much straight action; no cut scenes to speak of and a very thin storyline. But still fun. Also got back into EverQuest in a semi-serious way. Had a couple of evenings with a good group of friends that was quite fun, but the solo game is still a bit slow for my tastes. Plus physical ailments make long stretches of gaming on the PC painful these days. Lastly, played more EVE: The Second Genesis. That warrants its own post, I think.

In video: Watched the second disc of Saiyuki. This series continues to grow on me; I really enjoy the bold style of the artwork and the ‘camera work’ that bridges the gap between graphic novel panels and film. Sadly, disc 3 won’t be out until the end of July. Also watched a couple of Tivo’d episodes of the new The Twilight Zone series. Kindof a mixed bag so far. I’ll watch a few more before I decide whether it warrants a season pass or not. Oh, and I saw a great episode of Robot Wars, my current guilty pleasure.