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| Saturday, January 22, 2005 02:10 PM |
| Snow Day |
 by Fëanor |
Poppy and I were snowed in today, but we made the best of it. She roasted us up a lovely lemon chicken, in between reading a great deal for her book club meeting that she sadly won't be able to make it to tomorrow, while I coded a bit and gorged myself on Third Age. Ah, video games and coding. Is there any better way to spend a day?
After a great deal of work, and some very difficult battles, I am now just past half way through Third Age, and have learned some surprising things about the main character. The story is unpredictable and interesting, despite the fact that it had to be fit into the margins of an already existing, and very familiar (especially to me), overarching storyline. To keep things interesting and make you feel connected to the original story, it often strays from the books a bit, but I always look the other way, as these divergences consistently make the game more fun and exciting. For instance, you get to fight Wormtongue and other famous villains from the books and movies (including that one really ugly, lumpy, deformed Orc from the movie version of Return of the King, a creature whom the game refers to as Gothmog--despite the fact that Gothmog is actually the name of the Captain of the Balrogs who died in the Second Age of Middle Earth. But whatever; maybe this Orc guy is just trying to be impressive by stealing a tough name for himself), and you get to fight side by side with Gandalf, Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, and Faramir (Faramir's a bit of a chump, btw; but I wish I could have Aragorn with me all the time--he rocks). Occasionally the cut scenes can drag on a bit, but rarely. And they're all narrated by the original actors from the movie, which is really cool.
The game is getting much tougher, but in an interesting and not a frustrating way (I did scream curses at it today, but that's just something I do when I play games). I'm being forced to really plan out my battles; to come up with effective strategies for keeping my people alive long enough to take out all the enemies. It's really fantastic. I'm desperately hoping that they'll go on and make Second Age and First Age as prequels. Heck, I'd even be all right with them just making shit up and putting together something called Fourth Age. That's how much I like the game.
I've pretty much dropped Knights of the Old Republic, as I've decided it is definitely inferior to Third Age, but I will certainly pick it up again when I'm finished with this game (and I will just as certainly purchase KotOR 2 when it comes out next month). It's not that it's bad, it's just a bit buggy and not as flexible as I would like in terms of game play.
Yesterday we watched the latest episode of "Battlestar Galactica," and it was totally fantastic, just like the first two. Finally I've found something else good on TV! I'm so excited, and I'm really looking forward to seeing where they take this show. I said I'd give you a review of this episode, but I don't really have anything specific to say, except that it was excellent, and full of all the great action, tension, and ambiguities that I enjoyed in the premier. Apollo really bloomed in this one, too. I'd found him a bit dull in the previous episodes, but here he really opened up, became more complex, and did and said some really cool stuff. Plus, this episode guest-starred a dude from the original show (Richard Hatch) as a new and interesting character--a political prisoner who starts a riot on one of the ships.
Good stuff. And tomorrow, I'm looking forward to watching two great football games--the NFC and AFC championship games: Eagles vs. Falcons and Steelers vs. Patriots. Of course, if the Eagles lose the first game, I may not be in the mood to watch the second, but I have high hopes. I really think they can pull it off this year, and make it to the Super Bowl for the first time in...oh, I don't know. Twenty some years? But who's counting, right?
The point is, E-A-G-L-E-S, Go Eagles! |
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