Old Republic Log XI

I got Kelynn up to level 11 last night.  Originally I was going to say that since her new armor was identical to her old armor, I was just going to rotate her portrait so you could see her cyberware a little better.  But then I remembered that I had some Ord Mantell commendations to spend, and when I had, I ended up with Kelynn's shiny new suit.  Still, I had both pictures, so here they both are.

First, Kelynn's old armor and a better look at her implants, such as they are:

I'll give you Kelynn's new pic before the spoiler section.

Matt and I also got some Sith time in over Ventrillo.  We decided to give Hammer Station a try to see how it goes from the Imperial side before we do it Republic style on Monday.  Turns out that we couldn't get the big boss down with just the two of us and our companions.  Hopefully, we'll have better luck with the Midnight Runners, but I have my concerns.  After all, Tasia and Mal'drak are level 18 and 19 respectively, and we never did better than getting him down to half.  I'm hoping that people have time to level up before we hit Hammer Station, because I'm not sure four level 13 characters can get the job done.

For the rest of this entry, I'm going to talk about the Republic Trooper storyline, so I'll catch you on the other side for the spoilers.

Tasia, Level 18 Sith Sorceress, Imperial Fleet

Alia, Level 12 Jedi Shadow, Republic Fleet

Kelynn, Level 11 Vanguard, Ord Mantell

The following section is classified as SPOILERS.

If you are not cleared for SPOILERS stop reading now.

This was, of course, the second time I've been through this story.  The first time was in the beta, and really, not all that much changed, despite my going with pretty much all Dark Side choices.  The tale is that of a stolen Republic nuke.  They don't call it a nuke, but if it can blow up the whole island and is highly radioactive, it's a nuke.  For all that I said during the beta that it was a war story, on reflection after the second time through, it's sort of a military/spy hybrid.

That's because your main mission is to find the bomb.  And to do that, you do spy things.  You try to get information from a Republic agent and you coerce information out of Separatist sympathizers. You infiltrate enemy bases.  It's all James Bond type of spying where it always leads to a big firefight.  Except you're in plasteel armor and carrying an assault rifle rather than a tuxedo and Walther PPK.   

The side quests, on the other hand, are all out of the war story handbook.  There's quests involving a thief who took medical supplies to help the refugees.  There's the one with the war correspondent.  Several about purely military objectives like taking out a Separatist communications network or dealing with enemy missile launchers.

That dichotomy makes it less interesting than either of the Sith starting stories.  Too often I felt like I was being pulled away from something really important.  I mean, sure, there were side quests on Korriban.  But in those cases it made sense.  You're a dipshit little acolyte.  When a big name Inquisitor pulls you a side with a job, you do it or eat lightning!  It's all a matter of staying alive by serving everyone above you, while plotting your revenge, of course.

For the Trooper, though, it felt kind of off.  I'm searching for a fucking nuke in the hands of terrorists who might use it to kill thousands if not millions of people.  Do I really have time to fuck around looking for this lady's necklace, or that family's lost son?  And yet, if I don't do it, I won't have enough experience points or gear to actually storm the enemy base at the end!  It felt more "gamey" to me, and took me out of the story in a way that the Sith storylines did not.  

So now I've got a Vanguard on my way to the Republic Space Station and then to Coruscant as I try to level up in advance of our Guild game on Monday.  Let's see how far I can get.

Old Republic Log X

Matt and I ran our Sith team last night.  We ended up doing the "Friends of Old" Group 4 quest on Dromund Kaas.  That was almost a Flashpoint, except without the evolving storyline and dialogue choices.  Actually, it felt like a short WoW Dungeon, with groups of trash mobs, progressing objectives that go linearly, and then a sub-boss fight and a concluding boss fight.

If it was less engaging than a true Flashpoint, it was still fun.  I've got my Sith Sorceress spec'd Healer, so I spent most of the time cycling between my Static Shield defense power and Dark Infusion heal.  It actually worked pretty well, though I discovered that lacking any kind of group heal, at least at this level, it was a lot easier to deal with one big bad enemy than a group of competent ones.  Thus the Sith Lord's apprentices wiped us once, but the Lord herself went down easy.

Overall, not a bad way to spend a few hours.

Tasia leveled up to 17, and got a new outfit out of the deal, as seen below.  I also managed to clean up all but one of my outstanding Group 2+ quests solo, and I'll get the last one when I log in next.  That will allow Tasia to move on to Balmora with a clear conscience.

Well, as clear as a Sith's conscience ever gets, that is.

Tasia, Level 17 Sith Sorceress, Dromund Kaas

Alia, Level 12 Jedi Shadow, Coruscant

Kelynn, Level 7 Trooper, Ord Mantell

Old Republic Log IX

So, as I suggested, I've started a new Trooper to replace Alia with.  Meet Kelynn, a take-no-prisoners cyborg who's scarred physically and emotionally!

 I like how the scars and the cyborg eyepatch make her look like she lost a fight with Wolverine when she was younger.  She's like a female version of Cole, Macon, and Reese.

(Bonus points for anyone who gets that reference!)

Having played a Trooper in the Beta, there's not much the story can do to surprise me, though playing it Dark Side has thrown in a new wrinkle or two.  Not enough to really comment on yet, though.  I'll do an Ord Mantell write-up once I finish the planet.

The question is whether I can get Kelynn up to level 13 in time for our next Guild Game on the 2nd.  If it looks like I'm not going to make it, I'll spend the time to move Alia up to 13 instead, but I remain cautiously optimistic. 

Tonight, though, I'll be heading over to my brother's place and advancing our Sith.  I think we'll finish off some Dromund Kaas quests so that we can do Hammer Station for the first time as a Guild next Monday.

Tasia, Level 16 Sith Sorceress, Imperial Fleet

Alia, Level 12 Jedi Shadow, Coruscant

Kelynn, Level 7 Trooper, Ord Mantell

Old Republic Log VIII

We got the band together last night.  Well, 60% of the band, anyway.  Morgan couldn't make it and Paul works Monday nights, so it was just myself, Matt, and Luke.  We did The Esseles Flashpoint, which wasn't all that different than from The Black Talon that Matt and I did last week.

Still, the Flashpoints remain my favorite part of the game, because they're a tighter experience, with more challenging fights than you get out of open world questing but without the hideous lag that's prevalent in Warzones.  Especially Huttball.  I hate Huttball.

Anyway, I got a couple of pieces of gear during The Esseles, so at least I can show off Alia's new look.  However, I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to play Alia.  It turns out that melee DPS is pretty unforgiving in Old Republic, at least when you're playing on an sub-optimal machine as it appears that I am.  I can't count how many times I moved to get behind an enemy only to have it shot out from under me by Luke's Smuggler or Matt's Trooper.  Since Morgan appears to hate his Trooper's companion and has made himself a Jedi Knight, I'm thinking I may switch over to Trooper myself.  Maybe go DPS Vanguard, since Matt's running a healing Commando.

I'll talk spoilers about The Esseles after Alia's portrait.

Tasia, Level 16 Sith Sorceress, Imperial Fleet
Alia, Level 12 Jedi Shadow, Coruscant

The Esseles SPOILERS follow.

We've got SPOILERS sir!

So we did The Esseles.  It's pretty much a mirror of the The Black Talon, where this time you're on a Republic Transport and get jumped by an Imperial Battleship.  You fight off the attackers, then board the enemy ship in order to shut down the tractor beam, then escape back to your ship for tea and biscuits.  

What was interesting was the fact that the guy who gives you the mission in The Black Talon, Moff Kilrain, is the same guy who spends the whole of The Esseles taunting you.  It was a little disappointing that you never get the chance to give him a lightsaber enema, but I did think that it was a smart use of voice acting resources regardless.

The comparisons to Star Wars the movie are pretty strong in The Esseles, though.  You board the enemy ship to shutdown the tractor beam, then fight into the detention block, then jump down into the waste disposal area, then out into the hanger where you fight a Sith to get to your escape ship.  I was surprised, though, that there's no fight with a Dianoga in the waste disposal zone.  Maybe in Hard Mode.

We had some trouble with the Mandalorian, Ironfist, who kicked our asses twice before we realized that you can have a companion along if you've only got three players in.  We'd been undermanned the whole time up to that point and hadn't noticed!  I called in my Trandoshan Tank companion and then Ironfist went down.

There was some inter-party conflict at the end of the mission, which was interesting.  I've been playing Alia as the Bad Girl of the Jedi Order, and when I had the opportunity to betray a potential liability, there was actually some yelling on the line from teammates who wanted to spare her, even though they'd get their Light Side points regardless of what I picked.  I chose betrayal anyway, but since the dice weren't in my favor, she was spared.  

I can't ever recall anyone going to the wall to try and spare a WoW NPC, though.  So congratulations once again on the story for Old Republic, which manages to make people care even about the NPCs!

Old Republic Log VII

I've gotten my Jedi Consular...now a Jedi Shadow...up to level 10.  There are a few things left for me to do still back on Tython, such as find the third Datacron there and see if I can solo the Heroic Quest I still have outstanding, but I wanted to get my Advanced Class first, and that meant getting to the Republic Fleet.

So here I am, a newly minted Shadow with a Double-Bladed Lightsaber and and a bad attitude.  I've picked up the same Skill set that I did as Tasia: Artifice, Archaeology, and Treasure Hunting.  Partially to reflect Alia "remembering" things she knew as Tasia, but mostly because there are only a couple of Jedi in our Guild, and I wanted to make sure I could get Lightsaber crystals as I advanced.

Honestly, the Jedi Consular story didn't grip me the way the Sith Inquistor, Sith Warrior, or even the Republic Trooper's did.  Maybe it was because I was playing against type, or because I felt more pressure to level up quicker to get to 10 before our first Guild Game on Monday, but it just didn't seem as interesting.  As usual, I'll reserve detailed analysis for the spoiler section after the portrait.

Other than that there's not much else to say.  The downside to the way that The Old Republic mirrors classes is that when I went from Sith Inquisitor to Jedi Consular, I ended up playing the exact same character.  it is only now, at level 10, that things have changed, and I haven't had a chance to do anything with the new abilities yet. So we'll conclude things here and go to the spoiler section.

Tasia, Level 16 Sith Sorceress, Imperial Fleet
Alia, Level 10 Jedi Shadow, Republic Fleet

(SPOILERS follow.)

(Beware of falling SPOILERS.)

Right, so the Jedi Consular starting story involves you tracking down some ancient training holograms that date back to the founding of the Jedi Order.  However, when you try to recover them, you discover that one of them has been stolen.  The rest of the plot involves your finding out who stole it, why, and what was so special about that one hologram.  Along the way you learn some cool things about the beginning of the Order, and have to make some tough decisions, but even so it still didn't feel as much about me the way the other storylines I've played through have.  It felt like any Padawan could have done my job.

Part of the problem, I think, is the way the game encourages you away from playing an interesting character. There are mechanical benefits to going All Dark Side or All Light Side, so if you want as effective a character as possible, you should pick a lane and drive down it as fast as possible.  You start getting access to Light Side or Dark Side only gear as early as level 10, and the only way to get either set at that level is to be a saint or a mass murderer.  There's not a lot of room for character nuance if you want to be able to get the cool Red Lightsaber.  And that's a shame.

That said, I have had fun playing the Bad Girl of the Jedi Order.  There's one point where you discover a Force Sensitive Flesh Raider.  The Flesh Raiders are marauding cannibals who raid the local Twi'lek village for food.  You've tracked down this particular Flesh Raider and the Twi'lek boy he's kidnapped, and discovered that he wants to get Jed training!  The Light Side decision is to take him up on it, but if you pick the Dark Side version, you get to use the Force to hurl him off the cliff edge he's standing on and into a huge bonfire in the middle of the Flesh Raider camp!  It was a pretty cool moment.  

Going Dark also lets you encourage passion, which in this case meant that I conspired to conceal a sexual relationship between Padawans in defiance of the Jedi Code.  Considering that it's supposed to be possible to romance some of your companions, I wonder how Light Side Jedi handle that contradiction?  No nookie for good Jedi?

Well, that's not going to be a problem for Alia, who's got 650 Dark Side points already.  Watch out, world, there's a Dark Jedi on the loose! 

Old Republic Log VI

Let's talk Flashpoints.  Last night, I was over at my brother's place and we got online to play some TOR.  Childcare being what it is, we couldn't both get online until fairly late, but even so, we managed to get our respective Sith characters together at the Imperial Fleet base and do the Black Talon Flashpoint.

And you know what?  It was great.  The conversations that you can vote on and the way that you feel like you're playing out a real story instead of just breaking and entering a dungeon makes all the difference.  It was probably the most fun I've had playing Old Republic so far, and I haven't exactly been having a bad time to date.

I'll talk more about the specifics of the Black Talon in the spoiler section after the portrait.

Speaking of the portrait, today's portrait will be of my Jedi, Alia.  She's the one who's appearance changed at all this time out.  Tasia's participation in the Black Talon didn't score her any gear of note, despite how much fun it was.

Alia, on the other hand, is progressing nicely through the Jedi Consular content.  She's level five now, and has made some progress on her personal story.  It's going much the way I'd expect it to so far, but there may yet be some twists and turns ahead.  We'll see.  Honestly, though, there's not much else to say about her adventures just yet.

Tasia, Level 16 Sith Sorceress, Imperial Fleet
Alia, Level 5 Jedi Consular, Tython

(SPOILERS for the Black Talon Flashpoint coming up!)

(The SPOILERS are coming, the SPOILERS are coming!)

This is probably the most well-known Flashpoint out there, since it was playable at several conventions and trade shows as early as 2009.  In fact, I'll append a video of a game developer walkthrough of the Flashpoint dating to '09 at the end of this post if you'd like to have a look at it yourself.  The Flashpoint coverage starts at 9:32 if you just want to jump ahead.

Anyway, this is the "Spare the Captain" or "Kill the Captain" quest, where the captain of the Black Talon has disobeyed orders to engage a Republic battleship, the Brentaal Star.  You can either kill his ass for disobedience or spare him and take advantage of his combat experience.  Since Tasia is a Light Side character and her roll was higher for the crucial conversation piece we ended up sparing him, though Matt's Dark Side Sith Marauder scored the Dark Side points he needs because he wanted to kill him despite what actually happened.  

So we repelled the Republic boarders and then stormed the Brentaal Star and captured the turncoat Imperial General and got back home in time for tea and crumpets.  It was a blast.  

There were some interesting oddities, though.  For instance in the Light Side version of the Flashpoint you have to fight a Jedi Padawan who's guarding the General.  That Padawan happened to be a female Twi'lek.  Which is, of course what Tasia is.  And what the Sith Warrior starting companion is.  So out of five people involved in the fight, three were female Twi'leks.  That was just amusing.  

We also managed to skip right past an optional boss because none of us spotted him the first time.  We ended up having to go all the way back to finish his sorry ass off.  It was totally worth it, though, because I needed the Dromund Kaas Commendation I got off his corpse to buy some gear I want.

Overall, the first playthrough of Black Talon was great.  You can replay a Flashpoint once a day, so we can go back and do it Dark Side just to see how it changes, and to score more xp and loot both of which are decent in the Flashpoint, though I expect that it will be progressively less fun each time you do it.  

Still, I highly recommend the Flashpoint as an example of The Old Republic at its very best, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the Essene Flashpoint works from the Republic side when we get the band together for our first Guild Night. 

"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" Review

I had a busy weekend, as it happens.  Despite the last movie I'd seen being back in August (The Debt,) I found myself faced with two movies that I've been waiting for appearing in theaters the same weekend.  So I went and saw them both.  You can read what I had to say about Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows one entry before this on my blog.  This review is about the British Cold War spy film, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.

As usual (by which I mean I did this in the Game of Shadows review also) I'll reserve my spoiler-free comments for the first part of the review, include a picture, then expose you to spoilers in the second half.

One line opinion: Moody and atmospheric, and well worth your time if you're willing and able to pay close attention to what's going on.

There are two audiences for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.  The first is those who are familiar with the material, either from reading the original John LeCarre novel or from watching the 1979 BBC mini-series starring Alec Guinness.   Or, as in my case, with both.  The second audience is people coming into the movie blind.  Since I'm firmly in the former camp, I'm not really sure how well the movie explains itself to people in the latter camp.

Knowing what I did about the plot and characters made it more about seeing how this version of the story is played out rather than wondering who was who or what was going on.  So from that perspective, the 2011 version of Tinker, Tailor was a great success.  It's always difficult to compare a book to a movie, since they approach their storytelling from different angles so I'm not sure which version I prefer.  However, I can say with some certainty that I did prefer the 2011 movie to the 1979 mini-series.  That's the case despite the fact that fans consider Alec Guinness' portrayal of protagonist George Smiley to to be the definitive one, so much so that  John LeCarre modeled his writing of Smiley after Guinness' version for all the character's remaining appearances in text after 1980.

The thing about the 1979 version, however, was that it was slow.  With six episodes to fill, the story creeps along with a lot of setup shots, driving around shots, and flashbacks.  By comparison, with only a couple of hours to tell the whole story, the 2011 film really moves.  That's to the story's benefit, since it ratchets up the tension and keeps you involved nearly from the very beginning.  If, as I said, you paid attention.

The downside to 2011's Tinker, Tailor is that it doesn't really slow down much to let you catch up.  It rarely pauses to explain what just happened.  It is not a summer popcorn flick where you turn off your brain and enjoy the explosions or swordfights.  It is, instead, a film that demands that you keep your brain on and follow what's happening, or else risk getting lost and never catching back up.

All that said, the film is very well done, and given how they pushed the American release date back from August to December, clearly the producers know it and are hoping for some Oscar love.  If you're willing to engage your intellect in a film, then Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy is a movie for you.

(I should note, however, that the film is in limited release, so if you want to see it you'll have to look for it.  In Chicagoland there are two choices.  I saw it at the Century 12 in Evanston.  The other local choice is the Landmark Century in Chicago.)

(Spoilers after the poster.)

(Abandon all hope of being un-SPOILED all ye who enter here.)

It was interesting what they added to the film that wasn't in the mini-series.  For instance, they cut back and forth throughout the film to a Christmas party at the Circus which is mentioned in the book but doesn't show up in the '79 version.  There's no significant dialogue in the party scenes, but you learn a lot by watching who is with who, and by interpreting various glances from one person to another.

Something else they added was making Peter gay, and him having to end a relationship to protect himself from surveillance.  That's definitely not in the mini-series or even the book, since Peter's an inveterate skirt-chaser in both older versions, and happily married two books later in Smiley's People.  And yet, the scene works because it forces Peter to make even more of a sacrifice to maintain his position as Smiley's right hand man.

Another thing about the film is the degree to which they use modern techniques to make the film so much more stylistic than the earlier version.  The scene where Smiley confronts Toby is made so much more threatening by placing it on a tarmac with a plane landing as they talk than the simple conversation in a room in either the book or the mini.  It's touches like those throughout the movie that make it succeed much better than I was expecting.

And why I strongly recommend the film, with the conditions I outlined above.

"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows" Review

I caught the new Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows on Friday.  If you want the one line version, here it is:  I liked it a bit more than the first Sherlock Holmes.

For a spoiler-free longer version, let me say that it's a bit smarter than the first Sherlock Holmes, it sticks closer to its source material, and that while I still don't consider it truly "Holmes" in the sense that I feel that a proper Sherlock Holmes story should have a certain feel that the Downey Jr. versions have never even attempted to replicate, they are both still entertaining films.  Well done Robert Downey Jr. action/comedies are worth seeing, regardless of premise, and both Sherlock Holmes films are that.

Still, they fail to me as Holmes movies, so if you're a big Sherlock Holmes fan, you'll need to turn that part of your brain off to enjoy them.  It's ironic that while both Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows are period pieces set in the Victorian era, and the BBC series Sherlock is set in modern day, the latter feels much more like a proper Holmes story than either of the former.  Sherlock proves, I think, that it isn't horsecarts and steam engines that make Holmes, it's the attitude and atmosphere of the piece, and that's something that Sherlock gets that the Sherlock Holmes movies do not.

Or perhaps it is more fair to say that while the creators of A Game of Shadows may understand what makes a good Holmes film, they also know what makes a good Downey Jr. action/comedy, and they've chosen to focus on the latter instead of the former.  And hey, they made $39.6 million dollars in their opening weekend, so they may even be correct in their choice.

The rest of this review, and the comments section, will contain SPOILERS after the poster.

SPOILERS ahoy!

This movie reminds me of Casino Royale, in that they're both adaptations of written work that, due to the length of the original material, requires new material to grow into a feature length film.  In the case of Casino Royale it was to expand a short novel into a movie.  As the novel starts with Bond arriving at the Royale to gamble against Le Chifre, the filmmakers created the entire first half of the film out of whole cloth to make it so that Bond is the cause of Le Chifre's money problems in the first place.  That worked for me.

In A Game of Shadows, the problem was to transform Arthur Conan Doyle's 7,158 word short story The Final Problem into a full movie.  The thing of it is, by the time the story begins and Watson gets involved in The Final Problem, all the interesting stuff has already happened.  Holmes has tracked down Professor Moriarity, uncovered the evidence of his crimes, had his threatening conversation with the man, gone to the police with the evidence, and survived three assassination attempts.  All he needs Watson for is to give him a little back-up as he flees the country to escape Moriarty's wrath.  There's a chase scene as they get out of London, then the final confrontation between Holmes and Moriarity at Reichenbach Falls.

A Game of Shadows compromises by having Holmes already done some of the legwork, but requiring Watson's help to actually unravel Moriarty's schemes.  So, like in Casino Royale, we have a lot of invented material before the movie catches up with the short story.  In this case, however, the short story material only comes in for the last few minutes, and even that is heavily modified.

Still, as a feature length version of the unusually talky and yet short text that is Final Problem, I think that the filmmakers did a decent job with A Game of Shadows, noting of course my earlier objections to it being considered a true Holmes film in the first place.  It is hard not to fall back on the old pornography definition of "I know it when I see it" in cases like this, so let me try to explain why I don't consider these films "true" Holmes films.  In short, I don't think they take Sherlock Holmes seriously.

Granted, there are moments of seriousness, usually when Holmes is making a big reveal about how clever he is, and especially at the end of the film.  But for the most part, Holmes eccentricities, especially his inventiveness and way with people, are used for comedic rather than dramatic effect.  Which is why I talk about the different needs of a real Sherlock Holmes story and an action/comedy.  In the former, you are expected to be drawn in by the amazing things that Holmes can do.  In the latter, you laugh at them.  If you're not taking Holmes seriously, it's not Sherlock Holmes at all.

My only other primary complaint was the way they killed off Rachel McAdam's Irene Adler.  McAdams and Downey Jr. have excellent chemistry, much more than either he or Jude Law had with Noomi Rapace, and Adler's death early in the film was a disappointment.  I know why they did it, to set Moriarity up as dangerous and to make his later threats against the Watsons credible, but it still felt like a waste of an excellent character to me.

I do appreciate, however, the way that A Game of Shadows manages to avoid the sequel trap.  Unlike, say, Men in Black II, A Game of Shadows manages to feel less like a repetition of the first movie so much as it is a natural progression from it.  Watson is getting married, Holmes has made progress on tracking down Moriarity, and so on.  Arguably, the two Holmes movies feel like parts one and two of the same story rather than the original and the sequel.  That's to their credit.

Overall they did a good job with this film, and I enjoyed it.  If there's a Sherlock Holmes III, I'll probably go see it.  If you liked the first Sherlock Holmes there's no reason not to go see Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.

Old Republic Log V

Despite my playing for a few hours last night, Tasia remains at level 16.  However, I did advance to a major plot point, the acquisition of my very own Fury class Interceptor and the droid who helps maintain it for me.  The former gives me my own travelling Rest Area, so I don't have to keep bunking down in cantinas.  The latter counts as my second companion, even though he doesn't have any combat ability.  But since he can be sent on Crew Skill Missions, he's worth having around regardless.

So now I've completed the main Dromund Kaas plotlines, though I've still got a bunch of Party 2 and Party 2+ quests that I skipped along the way that I'd like to try to beat solo like I did on Korriban.  I also failed to find any Datacrons, so I've got to go looking for those too.

But all that will have to wait.  Since they so inconsiderately shut down the servers a couple of hours before we were scheduled to do our first guild run, the Kessel Midnight Runners have yet to do anything.  So rather than mess around with the early level stuff, especially since everyone else is making a Trooper or Smuggler so I'd be stuck going solo on Tython anyway, I figured we might as well get through our starting worlds, and meet up to do the Essene Flashpoint together as a group next Monday, then press on to Coruscant.

We've also got a Ventrillo server now, and that's nice since it'll allow us to do voice chat when we play.  (Thanks, Morgan!)

So that's pretty much it.  I'll be working on Alia for the next few updates while Tasia chills in orbit around Dromund Kaas.  I do have a brief story update for the Sith Inquisitor storyline that I'll append after Tasia's portrait as usual.

Apprentice Tasia, Level 16 Sith Sorceress, Dromund Kaas
Alia, Level 2 Jedi Consular, Tython

(SPOILERS follow.)

(Entering SPOILER zone....)

Right, so your big plotline as an Inquisitor after the murder of Darth Skotia is an artifact hunt.  You're looking for the five pieces of an artifact created by the long-dead Sith Lord Tulak Hord.  While recovering the first piece from the Dark Temple on Dromund Kaas, you encounter a ghost who claims that you're his descendant, and encourages you to become powerful and resurrect the family name.

Here's what Lord Kallig's ghost looks like:

Anyone else see the problem?

Okay, so Tasia's a Twi'lek.  For her to be descended from Lord Kellig, he needs to be a Twi'lek too.  Except he hasn't got any lekku, the big head-tails that Twi'lek have.  And since a Twi'lek's lekku contains a part of his or her brain, it would be pretty tough for him not to have any.  I suppose it's possible that those boxy things on the side of his head are some kind of cybernetic implant that he used to replace his lekku with.  Also, the Clone Wars TV show has it that Humans and Twi'lek can interbreed, so he could have gotten a Twi'lek lover pregnant and her descendants could have all bred with pureblood Twi'leks until eventually Tasia was born looking like a pure Twi'lek.

But it still threw me for a loop.  And I shouldn't have to fan-wank an explanation for Kallig's appearance.  That's BioWare's job.  Considering that the player runs into Kallig in an instanced zone and will only see his or her own version of Kallig and the fact that there are different Kallig models already, as seen here, it just seems a little sloppy.

Would it really have been so hard to make sure that Twi'lek Inquisitors get a Kallig with lekku?  Or at least the hooded version so we could pretend that he's a Twi'lek?  I mean, really.

Anyway, that's what I've got to say about the Inquisitor so far.  Now, on to the Jedi Consular!

Old Republic Log IV

So I played a little on Friday, not at all on Saturday, and then almost all of Sunday as I watched bad football (the Bears,) more bad football (the Broncos,) and good cooking (Next Iron Chef finale.)   Let's hear it for a decent laptop!

My progress for the weekend amounted to four levels, taking Tasia from level 12 to level 16.  In that time I've gotten to the endgame for the Dromund Kaas storylines.  Once I complete the final zone, I'll probably be getting my ship and heading off world.  With luck, I'll also pick up a second companion.  The one I've got is nice, but every time I send him on a mission to pick something up for me, I have to quit questing, since I need my tank.

I've spec'ed Tasia as a Healer.  My current battle tactic is to send my companion into the fray, hit him with a Static Shield which absorbs "a high amount of damage," then give one to myself, then Force Lightning various targets while he goes around hacking people up and drawing most of the fire.  Occasionally, I'll hit him with a Dark Infusion to keep his hit points up, or if there's a lot of them, run into the middle of the group and blast everyone with an Overload.  Works pretty much every time.

I've experimented more with the crafting system.  Initially, you can make Green items.  Once you make them, or buy them from other players through the Galactic Exchange (Auction House,) you can Reverse Engineer them and get half the materials back.  After a few attempts using Reverse Engineering on your Greens, you learn how to make Blue versions of the same item.  Once you Reverse Engineer some of those, you learn how to make Purple versions.  The Gathering skills, like Archaeology, get you the basic raw materials for your Crafting...everything you'll need to make the Green versions of things.  The Mission skills, like Treasure Hunting, get you the advanced materials that you need to make the Blue and Purple versions.  The Mission skill can also get you flat-out loot in the form of lockboxes that have credits or gear in them!

Each of the various skills synergize with other ones.  So in my case, Tasia has Artifice as her Craft (Lightsaber creation and modification,) Archaeology as her Gather (Power and Color Crystals for Lightsabers,) and Treasure Hunting (Gems for Lightsabers and other loot) as her Mission.  You can only have one Crafting skill, and only three skills total, but in theory you could have nothing but Mission skills if all you want to do is bob for loot.  Just be warned that it can get expensive.  Sending your companions out to Gather or on Missions costs credits every time.  The cheapest is 95 credits for the most basic of missions, and it goes up from there.  Even Treasure Hunting for loot boxes doesn't always win for you.  I've spent 95 credits to get a box that only has 62 credits inside.  Fortunately, Crafting doesn't consume credits though it does obviously chew up the other resources you collect.

I'll talk briefly about the Sith Inquisitor storyline after Tasia's current portrait.

Tasia, Level 16 Sith Sorceress, Dromund Kaas
Alia, Level 2 Jedi Consular, Tython

(Sith Inquisitor SPOILERS below!)

(Last chance!)

On Dromund Kaas, it's all about Sith politics.  Indeed, it may well be a parable about how evil consumes itself.  As an Inquisitor, your master's path forward is blocked by her superior, Darth Skotia.  So you spend most of your time plotting, and eventually accomplishing, his assassination.   During that time you have to storm the estate of a renegade Sith lord who is, in turn, is plotting with an exiled Sith who wants to invade the Imperial capital!  Along the way you run into a Cult of Revan, Sith hunting citizens for sport, and a full fledged slave rebellion.  

With all that going on, it's amazing that they managed to invade the Republic in the first place!

Overall, it's been very Sithy, though going lightside has led to some interesting decisions.  Especially since my companion is a Force User eating assassin who hates it when I show mercy.  

Still, I'm enjoying the story so far.

Old Republic Log III

So I'm on Dromund Kaas.  I hit level 12 and then went back to Korriban and kicked that Heroic 2+ quest in the teeth.  Along the way I earned the last Korriban Commendation that I needed to buy the special Inquisitor gear there.  Unfortunately by the time I did, I'd already gotten something better on a random drop, so I just gave it to my companion instead.  Looking at the Codex I seem to be missing a few things, but since I can't travel to Korriban Orbital Station until I get my own ship around level 15 or so, I'm not going to worry about it until then.

I also did some PvP, after looking up how in the Codex.  It turns out there's a tiny Empire symbol in the corner of the mini-map that you hit to queue up for PvP.  So I did that.  It was okay.  Despite my best efforts, my machine still slows down in the presence of other players, and it gets pretty bad when I PvP with it.  Not unplayably bad, mind you, but still less fun than I have when soloing around doing PvE stuff.

The experience points for PvP are pretty good, though.   Doing four PvP matches and completing a couple of  quests were all that I needed to take me from level 11 to level 12, so that was nice.  At this time there are three PvP zones.  Alderaan, which is a three capture point King of the Hill style map reminiscent of Arathi Basin, Voidstar which is a back and forth offense-defense situation similar to Strand of the Ancients though without the tanks, and Huttball which is kinda like a capture the flag game except that you're trying to score the flag in your opponent's goal, you can pass the "flag," and if you hold onto it for too long it blows you up.

Of the three, I had the most success on Alderaan, where the three air defense control terminals spread players out so I don't have too many people on the screen at a time.  Huttball was the worst for me because  everyone was always swarming to the ball and making my life hell.  Your mileage, especially with a better PC than mine, will almost certainly vary.

I also got my Crew Skills set up.  I've got Treasure Hunting, which can get you almost anything, Archaeology which gets you crystals for lightsabers, and Artifice, which is building lightsabers and modifications for same.  The way it works is that you dispatch your companion on one of those three jobs and when he comes back he gives you what he found and your skill in that area increases.  The problem at low levels is that you only have access to 3 and 6 minute missions, so you're constantly having to resend the guy.  And if there's a way to queue up many missions in a row, I haven't found it yet.  And of course in these early days, since I only have the one companion, so anytime I've got him out on a job I don't have him for a mission.  But that does let me get some use out of him while I'm exploring cities or doing other non-combat activities.

No story spoilers this time, since I didn't advance the plot appreciably.

Tasia, Level 12 Sith Sorceress, Dromund Kaas

Alia, Level 2 Jedi Consular, Tython

Old Republic Log II

I've been playing Old Republic in bursts since Tuesday afternoon, and as of late last night (technically this morning around 2am) I finished the Sith starting planet of Korriban.  I was a little surprised by the way the main plot resolved, since it seemed to be setting up for on thing, then went in a slightly different direction.  So that was nice, since it's always better to be surprised by a story rather than being able to predict it note for note.

Since The Old Republic is unique among MMOs for being vulnerable to spoilers, I'll be including a spoiler section at the end of this post to discuss plot and story elements, right after Tasia's current portrait.

As far as gameplay goes, the Sith Inquisitor really needs her companion much more than the Trooper or Sith Warriors I played in the beta.  Prior to my acquiring my companion, I found myself getting surrounded and badly cut up pretty often.  I'd usually win, but it would be close.  Now that I've got a pseudo-Tank companion, I send him in first, let him draw all the  aggro, then murder everyone one at a time with Force Lightning.  There's a solo quest in the Sith Academy that I failed at every time I tried it at levels seven, eight, and nine that was a cakewalk at level ten with my companion alongside.  I even completed a Heroic 2 quest with just me and my companion, though my attempts at doing a Heroic 2+ quest ended in failure.

We should talk terms here, I suppose.  Players coming from a World of Warcraft background may be surprised to discover that all classes in The Old Republic are pet classes.  In WoW, the Hunter, Warlock, and Unholy Death Knights got pets...monsters or animals who travel with them on a permanent basis.  You had a separate command bar that you used to give them orders, and you fought as a team.

In The Old Republic everyone gets a pet.  Or more specifically, everyone gets a companion.  A companion is a character who travels alongside you and fights for you, and has their own command bar just like a WoW pet.  However, unlike a Warlock's demon, a Hunter's per, or a Death Knight's ghoul, a TOR companion can be conversed with.  They fight harder for you the more they like you, and you can buy them gifts and even romance them as you go along!  They have their own questlines that you can go on, and they comment on what you're doing as you go through the game.

They're pretty neat, though so far I've only had this one for a couple of hours.  You get an item to change your companion's appearance, which I accidentally discarded, leaving me with the basic color scheme for him which is pretty annoying.  I'm hoping to figure out where to find a new one, so I'll probably have to Google for that once I finish typing this up.

We should also talk about quests.  Like most MMOs, TOR sends you on various missions around the planet you're on.  Sometimes it's a fetch quest (go get this and bring it back) and sometimes it's a kill quest (kill x of creature y) and sometimes it's a conversation quest where you resolve it entirely through dialogue choices.  In general, you get one or two conversation quests in your starting zone then a bunch of fetch quests, with the kill quests activated once you kill a monster in the area, then you get a chance to kill a bunch more of them as you go about your business in exchange for more experience with which to level up.

Heroic X quests are quests that require more than one player.  The suggested number of players is the X.  So a Heroic 2 quest means you should be able to do it with two people.  Heroic 2+ means at least two, but probably more, hence my repeated failures at soloing it with my companion.  Though I did get painfully close, and will likely head back there at level 11 to try my luck again.

Speaking of experience, questing is the primary way to get the points to level your character up with.  You do get some for exploring and more for killing monsters, but mostly it's about the quests.  I haven't tried PvP yet...in fact, I haven't figured out HOW to yet, despite having been given a quest to go and do so...so I can't comment on how valuable that aspect of the game is from an XP standpoint.

That said, you should still explore.  On Korriban alone, I found three Datacrons out in the wilderness that gave me a permanent stat boost or a piece of an item that I can combine with other pieces to make...something.  I'm not sure how that works yet, to be honest.

So that's where I'm at.  I've just left Korriban with my new companion, and I'm tooling around the Imperial Space Station seeing what's on offer.  I'll soon head off to Dromund Kaas, the Imperial Capital, to see what's the next step in my story.

Tasia, Level 10 Sith Sorceress, Imperial Space Station
Alia, Level 2  Jedi Consular, Tython

(SPOILERS after the Tasia portrait.)

(You have been Warned.)

Okay, so the story so far is that you're a slave from a conquered Republic world with Force Sensitivity, and you have to prove yourself worthy of becoming a Sith or die trying.  This contrasts nicely with the Sith Warrior background, where you're the scion of a noble Sith family brought in from Dromund Kaas early because you're so cool.  Even though you're going to pretty much the same places and having the same world quests, the differences in the way you're treated in one storyline versus the other is pretty stark.  

I like that.

What caught me by surprise was this.  As a Sith Warrior, you spend most of your time on Korriban with a rival, who you get into Sith nobility games with, including the opportunity to retaliate after he sends an assassin after you by sending three assassins after him.  So that's cool.  As one might expect, he slaughters your hit team as easily as you killed his guy, and during your final test in the Tomb of Naga Sadow, he ambushes you, and you fight your final duel and finally end him.  It's predictable, but reasonably cool nevertheless.

As a Sith Inquisitor, you also have a rival.  He's a pureblood Sith who hates your guts for being a lowly slave with delusions of grandeur.  Which, to be fair, is exactly what you are.  He's the favorite of your Overseer, and he gets all kinds of special treatment while you get sent on one suicide mission after another.  Finally, in the Tomb of Naga Sadow during your final test....nothing happens.  Turns out your rival blew it and is already back at the Overseer having failed his test, at which point the Lord for whom the Overseer is working flat out executes your rival and promotes you as her apprentice.  No final duel, no test of strength.  Just "You blew it?  Here's some Force Lightning.  New girl?  You're up next.  Don't fuck up like he did."

The tonal shift between the Sith classes is pretty huge.  As a Warrior, you leave Korriban feeling like you're the master of the universe.  You've fought through and kicked that asshole in the nuts and now you're a Sith, baby!  Meanwhile, as the Inquisitor, you feel like you've barely scraped through, and that death is lurking right around the corner, and to fail is to die in agony.  You're only here on your mistress' sufferance, and if the last guy hadn't cocked it up, you'd already be dead.

And you know what?  That works for me.  I never felt like anything more than the sum of my stats in WoW, and if Old Republic can get me to care about my character AS a character?  That's awesome.

Bring on the story!

Old Republic Log I

And we're back.  After a month trying NaNoWriMo (and failing, but learning some valuable lessons)  and then taking a couple of weeks off to de-compress, it's time to get back to daily blogging, or as near to it as possible.  So I thought I'd start with something easy, a log of my journeys through the new Star Wars MMO, The Old Republic.

Astute readers will note that the game doesn't officially release until December 20th, but there is a pre-order bonus called Early Access which allows players who've pre-ordered the game to play as much as a week early, depending on when they pre-ordered.  And, as it happens, I pre-ordered back in August, which gets me the full week, which started yesterday.

So I'm in the game.  I've decided to crib my character concept from the ongoing Star Wars RPG game I'm a player in, because it allows me to play both sides of the game with functionally the same character.  Also, since I'm a firm believer in Ottoman's Law, said character will be female.

With that in mind, allow me to introduce Tasia.

As you can see, Tasia is a Twi'lek Sith Inquisitor.  She will eventually go down the Sith Sorcerer path, becoming a ranged damage dealer.

And this is her future counterpart, Alia.

You see, in the tabletop game we've been playing we discovered that our characters weren't who we thought they were.  To be precise, we found out that we were the subjects of the Phoenix Project, a Republic initiative to duplicate the accidental success they had with Revan by mind-wiping captured criminals and  giving them new Republic-friendly identities.  The fallout of which once the truth came out being the core conflict of the game.

I'm cribbing that idea for Tasia/Alia.  The way I'm running it is that Tasia comes first, runs through her adventures working for the Sith and then eventually gets captured by the Republic, mind-wiped, and given a new identity as Alia, who believes herself to be a Jedi Padawan freshly arrived on Tython to complete her training.  The Jedi Consular starting quests even support the notion, because the player is considered to be an especially wise and powerful Padawan.  So much so, that you're sent out on dangerous missions from the get go because you have so much potential.  That actually makes more sense in my version, because rather than sending out an inexperienced Padawan to her doom, they're sending a veteran Sith Sorceress who just doesn't know how powerful she really is.

So that's the storyline I'm going with.  To play out her conflicted nature, and because it's more fun, I'm playing Tasia as a Light Side Sith, and Alia as a Dark Side Jedi.  Alia will be a Female Twi'lek Jedi Consular who will advance into Jedi Shadow, the stealth and lightsaber Jedi variant, and there's a very good reason to do it that way, which I'll get into when we discuss classes.

Let's talk about gender, race, and class, shall we?

Race and gender are purely matters of aesthetic.  There are no mechanical bonuses for either choice.  You do get a unique social emote based on your species, and some of the dialogue with NPCs changes based on whether you're a man or a woman, and on what species you are, but that's all.

While I find the lack of racial bonuses a little disappointing, I suppose it does eliminate the problems you get in late game raiding in games like World of Warcraft where the "elite" players know there are certain perfect builds, including what races to play for which class, that can get your level 85 character excluded from a group because of a choice you made years ago in character generation.  Still, I've never seen that be a problem in any but a tiny number of the most elitist jerk of guilds, so it seems like something of an over-reaction on the part of the designers to eliminate something most players were expecting to have in the game just to solve a problem that only affects 0.1% of the population, if that.

Which brings us to your class.  Bioware claims that there are effectively sixteen classes, since each of the eight base classes can evolve into one of two different Advanced Classes.

On the Republic side you get:

Jedi Knight, which evolves into Jedi Guardian or Jedi Sentinel.
Jedi Consular, which goes into Jedi Sage or Jedi Shadow.
Trooper, which promotes into Commando or Vanguard.
Smuggler, which has Gunslinger or Scoundrel.

Meanwhile, for the Empire you get:

Sith Warrior, which has Sith Juggernaut or Sith Marauder.
Sith Inquisitor, who can go Sith Sorcerer or Sith Assassin.
Bounty Hunter, who learn Powertech or Mercenary.
Imperial Agent, which develop into Sniper or Operative.

Sixteen classes, right?

Not so fast.  First of all, if you're looking at it from a story standpoint there are only eight classes.  Your story doesn't change when you pick your advanced class.  You're on the Smuggler storyline, regardless of whether your specific Smuggler is a Scoundrel or a Gunslinger.  As far as the rest of the universe is concerned, there are only eight classes.

The thing of it is, mechanically, there are only eight classes too.  That's because the Republic and Sith counterparts are exact duplicates of one another.  The powers look different from one another but from a purely mechanical standpoint, they function identically.  A Sith Inquisitor starts off at level one with a couple of basic lightsaber moves and a short bust of Force Lightning that can stun weaker enemies.  A level one Jedi Consular gets the same lightsaber moves and a ranged telekinetic attack where she pulls debris from the ground and hits her enemy with it.  Which does the same damage and has the same stun chance as the Sith Inquisitor's Shock ability.

Hence my decision to have Tasia go Sorcerer and Alia go Shadow.  Otherwise I'd be stuck with the same powers from character to character, and I'd prefer more variety than that, especially considering the amount of time an MMO usually requires over the long haul.

There's another difference between my two characters, and that's their guild participation.  Tasia is a crazed loner who will only be working regularly with her companions (something I'll discuss in a later entry once I actually have one) and only plans to work with other players on a ad hoc basis.  Alia, on the other hand, is Guild Leader for the Kessel Midnight Runners.

That's the guild I've put together with my brother and a few friends.  We're still working out a schedule, but it's almost a certainty that Alia will get much less playtime than Tasia will, since she'll only get used for Guild runs and those will only be a few hours a week at most.  But that's fine, since that way we'll see much more of Tasia's past before we move into Alia's future, right?  Makes sense to me.

So here's where we stand right now:

Tasia, Level 7 Sith Inquisitor, Korriban
Alia, Level 2 Jedi Consular, Tython

NaNoWriMo '11, Day 10

After two days of write-ins at Oakton Community College, I've made some progress, but I'm still way behind.  I did discover something that I wouldn't have expected to work, though...I've started writing while listening to sports radio online!  Normally, I only write with music on in the background, but somehow listening to people talk actually works for me.

Maybe it's because I'm used to doing something else (ie, driving) while listening to talk radio makes it possible for me to multi-task like that.  I don't know for sure, but it does open up a variety of possibilities.

NaNoWriMo Day 10
Word Count: 6613 / 13.2%

NaNoWriMo '11, Day 8

After several days of horrible procrastination, I managed to make it to another write-in group.  This one, at the Niles Public Library, had a very different feel than the Oakton group I was in last week (and will be again tomorrow and Thursday).  This group was exclusively female (except for me) and had a number of Twilight and Eragon fans in it.  While I abhor both series for their literary failures, the fact that they inspired a number of young people into trying to write novels is commendable.

Still, I won't mind getting back to a group that's more my speed, including at least one other writer who's doing her work based on a RPG scenario she created the way I am with mine.

I press on!

NaNoWriMo Day 8
Word Count: 5172 / 10.3%

NaNoWriMo '11, Day 3

So we're falling behind here.  The goal at the end of day 3 is 5001 and I'm stuck at 3990.  With less than ten minutes in the day, I'm not reaching that (and probably shouldn' be typing this) but we press on into the night!

Which is good, because I've always been a night person and my biggest single chunk of writing was that first couple of hours when NaNoWriMo started at midnight.  Let's see if I can regain some momentum!

NaNoWriMo Day 3
Word Count: 3990 / 8%

NaNoWriMo '11, Day 1, pt 2

So I attended an in person write-in at Oakton Community College this morning.  Got in another 1600 words or so, and met a few more of my fellow Wrimos.  Got a bagel, some chocolate covered pretzels, and some candy out of the deal too.  That and a pair of gloves and a notebook they were giving away.  Not a bad haul, and a reasonably productive time writing to boot.

Things have started out well.

NaNoWriMo Day 1
Word Count: 3240 /  6.5%

NaNoWriMo '11, Day 1

So I did the midnight online launch event for the Chicago NaNoWriMos.  That's the first time I've ever written while I had a chat window up.  It was an interesting experience, and the occasional Word Wars (who can write the most words in a half hour) were pretty effective motivation for someone who's as competitive as myself.  Granted, I didn't win any of them, but still, it got me writing, and that's what matters.

As the goal is 50,000 words in 30 days, you need to make an average of 1,667 words every day to make your 50k at the end.  Tonight, I managed 1,641 in under two hours.  Not a bad start at all.  But starting is easy.  Finishing...that's hard.  We'll see where I'm at in a month, eh?

NaNoWriMo Day 1
Word Count: 1,641 / 3.3%

NaNoWriMo '11, Day 0

So I've been assembling a fantasy novel in my head for the last few months.  I'm cannibalizing some of the deep background for various D&D and Warhammer games I've run, tossing in some character work I've done for other games, and using that simplest of storytelling frameworks, The Road Trip.

Hey, it worked for old J.R.R., right?

I'm also going to try and aggressively attend various local events, including seminars and writing sessions at local libraries and community colleges, and a kick-off online writing session at exactly midnight tonight.  As I go, I'll keep some basic notes and an online word count here so I can examine some of the writing process in retrospect.

Check back here from time to time to see how I'm doing!

NaNoWriMo Day 0/30
Word Count: 0 / 0%

Write Everyday Project, On Hold for NaNoWriMo

So, starting tomorrow, I'll be participating in National Novel Writing Month.  That's where you try to write a novel of 50,000+ words from scratch in the month of November.  As such, all my writing will be devoted to that until December.  We will be writing everyday, of course, just not on this blog.  Normal service should resume in and around December 1st or so, and in the meantime, I'll be posting my progress (or lack of same) at NaNoWriMo here as I go.

Wish me luck...I'll need it.

Write Everyday Project #28, Weekend TV

Though it was a pretty busy weekend for me overall, I still managed to get some TV watching in Friday night and Sunday night, so I thought I'd share my thoughts on what I saw.

Boss - Episode 2 was Friday, and I caught it on the repeat on Starz West after catching the decent but not extraordinary Angelina Jolie action flick Salt.  Boss, episode 2, had a smidge more nudity and the politics was deeper since they weren't fooling around introducing everyone this time.  The trap the Mayor sets for the Governor is well done, and the subplot about Tom's medical condition continues apace.  The details of his relationship with his daughter and wife are delved into as well.  I'm not enthralled by the show, but I'll probably try and catch episode 3 as well, when I get the chance.

Amazing Race XIX - The nineteenth season (they do two a year, with only one the first year, meaning the show's been on for 10 years now) of my favorite reality show chugs on, and while I'm still enjoying it, I'm not as enthused as I used to be.  Partially it's because the show has changed surprisingly little over ten years, and partially because I've been watching Amazing Race: Australia online via YouTube and the two shows get mingled in my head, leading to a certain amount of confusion.  Still, The Amazing Race remains my favorite reality show, if "reality" is the proper word for a competition that involves doing things no regular tourist could ever manage on their own, and I'm glad it's still on the air.

The Next Iron Chef: Super Chefs - They went all out with the casting this year.  I've heard of six out of the ten chefs competing to become an Iron Chef.  That's a huge number, since in previous seasons I'd usually only have heard of one of the chefs, and sometimes not even that.  Mind you, this year that's because they're mining heavily from their own shows for the chefs.  Three of them are Chopped judges (Guarnaschelli, Samuelsson, and m'man Zakarian,) six others from other Food Network and Cooking Network shows like Worst Cooks in America (Irvine, Burrell, MacMillan) and some of the daytime shows on Food and Cooking that I don't watch.    Indeed, there's only one chef on The Next Iron Chef this season who doesn't have her own show, Elizabeth Faulkner, and even she's been a challenger on regular Iron Chef.  So this is like Like Chopped All-Stars taken to an even higher level.  And I'm okay with that.

Write Everyday Project #27, "Boss" Review

(Spoiler Free Version)

I caught the first episode of Boss on Starz.  That's the new drama starring Kelsey Grammer as the mayor of Chicago.  It has promise, even if I saw most of the plot twists coming.  It doesn't portray a very flattering view of the government of Chicago, but then again the Machine does have a deserved image problem.  Between this and The Chicago Code it seems as if Hollywood, or at least TV producers, have finally noticed the dramatic value of a corrupt major city.

The Chicago Code was filmed from the point of view of a bunch of plucky outsiders fighting against the corruption, and didn't last a season.  Boss, on the other hand, places the protagonist at the heart of the corruption, and endeavors to show not only that power corrupts, but that the corruption is itself a form of power.  That's a more interesting story, and one that has been done quite this way, as far as I know.

Another advantage that Boss has over the now departed Chicago Code is that by airing on Starz, they can have swearing and nudity.  The nudity wasn't strictly speaking necessary, as the same plot information could have been conveyed with greater subtlety, and indeed had been done so by the scene immediately prior.  But this is Starz, and if you've ever seen the Spartacus shows, then you know that Starz is all about the gratuitous nudity.  Compared to most Starz shows, though, the nudity in Boss was positively puritanical, and since it happened to cater to my particular sexual demographic I can't find myself getting particularly worked up about it.  Did it have to be there?  No.  Did I mind that it was?  Nope.

I will say that Grammer does an excellent job with the role.  There's nothing of Frasier in his performance.  His Mayor Tom Kaine is done in the Daley style, with great speeches to the public followed by ruthless arrogance behind closed doors.  He'd make a decent villain for a lesser show, but having him as the main protagonist is a stroke of genius.  Darth Vader was always more interesting than Luke Skywalker, after all.

Overall, I like the show.  I hope things get a little less predictable for me, but I'm certainly willing to let that slide in favor of Grammer's performance.  If you like drama, and especially if you're from the Chicagoland area, you should give Boss a try.

(Spoiler Version follows.  If you haven't seen the show yet and plan to, punch out now and come back later.)

Write Everyday Project #26, Papa's Pineapple Bread (Cooking III)

So named because my niece Julia calls my father (her grandfather) "Papa" and one of his signature dishes "Papa Bread," here's a recipe for pineapple muffins that's popular in my family.

2 Cups Flour
1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/2 teaspoon Salt
1 Cup White Sugar*
1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil
2 Eggs
1 1/4 Cups Crushed Pineapple (Half a 20 oz can)
1/2 Teaspoon Anise
1 Tablespoon Milk

Pre-heat an oven to 350 degrees.

Grease 12 Muffin Tins.  (We use Pam)

Sift together the Flour, Baking Soda, Baking Powder, and Salt.

Combine Sugar, Oil, Eggs, and Crushed Pineapple.  Stir well.

Slowly add the Flour mixture to the Pineapple mixture, stirring well as you do.

Add Anise.  Stir well.

Add Milk.  Stir well.

Fill 12 muffin tins to just under the brim of the cups.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Makes 12 muffins.  Prep time 10-15 minutes.  30 minutes baking.  Total time 40-45 minutes.

* = Sweeten to taste.  "Papa" prefers to halve the sugar when preparing it for Julia, though this does make it kind of bland for adult eaters.

Write Everyday Project #25, What Dreams May Come

Is there anything more disruptive to your morning than waking up in the middle of a dream?  Okay, yes, getting interrupted by an alien invasion probably would be worse, but we're talking about relatively everyday occurances here.  Sunday morning I woke up in the middle of a truly odd Doctor Who related dream, featuring the tenth and eighth doctors, which was pretty odd since I haven't seen anything but eleventh Doctor shows all this year.  I rarely remember my dreams except when I'm interrupted, and even then the details remain fuzzy.

What gets me about it is how badly it throws me off.  It takes minutes before I'm able to even get out of bed, and hours before I'm feeling fully up to snuff.  Even after food and a shower, I'm still vaguely woozy.  Breaking up that REM is a bad idea!

I do have a recurring dream, of a sort though, that I call the Unfinished Game.  I often wake up feeling like I'm missing a part of a game I'm supposed to be playing.  Sometimes I even make it to my PC before I remember that no, I'm not missing anything.  The odd thing is, that within the dream the rules seem consistent, and when I awake I feel like I should be submitting a turn or preforming some other action, but there is, of course, no real game to play.

It can be a little disconcerting, to tell you the truth.

Still, I sometimes wish that I could remember dreams without having it ruin my morning.  It'd be nice to know what my subconscious is up to in there.

Write Everyday Project #24, Demographics

Did you know that Blogger tracks where people see your blog from?  Check out my stats:

United States 638 Russia 30 Germany 19 United Kingdom 12 Slovenia 12 Canada 6 Singapore 3 Australia 2 Austria 1 Estonia 1

Now obviously most of my pageviews are from the USA, which is to be expected.  I expect that if I could get an even more specialized view that I'd see 90%+ located in and around Chicago with a smattering in Dallas, Washington DC, and Wisconsin for most of the rest.  And since I know at least one of my friends took a trip to Canada in the last few months, I can understand those views.  But how am I getting traffic from Russia?  Or Germany?  Singapore?  Estonia?  


So yeah, if you're seeing this post, do me a favor and post a comment listing where you're from and maybe how you stumbled on this blog.  I'm curious to see how this works.  


Thanks!