Was watching The Voice yesterday, and the judges/mentors seemed a bit taken aback at some of the artists they turned around to see. On a couple of occasions it looked as if Sir Tom was thinking 'what have I let myself in for?', only in Welsh, of course. The programme itself was almost disappointingly little like a freak show. May have to watch it next week as well.

I finally got my iPhone 4S this week (despite it being delivered by Yodel, previously known as HDNL), and then handed over my old iPhone 3G to my flatmate, who seemed reasonably pleased by the whole thing. We've been Drawing Something ever since. I just hope they won't be acquired by Zynga, for the purely selfish reason that I am boycotting them. Still, the level of addictiveness Draw Something brings, I might as well start boycotting OMGPOP as well. Anyway, the phone itself is oh, so much quicker than the 3G one, so I'm really enjoying it. Also: Siri! I know most others have forgotten about Siri by now, but I think it's still pretty nifty. I did laugh out loud when I told him to remind me to go to bed at midnight. A slightly sarcastic "OK..." was his reply.

Looking forward to Titanic tonight. Apparently the biggest UK production ever, costing £3m per episode (three times as much as Downton Abbey). I was also very happy to welcome back Scott and Bailey a couple of weeks ago, and this week sees the return of Twenty Twelve (both of which feature the excellent Amelia Bullmore). All in all TV is very good at the moment. Well, the few programmes I watch, anyway. I'm currently rewatching The West Wing, after all...

Labels: TV

I don't know about you, but I spend much of my non-gaming time reading about gaming. Lately, that means reading about Mass Effect 3 when I'm not playing it (or, currently, Mass Effect 1). I think I've read just about every original opinion out there about The Infamous Ending. I don't think some of the people in charge at Bioware have, though.

I was devastated by the ending for a couple of days. Then I started reading forums containing theories and hypotheses from around the gaming world. This cheered me up quite a lot, and even made me reinstall the first game to play the whole series again. The indoctrination theory remains my favourite, as it explains quite a lot of the nonsensical last few scenes meant to sum up five years' worth of storylines.

But then Bioware keep messing things up with their "updates" and "responses". I have my high hopes crushed when they say stuff like that reported in this article. It makes me suspect more and more that the ending we got was the ending intended, and thus basically negating much of what came before. Tying up all the loose ends? Nah, forget that. We don't have time!

I've been playing and enjoying Bioware games for the past ten years and I know they can tell a good story, plus I'm loving the bisexual tendencies of many of their characters. Mass Effect 3 was absolutely brilliant up until the very ending and I really, REALLY wanted to believe they had a plan behind this that I just had to wait to see, but I'm beginning to realise they basically fucked up. They trampled all over our dear digital crew mates and love interests...for what? I'm very disappointed and I hope the writers are, too, otherwise I'll lose all my respect for them. I used to kill off my protagonist when I didn't have time to finish a school essay, and I knew very well it was the lazy way out and that I should have started sooner or simply not fleshed out the story so much. Surely Bioware had more time to end all the different storylines and make certain the ending MADE SENSE? We would gladly have waited a few more months to get it right. It feels incomplete and any DLCs now will only show us that no, in fact they hadn't thought through the ending properly.

I guess you don't need my money, Bioware. I will at least stay clear of anything made by the same team in future, because I don't want to be this disappointed ever again. I'm not saying you should change the ending, because it would have been a great one if it made sense. Any author would be furious that they would have to change their work due to public demand. But please understand that we won't settle for that ludicrous I-don't-know-what which we ended up with. I had faith to begin with, due to the awesome theories out there, and based on Bioware's history, but with every new update from the team they're basically shooting themselves in the foot in my opinion.

I'll still continue playing Mass Effect 1 for now, but I also have tonnes of other games to play (I've lost interest in another Bioware title in the past month as well; Star Wars: The Old Republic), so it's not like I don't have anything else to do but throw my money at EA/Bioware and beg them to abuse my trust.

Labels: gaming

Revisiting Mass Effect 1, I realise there really is very little as awkward as standing in a lift, with a Krogan Battlemaster, listening to muzak.

Also, finding out that we're introduced to a lot of characters early on who will pop up later on in the series.

On a third note; am I right in thinking you can actually have one of your most trusted crew members killed extremely early in the series? I'm trying not to have my mind blown, but the writers of this trilogy (so far...fingers crossed...yes, I'm naïve) really have surpassed what I deem to be the normal storyline of a computer game. About a thousand times.

I need a lie-down.

Labels: gaming

I bet my five votes made the difference in tonight's Let's Dance for Sport Relief.


By the way, what exactly is the difference between Comic Relief and Sport Relief? Seems they're just about the same thing; comedians doing most of the work every year, even the sporty bits. The only difference I can see is that Sport Relief is a little bit more boring on the big night. But they both have JLS. Everything has JLS these days. It almost makes me miss McFly.

Labels: TV

The BBC News at Ten led with Dr. Rowan Williams stepping down as Archbishop of Canterbury later this year. He's known for being very kind to everyone, apparently. I haven't really noticed much of that. I'll just remember him as yet another frocked man with too much power on his hands, despite the C of E's rapidly dwindling numbers.

Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against men in frocks. Archbishops tend to, though. And Williams has stood by this stereotype throughout his reign. Because it is a reign; these people are given immense power over people of their own congregation, church and faith, and for some bizarre reason over people who don't share their faith at all.

A few minutes earlier I had just finished watching a programme about a baptist preacher from Jamaica trying to get the locals of a dozy village in Gloucestershire excited about the church again. He was cheerful and tried his best to include people and even managed to get a couple more visitors to the local church before going back to Jamaica. I didn't hear him say anything negative at all during his time there, and he got them interested in their lost faith again.

I don't think I'll ever understand the need many people feel to gather and praise some higher being who is invisible (in every sense), but it keeps fascinating me--probably because I don't understand it. Too bad so many "people of faith" can't shut up about their faith and how it makes them better human beings than the rest of us (because we're lost/damned/blind/heretics/deviants). It's a bit tiring trying to respectfully decline being bible-bashed at times. I have done my soul-searching and know who I am and what I believe in. Being threatened with hell doesn't affect me, as I don't believe hell exists. I live by the Golden Rule not because of Jesus, but because it is simply common sense and courtesy. Please, PLEASE understand that I would like some respect for my lack of faith as much as you would for your strong belief in a deity.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to binge-drink and swear in front of children.

Labels: atheism, current affairs, personal, religion

I may have just re-installed Mass Effect 1 and started with a brand new Shepard (still FemShep; I'm going to keep Kaiden this time (it pains me), but ME without Jennifer Hale's voice-acting is heresy to me). I may also have played a couple of hours "to get the feel of it". I may have just started another 120-hour long space voyage. I realised there were tonnes of stuff I had missed (due to choices I made), so I'm going to experiment with other outcomes this time.

Well, I say "other outcomes". We all know the ultimate outcome will be the exact same no matter what I choose, but I still believe there was a lot more to the ending than we thought initially, so by the time I've reached that point this time around, "The Truth" should be out.

I also believe in fairies. I do, I do!

Not Beethoven.

Labels: gaming, jason isaacs

Went back to work today, after twelve very nice days off. I spent those days mainly watching The West Wing, celebrating my birthday, and playing the Diablo III beta, Total War: Shogun 2, Mass Effect 3 (did you guess?) and Crusader Kings II. The latter being very addictive indeed.

I was a fairly boring King of Portugal, enjoying a few conflicts with Mauretania (they started it, honest!) and some local nobles, until I managed to kill my plotting wife and marry the Queen of Croatia. Our first daughter became the heir to Croatia and a couple of minor duchies, but my eldest son (that gay weakling) was still a patient heir to Portugal, so I decided to change the succession laws in order to set up my daughter as the heir to Portugal as well. Some local dukes kept electing other members of my family, though, so I simply had to have my eldest son assassinated and the more annoying of the dukes imprisoned. They eventually came around and elected my eldest daughter. When she finally took over (I decided to keep holding on to power for another 12 years for some reason), the kingdom of Croatia had shrunk quite a bit, due to some local wars and the Golden Horde knocking on my door. Luckily, as Queen of both Portugal and Croatia and Duchess of several minor holdings across Europe, I could gather quite an army. I hadn't taken into account the "Horde" bit of the Golden Horde, though, and they just kept coming. As a last resort (those barbarians wouldn't listen to reason over a cup of tea), I had their Chief assassinated, and all of a sudden the war was over and their three armies of 20000 each were left stranded and looking pretty stupid in the middle of the Balkans. For some reason the Chief's son didn't like me very much after that, but at least he kept away long enough for me to deal with those pesky aunts of mine who kept demanding being handed counties and duchies all over the place.

Next time I'd like to play as Norway (of course), although they tend to be far down the food chain and thus difficult to marry off for a better alliance. We'll see. It's nevertheless a game I can easily lose a whole day to. At least until the expansion pack for Civ V comes out. They're reintroducing religion and spies! Yay!

For an atheist I really am overly fascinated by religion. :-)

Btw, if you would like to see something quite unimaginable, look at what Europe would have looked like if that story further up wasn't just fiction! (Want to take a closer look?)

Labels: gaming

*** DOES CONTAIN SOME MINOR SPOILERS (you're all right if you've finished it once) ***


It may not have seemed like an era to most non-gamers, but when I received my copy of the long-awaited third instalment of the Mass Effect series on Friday, I was already dreading reaching the end of it. (A bit like whenever I go to see one of my biggest idols on stage; the second the curtain rises, I'm already a bit sad it's only going to end in a little while anyway.) I had already played the demo three times (this, I admit, was only due to the fact they had promised some "sweet" crossover items between Mass Effect 3 (hereafter called just ME3) and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which I was about to enjoy anyway. The in-game items turned out to be rather shit, but hey ho. I also "had to" check out the differences between the PS3 and the PC versions (let's just say the people opting for the PS3 version had better not see the vastly superior PC one), as well as test the multiplayer bit. I also finished ME2 a second time a few weeks earlier, just to make sure I had the best starting point for ME3. All in all I was eagerly awaiting the release of the game proper.


I played through the game in 47 hours, something my Raptr profile can confirm. There was laughter. There was anger. There was adrenaline. There was talking and chatting and flirting and even romancing. And then, when it all ended, there was depression. The whole thing had been so carefully edited, with flashbacks from previous games, and that goddamn music which was just about the saddest thing ever. Not even a chirpy Buzz Aldrin in the epilogue could save me from going to bed in a very bad mood indeed. I basically didn't sleep most of the night, and when I did, all I could hear was THAT MUSIC and all I could see were THOSE FACES. Was I sad that I wouldn't be able to visit this game universe I had been taking part in for the past four years, or was I actually mourning these fictional characters? It sure felt like grief.


Now, of course all I have to do is start all over again, and perhaps make some other choices, and then perhaps...no, wait, turns out that ending is pretty much all there is to an otherwise amazing story. What the hell, Bioware? Why stumble and fall at the very last minute of this beautiful marathon? I'm not amused. Hey, we all knew this would be the end of Shepard's story, but COME ON! I still want to have the option of a soppy Hollywood ending, if I choose to play the game that way. The whole journey was awesome, but I'd like for all the choices I made in the past four years to have at least some bearing on the outcome. Seems I'm not the only one to think that way, either. I'm going to hope for a DLC to rectify this, or I will have to start writing fan fiction (which just won't be the same).


I have one regret, though. After flirting with Liara for so long, I ended up desperately going for Traynor instead. It made for a cute story, but Liara was always supposed to be The One. I may just have to play the whole thing again. Maybe I'll save Kaiden this time. Although...much thanks to the excellent voice-acting of Jennifer Hale, I did LOL a lot during Ashley's drunk scene...

Labels: gaming