It's Probably Safe to Post Now...

Wow, life takes over fast, doesn't it?  Haven't been able to play SWTOR in a while, either.  I want to say "Hello!!" to Rach and Eli for being awesome people!  Also, Rach, I've been meaning to e-mail you, I haven't forgotten!  Just suck is all...

I did get to watch all of Bioshock Infinite...and boy if you don't want spoilers don't read anymore after this paragraph.  I can safely say that it was an amazing experience that had me glued to the television and I wasn't even playing.  Mostly because FPV gives me motion sickness and I suck horribly at it.  Literally.  When I pick up the controller there's a strange vacuum noise...

Here be spoilers:
Okay, so the first thing I noticed was that a) Elizabeth looked exactly like Belle from Beauty and the Beast except she had blue eyes and b) she had the same AI duties as Elika (except for combat).  Yay for Magical Girlfriends!  Er, whoops...daughters, I guess?  I'll cover that in a bit.  Elizabeth was your perfect AI companion, collecting resources for your usage only, help in combat with her magic tear powers, and even giving you money.  If you leave her alone she even interacts with the environment.  She is pretty awesome and again, reminded me heavily of Prince of Persia's Elika.  Courtney Draper did an amazing job (especially as an-almost novice) and I'm dying to get the OST just for her singing. Gameplay was otherwise pretty standard Bioshock fare which wasn't broken so it didn't really need to be fixed.  The moral choices in this game were different in that no matter what you did or didn't do the outcome was usually the same and had little to no impact on the ending.  That was new, at least.

Your main character is a fully realized individual with a detailed background, emotional state, face, and voice.  I love Troy Baker so much, and it was a real treat to hear him throughout the game (and not being Snow!).  It was also nice that Booker was actually important to the story itself and the actions taking place instead of being merely incidental to the events around him.  It was a nice change of pace for Ken Levine and I think it worked really well.  Infinite was all about the outcomes of choice and it was enjoyable to see this thematically, even if in-game it wasn't completely relevant.  Tony and I really enjoyed the whole "There but for the grace of God go I" dichotomy presented in the Booker/Comstock character(s?).  Tony really approved of the idea of baptism introducing a quantum state which I latched on to when he presented it as such.  One of the voxophone recordings by Comstock sealed it with the plight of the sinner who "drowns" in the baptism.  It's a neat concept we've been discussing for a while now.

I know it irritated some people to high heaven (my good friend Joel being one, and I tell him to shut-up every time he opens his mouth on the subject) that your actual choices as the player don't count for much, but I think in a game like this it works.  It creates a linear path (and we know I'm all about linear story-telling) and doesn't have the issue of trying to resolve why certain characters would still be allowed to live or what to do if they were dead and trying to justify the choices players make.  The tone doesn't have to shift wildly between the puppy-kicking psychopath or the holier-than-anyone-goody-two-shoes morality system you find in most games nowadays.  I found that to be a refreshing change as it allowed for more morally ambiguous actions or left the player questioning if what they did really was the better option either gameplay-wise or character-wise. 

My favorite character was actually Rosalind Lutece, though.  A) she was voiced by the incredible Jennifer Hale, b) she had the best lines, and c) she was part of a Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead routine, which is a sorely underused concept.  Triple thumbs up for the Luteces and their incredible, slightly sinister accordion theme!

Anyway, these are my half-baked thoughts as I stave off sleep for longer than I should.  Leave your favorite moment in the comments if you'd like.  Mine was Elizabeth being mistaken for Lady Comstock by the gate to Comstock house.  Anyone know if that was the voice of the Claptraps for the Borderlands series?

Take care you wonderful people.
 

Star Wars the Old Republic

Yeah, this post is just going to be me ranting/gushing about stuff as I should actually be trying to sleep right now.  You've been warned.

I used to have a vow that I would never play an MMORPG if I could help it.  I could no longer help it.  I have six characters on SWtOR, and I regret nothing.  I finally finished the Jedi Knight story and my second highest toon is currently my light-sided Chiss Bounty Hunter (lvl 41) and I'm stuck on Belsavis...again.  I hate Belsavis.  I also haven't played in about a week, though the longest stretch I've gone is about two months, when my JK Atrys (also light-sided...I play everyone light-sided, I just can't be evil!) was stuck on Belsavis.  Seriously, I hate Belsavis.  Take two steps and fifty billion beings kill you because every area is overloaded with effing droids.  Also the map is confusing and for some reason the game kept leading me to the opposite faction bases and murdering me because of it.

I never thought I'd enjoy the experience, but I got sick of hoping for KOTOR III.  All the videos I saw of the Smuggler and Jedi Knight quest lines made me subscribe...and here I am, about nine months later still playing.  My favorite race is still the Chiss (Chiss rule!) with their beautiful blue skin and softly glowing red eyes.  I don't know why, I just love them.  They're freaking awesome.  I love my tiny BH with her Grey DeLisle voice and her big attitude and her jetpack attacks....even if I have to work for the Empire, who I really, really hate.  Though I do have fun with my Sith Warrior (which is really interesting if you're light-sided) making all the annoying NPCs kowtow to me.

Some of the romance is a bit lopsided, though.  Like the Jedi Consular female....everything about her is so...boring.  Her romance lacks any heat whatsoever.  I'm also stuck on Quesh with her story mission because all the enemies are two levels higher and FREAKING SITH LORDS.  I should get back to that grind at some point, but I'm not motivated at all.

I need to respec my Smuggler...'cause she's prone to death.  Rich as hell, though.  I love Corso, and the romance is freaking adorable.  Favorite romances so far: Smuggler & Corso, BH & Torian, SW & Malavai.  Malavai has such a stick up his ass, it's great. 

I want to start an agent just based on the romance and the story, but I still hate helping the Empire.  I need to finish a few more toons before starting a new one, but I suck at that.  I started the Sith Inquisitor 16 times before actually getting off Korriban.  Now she's on Balmorra and I'm still thinking of quitting and restarting it again....this game has taken over parts of my life.  It's very addictive.

Going to bed now....
 

My Weird Film Choices

So, lately I have a mini-obsession with Disney's John Carter.  I really wanted to see it in theaters when it came out but I had a Dickens of a time convincing anyone to go with me, and as the only free time I have is on the weekends, my time wasn't really my own.  So I missed it, and now I've caught it on TV every now and then.

I freaking love it.  I'm probably the only one, but something about this film is really magical and fun to me.  I love the actress who plays Dejah Thoris (Lynn Carter), there's something incredibly regal and wonderful about her.  I love hearing her speak, and she makes every outfit she's in just so....regal.  I know I said that already, but I can't think of another word that describers her so accurately.  She made Taylor Kitsch likeable and sexy.  They had great chemistry, which you almost never see in films anymore, especially ones centered on romance.  I loved the animation for the Tharks, the sets were gorgeous, the characters were engaging, and Mark Storm is awesome and evil (I hate that he's typecast but he is SO GOOD at being quietly menacing) and it feels like an adventure every time I tune in.  That's what a good movie should be.


Tony and I tried watching Snow White and the Huntsman on television last night.  To be fair, we started from the middle/towards the last act, so we were somewhat lost.  Then we decided to try and catch the beginning anyway on a different channel.  Yeah, none of that made it any better.  It has terrible pacing and the story is ridiculous.  The funny thing is it appeared to have things I would normally be all over: fairy tale with grim story and macabre overtones, Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, actual magic, strong female protagonist.  Two dudes fighting over said protagonist.  Nope...all of it was awful, especially Kristen Stewart's constipated "I'm SAD" face which is in EVERY SCENE.  Even Academy Award winning actress Charlize couldn't save this, and she was totally acting in a better movie the whole time.  There was one thing I liked about it: the costumes were great.  Colleen Atwood strikes again.  But where John Carter feels like a complete world inhabited by realistic people/characters...this felt empty and incredibly flat.  None of the characters were compelling, and no one had any real motives to do anything.  It was very...meh.

I'm dying to see Oz.  I love Mila Kunis like no one's business, and she's a witch in this.  Anyone let me know if it's worth seeing in theaters...I'd appreciate it.

Until next time.

*Shameface*

Wow...a lot has obviously happened since I last updated this thing.  I am so sorry.  I moved, didn't have Internet for three months, and then like twelve different things started eating up my time.  And then I forgot this blog existed.  Sorry.

So, in personal news:

• I'm an aunt now!  My sister-in-law gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Jeffrey.  He is four months old and looks like a good mash-up between his parents.  It's still weird to think my brother sired a child, but there's undeniable proof now.  It's weirder that he's so adorable and yet still directly related to Matt.  I got him Winnie the Pooh for companionship.  You know, when he can grab him.  I'm thinking over the years I'll probably be foisting many a Disney character on him....
• I'm engaged!  Tony and I have been together for 11 or 12 years now (depending on when you start counting) so this should not be a surprise to anyone who knows us.  But it is still exciting and gratifying.  No wedding plans as of yet, but we will be moving in together soon enough for me to forget about this blog again.  Also I can't stop looking at wedding dresses.  Because they are sparkly.
• I became an official Nerdfighter!  Also I finally discovered the brothers Hank and John Green.  Because I'm officially late to EVERY bandwagon.
• My gallbladder tried to escape my body and succeeded!  Literally 5 days after getting my engagement ring I ended up in the hospital with some debilitating abdominal pain.  I had six stones in my gallbladder, one stuck in the freaking valve.  I opted to get it removed, which was good because as the surgeon was trying to remove it, it was actively trying to explode.  Surgery took one hour instead of half an hour because the gallbladder was, in medical terms, "tense and throbbing".  After reading the pathology report it basically boiled down to: "This looks like an effed up gallbladder that was removed from a human body.  There are a ton of stones in it, including one stuck in the valve that was nearly 3cms.  It's really gross."  This was around the new year (surgery was the day before New Year's Eve).  Yay 2013!  Still a better ending than Twilight.  ;)

I have eagerly been reading The Infernal Devices series by the fantastic Cassandra Clare.  Long story short, my nook recommended them to me and I thought: "I've heard of Cassandra Clare before..."  It turns out that it's a penname and I remember the author because she wrote a rather famous and acclaimed Harry Potter fanfiction called The Draco Trilogy.  I remember seeing it on www.pumpkinpie.org.  Yes, I was an Auror.  No, I'm not ashamed.  Yes, I hated the canonical ending of the series, why do you ask?  Anyway, the trilogy is a prequel to the City of Ashes series which I haven't read but totally spoiled for myself on Wikipedia.  It's Steampunk Fantasy, which is a genre I've been enjoying way too much of recently.  I'm also on the last Gail Carriger book of her Soulless series.  It's awesome, please read.

I will honestly try to update more frequently in the future.  My apologies for the long gaps.
~Jill

Moving

I'm moving to an apartment tomorrow.  As I'm packing DVDs I'm kinda wishing my collection was....less.  I'm proud of all the anime and movies and television I've collected, I just wish it were more portable.

I have more DVDs/books than clothes.  >.<

Got Toradora! 2nd half for b-day.  Will watch when I'm done with the move.  ^_^

Disney

Anyone know what Disney's next move is?  Besides Pixar sequels?  I'd love another Tangled, that movie had everything I'd been missing from Disney animation.

I still watch it at least once a week.  Ssshhh, don't tell anyone.

I just re-watched Beauty & the Beast last week.  Man, that's a great film.  The animation still holds up pretty well, though I noticed Belle was off-model in a few important scenes.  Also Gaston never fails to crack me up.  They were so spot-on with this villian.

Favorite Disney villian of all time?  Mine's still Hades from Hercules.  Hmmm...I think I'll watch that after work today.

Jacqueline Carey (Yay For Non Urban Fantasy!)

So, one of my favorite authors in ever just finished another series set in an Ersatz Renaissance France with fantasy elements.  I'm wondering what's next for the talented Jacqueline Carey because frankly there aren't that many great Olde Thyme Fantasy writers.  She makes some true, epic fantasy.  Plus I love the world she created and the characters that have populated it.  I still can't decide if I love Phedre or Moiren better.  Both had their strengths, both had their weaknesses, and both were truly great heroines with unique love stories that were actually interesting as opposed to cliched or plot by numbers.

I like urban fantasy but it's beginning to grate on me.  I get that it's popular right now, but that also means that now there's a lot of crap to wade through to get to the good stuff.  I also like steampunk but sometimes it doesn't strike that crucial balance between science, danger, mystique and Britishness that it needs too.  A lot of it falls kinda flat.  I could use some recommendations right now.

Though I did start reading Kelley Armstrong's works and I'm liking them. 

Anyway: Mystical Creatures.  A lot of fantasy right now is sticking to a small and thoroughly over-used number of them right now.  Vampires, Weres/Shifters, ghosts, dwarfs and elves.  Ask anyone on the street about any of these creatures and they'll tell you why they love or hate Twilight, True Blood, The Lord of the Rings, or Harry Potter.  We've kind of forgotten about dragons, griffons, sea monsters, giants, pagan gods and demons, faeries, unicorns, and other strange beasts that have no practical purpose whatsoever (think Grendel and his mother in Beowulf (not that horrid CGI monstrosity)).  True, most of the things I named were in Harry Potter, but work with me here.  You'll see these things on the edge of good fantasy works, but never a story about them.  Remember when dragons were huge, scary, incredibly difficult to defeat and had hordes of treasure for no discernable reason?  THAT WAS AWESOME!!  Bring that back.  Bring back the unknown, the mysterious, the alien.  I'm sick of all this "But for the grace of God go I" b.s. that vampires and shifters give us.  Bring back the sublime to my fantasy.  I'm sick of all this mirror-holding business turning badass vampires and wraiths into sparkly vampires and helpful ghosts.  Give me back the mischevious and terrifying imps and fae that grant a gift to humans only to drown them in a lake a few pages later.  Give me back the fantastic in fantasy!