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| Monday, December 27, 2004 09:26 AM |
| Jesus of Squares |
 by Fëanor |
I thought I'd provide you people--who are no doubt desperate for every last scrap of information about me--with some more more details on my Christmas gifts.
It was a very Lord of the Rings Christmas for me. I received Third Age (an official LotR platform RPG--kind of a dream game for me right now), the soundtracks to Two Towers and Return of the King, and the extended edition DVD of Return of the King. I hope to watch the DVD soon, but I'm kind of backed up on DVD watching. I haven't even put my copy of the THX-1138 director's cut into the player yet, and I got that for my birthday three months ago, if I remember correctly. And then there's those Netflix DVDs. Their website informs me that I've been hanging onto The Red Shoes since July. On the other hand, poppy and I have already watched all the cartoons on disc one of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two, and I only just got that for Christmas. (There's lots of great stuff on there, btw--God bless Mel Blanc, Tex Avery, Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, and all the rest of those guys.)
As for Third Age, holy crap, do I love this game. Admittedly, it's pure hack-and-slash, and not earth-shatteringly different from many another RPG. But hack-and-slash is fun, damn it! And turn-based hack-and-slash, where you have to do party management and make decisions on which items and attacks and special moves to use when, is really cool, and does actually require some thinking. Plus, the menu system is easy to use and understand, and the graphics are really quite incredible--both the in-game computer animation, and the cut scenes. The game boasts surprisingly realistic and human-looking faces on the characters. And then there are the many cut scenes. Normally a game with tons of cut scenes would bore the crap out of me, but in this game they're near movie-quality video cut directly from the recent films, overlaid with brand new narration tracks spoken by none other than Sir Ian McKellen himself. Good stuff.
Btw, this is the first Game Cube game I've ever gotten that came with two game discs. Two! They probably needed two to contain all that high quality video footage, but I hope that also means there's lots of awesome gaming ahead of me, wherein many more interesting characters will join my party, we will kill lots of orcs and other such monsters, and acquire lots of kick-ass treasure.
I listened to the two soundtrack CDs today, along with two non-LotR-related CDs poppy got me for the holiday--Keane's Hopes and Fears and Interpol's Turn on the Bright Lights. She picked them up kind of randomly, after hearing some songs by these bands and thinking it sounded like stuff I might like. She was pretty much right. Interpol has an interesting sound, reminiscent of Franz Ferdinand and alt rock bands like that, but with their own personality. It's a dark, epic kind of sound. Keane is a lot more light and pop-oriented, with a real Coldplay kind of sound. Both discs have interesting stuff and I'll be listening to them more soon.
As for the soundtracks, well, they are fine, of course--natural extensions of The Fellowship of the Ring soundtrack, and of a piece with that CD in terms of quality and atmosphere and such. Quite serviceable stuff.
Another gift I've been indulging in is League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Volume Two. It's fantastic, of course. Now he's weaving in John Carter, Mars, and a War of the Worlds-type alien invasion story, while further developing his totally fascinating--and, in most cases, totally horrendous--main characters.
Meanwhile, I've finished another diary entry. So put that in your pipe and smoke it. Please?
Anyways, I think that's all for now. Cheerio! |
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